Denver Pop Culture Con 2019 Panel Spotlight: Take an Idea from Concept to Creation – HBO’s ‘Asunda’

Written by Tim Girard

Take an Idea from Concept to Creation - HBO's ‘Asunda’
Sunday June 2, 2019 4:30 pm to 5:20 pm DPCCP 1 Happy Harbor (Comics)
How to take an idea from concept to creation by HBO’s ‘Asunda’ creator and Executive Producer, and Stranger Comics CEO Sebastian A. Jones creator of ‘Niobe’ and ‘The Untamed’, and the Executive Producer and writer of HBO’s new ‘World of Asunda’ series will share exclusive art and offer insight on how to take an idea from concept to creation (without selling your soul)! Using sneak peeks and sharing firsthand experience he will share tips and tools in this “How to” Panel. For young aspiring creators and fans the following questions seem to be the most frequent: How do I start? Where do I start? For how long? And how do I take a comic to television/film? Stranger Comics President Sebastian has lectured at universities worldwide. From personal experiences he will share tips on how an independent creator can make it happen while sharing first ever looks at his new comics, as part of the ‘Asunda’ series picked up by HBO. If you want to know trade secrets, this is a panel not to be missed and EVERYONE will have a chance to win free books!
Panelist: Sebastian Jones

Note: at the time of this panel, I had not read any of the comics. On the first day of DPCC (Friday), I purchased ‘The Untamed Vol. 1: A Sinner’s Prayer’, and quickly flipped through it later that night. On Saturday, I purchased ‘The Untamed Vol. 2: Killing Floor, Niobe: She Is Life’, ‘Dusu: Path of the Ancient’, ‘Erathune’ (all trade paperbacks). Before writing this article, I read’ The Untamed Vol. 1: A Sinner’s Prayer’, ‘The Untamed Vol. 2: Killing Floor’, and ‘Niobe: She is Life’, so that my writing would be better informed. 

On Sunday evening, near the end of Denver Pop Culture Con 2019, Sebastian Jones of Stranger Comics shared some inspiration with us and clued us in on how he created The Untamed and Niobe, two of the comic book series set in his World of Asunda, soon to be an HBO series. According to Sebastian, the first season of Asunda will be based on The Untamed, which is where his epic begins. The first volume, A Sinner’s Prayer, “is a tale of retribution and redemption. A bad man stuck in purgatory makes a deal with the devil. (“I was given a second chance in death. Vengeance was offered and I was quick to accept.”) He is given seven days to take revenge on his killers, including his brother, his lover, and a young con-man who he reared as his son. Conflict arises when lust for his lover steers him from his path of vengeance, and hate is tempered by a young girl (Niobe) who reminds him of his daughter. She acts as his conscience and ultimately his salvation.” The story continues in The Untamed: Killing Floor (the subtitle is based on the song “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues”), and then Niobe, who was introduced in The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer, stars in her own solo series Niobe: She is Life, which is the first major comic book with a black female lead. According to Viola Davis in her forward for Niobe (as well as her tweet), “We all have a Niobe inside ourselves, and it’s time to let her roar.” 
 
Sebastian told us that creating an independent property like this and having it get this far is no easy task: if you want to do this, you have to be a hustler. Also, you should strive to “do something timeless, NOT a hashtag.” Sebastian’s first big piece of advice was to stay off social media. Your first response might be, “how can he be against social media? What about that Viola Davis tweet?” That’s exactly what he thought you would say. Do you know how many more comic book sales they got as a result of the Viola Davis tweet? None. Plenty of people liked it and retweeted it, but no one bought any of the comics as a result of it. Instead of spending 3 hours a day on social media, he says that you should be spending those 3 hours on your creative project. If you want to create a comic and one day turn it into a film or TV show, you may ask yourself: (aside from staying off social media) “where do I start?” Sebastian laid out four key concepts: (1) The idea, (2) The script / project, (3) The presentation, (4) Is this a business? 

The idea is king/queen. For your idea, start with the big picture. What are some of the themes of your story? Is it an origin story? Is it about redemption? Hope? Does it feature the elements? Flight? Sebastian’s mother always says to write what you know (but if you want to write about things that you don’t know about, then collaborate with people who know more than you do). You can draw on your home life and experiences, and also all forms of art medium to be inspired (books, visual art, films, music, etc.). For Sebastian, it was the films of Akira Kurosawa (especially Seven Samurai) and Sergio Leone, and music such as ODB: Return to the 36 Chambers, Cymande, Freddie Hubbard: Hub-Tones, Aaron Copland: Billy the Kid and Rodeo, Alice Coltrane featuring Pharoah Sanders: Journey in Satchidananda, and Henryk Gorecki: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (he learned from the masters). Once you have taken in all of your inspiration, Sebastian suggests that you “...let it all go and create… something that will obliterate mediocrity. Something that will challenge the status quo. An icon.” Which brings us to the hero. Who is she/he? What is her/his soundtrack/leitmotif? (Is it 1960’s Spider-Man or 2013 Man of Steel?) How does she/he walk, dance, eat, and sleep? Where does she/he dwell? (In the light or in the shadows?) What does her/his voice sound like? (Like the Dark Knight or Eartha Kitt?) Does she/he have a color of significance? What are her/his firsts? Probably most important is “the rise and fall and rise of your hero - We build them up to break them, only to see them rise again… stronger.” Think of examples of this in your own life: “Key moments are what made you and what broke you.”
 
Now that you have your idea, your hero, and an idea of what their journey is, you need structure. You need to “know the story you are telling.” Is your project going to be a comic book? A novel? A screenplay? A game? Writing a screenplay is very different from writing a novel. It can be very daunting and very easy to get lost in all of your details, so Sebastian suggests that you make a “road map” for yourself first. Start by creating an outline within the very basics of three-act structure: Set-up, Conflict, Resolution. If we were to use a screenplay as an example, first, write 11 to 15 scenes per act, with no more than 6 to 8 descriptive sentences per scene. Once you have the overall story mapped out, you can go back and add some dialogue to the descriptive sentences, if you are inspired. Then, walk away from it. Give it some space and let yourself forget about it for a little while. When you come back to it and continue to add more details, make sure that whatever you do, even if you think that it has already been done before (which it probably has), you can still make it your own, as long as you are telling the story with your own voice.
 
When it comes time to present your project to the world, you need to know who the audience is that you are creating it for. Is it just for you and maybe your friends and your mom, or are you pitching it to a publisher, studio, or director? Sebastian says that it is important to be able to get the attention of people in the first 60 seconds. He says that if your first page doesn’t grab him, then he won’t care, and if your first scene doesn’t hook him, then he won’t read any more. An example he showed us was from the first page of Niobe: She is Life, with Niobe on the run from shadowy figures, which makes you want to turn the page and keep reading. You need to be able to draw them in by keeping them interested, but don’t give them the big payoff too soon. You should “play the King like the reader is expecting you to play the Ace” (keep the Ace in your pocket for after they think you have played your best card). Keep in mind that all of these ideas don’t happen spontaneously, they need to be “thought of, developed, and nurtured. They deserve your time and attention. Don’t wait for the muse. Work.” One thing that can help is to work with people smarter and more talented than you are. You can team up (it’s recommended that you work with a familiar face): one of you writes and the other one will be the artist. Sebastian showed us an example of when the artist’s interpretations and additions improved upon his original idea. A few pages into Niobe: She is Life, Niobe is going over a waterfall, and in the original sketch, most of the page is taken up by the waterfall, and on the bottom of the page when Niobe hits the water, the hand of The Untamed is grabbing for her in the darkness. The artist then added the angel of light at the top of the page in the sky above the waterfall, to balance The Untamed at the bottom of the page in the dark water. Maybe if you are feeling stuck and want to break out of the monotony, you can really shake things up by switching jobs: the writer does the art, and the artist writes.
 
An important question that you must ask yourself at some point is “is this a business?” Are you working on this project as a career or as a hobby? Are you the type of creator who would write whether you get paid or not? How long do you give this dream a shot? Which is more important: the security of a day job, or the fulfillment of your dream? Sebastian says that a big part of success is having resources and opportunity. He also talked to us about confidence. He said that a “large ego fails in commerce, but you need enough to succeed.” Even he struggles with it. Half the time he feels like, “I’m kind of the shit,” the other half of the time he thinks, “I’m really shit.” He harkened back to the artists of the 60’s who thought, “This is me, I don’t care,” but nowadays people put on a show: it’s all about what’s current and popular. Sebastian says, “Bollocks to current… create something that is going to stand the test of time”

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For some additional reading, check out these articles: “We Need a Black Girl Fantasy Lead Character Like Niobe on the Big Screen” (AFROPUNK), “‘Asunda’ Drama Series Based On Epic Fantasy Comics In The Works At HBO” (DEADLINE), “HBO Developing Epic Fantasy Series Based on Asunda Comics” (CBR.com). 

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