Posted in: Comics | Tagged: banal, Comics, entertainment, kickstarter

A Beautifully Banal Comic Book

Published Sat, 27 Jun 2015 15:00:50 -0500

Last updated Sat, 27 Jun 2015 16:01:10 -0500

The Complete Beautifully Banal By Alexander Culler & Danny Travis (Chicago, IL – Kickstarter ends July 15, Will be published in September, 15)

Alexander Culler writes,

So often are the terms used to describe architecture projects cryptic to the extent of alienating an outside audience from understanding them. In a field that relies heavily on communicating ideas through drawings, what if there was a way to create fantastical ideas that are typically lost on the masses and relay them in a format that is accessible to everyone? Following our success of winning second place in the 2015 Architecture Fairy Tales Competition hosted by Blank Space last spring, we are working to turn our comic, Beautifully Banal, into a full architecture graphic-trilogy. We look to combine the intricacies of architectural drawing types with a form of story- telling that allows those outside of the field to gain a new appreciation for the buildings and structures that occupy the world. We think our approach to comics is something relatively unseen, with a 3D modeled approach used as the driver to create our worlds on the page.

Beautifully Banal celebrates the beauty of the ordinary (when mixed with a little whimsy) and follows the journey of Phineas the fly. The end product aims to produce an alternate reading of the "everyday", in order to showcase how through the correct lens of thinking even the most banal of environments can become a fairy tale. It is a fantastical zine that merges story-telling efforts with rigorous drawing technique, the end result being a product we think that both architectural enthusiasts and those accustomed to reading sequential art and comics will enjoy.

The format of the project is easy enough to follow, the story progresses through three major architectural programs: residential, commercial, and industrial. Each is tied together by our protagonist, Phineas, a housefly trying to find his place in the world. Each page is grounded in its own architectural drawing convention, from plan, section, axonometric, to the more obscure drawing types such as the developed surface drawing or dress making pattern. If all of that sounds a bit too academic, the story itself is much more light hearted and easy to follow at a surface level, though the story does make a lot of inter-textual references for careful readers.
Working in this way uncovers a variety of scales and vantage points to enhance the story, all injected with elements of narrative and character. Knowing more about a place, and all of the nuance that comes with that place, is useful in telling a story that might otherwise be focused on character development only.

As for the publication itself, we have created a campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds that will cover the printing, shipping, and production of our zine. We were fortunate enough to blow through our original funding goal of $1,000 in just two days and have raised over $2,000 to date. We are releasing our zine in a couple of formats, one as a standard edition 8.5"x11" book, and another as a limited edition oversized newsprint that should be a fantastic enlargement of our original drawings, something large enough to unfold and really immerse yourself in our world. In addition, there are a couple of special packages that include extra collectibles, from posters to 3D printed objects. Since meeting our original funding goal early on, we have added a number of stretch goals for growing support, including a nicer quality paper upgrade which has just been funded. Currently we are raising funds to meet goals for a drawing that commemorates all of the supporters, which should be a lot of fun, and adding an extra bonus chapter to our main story.

As a special added bonus, we are providing a special mini-comic add on for all backers if we can raise an additional $500 this weekend thanks to support from Bleeding Cool readers, so come by and check out or project today!