Pryde and Prejudice
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Trash
Tags: alison brie, casting, kitty pryde, shadowcat, X-men
Character Acting
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Work
There are a number of elements that factor into sequential storytelling: page design, background, lighting, staging, and a handful of others — but the one I find myself leaning on the most to carry across a narrative is my characters’ acting, and by extension character interaction.
Not to assume at any theatrical skill on my part, but I like to think I’ve seen enough movies and TV shows (good and bad) to know how effective acting can be a powerful storytelling tool. I’ve broken it down into sub-facets to help illustrate the point:
Expression covers not only facial distortion but also speech delivery. The wrong look can make a bit of dialogue ambiguous, which is one of the worst things in a visual medium. It is worth learning that anger isn’t merely a furrowed brow and that surprise isn’t simply bulging eyes. It is equally worthwhile to remember that someone yelling doesn’t always bear teeth and that someone smiling is not necessarily squinting as well. Think about the dialogue being delivered (if you have a full script), and more often than not the right expression for your character will present itself to you. This is where observing the nuanced performances of the likes of Gary Oldman and Meryl Streep pay off.
Body Language and Gesture come into play when wide angle shots or limited panel space leave facial features too distant to make out. With the right physical presence, any character is able to deliver thought and intent without ever having to say a word. Some masters of silent sequentials are Stuart Immonen, Frank Quitely, and Dave Gibbons.
Props are of use when a character not only interacts with another, but also with his environment. Different people will have different ways of holding their glasses, just as one man may angrily rip a phonebook in half in a burst of rage while another will tear the pages out one by one as his anger builds. In this sense, it helps to know the kind of character you are portraying so that you can vicariously perform the action for him. Some films I would recommend for prop use are Ocean’s Eleven, Scent of a Woman, and The Usual Suspects.
Tags: acting, Art, characters, making comics, sequential art, storytelling
Tesla and Twain
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Research
“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive;
but it is lightning that does the work.”
Tags: mark twain, nikola tesla, work ethic
Great Moments in Predation
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Research
Tags: bird of prey, hare, predation, rabbit
Recall: Spider Fights
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art
I wasn’t a particularly gregarious child. All the kids in my neighborhood were a bit too old for me to play with, and so I’d always have to settle for observing the big boys play, my brother Roby among them, while I sat off to the side studying bugs… and the dirt.
I was three.
But every now and then, the big-boy world of competition and rough-housing would overlap with my world of little monsters and squinting. That is to say… my brother would find spiders and have them fight on barbecue sticks. For those of you who don’t know, this is a pretty common pastime in the Philippines, and it is probably one of my earliest and fondest of memories. ——————————————-(picture below via The Telegraph)
The big boys would find spiders in my grandmother’s sprawling garden, which at the time felt like a huge forest. Again, I was three… and pretty small for my age at that. I was a runt in my brother’s pack, but when it was time for spider fights, I had no problem getting a good look as Roby would give me the front row seat, complete with commentary on the little arachnids’ jabs and blows. There was humor, suspense, and sometimes even drama. The whole gaggle of kids would crowd around me and my brother, captivated by these miniature bloodsports. To this day, I’ll take it over a boxing match. The entertainment value of watching my brother pit spiders against each other was probably one of the key factors that sparked my love for telling stories and designing creatures, and it’s all thanks to his giving me the best seat in the house.
I had picked up the skill of ‘projected dialogue’ …and it would later keep me entertained for hours on end when there were no spiders to be found and I was back to playing with bugs in the dirt.
Tags: childhood, inspiration, roby amor, roots, spider fights
Pencil Flex: X-Men
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art
This fun theme ran for two weeks to coincide with what we predicted was going to be X-Men fever as everyone and her mother was going gaga over Fassbender. Unfortunately, I caught the bug half way through and could only participate for half the designated period. Still had a lot of fun with my pieces though, and the experiments I was able to play with are definitely worth revisiting.
Posted here are all of my illustrations.
Visit the site for the whole crew’s art.
Tags: Art, deadpool, Emma Frost, kitty pryde, sketches, White Queen, X-men
Guhhh
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Rants, Work
Not until illness renders you physically unable to work do you truly appreciate the work that you have in front of you. It’s June in the Philippines, and with the change of season comes a drastic change in my constitution. I’ve been stuck in bed for the better part of this past week, sucking on air while my wife took care of me and made sure our home didn’t go to shit. I’ve been stricken by a bad case of the flu, which has been threatening to wake my asthma up something fierce. We’ve missed X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern, but I might be at 100% just in time for us to catch one of them.
Been toying with the idea of aiming for two pages a day lately, but Jad says I should ease it into five pages a week while I’m still recuperating. She knows my limits a lot better than I do these days.
::: ::: ::: ::: ::: :::
The Tres Komikeros podcast has been on hold for half of June, no small thanks to me being a sorry pile of ache… but we’ll probably be back in full swing this coming Friday. Alex has been itching for comic conversation, which is hard to come across in his all-work-oriented Singaporean Surroundings.
I’ve been catching up on some random things on my own though, while stuck in bed:
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
A much better anthology than Gotham Knight was, mainly due to the strong through-line anchoring the little tales. Art direction was very Dragonball in a lot of the fights, but that actually made it work a lot better than Jad and I expected. A great primer for the film, even though it isn’t Hal centric.
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The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
For some bizarre reason I’d really rather not think about, my buddy Migs procured an entire season of this show and promptly recommended it to me. Granted, I wasn’t under heavy medication when he did, but seeing this now makes me think this is probably how Charlie Sheen feels… all the time.
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Warlord of Mars (Dynamite)
I loved the original Burroughs books. I love the Frazetta paintings. This series is respectful to both, and though the text can be cumbersome at times, I feel there is a very real effort to capture the soul of Barsoom, making this a sometimes-steep read that is well worth the climb. This could use a PG tag on the cover though. No sex is depicted, but thinly veiled nudity (though tasteful) should still be filtered.
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So yeah. Space Cop. Weird Cabin Boy. And Barbaric Nudists.
Never let it be said my tastes don’t vary.
Tags: dejah thoris, emerald knights, flapjack, green lantern, john amor is sick, warlord of mars
– – – Soundcheck + + +
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Photos, Trash
Tags: soundcheck
Great Moments in Predation
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Trash
Tags: eagle, monkey, predation
Closetworld
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Work
Wrapped up some work on a fun webcomic written by Matt Yocum a while back. Closetworld tells the tale of a little boy who finds strange and fantastic realms upon stepping into his bedroom closet. You folks can check it out over at Comic Critique. Colors by Thomas Bonvillain, letters by Chris Studabaker.
Tags: closetworl, comic critique, matt yocum, webcomic
