Sam: A Comic | A Game | A Story

A little over one year ago while sitting in a friend’s living room in Austin, Texas, I began doodling an alien spaceship. A few minutes later a full scene developed. The spaceship had an alien inside and a gig antic robotic arm ready to grasp a precious piece of cargo (a flower) from an earthly backyard.

A month later I had turned that simple drawing into a one minute stop motion animation entitled �Sam: The Collector�.

Expanding on this idea I decided to create an additional story for Sam in the form of a ten page comic. Again he seeks out an oft overlooked item on earth, a phone booth, and takes it back to his home planet.

These were simple one line joke stories, but there was something about Sam that I really enjoyed. He wasn’t flashy, strong, or really that intellig ent. He was just an odd grungy alien that liked weird stuff.

I could relate to that. Through doodling and brainstorming, I began plotting similar one off stories.

In the month after producing Sam’s first comic a number of personal losses happened in succession to my family. There was a lot of pain, but also powerful comradery. All of this real life intensity had a profound effect on the fictional story brewing in my head about Sam. The idea of Sam began to morph from a silly alien stealing stuff to something much deeper.

THE STORY The story of Sam is about dying and surviving. The earth is dying. Sam is dying and on the run. Ruby and her father Randall are both dying.

They all meet in climatic fashion, battling part of an alien bounty hunter named Dom. From that battle they discover something in each other and in themselves: the desire to live. To survive. To live a better life than the one they have.

The first task at hand for this story was to develop the place and landscape for the characters to interact in. Was it the future? Was it an alternate reality?

Essentially it ’s a barren land that shows no sig n of time or place, but it is definitely not far in the future from our current time. Of the few inhabitants left on earth most of them are dirt farmers or salvagers. Almost all of the population is suffering from a sickness brought on by heavy pollutants in the air.

Visually I wanted to present a familiar yet desolate terrain littered with artifacts from an unknown history.

THE CHARACTERS RANDALL is a caring, hardworking, worn out father who is just about at the end of his rope. He recently found his daughter Ruby in an unconscious state after she was caught in a cloud of heavy pollution. Randall’s health has also been deteriorating. He has given the last of his meds to Ruby.

RUBY is dying. But before her coma state, she was the main worker of the family ever since her father’s health started to fade. She found work scavenging for building materials and electronics for a junker named Doc who owns a compound to the north. Ruby is hard working and mature beyond her 13 years.

SAM is an alien from a distant series of planets. Sam’s home planet is a low working class planet serving a nearby planet of power. Sam’s whole family was killed when he was young in a mining accident. This led to a life of vig ilantism and crime. Sam has become a Robin Hood of sorts - stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Sam is also dying from a fatal disease. The only thing keeping Sam alive is a piece of stolen jewelry that has the power to heal. Sam has stolen a large amount of these precious artifacts and, for that reason, is being viciously hunted. Being a thief, pirate, and general outlaw you would think Sam would have a unkind and gruff outlook on life, but that is not the case. Sam is a kind soul at heart, but ruthless when the situation calls for it.

DOM is an alien bounty hunter who has cloned himself an army of fearsome but brainless killers. He’s mean and wants to be paid.

THE CRITICS Throughout my thesis year I met with professors, and students to discuss my learned something valuable from those three separate critics had a profound this work.

BOX BROWN

a large group of visiting artists, comic. In every occassion I interactions. In specific cases influence over the outcome of

I met Box fairly early in the first semester. I was still in the vague concept and art stage of the comic, so he couldn’t really give too much advice on anything except the art. His thoughts were to DRAW EVERYTHING. He viewed my work and surmised that on the specific pieces I took the time to draw every little detail were the most fascinating to him. I agreed.

Benn didn’t have any direct influence on the comic necessarily, but one thing in his lecture really stuck with me. SAY YES TO EVERYTHING. I actually unknowingly did this, but hearing him say this was just an aha moment.

BENN RAY

NEIL SWAAB

CHIP WASS

Neil was the first critic I met with that was able to examine the characters and the main story being set in place. His suggestions were helpful in developing the personalities of each character. He explained that each characters’ essence should be communicated within the first frames of entering the story.

Chip met with me at the end of the fall semester and basically changed my entire perspective with Sam. Up to that point there was a large amount of dialog and narration going on in the story. He loved the visuals, but felt the words destroyed the atmosphere being created with the imagery. His opinion was that the imagery could communicate the story more than the words ever could; that I should challenge myself and create a wordless story.

THE MEDIUM The main purpose of attending the Maryland Institute College of Art’s MFA in Illustration Practice program was to explore how technology could work with illustration to expand on a blossoming form of communication.

I was drawn to telling stories through sequential art. Eventhough my experience in comics is minimal, it seemed like a natural fit as soon as I started. I set out to fig ure out how an independent comic could exist in a dig ital format without it being solely a game, a series of animated GIFS, or simply a copy of a print comic put online. Sam is my attempt at creating that dig ital comic. It ’s an exploration to how graphic novels and comics can be successfully engaging and interactive on a dig ital device. What I have created is just the beginning (of the story and my goal). I will continue challenge and experiment with the format through the rest of its lengthy tale.

FINISHED ART FROM THE CURRENT DEMO OF SAM :

THE EXHIBITION I had the difficult task of making an exhibition of an all dig ital piece look visually interesting within a large gallery setting. I knew I didn’t want to have a traditional space with prints framed on a wall, but I also wanted to steer clear of it being overwhelmingly tech filled with projectors and screens. I settled on using just 2 21 inch IMacs, headphones, a handmade artbook, and a sig nup book. The rest of the space would consist of a large mural and vinyl graphics from the comic.

Although it was labor intensive, the exhibition turned out great with a lot of positive reviews.

THE FUTURE For my final thesis I proposed to have a finished demo of the interactive comic. This demo is roughly 1/3rd of the first section of the story. In the next few weeks (as of May 2015) I will be launching a Kickstarter to help fund the development of the rest of Book #1. The finished product, if funded, should be available by the end of the year.

After that period of time I will launch the full version on the Itunes App Store, Google Play, Steam Greenlig ht, and my own website sales platform. I will then continue on to Book #2 and so on. To infinity and beyond, world domination, etc., etc.

More information about Sam can be found at: samthealien.com More information about Laurent Hrybyk can be found at: laurenthrybyk.com