Brief

Create a 'penny dreadful', sourcing a piece of London folklore. The story may be set in the murky past or the lurid present. Find inspiration in the fictional, the factual, the mix thereof.

Begin by sourcing, writing, adapting a story-event. It might be rooted in an event or character. Gather plenty of picture research and draw from the figure, on location, from the media. Establish the story through rough sequential drawings by next tuesday. Establish an efficient, natural, growable place for your research and ideas to be seen. A book? A folder? A BLOG?

Work 1: Print on demand (Deadline: 27 January)
Create the snatcher, the stabber, the leaper, the slasher, the ripper, the harlot, the rake, the wastrel, the banshee, the ghoul, the THING. The protagonist of your story. Submit a vignetted image of the character as a full-colour (CMYK) image, with a short text (details to follow), for a compendium, a rogues' gallery, a bestiary of London folklore. The book will be then sent to 'Lulu' for production as a hard-back editioned group book, available as print-on-demand.

Work 2: Hand-Editioned Penny Dreadful (Deadline: 9 February)
Create the Penny Dreadful. Two colours on white paper. At least 16 pages (8 spreads) in any format. An edition of three identical copies. Surface imprint and object quality important. Consider embellishments (slipcase, foldouts, tipped-ins, etc.) Choose to work with images and (hand-rendered or set) type, or purely images.

Notes
This project is about authorship, self-publishing and the reprographic image. The two 'outputs' address the editioning of a work through hand-printmaking and through digital-print-on-demand. Use them to investigate the potential for you as self-publishing excercises. Each has a distinct object qualities and audience reach.

Need to find a way of assimilating the melodramatic, sensationalistic aspect of Penny Dreadfuls into your natural imaging and tone. What is a contemporary, popular equivalent?

For character, consider the influence of habitat and mode of existence on morphology. Think of the character as a simple abstract. Avoid overwrought, overworked cliche.

Reference
http://camberwellillustration.blogspot.com