What is it about settings that are so incredibly important to me lately?

I’ve been on twitter lately using my account geared toward creative ventures. This allows me to bask in the creative works of others while propping up my own forays into the creative realm. It often contains within it people’s sketches and concept art as well as finished products. I’ve noticed that most of the concept art goes heavily into the vein of character creation. And that seems right: characters tend to be the focus of any story. It’s the people you relate to. Fall in love with. Grow with. You can’t really have a story without characters. But sometimes there is a magical marriage in a story where the setting itself becomes a character, and that’s something I want to indulge in for a moment.

But sometimes that’s what it’s about, right?

I sometimes wonder where this fascination came from lately. My recent delve into creative works with my comic, Omega Children (which I promise is still being worked on) may have become a big inspiration for these new intrusive thoughts, but I didn’t just wake up one day and think “I’m going to go ahead a create a comic book that emphasizes setting!”. No. It was a long process of being inspired by things I looked at and liked.

I had started my thoughts on Omega Children way back in 2014. Walking around in the Vancouver Mall corridors on my lunch break while probably listening to podcasts, I suddenly began thinking, as I often do thanks to Max Brooks’ Zombie survival guide, what would this spot look like in a post apocalypse?

Well, it was on a second floor, so all you would need to do is bar each stairway – and it was opened up on the inside so that you could look down onto the first floor. You could even take potshots at whatever menace was barred from getting to your domicile (obviously each store within the mall could be its own apartment for the denizens of the area).

These thoughts lead to more thoughts on the subject like: what would my post apocalypse be? Who would be the survivors? What life would be lived on a day-to-day basis? Generally these were fun creative exercises I liked to ingratiate myself into to wile away the time.

Thing didn’t start getting more serious until quite recently, so the things I was interested in at the time were featured heavily. In this case? It was Dinotopia. Talk about a story that made the setting the ultimate focal point of the story.

I think if it weren’t for Dinotopia, I wouldn’t have begun the intensity of the journey I ended up on. I relished the amount of detail that went into the day-to-day life of this world and wanted more. I think all stories should go this heavily. It helps that James Gurney is among the greatest artists of all time.

It was creative bursts like this that cemented in my mind the importance of setting in my own world. I already knew I wanted this to be something somewhat unique in the comic space.

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/277886239480063622

This was my hook. What if we lived in a world filled with a mist that drives people violently insane? What would that look like from a top down perspective? Sure there is an entire narrative about the struggles of Rose and her sister, Sara. This isn’t meant to diminish that plot, which I am enamored by in a very real way. But I like to think about how deeply I want people to feel this world.

The first arc is in RigTown, and I want people who read this comic to feel like they know what it’s like to live in a world where everyone thinks they’re the last bastion of hope for humanity. A town isolated by water miles off the coast of Santa Barbara – a deep mist in the distance blanketing their view of what once was a thriving civilization, masking a malevolence of insanity within.

Sadly there is no art to speak of yet. I have mappings on paper that go over how I want the place laid out but I am no architect, nor do I have any semblance of knowledge on the topic. And my art is, at best, passable. This stuff is quite important to me, so I want to be able to find someone that shares my passion for setting and wants it to be a character in and of itself.

And when one says setting there is more you can think about than just the background. Take The Watchmen for example. The setting is far more important to that story than some may surmise. Each chapter has its own stinger that brings with it more insight into the world at large. It isn’t just establishing shots, it’s articles, books, and even the comic books of the world. From Dale Petey’s memorandum to excerpts from Hollis Mason’s autobiography Under the Hood, all of this comes together to move the setting into the forefront of this world in ways that really push the boundaries of what a comic book can accomplish.

It’s details like journal entries, comic books a kid is reading on the street, and advertisements, that I also seek to incorporate into my story. I have log requests within RigTown’s marketplace, images of the typical home, how the school structure is laid out, and more within my writings. I really want to color my world with a finer detail in order to give people something to chew on upon their read – and maybe even take subsequent viewings to further ingratiate themselves – which I think will make them all the happier for it.

Hopefully I leave you with an inspirational sensation in your gut. Setting and background can be far more than a burden to be dealt with. It can be a joy that brings with it all new meaning to your works – one just has to get themselves in the right frame of mind. Just read Dinotopia and The Watchmen and everything Danny Earls makes. I’m sure each of them will give their own flavor of inspiration to tickle ones fancy.

In the meantime, keep writing or drawing or doing whatever it is you do to inspire others! Bring life into the world in any way you can!