The People’s Publisher

Yay it’s Thursday and [Robert looks outside and raises an eyebrow]… okay well maybe it is not a bright and beautiful day here in Vancouver (or Port Moody to be exact) but it is a good day.

The production of Abigail’s War keeps moving on with pencil production. Discussion and reviews have had Sandrine revise her beautifully detailed pages 1 to 4. Sandrine is now working on pages 9+ while Jennica and I are reviewing the recent revisions while also finalizing the revisions for pages 5 to 8. Here is the large size of the teaser of page 4 that I put on the blog last week.

This weekend I will be attending Emerald Comic Con and will have my laptop in tow so I can check up on the production if I have a chance. I also may be doing some live blogging if I have a chance on Between the Staples. Remember get your free Between the Staples bookmark at Elfsar Comics & Toys!

Some of the earliest representations of myth and legend included creatures which were half man half beast. Centaurs, sea-horses, and mermen/mermaids are found in ancient Greek and Roman frescoes and writings. Incidentally, the term for such creatures in art :grotesque, comes from the Latin grotte or grotto, as many of the best examples of these were to be found in remnants of ancient mural decorations in rediscovered underground vaults in Rome.
Historians argue over whether these creatures were actually beleived in as real, or were useful as metaphors for the spirits which animated the natural world, the plants, skies and waters of ancient man. Sprites, wood nymphs, mermaids and gorgons are archetypal dream-creatures which are part man, part god and bridge the gap between man and nature. Free from the constraints of being human and the laws of men, these fantastic creatures, cavorted, danced and indulged their every urge, enjoying a freedom which society did not allow to men. They often were used as characters in myths and parables to show the dangerous consequences of indulging our more savage or “natural” tendencies.
It is not simply due to the much reviled Comics Code of the 1950’s that comics so often act as this century’s “morality play”. Half-men, which include many of our popular super heroes (batman, spiderman, aquaman) half man, half-whatever simply serve this function best. Ernst Kris, a contemporary or Freud wrote in 1952, that “the pleasure we take in comics largely is a triumph over anxiety, the acheivement of dominance over psychological forces which threaten our precious control.” He insisted that the artist must have “a strong ego, mastering and ordering the instinctual urges through giving them the outlet of an acceptable shape.”
In comics it is normally the super-villains (even more often half-man, half-animal) who play the role of the unfettered ego, destroying the universe or taking over the world, and who can only be stopped by one who is similarly split between human and supernatural forces, our super hero. In the latter half of the 20th century, global warming, nuclear science, and other noxious aspects of human society have been shown to be far more destructive to our lives than natural forces in the ancient world, and so the role of the mythic hero is often to remind us of our connection to nature, and the precarious balance we must maintain on the planet in order to survive.

I love you, more than I love technology…

But still I love technology…..

I was watching Napoleon Dynamite on T.V. last week, and the wedding song that Napoleon’s brother Kip sings to his new bride brings a tear to the eye, doesn’t it?

I’m not sure if I can say I feel the same way though. Dont get me wrong. Working for Zeros2Heroes is the first time that I have truly been part of a global creative team. Connected by the internet, the penciller, inker, colorist, writer, editor , and letterer all live in different cities, different countries, heck, other continents. They never have to meet or even talk on the telephone. I can do my job unshaved, unshowered, or totally naked. I might be naked right now. This is pretty fun. And it’s all possible through the magic of computer technology.

Comics are inherently unstable. We oscillate between reading them literally, and looking at them at art. Unlike illustrated books, in comics, the lettering merges with the visual illustrations, growing and shrinking and morphing as they visually describe sounds and voices. Some find this instability distracting, and comics have been criticized as being a “bastard” art form, neither literature nor art.

As well, the internet as a device for creating comics is also inherently unstable. Never mind system crashes, software glitches, finicky modems that need to be unplugged and plugged, data loss, and all that. When everything is working beautifully there are so many ways to go about working on the internet it can be overwhelming.

There are other people’s blogs and posts to read, galleries to look at, reviews and articles on other comics, as well as all the emails to read and reply to, online chats, all of which could however loosely be described as work. For a bibliophile like myself, having near infinite access to information and images on the same screen where I am supposed to be working leads to looking up at the clock “5 minutes” after I sat down to check my email, and find that it’s 2 in the morning and my girlfriend has gone to bed 3 hours ago. This is why many writers have gone back to using electric typewriters or “bare-bones” word processing software and no internet on the computer that they work on. It can become so distracting that it becomes impossible to get any actual “work” done.

So, while this fantastic technology make the work possible, paradoxically, this very flexibility it makes it more difficult at the same time. So, I now set myself a time limit and schedule email, dashboard revisions, and blog posts just like a regular office job so that I don’t spend all of my waking hours in front of a screen.

Back to work…

Sadly, ye olde editor is under the weather this week. Sadly for YOE, anyway; Stephen, the two Johns, and Frank all probably see my current suffering as karmic payback for what I’ve inflicted on them over the last few weeks. Even if it isn’t true, I shall wreak horrible vengeance upon them for this perceived slight.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at another of the Things Editors Do (When They Can’t Do Nothing.) Last week, I showed an example of how difficulties arise when writers who are used to thinking in terms of dynamic media have to think in static visual terms. This time around, we’re going to look at another fairly common problem new comic writers run into when approaching a comic script, involving how dialogue and other text can negatively impact the finished comic if the creators involved aren’t entirely familiar with the requirements of the comic page.

And so, I give you the script for Page Five of Stephen Cmelak’s original script for KNIGHTCAP: NOVEMBER’S SONG #1 (then called simply NOVEMBER’S SONG #1):

PAGE FIVE (five panels)

Panel One
A large introductory shot of FUGUE, floating in the air and smiling cheerfully down at KNIGHTCAP without a care in the world, despite the gas station threatening to explode around her. She should be majestic and adorable all at once, like Mary Marvel but with more gravitas. She is surrounded by musical notes (the sound that KNIGHTCAP hears as she hovers there).

FUGUE
WOW, THIS IS QUITE A FIRE YOU’VE GOT GOING, HERE! I WAS ABLE TO HEAR THAT EXPLOSION FROM THIRTY THOUSAND WHOLE FEET UP!

FUGUE
WOULD YOU LIKE HELP PUTTING IT OUT BEFORE IT’S TOO FAR GONE, OR IS THIS THE RESULT OF SOME INSURANCE-RELATED ARSON?

FUGUE
I ONLY ASK BECAUSE, ON SOME LEVEL, THE YOUNG MAN OVER YOUR SHOULDER SEEMS TO BE OVERJOYED AT ITS BURNING DOWN.

Panel Two
A tight shot, angled down, of KNIGHTCAP (still with the COUNTER JOCKEY over his shoulder) staring up at FUGUE (off-panel) in shock and wonder. He’s so taken with her appearance that he seems to have momentarily forgotten about the fire around him. A so-far-untouched gas pump or two should be just visible in the background behind him.

CAP 1
OH WOW, THAT’S FUGUE. THAT’S ACTUALLY FUGUE.

CAP 2
HERE. IN SCARBOROUGH.

KNIGHTCAP
UH…

CAP 3
BE COOL, ERIC. DON’T GO ALL DROOLING FANBOY ON HER.

CAP 4
SAY SOMETHING PITHY.

Panel Three
A reverse angle of panel two, with the gas pumps in the foreground and a recoiling KNIGHTCAP and the hovering FUGUE in the background. A stream of fire shot by KID INFERNO (off-panel) connects with one of the gas pumps, causing it to explode upwards in a geyser of flame. KNIGHTCAP screams as he hurls himself (and the COUNTER JOCKEY he’s carrying) away from it. FUGUE looks at the explosion with a blank expression, but otherwise doesn’t react.

SFX
FWOOOSH!!

KNIGHTCAP & COUNTER JOCKEY
(in unison)
AAAAHHHHH!!

CAP 1
OR, Y’KNOW, SCREAM LIKE A LITTLE GIRL. THAT’LL IMPRESS HER, TOO.

KID INFERNO
(off panel)
WELL, LOOKIT THIS! ANOTHER CAPE!

Panel Four
A tight shot of KID INFERNO striding cockily through the fire, with his flaming fists clenched and held out to either side of him. He sneers up at FUGUE (off panel).

KID INFERNO
AND ONE OF THE JCC, TOO! I MUST BE BIGGER THAN I THOUGHT!

KID INFERNO
AFTER I BARBEQUE YOU, BABE, I’M GONNA BE HUGE IN THIS TOWN!

Panel Five
A two-shot of KID INFERNO and FUGUE, with KNIGHTCAP dragging the COUNTER JOCKEY to safety in the foreground. KID INFERNO holds both his flaming hands up at FUGUE, preparing to roast her, as FUGUE descends gently towards the ground, smiling at him patiently. Musical notes trail after her as she descends. The gas station continues to burn out of control around them.

KID INFERNO
NOW JUST HOLD STILL…IT’LL ONLY HURT FOR A SEC—

FUGUE
IT REALLY BOTHERS YOU THAT YOU’RE NOT, DOESN’T IT? BIG, I MEAN.

FUGUE
IT SHOULDN’T. YOU’RE EXACTLY THE SIZE THE UNIVERSE NEEDS YOU TO BE.

KID INFERNO
…

KID INFERNO
WHAT?
________________________

Pretty funny stuff, huh? I think so, too. Here’s the problem: this page is, as the kids say, ten pounds of awesome in a five pound bag.

Following this script would result in one of two things: images cropped by word balloons and captions (if the artist and editor weren’t paying attention) or five panels with images the size of postage stamps, drawn to accommodate what is, by modern comic standards, a massive amount of text.

‘Twas not always so. In the days of my youth, North American mainstream comics typically held what is, by today’s decompressed standards, massive amounts of text. It still takes me half an hour to read every word of a mid-run Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four issue, probably twenty minutes to hack my way through a Claremont/Byrne Uncanny X-Men.

Now, if the dialogue in those comics was given the kind of care a Brian Bendis or an Ed Brubaker, say, give their dialogue, this sort of textual density might well be considered good value for money. But unlike Bendis and Brubaker, Lee up through Claremont saw comics as kids stuff, and in many ways they wrote down to the perceived twelve-year-old male reader. They were also working in what’s become widely known as the Marvel Style, which solves one big problem and creates a bunch of new ones–ones that can (mostly) be fixed with the liberal application of lots of text.

Basically a way for writers to foist a lot of the hard storytelling work of comics off on their artists (it allowed Lee to write 8+ titles a month), Marvel Style comic writing has the writer supplying a plot for the story (could be one page long, could be three, could be a phone call, could be a note…), which the artist then interprets, fitting it into a 20-whatever page format as they see fit.

At the time, the writer would come in after the pencils were done and write the dialogue *around* the art–using dialogue and text to explain things that didn’t make sense in the art , adding subtext, and, I sometimes think, generally trying to prove that they were actually contributing something substantial to the creation of the comic by putting more words on a page than were, strictly speaking, necessary. If the panel shows a guy flying in a window, and the caption says “With a shower of glass, a guy flies through the window…”, do we really need the character thinking “I’m flying through a window!”?

It would seem some writers thought we actually did.

Not even Marvel uses the Marvel Style these days, and I thank the Comic Gods for that. Now, instead of having characters explain why there’s suddenly a dinosaur in the bathroom (truthful answer: because the artist likes drawing dinosaurs), the artist is given a fairly detailed breakdown of what’s going to go on a page–a script that generally includes panel breaks and dialogue. In theory, this approach will prevent things like important visual elements being obscured by word balloons. But the theory only works if everyone knows–or, more accurately, if everyone’s in agreement about–how much text a page or panel of a comic can comfortably contain.

There are various rules of thumb for this. In the Z2H Editorial guidelines, editors are advised to suggest writers not have more than fifty words in a panel and no more than 25 words in a given balloon. Personally, I generally try to limit myself to 35 words or less a panel on an average page. There are exceptions to all this, of course–my webcomic, THE HOLIDAY MEN, was approached with a fairly aggressive disregard for what is generally considered acceptable text density for a modern comic panel. But both I and my artist knew that was the approach, and by having the text available prior to the artwork being done, he was able to create art that would work in harmony with, rather than against the text to create what was hopefully an enjoyable reading experience.

My read on Stephen’s original script is that this sort of textual density experimentation wasn’t the effect he was aiming for. I believe that, in an effort to maximize the comedic elements of the first issue, he tried to jam as much funny text into a page as he could–without taking into account how that much verbiage would affect the artwork.

I consulted with Stephen, who, if he didn’t agree with the notion that the dialogue would have to be spread out more than it was to begin with, at least didn’t object to my taking a pass at the script with an eye towards maintaining as much of his text and intent as possible, while creating a framework that would result in a finished product that was more in line with the modern comic storytelling aesthetic.

Or, to put it another way, I was going to, ahem, strongly advise breaking up the final panel of Stephen’s Page Five into at least two panels–one so that Kid Inferno could say his first piece of dialogue with an appropriate visual, and another with him visually, as well as in dialogue, reacting to what Fugue says. (In the end, I believe we actually split that panel into three or four separate images…)

To do this, I broke out the “Track Changes” function of Microsoft Word. Over the years, I’ve come to see this function as a positively indispensable tool for anyone doing anything resembling editing. For those who don’t know, if you set Track Changes right, it makes the text you add to a document a different colour from the normal black. It also doesn’t erase anything that you’re changing–when you delete, it crosses the text out with a line, but leaves it visible. Later, the writer or whoever can go through and accept or reject the changes, making them black, or add more comments of his/her own, which appear in a third colour. It’s a really neat little tool, actually.

The downside of the neat little tool is that it doesn’t reproduce in a blog. So, rather than showing you my redline version of what became Page Eight of KNIGHTCAP: NOVEMBER’S SONG, I’m instead going to show you Stephen’s revision of the script based on my notes. On three. One… Two…

Page 8 (5 Panels)

PANEL 1
A large introductory shot of FUGUE, floating in the air and smiling cheerfully down at KNIGHTCAP without a care in the world, despite the gas station threatening to explode around her. She should be majestic and adorable all at once, like Mary Marvel but with more gravitas. She is surrounded by musical notes (the sound that KNIGHTCAP hears as she hovers there).

FUGUE
WOW, THIS IS QUITE A FIRE YOU’VE GOT GOING! I HEARD THAT EXPLOSION FROM THIRTY THOUSAND WHOLE FEET UP!

CAP 1
OH WOW.

PANEL 2
A head-and-shoulders shot of FUGUE, still hovering in mid-air and smiling happily down at the off-panel Knightcap.

FUGUE
WOULD YOU LIKE HELP PUTTING IT OUT BEFORE IT’S TOO FAR GONE, OR IS THIS THE RESULT OF SOME INSURANCE-RELATED ARSON?

CAP 2
THAT’S FUGUE. THAT’S ACTUALLY FUGUE.

PANEL 3
We pull out to a profile threeshot, FUGUE continuing to hover as she gestures to the COUNTER JOCKEY slung over the shoulder of KNIGHTCAP, who holds his stunned pose from the previous page, and stares up at FUGUE in open-mouthed wonder.

FUGUE
I ONLY ASK BECAUSE, ON SOME LEVEL, THE YOUNG MAN THERE SEEMS OVERJOYED IT’S BURNING DOWN.

CAP 3
HERE. IN SCARBOROUGH.

PANEL 4
A tight shot, angled down, of KNIGHTCAP (still with the COUNTER JOCKEY over his shoulder) staring up at FUGUE (off-panel) in shock and wonder. He’s so taken with her appearance that he seems to have momentarily forgotten about the fire around him. A so-far-untouched gas pump or two should be just visible in the background behind him.

KNIGHTCAP
UH…

CAP 4
BE COOL, ERIC. DON’T GO ALL DROOLING FANBOY ON HER. SAY SOMETHING PITHY.

PANEL 5
A reverse angle of panel two, with the gas pumps in the foreground and a recoiling KNIGHTCAP and the hovering FUGUE in the background. A stream of fire shot by KID INFERNO (off-panel) connects with one of the gas pumps, causing it to explode upwards in a geyser of flame. KNIGHTCAP screams as he hurls himself (and the COUNTER JOCKEY he’s carrying) away from it. FUGUE looks at the explosion with a blank expression, but otherwise doesn’t react.

SFX
FWOOOSH!!

KNIGHTCAP & COUNTER JOCKEY
(in unison)
AAAAHHHHH!!

CAP 5
OR, Y’KNOW, SCREAM LIKE A LITTLE GIRL. THAT’LL IMPRESS HER, TOO.
_______________________

Because this post is already seven pages long and I’m about to lapse into a coma I’ve nicknamed Sheila for reasons too mind-numbingly uninteresting for me to even think about inflicting on you, gentle reader, I’m not going to go into the exact reasons why I chose each basic panel shot, or Stephen’s reactions and changes to my suggestions, or my revisions of those reactions. Instead, I’m going to, at long last, cut to the chase.

Because now we get to start creating an actual comic, rather than the blueprint for a comic. And that’s going to be a lot more interesting than me talking comics craft (which a non-comics fan friend of mine once described thusly: “You know the expression ‘as boring as watching paint dry?’ When you start talking about this stuff, it’s as boring as listening to someone TALK about watching paint dry.”)

It’s time for the wordsmiths to step aside and let artist wunderkind John Keane do his magic. If you’ve stuck it out this long, well, I hope you got something out of the previous rambling, but if you didn’t, you’re about to get the good stuff.

First, John’s rough layout of Page Eight, which is, not entirely coincidentally, KNIGHTCAP’s Page X:

And here’s his inks:

While I was typing this blog entry, John actually sent over the coloured version of Page Eight. But for reasons I’m too dopey to figure out right now, all I can make appear here is a thumbnail that leads to nothing. So…yeah. I’ll try and get that up somewhere when I regain consciousness.

I’m coming Sheila, baby, just a few minutes more…

Next week…I dunno. Maybe I’ll get into some of the even more nit-picky elements of comic craft, like word balloon placement (don’t get me started–seriously) or thinking in terms of page turns and reveals. Or maybe I’ll write something interesting. Hey, anything could happen.

Ever Upward, Heroes, Ever Upward.

And to all, a good night.

Foley

Greetings readers, and welcome to an update on Blake Undying, Deutschmaschine and Slaughter Incorporated.

Kuba Kujawa has been painting a storm over in Poland. I would have to say that Jason Cook’s Blake Undying will be completed in less than two weeks. Some pages come together a little faster than others. Take, for example, page 17. This has taken several revisions and the latest version which I just received hot off the internet is a complete re-imagining.

Here is version 1:

Here is version 2:

Here is version 3:

And 4:

5:

Soon.

Deutschmaschine is coming along quite nicely. Santiago Bou has completed the pencils on the pinup, and Devon Jopling will be inking them. Page X is thiiiiiis close to being done. Christian Major, creator of Deutschmaschine (AKA Fetternity AKA inker of Rip Current) has a very strong vision for his Deutschmachine. And here she is, off to inks!

I told you last week that I would tell you this week who will be the new artist on Tom Irony’s Slaughter Incorporated, but it turns out that this aforementioned artist has exams at the end of this month at the art school he is attending in Poland (hint hint). Therefore it would appear he might not be able to complete the project within the designated time frame for Comic Creation Nation Phase One to be complete. I’ll let you know more next week.

See You in the Funny Papers

Julian

Hey Guys,

My blog is a day late, but with good reason. I was waiting for approval on some of the art so I could show it to you. I am back home now, and I am back to full power with my desktop (woohoo!)

First up is Age of Heroes. Here is the first page, complete with letters.

Next up is our first page for Minus One. We were a little slow out of the gate, but this image only proves that a little patience can yield great rewards!

Finally, here is a sneak peek at the pinup for Alma. I am looking forward to seeing how this book turns out!

See ya next week!

j

Wait… wha? Is it Friday already? Oh man… wait, I have to follow Andrew Foley’s post? Oh man. He rocks, did you read that? I am still taking notes. Oh and that thumbnail he did — WOW, it puts my digitized boxes arrange pretty on a page we called “thumbnails” to bed!

Now what is better than knowing that in a few hours I will be seeing Iron Man the movie? Well, knowing that soon Sandrine will have more penciled pages of Abigail’s War done!

Yes, Abigail’s War is now in full production which is partially why I missed our Tuesday blog date. I know… I know… bad Robert but I have flowers. I do, see…

This is a teaser of the lovely pencils that Sandrine is doing for AW. The great Jennica and I are in discussion over the currently penciled pages while Sandrine continues her magic on more penciled pages. I am hoping that we can get some revisions done and then maybe move to either coloring or some penciled pages to tease you with for next week. Have a great weekend!

---

Oh and speaking of the weekend…. do not forget to go out and hit FREE COMIC BOOK DAY tomorrow! Yes. You heard me correctly, tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day where Comic Book stores will have free comics to give out. Go and check out what is happening at your own Local Comic Book store. Lots of stores are doing big huge events and even Zeros 2 Heroes is apart of one in Vancouver with Elfsar Comics & Toys, full details can be found here:
http://elfsar.com/FCBD/FCBD_2008.htm

Also (as a complete shameless plug) only at Elfsar can you get a LIMITED edition cool Between the Staples bookmark on Free Comic Book Day! Come by, have fun and grab a few! I plan to be there between 11am to 12pm if you wish to come down and put “KICK ME” signs on my back!

Wow, has it been a week already? Really? My calendar isn’t erring on the side of caution and it’s actually Monday or something?

…

No, huh? OK, OK.

As I recall, when last we met, I was regaling you with the joys of being an editor (the joys revolving mostly around not doing anything.) This week, if memory serves, I was to give some examples of the sort of thing I do to earn the pile of special Zeros 2 Heroes money (or Z2Hbucks, as they’re known around the office) that I roll around in every morning prior to jumping out of a tree and scaring the postman.

And so I shall! Well, one example, anyway.

It seems to me that one of the big things Zeros 2 Heroes offers writers unfamiliar with the craft of comics creation is access to a Real, Honest-to-God Comic Editor. Or, in the case of John and Stephen, to me. You win some, you lose some, boys.

I got lucky; the first professional editor who showed any interest at all in me actually showed a lot of interest. It was a year or two before he gave me my first paying assignment, but during that time he taught me a lot about the craft of comic writing. And then, after I slew him in bloody combat in accordance with the Pennsylvanian Editorial Rite of Passage, I went on and learned a few other things. Strange and useful and frightening things. I learned enough that my fragile ego blossomed into monstrous megalomania. I had reached the state of mind of…An Editor.

Now, anyone with a brain can tell you there are as many ways to write a comic book as there are writers. And, as J.D. Salinger said, “If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late. Nobody.” At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that the final, finished piece is as good as everyone involved could make it be given whatever constraints they’re working within. But I do believe there are some basic principles that will make the process easier on everyone, including the writer, the artist, and most importantly, me. And it is these basic principles that I try to convey to writers who don’t know them.

What are some of these basic principles? I’ll show you one in action. Here’s the original panel description for the fourth page of BLACK JACK O’BREEN:

Panel 1: Big splash page. Title at the top, credits at the bottom. We’re on the deck of a sailing ship, off the Irish coast on a dark night. The sails taut in the wind, like pale white ghosts. A couple pinpoints of light from the shore.

Standing at the railing is JACK O’BREEN in boots, long leather trail coat and a battered cowboy hat. Jack’s in his late 20s, tall and slender, a windblown look about him, and a sadness in his dark eyes. At his feet sits a big leather duffel bag.

Beside him, a sailor, MICKEY. Good lad, but a touch thick.

CAPTION
Six months later.

MICKEY
There she is, Jack. The isle of Erin. How’s it feel coming home?

JACK
I’ll let you know.

_______

If I understand things correctly, John’s writing experience has primarily been in the field of screenwriting. There are principles to be applied in that field, too, and he applied one of them in his panel description: he described a scene in an interesting but concise manner. So what’s the problem?

There may not be one. An artist may read that description and interpret in a way that may make the writer happy. But any happiness the writer would feel would be a lucky happenstance, because whatever ends up on the page, it’s not going to be the panel described. It’s pretty much impossible for an artist to draw a panel set at night that includes:
-a boat with ghostly sails,
-the coast with pinpoints of light,
-Jack standing at a railing (presumably looking at the coast in the distance, though that’s not specified),
-with a duffel bag visible at his feet, and
-a windblown look about him, and (and this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, really)
-sadness in his dark eyes

You try and draw it. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

…

See?

Part of the Z2H editorial process is doing rough panel and balloon placement thumbnails based on the script. Part of the rationale for that is to give inexperienced writers an idea of how much text can comfortably fit in a panel and on a page. John really didn’t have a problem with his dialogue–he kept things lean, rarely if ever overloaded a panel with more text than it could hold. But he did, on occasion, write panel descriptions as though they were scene descriptions–and while that won’t necessarily lead to tears, the possibility is there.

And that’s where I come in. Here’s my thumbnails for Page Four of BLACK JACK O’BREEN:

It’s a bit more detailed than most of Z2H thumbs tend to be, but I did it that way for a reason (a reason other than the fact that I’m a compulsive doodler and can’t help myself). Rather than simply telling John something wasn’t going to work, I wanted to offer him a different option–or at least get him thinking in terms of breaking up his scene into drawable panels.

Here’s the revised script for BJO Page 4:

PAGE FOUR (3 Panels)

Panel 1: Across the top. We’re at sea, nighttime. Dramatic angle from water level up the hull of a sailing ship moving through choppy seas. The bowsprit and lines stabbing the night sky, taut white sails a ghostly presence in the moonlight.

CAPTION
Six months later.

Panel 2: Rest of the page, noting the inset Panel 3 below. Title and credits. At the railing with his back to us stands JACK O’BREEN - boots, long leather trail coat and a battered cowboy hat. At his feet sits a big leather duffel bag.

Beside him, a sailor, MICKEY. Good lad, but a touch thick. They’re looking at the Irish coast looming out of the dark. The moonlight glowing on the sea.

MICKEY
There she is, Jack. Ireland. How’s it feel coming home?

Panel 3: Small square inset in Panel 2. Very close 3/4 view of Jack’s face. He’s in his late 20s, a weathered look about him. Quick eyes, but a sadness. He looks out over the water.

JACK
I’ll let you know.
_________

Note that John went one step further than I did, and included a close-up of Jack so we could get a view of his quick, sad eyes. I’m not entirely sure “quick, sad eyes” is something an artist can communicate visually inside a static image–but at least he’s got a fighting chance of doing it inside a 3/4 close-up.

And that’s the sort of thing an editor does. Or at least the sort of thing I do when I’m editing.

More examples may be forthcoming, depending on what the next few days brings.

Foley

Rip Current is a story about a world covered in water (mostly) and as such the characters move about in vehicles which are amphibious.  They can hover in the air as well as move about under water. Unfortunately for me, (you’ll know what I mean if you read my last post about being stranded with a seized outboard last week) these vehicles don’t exist yet. As such they had to be designed and drawn in such a way as to be both realistic and beleivable. These vehicles are crucial to the telling of the story, so Page X, the first page of the comic that the art team produces, had to contain the main characters in the story, and these vehicles. Patricio Plaza, who is the penciller for Rip Current designed the vehicles or “pods” to show their function, making them streamlined and futuristic, and I think they are quite beleivable. They also had to stand out from the mostly blue, water and sky in the background  and since they are used to patrol the waters around the island fortress, they are given a bit of “coastguard ” orange as well as siver chrome. We got alot of great feedback from people on the pinup art and for those who requested more here is page X in it’s finished state plus for you process junkies, Patricio’s pencils, Christian’s inks and Aya’s colours without Ed’ s lettering.