Pitch Practice: Toothpick, a Korean webcomic about a girl and a library
- duchess of scrawl
- Jan 6, 2018
- 3 min read
(Originally written November 17th, 2017 when I still had the pleasure of time)
HEAR ME OUT.
I am currently kinda writing a comic for a course at school, and it's been pretty crazy because I have gotten absolutely no where but everywhere at once so let's hope I don't let anyone down haha.
Here is the premise so far:
Ahn Ruli is a quiet girl. And for being just nine years old, she's got a lot going for her. After school classes every day at the community centre take up most of her free time and like any kid, she gets a tough amount of pressure from her parents to be a good, obedient daughter and a successful student. Her only escape seems to be the local library where she spends time after class - except it's not all that meets the eye. Here she encounters an employed pair of stuffed animals, a literary ghost, a heavenly exchange student and a stressed out college cafe worker. One book at a time, she'll learn their stories, motivations, and ambitions and eventually help her to overcome her own fears and find true friendship.
But backtrack to the Korean aspect of it. Initially, this was going to be a three part project, writing an enticing storyline, beautiful watercolour illustrations and on top of that, be in my mother tongue that I can't...actually speak. This would require learning Korean, becoming a great artist (or at least produce drawings that live up to my non-existent standards) as well as writing a story. It took a couple months for my to realize that this is kind of pretty...OK, really really hard. And in this kind of industry the work is typically divided up that one person isn't doing literally everything. But because it's been a dream of mine to make a comic, and to do all the things I set out to in the middle of September, I wanted to keep going. This meant breaking apart some pieces, like having it in English first and then translating to Korean. When it became evident that this too would be difficult as there are no concrete episodes or chapter laid out yet, simply having it in English became the goal, with occasional Korean words and phrases sprinkled in romanized, gradually changing it into hangeul characters as the comic progressed. This seemed a fine idea. Now if only to get it out and onto paper...
Our new goal then is, that to have an episode out by next Friday for the showcase would be unimaginably wonderful, it may be an unrealistic goal. For now, it's to have concept art available for view (improvement in watercolour painting) and to have the overarching story outline and an episode script complete (as writing for comics is significantly different from a novel, as I have learned the hard way).
All in all, I believe it's possible. So long as I remain confident and strict to keeping to plan. This is the last weekend before school starts up again and so I will use it to the best of my ability.
In this new section to the website, any photographs of art that I've completed related to the story will be posted, along with excerpts for the story line I'll be able to share, combined with any inspiration I've garnered and resources I've looked at. It'll be a catalogue. With the premise up and decided on, commencement of content will begin as soon as humanly possible.
Thanks so much for coming along this ride! I hope this will be able to deliver! And no matter WHAT this is definitely continuing beyond this course. It's exactly the comic I would love to read and I just can't wait for it to become a reality.
- r.k.
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