Here are
all of the comics (except for one, which I will explain later) and a little
about them.
The first
one, which I did for the MOOC in May, has been pretty well covered in writing,
so I am just going to link to that:
After
deciding that it was something that I needed to do, I was sure I was going to
draw a scene from one of my screenplays. Every time I tried that, it didn't
work. Finally, on the last day of June, I noticed a weird weed in the yard, and
I tried to cover this imagined life cycle:
The next
two both felt more successful. I shared them with my family, and they enjoyed
them. Karate Kat really functions more like a children's book, but I have been
playing with different forms.
The cat
does not look like Maeve at all, but it really does capture her personality.
The Vampire
Nightmare one is in some ways very similar to the May comic, in being
autobiographical and using a lot of text:
I did use a
real picture as a reference for one panel. See if you can guess which. I did
make it a bit more "cartoon" cute to emphasize the inherent unfairness of
the situation.
The
September one functioned differently again, almost like a flow chart, where I
was going through options for my Halloween Twitter name. I was really deciding
as I drew, and the conclusion of the comic is that I decided on Sulky Grebe. I
set that up online, and immediately changed it to Gorgon Harris, which had also
been in the running. The grebe just wasn't scary enough, no matter how sulky.
October is
the one that is missing. My thought was to start with a plain pumpkin and show
its progress to jack o' lantern. What I was hoping was that if I did it right
that even though it was a totally inanimate object, that it could feel
animated. It was not horrible but not great either, and I have no idea where
the paper went. It may turn up.
November
happened because I had a girl in crisis. She was suicidal, and I asked her to
wait a few days so I could make her something. She was not sure if she could,
but then the pressure was on. It's not trying to create a comic that can save a
life, because really, it's the distraction, and the will to live despite strong
suicidal urges, that makes the difference. I did still hope that I could give
her a different way of looking at it. That if just talking to her in that
moment and asking her to wait helped get past the crisis, then maybe the comic
could provide some comfort and hope, and a reminder that people do care.
One thing
that I was hating about the scans was how hard to read they end up being, so I
wanted to eliminate the bad handwriting factor, which meant planning a layout
so I could print out the words with sufficient space and then just fill in the
drawings.
It's still
inadequate drawing of course, but it is also the most valuable one I have done.
It did help, and it has helped others. It's not a life-changer; it's just one
link in a chain of caring and connection and if that's the only purpose any of
this serves, that will be worth it:
I wrote
about why the December strip happened yesterday, but I did not go over the
technical aspects much. One issue is that I have been feeling like I rely too
much on words for these, and I wanted to see if I could tell the story only
through pictures. Well, I would have needed to draw more images, and better
ones for that. I know what's going on; I'm not sure others can follow it.
I knew
drawing people on horseback would be an issue, but so many things came up. I
found a way I liked to show a few snowflakes, but once it's a blizzard, so that
you have wind and snow drifts and people in danger of freezing, and ice
forming, cracking, and breaking up, that is a challenge. Drawing scenes
underwater, and then having soaked people above ground is a challenge. The one
panel I am really happy with is the skull, and I used a photo reference for
that. I did a search for screaming skull, and looked at that. Obviously I had
to add the hair and the knife in the eye myself, but yes, I need to spend more
time drawing from reference.
The other
thing that was interesting to me was the way the panels are laid out. When I
was a teenager I choreographed videos for unreleased songs by bands I liked and
submitted storyboards. (No, no one ever got back to me.)
My
storyboards were always two rows of three panels on a sheet with landscape
orientation. Without even thinking about it, that's how the comic based on a
music video started out. The January comic is a replacement for an insufficient
music video, and I will use that layout too.
That one
also has me thinking differently, because I can do larger panels on a page, and
sometimes will. When you are planning for television, or a movie, the panel is
always the same size. The camera angle can zoom in or out or pan, but the
screen will not change, so the ground rules are different and the way of
thinking is different.
The other
thing that was significant about December is that it was the longest thing I have
done. Even without drawing every single thing I saw, this is the first one that
I did not draw in one sitting. I needed breaks.
Without
being sure about February, March, and April (Would a paper doll book work?), I
know that May is going to be long. It has a complex plot, and I want it to look
good, and I will have to work out better lettering than my scrawling on the
page. It can't be a last minute thing.
So, I am
still learning a lot, which I think is what I wanted. The comic-related books
on the reading list include a few histories, but a lot of them are books on
drawing, and different techniques, and I hope things will start looking better.
Also, I kind of hate my pencils. I'm not sure what to look for, but I'd like to
do something different there. There's lots to figure out.
As a bonus,
here is a link to the drawings I did while in Italy. These are all from my aunt's home:
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1 comment:
That's a good range of story styles, from fun silly Karate Kat to the more moody wordless December comic. I'm always partial to wordless comics, they can be very effective and are good practice for "show don't tell." Nice job!
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