Project 5 Proposal

For this project I’d like to use characters from a comic that I have been developing for about a year now. The story is set about five years into the future in Tehran, Iran. At this point, protest against the government has increased tremendously, which has caused the regime to fight back with great intensity. The result is essentially a civil war, which has left the city in tatters.

The main characters are all people who are against the oppression of the government. These people all come from different walks of life. For some, it is a matter of differences in ideology. For others, the matter is more personal; a difference in ideology as well as the regime’s own dislike of a certain part of their identity.

The main protagonist is a fourteen-year-old Bahá'í boy named Khosrow, who has been displaced from his family and is struggling to survive and avoid being caught by the Revolutionary Guards, while at the same time trying to find his family. To be a Bahá'í in Iran is to be a member of the largest religious minority in the country, yet the most persecuted minority. Bahá'ís are not allowed to hold jobs or attend university. They are also jailed and sometimes executed for their beliefs.

All odds are against Khosrow, but he is fortunate enough to be found by a young woman named Niloufar and her friend Arash, a young man who is gathering as many people as he can to take back their country. Along the way, they make new friends, one of which is Kia, an artist who dresses in men’s clothes and runs secret life-drawing sessions in her studio with her fellow artists. She is another minority that the regime has a problem with, because she is a lesbian. In Iran, homosexuality is an act punishable by death. Gays and lesbians in Iran are encouraged to undergo a sex change, something they deem to be an acceptable “cure” for their condition.

Anyone in favor of the regime is an enemy to the main characters. The main antagonist is a soldier named Bahram, who is ruthless and determined to stamp out any resistance to the regime. Despite not having the highest ranking, the country is in such disarray that Bahram has taken matters into his own hands by leading his own small band of fellow soldiers to eliminate any enemies of the regime.

This story is still in the works, but these are the characters that I have worked out very well. For this illustration, I imagine Niloufar hiding behind a wall while Bahram searches the area, looking for any rebels. I imagine a tilted view of the scene, which would make the composition more dynamic. It will be drawn and painted digitally, with a mostly neutral palette, save for Bahram's uniform and the green of Niloufar's head scarf. Green is an important color, as it is the color of the protests, the so-called "Green Revolution." I would like it to be 24"x18", big enough to be a poster.