Official Lair Art & Story Book - Idea

[Blade3327]

Hello, all.

I was doing some browsing on the forums and came up with an idea similar to that of the "Combining Talents and Team Effort" thread, but with a more physical 2D-oriented outcome.
With all of the talent in this section of the Lair (whether it be designing new species/subspecies of Predator, armor, helmets, weapons, etc. or drawing/inking/painting or writing fan fiction and other stories), I thought it might be worth discussing a possible Lair-wide art/story book project.


Each artist could come to this thread to exchange ideas and show off WIP's and the final product would be a collection of Predator stories we came up with in book form. This could include:

> Short 2-6 page comics (either done solo or in a partnership, whatever works)
> Standalone art with perhaps a caption or brief backstory
> Fan fiction (maybe with illustrations on the side, which could either be done by the author or by collaborating with another drawer from the Lair).

Every member interested can submit as much art as they like, but the over-arching goal is still variety. The more talent we get contributing, the better and more interesting the book will be!


The book could be split into multiple sections, one for each type of art with self-written background on the contributors at the end. It could be a great way to see all of our work come together and learn a bit more each of us here.

So... any thoughts?

 

[Origami Unicorn]

Good Idea! but don't we need permission from Fox? if we going to sell it

 

[Blade3327]

By that reasoning, wouldn't we also need permission to sell our own home-made masks and suits?

If this actually works out and a final product actually does come out of it, it could be sold on the Lair the same way the T-shirts and costumes are. Just for us.

 

[Origami Unicorn]

Oh okay, I thought you meant selling it at like a book store, sorry my bad.

 

[munson]

I like the idea. We could even use the topic headers as different books [chapters, depending on how thick it would be]. For example:

The Hunters Lair: Masks, Body Suits, etc...
" ": Weapons and Armor...
" ": WIP & Complete Suits
and so on.....

You could even sub-categorize within the book by what type the prop is, movie replica and custom.

I think it would be a pretty cool, especially since the Lair's ten year anniversary is around the corner too! We could add the "Hunters Lair History" that is in the Members Guideline thread too. One thing though. Within the book, I believe the first page should be a short story to honor Stan Winston, Kevin Peter Hall, and all those who created and brought our beloved Predator to life.

 

[DBOYSLADE]

Funny Munson you brought that up. I was just getting ready to say that.

"Lair Prop Book"

Brief story of how you made your suite or about yourself. Followed by Photos in stages of production or the finished Costume or prop.

 

[ptgreek]

How is this any different then what is already posted in this forum? How would you decide who's imput was worthy of putting in a nook and who's wasn't? If you put into print the years of documentation contained in this forum, do you realize how big it would be. Next, who is selling it? And why would I buy it if info I shared was part of it's content. Sorry bro.. I don't mean to rain on anyones parade, but what you are proposing is to put the Lair into print.. Then charge for it.. Why would I want to buy it when I can log in for free everyday?

 

[Blade3327]

I like the idea of a Winston and Hall tribute at the beginning. We could maybe have the mods pitch in for that, then every non-mod contributor to the book can sign their names underneath.
Great call with making the table of contents be based on the THL categories too, but they'd be slightly different. The over-arching contents would be much broader, with sub-sections underneath -- and focused only on the sort of work seen in this area of the forums.

For instance:



Literature
Character Tales & Histories
[Insert Character Name Here]
[Insert Character Name Here]
[Insert Character Name Here]
Short Stories
[Insert Story Name Here]
[Insert Story Name Here]
[Insert Story Name Here]

Comics
[Insert Comic Name Here]
[Insert Comic Name Here]
[Insert Comic Name Here]

Standalone Art
Drawings
Paintings
Photoshops/Manipulations
[Other 2D Media?]

Contributors
Member List (With Page Numbers and Autobiographies)



Once again, those interested can submit multiple works, and in multiple sections. Variety's the spice of life and the driving force behind a project like this. The key, however, is to focus primarily on this particular area of the forums: 2D art.

How is this any different then what is already posted in this forum? How would you decide who's imput was worthy of putting in a nook and who's wasn't? If you put into print the years of documentation contained in this forum, do you realize how big it would be. Next, who is selling it? And why would I buy it if info I shared was part of it's content. Sorry bro.. I don't mean to rain on anyones parade, but what you are proposing is to put the Lair into print.. Then charge for it.. Why would I want to buy it when I can log in for free everyday?

Hopefully my post answers your question, at least in part. The idea isn't to put the entire Lair's work into documentation, because indeed, that would take too long. The book would be more a catalog of new printed Predator material made specifically for this project. Hence, the stories, comics, and standalone art that'll be found only in the book. It's the multi-2D-media culmination of everything the "Predator Art" posters are capable of.
I just felt that since the current fan film-dedicated thread has the goal of putting together a presumably-global showcase of sculpted work (suits, props, etc.), this thread's goal could be to show off the type of art that wouldn't be seen there.



EDIT: If enough are willing to go for the comic or literature projects, we could scrap the "Standalone Art" section, since it sort of contradicts the culmination vibe... there are definitely drawers here with styles that could suit a comic, so it would be like a long-term collection of what they can do.

 

[Origami Unicorn]

sounds more like a magazine then a book to me

 

[Sorrow]

Hi there! This got me interested. So are you saying only new projects are gonna be taken and considered for this book? and these works arent or shouldnt be posted here on the lair? How would you determine and pick whos going in the book? Just asking. Thanks

 

[MEANGENE83]

What a great idea! I think the book is going to end up longer than the Bible with all the stuff people are suggesting!

So here is one more suggestion. Throw in a History and Mission statement of the Lair as a prologue of sorts.

Wicked cool idea! Wish I could draw, would love to do a short comic book!

 

[ptgreek]

Gentelmen ...before this gets way out of hand, I would urge you to contact Art Andrews first regarding anything using the Hunters Lair name. This is branding and Art does own the Lair name ..any outside representation would need to be sanctioned by him first.

 

[Dracon]

Hello, all.

I was doing some browsing on the forums and came up with an idea similar to that of the "Combining Talents and Team Effort" thread, but with a more physical 2D-oriented outcome.
With all of the talent in this section of the Lair (whether it be designing new species/subspecies of Predator, armor, helmets, weapons, etc. or drawing/inking/painting or writing fan fiction and other stories), I thought it might be worth discussing a possible Lair-wide art/story book project.


Each artist could come to this thread to exchange ideas and show off WIP's and the final product would be a collection of Predator stories we came up with in book form. This could include:

> Short 2-6 page comics (either done solo or in a partnership, whatever works)
> Standalone art with perhaps a caption or brief backstory
> Fan fiction (maybe with illustrations on the side, which could either be done by the author or by collaborating with another drawer from the Lair).

Every member interested can submit as much art as they like, but the over-arching goal is still variety. The more talent we get contributing, the better and more interesting the book will be!


The book could be split into multiple sections, one for each type of art with self-written background on the contributors at the end. It could be a great way to see all of our work come together and learn a bit more each of us here.

So... any thoughts?

Like this idea, I'm all for it. Great way to get exposure with creative suit designs/sculpts and artwork. Just one question.
The standalone art, does it need to be something recent or no?

 

[PredatrHuntr]

The idea you're proposing has been tried before by a member called greyback. His idea was to take the suits from various members here and put them in a panel type comic online for everyone to see. He had to get the permission of people whose suits he was going to draw, so Andrew and I said go for it. This was on of the concepts he was working on :

The Pred on the left was Kithunter's Elder and the one on the right was the suit I used to own. greyback did such an amazing job with drawing our suits that everyone who saw the preliminary art was blown away! Unfortunately the project ended up not being completed due to his hard drive crashing and everything being lose. He had moved onto other projects and didn't have time to start over.

The general idea behind it was brilliant! Using the customized suits here on the Lair, drawing them into a comic with a compelling storyline...it could have been very cool.

Now with your idea Blade3327, I think there are a few problems with it. There's a whackload of custom Predator suits here on the Lair. If you look through the completed suits thread, you'll see a number of amazing suits. But - how do you choose which ones get into the story/comic? Second, if you plan on making it publicly available you wouldn't be able to make any profit from it at all. The basic idea still belongs to FOX and even though our suits are customized versions, we wouldn't want to tick off the powers that be. Third, who would spearhead the project and arrange to get all the artists together? Who creates the storyline?

I see where you're going with this, but there are a few logistics that need to be worked out first. There was another member who wanted to do a Predator fan-film that involved people from all over the world since we are all so spread out, but that project had too many logistical problems and wasn't being headed or financed by any one person, so it fell through the cracks.

If you could get an artist, or artists to come on board and help you out, and then someone who has a great story - it COULD happen. greyback almost made it happen, so its not impossible.

 

[Blade3327]

Good points... in my last post I went a bit more specific with what the goal for this would be. The focus would be more a culminating type of art, hence the literature, backstories, and comics. Standalone art might work, but it may not necessarily be ideal since the book needs more meaty and mixed content.



The main issues seem to be selling/distrubuting it and choosing who contributes.

For the first problem, I was thinking we could either sell it the same way DBOYSLADE's THL shirts are sold (I haven't heard of any licensing issues there), OR -- and this might be the way to go -- it could be free and available as a digital download that THL members could grab and print out once it's finished. If someone prints it out and decides they'd like to take it to Kinko's or wherever to prettify it, that's up to them.

The second problem is probably the biggest obstacle at this point, so um... does anyone have any ideas there?
Hopefully clarifying what exactly the content must be (comics, literature, etc.) has weeded things out so that only those willing to actually do something like this will offer to submit stuff. Not every artist on here might feel like contributing something quite that big.



Lastly, we don't need any of this to be based on existing suits. That was just an option in case someone has a design they'd like to use. It's really open to whatever Predators the members want to do. For any of the book's sections, contributors could come up with a character specifically for this project if they haven't designed anything before, whether it'll be in a comic, fan fiction, or backstory.

 

[JehdinThwei]

I'm 3/4 of the way through a Predator novel I am writing. I'm not saying that I am worthy, but would be happy to contribute some text.

 

[emanuel115]

I really liked the idea you can also do with other languages ​​... for a topic you could make figures or ideas for change. If you can make the final product I would buy