Hey all,

So I'll just jump right into it, I'm having some trouble with the opening setting of m graphic novel series. It's highly tied to my main character, so it's going to need a lot of symbolism. I'll give a brief overview of it, and some stuff I've been brainstorming for it, hopefully some of you have some good advice!

WARNING: I'll need to reveal a bit of spoilers, but they are necessary in order for me to truly explain the setting I'm trying to capture here.

The setting is a place I call the Labyrinth. (It's not an actual labyrinth or maze of any kind, and its never referred to as a labyrinth in the story, its just an easy way of remembering the location)

Essentially, this is where my main character is sent when he's not in control of his body. Meaning his 'other self' takes over, in the form of multiple personalities / dis-associative identity disorder. Though how his other self was created is drastically different than the ones we know in real life from childhood trauma and so on.

Anyway, so in short this place is a physical representation of my main character's mind. There are some key things I need to express and show:

- My main character is not the dominant personality, but neither is he the lesser. In the core of the labyrinth sleeps the true self of my main character. He ultimately is the one who controls everything, but like I said, he is asleep. He needs to incubate before he can fully awaken again in the story. So I'm wanting to have him in a sort of stasis, or cocoon, at the core of the labyrinth.

- His alternate self, lets call him 'evil self', has been working to unweave the web so to speak of my main character's mind, and his work needs to be represented as a massive amount of corruption, I'm thinking almost a sort of parasitic infection sort of deal. Evil self controls the body when my main character is sent to the labyrinth, but he can also subconsciously interact with my main character, so he still has a presence while this place is being explored.

Now, this corruption essentially will be covering the whole of the labyrinth, but is unable to touch the core.

Now as far as the imagery goes, I've tried a few things, ranging from a sort of H. R. Giger style architecture to demonic corruption sort of stuff. But the true challenge here is the fact that I don't have any limits. My current idea is to sort of model it after brain neurons, and have the connections between the neurons be sort of like, infecting tentacles from the evil self, most of which are futilely trying to grasp at the core, the only pure and 'sanctified' section of the labyrinth.

Does anyone have any input, or any knowledge of the brain or psychology that might lend to some inspiration?

I have nothing, but it all sounds pretty interesting...

To me it sounds like brain rewiring more than brain corruption. Like someone in there is rearranging the connections, like this:



But you can't really have an army of middle-aged women on salary unplugging and replugging cables everywhere, can you?

When you say "unweaving" do you mean that he is destroying it or that he is reconnecting it?
I think this could definitely be quite interesting it you develop it enough though.

The best bet I think you would for finding psych stuff is magazines/blogs, but more importantly a Psychologist. I should think if you can find one that you can contact they would be willing to respond.

By unweaving I basically mean he's trying to break down the mind piece by piece, and work his way to the core. That's his ultimate goal because by doing so, he gains complete "assimilation" with the host and can control it freely. The evil self is parasitic, meaning he came from an outside source, so he really has no place being there, which is why I want his influence to look very damaging and corrupt.

I'm generally shooting for something organic-looking for the scenery, maybe a cave? I'm not too sure. The idea is almost there but I just need to settle on something I guess.

The rearranging connections thing might be a good area of inspiration. Maybe I'll look into how parasites behave, and diseases and viruses and the like.

Maybe a more fluid scenery? Like a blood stream, or an ocean? Just a thought.

you might be interested in this; http://innerspace.notonigon.com/
it's an online gn.. that just so happens to take place entirely in the inside of the main character's mind; may help with the ideas process :3

While the character is in this place, does he move around? Is he lost or trying to escape it in some way?

Cause I'm thinking that the structure is like a cave (maybe think of the lobes of a brain as endless tunnels), but the walls behave like the walls of a stomach and they are constantly churning inwards in order for the structure to "digest" itself and everything inside.

Also, maybe the pure form of his mind controls whatever it is that prevents the walls from "digesting" themselves, or keep his mind from collapsing.

Yes. Evil self has full control of the subconscious so its sort of like a dungeon that's layed out for him, and the location I'm using to express his inner conflicts as well as reveal his past (since he eventually gains access to his memories). The eventual goal is for him to reach the core.

My current concept has him breaking from a cocoon sort of thing in the story's introduction, to symbolize birth. (To avoid any confusion there should be three main characters represented: my main character, roaming the labyrinth, his evil self, and his dormant pure form at the core)

I'll try and get some sketches scanned to show you all what I've concepted so far.