As promised, here are the JENNY STRANGE pages the Jordan and I are putting together as a Zuda entry. In a nutsack, teenage adventurer… big guns, space ships, monsters… high school.
Lemme know what you guys think! Hope I didn’t screw too much of it up… if you think I did though well… shit.
If you’re just blowing in, this is the second in a series of posts documenting the tribulations I went through in adapting to a widescreen-format comic. Co-conspirator Justin Jordan discusses the writing aspect of the challenge here.
So I’ve been dissecting some of the most recent and highly effective double-page spreads I’ve seen to try and decipher what logic the artists might’ve been operating on. Reverse-engineering, if you will. I figure if I stare at these babies long enough I may be able to extract remnants of whatever special cut of LSD the penciller was on when thumbnailing, and use then-acquired zen state on projects such as JENNY STRANGE.
Because hey… like Thomas Edison probably always said, “When in doubt, steal from the best.”
In Ultimate Spider-Man #124, Immonen uses the top half of the page to establish the environment and mood of the scene, taking full advantage of the panoramic view. The tall narrow panels of the lower half splits the events into tense, almost choking, moments.
Similarly, in Crossed #1 Jacen Burrows splits the spread into a top and bottom half. The top however is employed as an illustrative piece to essentially convey a definitive shot of the story’s backdrop, whereas the smaller panels below shows us the actual characters and pushes the story forward.
In Secret Invasion #1, Leinil Yu went with a three-tier spread to initially wow you with a shot just packed with characters. The second tier features mostly talking heads, whereas the final tier is pretty much gravy to just tense you up for whatever comes first on the next page.
So without getting too technical and shit, what strikes me the most as the widescreen format’s strength is the panoramic advantage as the splashes just look more cinematic, allowing the reader’s eye to wander more and discover things. Never doubt the power of Where’s Waldo.
Something to think about.
This series of posts concludes with me showing my JENNY STRANGE pages, which I did as I studied the above artists. So it’ll be a healthy exercise in accepting my apparent density. No doubt my girl would have a thing or two to add about that. Fun for the whole family, I guess.
The JENNY STRANGE package is graduating to the clean-ups phase. Digitally unsmudging my pigeon poo inks and random coffee stains now. And I mean that literally. Sure, I love comics, and I love art, and I love the creation of comic art… but I honestly doubt I will ever enjoy clean-ups. Coupla buddies once offered to shoot a video of my pencil-to-ink process (like them Gnomon cats, but with zero production value), and I knew these fuckers, y’know? And I knew they liked watching highway police chases and car crashes and train wrecks unfold on TV, y’know? So…ha ha ha! Rain check, you bastards.
So JENNY’s for Zuda, and that’s DC’s webcomic… ongoing contest… thing. I honestly still have no idea what to call it without having to say it’s a slush pile, but Zalben went with that on an episode of the now-defunct The Stack on Pulp Secret. The Zuda browser fills most of your screen with a landscape-orientated comic page. This was a challenge to me because up until now I’ve only been working on standard comic page/portrait orientation. Switching gears to landscape had me rethinking my panel design, sweet spot positioning, and pretty much the entire flow of the page itself.
The standard comic layout, given how I’ve gotten used to reading, allows for a simple Z-shaped flow to the reader’s eye; and this way, no one really has to worry about the last panel (bottom-right of a typical page) attracting too much attention as you read toward it, simply because it’s in the very bottom of the page and thus it is literally the last panel your eye travels to. Put simply, it is read last because it is seen last.
Now because comic pages are typically broken down in such a way that the last panel is usually either the “period” in that page’s sequential sentence, or the ellipses leading off to the next sequence of events (the next page), the intuitive positioning of the last panel is tantamount to the effective flow of a sequential page. And of course, better flow equals better comic… and that never hurts.
Which brings me to the tough part about the Zuda pages with their landscape orientation — Suppose your script calls for you to lay out the page into two rows of panels: a top row and a bottom row. Now let’s say there are three panels up top and two in the bottom, with the second bottom panel being the big plot event happening on the page. It’s problematic because said big-event panel is right underneath the build-up shots. Yes, I’m aware I could be bitching about a moot point, seeing as how most Zuda readers are probably “professional” comic readers and I’m just a jackass, but doesn’t it annoy you when you flip a page and your eye is accidentally drawn to the big twist/event right away, and so you feel you just got cheated out of what would have been a great build up?
And of course I’m aware that the Z flow still applies to the landscape orientation since it’s still western media, but I found the intricacies and challenges of the tilt to be fun and interesting to talk about, especially since, unlike the ever-dashing Derrick Fish, I have little to no experience with the strip format.
I’ll share some JENNY STRANGE pages in a coupla days as well as take a look at how some professionals play with the landscape orientation, and maybe then get told off on how I’m just talking out of my ass. Till then… keep ‘em warm, ladies.
One of the larger rooms in the Amor residence recently became available to me and my deceptively quiet lifestyle — I say this with a smile in my heart and a curse on my tongue because I am in fact an intense young man with big, big ideas and thus need to be so housed (Hehah! I’m back, fuckers!).
It’s taken a good week to achieve what I waaaaant to call a Semblance of Order? But let’s just say it’ll do for now. No, I am not building a fort around the desk… it’s just that the art books and some comics’ll have to be happy being piled up on the carpet until I can get a new shelf made. Or stolen. I know a guy who knows a guy. Maybe.
Work station’s set up smartly underneath air conditioner, sound blasters making the most of being cornered. Made sure she was settled in first so Ray Charles could keep me company as I migrated my shit. Somehow, “Georgia on My Mind” almost made it feel fun. Almost. Room’s got more windows, which is never a bad thing, seeing as how I’m spending more and more time indoors what with the projects piling up (Douche Alert!). Also not hurting me — the fact that the room is twice the size of the old one. Studio Hunger Pain was good to me… but this… I can get used to this. I also got stuck with a retardedly large bed. It’s pretty much a kingy — which is funny coz I am a tiny, tiny, unmarried boy — so there really isn’t a need for such generous beddage, unless the girlfriend finds a way to ninjarotically scale the balcony, which (and I shit you not) opens up to a pretty shallow view of the street.
Idea.
So anyway yeah, as of this posting Fort Bastard is running at 90% capacity. The other 10% totally depends on whether or not the people who supposedly provide me with an internet service decide to help me out rather than just (a) reassure me with false hope; (b) continue giving me the runaround; or (c) hit on me. Apparently being a manchild with a semi-nasal baritone is shmexy. Who knew?
The transfer’s been generally good though. And I’m finally able to get caught up. The Euro comic thing is pretty much wrapped up, with some minor cleanups to take care of — cleavage enhancements and such. What. The Will Prince gig is steadily gaining some steam, with the page layouts all done and pretty much approved. But tomorrow I’m waking up, fixing up some coffee, and finishing JENNY STRANGE, god fucking damn it. Once and for all, period, end of discussion. Completely unhappy with the lag between the action sequence and the pitch’s denouement. We’ll see how it goes, I guess. And finally, Alex and I have landed this local gig where we design RPG-type creatures and all that fun stuff. I was a Magic: The Gathering nerd, so stuff like this is always good to unwind on. Doesn’t hurt that it pays, of course. Holla!
So yes… still busy. With the new studio, what I’ve found to be the biggest challenge is getting back into the right headspace of being relentlessly productive again. And yes, I know it’s really just a geographical change; but more often than not, are we not shaped by the spaces around us, after all? Finding that groove again though. It’s funny how, in freelance, you’re constantly thankful that you’re tired. But you keep moving, y’know? You pickaxe, claw, or tooth your way up that steep slope… but you keep moving. Don’t know if it was Bruce Lee or Spike Speagle, but hey… “Never stop moving. Remain in motion. Constant. Flowing. Think like fire. Be like water.”
Someone lent me Iron Fist trades.
Takeout. Bought this bacon-raped cheeseburger thing at close to midnight, coz I usually get real hungry right around that time and it gets harder and harder to stay at the desk when my stomach begins to fuse with my spine. But now that I have this sexy chunk of food in front of me, I’m not feelin’ it. Not the least bit hungry. Feel more like I’ve been pantsed by the Irony Fairy and she’s pointing and laughing at my wiener. Eat big sandwich anyway. Large fries. Large coke. Double patty.
Now happy as a pig in shit. Pretty sure I look the part too.
Comics are glamorous.
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Work’s been hectic. As mentioned in previous posts, OVERTHROW and 1888 are out of my hands (crosses fingers, toes, and all other crossable appendages), so I’m diving into some new things to keep me afloat as I wait for word. JENNY STRANGE is cruising along, and I’m finally in the final lap of what, I must say, has been a real challenge to my page-orientation ethic. I’m taking much, much longer than I would have liked though, and I humbly admit to a noobish ineptitude on my part regarding the proper adoption of the landscape comic format. Never been more aware of the horizontal page flow than I am now. Curse you, Zuda!
In concurrence with that (thanks, Word of the Day Cereal), I’m juuust starting pencil work on some pages that’ll hopefully make their way into a European mangazine-anthology-type book. So I’m thinking JUMP, but with a Le in front of it. I don’t know. Alexis Nolte has written a sonuvabitch of a detailed period piece — a French 17th century detective comedy, to be exact. And quite frankly… I don’t know what I’m spending more time on — all the wigs, or all the corset cleavage shots.
Penis Canals.
Good times.
…And still in the page-layout-and-script-munching stages is an also unnameable project with William Prince. Not much to say about that until I bang some real stuff out, but I will say that fantasy-oriented existentialist themes always suck me in, especially when they don’t just feel like they’ve been hammered into a comic-shaped chunk of pretense. Things like this just give my inner Caulfield a hug and a handjob every now and then, and that never hurts.
So yeah… that’s going on. Plus the cross-country trips. Plus the podcast shenanigans beginning to snowball. But in a good way.
Fairly confident I can get all these projects out of the way before the month ends.
Oh stop laughing.
First official post at the new site? Should come as no surprise that the first blab is about a new project, yeah? But first!
OVERTHROW, what I like to think of as mine and Justin Jordan’s love letter to NEXT WAVE (stylistically anyway), is looking to be headed to full-on pitch stages pretty soon, so I’ve still got my manties in a bunch waiting on that. He got to be a whore at the NY con about the project, so that’s pretty sweet.
Anyway… not being completely sick of each other just yet, Justin and I are working on a new comic entitled JENNY STRANGE. It’s pretty much my first attempt at doing something ZUDA-worthy; and to be totally honest, the landscape format to the page took quite a bit of getting used to. For those of you who’ve been under a rock this whole time, Zuda is DC’s virtual slush pile. That probably makes it sound dirtier than what it actually is, but suffice it to say it’s a webcomic… monitor-conscious… page browser… thing. (It’s two in the fucking morning, give me a break… and no, I’m obviously not the writer in the tandem) Buncha guys get weblished, buncha other guys vote for who gets to stay online and finish their story. Bam.
I’m pretty excited about JENNY coz I’ve been jonesing for a strictly pulp book for a while now. That and GEN13’s vibe had a pretty huge impact on me as I was getting serious about comics in the 90s (yeah, I know). Little bit of Doc Savage thrown in there as well. Aesthetically speaking, I’ve been pouring over some recent Ultimate Spider-Man stuff and even some BRIT to harness the right vibe I want to wrap my art in for the project, but that coupled with the landscape format is taking a bit of doing. Anyway, that’s all on that for now. I plan to go into gory details about the zuda page orientation and the attendant storytelling mindfucks, but that’s for another post. Till then, keep ‘em warm, ladies.
Hah! Made you look. No, I’m not getting married yet. I hear the first step to doing that is getting a girlfriend, but I haven’t had one in years. Comics and art (the mean mistress!!!) have been eating up a lot of my time lately, so the social life has gone out the window. This entry’s title isn’t totally inaccurate though, coz I’ve been spending a lot of time technically marrying my two stylistic influences into something I can call my own. Or trying, at least.
Realistic vs Abstract/Cartoony. Which is better? Which sells? Which makes for better storytelling? It’s taken me this long to realize that the answer is neither. Realistic adds a lot of believabilty to a scene, that’s a given, but the abstract style can pull off fantastic exaggerations in mood. Mignola plays a delicate balance between the two and it works exquistely in Hellboy. Realistic allows for your characters to be more relatable in whatever outlandish situation you put them in, but being able to rubberize their expressions and gestures makes for an incredibly broad spectrum of emotion and dynamism. Stuart Immonen plays with this and kicks serious ass every time a new issue of Ultimate Spidey hits the stands. Then I read it, cry in my bath tub, then slash my penis with a razorblade.
These are just two of the points as to why a stylistic marriage would come out awesome, and I’m pretty sure there are countless others.
Having said that, I’ve been trying my best two fuse the two sentimentalities into something I can call my own. I’ve talked about this in a previous entry, Shapes, and I doubt I’ll stop talking about it anytime soon. Been re-reading a lot of old MAD magazines to study Mort Drucker’s great caricature work. Good stuff.
Anyway… here are last week’s dailies:
MONDAY: Kicked off Marvel week with my favorite X-Man, Nightcrawler. He’s always been visually interesting and there’s never a shortage of cool poses to use on him. Spooky and athletic, in my head he’s like Batman and Spidey combined.
TUESDAY: Nothing special to say about this piece. I don’t read Captain America, and I’m not a WWII buff. I just wanted to do a villain portrait. Call it an M.O.
WEDNESDAY: Well I had to do something to counter Power Girl from last week, right? And Spider Woman is hands down the hottest superlady in Marvel right now. Never mind that she’s a Skrull Queen bent on enslaving us, still teh hawt. I might’ve oversized her boobies though — complaints?
THURSDAY: Loki. As a woman. I know, I know.
FRIDAY: Fridays are always hectic for me coz that’s when I tend to fill my page quotas for the week, plus I do the podcast with my buddies. So from now on, I’ll devote Fridays to pose studies and the like. I’m sure you all can tell from looking at the logan sketch that my anatomy in the arm area could use a bit of work. but yeah, doing things like this every once in a while will definitely help make my poses more dynamic and shit.
::: ::: ::: Tres Komikeros episode 11 ::: ::: :::
Lastly, any Zuda lovers in the house? Even if you’re not, it’ll be good for you to head on over to their site and vote for my buddy Justin Jordan’s comic, Rumors of War.
He died on the battlefield, giving his life for God and Country. Johnny died a hero, but he didn’t stay dead. He’s been taken from his dying place to another world, another place, where a war has raged since the beginning of time. Resurrected for a fight that he can barely understand, much less hope to survive. Here, even death is no end to a soldier’s fight, the dead and dying returned to fight again and again. The Enemy is monstrous and the Ally is worse.
FYI #1: I’m currently drawing a comic called OVERTHROW!, a superhero/political thriller written by Zuda veteran Justin Jordan.
FYI #2: One of my favorite things about using Wordpress is getting to see my blog stats in the dashboard. Among other things, I get to see search terms people put into engines to find their way to my site.
Y’all tryin’ ta tell me something?
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