The Work Journal of Artist John Amor

Pantsphone Chronicles VII

Parsing

I’m writing this for me.

Drawing at three in the morning, it gets to a funny point where I just put the headset on even when I don’t plan on listening to anything — the extra weight and pressure on my head is comforting.  Helps me focus.  Like a soft vice.  Or a tactile laser.

By the bed is a stack of trades I haven’t burned through yet.  Giffen-Maguire Justice League is about done, but catching up on GL will have to wait… and that Frank Frazetta Testament book looks fatter every time I ignore it.  Reading Comics? Serious Business.

Alex made me read Grant Morrison’s New X-men five years ago, and that’s what brought me back into comics.  This is all his fault.

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Two days ago, had a sitdown with Politician XOXO’s people about putting together campaign strip.  On the fence about the whole thing, and still feel a little dirty.  Fairly certain candidate isn’t all that bad (as far as candidates go), but that substrata of professional cartooning just registers as… soupy.  And not in a good way.  Comics should be fun.

Dad bought me my first trade when I was eleven.  Finished The Dark Phoenix Saga in one afternoon.

I can’t stop watching videos of mice getting eaten by piranhas and snapping turtles on Youtube.

Roby let me read his Teen Titans comics when I was too young to care about the words, and George Perez Starfire had a weird habit of making me feel funny in the middle.  Stupid alien.

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PLUCK went live on Zuda twelve hours ago.  I am irrevocably valid.  It’s funny working with a weekly deadline.  You’re forced to parse your style down to its essential components and bare necessities.  You draw three lines where two years ago you would have put six, and an alternating crosshatch.  You develop go-tos — fixed solutions for compositional problems.  A mental laundry list of Wally Wood shots.  Grids.  You read Blacksad and anything Quitely to keep from becoming repetitive and boring.  You devour Stuart Immonen.  Because you still have those four other pitches you’re working on, and you sure as hell don’t want those falling flat.  It’s a constant and hectic chase of self-criticism and improvement.  This is the lab, and the scientist is the rat.

Glad I’m seeing my girl this weekend.

Grant Morrison ::: Disinfo Lecture

Alex of Tres Komikeros fame shared this video with me a coupla years ago, and it blew my mind and I forgot to wipe.  Still awe-inspiringly relevant after all this time.

Tres Komikeros 41

John, Alex, and Migs return with a boatload of reviews with their spotlights (eew?) shining on Power Girl #9, Devil #1, and DoomWar #1. After a hefty round of quick shots, the boys discuss the recent big changes in the big offices with Dan Didio, Geoff Johns, and Jim Lee each getting title upgrades. The show is capped off with a panel discussion about the komikeros’ expectations for the New Heroic Age and Brightest Day. Listen and learn, kids.

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Glory

My brother Roby just recently finished his special tribute poster for the Edward Zwick film GLORY.  Took him about five months to finish the piece, what with juggling between his day job and roles as a father and husband.  I’m not going to blab on about this because I’m pretty sure the art speaks for itself, but if you’re interested in reading about his process, follow this link.  Comments are much appreciated.

SketchDump 01

Noice (Part 2)

Here’s the rest of my favorite soundtracks to listen to, especially when working at night.  Of course, it’s an ever-growing list and has a few left out… partially because I’ve gotten sick of them, but mostly because I can’t remember them all.  But yeah, below are a few more of my staples.

Transformers

I know, I know.  But like I said in the previous post, these are my favorite work themes precisely because they’re not iconic.  They don’t muddle what I’m working on, creatively.  Jablonsky filled this score with powerful anthemic melodies that helped me enjoy reading the Sinestro Corps War like a pig in shit.  And that’s a good thing.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion

And while we’re dealing with big robots and proud majestic themes, we contrast good guy music with my absolute favorite bad guy audio.  Anytime an angel shows up in the cartoon, the music jacks up the tension ten-fold, which is why the Eva OST always has to be on queue for sinister shots.

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Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

But sometimes ominous music has to be big and grandiose too, and that’s where Jin-Roh comes in.  Evocative of dystopian scenery, this OST has a healthy balance of destructive melodies and sentimental snippets.  And on a side note, this feature had one of the most man-tear choking endings of any animated film.  Ohgoddamnit.

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Iron Man

Among the most recent of my favorite scores, Djawadi’s compositions had the upbeat feel of Ghost in the Shell, but de-personalized it to the point where it feels more like an anthem than a personal soundtrack.  Conversely, while GITS has a more textured feel to its sound, Iron Man’s as sleek as the hotrod-hued suit itself.

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Moon

It seems fitting to end this list (for now) with my latest favorite.  Mansell’s soundtrack is lonely and emotive — equal parts uplifting, equal parts haunting.  The string symphonies and piano-drum pieces both succeed in saddening without being depressing, a definite must-hear.

Can’t Sleep?

Here’s a friend.

Noice (Part 1)

Can’t not have music playing when I work.  The pencils become stale and the inking tedious.  Sure I listen to a handful of bands, but I tend to prefer instrumentals so I don’t have some guy telling me what to think the music is trying to say — know what I mean?  And I guess, by that same logic I don’t stick to the iconic scores coz they’ll get me thinking about the movies they came from, even subconsciously.  I mean I love Williams, Zimmer, and Horner, but few things are weirder to me than drawing a superhero sequence to the Back to the Future soundtrack.

“This ends NOW!  Face the wrath of my… MARTYYY!!!”

No.  So here I poke at you with five (of ten) of my  favorite movie scores to listen to when bands don’t cut it.  The list tends to change depending on my headspace and the actual material I’m working on, but this is the soul of it.

The Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

You can’t go wrong with Yoko Kanno when you’re looking for a mix of classical and tech.  The GITS score’s rich strings inspire grand themes worthy of everyone’s inner Shirowe.  I make sure this is playing when any piece of art calls for something epic or a climactic scene needs sprucing up.

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Signs

This is probably the single most-listened-to soundtrack I own, as I most enjoy it in conjunction with a suspenseful read.  The Hitchcock-esque pulses have served as accompaniment for such books as Locke and Key, The Surrogates, 30 Days of Night, Fell, and most recently Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing.

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Cowboy Bebop: Music for Freelance

While Kanno’s original jazzy score for the series continues to be among the best ever for any animated work, I find it to be too upbeat for working late at night and can be a bit jarring.  The remixes in this volume are a great alternative while still capturing the happy-go-lucky essence of the initial Seatbelts renditions.

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The Matrix: Reloaded (and Revolutions)

Sure, The Matrix films have one of the most identifiable themes around — what I can only describe as drunken warp-trumpets on speed — but the second and third film’s action sequences didn’t use as much Manson and Zombie, and so the musical score’s energy is much better distilled.

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Now and Then, Here and There

Not since Glory have I heard so rich a dramatic symphony, and I first found it in an unsubtitled cartoon that literally got me all man-teary more than once.  I listen to this soundtrack when drawing dramatic and altogether uplifting scenes, though the darker melodies aren’t anything to scoff at either.