Time Capsule Comic Book

Here is the rough storyboard for my two page, imagined comic book:

My comic-book story is the following:

In 2164, the world is largely collapsed. Rats and other rodents dominate.

A particular breed, escaped long previously from a lab, are super smart having had micro chips planted in their brains.

Their progeny of many generations now dominate the world, cleverness being their main trait.

Bulldozers continuously move the debris from the constant earthquakes further demolishing the world.

After a bulldozer reveal some rubble, a group of curious super-rats find my long ago buried time capsule.

They clear it out…

…and move it to their lair…

…Then attempt to open it using the combination-lock dragon head.

It’s all trial and error, and it takes several generations of rats to figure it out.

Finally, upon opening the thing, releasing the contents, they discover little of use to them except the postage stamps.

Paper has long since disappeared in any form, and so these colorful, soft, decayed, delightfully mildewed (they’re still rats) postage stamps provide extra cushion and delight in the rats’ burrowed beds.

The plastic Disney snow globe intrigues them, too.

And since rats like shiny things, they retain the snow globe to use as a rat’s first, known headboard.

I would be proud to know of my future contribution to rat culture. It seems creating my time capsule was worth all the trouble, after all.

AS TO MY PROCESS:

The first stage of my process was to come up with some story that would seem appropriate for a comic book. I’ve already expressed my view in a prior assignment that in 100 years or more, the world will be drastically altered in a dystopian sense.

I could be wrong, of course, and like most good, science fiction, the more dramatic the better. In a comic book style I could make light of that prediction, and so I chose a situation I thought would be humorous: bionic rats. The joke is that only they would be interested in my life from 2020 because most humans would be gone and those that lived would have a lot more to do, getting by each day, than being social anthropologists.

Once I had this idea in mind, I started mapping out scenes in my mind. I then began loosely scribbling visuals which is a way I induce ideas in my mind: a kind of spontaneous, intuitive approach. Whether the results are good or bad doesn’t matter at this stage.

I then went in for full, color drawings, and used digital media since it gives me all the colors of the rainbow, and various virtual pens and pencils to use.

All in all, I found it to be a fun process and I enjoy the result. I hope you do, too.

ADDENDUM

I’ve continued working on the actual time capsule which, for now, is a computer design that I will first print in miniature on my 3D printer (once I get my hands on it.). For now, FedEx-Kinko doesn’t provide public, 3D printers like they do various other printers, and since I’m on the road, my beloved machine is not within reach.

But I have started to manipulate the design in preparation for printing the separate parts. Here are some screenshots: