Genre, Protagonist, Struggle: The Three-Part Formula for the Perfect Comic Pitch

The Art of the Quick Pitch

I was watching a recent episode of the *Ink Pulp Podcast*, and the guest was the cartoonist and writer Dave Baker. Somewhere around the half-hour mark, the discussion came up about a recent project of his. He gave a quick, very subtle pitch, describing his new comic in a very simple and appealing logline. It instantly gave you a whole sense of what it’s about, what the flavor is, and who the audience would be.

This launched into a very thoughtful discussion between all of the hosts about how to pitch your idea, how to describe it, the marketing and branding of it, and finding the right way to communicate it to your audience. I think it’s a very worthwhile discussion to listen to.

It got me thinking about my own work regarding loglines and how I tend to describe my ideas. Friends who sit next to me at conventions have told me that I’m pretty good at pitching my comics. Honestly, that is because I tend to think in high-concept loglines first, and then I kind of have to struggle to develop the actual characters to make them worthy of whatever that premise is.

I know for me, I’m self-conscious about how strong my character development is. I feel like I come up with premises that sound like they should be a really great story, and then it’s like, *”Now I have to make characters that are interesting enough that you actually want to follow them on that journey.”

The Pitch Formula

If you struggle with thinking of your stories in this way, this might be an interesting approach to try. I think of it almost like a Mad Libs formula, breaking it down first in terms of:

Genre + Description of Protagonist + The Struggle/Challenge They Face

For instance, with the Medusa comic I’m working on, I would say: It is an urban fantasy revenge story about Medusa’s daughter going on a road trip to hunt down all of the gods of Olympus.

If I have to say even more, the next thing I like to do is give the logline and then add an “It’s X meets Y” comparison. Some people think that’s cheesy and hokey, and you don’t necessarily need to add that part on, but it’s something I tend to say to people because it instantly clarifies the vibe. For this new project, I would say it’s like *Kill Bill* meets *Clash of the Titans*.

When you are developing a new story idea, do you think high-concept logline first, or do you start with a specific character and build the world around them?

For the creators who are actively working on a project—whether it’s a comic, a game, an animation, or a script—how would you fill out the formula? What is your story’s Genre + Protagonist + Struggle?

Do you find “X meets Y” comparisons helpful when discovering new indie comics, or do you prefer to judge a premise entirely on its own unique merits without the Hollywood shorthand?