Okay so I realise I've been uploading stuff for my comic without anyone really knowing much about it.

This is the official Osmanthus journal, with everything you'd ever need to know about it. Where you can have a look at all the characters, plot and just general how-its-coming-along. It will be updated, and linked to in my other journals. ;D Exciting stuff!

1.Introduction
2.Where Osmanthus came from
3. Plot/Concept Summary
4. Who are the characters?
5. Where is it set?
6. Inspirations
7. What does Osmanthus mean?
8.Whats with all the strawberries?
9. The First Chapter

1. INTRODUCTION TO OSMANTHUS
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First off, Osmanthus (the working title was "Coffee", though I've since realised this was discrimanatory to tea) is a graphic novel I am writing and drawing all on my lonesome. It is my chosen "theme" in my Advanced Higher Art course, in the "Graphic Design" category. My finished coursework will be a thourough 10 A1 sheets of planning and designing. The end result is the finished first chapter printed and bound as a mini comic. But I am treating this as a real novel, I will be writing and drawing the full thing, and trying to get it published, though I realise I will most likely have to come back in a couple of years when my drawing skills have improved to have an actual publishing-quality book.


2. WHERE OSMANTHUS CAME FROM
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Without this picture, Osmanthus would never have been born: [link]
I loved this piece, and it made me want to draw something warm coloured, ginger hair, and it made me appreciate beauty without fine, delicate features. This was the picture I drew after seeing it :[link] . And even as I was drawing her, I fell in love with this girl. I knew, absolutely without a shadow of a doubt I couldn't let her go to waste and had to write her a story. And so I decided to write her a graphic novel. At the time we were deciding our topics for our Majors in advanced art, and I'd been planning to do something like this anyway on a smaller scale. It was perfect.


3. SUMMARY- WHAT IS IT ACTUALLY ABOUT?
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I knew straight away I did not have the skills to pull off a superhero thing. Much as I love comics, superheroes have been done to death, and my ginger girl looked nothing like a superhero. So teen drama, something I personally can't get enough of, and of course being a teenager, would have experience with xD...
And of course, i love love love Wet Moon, the way it completely draws you in without there having to be crazy action. And its a drama, so I figured an ensemble type thing centred around a particular place...a coffee shop. (i love starbucks WAYY too much). So here I had this girl, Dylan, moving to a new city ans starting work at this crazy coffee shop...

The crux of the book is Dylan's developement. She is a deliberately unlikeable or annoying character in the beginning, she embodies everything i hate about suburban babied teens who can't look after themselves, are closed minded and generally naive. By the end she will be a stronger, smarter person.

4. WHO ARE THE CHARACTERS?
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Dramatis Personae:

Dylan (Greenwood) (19)
Elliot Yorke (20)
Melody Hammond (23)
Valerie Chesterton (20)
Nick Grey (22)
Jeannie Yorke (54)
Eugene Lundy (48)
Cordelia Asha Scott (21)




DYLAN
Dylan is my main character. She's where it all started. And she's an utter pleb.
Bit of a goody two shoes. She'd never done anything vaguely rebellious before, never got grounded, always got along with her parents...they wanted her to go study at uni. Deciding not to go to university was the first thing she ever did that contradicted them, she moved to a new city instead and wants to start her own jewellry brand. She's lovely, funny, cute, but is hopeless at work, has pointless phobias and is generally infuriating. She doesn't eat anything green because it is "gross". It takes her ages to figure things out workwise because she never did her own cooking or cleaning at home, so everything's pretty damn overwhelming. She's a bit naive really about the world, pretty cushioned by her home life before moving away. So she comes and starts work at The Three Wishes and takes a crash course at growing up, being forced to try new things, try new foods, look after herself and generaly be more open minded about the world. She has a Mary Sue score of 11 from the Litmus test!


ELLIOT YORKE
He came second, after Dylan, but isn't as fleshed out as Dylan Melody or Valerie yet. Elliot has worked at Three Wishes Coffee and Tea for years, he's the owner's nephew and is what you would call a "whizz" with the coffee. He's the best barista they have, imagine Tom Cruise from Cocktail except with coffee. He spins syrup bottles, creates his own unique blends and all the customers love him. He's one of those guys that gets on with pretty much everyone, he just can't stand slackers. He always works with his headphones around his neck or in his ears but somehow manages to always hear if you're speaking to him. Musicwise he doesn't take any crap, he likes the best of everything and knows his stuff. Appreciates smart writing and especially progressive stuff and new talent...I'm not sure what his biggest flaws are yet XD


MELODY HAMMOND
Has been working there the longest after Elliot, and is quite the whizz herself. She's a supervisor and works preposterously hard for a period and then will call her own breaks where she will muck about and distract everyone else. She looks intimidating, with her predominantely black attire and multiple piercings but is really good natured. She's friendly and will talk to anyone, and is quite a hit with the old people. Despite looking a bit scruffy she comes from a pretty rich family, and gets on really well with her parents who are pretty easy going themselves. She has really strong opinions on things, and is either completely right on or totally wrong, she loves sci fi and horror type films and books but is known to reject any romance or drama things before giving them a chance. She's pretty loud, which can get a bit annoying after a while. She is the number one defender of coffee in the Tea V Coffee debate and is a devoted caffeine junkie.

VALERIE CHESTERTON
Is an upper class cheerleader. She got a cheerleading scholarship to go to uni here, and only works because her parents thought she should get the experience, not because she needs the money. She bitched and moaned about it, and still does, but secretly she likes the responsibility. She hides a lot of things, and from the way she speaks about things (especially about how she's always talking about a different guy when you speak to her) people think she's pretty shallow. Style-wise she's well dressed, quite classic stuff, think Serena or Blair from Gossipgirl and is always impeccably clean cut, very wholesome all-american that kind of thing...
She's pretty closed off, doesn't have anyone to speak to honestly and truthfully when she needs it, and actually has a secret talent for piano. She's defensive about her iPod because its half typical chart rnb songs that her friends listen to, and half classical piano like Debussy, Thomas Newman and Yiruma. She appreciates natural beauty in the world and likes to spend time alone just listening to music. Her family life is rockier than say Melody's but those details are still fuzzy...

NICHOLAS ADOLFUS DOUGLAS GREY

Is the most undefined character so far. I know he's the shop baker, does cakes and all that, but apart from that he's very mysterious. He likes to play soldiers with the jelly babies and everyone thinks he's a bit of a weirdo. Has an offbeat sense of humour, you either get it or you don't and is almost verging on nerdy. Valerie likes him but she's in denial. No idea about his family life or anything yet, or his class type, etc... Oh he likes tea. He fights with Melody over it. He's Tea Nerd No One..

JEANNIE YORKE
Elliot's aunt, owns the coffee shop. She's a total legend, but she's always uber busy so noone really gets much time to see her. Think the oracle from the matrix series. Vagueness vagueness.

CORDELIA ASHA SCOTT
is the girl who used to do Dylan's job. She is Elliot's ex and is horribly digustingly nice and likeable. She was really good at her job too, was good friends with Valerie and Melody. Her mother is indian, and her father is an english literature lecturer from Scotland, hence the odd name. Cordelia is the good daughter from King Lear, and Asha means hope. I cannot wait to get Cordelia into the main storyline and get into all the details of how she left/lost her job and why Elliot and her broke up.

MR LUNDY

Is a bit of a sad character, he's a right bastard to the kids, he's a manager and is always on everyones back about things, even Melody and Elliot. Everyone is generally pretty cold with him in return, and bitch something horrible behind his back. When it comes to his homelife he becomes more sympathetic, he's a widower and a bit lonely.

PEPPER AND POLONIUS
Are Jeannie's sugar gliders. I put them in the book mostly because I want one. Polonius hates Valerie Lol.


5. WHERE IS IT SET?
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At the moment, it isnt really set anywhere specifically. Some kind of alternate Scotland I suppose, as Cordelia's from here, but Valerie is american. Those details are still sketchy at the moment.

6. THE INSPIRATIONS
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What can I say? Ross Campbell, Ross Campbell, Ross Campbell. Thank you Rachel for getting me into the Wet Moon series! You can find his stuff here on DA: [link] His drawings and writing completely took me in, and thats exactly the kind of engrossing graphic novel I want to write. Obviously i should mention my others too. I would never have got into comics without accidentally finding the Asylum and buying my very first Ultimate Spiderman. Bendis and Bagely have both been huge inspirations to me, as well as the new (well I say new, im behind with the times) penciller Stuart Immonen, who I initially didn't like. However I do now and he is also awesome ^^. This is coming out a bit like a thank you speech for an award , thank you rachel for letting me read your Legion and New X-Men. thank you jesus for...

..kidding.

A great inspiration to Coffee was a fantastic children's book called Scribbleboy. Anyone read that book? Its about a legendary graffiti artist, and a new boy taking up the mantle. One of the things I loved about it was this Ice Cream Doctor. This woman had an ice cream van, and whenever people were ill of injured she'd go and diagnose them in ice cream, make them up an ice cream cure, and it would work! I thought it was fabulous. I wanted my coffee place to have something of that magical feel about it, even though its definitely not a fantasy story. Go look up Scribbleboy guys. Its a beautiful book ^^.

Other inspirations: -J.A. Braithwaite Coffee and Tea shop in Dundee. I could live in that place. They use old fashioned brass scales, and everything is dark wood.... <3
-People I am surrounded with who can't cope with the real world because of being brought up on suburban maternal ignorant bliss...
-Jane Austen. (Okay so I know every girl says this ever.) The way she uses characters to make points about society is fantastic. I want to be able to do that in my novel.


7.WHAT DOES THE NAME OSMANTHUS MEAN?

Since my recent obsession with tea (its contagious) I was looking up rare teas and coffees for interesting names. I came up with two. Eight Treasure tea and Osmanthus tea. I chose the Osmanthus because, not only do I like the word, but i researched the plant a little and came up with a few interesting things. It's an orange blossom for one (I couldn't help but be reminded of Dylans hair...) but its also a pretty fragile plant. If you prune it, it won't produce flowers for another one to five years. I thought this also kind of worked with Dylan, her moving out is the first freedom she's had from a restrictive household, and it takes her a while to come in to herself and open up a bit general...

8. WHATS WITH ALL THE STRAWBERRIES?

I use strawberries as a motif for Dylan (you can see them on her jeans, in her make-up in the first ever picture of her, on necklaces and jewellry of hers and of course on the front cover) for a number of reasons. This is what strawberries connote/have associations of to me: -The Beatles/The 60s (Strawberry Fields Forever)
-Summer time, homegrown foods
-Feminity,childhood, maternity
-Sweetness- Strawberry Shortcake dolls
I thought this was a fitting symbol for Dylan as she comes from a very sheltered, traditional place, they remind me of people who would live in cosy houses and grow their own food, which is the kind of people her parents are. However the more modern associations become more important, the connection to the Beatles song that i always think of when i see strawberries is very pertinent. In many ways, the events in Osmanthus are Dylans own personal 60s, becoming free-er, experimenting, and becoming exposed to new things...

9. THE FIRST CHAPTER.
Unfortunately I'm only getting ten copies of the first chapter printed and bound, so i can't give them to anyone...
Here are the eight pages...

and the back cover and blurb:


And huge thanks to anyone that read this far xD