This is an odd one.  This is a more recent project that started off as a cliché ridden fantasy idea that I was using almost as a thought experiment and culminated in a story that I really want to tell.  I have what I think to be really good ideas for this but have also become convinced that my art is not good enough to tell it properly or do it justice.

This is Paladin, a story about a young goblin who wants to become a knight of the realm dedicated to honour and justice as opposed to a scheming thieving power grabbing violent malcontent like the rest of his species.  The series would see him taken on by a disgraced trainer of knights and through a series of coincidence or destined events would get closer and closer to achieving his goal to the utter dismay of “Lord Smith”, the ruler of the realm currently descending to despotism and tyranny.  The ultimate point of the story would be to explore the idea of power inevitably corrupting and forcing compromise on ideals as Snakral the goblin follows the path that was only recently tread by a young dreaming blacksmith’s apprentice who wanted to become a knight, ending up toppling the previous tyrant-king to become Lord Smith, ruler of the realm.

I have a bunch of concept sketches, a load of plans and even a few page outlines, which is a first for my comics.  I also experimented with making it novel-based instead, but that didn’t work and this definitely belongs in comic-format.  I also can’t shake the idea that it might make a decent animated series, but that is so far beyond my means, abilities and work ethic that it’s untrue and borderline delusional.

Taking a few steps back from the project over the last few months, I’ve noticed the elements that I thought were unique are probably not quite so.  The character design of Snakral, the goblin, is somewhere between Dobby the house elf and a young Yoda and the idea of a traditional monster-race being the questing protagonist-hero isn’t a million miles away from Shrek, the ogre with a heart of gold and two too many films.  I still love Snakral as a character.  He moves slightly beyond my usual “He is ____ but incompetent” archetype that I’ve noticed pops up in everything and is instead a determined underdog with hopes, dreams and a modicum of talent mixed with luck.  In essence, I like this project because it has the potential to mix nihilistic predeterminism with pure naïve optimism which could provide an interesting juxtaposition.

I am fully aware that this is a hilarious situation I have got into:  I am talking about a project as if it exists already whereas all I can really show is a couple of sketches, the result of an attempt to learn how to use a tablet in Photoshop, and a half finished splash page.  This is all that exists in any solid substantial consumable form.

Additional Notes:

This is my fourth post on outstanding projects and although it’s all horribly self indulgent, it’s actually been quite interesting for me to write about these things.  When you look at a project with a view to explaining it in something approaching a pitch format, it’s so much easier to pick up on the weaknesses and inadequacies.  Part of that is the lizard brain constantly shouting at you that you’re rubbish and your work takes on your characteristics of rubbish-ness, but part of it is genuinely good self assessment.  I would heartily recommend this to anyone with a languishing project of this nature.