Desire Of Ages Graphic Novel

[Patrick Lawrence]

Hi all I am working on a Desire Of Ages "Graphic Novel" based on The Desire Of Ages. This is the direct words from the chapters of DOA relating to the last parts of Christs life. The same time period you tend to see in a passion play. And the words of the DOA are just cut down to be short enough. Mainly cutting out descriptions of things and side notes etc. But making the hard of the story flow better.

To keep costs down for the client we will be using mainly public domain paintings and movie stills that have been reworked.

Any way here is the first mockup of a page and I could really use some feedback. Thanks!

[Bravus]

What a fantastic project! And it looks great. All the very best with it.

[Patrick Lawrence]

Thanks Bravus.

[Amelia]

Personally I would rather see the comic art format but I can see wanting to keep costs down. The only problem I have with the public domain art you have shown is the "whiteness". Would like too see more true to culture color.

[Patrick Lawrence]

Well the main problem is a HUGE amount of money that it would take to make every image a very high quality and from scratch. I have no problems with doing one like that I just have never found some one with the deep pockets to back it.

[Gordon1]

Hi Patrick,

Where is the money needed? Wages or hardware?

[Patrick Lawrence]

The biggest cost for a graphic novel using original high quality art is the wages of the artists. If you can imagine the number of hours that goes into one high quality image you can images how many hours would go into the number of images in a graphic novel.

By the way this is part of a larger project to do a video with the same content. As part of that we decided to use all of this content to also do a book. And probably an audio book also. Matter of fact we will probably package the audio book with the graphic novel.

The trick to doing all of this is to get it done on a super small budget but come out with a high quality product.

[John317]

Do you see this as a project that will encourage people to dig deep into the Bible and study the Gospels?

[Patrick Lawrence]

Yes the goal is not to be something complete but an introduction with information then on how to get Bible studies and complete books like the desire of ages and great controversy etc for free.

[John317]

Great to hear that. I hope you do well with it.

What are your plans in regard to advertisement? If possible, run some TV and radio ads, and of course run some ads in the newpapers and in the ABCs.

By the way, if you get it translated in Spanish so it can be sold in places like Mexico, it would sell like hot-cakes. Mexicans love those kinds of books. For many, it is the only books they get. You might have to simplify the language for those books. If you can do this and sell the books cheap, it would be a best-seller there and in central America.

[Patrick Lawrence]

Well honestly it is not my money so I have no idea what advertising budget we will have. But I would think the advertising will have to be limited to the internet and maybe Adventist TV and Radio where we might can get it done for free or very cheaply.

[John317]

I would encourage you to do the same thing with the entire Conflict Series, and eventually in Spanish. That would be truly wonderful!!

[Patrick Lawrence]

I would love to do it with the entire series. And at least for the graphic novels it will be easy to change them to other languages after having the translation done. The video is a little more complex unless we just did subtitles.

[John317]

How many people are working on this project?

If you show what you are doing, and persuade them that your work is worthy, I am sure you will be able to find wealthy people who will be happy to donate funds. Some are looking for just such worthy projects.

[Patrick Lawrence]

Right at the moment we have a huge team of 1. The graphic novel should be strait forward enough but the video would be a project that could really use some help.

As for wealthy backers well that is in God's hands since I do not even know any to show things to:)

[John317]

If you're in the Southern California area, or can get there, once you have a significant portion of the project finished, take it to Loma Linda and show it to as many doctors, dentists and medical faculty as you possibly can. I suggest you take it to the University Church, and perhaps the Hill Church as well, and share it in some of the Sabbath Schools, particularly the main SS, and let people know you need help with funding. Put it up on the large screen. Do the same at the White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles. Pray about it and ask God to lay it on the hearts of people to help out with funding. Of course they will need to be confident that the project is workable and that you will finish it within a certain amount of time. If it is God's work, it will happen.

[Patrick Lawrence]

After I get the Desire Of Ages project done I will start on the video. Then hopefully will have something to show after a little while.

[John317]

How long do you anticipate it will take to finish DA and after that how long before a portion of the video is done?

I'm also wondering if you could possibly convince professional artists to help you on a voluntary basis for specific tasks that you can't do alone.

[Patrick Lawrence]

Not sure on the graphic novel for DA. Since I am working for some one on this project I do not know what choices they will make. And the same on the video. Since many choices are out of my hands I really do can not give an accurate time table.

As for professional artists the short answer is no. I am a full time illustrator that also does video work etc. And I get people asking me to do stuff for free all the time. And the simple truth is I just cant pay the bills and do that. And that is true for other artists also unless they have won the lottery:)

Also it is not so much that I cant do all the tasks. Its just that there a huge amount of work involved in making a video project like this. So being able to hire other people would speed things up.

But as normal things come back to money. But on the bright side of things many technologies are getting cheaper. For example the rise of ereaders will make it much more cost effective to publish books.