Behind the Shadows – Crossing Continents With Transmedia

06/01/2014 / Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

The first time someone mentioned the term Transmedia to me I was already collaborating with four project teams. We were working to produce a comic anthology centered on my urban fantasy novel Fallen Heroes. I was also co-writing the first episode of an audio drama spin off. The name I gave to this transmedia project was Unseen Shadows, which referred to the trilogy I was working on, of which Fallen Heroes was the first.

My goal in using transmedia was to create stories in other mediums that could be enjoyed as stand alone adventures. However, when those stories were combined with the novel they would expand the world established within its pages. This meant that a single line of prose within the novel could be transformed into a 22 page comic or a supporting character could take the lead in a five part audio drama.

“I thought so,” said Napoleon, walking to the jeep, and without looking back, he climbed in. Vincent was already there, starting the engine.

Kelsey started crawling towards the jeep. “Please,” he pleaded. “Don’t leave me like this, you must help me.”

After a few moments, a revolver flew back over the jeep, landing next to Bob. The next he knew, he was bursting into a fit of coughing, his lungs full of a combination of carbon monoxide, gravel and sand. The tears came easily as he watched the jeep pull away from him, leaving him alone with the revolver.

The above few lines of prose from the novel spawned a spin off comic one shot centered around the character Bob Kelsey who was was a minor character in the novel.

An Unseen Shadows project begins when someone, usually a writer, reads the novel and wants to become involved. I start by asking them what character they want to work on rather than choose one for them. This has led to some interesting choices, including both main and very minor characters being given the transmedia treatment.

The next stage is for the writer to give me a brief overview of their idea. Once I’m on board they will work up a full pitch, including any suggestions I may have made, before moving onto the scripting stage. At the same time the artist begins work on the main character sketches.

Steph Connisbee from the upcoming graphic novel ‘The Chimera Factor’

In my goal to create stand-alone routes into the novel I am involved in every stage of the process. I approve each story pitch, comic or audio script, character design and every line of dialogue spoken by a voice actor.

There are currently around forty writers, artists, letterers, colourists, graphic designers and voice actors working within the Unseen Shadows team. Their talent and experience are as diverse as their backgrounds and locale. Members can be found in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa and the US.

Overseeing a team spread across the world is definitely a challenge. I quickly found that email, cloud storage and social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype were the greatest weapons in my communication arsenal.

All the past and future Unseen Shadows projects are stored using cloud storage. The projects are divided into folders with each one containing scripts, artwork, sound files and more, with access provided for relevant team members. This helps avoid any time zone issues as folders can be accessed 24/7.

I created an Unseen Shadows Facebook group where team members could share developments, discuss ideas, welcome new members and anything else they wanted to use it for. I also use the group to feedback on the progress of future novels or anything else of importance.

One of the main issues a writer working in collaborative fiction must face is the time demands. Projects have to be managed, timescales set and monitored. In some cases I have been the main reason that progress on a project has stalled. This can be because a team is waiting for me to read a script, approve a character or respond to an urgent email before they can continue.

A significant amount of my own writing time is spent overseeing the transmedia and collaborative elements of Unseen Shadows and that can be hard. However knowing the huge amount of work the team members are putting into their projects and seeing the end results spurs me on to manage my time better, which can only be a good thing for my writing in the long run.

Kathryn Monroe in ‘The Heart Which Makes Us’

Working within these different mediums has meant that to effectively manage the teams I had to develop, at least, a basic understanding of the terminology within each medium be it comics, audio or more recently film. It also pays to know some of the advantages and disadvantages of working within in each one. I have been lucky to find a lot of people along the way willing to offer me help and advice on that front.

The positives with working on collaborative fiction are many but overall it is the feeling of never being alone. In the dark days when the fear of a blank screen comes calling, a piece of art, a new script or question is not far behind. The light never goes off in the world of Unseen Shadows and knowing there is always someone at work is a great motivator.

A look at ‘Napoleon’ Stone and the Army of Set’ A choose your own adventure story which is currently in development.

These extremely talented people work on these projects not for the money, as all profits go back into the development of new projects, but because they love the source material. They constantly challenge me with their ideas, questions and suggestions for new ways to expand this world they have had a hand in developing.

I have found over the years that these new stories and characters have influenced me in unexpected ways. I have already referenced several of the events and characters created in the comics and audio drama in the second novel. An example of this is the character Victoria Sullivan, who was created for the audio drama and as such was never in the novel. I loved Fiona Paul’s portrayal of Victoria so much in the audio drama that not only is character in ‘Forgotten Warriors’ the sequel to ‘Fallen Heroes’ but she is also in a six page comic (Fight or Flight) and an upcoming graphic novel (The Chimera Factor).

Victoria Sullivan in Fight or Flight

Working with the teams has taught me how to express to a writer why a particular line of dialogue does not work or to an artist why a character sketch does not feel right. This has helped me with my own self editing when I write.

The last two years has been a great training ground for learning when to step in and when to step back and trust these talented people with my world. The collaboration aspects of the various projects have given me a deeper understanding of my own characters as I watch them written, drawn and spoken by others.

10 tips for collaborative fiction

Your story may be at the heart of everything but in the realm of collaborative fiction you need the creative lifeblood of your team to keep that heart beating. Respect them and their opinions.
Ensure your team has a clear idea of what you expect of them before they join the project. I have a statement of intent document, which every member of the team receives, which must be read and its terms agreed to before they can join the project.
Never dismiss ideas out of hand.
Used wisely, social media can be a great aid to team communication. Used poorly it can a massive time drain.
No one knows your world better than you but always be prepared to back up your decisions with reasons that don’t start with ‘It’s my book so…’
Never be scared to get your hands dirty in another medium yourself. (I had never seen an audio script before Unseen Shadows much less co-written one.)
Try to gain an understanding of the terminology used within the mediums you will be working in.
Collaborative fiction can be a huge time commitment. Keep that in mind when deciding which projects to undertake.
Keep yourself included in every stage of the project.
Communication is the key. Keep your teams up to date and ensure they do the same. So many problems can be avoided with regular communication.

Barry Nugent, Author of Fallen Heroes and founder of Unseen Shadows.

Article first published on the Writing Platform

3rd Draft of Forgotten Warriors is Complete

17/12/201317/12/2013 / Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

I am very pleased to announce that the third draft of Forgotten Warriors is now complete. It has been a long time coming and a serious amount of early morning work, including a few 3am starts but all of that has been worth it to get to this stage.

What Next?

Well essentially all the heavy lifting on the novel is done and what happens now is a lot of proof reading to fix any grammar and puntuation errors. Test readers will also be getting their hands on the manuscript to feedback to me so I can make any edits or fix any continuity errors in the novel.

What can you tell us about Forgotten Warriors?

Hmm not much without spoiling a load of juicy plot points but I will give it a try. The story starts three years after the events of Forgotten Warriors, with a lot of the characters in very different places to where we left them. I did use the ‘Forgotten Warriors’ title as an inspiration to shift the focus from the main characters from the first novel onto some of the ‘sidekicks’ characters like Kathryn Monroe, Eve Appleton, Vincent Marconi and of course Steph Connisbee, who takes centre stage on the cover.

Of course no good pulp adventure is complete without some villains and it’s safe to say that after what happened at at the end of the first novel that the Book of Cademus cult are after a little payback. If I could have got away with it I would have called this novel ‘The Book of Cademus Strikes back!’ as I think it pretty much sums up the vibe for this story.

There is also a lot of crossover in this novel in terms of the audio and comic spin offs. As always you do not need to have read the comic or listen to the audio before reading the novel as the story works independent of them but there’s a lot of fun to be had if you do. Over the coming weeks and months I will talk a lot more about that process.

Although Forgotten Warriors is a darker tale than Fallen Heroes it is still packed with a shed load of action, twists and cliffhangers.

When can we expect Forgotten Warriors?

Fingers crossed the book will be out summer 2014. There’s a synopsis below the cover but do not read if you have not yet read Fallen Heroes.

WE ARE THE FORGOTTEN

Since their defeat at Cademus Castle The Cabal, the leaders of the Book of Cademus have been scouring the earth for the clues they believe will lead them to the source of Oliver Cademus’ incredible power. The Cabal seek to follow in their leader’s footsteps and harness this dark and destructive power for themselves.

The Icarus Foundation, unaware of the danger, has allowed itself to become locked in a political power struggle. The United Nations, now fully aware of the Foundation’s clandestine activities, believes Icarus are too dangerous to be left unchecked.

With the Icarus Foundations’s focus turned elsewhere the burden falls on a few scarred survivors to stand against the Book of Cademus once more.

With lies, betrayal and murder shadowing their every move they must fight to stay alive and uncover the answer to one question which threatens to shatter the world. Who are the Forgotten Warriors?

YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN

Behind the Shadows: Prose to Script to Comic Page – Wrath of God ‘ A Dark Hero’s Rebirth’

04/12/201322/05/2016 / Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

Last week saw the digital release of Wrath of God on ComiXology but what some of you may not know is the Reverend, the two gun wielding vigilante who stars in the comic, made his debut within the pages of the Fallen Heroes prose novel. I thought it might be interesting to give you a little insight on one of the pivotal scenes from the comic and its relationship to the novel.

The Rebirth

When Jonathan Bishop aka The Reverend awakens from his coma with a new face it was one the most important scenes for the character in Fallen Heroes and yet most people have never read the scene. I cut it from the final draft because I was scared that by revealing too much of the Reverend’s past it would diminish the mythic quality I was trying to instill in the character.

Cy Dethan who wrote the script for the Wrath of God comic was the first person I let read the scene and the moment he read it it gave him the central themes he wanted to explore with the Reverend.

The subject of the Reverend’s training is never address in the novel because it was not needed to be. I wanted The Reverend to arrive immersed in his crusade and at the top of his game. Now, however, I have the wonderful luxury of being able to say to people “If you want to know how he was trained and learn more about his past then here’s Wrath of God.” this notion of making the comics 100% canon as far as novels are concerned has been something that has become more and more embedded with each new Unseen Shadows project.

What we get in Wrath of God is Cy doing a brilliant job of expanding on the Reverend’s past without diminishing any of the power or mystery of the character. It was also a delicate balancing act because we wanted a story that could stand alone and apart from the novel but at the same time reward readers of both. For me personally it was great to work with Cy on fleshing out the Reverend’s past and answering a few of the questions I never tackled while working on the novel.

Here’s Cy had to say about how he see’s the Reverend.

“To me, the Reverend represents the purest form of personal commitment – an implacable crusader with every outward trace of humanity literally burned away. No act is too monstrous or sacrifice too great in pursuit of his understanding of justice. I needed to know what could do this to a man, and whether the madness was always in him. Hopefully, we’ve gone some way toward answering those questions in Wrath of God.”

The Prose

So without further ado here’s the original scene from Fallen Heroes.

Irene had talked one of the other nurses into making her rounds for her, and now here she was for the first time in the restricted wing. She admitted to not being very impressed; a couple of armed guards and that was about it. She walked gingerly into the room where the unknown patient was being kept. It was hospital policy to check on all patients, even those under government protection. He was just laying there, his face hidden behind a thick layer of bandages. There was no doubt in her mind that he was still in a coma; feeling a little cheated by the anti-climax, she moved to the door.

“Maria.”

Too shocked to speak, Irene slowly turned round to find the patient she thought comatose now sitting bolt upright, his unusual eyes, the only hint of what lay under the bandages, scrutinising her every movement.

“What day is it?” he asked, his voice no more than a whisper, but for some reason, it sent shivers through her, and the desire to be anywhere else but here was foremost in her mind.

“It’s…It’s…Sunday,” Irene stammered. “Sunday the third of September.”

The patient sighed heavily and slowly climbed out of his bed. “I am alive,” he said, staring out of the window.

The urge to run screaming from the room and call someone, anyone was almost too great for Irene to ignore, but before she did, there was one question she needed answering.

“Sir, I need to know, we’ve all been waiting to know since you got here, who are you?”

The patient turned from the window, and Irene found herself looking into the strangest eyes she had ever seen. They were an unnatural colour; Irene tried to put a name to the colour…jade, that was it, jade.

The patient walked up to her and removed the bandages from his face. “I am wrath,” he said sadly.

The Script

The “deleted scene” from the Fallen Heroes novel that inspired this layer of Wrath of God’s flashback structure served as both a partial explanation of Jonathan Bishop’s metamorphosis into the Reverend and an open question in its own right. It follows on from Bishop’s literal “baptism of fire” at the hands of the drug lord, Vincent Gonzalez, and essentially charts the agonising process of a lost and fallen man being born again.

The whole concept of Bishop’s conversion is drenched in Christian mythology in the novel, and yet framed in a profoundly alien and threatening light. I’d go so far as to say that most of my understanding of the character was informed by reading this scene in the information pack Barry sent me. The sadness, the disconnection, the violence – the essential core of the Reverend is all at work here. – Cy Dethan (Writer) Wrath of God

1) Cut to a close-up of the Reverend, his face a freshly healed wound. There are bandages, recently removed from his face, hanging loosely around his neck and shoulders. We’re in a hospital room, by a washbasin with a large mirror set above it. The Reverend, looking notably younger than in the previous scene (with more and darker hair), is gazing at his reflection with an expression somewhere between sadness and amazement. He’s dressed in a hospital gown.

We’re going to have several timelines running through this story. As a suggestion, it might be worth emphasising each strand with its own, unique colouring style or other easily distinguishable visual device.

CAPTION

THIS IS NOT MY FACE

2) Pull back. The Reverend turns away from the mirror, looking lost and hopeless. A nearby nurse (Irene Dickinson, for continuity fans) steps toward to help him. She looks genuinely concerned. There are two “spook” types in dark suits, armed with handguns in the room with us, but we needn’t see them both in this panel. Just a hint of one of them partially in shot would be plenty.

CAPTION

ONLY THE EYES BETRAY HIM, AND AS I LOOK INTO THEM ONE LAST TIME I BELIEVE I FINALLY UNDERSTAND…

3) One of the spooks steps forward to intercept the nurse. He raises his weapon to threaten her. The Reverend notices, looking up sharply.

CAPTION

THIS IS THE FACE OF A DEAD MAN—

4) The Reverend gets up in the spook’s face, his expression instantly hardening to a frightening degree. He presses the spook’s pistol down firmly with one hand. Both the spook and the nurse look taken aback.

The Page

All of this work led to this final page of art bringing together that fantastic work of Cy Dethan (Script), Steve Penfold (Art), Nic Wilkinson (Letters) and Gat Melvin (Colours).

Hope you enjoyed this this little look behind the scenes.

About Wrath of God

The Reverend: a holy weapon forged in tragedy and flame – a murderous martyr whose cold judgement strikes with the force of a vengeful God. Despair, for the Reverend walks among you. He is the right hand of vengeance. He is Wrath.

From the twisted brain of Cy Dethan comes this 22 page story following Fallen Heroes favourite The Reverend; a cold blooded and ruthless killer hell-bent on a path of righteousness and destruction.

Published by: Barry Nugent
Written by: Cy Dethan
Art by: Steve Penfold
Colored by: Gat Melvyn
Lettered by: Nic Wilkinson
Edited by: Barry Nugent
Price: 0.69p

Available at Comixology

Work on Blood Cries Out Issue 2 is Underway

15/11/201322/05/2016 / Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

Work has now begun on issue two of the Reverend graphic novel ‘Blood Cries out’ and here’s a panel to prove it.

As you can see from the finished page from issue 1 below the blood isn’t about to stop crying anytime soon thanks to old Rev showing his usual degree of restraint when dealing with the bad guys.

Visitors to the next weekend’s Thought Bubble Festival will be able to get a sneak peek at the first chapter. All you need to do is swing by Cy Dethan and Nic Wilkinson’s table (121 in New Dock Hall)where they will have a preview of Blood Cries Out – chapter 1 at their table. They will also have some of their other great comics for you to check out. I will also be wandering the con with my Ipad and a shed load of Unseen Shadows material and will be hovering around Cy and Nic’s table from time to time so come and find us.

Bob Kesley Investigates: Killing the Soul Coming Soon

24/09/201322/05/2016 / Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

When last we saw Bob Kelsey he was making a debut in his new web comic series – Bob Kelsey Investigates, with his first story ‘Neck on the Line’. I’m happy to announce that not only will Bob be returning in a new adventure entitled ‘Killing the Soul’ but that the pencils for the comic have already been done and both the inking and the lettering will be under way soon. This tale of murder and the supernatural (what else would Bob be caught in?) has been penned by Richmond Clements with Roy Huteson Stewart on the pens and Paul Maclaren on the pencils (they sound a little like a band now).

So while your waiting for the band to put their latest artistic composition together here’s a look at the first page of Bob Kelsey Investigates: Killing the Soul.

More info soon and remember you can check out Kelsey’s first webcomic ‘Bob Kesley Investigates:Neck on the Line’ for free and his previous adventure The Immaculate Abortion of Dina Leigh by Cy Dethan (Writer), Valia Kapadai, (Art), Nic Wilkinson(Lettering) is on sale in digital format on Comicsy or as part of the Tales of the Forgotten anthology.

Of course if you’re of a literary bent and want to check out the very first appearance of the reporter with the world’s worst luck then check out the novel Fallen Heroes.