Friday, November 14, 2008

STITCHING TOGETHER



Here we are.... back to the operating , er... I mean drawing table. I have nothing too noteworthy to show you, ( 'cept this nifty widdle unfinished page I'll be hammerin on this weekend ) the real news is what I am not going to show you, the story is finally done. Yes... that's right, for those of you who have not been paying attention in class, ...... I have been pumping out pages of this comic for months now with no script, no thumbnails, no "real" idea where this comic was going, or what it would be when it was done... if it was done! What I am trying clumsily to say is simply this... I "know" now. I know what the remainder of the pages will be, what the dialogue is... everything. It just finally stitched itself together.... as I knew it would.

I don't really recommend this method of comics making. It certainly is not for the faint of heart, but for some reason it just works for me. It isn't always easy. You have to trust that the pages being fed to you from inside your subconscious will coalesce into some kind of story that will be readable, and entertaining. That is a tall order some days. It is almost like drawing in a darkened room.

The reason I do it this way is because the finished product I find to be more compelling, more balanced, and more seamless than trying to make the art fit the script. It gives a wide berth to creative impulse because you are not tied down to word, or form. The hope is that some of the anxiety, and sheer suspense I feel waiting to see where the art takes the story to will transfer to the reader also.

Any-hooo, Didn't mean to get to deep on you peace puppies out there in retro land. I'll be saying so long now... watts, and watts of work to do! Later~

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your method reminds me of the Stan Lee Marvel method except you're doing it on your own. It works for you and that's good. I was thinking of doing something like that, but I haven't tried it yet.

Christian Zamora said...

Your method seems quite interesting to me as well. I kind of like more structure with the stuff I do (even if I don't do comics regularly, but I do scripts for online animated e-cards and such).
So, the story is entirely yours? From this perspective it would definitely work, since you'd be creating both the story and the art.
All in all, great work. I'm really curious about what you're doing. Oh, and it's also great that you share your "in progress" work. I'm going to link you in my blog.

Mitchell said...

Thanks for your kind comments Jack and Chris! The method does seem to work for me( for several reasons ) I got the idea from the immortal King of comics Jack Kirby who was said to have done something very similar on many occasions when thusly inspired... what a creative force he was!

I started displaying my work as "in progress mode" simply because 1) I didn't want everyone to see finished goods and forgoe purchasing the end product, and 2) Because I was often too excited to wait until finishing to post.

It was a little embarassing at first, but many artists have expressed appreciation for being able to see the "raw" lines, and it builds curiosity, so that's kind of cool too~

Please do link me Chris... I need to widen my audiance in order to boost sales: Ha-ha

Christian Zamora said...

You're already linked, Mike!