Wolf's Head Issue 3 on Kindle

One of the things I love about comics is when you have well-established characters with different goals coming into conflict. To do that properly requires setting up each character so that they are as real as possible. When you know where a character is coming from — what they want and why — then it becomes a great deal of fun to put those goals into conflict with one another.

Conflict, from a writing point of view, is not Character A punching Character B. Conflict results from when a character can’t get what they want (or need). I think my favourite definition is by Keith Wilson in his book BODY TRAUMA: “Conflict is the core of all fiction. Without conflict there is no story. When obstacles prevent a character from obtaining his or her goals, there is conflict. It is also necessary that the consequences of not attaining the goal be profoundly significant for the character.” There’s no right way of doing this, but it obviously has to be crystal clear to the reader. If not, then the reader simply won’t understand the “whys” of the character’s actions.

An obstacle can be internal or external to the character. Here’s a simple example: a sixteen year old wants to get their driver’s licence. That’s their goal. An external obstacle could be a lack of money; they just can’t afford to pay for the licence and the driving school to learn. See? Simple but clear conflict. Then it becomes a matter of going through what the character does to get that money. Do they make good or bad decisions? What are the consequences of it? How do they act to overcome those consequences?

An internal obstacle is something intrinsic to the character. In the case of our young driver, an internal obstacle could be fear. They’re scared of driving. Maybe they were involved in an accident as a little kid? Regardless, they are scared and since that prevents them from accomplishing their goal, there’s conflict.

These obstacles can even work in conjunction with one another. Our teen wants to drive, but doesn’t have the money (external) and is terrified (internal). If we throw on another external obstacle (maybe they were offered a dream job, but it’s too far away and public transit is too poor to get there without a car). Here’s another: what if their mom is scared of them driving, too, and can’t face that their child has grown up? See? Now we have a number of situations where the teen is going to have to go through a lot to deal with the conflict and achieve their goals. So, with Lauren and her mom Patty, that’s what we have. Both women have goals, but their goals are different from one another. How that resolves is part of the fun of this issue!

With that out of the way, here’s the ol’ Elevator Pitch: “Lauren Greene and her mother, Patty, have a huge disagreement over the future of a self-aware Artificial Intelligence (AI) that her mom saved from a lab and sheltered from its war-mongering creators. Angry at her mother’s stubbornness and terrified of the world they’re suddenly involved in, Lauren storms out — only to be kidnapped by Jeremy Hamilton, the powerful man who invented the AI.”

And here are the usual links:

• Wolf’s Head Official Site: https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com/
• United States of America: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089VJYMT2
• Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089VJYMT2
• Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B089VJYMT2
• Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B089VJYMT2
• United Kingdom: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089VJYMT2
• France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B089VJYMT2
• Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B089VJYMT2
• And so on!

And don’t forget that the series page can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTGCS49; and you can just change the “dot com” part of the url with your specific top-level domain. In Germany, changing the “dot com” to “dot de” means that the series can be found at https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08MTGCS49. See? Easy!