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Front Page Articles => Community Webcomic => Community Webcomic Talk => Topic started by: Rob on January 14, 2010, 06:57:02 PM
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So when KidGalactus mentioned the idea of GUNBABY in this completely unrelated thread (http://forum.webcomicscommunity.com/index.php/topic,52.0.html) my mind started whizzing a mile a minute about all the ideas for the story. When I decided that I wanted to make this a community project I took a long look at the art KidG created and decided to make the GUNBABY story as preposterous as possible.
This backstory is only a guideline to folks who may feel they need some guidance as to what to draw for a submission. Use it in the loosest possible terms. The backstory I'm providing will establish an origin, defining moment and setting for GUNBABY but you should not feel constrained to my proportions.
For example I plan on the setting of the story to be the old west. If you were more interested in moving GUNBABY to a futuristic time period just to see what he would look like with a jetpack and a laser pistol instead of a large jackelope and a six shooter that would be a perfectly acceptable submission.
The purpose of the backstory is to provide direction to those who may need it. Feel free too use, abuse, or ignore it at your discretion.
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GUNBABY is the son of a female pirate (yes there were female (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Read) pirates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny)) and her pirate captain/lover. His parents were pirates on the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the Caribbean. Shortly after his birth a brutal hurricane capsized the ship. GUNBABY was found two days later, dehydrated and a little sunburned, floating in a barrel on the Gulf Coast of Texas with nothing but a dirty diaper and a pirate eye patch of a Teddy Bear skull and crossbones.
The time is the early-mid 1800's. Texas is not yet a state; the Mexican American War is on the horizon and the towns and villages of coastal Texas are wild. Attack by Mexican invaders and pirates from the Gulf lead to an uncertain and precarious existence. Almost everyone carries a gun. A surprising number of them find they need to use it.
Rescued from a bear by the sheriff of a small local town called Dyperville, GUNBABY was originally delivered to the care of the local Pastor and his incredibly hot mail order bride; Dotty. Unfortunately for the Pastor some highwaymen confront him on his way into town one afternoon and he is murdered because he refuses to relinquish his gold cross. Dotty wears the recovered cross.
When one of the highwaymen leans over to check GUNBABY's carriage for valuables GUNBABY removes the highwayman's six shooter from his shoulder holster with one smooth jerk. The Sheriff discovers the dead Pastor, the squalling GUNBABY and the bodies of all six highwaymen and a legend is born. Several of the highwaymen are shot through the sides of the carriage where GUNBABY had no direct line of sight.
With no other recourse Dotty converts the church in the center of town into a saloon where she tends bar and raises GUNBABY. The saloon is where hard drinking and gambling take place in the main hall and a full service cathouse is run in the upstairs bedrooms. The Sheriff who develops complicated feelings about Dotty chips in with raising GUNBABY and ensuring the security of the drinking establishment (which often means calming GUNBABY down before he knifes someone); although his guilt over the death of the Pastor who was his friend makes it difficult for him to express his love for Dotty.
GUNBABY cries whenever you take his guns away. I mean really cries; and he never stops. Eventually the Sheriff creates a small harness for GUNBABY so he can carry his six shooter with him on his back. He is also known for carrying a Derringer in his diaper. He never takes off his eye patch. Rumor has it that he lost his eye to the bear that the Sheriff saved him from. Another rumor is the highwaymen cut it out as their last act of aggression before he killed them. And yet another rumor states that his eye is fine and the reason that he is such an amazing shot is because he has no depth perception.
He is the fastest draw in the west and the Sheriff often has to chase off Gunslingers who come to test themselves against him. Speculation abounds about his uncanny speed and is often contributed to his parentage. The mystery of whether or not his parents survived the shipwreck and are looking for him or assuming he is dead is an overriding theme of the story. GUNBABY loves and protects Dottie. He is less appreciative of the Sheriff and their relationship is akin to a heavily armed Dennis the Menace and his Mr. Wilson.
The saloon is called "The Holy Dyper." <---- changed it.... like this name better!
That's the start of the backstory. You can draw comics directly from the backstory, continue the story from here or ignore it and come up with something completely different. Your choice. And you can play off the submissions of others or not. That is up to you.
If you have having trouble writing your comic or art subject and want some specific details please don't hesitate to ask.
I love this shit! ;)
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Don't know how to add an image exactly, so I'm trying the attachment...
I love the idea of Gun Baby. I did a quick pencil sketch of The Holy Dyper complete with jackalope tied up next to the horse. Hope you like it (and I get the attachment right)...
Scroll down for the correctly posted version from Rob.
jeffa
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Oh, and I think a good addition to the backstory would be that Dottie is from Holland. Thus the Dyper spelling. Your typical Texas story of the Minister and his Dutch mail order bride. Of course he doesn't read Dutch and THOUGHT he was ordering tulips...
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Oh My God! I completely forgot about GUNBABY's faithful pet Jackalope Rabies. Thank you for reminding me so I could get him back into the Backstory.
For anyone who doesn't know what a Jackalope is, this is a Jackelope.
(http://api.ning.com/files/ILAPyfBfj3UExTC0BRcKmPaj5sF5nkPoqP16WmO7svjfBqEIDvGrSnW-HKFoQO994pVQbiCKJfSxL5TD35Wt36CAom5ihMvB/Jackalope.jpg)
As far as making Dottie from the land of clogs and windmills that's fine with me. Like I said the backstory is just a guide.
And lastly, the Holy Dyper looks great. I love that Rabies is tied up outside waiting to be rode into the sunset. Great job. I'll add this submission to the hopper and we'll get it on the front page when it's turn has come. ;)
And if you're wondering why you have never heard of the Jackrabbit/Antelope hybrid it is because it is as real as the Unicorn, Gryphon and Big Foot
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Wow, where did that image come from? :o
I was really confused by the bottom of your post, but then I copied/pasted it to read it so I guess you just made the size of the text tiny to hide it. But without making it apparent why you hid it, it's just confusing. I thought something was cut off. ???
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Sorry Alectric. The use of subscript (the tiny type) to sort of whisper a secret on a forum is kind of a fairly common joke that has been around on forums for ages. Didn't mean to frustrate you. It shows up plenty big enough for me to read on my screen but if you need it bigger you can always copy/paste it into your word processing program and increase the font size. However, it should come as little surprise to most folks that what I was whispering was that Jackalopes aren't real creatures. They are the humorous creations of taxidermists who mix animal parts from a Jackrabbit with the antlers of a horned animal like a deer or antelope.
Also, some folks have told me that they cannot see Jeffa's image of the Holy Dyper Saloon. I don't know if that is the .png issue raising it's ugly head again or something to do with the fact that he uploaded it to our servers (not advised) via the forum additional options but I'm reposting it as a jpeg here.
Let me know if you still have an issue seeing the image.
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w37/Quikthnkr/GUNBABY/HolyDyper.jpg)
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I see Rob's, I did not see Jeffa's.
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I see Rob's, I did not see Jeffa's.
Did not or do not?
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Do
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I saw Jeffa's image earlier, after clicking on it, but now I can't for some reason. But I do see Rob's.
Also, it turned out that the subscript text was so tiny (like, a scattering of pixels tiny) because I was still in compatability view, and once I got out of it the text became (barely) readable. So yeah, if I ever have trouble I can just copy/paste, but it's much quicker to paste into an embedded searchbar that most browsers include (or address bar, for that matter), since the text is automatically transformed to a standard font and size. Just a tip for anyone else who does that (I have really abused parentheses in this post).
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(Yeah, (f(ir(efo(((x(!))))))))
:P
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Dude, I love it. Can I draw a crossover pic? Like... a Bubbleboy (http://www.sisterclaire.com/comic/chapter-2-pg-35/) with a gun? XD
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Of course, there are no rules here. GUNBABY is fun for everyone. ;D
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While doodling Gunbaby, I came up with my own weird backstory for him (I started drawing him before reading the story posted here.) You know how people always say to be good, you have to start learning something as early as possible? My idea was that Gunbaby underwent an experiment during his mother's pregnancy in which the scientists were trying to ingrain fighting abilities into the baby's brain using some sort of sonar technology. But it worked far better than they had imagined, and he was born as a super-warrior, an artificially experienced master gunsman. (And possibly born with the eyepatch and gun, too? XD)
I like this idea because it allows the possibility for baby VS baby fights in the future... I'm imagining this melee of baby warriors with all sorts of insane weapons. XD Maybe there's some way we could still incorporate that into the current story.
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That's a great backstory too. :D
Seriously there are no rules here. Unless someone decides they love the idea so much they want to start drawing it regularly the submissions are whatever you want to make of them with whatever story you want to tell. Mine was just a suggestion for folks who might need it. You, obviously don't. And I doubt anyone would have thought you would anyway. You're so imaginative. ;)
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One cool way to handle it would be via a series of short story comics the way Taka does his site.
There could be many incarnations of Gunbaby throughout history.
Blunderbuss Baby, French Musketeer Baby, Blaster Baby, Phaser Baby, etc.
That way we could all make different variations on Gun Baby, and I suspect one sweet anthology...
I've seen the shared world, or theme idea done in fiction. I'm thinking of a series called Sanctuary or Thieve's World from back in the '80s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves'_World (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves'_World)
A bunch of authors wrote their stories around this place called Sanctuary. They could use each other's characters, but they couldn't kill them off, etc.
I'm seeing this as looser. Basically each person makes a short story comic that in some way incorporates the idea of Gun Baby. I have an idea for one I would like to do. Of course the great enemy is always time, right? So many cool projects, so little time...
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That is essentially what's going on here. There really are no rules. People can do whatever they want with GUNBABY. The backstory I wrote is just a guide for those who don't want to write one of their own.