Sunday, January 8, 2012

Kid koala space cadets and inspirational hurricanes and gothic architecture

Stripper with a heart of gold.

Here's Page 68 of "What happened in there?." You can see in this page I'm starting to put to good use a "word bubble" technique I picked up from reading "Y: The Last Man" by Brian K. Vaughan (which is awesome, because he was part of the writing team for Lost during Season 4). I was a little more creative in the paneling, though it's still pretty standard - the next development in my cartoon-stripping might be coming up with more dynamic cells and borders for each page.

BUT - I'm not making any promises. I personally can see a huge difference in the layout, shading, lettering and even the expressions on the characters a year after starting. A big difference - I can only hope the improvement continues!

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?
See more by following the links:

Graphic novel news

This time, read about how the devastation of Hurricane Katrina inspired a state lawmaker to co-create a graphic novel, how architecture is just as important in a Batman comic as the heroic dark knight himself, and the energetic multi-media creativity of Kid Koala. Check it out!


Graphic appeal: Former state lawmaker works with local college artists to bring zombie comic novel to print
Adam Goldstein
AuroraSentinel.com

Nearly six years later (after visiting Hurricane Katrina-devastated New Orleans), (Bob) Hagedorn’s mixed sense of hopelessness and horror has found an unlikely expression. Drawing on a long-held passion for fiction, Hagedorn used his initial reaction to the destruction as the spur to write a graphic novel, a comic titled, “An American Apocalypse” that revolves around zombies roving in the cityscape of post-Katrina New Orleans.
Click to read more.

Chip Kidd Presents 'Batman: Death by Design' to Designers
Andy Khouri
ComicsAlliance.com


It turns out we're not the only ones with more than a passing interest in the architecture-based approach to Batman: Death by Design. The book's writer, award-winning graphic designer Chip Kidd, presented the project to a fascinated crowd of fellow graphic artists at PIVOT: AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Design Conference this past October. Expanding on what we already know about the Dave Taylor-illustrated book and offering many new details and artwork besides, Kidd took his audience through the book's first 20 pages.

Kidd began his presentation with childhood photos that demonstrated his lifelong obsession with Batman and detailed how he came to write his first graphic novel, which he came to with the title first.

Click to read more.

DJ Kid Koala keeps spinning an interesting career
Mike Bell
CalgaryHerald.com

.... There’s (Kid Koala's) ongoing work as a member of the hip-hop act Deltron 3030, which he says are putting the finishing touches on a new album. There’s his work in the project The Slew with members of Wolfmother. And there is, of course, his graphic novel work, which saw the recent release of his second graphic novel Space Cadet.

Space Cadet is a 132-page graphic novel drawn entirely on etchboards. It is accompanied by a "still picture score" of music composed and recorded by Kid Koala.



Click to read more.

Friday, December 23, 2011

700 pages of bad sidekicks on Planet 999

Strippin' again!

A little radio, some more Lost Season 2, and I've got a couple different projects to work on, especially a "secret" one that I'm not really revealing any details on, but should be pretty awesome when it's ready. I'm still writing it - and then the artwork might take a little while, but this one I'm looking for a quick single publication. I'm really excited for it!

Here's Page 67 of "What happened in there?" and I'm introducing a quick setup for the "where there's smoke there's fire" lesson that's going to play a bit of a role later on in this act. Sometimes I fear the pages get posted so far apart (it just takes a long time to find the time to get down to publishing pages) that remembering the finer details in the story and script are lost by the time they're useful again - which is why I encourage re-reads!


Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?
See more by following the links:
Graphic novel news
Got a few fresh links about writing good sidekicks, OR avoiding writing a lousy Robin character. There's also a neat photoblog to check out that's more of an interesting concept than a graphic novel, but .. it appeared in my google results so now it's in the blog. Also read an interview with someone who wrote a almost 700-page graphic novel. Check it out!

How to Write a Good Sidekick
B. McKenzie
superheronation.com



A bad sidekick aggravates readers and weakens the story. Over the past 20 years, the two-live action Batman movies with Robin have averaged 29% on Rotten Tomatoes. The four without Robin have averaged 82%. Here are some tips that will help you write a sidekick that will excite readers rather than make them want to stick their brains in a blender.
Click to read more.


Presidential Landing on Planet 999 (The Graphic Novel that you write)
unknown author
beckermanphoto.com



This is just a photo blog of New York City, which is cool, and the idea that it's something of "graphic novel" created by the many, sometimes-anonymous contributors makes it all the more interesting. The extraterrestrial motif is fun, too.
Click to read more.

Former Milwaukeean pens graphic novel masterpiece
Molly Snyder
onmilwaukee.com


Graphic novelist Craig Thompson
OMC: "Habibi" is almost 700 pages long. Did you set out to write a graphic novel this lengthy or did it just naturally evolve into such a long novel?

CT: I started out with modest goals and expectations. I thought it would be between 200 and 300 pages, but then it spiraled out of control. But this is a necessary matter of working. If you knew how much work something was going to be from the beginning, you'd never get started. Simple goals got me going, and then letting it spiral was part of the pleasure.

One of the drawbacks of the comics medium is that it's too abbreviated.
Click to read more.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Serial killer's debut in Korea published posthumously

Strippin' again!

Tonight, more Lost season 2, 'cause the Leafs aren't losing hockey games on the radio right now. For the record, I thought this scene was pretty sweet.

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?
See more by following the links:
Graphic novel news
Read about a French novelist's debut in S. Korea, how a serial killer beat a Nobel laureate and posthumous publications.

French novelist’s science graphic novel to debut in S.Korea
Lim Jong-uhp
The Hankyoreh



French novelist Bernard Werber is publishing a book this summer tentatively titled “Bernard Werber’s Science Graphic Novel.” Consisting of 21 volumes in all, this series is debuting not in Werber’s home country of France, but in South Korea. The project was first proposed to him by Open Books, the publisher of the series. Werber added some scientific knowledge and imagination on top of the outline for his previous novel “Butterfly,” while Korean artists provided the illustrations.
Click to read more.

Serial killer novel wins Independent foreign fiction prize
Alison Flood
guardian.co.uk



Peruvian novelist Santiago Roncagliolo, who cites Alan Moore's graphic novel From Hell as a major influence, has beaten Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk to win the Independent foreign fiction prize for his novel Red April.
Click to read more.

New graphic novel by the late Harvey Pekar features a chapter about Cleveland Heights resident Steve Presser



CLEVELAND HEIGHTS -- Steve Presser is honored and humbled.

“Huntington, West Virginia ‘On the Fly,’” the first graphic novel by Harvey Pekar to be published since his death last year, features a chapter on Presser and his attempt to open a diner in Cleveland Heights.
Click to read more.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Strippin'

Leafs game on the radio and a few sketches to wrap up - should be a good night!

Here's a page from a few nights ago that didn't get published till this morning:

It's received some good reviews - so that's nice.


See more by following the links:

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Strippin'

Good time today - wrapped up Lost season 1, watched the bonus features on the bonus dvd, and there's even some hockey on this afternoon - so a good showing all around.

I've got six more pages ready to finish - the next scene is a long one. Here's a sample of the next page to "Lazarus is Poisoned."


See more by following the links:

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Strippin'

I am strippin' a.k.a. working on comic strips. As usual I've got an old Lost DVD in the player, I'm at my desk in the basement, and I'm sketching away.



You can expect to see this image some time in the future. In any case, I've scanned two more comics for tomorrow and next week, and have a great Christmas idea, too.

See more by following the links:
A full moon tonight, too - ... should be fun!

This evenings' results ...

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Supernatural cops, Castle and applying Marshall McLuhan

This was an important part of the story I was eager to get to - it finally introduces a dangerous force that will be the source of conflict for the story. In a better story this might come up sooner than later - but I hope there were enough dramatic characters, like Starkwood and Bolam, to keep things interesting.

Speaking of Bolam, it was nice to finally get him back in the story - it'd been too long since we've seen him.


In any case, here we've got growing tension between Miller and Bolam finally having a confrontation, and a mysterious shooter raising the stakes. Check out more at Stretch My Legs. I hope you like it.

Graphic Novel News
Persepolis and it's political motives, which John Pavlus says is a graphic application of Canadian Marshall McLuhan, ABC's detective show Castle is set to get its own graphic novel, which should be interesting, and speaking of detective novels, read about Awakenings, a supernatural detective story set in a futuristic New York City.

A Graphic Novel Unlocks How The Media Manipulates Facts [Video]
John Pavlus
www.FastCodeSign.com

We tend to talk about "the media" as a monolithic force of nature, like mountains or the wind -- but it's a fallible human endeavor, constantly mutating in unpredictable ways. That's the guiding principle of NPR's On the Media, and also the premise of a new book by that show's host, Brooke Gladstone, called "The Influencing Machine." But this is not your father's media manifesto: Gladstone conceived it from the start as a comic book, and she's a character in it herself. To pull it off, she teamed up with illustrator Josh Neufeld, whose own highly acclaimed comics similarly blur the distinction between art and journalism. The result is part Persepolis, part Marshall McLuhan, and totally engaging.
Click to read more.

Marvel Comics To Publish ‘Castle’ Graphic Novel
Henchman21
www.GeeksofDoom


Marvel made a big announcement on Monday that they will be releasing a graphic novel based on the popular ABC detective show Castle. Titled Castle: Richard Castle’s Deadly Storm, the 112-page hardcover will feature a story written by Brian Michael Bendis (Powers, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man) and Kelly Sue DeConnick (Osborn), and will feature art by Lan Medina (Fables) with a cover by Carlos Pagulayan (Hulk).
Click to read more.

Robot 6 Q&A | Eric Hobbs on Awakenings
Brigid Alverson
www.Robot6.com

Writer Eric Hobbs made his bones last year with The Broadcast, a graphic novel about neighbors gripped by the panic caused by Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast. This week sees the release of a new graphic novel, Awakenings, penciled by Gabe Pena. Awakenings is a supernatural cop story set in a future version of New York City and featuring a cop who is accused of murdering his own son. Hobbs self-published Awakenings as a black-and-white comic before it was picked up by Arcana, so I asked him to tell me a bit about his experience with self-publishing and the evolution of the story.
Click to read more.