Fan Fiction

Comic Books – Then and Now by Pam Crooks

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Who among us hasn’t read the comics in our daily newspaper (when there was one!) or a comic book from cover to cover?

It was the ever-popular dime novels from the mid-to-late 1800s that set the stage for comic strips, and later comic books, as we know them. Usually about 100 pages long and printed on thin, pulp paper, dime novels told serialized stories about cowboys, lawmen, outlaws, and Indians. Selling for 5-15 cents each, they romanticized the Old West and set the stage for the legacy of good vs evil and the tropes we still enjoy today.

     
As time evolved, the dime novel understandably faced modern competition, and it’s believed that the first comic strip appeared in the San Francisco Examiner in 1892. Different than the dime novel that featured singular heroes in pages-long adventures, comic strips had sequential panels that portrayed characters who appeared again and again in punchy, fast-paced stories, often with humor, that hooked readers to check out their beloved “funnies” in the daily newspaper.

Long about 1930 or so, the dime novels and the newspaper-bound comic strips made room for the arrival of comic books. Their bright, colorful panels really made the stories leap off the page. Shorter–about 32-64 pages–and selling for 10-25 cents, they were fast-paced with action-packed plots and larger-than-life heroes that truly brought Westerns to life, helping to launch their popularity in films and the actors that starred in them.

And then . . . came the graphic novel in the late 1970s. If you haven’t read one, visualize them as a longer comic book with more diverse themes as in a memoir, or something more serious as politics. Many have storied adventures, too, and are created by graphic artists for webcomics and digital platforms. Interestingly, graphic novels have achieved academic recognition as legitimate literature to be studied in schools and universities.

Those pulp-fiction dime novels have come a long, long way, haven’t they?

***SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!***

Only a couple of days ago, my nephew (with a graphic artist degree) has self-published his very own graphic novel. The Flyman has been in his heart since he was a little boy, and thanks to the advent of self-publishing on Amazon, he has finally been able to publish his dream. Faith-based, packed with action, friendship, humor, and fantasy, the Flyman (ala Spiderman or Superman) battles evil in the name of God and will keep you captivated to THE END.

AMAZON

 BOOK TRAILER

Did you have a favorite comic strip you loved to read in the newspaper?

Did you have a collection of comic books while growing up?

Do you like to watch movies featuring superheroes?

Fan Fiction Contest

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One of the characters in my latest book – If the Boot Fits – is a young boy with a vivid imagination. Fergus Ellis is the hero’s youngest brother, and he never goes anywhere without his pencil and tablet. He names the animals around the house and dreams up adventures for them that he jots down in his tablet. He has dubbed the family milk cow Mrs. Merriweather and has set her up as banyard maven. Throughout the novel different people (especially ther hero and heroine) introduce new animal characters into his story world and help him come up with adventures for them to experience.

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I had so much fun with Fergus in this story, and readers have clamored for a bonus story about Mrs. Merriweather and her barnyard friends as written by Fergus. I love the idea, but I just don’t have the time to write one myself. So why not turn it into a contest?

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Several years ago, I ran a fan fiction contest asking readers to write a romantic epilogue pairing Chloe and Duncan from To Win Her Heart. I received some fabulous entries, and the winning epilogue has been posted on my website as bonus material for the last twelve years. You can read it here: http://karenwitemeyer.com/epilogue-twhh.html

I decided to try that again with a Fergus story. If you have read If the Boot Fits and if you enjoy writing, I’d love to invite you to submit an entry. Fergus is a bright ten-year-old boy, so we will be looking for a children’s story. Here are the official details:

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RULES

  1. Write a children’s story about Mrs. Merriweather as if you were Fergus Ellis. (Bonus if you incorporate details Fergus was already considering in If the Boot Fits.)
  2. There are no word count parameters, but children’s stories are typically short, so I’d expect something between 1,000 – 2,000 words. If you go a little shorter or longer, that’s fine.
  3. DEADLINE: May 18, 2024
  4. Send your story to me as a Word doc attachment to this email address – karen@karenwitemeyer.com

PRIZES

  1. The winner’s story will be published on my website.
  2. The winner will receive two autographed books of their choice from titles I have in stock. (If the winner is international, we will come up with an alternative prize.)

 

I can’t wait to read these stories!

Once I have chosen the winning story, I will run an illustration contest as well so that we can add 2-3 images to the text. The illustrator who wins will receive the same prizes. This is going to be so fun!

Have you ever written a fan fiction story?

 

Petticoats & Pistols