Most stories, no matter what genre, have one thing in common: you have to do some amount of research to create them. This is especially important for comics since you have to draw everything from the architecture to clothing down to the food your characters eat, but I do know some novelists who actually traveled to the other side of the world just to see what swamp is the most ideal one to drown a character in. And as you can guess from that example, some of the research for a story is going to be… peculiar. So, share some of the weirdest, most unusual things you had to look up for your story! And while we’re at it, share said story as well!
Here’s a selection of some oddities I had to dig up:
Japanese typewriters: I am dreading the day I’ll inevitably have to draw one of these. They are even more detailed than ones that use the Latin alphabet, and ginormous on top of that.
1930’s wheelchairs: They literally just looked like… wooden chairs… with wheels. What did I expect?
Gift giving superstitions (in various cultures): As it turns out, a couple later in the story has contradictory superstitions when it comes to giving flowers. He thinks that giving an uneven amount of flowers is a bad omen, while she thinks that way about even amounts of flowers…
Types of Chinese townhouses: I’m kind of disappointed that I’ll have to make my characters live in a “modern” Chinese townhouse. The older ones had nicer decorations that would’ve been fun to draw.
Bacteria identification methods: Stains used to color various bacteria under a microscope, their availability at the time, and their possible accessibility to a curious 17-year-old who wants to know if her snacks are contaminated with anthrax.
Not to mention all the trains, planes, guns, uniforms, and celebrations I had to look up…
Anyway, here’s the story all this stuff will eventually appear in:
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