Shine Your Light: Beatboard Confessional (Part 1)

Matthew 5:16 - "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

For those of you following my twitter (@Zachary_JamesCC) and/or my instagram (@zacjam), you'll notice I've been posting pictures of anthropomorphic blobs all week, claiming these blobs are so-called 'Amoebas.'

"Why amoebas?" someone asked me.

Well, I'm not that good of an artist, but I sure as heck can draw misshapen blobs over and over again.

Last Saturday night, while I worked the front desk at my workplace, I was researching the business plan for Cartoon Hangover, home of one of my favorite things on YouTube: Bravest Warriors.

And yes, I do research business plans for fun.

While I was wandering around, I discovered this link, which I immediately read in earnest. For those of you not interested in checking that out, some big time companies are teaming up to seek and find people who have the potential to be the next generation of animation creators and producers.

Wow, I thought. What an opportunity! Too bad I don't have any ideas right n-

But then I remembered.

I did have an idea.

When I was out serving in Jamaica, some conversations I had with my companions inspired me to sketch out the main characters of a potential future webcomic, which I called Truth, Justice, and the Amoeban Way. The characters were each based on a different aspect of the DnD alignment chart, with the idea being that, if you take away the straight man in comedy, if you take away the sane characters, what do you have?

Many months later in my mission, I decided to use one of my planners to sketch one panel of this comic idea a day, just as a way to relieve some steam before bed. This particular incarnation of my idea dropped the 'no straight man' concept and instead became an over-the-top martial arts movie/Japanese shonen parody.

And here we get to the meat of this post.

The script I wrote (based on those original drawings found in that planner) and the beatboard I drew for submission ended up being very, very different from my usual writings and recent creative projects. Gone was a particularly sophisticated sense of humor (at least, more sophisticated; I'm not sure how many people find me particularly sophisticated), gone was any direct attempt to uplift or encourage anyone, gone was evidence of my many claims to seek these things in many, many of my blog posts.

"Why, then?" you might ask. "Why work on this project at all, then? Aren't you being a little hypocritical right now?"

Well, I'll explain myself ...

... on Monday. Who doesn't like a weekend cliffhanger, am I right? ;)