Okay, first of all, I just want to ask, what the hell happened to the Job Board? I used to use that a fair bit, as did many other people, looking pretty much for small-time gigs doing odd jobs like graphic design or writing, and it was a useful addition to the site that didn't impact anywhere else in any negative way. Why get rid of it?
And thus, second, is a post I made a while ago on the Job Board that didn't exactly get many hits. Basically, I'm a writer, and I need an artist. For the past year or so there's been an idea in my head for a webcomic that I want to do, but although I'm a great writer and graphic designer I'm a lousy 'traditional' artist. And so, I decided to turn to the Escapist (I did ask on Deviant Art too but I don't have enough connections there for it to work). What I'm looking for is an artist, ideally with experience although newer artists will also be considered, to get in touch if they're interested in creating a sci-fi/fantasy epic world and characters for me.
Ideally, the artist will be able to draw a wide variety of characters and landscapes, and although I'll consider any style my ideal vision has the art looking rather similar to Looking For Group, Questionable Content, or possibly anime-esque comics like Aoi House and Paranormal Mystery Squad.
If anyone is interested, then get in touch and I'll set a task, to draw a brief scene from near the start of the story. If it's good enough then I'll consider you for the job
. I'm hoping to try and earn money from this eventually, setting up my own website and running that and selling advertising space (just as a side thing, it won't be a full time job for me) and maybe merchandise eventually. For the start, however, it'll be unpaid, but when money starts to be earned from the site then all profits would be split equally between all involved parties .
So yeah, if anyone wants to know more then just post in the forum or PM me, and I can give you more details. For now, here's a brief rundown of the general setting:
EDIT: Extra info, thanks to Erana's post below:
And thus, second, is a post I made a while ago on the Job Board that didn't exactly get many hits. Basically, I'm a writer, and I need an artist. For the past year or so there's been an idea in my head for a webcomic that I want to do, but although I'm a great writer and graphic designer I'm a lousy 'traditional' artist. And so, I decided to turn to the Escapist (I did ask on Deviant Art too but I don't have enough connections there for it to work). What I'm looking for is an artist, ideally with experience although newer artists will also be considered, to get in touch if they're interested in creating a sci-fi/fantasy epic world and characters for me.
Ideally, the artist will be able to draw a wide variety of characters and landscapes, and although I'll consider any style my ideal vision has the art looking rather similar to Looking For Group, Questionable Content, or possibly anime-esque comics like Aoi House and Paranormal Mystery Squad.
If anyone is interested, then get in touch and I'll set a task, to draw a brief scene from near the start of the story. If it's good enough then I'll consider you for the job
. I'm hoping to try and earn money from this eventually, setting up my own website and running that and selling advertising space (just as a side thing, it won't be a full time job for me) and maybe merchandise eventually. For the start, however, it'll be unpaid, but when money starts to be earned from the site then all profits would be split equally between all involved parties .So yeah, if anyone wants to know more then just post in the forum or PM me, and I can give you more details. For now, here's a brief rundown of the general setting:
The story (as yet untitled) would be set mainly on Earth and Arcadia, effectively Earth's predecessor. The idea is that roughly ten thousand years ago, the world was known as Arcadia and dominated by magic-based races such as demons (actually very similar genetically to humans), vampires, werewolves, dragons, elves, dwarves, nymphs, centaurs, literally everything from standard fantasy fiction. Humans were the sole non-magical race, but were technologically superior to the other races. The gods were also around, from various pantheons, but rather than being worshipped they were simply another race, albeit much more powerful magically than any other.
At a point around ten thousand years before the present, a demon named Lucius was a member of a cult that believed that the warring nations of Arcadia would one day be united by a common threat, an effective 'Messiah' leading them to peace, and ushering in a new age. Lucius grew tired of the fact that this Messiah hadn't appeared, and so decided to raise an army from the world of the dead, split into the 'Heavenly Domain', the 'Hellish Realms', and Purgatory, to create such a massive war on Arcadia that it's nations would have no choice but to unite to deal with the threat. He hoped to force the Messiah to reveal him/herself by becoming a literal devil. A massive war ensued, during which an effective stalemate was reached, until eventually Lucius realised he could no longer continue the fight. Unwilling to allow the war to end before the Messiah showed themselves, he attempted a ritual to sacrifice the lives of his twelve chief lieutenants and himself to summon the Shadow Arcana, a group of twenty-two 'Revenants' (very powerful creatures from the Hellish Realms) to Arcadia to break the stalemate, as the ultimate way to force the Messiah's hand. Unknown to Lucius, however, there was no Messiah, and his entire plan had been nothing more than a zealot's folly. When faced by a team of warlocks working with the nations allied against him, Lucius finally chose to change his plan and turn his lieutenants into Revenants themselves using a powerful ritual. Although he managed to turn them into the Black Zodiac, and himself into a more powerful Revenant (taking the new name Lucifer), the allied warlocks successfully banished him and the Zodiac to the Hellish Realms.
However, the gate between the world of the dead and Arcadia was open and damaged, and threatened to suck the entire universe into it. As the warlocks tried to hold it and keep the damage to space-time stable, a gathering of the most powerful magic-users on Arcadia managed to plug the hole by creating an entirely new universe, albeit one without magic or life, using excess energy from a time portal opened directly to the Big Bang. The war was over, and Arcadia had been saved. While deciding what to do now with the new universe, humanity (as the sole non-magical race) offered as a whole to enter this new universe, which they called Earth, and act as custodians. Taking samples of plant and animal life with them to terraform Earth, humanity left Arcadia and began a new civillisation on their own. The two worlds were seperated by a rift in space-time that could be opened using magic to allow transport between the worlds, but this was rarely used.
Over the next ten thousand years, humanity forgot its ancient history, and mistook scientific records from Arcadia as proof of life and evolution on Earth for millions of years. They also forgot the existence of magic, relagating Arcadian stories to myth and legend and false religions, and their roles as Earth's custodians, abusing the planet they were meant to protect. By the present day, Earth in the comic is pretty much equivalent to Earth in real life.
Arcadia, however, didn't forget, though their levels of technology and civillisation had regressed to a primitive level after decades of war. The nations of Arcadia developed again, and by the present time they were at a technological level perhaps fifty to a hundred years ahead of Earth, and with a political structure similar to Earth save for the existence of a much more forceful UN-substitute, the Global Alliance (GA), based on Liberty Island (roughly congruent to the middle of the North Sea). The GA had two military bodies too to allow for independent military intervension instead of nothing but endless debates and 'sanctions' - the United Armed Forces (UAF) and the United Intelligence Agency (UIA). The UIA was also responsible for managing the rift between Earth and Arcadia, and keeping humanity unaware of Arcadia for security reasons.
The story follows the character Luna, a young succubus who is an intelligence agent with the UIA and former UAF captain, from the city-state of Persephone. Roughly two years before the comic starts, Luna was responsible for bringing to justice a rogue UIA operative and her former partner, Gabriel, who had defected to form a mercenary group called Supernova. At the present time, Supernova's second-in-command, Kane, has escaped from Liberty Island Maximum Security Prison, with several other former members, and Luna is curious to why Gabriel failed to escape. After getting nowhere, she returns to Persephone only to be attacked by Kane, and is framed for the murder of another Supernova escapee. Branded as a rogue agent by the UIA, she escapes through the rift to Earth, landing in the north of England, followed by Kane (who is under orders from Gabriel to kill her) and UIA agents ordered to return her to UIA custody.
Meanwhile, Scarlett, an Irish woman living in the north of England, checks into a mental clinic in Leeds after a nervous breakdown following the death of her grandmother. Under the care of Doctor James Foster, she meets Alice and Matt, a young couple who have been regularly attending the clinic since serving brief prison sentences a few years before for the deaths of their respective families (given reduced sentences for admitting manslaughter on grounds of dminished responsibility). Alice and Matt claim to be able to see the future, though not very well, and connect with Scarlett after they correctly predict events in her life shortly after meeting them. Some miles away, in a small town near Leeds, twins Jack and Meg go on the run after killing their abusive mother in self defence, after she killed their father in a drunken rage. They are being hunted for both parents' deaths, and decide to escape to Leeds to find transport south to London.
Not long after these events, when Luna makes her way to Leeds to hide from Kane and work out a plan, the paths of all these characters meet, and they become a team forced by circumstance to return to Arcadia and find out what Gabriel's plans are and how they relate to the war that devastated the world over ten millenia ago.
At a point around ten thousand years before the present, a demon named Lucius was a member of a cult that believed that the warring nations of Arcadia would one day be united by a common threat, an effective 'Messiah' leading them to peace, and ushering in a new age. Lucius grew tired of the fact that this Messiah hadn't appeared, and so decided to raise an army from the world of the dead, split into the 'Heavenly Domain', the 'Hellish Realms', and Purgatory, to create such a massive war on Arcadia that it's nations would have no choice but to unite to deal with the threat. He hoped to force the Messiah to reveal him/herself by becoming a literal devil. A massive war ensued, during which an effective stalemate was reached, until eventually Lucius realised he could no longer continue the fight. Unwilling to allow the war to end before the Messiah showed themselves, he attempted a ritual to sacrifice the lives of his twelve chief lieutenants and himself to summon the Shadow Arcana, a group of twenty-two 'Revenants' (very powerful creatures from the Hellish Realms) to Arcadia to break the stalemate, as the ultimate way to force the Messiah's hand. Unknown to Lucius, however, there was no Messiah, and his entire plan had been nothing more than a zealot's folly. When faced by a team of warlocks working with the nations allied against him, Lucius finally chose to change his plan and turn his lieutenants into Revenants themselves using a powerful ritual. Although he managed to turn them into the Black Zodiac, and himself into a more powerful Revenant (taking the new name Lucifer), the allied warlocks successfully banished him and the Zodiac to the Hellish Realms.
However, the gate between the world of the dead and Arcadia was open and damaged, and threatened to suck the entire universe into it. As the warlocks tried to hold it and keep the damage to space-time stable, a gathering of the most powerful magic-users on Arcadia managed to plug the hole by creating an entirely new universe, albeit one without magic or life, using excess energy from a time portal opened directly to the Big Bang. The war was over, and Arcadia had been saved. While deciding what to do now with the new universe, humanity (as the sole non-magical race) offered as a whole to enter this new universe, which they called Earth, and act as custodians. Taking samples of plant and animal life with them to terraform Earth, humanity left Arcadia and began a new civillisation on their own. The two worlds were seperated by a rift in space-time that could be opened using magic to allow transport between the worlds, but this was rarely used.
Over the next ten thousand years, humanity forgot its ancient history, and mistook scientific records from Arcadia as proof of life and evolution on Earth for millions of years. They also forgot the existence of magic, relagating Arcadian stories to myth and legend and false religions, and their roles as Earth's custodians, abusing the planet they were meant to protect. By the present day, Earth in the comic is pretty much equivalent to Earth in real life.
Arcadia, however, didn't forget, though their levels of technology and civillisation had regressed to a primitive level after decades of war. The nations of Arcadia developed again, and by the present time they were at a technological level perhaps fifty to a hundred years ahead of Earth, and with a political structure similar to Earth save for the existence of a much more forceful UN-substitute, the Global Alliance (GA), based on Liberty Island (roughly congruent to the middle of the North Sea). The GA had two military bodies too to allow for independent military intervension instead of nothing but endless debates and 'sanctions' - the United Armed Forces (UAF) and the United Intelligence Agency (UIA). The UIA was also responsible for managing the rift between Earth and Arcadia, and keeping humanity unaware of Arcadia for security reasons.
The story follows the character Luna, a young succubus who is an intelligence agent with the UIA and former UAF captain, from the city-state of Persephone. Roughly two years before the comic starts, Luna was responsible for bringing to justice a rogue UIA operative and her former partner, Gabriel, who had defected to form a mercenary group called Supernova. At the present time, Supernova's second-in-command, Kane, has escaped from Liberty Island Maximum Security Prison, with several other former members, and Luna is curious to why Gabriel failed to escape. After getting nowhere, she returns to Persephone only to be attacked by Kane, and is framed for the murder of another Supernova escapee. Branded as a rogue agent by the UIA, she escapes through the rift to Earth, landing in the north of England, followed by Kane (who is under orders from Gabriel to kill her) and UIA agents ordered to return her to UIA custody.
Meanwhile, Scarlett, an Irish woman living in the north of England, checks into a mental clinic in Leeds after a nervous breakdown following the death of her grandmother. Under the care of Doctor James Foster, she meets Alice and Matt, a young couple who have been regularly attending the clinic since serving brief prison sentences a few years before for the deaths of their respective families (given reduced sentences for admitting manslaughter on grounds of dminished responsibility). Alice and Matt claim to be able to see the future, though not very well, and connect with Scarlett after they correctly predict events in her life shortly after meeting them. Some miles away, in a small town near Leeds, twins Jack and Meg go on the run after killing their abusive mother in self defence, after she killed their father in a drunken rage. They are being hunted for both parents' deaths, and decide to escape to Leeds to find transport south to London.
Not long after these events, when Luna makes her way to Leeds to hide from Kane and work out a plan, the paths of all these characters meet, and they become a team forced by circumstance to return to Arcadia and find out what Gabriel's plans are and how they relate to the war that devastated the world over ten millenia ago.
EDIT: Extra info, thanks to Erana's post below:
Update frequency - probably once per week, though the more an artist is able to do without sacrificing quality, the better. Possibly moving up to three days per week later on, provided the artist is willing and actually able to do so. This can vary however, depending on the artist.
Tone - kind of a serious sort of thing, some humour but mostly a dramatic epic storyline-driven comic.
Special effects/action - a fair bit in some parts, but paced out. I do have a few action scenes in mind near the start, including a big chase scene leading up to Luna being framed for the murder which leads to her fleeing from Arcadia. A lot of the story will be character driven though.
Colour - yes, it'll be in colour, not black-and-white. Pretty realistic visuals ideally, but just have a look at the comics I mentioned as inspiration in my OP for an idea of the colour scheme and themes. That is, those comics listed that are in colour...
Content per update - probably about four panels to maybe six with a bit less detail for more story-driven strips, one strip per week. However, this can change depending on the point in the plot and on the artist.
Sexual content - actually, very little. I didn't mention in the synopsis, but Luna ends up in a relationship with Scarlett fairly soon after they meet (part of the story, and I have plans much further down the line to shake things up a bit...). It's established early on the Luna is lesbian and Scarlett is bisexual, but I didn't mention that earlier since it's not a massive part of their characters. But yeah, although sex is talked about and perhaps a little bit of flesh shown, there's nothing really explicit.
Fantasy creatures - I encourage the artist to use their imagination. Mostly it'd be adhering to the more traditional looks given, but with a modern twist (bear in mind Arcadia is a futuristic version of Earth, but with magic, so it wouldn't be odd to see a Tolkien-esque elf wearing a suit and tie and working in an office somewhere). As I say, use your imagination, so feel free to come up with unique twists on the normal representation (in fact I actively wish for it). As for demons, as I mention they're genetically similar to humans, except with longer life-spans (perhaps five times as long) and magic ailities. However, they're split into sub-classes, like Chaos demons (such as Kane and Gabriel) who can feed on the energy from discord and strife, or incubi/succubi, who can feed on sexual energy, and other types too. Otherwise they tend to look human, and can easily pass for such.
Style - as I've previously mentioned it's similar to a magical futuristic real-life Earth, so clothing styles and such will mostly be the same. However, I have a very specific vision in mind for some places which will be given in detail to the artist(s) further down the line. For example, the city state of Persephone, I imagine to be a massive city of skyscrapers and spires and pointed towers (and parts similar to Eden from FF13), sited on an island in the middle of a massive lake and surrounded by ridges, hills and mountains as a natural protection. The city is accessed by tunnels that emerge from the lake as bridges into the city and come out near other towns under Persephone's rule some miles away - Persephone is supposed to be a very ecologically-friendly state.
Tone - kind of a serious sort of thing, some humour but mostly a dramatic epic storyline-driven comic.
Special effects/action - a fair bit in some parts, but paced out. I do have a few action scenes in mind near the start, including a big chase scene leading up to Luna being framed for the murder which leads to her fleeing from Arcadia. A lot of the story will be character driven though.
Colour - yes, it'll be in colour, not black-and-white. Pretty realistic visuals ideally, but just have a look at the comics I mentioned as inspiration in my OP for an idea of the colour scheme and themes. That is, those comics listed that are in colour...
Content per update - probably about four panels to maybe six with a bit less detail for more story-driven strips, one strip per week. However, this can change depending on the point in the plot and on the artist.
Sexual content - actually, very little
. I didn't mention in the synopsis, but Luna ends up in a relationship with Scarlett fairly soon after they meet (part of the story, and I have plans much further down the line to shake things up a bit...). It's established early on the Luna is lesbian and Scarlett is bisexual, but I didn't mention that earlier since it's not a massive part of their characters. But yeah, although sex is talked about and perhaps a little bit of flesh shown, there's nothing really explicit.Fantasy creatures - I encourage the artist to use their imagination. Mostly it'd be adhering to the more traditional looks given, but with a modern twist (bear in mind Arcadia is a futuristic version of Earth, but with magic, so it wouldn't be odd to see a Tolkien-esque elf wearing a suit and tie and working in an office somewhere). As I say, use your imagination, so feel free to come up with unique twists on the normal representation (in fact I actively wish for it
). As for demons, as I mention they're genetically similar to humans, except with longer life-spans (perhaps five times as long) and magic ailities. However, they're split into sub-classes, like Chaos demons (such as Kane and Gabriel) who can feed on the energy from discord and strife, or incubi/succubi, who can feed on sexual energy, and other types too. Otherwise they tend to look human, and can easily pass for such.Style - as I've previously mentioned it's similar to a magical futuristic real-life Earth, so clothing styles and such will mostly be the same. However, I have a very specific vision in mind for some places which will be given in detail to the artist(s) further down the line. For example, the city state of Persephone, I imagine to be a massive city of skyscrapers and spires and pointed towers (and parts similar to Eden from FF13), sited on an island in the middle of a massive lake and surrounded by ridges, hills and mountains as a natural protection. The city is accessed by tunnels that emerge from the lake as bridges into the city and come out near other towns under Persephone's rule some miles away - Persephone is supposed to be a very ecologically-friendly state
.
