I was going through old boxes of forgotten childhood toys when I stumbled upon a BATTLE BEAST. A Battle Beast was an anthropomorphic cyber-warrior, both barbaric and hi-tech, that has a mysterious black chest plate. Touching the plate, your finger’s heat reveals his elemental power! He will either be WOOD, FIRE, or WATER. It’s paper, rock, scissors applied to badass action figures and it was brilliant. So I asked myself, could I take the same idea and make something cool? Something dare I say… kid friendly?
So I started coming up with my own version of Paper, Rock, Scissors the story. I usually give myself criteria for what I’m going for with a story like this. Make it kid friendly and let the rules of the game guide the story. It’s a game everyone around the world already knows so I think that’s an advantage to this story idea in terms of mass appeal. Harness that!
So I went with Gun, Axe, and Shield. or G.A.S by Von Klaus
It’s my first idea so I thought I might end up tossing it out as a junker, but that’s the funny thing about first knee-jerk ideas. Put them in the aquarium of your mind and they can grow in unexpected ways. Many times I end up circling around to my first gut instinct idea and I hear many artists end up doing the same. Gun, Axe, and Sheild just WORKS! And I like the images and fighting magic that comes to mind when I think of different specialized warriors that have advantages and disadvantages.
AXE BEATS SHEILD - It cuts through it.
SHEILD BEATS GUN - It stops the bullets.
GUN BEATS AXE - It has the range.
Before I knew it I had a world where three kingdoms. The Shield Kingdom, the Gun Kingdom, the Axe Kingdom rule and maintain a peaceful balance. Usually I’m very focused on character and the idea, but this one demanded some major world building to set things up right. I’m having so much fun doing it too. I usually don’t sweat world building and Im not as impressed by artists that make everything about world building but damn it works for the right stories. So here’s a behind the scenes view of how my notes played out.
In the world of JANKYN (hat tip to the term Japanese use for Paper, Rock, Scissors), the 3 Kingdoms settle their differences and maintain the peace in a GRANDE TOURNAMENT. Now let’s start forming our hero and his friends. Obviously let’s make each hero either a SHIELDER, A GUNNER, OR an AXER. We have to all 3 of our paper, rock, scissors here or it won’t be as fun.
Building the world through the 3 main kingdoms
This gave me ideas on how each of the 3 factions approach battle and therefore it will reflect how their kingdoms are run. So I started coming up with some base abilities for each class but also it shows their battle philosophies. Shielders use defense to win, Axers are more offensive, while Gunners are more tactical.
Then I had to add MONSTERS to the world! They should reflect the GUN/AXE/SHIELD rules I’ve set up.
From here I jumped into my basic idea for the story and it’s going great so far. This was all the set up I really needed to understand the world. The PLOT is that this wonderfully balanced world gets shattered when 7 SLINGERS from the Gun Kingdom rebel and take over the 3 Kingdoms using their new guns and special Shield piercing ammo, they’ve knocked the balance off!
Our heroes must unite and take down the Slingers and heal a wounded land while growing as people, friends, and as heroes in their own right. I’m already deep into the plot and Im loving writing stories like this. It’s very Shonen inpsired and I’m already thinking: CARD GAME. Every comic I make I like to try out new things so why not make this my Card game / Comic story idea? Expect more announcements to come but Im making this a reality. Stay tuned!
Hope these views into how I work help you with your crafting of story! Take something simple we all know and let it guide you.
Thanks for reading see you next time, fiends!
- Vonster
This whole concept sounds incredible!