#comic pitches

AUGHH this one is so short. here's the entire document:

comic series about a weird witchy superhero who cannot die, but there’s a twist- she always wakes up freshly buried in the exact same graveyard, somewhere random in the world. it’s always really far away from wherever she needs to be; it’s really inconvenient and more of a curse at this point.

where’s the original graveyard? who is she? what’s causing this?

Much like Superman Bart Allen is a refugee from the Pre-Flashpoint DC universe.  He arrives on an Earth where no-one recognizes him (let’s just assume Bart-Tor and as much of the Scott Lobdell Teen Titans never happened.) Witnessing what may well be the death of your reality and coming from a future that will never come is enough to make most people snap but darn it... Bart’s going to make the best of it.  He retakes the name “Impulse” because there’s a new Kid Flash on this world and “wow I just realized that I wanted people to think I’m more  mature and yet I chose a name with the word “Kid” in it.”

Ok, since people asked nicely, here is the rest of the Afterlife Inc pitch (click here for Part 1)! XD In the first 4 images, Finley explains why it sucks to be dead. The rest are spot illustrations to build the world. 

A couple people were asking why I thought this pitch wouldn't make a good graphic novel: for me, it has to do with readership and format. I think this story would make a good webcomic or floppy comic (maybe at somewhere like Image), because it's very meandering and would benefit from serialized storytelling to build the weirdness of the world its set in. Plus, the web LOVES weird stuff! I mean, look at all your lovely faces, saying you'd like to read this. ;) You're all very sweet.

So I've written a bunch about making a successful comic pitch, but how about pitches that fail? Sometimes they totally do! Sometimes it's because the story isn't right for the publisher, and other times things get rejected because the publisher is like "nooooo, what are you thinking? No one wants to read that!' XD

Here is an example of a story idea I pitched to a bunch of publishers, who (very rightly so!) rejected the hell out of it. This usually kills a story for me. I mean, at this point, making comics is my job, and if something isn't selling, I need to put it aside and focus on things that will. And most of the time, when I return to that rejected pitch, I can see why it was rejected and I hate it. But this pitch, I still kind of love. XD

It's called Afterlife Inc, and it is straight up the weirdest, dumbest thing. I think it would make either a fun webcomic or one of those Urban Fantasy books that are popular now. It would make a TERRIBLE graphic novel, probably! It's about people who work in this business that provides service to the "Newly Dead," (it's all explained up there, more or less), and the main character is kind of dead herself. It's kind of old & angsty in a way that feels like student work to me, plus it's so high concept it's hard to imagine what kind of comic it'd be. It is very rightly my Most Rejected Comic. Still, I found this art on my harddrive yesterday, and that one bit with DG confidently telling the interviewer "you're welcome" after she corrects him just fricking kills me. XD