In preparation for my final project, which is my own personal monomyth, I had a lot of research to do. I watched several movies that were based on comic books, such as Batman, Spawn, Superman and the Watchmen, in order to get some inspiration. While I was watching these movies, I took notes on how the hero acquired their powers, what new power or strength do they now have, how they felt about their new ability and what trials they had to overcome, etc. I also analyzed several comic books and graphic novels in the same way as I did with the movies, which I read while taking the train to and from school as well as during my daily hour long breaks. Graphic novels such as House of M, Spawn vs. Batman, and Watchmen inspired me to one day transform my story into a graphic novel of my own. I was inspired by the little details in these novels that can be looked so deeply into, like the fact that Rorschack wore a mask, hat, overcoat, and gloves to completely hide his identity as best he could, yet in turn simultaneously created an identity of his own. I found Watchmen to be my biggest inspiration overall, mostly because of Rorschack. However, it wasn’t so much of how the characters looked that inspired me, but rather how every character was a superhero but also still a human. The characters retained so much of their humanity, such as having strong emotions, disturbing memories and passionate desires. They had their own personal lives, which were filled with drama and hardships, along with a number of personal flaws.
When I began thinking of my character, I didn’t see an image of a speeding bullet with a cape and red spandex. Instead, I saw a simple man who could see things for what they truly are and isn’t one to step away from what he truly believes in, who could feel real emotions and live a “regular” life.
After gathering some ideas together I received an indirect idea from a good friend of mine, who told me to check out a couple of the “Philosophy Of …” books. I did, I went to Barnes and Nobles and skimmed through a couple books. These “Philosophy Of” books were based on things such as movies, TV shows, stories, supernatural ideas, etc. They analyzed various topics and significant parts of the stories through philosophical theories and ideas that were found within plots, characters, themes, etc. I then took the idea of philosophy and ran with it, having taken two philosophy courses in my time as a student of LaGuardia Community College
After gathering all of my notes together and reflecting on the ideas one by one, I realized the situation that I got myself into. This is when I began to brainstorm. I tried free writing and quickly realized how good I am at it. Close to an hour later, I found myself with eleven pages of descriptions about different types of powers and I didn’t like a single one. So I went back to my notes and brainstormed some more. I finally decided on the power to see people for what they really are, since I was attempting to put a philosophical spin on a superhero story. At this point, I realized how far behind schedule I was and decided to rush things a little just to get a story set in motion and to fine-tune it as time allowed. I followed the monomyth step by step, word for word, but it wasn’t coming our right. There was too much in such a small amount of writing. So I cut pieces out and put more effort into the scenes and factors that I felt were the backbone of the story. I continued thinking of ideas and writing them down in notes, even if I was attending other classes such as Macroeconomics and Urban Anthropology. I continued to write until either the thought was complete and recorded or if I lost the thought due to a distraction as small as looking down to make sure I didn’t trip on a step.
After I completed my first draft, I handed it out to five of my good friends, who also fancied comic books and are true critics of my writing skills. As they were taking notes on it and discussing certain parts of it amongst themselves, I decided to create the final scene of my story. I sketched the scene out in layers according to the appropriate colors and proceeded to cut my sketches, creating stencils that can be precisely duplicated just incase I wanted to make some changes to the scene. I went to the store and bought several different colors of Krylon flat spray paint. I then sprayed the scene onto the canvas, layer by layer, and was pleased at first but I later felt that it was missing something. I cut out a couple more stencils of demon silhouettes and added them to the canvas too. I still felt like making some new additions to the canvas, and I just might in the future, but there wasn’t enough time to do that when I wanted to.
My friends then handed me back the story that I gave them to read, but it wasn’t the same. They were now covered in multi-colored highlights, X’s, and comments. After reading the comments and deeply considering the fact that they knew what they’re talking about, I tried my hardest to change the parts that they thought were awful and yet maintain the theme that I had created. I didn’t take any plot suggestions from my friends because I found their ideas were conflicting and were dead ends to the story. After re-writing the story, I can’t stop adding in all these little details. I am constantly updating and re-writing paragraphs in the story, making it better and better each time. Perhaps one day, I will finally finish this project and maybe I’ll end up with a lot more that I originally intended.
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