I like to keep up on all the webmangas drawn by Christian artists, and recommend them to my friends, as well as learn from them in hopes of making my own someday, if I team up with an artist and/or learn to draw. :)
So I would love to see everyone's links!
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Doujinshi (at least, as I understand the term) are self-published manga, usually done by amateurs and using characters and settings others have made - essentially the manga form of fanfiction.
Your ideas sound like fun - I quite like science fiction in its many flavors, and many varieties of fantasy. I'm pretty sure someone could make interesting and original stories about both Elves and Dragons, though as you pointed out, there are certainly plenty of folks who have done both with, shall we say, a smaller amount of interest and originality (Eragon, a.k.a. Star Wars with Dragons, but not as good!).
I'll admit in the interest of full disclosure that I've got my own pet stories that include my own take on Elves (though I named them something else and leaned in a much different direction than the beautiful, noble creatures of Tolkien's works) and Dragons (one of which features in my current medieval fantasy story, but as more of a behind-the-scenes manipulator/mastermind type).
What's doujin? I'm sorry, I'm not good with the Japanese terms.
Pretty much everything but contemporary. Haha... I tend to stick with science fiction of either the steampunk, retro futurism, or space kinds (and space opera intrigues me greatly, being a SW fan), and high fantasy with a heavy interest in elves when I can do it without copying Tolkien (my current project is a shounen high fantasy written in novel-form with the intentions of teaming up with an artist). I don't write dragon stories because Eragon drives me up the wall, but if I could come up with a concept as good as How To Train Your Dragon, I'd make an exception.
My precious pet story is a retro futurism/steampunk... it's not like your steampunk, which looks strict steampunk, mine is more fantasy and less alternate history. Very precious to me because the characters are my favorites and have some of the best moments I have ever written. (I hope) :)
Devin Parker said:
Out of curiosity, what sorts of webmanga are you interested in writing? I mean, there's the Silmarillion doujin, but any other projects you'd like to do?
Try Jules Verne. :)
Well, for not having a lot of experience, you got the ups and downs of collaboration pretty accurate. ;P Took me years for that to click in my head.
I may start looking through some old public domain planetary romance / Victorian science fiction websites to find a suitable story to adapt, were I to try my hand at a steampunk story...
As far as collaboration, I don't have a whole lot of experience with it. I did a little bit in art school, but not much.
I didn't say that it got halted by that. See, I want to do it still, but other projects took priority because it was only a fanfiction.
I think I could do it legally because (1) it's not LotR, it's the Silmarillion, so it'd be strong fanfiction and not adaptation and (2) there's this disclaimer you can stick on the front of it that usually works. Otherwise the fanfilms "The Hunt for Gollum" and "Born of Hope" would not exist.
But it's definitely in a grey area. :P
I think you could do a Narnia fanfiction, but not an adaptation of one of the actual novels.
On the other hand, I'm wondering how come Darths & Droids doesn't get pulled because George Lucas is typically extremely possessive about the Star Wars branding and copyright.
Copyright confuses me. :)
On collaboration:
Maybe what you need is a story already written that you can tweak as necessary as you draw? (hence the adaptation suggestion)
I've done co-writing before. You have to be good friends in order to not end up abandoning it in frustration haha. But it's a rewarding experience when it works. Having a shared vision and focus helps a ton.
I personally am really big on teamwork because of my filmmaking background: I have tried to do everything myself and it is so not worth it... control is nice but really easy to burn out on. :P
My friend and I have often talked about doing a collaborative project. He's also a writer, so we had discussed writing a story together and then my doing the art. But unfortunately - at least in my experience - collaboration is a lot more difficult to accomplish, since you both need to remain motivated to work on it, and if you don't both feel a sense of "ownership" (that is, if one person feels more possessive of the story, to the degree that the other feels like he's just working on his friend's story instead of something of his own), it's very easy for the project to fall apart. And having writing leanings myself, I know I would always be wanting to tackle something differently than he might, even though we both tend to be on the same wavelength creatively.
Still, the notion retains its allure...
Aww, don't worry about that. The world needs all kinds of manga-kas and comic artists. (and if I may say so, if you do it all yourself all the time, your rate of output is going to be much less than if you team up with other people. There's a time for both)
Even the bignames don't just rely on their own ideas. This is especially true in film, but I'm sure that it's the same way in comics.
However, Narnia isn't out of copyright, and is also currently being made into films, which means that there is likely to be more interest in it by hungry copyright lawyers. Fanfiction is probably allowed if you're careful, but I don't know how to do it. (I never got far enough organizing artists for a collaborative fanmanga of the Silmarillion to find out if I would get slammed with a cease-and-desist email...)
In other words... be really careful 'cuz it'd be really disappointing to put in a ton of work on something like that and then find out it was still in copyright but not following fair use, and then have to take it off the internet... :P (I hear tales of this. 0.o even if you're in the right, it's better to take it down than to go through getting sued.)
I believe the rule is that if it was published more than 70 years ago, it's out of copyright and therefore in the public domain. Except in cases of copyright renewal, which Disney stuff gets for some reason.
I don't mind. Derailed threads are part of life. (unless it's against the rules, of course...)
But you're right, adapting a published book is perfectly acceptable for a portfolio piece, at least as far as I'm aware.
Maybe I'll do a Narnia story? That would be sweet.
...Oh, right! This was a thread about Christian web-manga, not my creative hang-ups. Right.
What do you mean? 100% your own, I mean.
IMO, an adaptation is just as portfolio-worthy -- in film industry, many films were once books. (The Princess Bride, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, tons of Disney animateds, even this year's summer hit How to Train Your Dragon!) And there's no legal hang-up if it's out of copyright.
My brain does the same thing. Which is why I started a thread about webmangas instead of going and working on my story for a webmanga...
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