behind the scenes for "Saves the Day"

Here are some more behind-the-scenes rough work when I was prepping the latest scene, Saves the Day.

While writing this whole story, I wanted Evelyn to be a motivation for Casey, but I didn't really feel it was right to have her be a burden, or bait, or the damsel in distress all the time. However, she's young and a bit reckless, perhaps a bit moody, and obviously spontaneous - - something you'd expect in a student, and perhaps not in a professional academic.

In any case, I'd like to think this played out well in this scene, when Mugabe expects he can threaten her to save himself, when in reality (in every other instance when Casey isn't in berzerker mode) Evelyn is by far the more dangerous captive.

I hope after a brief flash of mortal action that you're prepared for a few more talkative scenes of exposition.

There's something to be said for the clever Batman and Spiderman scenes where the exposition can be revealed during a duel, as they parry and lunge they spar verbally as well. Alas, this scene would have been prohibitively long and I just don't feel I have the patience to put people through much more than four pages at a time anymore.

I hope you'll find in Act III the scenes are more brief and to the point than some of the lengthier scenes in the previous acts.

I hope you're enjoying it!

Behind-the-scenes background stuff for two recent scenes

I'm not sure if people are "into" this sort of thing, but here are some "behind-the-scenes" stuff that might be interesting to check out from the latest scene. Basically it's just the rough drafts of the pages that helped me organize the pacing and spacing.

I hope you might find it interesting:

Yup -- it's all done on 8.5 x 11" sheets of paper.

You can compare them to the finished pages here: Silence of the Lambs

I named it "Silence of the Lambs" as an homage to the book series - - the idea of winding up in a slaughterhouse was pretty bad-ass and villainous to me, so I hoped to include that as a great point of confrontation for my characters.

In "Hannibal" Mason Verger was hellbent on hiring some Italians to capture Hannibal and feed him feet-first to a hybrid of man-eating hogs while he was still alive in revenge.

I really liked the idea and optioned to let it influence what happens in here - there was also a great scene in "The Hills Have Eyes" (the 21st century remake) that didn't occur in a slaughterhouse, but was influential in writing this scene, too. 

The emergence from the freezer is intended to act as a traumatizing rebirth for Dr. Miller to shape his story arc moving forward -- to give him some "guts" as Dr. Bolam would implore of him.  I hope it turned out well.

From my choice of medium, I'm a little restricted in two ways - - first, a comic would usually been drawn on a larger sheet of paper, then shrunk down to fit a print piece. This offers a lot more room and detail in a panel, much more room than an standard-leaf sheet of paper.

Second, because I'm using simple graphite pencils, it's awfully difficult to use black and darkness to its fullest effect. I would have loved to made this MUCH darker, but the sharpness of an image goes WAY down when you're using a soft graphite pencil, the details are lost in the blur. Even the maggots in the meat had to be re-inked after I'd finished shading to stand out.

Also, it's a wicked mess when you've poured all that darkness onto a page - - if you think your hands get dirty reading the newspaper, working with soft graphite is like reading a couple papers in a row and losing track of your soap.

Anyhow, I hope you found this informative - - and you liked the scene!

Majoring in Comics as Literature, Dragons and the Graphic-Novel Trend

Cellphones make for a difficult challenge in dramatic irony anymore. You see them in almost everything, as information is instantly forwarded from one agency to another as the pace of a narrative rockets along. In fact, watching old films where characters stand around a rotary phone, or check in at a hotel desk to receive their "messages" seems so clunky and awkward now.

But cellphones have changed storytelling forever. Writers have had to adapt.

In the world of cellphones, it's hard to delay characters from interacting with each other - so often as soon as someone learns something new or dangerous, they go to inform the protagonist, but are stopped - and then viewers just watch as we know full well the hero is diving head-first into peril. Cellphones basically eliminate the possibilities of this - unless you get creative about why a cellphone isn't working.

And those scenes (where a nemesis is removing of disabling a cellphone) always seem a bit contrived - HOWEVER, I'm certainly not above it. Do you think anything will happen to Casey's cellphone while he's chatting with Barney? (probably!) Think this will be the last time it happens in the script? (probably not!)

Struggling with jet lag and his professional relationship with Howard,
Casey looks to make necessary changes in Why'd you do it?

See more by following the links:

• King Street Capers (updated Mar. 11)
• General comics (updated Mar. 12)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Mar. 13) 
• Dinosuars (updated Mar. 7)
• Sketch Gallery (updated Jan. 17),
• Fundraising Faux-Pas, or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novels and webcomics
Check out Accursed Dragon, and see some of the other neat stuff that's being said about graphic novels at the academic level now! You can find them in the classroom as a learning aide, but you're also able to MAJOR in the style, as well.

Accursed Dragon
Ryan Smith
Accursed Dragon.com

This week I've started reading Accursed Dragon by Ryan Smith, and I'm liking it a lot. I've had this on my reading list for ages - and now I'm mowing through it. What I'm especially impressed with is that each page tells a little gag - which is great writing. It's a constant pleasure to see the narrative continuously propped up with pleasant breaks, while the pacing and serial story telling flow together seamlessly. It's definitely worth checking out!

Click to read more.

The Graphic Novel Trend
Harper Academic
Harper Academic.Blogspot

Reading the review of The Cartoon Guide to Genetics got me thinking about a huge trend we’ve noticed in the academic department: graphic novels. In fact, most of the books that teachers were really excited about (especially teachers of boys) at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference were graphic originals or adaptations. So I thought I’d share a few of our graphic books that the teachers I’ve met seem to really love.

Click to read more.

Yes You Can Now Major In Comics Literature
Rich Johnston
Bleeding Cool.com

As an English professor (Professor Jeremy Larance)at a relatively small public university in West Virginia, West Liberty University, I often try to find ways to sneak comics and graphic novels into my courses. For several years now, for example, I’ve used V for Vendetta as the culminating text in my British Literature course, because—let’s be honest—there just isn’t a better example of a modern-day Byronic Hero than Alan Moore’s V. Some scoffed, but my decision was ultimately validated by the fact that The Longman Anthology of British Literature now includes an excerpt from that graphic novel in its section of contemporary British fiction, just a few hundred pages after James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Click to read more.

Commemorating Will Eisner and Tarzan and the Top 100

After the completion of the second act, I've decided to complete the storyboards for the third act before I begin. So far it's going well, but of course it's taking a little while. I think the third act has been a bit of a challenge, but so far it's turning out pretty nicely. I hope everyone will enjoy it.

Struggling with jet lag and his professional relationship with Howard, Casey looks to make necessary changes in Why'd you do it?

See more by following the links:

• King Street Capers (updated Mar. 4)
• General comics (updated Mar. 5)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Feb. 5) 
• Dinosuars (updated Mar. 7)
• Sketch Gallery (updated Jan. 17),
• Fundraising Faux-Pas, or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel and Webcomic news
This week I've got the top 100 comic blogs to follow, the Lost Tarzan stories that will be coming out and an announcement on the theme for Will Eisner week. Check it out!

TOP 100 COMIC BLOGS TO FOLLOW IN 2013
Nikki Jeske
SnailBird.com

SnailBird lists the top 100 web comic blogs to follow, placing themselves at 60, which is very modest of them. Starting off the list is Webcomic Resources, which I've linked to a lot in the past. Check out the rest of the list.

To read more click here.

Lost Tarzan stories featured in new graphic novel
Michael Sangiacomo
Cleveland.com

I read these stories as a kid and was knocked out by the raw power and majesty of Burroughs' writing. The books are far superior to the simpler Tarzan movies. Powell has written hundreds of science fiction, mystery, and horror stories. He has worked in the comic book industry since 1986, writing for Marvel, DC, Malibu, Caliber, Moonstone, and Disney, among others, and has been nominated for the coveted Eisner Award.

Click to read more.

Will Eisner Week To Celebrate the Graphic Novel
Calvin Reid
Publishers Weekly.com

The theme for this year’s Will Eisner Week is “Read a Graphic Novel," Danny Fingeroth, said Will Eisner Week Organizing Committee Chair, “This year, we will be having Will Eisner Week celebrations in more places than ever before. The people doing the events are planning some amazing happenings that will spread the word about how cool graphic novels are, and that celebrate Will Eisner’s astonishing body of work done over a career that spanned seven decades.”

Click to read more.

King-esque editing and Dogs of War in a Thrilling GooglePlus Community

Most importantly to announce, after completing the artwork for the second act to The Tomb of the Undead, I knew I would have to tackle a big chore that was waiting for me at this point - reviewing, revising and editing the third act to the story. It was something I KNEW I was going to have to do, but I'd been putting it off. Well, I'm finally there, after years of working on the story, so ... that's what I've been up to.

Struggling with jet lag and his professional relationship with Howard, Casey looks to make necessary changes in Why'd you do it?

I knew I would have to revise the third act of the script by the time I got to it - which wasn't until now. I just wrapped up the edits this week- and was able to put into practice one of Stephen King's first rules of writing - edit out 20 per cent.

8,224 words in the last draft I'd performed - the latest 6,533, which is pretty significant! It was like 31 pages in the .pdf format, and I trimmed it down to a lithe and svelte 24 pages, which is pretty good. Oddly, the last draft was like nine scenes, but I broke the action down into 19 scenes, which is pretty significant.

Only after doing the math do I discover that I've edited/revised the script down by 20.56 per cent, which is almost a coincidence. Very King-esque in my quantitative editing, which is great (to me).

See more by following the links:

• King Street Capers (updated Feb. 18)
• General comics (updated Feb. 19)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Feb. 5) 
• Dinosuars (updated Feb. 21)
• Sketch Gallery (updated Jan. 17),
• Fundraising Faux-Pas, or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news

Sexy, Seductive, Thrilling Graphic Novel Not For Kids or Faint of Heart
PRWEB
PRWeb.com

Blaque Sun Mediaworks to publish sexy, murder mystery Thriller Graphic Novel with a mature audience in mind. First of Five (5) Graphic novels in production for release beginning this summer.

Click to read more.

Nathan Fox teases upcoming graphic novel ‘Dogs of War’
Chris Arrant
Comic Book Resources

Men and women working with dogs in military actions has been going on for decades in the United States; the practice actually goes back centuries. And it’s something writer Sheila Keenan and artist Nathan Fox are celebrating in the upcoming graphic novel Dogs of War.

Click to read more.

Webcomic Creators' GooglePlus page
GooglePlus

Image from Patrick Yurick's American Booom (@ www.american.booom.us)

A community for anyone who has created a webcomic. Introduce yourself, Share your work, ask questions and let us all work together to improve our storytelling abilities.

Click to read more and get involved.

I'm [Sic] of Hearing You Need "Better Drawing.s"

Here are some behind-the-scenes thoughts from page 85, while we're moving forward here. This package that's being shared around is the same that appeared in the first scene, way back in the early pages. It'll make another appearance in the story, but for now, while it may not be clear here, the package is being handed to James, Jesus' brother, and not to Lazarus yet. Lazarus is being charged with a more serious oath of service, though I'm not sure he quite knows what he's getting into.

The mythology of this story is revealed a little more as Jesus visits Bethany days before he is betrayed by Judas in Lazarus is Charged.

See more by following the links:

• King Street Capers (updated Feb. 11)
• General comics (updated Feb. 12)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Feb. 5) 
• Dinosuars (updated Feb. 14)
• Sketch Gallery (updated Jan. 17),
• Fundraising Faux-Pas, or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Webcomic news
I don't really have any "news" for this week, but rather had something of a complaint for webcomics. It's something that's been gnawing at the back of my mind for a little while now, and I think it finally made sense to me just last night.

Mostly, it's the disassociation between a good webcomic and providing highly stylized and well designed art to accompany the regular updates.

What set me off on the epiphany was that Benjamin Pernick, the head sloth at Turbo Sloth, had announced the three-year milestone for his site, which boasts hundreds - perhaps even more than a thousand - pages of absolutely ridiculous jokes.[Ridiculous in the best way - the site if full of "groaners"!]

This is the faucet installers' equivalent of spitting in your burger.

I dropped Ben a line to congratulate him on the milestone, and his response is what really solidified my understanding of what I'm feeling here.

Benjamin Pernick ‏@TheTurboSloth

@RogersRyan22 Thanks! I'm glad I've stuck to it for so long...even if I haven't gotten much better :P

His answer immediately reminded me of some "constructive criticism" that the folks at The Broctopus had received upon launching their site after this comic was posted:

Gregory102714 Good in theory horrible in execution. I think you guys would have more hits if you had better drawing.s

Seriously!? This is what "Gregory" felt after reading this comic, that the strip is "good in theory" but unable to attract attention or traffic without "better drawing.s" [sic].

I can't imagine anything sillier - what these two strips have in common is that they're people who are eager and passionate about sharing their comics. They're doing it for the love of doing it - the side effects of which would only be to brighten the days of readers when they pass through, and the warm feeling that comes from knowing you had something to do with it.

If anything, the silly and nonchalant style is imperative to a good joke. It admits to readers that this isn't to be taken too seriously. I mean, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel was supposed to be a ceiling-comic, but he got carried away and people "don't get it" now.

Revisionist history and restoration "experts" completely missed the joke. A warning to us all that too much detail distracts us from the gag.

Now, I must admit, I was prescient of this concept before I endeavoured to start making comics about the bad haircuts I'd received at the bad barber's shop. He made me feel stupid by giving me a bad haircut, and drawing dumb comics is my outlet - after joking about it for ages with a co-worker, I thought the joke between us could live on if I immortalized it in a silly strip. To go along with the bad barber was the bum that begged for change outside our office:

I know, the Peterborough, Ont. version of Bert and Ernie, right?

I wanted the comic to look "thrown together" because I didn't want it to be taken too seriously, but I have to admit, I spent a lot of effort making sure the images looked like that. Like, an embarrassingly long time, if you ask me.

And that's the IMPORTANT lesson here. The merit of the comics, that spirit of creating them for the love to bringing a little joy to the lives of others, is what's essential - and cramping up because it's not straight out of the Yale University School of Art is no reason to stop.

As long as you love it, don't ever stop, slow down or feel less of yourself for letting your style and personality grow through your work.

It's ridiculous [in the bad way] to think you have to be great at something before you start, or that becoming a Master in your craft requires that you conform to the style of those who have been the most successful in your field. All of that's nonsense.

Keep it real!

Writing Webcomics in the Subway? Mind the Gap for Doonesbury

Here's a little commentary for page 84, the beginning of the second half of Act II, which was a big deal for me. At the time I was definitely getting into the depths of the story, which was great. It begins with a big dose of mythology for the story, and where does any great story get its mythology?

Well, from the Big Guy, of course:

The mythology of this story is revealed a little more as Jesus visits Bethany days before he is betrayed by Judas in Lazarus is Charged.

I'm finding the webcomic community much more engaging than the Graphic Novel community, if that means anything. They're much more active on Twitter and they'll even talk back to you, which is cool. I had a completely unsolicited follower "favourite" my latest SuperBowl gag which I thought was pretty exciting, as they weren't in my network whatsoever, so they somehow searched it out and found it.

I found something called the Belfry WebComics Database that seems to have a ... database of webcomics, of course, which is neat.

See more by following the links:

• King Street Capers (updated Feb. 4)
• General comics (updated Feb. 3)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Feb. 5) 
• Dinosuars (updated Feb. 8)
• Sketch Gallery (updated Jan. 17),
• Fundraising Faux-Pas, or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Webcomic news
Beginning with a bit of a web-backlash for Doonesbury's creator, Poynter.org has an interesting discussion on the future of both media. Webcomic Alliance has a guest article that discusses how to attract an audience to make a profitable webcomic work and Boing Boing has a review of Mind the Gap.

Thanks!

Doonesbury makes case for print, enrages Web comics
Andrew Beaujon
Poynter.org

“What happens to comics if newspapers go away?” a Twitter user asks Zonker in a Feb. 2 Doonesbury strip. Two blank panels follow. “Feel how empty your life became?” Zonker asks. “Stick with print, folks, this doesn’t have to happen,” Mike Doonesbury replies.
The strip has kicked off a meme among producers of Web comics, who are inserting art from their own work in the blank space:

Click to read more.

Webcomic Artists as Subway Musicians
Steve Ogden and Tom Dell’Aringa
Webcomic Alliance

“…We need to pull our readers out of their routines to get their attention. We need to get them to approach our comic on our terms, not just as they’re passing through their daily collection of RSS feeds or Facebook posts.”

Click to read more.

Mind the Gap: a paranormal thriller/mystery graphic novel that non-comic book readers will enjoy
Mark Frauenfelder
boing boing

Mind the Gap: Intimate Strangers collects the first five issues of Jim McCain (writer) and Rodin Esquejo's (artist) Hitchcock-esque comic book series of the same name. The art is superb and the story is a masterfully-paced, intriguing thriller. Warning: this is an ongoing series so when you get to the end of this graphic novel, you'll want to find out what happens next. Fortunately Mind the Gap #6 is out. I'm going to wait for Volume 2 of the anthology series, myself.

Click to read more.