Creating Villains

ALERT: At the time of this writing, there are only FIVE days remaining in the THREE PLANES #1 Kickstarter campaign [link]. Have you secured YOUR copy???

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I think most of us are fans of ‘good’. Fair statement?

We like good guys. We aspire to do good. We go through great efforts to do good by those who depend on us, and sometimes even greater efforts to put on that smile and try to look the part. The effort rubs off. Nourishes us and our flock. Turns into something perfectly real in the end.

We also enjoy heroic tales (yes, very much including capes books, but non-fiction as well), stories about the folks who rise to the challenge to make the world a better place. Nothing better than a good yarn that might spark an extra pep in our step…

YEAH. Villains are fun. Heck, perhaps it’s even all that effort we put into ‘good’ that makes retreating into explorations down roads where it is lacked that makes the dark side so fun to explore in our fictions.

Some even say that a hero’s journey is only as strong as its villains. Not something I’d disagree with, but phrased as such, this can be a bit misleading… As I think a more accurate verbiage might be that a ‘threat’ is what must be an intriguing exploration, and not necessarily an individual ‘villain’.

Let’s get into it by way of an example…

That a double page spread from THREE PLANES #1, my co-creation with artist David Omar Lopez? It features the death and subsequent birth of a ‘Bridge’. Thus far, when discussing this comic, we’ve focused most squarely on that Bridge / birth side of the equation. Because this newly-birthed guardian has no idea what she’s just been pulled into. A perfect vehicle for the readers to saddle up with, as they are similarly green in these so-called ‘three planes’.

So yeah. We led with her strange sojourn into a seeming ‘Wonderland’, a place called ‘The Realm In-Between’. But as Alice herself once discovered, all is NOT well in that place that exists somewhere through the looking glass. I mean… look what happened to the previous Bridge!

David and I have been coy on details regarding the threat(s) faced by the heroes of the Three Planes. But to be sure, the mysterious nature of the villains dogging The Warrior (the dude) and The Bridge (the gal) in this first issue is central to our cosmic mystery.

If we’re looking at three of the most common types of conflict in a tale, those can be:

1. A protagonist pitted up against themself and elements of their own nature, or

2. A protagonist vs another character or society, or

3. A protagonist vs nature / an environment.

Fittingly, in this initial introduction to the layered worlds of THREE PLANES, we’ve taken door number three. We’re very much teeing up The Bridge’s confrontation with the NATURE and mysterious order governing this realm in-between.

As readers, we are ourselves through the looking glass, and trying to find our footing right along with our hero. The nature of this Realm In-Between and its strange rules are as new to us as they are via the lens of our central protagonist. We’re facing the full scope of this environment along with her, and ‘the villains’ are, at least at story’s onset, just one layer of this cosmic mystery. The mysterious nature and nebulous goals of these baddies is just one more thing to be unpacked, even as we sense the ticking clock and those shadows closing in. It’s ALL a mystery to experience alongside our heroine.

That said...

These darstardly beasts aren’t going to just sit and watch from the sidelines. Oh no, no. They certainly DO crash into the center ring:

Different genres call for different flavors from their threats. It’s not an exact science, but along with the cosmic murder mystery to be investigated, cosmic HORROR is also very much on the menu in THREE PLANES. And when it comes to villains / threats in just about all flavors of horror, a crucial element is the UNKNOWN. Not knowing where and when a terror-inducing revelation (or violent attack) might be coming is a crucial element. But even more broadly, the less in KNOWN about the nature and goals of an ‘Alien; or ‘the masked slasher’, the deeper the terror cuts in.

David and I have gone through great efforts to bottle up elements of this most-fun flavor of villainy. We’ve been careful in building up that through the looking glass / hero vs nature element above all else. But now…

David is NOT messing around with this maliciously dope line work. Good luck to us all as we try our best not to get pulled into the muck. Creepy $h!! to face head on... But what a fun problem to face (and to turn-page our way through).

Five days left. Tick tock.