The Monkey King

An idea I've been kicking around for the past several days is that of a new comic. ('Cuz I don't have nearly enough to do as it is!) The idea is based loosely on the Chinese legend of the Monkey King. The legend is open to a pretty wide array of interpretations; the character is old enough to be in the public domain; he's not terribly well-known in the U.S. making it look more original; avoiding drawing humans would allow for some greater freedom as an illustrator; plus, who doesn't love monkeys?

I've really got two problems in this area. First is one of format. It seems unlikely that I'll be able to sell this as a comic book straight away, but it should be able to slip into the online comic strip format fairly easily. The issue, though, is that web comics can be relatively open-ended as far as format is concerned. I could make it a "traditional" horizontal strip like you find in the newspaper, but on the web, I'm not limited to that. I can make it considerably longer, or vertical, or something more physically amorphous. It can be three panels or a dozen or a hundred just as easily.

It seems to me that, given the limitless options I have, I should choose a format that best suits the types of stories I'm trying to tell.

Which brings me to my second problem: what types of stories do I want to tell. There are times when I'd like to do just a stupid, one-note gag and there are others when I'd have a political or social statement to make and there are still others when I might want to do an extended adventure story. I was discussing the idea with a friend of mine over lunch, and he did make an intriguing suggestion that would allow me to incorporate all those ideas relatively seamlessly under one umbrella. But I still have to come up with a format that would allow for that flexibility. I have some ideas swirling around in my head, but I think I'll have to do some more decisive sketching to see how it might (or might not) work realistically.

I'll post more as I continue to develop the idea (or don't).

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