Do You Even Care About Stories?

What makes a good comic, or story for you? With all the recent discourse the past months about Christopher Nolan’s the Odyssey, we can’t help but be interested how the exact same movie can resonate so wildly differently with various people. The obvious answer is simply that different people have different options. But let’s go one step further and ask ourselves why we feel the way we do about something we read or watched. And… drumroll… did you have any specific feels when reading The Daily Mobster cinematic graphic novel?

Baron Samedi asks you "Do you even care about stories"?

Is PLOT important to you? Does it matter if there is a super simple, perhaps age old plot like gangster A wants revenge on mobster B? Or do you prefer a complex overlapping, meandering, multi-component plot such as oligarch kingpin A really needs to finish his railroad, and his socialite gorgeous wife wants to see the undoing of underdog gangster B, so together they hatch a plan to purchase his warehouses illegally with the help of corrupt judge C, only to be thwarted by an unexpected violent event forcing them to scramble and make dark deals behind closed doors, befriend enemies? Do you like disjointed timelines, flashbacks and dreams or do you like clean linear storytelling? Does it change for you whether it's in comic book format or on the screen? The Daily Mobster cinematic graphic novel has a little of each. While the core story is a deeply human, age old story of family, loss, grief and revenge - the surrounding and supporting stories are silly, super natural, horror, gritty and range from simple to complex.

Or maybe, CHARACTER, is more important to you. Do you like a grounded, realistic character that is an overworked journalist trying to fight the system but has to do it all himself just to pay the bills. Maybe he’s been a bit down on himself for having to do work he doesn’t really want to do so he secretly writes a personal project to tell the real story. Or maybe you like a larger than life character who has amassed his fortune through hard work after fleeing his hometown as a child due to the corrupt and violent crime mobs. Or maybe you like a surrealist character who discovered invisible paint and now robs banks just for the fun of it, what would you do with that much power? Do you like when characters are deeply flawed or and messy or do like a cleaner more symbolic character that is easier to understand? The characters in the Daily Mobster are one of our strongest pillars, they are varied and diverse. While we try to avoid simple tropey characters, some appear briefly for the laugh, for the great scene and then dip out and some are wildly complex and deeply flawed humans. Port Noir has all kinds of mobsters, gangsters, kingpins, tycoons, journalists, thugs, bodyguards and even a Luchador and… a Robot!

We are talking about two mediums that are very VISUAL- so how important are visuals to you when you choose a graphic novel novel, comic book or movie? Do you forgive bad art if the story is good? Or maybe you choose solely based off the art? Do you like a visual that doesn’t get in the way and allows you to focus on story and character or do you like bold art that grabs you by your retina and tries new and exciting things? The Daily Mobster’s cinematic graphic style does both, we try very hard to ensure the visuals are not distracting, but rather, supportive and draw you in to the story and enhance the experience but also try new things and push a visual language that isn’t normally seen in comic books. We like the imaginative prompting that comic books and graphics novels offer but we also like the stream of consciousness feel and full immersion that film offers, so we tried to combine the both in our cinematic graphic novel.

Lastly - is there anything you don’t like about film, movies, comic books or graphic novels? What turns you off? What is the death sentence for you when picking up something new to read or watch? We would love to hear your thoughts, so drop a comment below or find The Daily Mobster on social media and let us know!