Three Ideas for the Graphic Novel

**Xathiador** Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:47 pm

Hello everyone! Now that I'm getting closer and closer to releasing the first page of Strife of Khthon, I wonder about a couple of things.

In order to make SoK marketable, unique, and attractive, there are three methods I've been looking at. I may end up doing all three, most likely, but here are the ideas:

I plan to release Strife of Khthon in possibly three different "editions," those being sort of similar to the different versions of movies released (i.e. theatrical version, director's cut, extended edition, etc.).

The first would be the "Public Edition" - that is, the one most accessible to the public in terms of conceptual difficulty, etc. The Public Edition would be like any graphic novel--"comic" style with panels, speech bubbles, and narration. All written in plain English.

The second would be what I call the "Literary Edition" which is more of what I wanted SoK to turn out like - different than modern Graphic Novels. It would be, as well, released in "comic" format with panels, speech bubbles, and narration, but the text would be more sophisticated than what is to be expected of graphic novels. I want to write it in Archaic English, though many people would not be comfortable reading that.

The third would be a totally different format, the "Illustrated Edition" - this format would NOT be in panels, but instead large, page-filling illustrations with text to the side written in semi-novel format. If anyone is familiar with The Katuraan Odyssey, which is a hardcover, large book about the journey of a ring-tailed lemur through many animal societies, lavishly illustrated; they'd recognize that as what I'm going for in the Illustrated Edition.
What I may end up doing in the end (and what I'm getting more and more to like the idea of) is a panel/comic style as intended, but I could "invent" a style of Archaic English that is simplified/accessible to the public for the text. My ultimate goal is to create a new society here, Xathiador's society and world, and unfortunately using plain modern English would really take away from that I think.

So, what are your thoughts?
(posted on the old forum)