Hey all! Been a while since I posted here. I'm going to start off with a brief disclaimer that this work is for a graphic novel, so imagery is important. And imagery is exactly what this topic is about! My story begins in a location I like to call "The Labyrinth". I don't ever reference it as that name in the story, it's just a quick reminder so it's easier to keep things organized. Anyway, that being said, The Labyrinth is not a physical location. Its a subconscious one. In short, the Labyrinth is where my main character is sent to when he's not in control of his body -- you can think of it as dis-associative identity disorder / multiple personalities. He essentially has an "evil" self that's working from within to corrupt his mind, and I want to represent this through the imagery of the Labyrinth, as that's exactly what the Labyrinth is: my main character's mind. The problem here is, since it's a location that really has no limits, I'm struggling on what to make it look like. So naturally, I discovered I need limits. I'm trying to use symbolism a lot for now, but it's still being difficult, especially because this isn't a traditional case of split personalities. There are a couple things I want to represent here: 1. Corruption. I need to show that this place at one point was pure, and is being taken over by this evil persona's filth. I've experimented with a sort of surreal H.R. Giger style architecture, and various demonic looking stuff, but I'm still not sure. At the starting point in the story, most of the mind has been corrupted, save for its "core", where the true self of my main character incubates. So naturally I need to show that the setting is corrupted, save for this central core, where the corruption can't touch. 2. Three personas. My main character is in a complicated situation, since (at the risk of spoilers) he isn't really his true self. The main character you see at the start is a "shell" persona, created by the one sleeping in the core, for the sole purpose of counter-acting his evil self, until the core persona can incubate and fully awaken. The shell persona will naturally be by himself, and exploring the Labyrinth, while the evil persona naturally has dominion over most of it, save for the core. As far as the architecture itself, I've considered modeling it after brain neurons to an extent, and having the core be where all the neurons (now corrupted) are futilely trying to reach towards. Nothing is final yet, though. So, I'd like some input -- does anyone have any ideas or advice for this? Or any more indepth knowledge of psychiatry or the human brain that could lend to some inspiration?
