The Festival Season: A Graphic Novel

tumblr who?

2011-04-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

My brain was starting to feel so crowded that it felt empty. It's like having junk all over the house and not being able to find anything. Festival Season needs my attention and love and I just couldn't seem to muster either for any length of time.

The most common feedback that we've received about our story so far is that we need to have more background information about Harlan in the first issue. I was desperate for some sort of clean slate where I could begin to sort things out.

I created a tumblr account for The Festival Season here. I really dig this thing. The layout is simple and clean and it took me longer to choose a theme than it did for me to create an account and publish our first post.

We hope that you will follow our progress on tumblr as I flesh out more of Harlan's character and take our story in the direction that it wants to go.

waiting for revisions

2011-03-11T15:48:00.000-08:00

yes we ARE still alive, thank you for asking!

We have a plan of sorts. Revisions feature large in that plan. So many helpful people have offered up a lot of very useful feedback and now the ball is with us again. We have decided to implement the feedback and make revisions to Issue One before releasing it out on the world again. So, Kumari shall write and I shall artify her writing, and then...we'll be back. You know it!

To those of you who still check this blog now and again...Hello! And thank you!

Portland Comic Show.

2010-11-21T20:26:00.001-08:00

It really was a lot better attended than this photo indicates. Long line to get in. I found the person I wished to talk to and he seemed to like what he could see of Festival Season but he was pretty straightforward and practical in regards to the comics market right now: It's down like everything else in the universe, and his company being a small one, chances of them being able to take on FS are slim to non-existent. He had some good advice about self-publishing though and I think for the first time since we began this venture, I started to get sort of excited about the prospect of doing that. Before, it seemed like, well, too much work. Oh like it hasn't been a lot of work to get the project to where it is now, no siree, not at all.

So that was a good thing, and it was nice to meet him, he was a pleasant man and did beautiful work. The other good thing was I didn't get stuck in a snowbank on the drive home.

NO costumes though! I didn't see any cool costumes, except these Star Wars characters that were advertised. No Princess Leia though, bummer.

I have a feeling, Kumari, that the Portland Comic Show was just about the polar opposite of the convention you went to in NYCC.

Portland Comic Show!

2010-11-17T18:13:00.000-08:00

Hi all! We're still here. Alive and kickin', and scheming.

There's this nice show I am headed up to this weekend:

http://www.portlandcomicbookshow.com/

Looking at the guest list, I see a person I would like to talk to about Festival Season, as I believe our story would be just perfect for his publishing house. Got my copies made today, and the young man at Staples wished us luck.

I'll check in with an update, provided I make it up there over the snowy mountain passes!

xo, r

not a rant...really.

2010-10-25T18:24:00.001-07:00

IDW publishing is the latest company to pass on our graphic novel. I wasn't really surprised. Before the editor even read our synopsis, he shook his head and said, "I'm going to level with you, things are tight." Long gone are the days when DC Comics published a leather-bound volume of Dark Night tales by Frank Miller (which I own). Most publishers are not willing to spend that kind of money on creator-owned projects.

What I have noticed is that a lot of graphic novels on the shelves at Barnes and Noble are illustrated companion pieces for successful franchises. IDW publishes the True Blood graphic novels. I subscribed to the installments and I read them on the iPad. They are fun and it's something to feed my appetite when the show is on hiatus.

I just wonder if this is what most graphic novel publishing will be like. IDW owns tons of these titles, including Jurassic Park, Dr. Who and Star Trek. I guess I thought that the point of owning the rights to these franchises would be to free up more cash for riskier ventures. But that's probably a bit idealistic.

The interesting thing is that I got a chance to meet Tony Lee who writes the Dr. Who graphic novel and he had a writing resume like you would not believe.

So do I have to become known for writing something else before I can get hired to write a comic book?

good news, bad news

2010-09-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

Sooo...

Dark Horse decided to pass on The Festival Season. That's the bad news, as you've probably guessed.

The good news is that the assistant editor gave us a lot of useful feedback. He liked the art and the story, but he didn't feel like the marketing department would know what to do with it. There are no men in tights (hmm...not so sure about that) and no buxom females in leather and metal leotards with flowing hair. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

He suggested that we look into smaller publishers that cater to serious readers. He also suggested that we give up more of the goodies on Harlan in the first issue. It makes sense for Joseph to be kind of mysterious but Harlan is a more assertive person so no need to hold back on how brash and manipulative his character can be.

More from the good news department, he thought that our "frank" treatment of sexuality was "refreshing." I was wondering how that theme came across (not that I was going to change it, LOL).

The next thing we're going to do is look into other publishing houses that are more literary and work on expanding the first issue to include more details about Harlan.

We're Not Dead. Promise.

2010-08-03T16:49:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

This place could use some sprucing up! *fluffs pillows*
So, we sent art and the comic script of the first issue to an assistant editor at Dark Horse Comics. He was interested enough to want to know more, so I sent him a synopsis of the whole story from start to finish.

Of course I want things to go our way, but I'm really proud that I actually finished something, LOL.

I kind of want to know what he thinks of our vision for the whole story before I move on with issue 2. I have some ideas of what I want to happen next, but those could be all of the things that he thinks suck and need to be cut (gulp).

next steps

2010-04-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

I don't really mind writing cover letters. It's sort of like cleaning the litter box; there is no sense in fretting about it, it must be done.

What's scary about writing the cover letter to submit our first issue to Dark Horse is that I have to commit to the plot on paper. Yeah, I know, the story has to be finalized at some point but there is something daunting about being definitive.

But I just have to plow through it and hope for the best.

And I'm already thinking about issue #2...

Last page.

2010-04-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I hereby wrap up my end of The Festival Season, Issue One and pass it into the more-than-capable hands of Kumari.

I got the rest of the pages back from the copy shop, and being as they are made from the hi-rez version of the art, plus have the chapter pages in between, they look good I have to say. Looking at it all as a unit, with chapters delineated, I can say in all honesty that I am proud of the work we did on this and feel optimistic about its future. Whatever a publisher's response, I know I did the best I am capable of, worked very hard, and can't do any more than that.

We'll be sure to keep you updated on what happens when it gets out into the big bad world! And I thank each of you who have visited and commented because your support means so, so much to me, it's just that: Support, and we all need it to thrive and keep our noses to the grindstone. I appreciate it so much, you are the best!

Take it away, K!

Page 24

2010-04-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to guess what Kumari has in mind for the last page...but can't figure it out! I know it will be grand though.

finally, a poem.

2010-04-16T07:06:00.000-07:00

So I don't really like poetry.

I've tried to like it over the years, but the whole exercise always felt more like homework and less like pleasurable reading.

Yesterday I heard Robert Hass on NPR read a poem from this book:

The poem, titled 'August Notebook: A Death,' is an elegy written for his younger brother who died unexpectedly. The poet's brother has cerebral palsy and lived somewhere between the sky and the street most of the time.

These lines...

You can fall a long way in sunlight.

You can fall a long way in the rain.

The ones who don't take the old white horse

take the evening train.

...really reminded me of Harlan and Joseph.

I think those lines reminded me of our characters because not everyone lives the same way. Perhaps the mode of transportation to our deaths will be just as different.

page 23

2010-03-26T18:35:00.001-07:00

Bedlam, Take Two

2010-03-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

Spent the last week catching up on all the fixes and redos, and am done with the redos!

Here is Bedlam, which will be all the way back on Page One. I thought the original was...okay but kind of a dull shot. I'm glad I redid it.

Are you kidding me?

2010-03-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

WHAT?!

Victorian Medical Illustration

2010-03-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

As it is frequently the case with The Festival Season, a quick trip online to find an image or research a topic turned into a two hour journey into another world. An idea came to me a while ago about doing a page in the novel that was inspired by 19th century medical illustrations. It sounds kinda gimmicky, but the idea just wouldn't leave and you know how that is. I started looking for some examples to get me going and I came across a collection of plates by a man named Joseph Maclise (1850-1880). He did these very artistic illustrations with oil paints and it's obvious the man loved the human body. Less Hippocrates, more...Walt Whitman. Nature and sensuality, they are inseparable.

The image above came from one of these plates and I was puzzled by the ropes at the ankle. I read that anatomy models were often tied down to hold their poses, but that's not uh...what I er...thought of when I saw the ropes in this drawing. Bondage was not unheard of during the Victorian era and I can't help but feel as if the artist was invoking multiple meanings.

The way that I want the extent of Joseph's scarring to be revealed is starting to take shape and finding Maclise's illustrations has been a huge stroke of luck.

In case anyone is curious about the curious, I also found a lot to sink my teeth into at a research library called Morbid Anatomy which maintains a fascinating blog.

Did you know that there were virtual museums? This is the best idea ever. Morbid Anatomy has all kinds of artifacts and virtual exhibits on anatomical art and other medical weirdness.

I feel like the deeper I go, the more that Harlan reveals himself to me.

Accessing what's left to do

2010-03-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

So on the way home tonight I tried to figure how long it will take to wrap Issue One up. It's not as intimidating as it seems I don't think. In addition to how many more actual pages Kumari has in store for me, there's:

1)scanning and cleaning up the lettering I have now---1 day

2)I counted about 7 panels from past pages that I don't like and want to redo. Unfortunately I noticed that my style has changed just a little from the first handful of pages, a little slicker and less loose. I think that I can even it out with a few changes and fixes here and there. 1 1/2 weeks

3) Spot illustrations for chapter pages--2 days

4) Cover. Maybe, oh, a week?

And then about a week per page for what is left. Not so bad!

Emerald City Comic Con is in a few weeks but things are too busy to get up there for it. We'll want everything to be all polished, I think, before showing it again. Oh and here is Page 22:

Time to make the kiddies leave the room!

2010-02-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

Ok so THIS is really page 20. Kumari wanted to add a little more spice to Joseph's nighttime ramblings, before the bandages come off. So this is page 20, and the one I posted before as page 20 is actually 21. Mkay?

page 20

2010-02-16T18:16:00.001-08:00

Twenty. Two Oh.

scissors

2010-02-10T08:22:00.000-08:00

I found these in my grandmother's embroidery things last year. Neat, huh? Probably not strictly Victorian but vintage nonetheless. And since the next page does feature scissors, I think I will use them. Little bit of Grandma makes it into FS.

P.s....upon re-reading the last paragraph, why is 'scissors' plural even when it's one tool? Or is that correct at all?

page 19

2010-02-06T18:34:00.000-08:00

Almost to 20! Almost! and 20 is 5 away from 25...

sepia

2010-02-03T18:04:00.001-08:00

Thought I would post this small panel just because I like how it turned out. I am really liking this sepia only look, it's very fun to work with and it does force you to think more about the lighting. Maybe on future projects I'd consider doing the whole thing this way.

One thing though---Mr. Lettering told me that sepia used to be made from the ink of cuttlefish! The poor things! I do hope they made it by just gently squeezing the little critters and then setting them free...

how about this?

2010-01-29T18:57:00.001-08:00

Maybe this might work? The pants are similar, but the jacket is a bit more fanciful. The stripey socks are cool, not sure if a rich Victorian would wear them, but I like them anyway! I don't think we need a cap; I like his hair the way that it is.

sketch of Harlan as a child

2010-01-26T19:21:00.001-08:00

Not happy with his clothing, might have to do some research and find something more Little Boy Blue.

page 18

2010-01-25T19:01:00.001-08:00

I don't know if this page will solve any of the mysteries created by the last posts...but then again, it might not be meant to!

And done

2010-01-17T15:20:00.000-08:00

It's actually 2 panels. I'm trying to get all artsy-fartsy with this one.

middle ground

2010-01-14T17:09:00.000-08:00

Next I started in on the house. Generally with watercolor I like to work from the background to foreground, and the house really doesn't qualify as background here but it was so intriguing to me I wanted to get busy on it. Just adding more shadow areas and detail. Busting out the teeny brushes again.

I'm using only sepia on a yellowed background for this page, a design decision Kumari and I made based on the theme...which will be revealed in time!

another step by step

2010-01-13T18:15:00.000-08:00

This next page is going to be in an entirely different palette so I thought this panel might be a good candidate for another "step by step" post (posts, since it could be a few days before it's done at the rate I am going).

I transferred the drawing to watercolor paper using a light table and started by laying down some washes, to establish the light and shadow areas.

More tomorrow I hope!

Dollhouses

2010-01-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

All this time, I have been perusing the Internet for source material on Victorian-style interiors, when what I needed to be doing is looking at sites about Victorian dollhouses. Seriously, the attention to detail of the artists creating them is nothing short of amazing. All a person needs, right there. Here is a layout I did in Sketch Up after looking at some of them:

Oh, and an update on next page progress: My current paying gig is due first week in February so I'll be a little slow on the draw (so to speak) until then. Still hope to get a page up between now and then, if I am lucky. Thank you for your patience!

Happy 2010 to all!

2010-01-04T15:05:00.000-08:00

Oh, and here is page 17. New Year's hugs all around!

Season's Greetings

2009-12-21T19:54:00.000-08:00

Wishing our dear readers a safe and festive holiday. Here's to an exciting, eventful 2010!

pg 16

2009-12-16T18:50:00.001-08:00

Extreme Close-up Action!

2009-12-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

I was putting some pieces together in Photoshop today and super-enlarged one image. It looked kinda cool and different with the texture of the paper and all, so I took a screen shot.

In other news, I may be a bit slower with the posts for the next 6 weeks or so. I fell prey to an impulse for a little thing called "income".

process

2009-12-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

I've recently changed the process I use to get the page laid out, and it might seem like a bit "duh" but it took me this long to figure out that this is the best way to do it. Ok so I am a late bloomer.

Before, I was doing it panel by panel, looking at Kumari's description of each panel and then drawing it out and hoping for the best when it came to fitting it all on the page. Most of the time there were some spacial discrepancies.

So I finally wised up and started making a full size mockup of the whole page first, using a combo of sketches and printouts from Google Sketchup. Since then, no more surprises when it comes time to fitting the final watercolor panels together! And no more important parts getting chopped off by the borders.

Over the Hump

2009-12-06T12:41:00.000-08:00

As of this post, we are over halfway done with Issue One. It's just like running a footrace, so they say---on your workouts, if you can go halfway you can go all the way come race day. At least that's how I am trying to look at it. Only I'm sort of the tortoise on this venture it seems sometimes!

Anyway here's page 15.

Hand lettering take 2

2009-12-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

New and with a Micron pen! (I think that's what Mr. Lettering said he was using.) We are shooting for having it all look the way the text looks in the last 2 bubbles. I'm super pleased and hope you all like too.

Action Shot!

2009-12-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

We haven't had too many of them yet, and I like this sketch, so...yes I know there are no clothes; you're supposed to draw bodies first and drape clothes on later, sillies!

pg 14

2009-11-30T17:35:00.000-08:00

Happy! Mama needs a pizza now, and a big glass of wine.

Introducing...

2009-11-23T17:24:00.000-08:00

Viceroy! Or some sketches of him at any rate. Here also is the photo Kumari found of him to use as reference material. He's a very important character so I must get him right.

pg 13

2009-11-23T17:16:00.000-08:00

Does this seem to flow ok for everyone? Like, can you tell the sequence well enough? Sometimes I'm just too close and can't tell.

hand lettering rough version

2009-11-21T13:49:00.001-08:00

Here's a first pass trial run on the hand-lettering. It was done in marker rather than ink, and on tracing paper, so it needed some cleanup because the scanner picks up every faint smudge, esp. if I have to darken it. I think it will have to be done in ink, as I won't be able to take the time to do much cleanup. It'll have to be a fairly fast process of ink to comic to make this feasible; the pages take long enough as it is.

pg 12

2009-11-16T17:31:00.001-08:00

London rooftops from the Patient's balcony

2009-11-13T19:51:00.001-08:00

I started out painting the sky a cheerful blue but then remembered Kumari telling me that she preferred a palette that made the city look more polluted and kinda nasty.

It still turned out looking pretty cheery though.

The New Victorians

2009-11-12T07:13:00.000-08:00

Late 19th-Century style returns...guess everyone finally got tired of seeing grown men in orange Crocs.

The New York Times published an article in the Fashion & Style section about how Victorian clothing has been incorporated into modern male dress without veering towards costume:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/fashion/12CODES.html?8dpc

Sherlock Holmes on the Spring 2010 runway? Looking forward to it...

presents for the Patient

2009-11-11T18:22:00.001-08:00

Pretty! Can't wait to find out what's in 'em.

pg 11

2009-11-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

I like Ruby getting a little more assertive.

Hanging Pictures in the Olden Days

2009-11-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

Hm, so I have been depicting the paintings hanging in Harlan's home all wrong.

And I realized this because when it came time to hang pics in the studio I realized that they don't build 'em like they uster.

The building where my studio is was built in 1916, roughly 25+/- years after the Festival Season takes place. So I imagine the materials used are about the same. The walls are covered in a plaster so hard, you can't drive a nail in---in fact there are a few patched chunks of missing plaster that show where past tenants have also tried and failed.

But near the ceiling is a strip of picture molding, which requires hooks to hold paintings up. That's how I'm gonna have to hang mine, and that's how Harlan would have to as well. So in the interest of maintaining authenticity I guess I'd better go back and do some retouching...

lettering

2009-11-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Montana, spending a week with relations. While there I showed a panel from Festival Season to one of my relatives who is a professional letterer (Yes, they still exist!). He volunteered to hand-letter this graphic novel, if you can believe it.

I have been feeling pretty ambivalent about our font, truth be told. I can't letter for a hill of beans so a digital font is most definitely way better than that, but still...for an art look that is meant to look as hand-drawn as possible, down to the shape of the balloons, I have felt that using a digital font is just not right. So I'm really thrilled by this new development.

When I have some samples of the hand lettering I will post some here and you all can have a look, see what you think.

Le salon de Harlan

2009-10-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

You know, I do spend an awful lot of time rendering out detail that's probably going to be chopped off in the final product. But it's that 'probably' that is so worrisome. I don't want our first effort to be shoddy just because I tried to take shortcuts, right?

O Google Sketchup, I love you more each day...

2009-10-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

...except you have no tool to make orbs. Whyfor no orbs? Here I am trying to render a nice parlor for Harlan and his ladies, with a chandelier that has orbs of glass. The cylinders don't quite cut it. They look like large Life Savers candies.

Maybe the orb tool is in "Advanced Google Sketch up, the one you don't get for free" (?). Anyone know (looks at Edward)?

pg 10

2009-10-21T18:17:00.000-07:00

When last we left our heroes, The Patient was giving Mammon and Ruby fits by throwing his milk on the ground and writing taunting notes to them. Harlan pushed the women out in to the hall, with the order that they go to town and find something to keep the Patient amused. Then Harlan takes over for them.

Wow, the Patient's kind of a butthead.

inspiration and transformation

2009-10-19T07:26:00.001-07:00

I've never actually tried to meditate. The subject has become more interesting to me as I consider the possibility of earning a living as a creative person. I will have to learn how to do new things. For me, art (writing) is about transformation. How do I transform the images and words in my head into something that other people can experience?

If I am going to get better at transforming my inner language into an outer expression, then my mind will have to become clearer to begin with.

I visited the blog of a local artist named Anne Marchand. She works out of Washington, DC and is known for her use of color and dedication to public art projects. Marchand posted an interview on her blog with Eric Maisel, a philosopher/artist. Maisel developed a breathing technique called the 'Ten Zen Seconds.'

sigh...

I usually resist exercises like this because they sometimes strike me as a way to get out of writing. Meditate, stretch, do Pilates, buy a new laptop, make coffee, think deep thoughts...oops, now it's 5:00 pm and there is no time to write. Oh well, at least I feel 'inspired.'

But I liked the actual words that he includes in his incantations (I like that word, incantations, sounds mysterious).

See what you think:

Here are the twelve incantations (the parentheses show how the phrase gets “divided up” between the inhale and the exhale):

1. (I am completely) (stopping)
2. (I expect) (nothing)
3. (I am) (doing my work)
4. (I trust) (my resources)
5. (I feel) (supported)
6. (I embrace) (this moment)
7. (I am free) (of the past)
8. (I make) (my meaning)
9. (I am open) (to joy)
10. (I am equal) (to this challenge)
11. (I am) (taking action)
12. (I return) (with strength)

Anne Marchand's blog can be found here.

New Digs 2: Studio moving day

2009-10-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

Hooray, get to move all my art junk in tonight. Thought I'd take a few shots before it got all cluttered.

The sign on the door still says something about a long-gone software company but that can stay for now. Someday when K and I are flush I can replace it with something suitable (any ideas?).

Can you tell I am stoked? Unfortunately the building requires that the movers don't start bringing my junk in til after 5 so as not to interrupt commerce. For me that means time and a half to the movers. Oh well! Can't say I blame 'em.

Detail of stairwell. I love stained glass.

First thing I did was hang some artifacts on the wall, a bag of assorted doodahs meant to bring luck and to inspire.

Really though with K's great manuscript that's about all the inspiration I'll need.

I was talking with an artist friend today about how grown-up I feel, and wondering why it's taken this long to start regarding myself as a 'serious ar-teest' when in fact she and I have been doing it for our entire adult lives? However, doing it independently is a different story. Artifacts, don't fail me now!

New Digs

2009-10-10T16:45:00.001-07:00

See those windows in the middle of the second floor? As of next week that's the new Headquarters of Festival Season Art, Inc. Wow did I ever luck out. It's a great space in a great old building. The 15th is the day they hand me the keys and then I can take a picture of the space itself. It's absolutely perfect.

I'm pretty close to being completely moved in to my new residence, and happy to be so. It's been a really hard roller coaster of a last 6 weeks or so; at times I have felt so physically and emotionally exhausted I wondered if I'd ever find the energy again to make art, which was the whole point of the relocation, right?

But I've since had a chance to rest up and now I am itching to get in there and start work. The enforced break has allowed me to do all I needed to do, but now, Harlan and Joseph's world is where I need to be, with Kumari.

My new home town:

I'll be posting art soon!

It's been almost a year!

2009-10-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that we started this blog a year ago? So much has happened since October 2008. We have exposed ourselves to professional comic gods (exposed our work, don't get fresh), changed addresses, took insane risks, stalled out, given in to bouts of mania, and wondered what the hell we were supposed to do next. One thing I've learned over this past year is that you should never wait until you have it all figured out to try something. If you think you know it all about any one thing, then you're not really accomplishing much and you don't really know what you're talking about, anyway. Jump in, get scared, and figure it all out later.

a grand adventure

2009-09-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

At the end of September, I am moving south from here, to where the summers are warm and the winters are snowy. No more enduring hours of traffic, cranky city dwellers, filth and despair. So long to not having time to cook, or read, or embroider...or work on Festival Season.

From October until it is done, Festival Season will be my official full-time job. Spending all of my days with Harlan, Joseph, Mammon and Ruby---this should be interesting. And needless to say, you should be getting a lot more frequent art postings from me...a lot.

There are so many people up here in Seattle that I will miss seeing on a daily basis, but it doesn't mean I won't see them again. But in the meantime, Festival Season beckons, and it needs to be finished. And I can heed its call.

Love to all,

r

Thank You!

2009-08-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Dear readers who thought good real estate thoughts for me,

Thank you! Seems it did the trick. I feel blessed.

This does pertain to The Festival Season, very much so, and soon I will tell you why.

Love and gratitude,

Rhonda

Goddess of Real Estate, be with me tonight

2009-08-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

Oh please oh please! It's imperative to the future of Festival Season (well, the speed of its completion anyway). Please kind readers, join me in a prayer...it means so much....sold....sold...sold....

Character profile #2

2009-08-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

Ruby

Ruby is of mixed race and unknown parentage. She doesn't know where she was born, her last name, or how old she is. Her appearance seems youthful so we can imagine that she is in her early twenties.

She was left with Gardelle Vicens at the Bedlam mental institution because of her diminished mental capacity. He allowed her to sleep in his office quarters because she was afraid of the other inmates. Harlan took her into his home and developed a very strong attachment to her. Ruby can be bratty and spoiled because Harlan lets her do whatever she wants. She is like a child to him and he treats her accordingly. She doesn't always understand what is happening around her and lacks a certain sophistication.

Ruby works very hard around the house, is an excellent cook, and has unexpected flashes of insight into human nature. She is fascinated by The Patient and wants him to like her so that she will be allowed to enter his secret world.

Bowl of purple

2009-08-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

I had to laugh when a friend came over to visit, one who didn't know about the Festival Season; she spotted this panel on my art table and said, "Oh woe is me! I am so, so sad sitting here stirring my bowl of purple..."

OK it's bad.

2009-07-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Record setting temps here in the Northwestern US. You gotta know, we so very rarely get hot weather here that few of us have any home AC. It's not done. So my place is a sauna and it's hard to focus on painting.

On the other hand, the watercolor dries faster between washes.

page 9

2009-07-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

Still plugging away in the summer heat (an unusual heat wave in Seattle...studio not air-conditioned...gasping...).

Ok it's not that bad.

smile

2009-07-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Just 'cos. xoxoxo.

page 8

2009-06-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

Once more, hands I am happy with get cropped. You'd think I would have learned by now!

Oh and I just noticed a discrepancy between two panels that I'll have to fix. Can you spot it?

Ruby

2009-06-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

inspiration: Lord Byron

2009-06-16T17:03:00.000-07:00

What can we say about Lord Byron?
Insatiable, indecent and dead at 36.

The rapacious trajectory of the poet’s appetite for sex and celebrity makes him a poster boy for what his contemporary and countryman Dr. J. C. Prichard termed “moral insanity” — a disease of the passions that left the intellect intact while “the individual is . . . incapable . . . of conducting himself with decency and propriety in the business of life.”

-Kathryn Harrison, The New York Times Book Review

Harlan was written as a Byronic Hero; charismatic, flawed and decadent. Where Harlan and Byron part ways is in the nature of their temperament. Byron was cruel. Harlan's approach to friends and lovers is slightly paternal, if egocentric. And let's face it, a God complex is favorable when compared to forcing your wife to listen to love letters about your cousin.

Upstairs bedroom

2009-06-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

A bit nicer than Joseph's first digs.

What is that, a fried egg on the ground?

page 7

2009-06-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Yay!

I know I have been slower than snot (is snot slow?) but I have reason to hope that someday soon I may be able to crank things out a *lot* faster. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Harlan turns on the charm

2009-05-31T13:14:00.000-07:00

Who wouldn't trust a face like that?

Mammon gets all indignant

2009-05-29T22:03:00.001-07:00

I really like the way she turned out here.

In other news, done with Page 6! Finally, good gravy!

Cadmium Red = ouch

2009-05-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've had to purchase a tube of this color. As a matter of fact, I think until this weekend I'd been working on my Student Tube (it's not a color I have used very often). So I was unprepared for how expensive that s***'s gotten. Yoiks!

influences: Art Spiegelman

2009-05-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

Let's start by pointing out that the same person who created this:

Also created this:

And best of all, this:

If there is one thing I admire in an artist, it's versatility. I'm especially interested in people who can move between high and low art. I don't really believe in low art, I guess. I'll have to think of another way to say that because John Waters has forever changed the way I look at 'trash.'

One of the things I like most about Art Spiegelman is that he is an advocate for the comics medium and the people who give their lives to the industry. He abandoned positions at Topps and The New Yorker when he felt that the interests of free expression were ignored or that the labor of artists was not fully appreciated.

A Holocaust tale and Garbage Pail Kids from the same person? This is the kind of artist I want to be.

page 6, last panel sketch

2009-05-21T22:21:00.001-07:00

GAH! What is it about this page that is taking me so flipping long to do? Oh wait, it's Victorian architecture. Next story we do, K, let's have it be in a Bauhaus setting.

Anyway I have here Harlan looking a little bemused, with his legs crossed. What do you think of that, does it work for him?

Mammon enters the scene

2009-05-20T22:06:00.001-07:00

slumming

2009-05-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

I felt like I needed more information about a particular angle of the story. Harlan is a wealthy man but chooses to spend time on the East End of London and hires his servants from workhouses and asylums. I knew that the slang term for this proclivity was 'slumming,' but what I didn't know was that the term was coined during the Victorian period.

I was fortunate to get my hands on this book by Seth Koven that explores the slumming phenomenon in depth. Aristocrats had many reasons to be fascinated by London's poor and the author doesn't shy away from any of those reasons, including the less than altruistic ones.

I suspect that some people slummed to run away from their lives, to take on poverty as a means to freedom.

Maybe Harlan does slum to rebel and as a means of self expression. But he doesn't want to give up his social position in exchange.

He wants it all.

Mammon sketches

2009-05-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

First tries at drawing Mammon, another new character introduced this page. I'll let Kumari talk about what she's like! She's going to be a lot of fun I can tell right now. Will draw more after K has had a chance to look at this and say if it's anything close to what she was envisioning.

Aaaand the inside.

2009-05-12T21:58:00.001-07:00

Harlan at work in his study.

At last!

2009-05-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

Ok so I took a little hiatus...went to some Cons, attended to some personal business..and finally finished this painting of Chez Harlan! Truth be told, I was a little intimidated by it. People I like to draw and they make me happy but buildings... they are a bit harder. But I am happy with how it turned out. Maybe now I can even finish the rest of the page, har.

Posting Chapters

2009-04-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to post the prose version of The Festival Season here on our blog. Our chatter is likely to make more sense if the uninitiated can read some of the story.

Chapter 1- Bedlam

The countryside had grown smaller, or so it seemed to Harlan. It had been years since he had seen it last; a visitor in boyhood when his family still saw fit to make frequent jaunts there. Trips to the country had fallen out of favor with their set; the draw of London too strong to part with, even for a week or two.

He expected to be drained when he pulled up the soft sod path to the hospital’s entrance, but driving himself in the small barouche had been strangely invigorating. Harlan couldn’t remember the last time he had driven himself anywhere.

Harlan stood on the cobble walk that was flanked by gated pastures and watched the foreman drive his cab towards the stables.

The towering spires of the building’s facade suggested a holy progressiveness; that perhaps Bedlam had matured beyond allowing curious travelers a poke at the crazies with broomsticks on Tuesdays. But the smell that met Harlan at the interior gate was neither holy, nor progressive; it was the same odor of the ill and mistreated that had always been there.

Harlan was reaching into the watch pocket of his frock coat when he saw Gardelle approach with the key in hand.

“Terribly sorry,” Gardelle said, hurrying the lock open. “I didn’t keep you waiting?”

“Not at all,” Harlan said pleasantly. “Is there somewhere private we can speak prior to...?”

“Yes, of course,” Gardelle answered quietly.

Gardelle walked swiftly past chambers that were like adjoined stages playing out the same scene; clumping groups of nodding, whooping, moaning, and some so still that they faded into the mortar. Harlan let his eyes watch, although Gardelle’s speed-walking gave him permission not to. The sights and sounds didn’t trouble him; it seemed truthful that the poisons of London spread root to the country and so he felt at home.

Harlan kept his eye on Gardelle’s gait; loping forwards with his neck leaning out like a horse to bring home the finish. His clothes were plain enough; his trousers and coat were the colors identical to each other, showing a lack of thought or taste. He didn’t wear a silk vest in the American Western style as was the fashion, and his boots had not been blacked. Harlan didn’t expect Gardelle to match him in quality, but it seemed to be overstating the point to preside over this place while dressed in such a cheerless manner.

The walk ended at a dead-bolt door that swung tight on its hinge. Harlan waited for Gardelle to invite him to sit. But he did not wait to scan the surface of his desk; there were medical charts and he could decipher much of what was written on them. The photographs were turned face down. Perhaps Gardelle knew his ways better than expected.

Harlan licked his lips and smoothed down his hair while he waited for Gardelle to put on his spectacles and gather himself. Gardelle’s expression shifted with each breath; his normal dull pallor taking on a consciously grave but excited hue. Harlan knew that he was about to see something he had never seen before.

“Six nights ago, there was an attack,” Gardelle began. “They’re quite certain that it was the Ripper, well, almost sure of it.”

Harlan had already heard several accounts, but he wanted to hear another.

“They found him, face-down in filth, and when they turned him over, they saw this.”

Gardelle handed him a photograph with an unsteady hand.

Harlan looked down at the picture. His eyes recorded everything; the lighting, the direction of the stones, the smears of feces, and the clotting blood.

He turned the picture around to face Gardelle. “This is not the Ripper’s work, he’s a boy, and probably a gang sort.”

Gardelle winced at the sight of the photograph. Harlan was almost amused. The pictures had been turned over for Gardelle’s benefit.

“Allow m-me to finish, Mr. Quinn,” Gardelle said stiffly. “A boy, indeed. But he wasn’t dressed as one. The Ripper left his dress down by his waist, or what’s left of it.”

Gardelle covered his mouth at his own words, his whole body trembling along with his hand.

“Alright now,” Harlan soothed. “Let’s keep going, and then we’ll have some tea to take the edge off, hmm?”

Gardelle composed himself and nodded.

“What do you know about him?”

“Nearly nothing,” Gardelle said, exasperated. “He’s a vaudeville performer, but it’s unclear if he was in costume, or...”

“Or what?” Harlan pressed, inspecting the photograph for traces of lip wax or rouge powder he may have missed under the mask of blood.

“He may be a deviant. That’s why he was brought here, instead of a London hospital.”

Harlan curled his lip and adjusted the bite of his jaw. “I thought he was brought here because he is the only surviving victim who has seen the Ripper’s face and there was some concern for his safety.”

“Of course,” Gardelle whispered hoarsely.

“I want to see him,” Harlan said flatly.

Gardelle got up from his chair quickly and retrieved his ring of keys from the wall.

“How long has he been here?” Harlan asked, straightening the lapels of his coat.

“Five days,” Gardelle replied. “He slept the first two, after the surgery.”

“Was the surgery successful?” It was the only question Harlan still had after spying the medical report.

Gardelle stopped walking. “Pardon me, Mr. Quinn, but what is success in this matter? He is hideously deformed and will be so until the day he dies. But he is still bandaged for now, trying to keep infection away. Don’t get too close to him; you can scrub in a sink outside the room.”

Gardelle’s instructions irritated him, but Harlan kept quiet.

Harlan scrubbed the joints of his fingers and underneath his nails until Gardelle seemed satisfied.

The cell was the size of a bread box to scale, the dank stone weeping over the floor in misshapen piles of wall, one bare lamp straining to work over the whole room.

Harlan could tell upon entry that the patient was not asleep.

He approached the bed slowly.

“G-good morning,” Gardelle stammered. “You have a visitor.” Gardelle joined Harlan at the patient’s bedside. “This is Mr. Quinn.”

The patient’s eyes glowed through the holes in the white gauze that covered his face several times over, fixed nowhere in particular.

“He can’t speak,” Gardelle whispered to Harlan.

“I gathered as such,” Harlan replied irritably.

The patient’s eyes tracked and locked on Harlan’s face at the sound of his voice.

Gardelle gasped. “He hasn’t...he doesn’t...”

Harlan returned the stare. The patient’s eyes didn’t show any signs of the injuries inflicted upon him. They looked clear and bright, almost jovial.

“Have you seen the Ripper’s face?” Harlan asked boldly.

The patient gave a single nod.

“Do you want to stay here in hospital?” Harlan asked, leaning closer to the bed.

The patient danced his eyes around Harlan’s face, a merry trot, with its own music. Harlan felt his wrist pulled by a delicate wire, a taut silk string, bringing his hand down to the bleached bed sheet.

The patient’s hand shot out and clamped around Harlan’s wrist, squeezing harder than he should have been able to, digging his thumbnail into the divot between the suspended tendons that gave shape to the inside of his arm.

Harlan held his breath as he dipped into the eyes that had danced for him, hearing a private music above the howling and clanging of beating flesh on iron bars.

He pulled his arm away, and the patient released it without protest.

Harlan turned to Gardelle. “This room is unsuitable for his condition. You will release him into my care. I will need to send for my driver from the city; the barouche is not warm enough to transport him.”

“Honestly, Mr. Quinn,” Gardelle sputtered, “Scotland Yard is involved, naturally, and there is no family to speak of yet, highly irregular at best...”

“You don’t know who he is,” Harlan said calmly. “There is likely to be no family looking for him, and you can direct Scotland Yard to my address. Shall I pay you from what I have in my purse, or shall I send a bank note?”

Harlan's townhouse model

2009-04-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

Spent Saturday night modeling the house (OK yes I don't have a life, true, moving on...) and it's going to make it so much easier to get an angle that is cool, or more than one should I have to paint the outside of his house again.
Rendering this in watercolor is going to be a bear, though.

more Ruby

2009-04-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

I changed some facial proportions, made them a little more childlike. With this and the reddish hair (and frecks!) she reminds me of Lily Cole now. I found a dress that wasn't too fancy and not too servantlike so hopefully this might suit, and put her hair in a snood cos those are cool.

Ruby Sketches

2009-04-09T21:38:00.000-07:00

Ruby is Harlan's servant, and she makes her first appearance on Page 6. The way Kumari described her to me, she is dressed not so much like a servant as a proper lady, as that is the way Harlan prefers it. I did sneak in one apron, though, just for kicks.

Here's some rough sketches of how her face and hair might look and once those are nailed down I'll tackle her clothes next.

She's a great character and I really look forward to painting her.

not all sunshine and roses

2009-04-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

While traipsing through the aisles at the Con this weekend, at one point on Sunday I looked down and a scrap of paper on the ground caught my eye...it was one of our flyers, torn in half even!

For some reason it cracked us up, and as K told me, everything can't all be good news all the time!

So I took a picture.

Down to business!

2009-04-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

Our first ComiCon is over and now it's time to get to work.
There are a lot of details hanging around that need to be decided and this is the fun part. Harlan's house is next on the list. We have a few ideas of how it should look.
Here is one:

ECCC--Sunday Report

2009-04-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

Another swell day, and oh boy did we have fine weather here. First real warm day of the year, no jackets required!

We were back for more Comic Con goodness today, and that was fine too.

It's been a terrific weekend all told, having met so many characters that will live in our hearts forever. Random Comic Angel. Red-haired Mohawk Man who corrected our spelling. The Mystery Advisor who gave us his card. There's too many to count, but all were helpful, encouraging and collectively left us with one important message: Finish the damned comic book and then come talk with them. Seriously. Our fears about the story, art whatever were allayed, replaced by fears about where the hell are we going to find the time to do this? But really, that's a pretty good problem to have when you think about it.

We thank everyone who took time out of the craziness to talk with us honestly about the industry and give us advice about what to do next. You know who you are, and you rock.

The costumes---They were outstanding. The women as a whole just kicked behind with their superheroness, and the Joker had a convincing enough vibe about him that it actually kind of creeped me out asking to take his picture.

We ended the day with a delicious celebratory dinner on the deck of the Pink Door overlooking the Sound, where we had a few of these:

Signing off from Seattle!

Love, K and R

Greetings from Emerald City

2009-04-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of Emerald City ComiCon. We didn't really know what to expect so we just tried not to be overwhelmed by all of the people and activity at the convention center.

Fortunately, bacon makes everything better:

We couldn't call ourselves friends if we didn't show you some of the impressive costumes:

And:

We want to send shout-outs to all of the people who spent time talking to us today, including Ed Pun, Becky Hicks, Matt P, John Lustig, Mel Smith, Zan, and Bob Schreck. We learned so much about where we are and what we need to do to get to where we want to be. Thanks!

Did I mention that we met the Suicide Girls?

We're off to see the Wizard!

2009-03-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

We are taking our show on the road! Emerald City ComiCon will be held in Seattle, WA on April 4-5, 2009 and we will be there. Don't run away from our flyers; they're cute and they were expensive, so take one and like it.

Rhonda will have some original art with her to drool over and I'm just bringing my good mood because I don't draw or do anything useful.

We hope to win over some converts so wish us luck.

I heart Google SketchUp

2009-03-09T21:49:00.001-07:00

As mentioned before, perspective isn't my strong suit...I mean, I took it in school and all but I'm more of a slap-dash sort of worker and it's such a meticulous skill. But thanks to the wonders of Google SketchUp, which as you'll recall Edward recommended earlier on this blog (thanks AGAIN, what would I do without you?!) one can now just knock out a simple room design, adjust the viewpoint, take a screenshot and bam! Instant room. Just add people.

Best part is, it's free! And easy to learn.

Next up---Harlan's abode. I foresee plenty of SketchUp in my future.

watercolor process

2009-03-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

Edward suggested a post that showed steps in making a water color panel, and it's a fab idea, thanks man! So here's a shot at it. My apologies for blurry images, it's my camera's fault I swear.

Kumari breaks down the page into panels and describes the action and dialog in each. From her descriptions I start out by laying out the entire page, trying to vary up the sizes of the panels as what seems appropriate. It's usually just a bunch of scribbles to start with, so I can do lots of them until one works. (I'm learning slowly to remember the chop-off areas and to leave space for speech balloons!)

Tighter rough of one panel:

This one I can use to transfer the image to watercolor paper, using a lightbox. I use this time to tighten up the drawing further. Then I affix the paper to my piece of plywood using water-activated paper tape. I put a light wash on it, in this case lemon yellow.

Hot and cold press paper respond differently to the colors, and I have found hot press to be better with detail, even though the colors are more muted. It seems to work IMO for the story Kumari is telling.

I start putting down washes to show the light and shadow areas.

Building up more shadow areas:

About now I bust out the teeny brushes (and reading glasses, sigh) and start adding detail. I want to make sure the most detail is in the areas where I want the reader to focus on, in this case Harlan and Gardelle's discussion. In my rough I indicated that a speech bubble is going to go right about where the nightstand is, so I probably spent too much time and detail on that one spot (plus it'd be a distraction from the men) but oh well, it was fun.

Here's the finished piece. I used detail to punch out lit and shadowed areas more. A REAL watercolorist would never need to resort to using outlines or whiteout but...it's my 'style' I say, that's my lame excuse and I am sticking to it. Plus I like lines.

Harlan without a hat. I LIKE that!

Character profile #1

2009-02-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

Gardelle

Gardelle Vincens was born in Marseille, France. His family moved to London where his father was a tailor. After his father's death following a long illness, Gardelle took to the streets to find work. The surviving family included his mother and four sisters.

Gardelle eventually had to move out of London when he found work at Bedlam, a hospital for the mentally ill. He had cared for his father and so he came to the work with some experience in nursing. It was his intent to stay until he found another trade, but the years passed and he eventually became the manager of the facility.

The humane treatment of the mentally ill had not been realized in Gardelle's time. He did not directly abuse the patients but he did allow the public to offer their cruel encouragement and unkind stares. Gawking at the unfortunates was routinely worked into a visit to the remote countryside where Bedlam sat.

To assuage his guilt, Gardelle has often arranged for the secret transfer of chosen patients to the care of his friend, Harlan Quinn. He doesn't ask a lot of questions about Harlan's interest in them, but he is assured that they live well.

Source Material

2009-02-06T17:39:00.000-08:00

So I am working on a full page panel of Joseph, and needed help in the visual aid department.

I asked my friend Becky if she would pose for me, although I didn't have any bandages in the house she suggested a scarf. Kumari's instruction to me was that Joseph should look gleeful, so I passed that on. My cat decided she needed to be part of the action as well. Anyway it made for perfect source material:

A true friend, willing to strike a pose when need be!

Then I found this pic, of this lovely young man who has inspired me so much and continues to do so (I am sort of modeling Joseph after him a bit) ---plus, bonus, a man so...good source material also.

Here's the final sketch:

Becky's hands are small and dainty, unlike Joseph's scarred-up man-hands but I left 'em that way 'cos I thought it added to a sort of forced perspective.

Hope the painted version turns out ok...

Page 3

2009-01-31T22:22:00.000-08:00

Harlan and Joseph lay eyes on one another for the first time. I wanted to make the room that Joseph is recovering in a different palette than the rest of Bedlam, sort of cooler and a little chilly, not inviting at all. As if the rest of Bedlam has been inviting up until now...

Page 2--Now with dialog!

2009-01-01T12:47:00.000-08:00

Ok so, I think I have it figured out but need feedback. I want to try the speech bubbles all painterly-like, like rough chalk ovals. Kumari, the font we chose was unavailable so I had to go with the runner-up (still bought the accent one though! slick).

So my question is: Does the chalk rendering of the ovals detract from the text? And what about the size of the text, is it a good one, could it be smaller and still be legible or is it too small here? I had to split up Gardelle's lines in the fifth panel, and put some in the fourth due to size constraints.

page 2

2008-12-30T21:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the holidays took me out of the groove for awhile and this page was a long time coming. And it's still not done; since this is the first page with actual dialog, now I have to figure out how I want to handle the speech bubbles and what font to use. Time to do some font-surfing.

One thing I am having a hard time getting used to---the standard sized template for producing comics has an outside line that, if the image is to have a bleed, it must go all the way to that line...but it will be cropped. So my challenge is to remember that when drawing out these panels, keep the cool stuff within the crop lines! I was bummed out when I covered the crop areas with white---esp. in the image of Harlan in the lower right corner, I was super happy with the way his hands turned out, but guess what? They weren't within the crop zone. Phooey.

inspiration and influences

2008-12-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

My mother loves film. We went to the movies constantly, including on Christmas Day. She took me to see anything and everything; R-ratings didn't deter her one bit. As a result I acquired a varied taste and was fairly desensitized to onscreen violence and gore.

When I was about eight years old, we went to see the film Stir Crazy starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. The previews included a trailer for a film called Scanners. The head-exploding scene (which was accomplished by filling a rubber head mold with dog food and then blowing it to pieces with a shotgun from behind) lasted only a few seconds.

I refused to go to the movies for the next two years.

The theatrical poster that I included here is the version that was on display in the subway that I took to school from the South Bronx to the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I tried not to look at it when I walked by, but I always did. It wasn't just that the trailer scared me, it was that it showed me something I didn't know existed. There was a place inside of the imagination that was dark and clever. Somehow, someone who didn't know me knew what I was afraid of.

David Cronenberg, the writer and director of Scanners is one of the originators of 'body horror.' When I was old enough to see films on my own, I watched other pieces of his. The Fly, Dead Ringers and Videodrome stood out for me. They were strange and unpredictable. They reminded me that there was more to life than what was on the surface and not all of it was good. He explored themes like transformation and disease in his films and so they became interests of mine. A lot of time has passed but I still can't erase the image of the exploding head. Instead, I welcome its influence and try to make it useful instead of harmful.

For the record, I've never seen the entire film. Those few seconds were all I needed to see. They inspired me to think more radically, to push boundaries in my writing and to embrace the potential wrongness inside all of us.

a toughie

2008-11-28T23:45:00.000-08:00

Kumari's outline for page 2 includes a scene inside Bedlam---the description called to mind the scene in the asylum at the beginning of "Amadeus" to me--- and this has been a hard one to lay out, mostly trying to envision what the inside of such a place at that time might have been like. Lots of scribbles.

Finally settled on a look but is this sort of what you had in mind, K?

I tilted the 'camera' to give the scene a more chaotic feel, and really liked the idea of the two inmates in the foreground with one intimidating the other. Not a fun place to be.

Gardelle

2008-11-20T22:42:00.001-08:00

Page One Done!

2008-11-15T21:58:00.001-08:00

What is it they say about the journey of a thousand miles beginning with one step, or something like that?

Demons

2008-11-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school, my brilliant friend Georgia wrote a story called Demons. It was about a young woman who met a handsome stranger at an art opening. They went home together, went to bed together, had a lovely time.

And then she ate him.

I loved the structure of the story, deceptively simple and manipulative. The unexpected ending forces the reader to go back to the beginning to try and find out how and where things started to go in that direction. When we find the road empty of signposts, we realize that it was our own assumptions that wrote the story. The writer had done her job. It was clear that the mysterious art gallery man was being hunted from the outset, no one told us to fear for the narrator's safety. But we did, because the character was female.

I talked to Georgia recently and asked her if I could adapt Demons into Festival Season. I want Joseph to write a play and I think this will be the perfect thing. She generously agreed and I'm anxious to get to work.

Hopefully I can get started on the segment this weekend. Joseph is very excited about it.

Bedlam

2008-11-03T18:59:00.000-08:00

This is the most complicated panel on Page 1 so...hopefully the rest will hurry along then!

Making a comic script happen

2008-10-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

Until recently, I didn't know that comic authors (well, some of them) wrote their dialog and storyline in the form of a script.

We want to submit our graphic novel for publication at the beginning of 2009. Most of the companies that accept unsolicited manuscripts require some script format or another.

Turning a short story into a script is, hmm, not always fun, I have to admit. It's a new way of thinking for me and I don't have as much confidence with the language.

To give you an idea of the difference, the sketch of the panel that Ruth posted looked like this in the short story:

The countryside had grown smaller, or so it seemed to Harlan. It had been years since he had seen it last; a visitor in boyhood when his family still saw fit to make frequent jaunts there. Trips to the country had fallen out of favor with their set; the draw of London too strong to part with, even for a week or two.

He expected to be drained when he pulled up the soft sod path to the hospital’s entrance, but driving himself in the small barouche had been strangely invigorating. Harlan couldn’t remember the last time he had driven himself anywhere.

Harlan stood on the cobble walk that was flanked by gated pastures and watched the foreman drive his cab towards the stables.

The towering spires of the building’s facade suggested a holy progressiveness; that perhaps Bedlam had matured beyond allowing curious travelers a poke at the crazies with broomsticks on Tuesdays. But the smell that met Harlan at the interior gate was neither holy, nor progressive; it was the same odor of the ill and mistreated that had always been there.

Harlan was reaching into the watch pocket of his frock coat when he saw Gardelle approach with the key in hand.

“Terribly sorry,” Gardelle said, hurrying the lock open. “I didn’t keep you waiting?”

“Not at all,” Harlan said pleasantly. “Is there somewhere private we can speak prior to...?”

“Yes, of course,” Gardelle answered quietly.

********

Now here is what that same action looks like in a comic script format:

PAGE ONE (four panels)

CAPTION:

Top right- September 1888

Panel 1.

A four-wheeled barouche turns on to a long, winding path. The small, hooded buggy is black with a bright interior fabric to contrast with the surroundings. It looks like an exaggerated baby's pram with over-sized wheels that raise it high off the ground. The carriage is drawn by a team of horses. The pastures on either side of the path are green but otherwise uncared for. The grass is overgrown.

Panel 2.

Bedlam, an imposing, decaying structure. Tall spires reach up into the sky and the stone facade of the hospital/prison is crumbling. You can go as big as you want to here, I want the readers to feel that if they were facing the building, they would turn the other way.

Panel 3.

Harlan's black, polished boots on the cobblestone path.

Panel 4.

This is the first full shot we get of Harlan Quinn. He is wearing a grey wool morning coat with burgundy edging on the lapels and dark colored pants. His profile is marked by a long nose and exacting chin. He has fashionable sideburns and black hair. We can tell that he is handsome and probably aware of it. Harlan stands at the interior gate of Bedlam, looking at his pocket watch. We can see a shadow of a figure on the other side of the gate.

PAGE TWO (seven panels)

Panel 1.

A lumpy pair of hands fumble with a heavy padlock and skeleton key.

GARDELLE:

Terribly sorry.

I didn't keep you waiting?

Panel 2.

We see Gardelle's face through the iron slats of the rusted gate. He has large, awkward features and thinning hair.

HARLAN:

Not at all. Is there somewhere private we can speak prior to...?

GARDELLE:

Yes, of course.

********

I read a few books on writing for comics, but at some point I had to jump in and just try it.

Wish me luck on getting through the next 45549392 pages, LOL.