Anyone want to contribute their stories/art/strips to a book featuring Public Domain Heroes?

As the title says, I'm thinking of putting out a book featuring Public Domain characters, is anyone interested in contributing?

I'm looking for prose stories and black and white art mainly but if you have strips then let me know. It is of course all depending on price but there are some great P.O.D. providers that we can utilise.

There are some very talented people on these forums and it would be great to put all that creativity to use



btw it is my intention that any profit made would be given to the Multiple Sclerosis Society - a charity which is close to my heart

Do you have a timeframe in mind, Transmooky? As I've said before, I have some ideas for a series of prose stories using some PD characters (especially Thesson, Son of the Gods and Space Smith), but I honestly have no idea when I'll have time to put pen to paper (or, more accurately, pixel to screen)...

Ooh, story submissions? How fun. Maybe I'll have a look over some of the PD characters and see if I am struck with anything. How long of stories are you looking for?

Wonderful idea! I contributed to a similar effort called Double Danger Tales years ago. Maybe call this one "Heroes of the Free Universe" securing the trademark for the public domain, or give it a more retro pulp name. I'd be willing to contribute a story or two and maybe some art.

Short Stories are usually 1500-6500 words (3-20 pages, double spaced). For the sake of our editors, maybe limit the stories to 5000 words (about 15 pages). Most books are about 50-60,000 words in length. You could open this up to writers outside these boards with a little advertising, but getting editors to read all the submissions will require some work. The criteria being that stories have to ceter on PD or open source characters...

I'm interested.

Are there any guidelines in terms of theme/language/violence/setting/other content?

Are villain protagonists allowed?

Stylistically, should we veer closer to the two-fisted heroism of the Golden Age, or are Silver/Bronze/Iron Age-style stories allowed?

~~Yzz

Yeah,Count me in,I Would be glad to Contribute some comic book stories.
What Do I Have To Do.

Transmooky's book, but I'd suggest keeping the stories relatively clean for broader appeal (just avoid gratuitous stuff), but make the stories complex and sophisticated enough to entertain a modern audience.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Good to see so many interested. I haven't really made any firm plans until I knew how many people could contribute.

I will have a think about deadlines etc.

Use of swearing/sex/etc will be permitted as long as it enhances the story, if the story can live without it then I would steer clear of it.

Yzz - yeah villains as protagonists are fine

As for the style - any - Golden Age, Silver Age, Bang up to date, future even.

I'm open to any suggestions you guys may have so let's do some brainstorming!

Well, I've got an idea for one story (featuring Wonder-Man) already, the only problem is that I'm worried it be too long for this anthology (6 chapters).

Also, should we try to stay as close as possible to origins/powers/costumes?

~~Yzz

Yeah,count me in,here is my suggestion:
Comic book stories featuring the public domain golden age
super heroes and villains as seen on the free universe site.

Yzz wrote:

Well, I've got an idea for one story (featuring Wonder-Man) already, the only problem is that I'm worried it be too long for this anthology (6 chapters).

Also, should we try to stay as close as possible to origins/powers/costumes?

~~Yzz

Yzz, how many words,pages is that? It may be a great opening to the anthology to have a longer story that people can sink their teeth in to.

I suppose another avenue would be to do a magazine (perhaps 4 over a year), we could then split the Wonder-Man story to fit that format.

I think this could be a great venture for The Free Universe.

Apart from 'Heroes of The Free Universe', does anyone have any suggestions for a title?

The only thing about doing it as a magazine is that I'm not sure POD would work that way...are there any successful POD magazines? That would leave us with either an e-zine, which are usually free, or you'd have to print it and assemble it which would cost money and make the mag expensive to buy...I don't think small press zines make a whole lot...

Just some thoughts....I think the book idea would be best...it could accomodate a longer story.

One thing I'd say is that if you're advertising this as using PD characters, try to keep them true to the source or at leat recognizable. Why claim its wonderman if it's a totally different character? But that said, I'd say expand on the character all you want. Iknow Yzz is a great writer, so I trust he'd give us some imaginative material either way.

Transmooky wrote:

Yzz, how many words,pages is that? It may be a great opening to the anthology to have a longer story that people can sink their teeth in to.

Well, I don't even an outline written up yet, but I guess around 90 pages? So it might be too long.

argosail wrote:

Iknow Yzz is a great writer, so I trust he'd give us some imaginative material either way.

Thanks, argo!

~~Yzz

Yeah sorry I should have said that the characters should resemble the PD originals as much as possible but with the writer/artists own unique stamp on it.

Argo, I understand what you mean about the magazine idea. Book it is.

I am going to work on a Bulldog Denny story for this anthology.

Yzz ~ that might be a little too long for the anthology, I hope you have other ideas though.

I Am Going To Do A Comic Book Story Featuring The Public Domain Golden Age Super Heroes And Villains As Seen on the free universe site,for the anthology.

Yzz, I'd say write your story and see how long it is....if we don't get more good contributions, it's possible that inserting a novella like that wouldn't be the worst thing...more bang for the reader's buck. It may turn out shorter than you think, or you could edit it down to fit.

What do you guys think about linking the stories in some way? Maybe a grand conspiracy running through it, helping to motivate the bad guys? Or maybe a common (and immortal) character or artifact which makes a cameo in all the stories? Or some other common element that can be discretely inserted to otherwise independent stories? With the PD/open license theme, this seems like a natural thing to do. Maybe each story has an important cameo by an enigmatic asian girl with goggles named Jenny....

I would also recommend that each story try to focus on humor and emotional themes, not just action, as action doesn't translate as well in literature as it does on the big screen. In literature, even minor action can be described in a way that is full of pulpish drama. At the same time, I'd go light on political themes to avoid alienating readers.

I've started working on the Wonder-Man story. It looks like it might be shorter than I thought... Posting what I've got so far for C&C (forum messed up my formattan btw);

Quote :

AGE OF WONDER

BY
MICHAEL PALACIOS

BOOK I

AURUM


It was four AM. The chief of police opened the door to his office. He stopped for a moment to scan the pictures he had hung on the wall.
His brother in his army uniform. His brother’s funeral. His wedding. His daughter’s wedding. His first day as a cop. The day he was appointed chief.
He felt the strain of the years weighing down on him. He didn’t look old…only his graying hair and moustache betrayed his age. And he knew that he could still take down plenty of guys half his age. But it was an inward fatigue, a tiredness of soul, born of years seeing the cruel dark side of Man.
He sat down at his desk, setting down the case folder in his left hand. Any minute now…
“Chief.”
The officer glanced at the figure emerging from the open fifth-story window. He wore red-and-yellow circus tights. His face was obscured by a black domino mask. On his chest was a circle with a “W” drawn within it.
“Wonder-Man.” The chief replied, bowing his head momentarily in greeting.
“What do you need?”
The chief held up the folder on his desk. “We’ve had eight young ladies go missing.”
“Isn’t that something your cops can handle?”
“Well, you see, it’s the damndest thing…One of these girls was actually on a date. Her suitor turned tail whenever some thugs tried to snatch the girl. He said that one of these thugs had a snake’s head instead of a person’s head.”
“I’ll get on it on the double.” Wonder-Man responded as he took the folder and flipped through it.
“Just watch your step. We don’t what these freaks are capable of.”
Wonder-Man turned to exit via the window again but stopped
“Chief, are you alright? You look…tired.”
“I’m just getting old, son. You better get going. The clock’s a-tickin‘.”
“Right.”
And just like that, he jumped out the window.

***

~~Yzz

Haha...that's some classic cheese Yzz...are u going light on this, or is this setting the stage for dark surrealism?

BTW, if you guys want to do something, like insert Jenny, I could write a Jenny story that refers to events in all the other stories when all the submissions are in...

Quote :

Haha...that's some classic cheese Yzz...

You mean the good kind, right?

Quote :

are u going light on this, or is this setting the stage for dark surrealism?

A little bit of both. This is a kind of Crisis story...

~~Yzz

It's good...just a little old fashioned so far...seems very straight forward, but I look forward to seeing how you complicate things and add drama...not sure what you mean by a Crisis story...like something world shattering or world changing? Or is this classic version of the character going to collide with an alternate reality?

Quote :

It's good...just a little old fashioned so far...seems very straight forward, but I look forward to seeing how you complicate things and add drama...

The title "Aurum" is actually revelant to this. It means "Gold"...as in the Golden Age. As the story progress, the style, tone, and depth will change. Chapter 2 will crank the cheese up by quite abit as it's supposed to be the Silver Age.

Quote :

not sure what you mean by a Crisis story...like something world shattering or world changing?

I mean a world-shattering, world-changing, retconing, unretconing, character-exploring, meta-fictional story.

~~Yzz

Hmmm...interesting approach for sure....

I Have Decided To Do A Cover And A Story Featuring Some Public Domain Golden Age Super heroes.
How Do I Send It Through Regular Mail?

Yzz ~ nice work, like what you've done so far. Like I said, a novella opening might be kinda cool to set the scene for readers who are perhaps new to PD heroes.

Argo, I had a similar idea. My character was called Patient Zero and he was a guy trapped in a hospital bed whose 'soul' escaped and went on a wander through the Earth encountering the heroes/villains of The Free Universe. Either that or your idea for a Jenny story would be good with me.

Great dude, most of us are pretty spread out across the globe so submissions by email works for me. I can always just print out what you send me anyway.

I'm thinking stories should be a max of 10,000 words (Except for Yzz's idea! ) and I will put a tentative dealine of Oct 31st for those.

I like this idea a lot, as well as linking it through Jenny Everywhere. Unfortunately the best idea I have is also a fairly long, ambitious Wonder Man story that kind of deconstructs/reconstructs the character, though I suspect I'm coming at it from a completely different angle from Yzz. I do have a vague idea for an AMazing-Man story but I'm not sure how I could fit Jenny into there.