Archive for the ‘Cartooning’ Category
From the Sketchbook
Saturday, November 14th, 2009Announcing Pachekipedia! / Progress: Scripting
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009Another (mini-) milestone passed!
I finished scripting Bolt: 6:59 last night. What that means, basically, is I wrote down all the dialogue—which wouldn’t fit in the thumbnails—in a separate text document. When I did that, I realized I only had 47 pages of material, not 48. Woops! I took that as an opportunity to flesh out a scene that needed a little more space. So I’m back up to 48 pages.
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You may have noticed a little button at the top of the page that says “Pachekipedia.” Now I’ll be honest: up until this morning I didn’t really know what that page was going to look like. I had a vague idea for a mock-Wikipedia page full of stuff I made up. Just words I made up, or a fictional country, stuff like that. Or a wiki of my characters—you know, in the style of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. But this morning it hit me. I decided—well, why don’t you see for yourself.
Bolt: 6:59 Thumbnails Finished!
Monday, November 9th, 2009I have to say the weekend was very fruitful. I finished thumbnailing Bolt: 6:59 on Saturday morning (yes, all 48 pages of it—my longest project to date). (I also added some new info to the website’s sidebar (a new bio, for example)). I’m considering this the completion of the first draft of the story. I do have to go back and re-draw a few pages of thumbnails so that the right panels are on the right pages, and then type out a script in a separate text document. (I did the thumbnails in what I’m calling “Lutes style,” which means the thumbnails have numerals inside the word balloons rather than words, and the words are enumerated on a separate sheet.) This shouldn’t take long.
The next step will be to show it to some cartoonists who understand good story structure and know how to talk about comics for a nice, substantive critique. I’ve got some in mind, and I’ll let you know once they’re officially on board.
Next step after that is to read it over and over and over again for flow, pacing, and clarity—with an eye toward improving characterization, if necessary. In other words, the next step is to write a second draft. I’m trying to look at it this way: “look how much I’ve done!” rather than the more discouraging “look how much I have yet to do!”
Someone asked me if I was going to post another set of thumbnails. I said I wasn’t sure, because I don’t really know how people feel about them. What do you think, dear Reader? Would you like to see more thumbnails? Are they too hard to read? Too hard to decipher?
Here’s a quick list of past posts with thumbnails in them, for ease of reading:
Let me know what you think.
A Humbling Dinner with Big Shots, and a Needed Shot in the Arm
Friday, November 6th, 2009If there’s one thing having dinner with a group of talented, successful cartoonists will do, it will make you get your ass in gear. That’s why as soon as I got home last night from my and Robyn‘s dinner at the home of James Sturm and his wife Rachel Gross (with fellow diners Alec Longstreth, Gabby Schulz (AKA Ken Dahl), Joe and Becca Lambert, Chuck Forsman (AKA Chuck McBuck), Melissa Mendes, and none other than Seth), I hit the drawing board.
I worked later than usual, imbued as I was with the sense of urgency that only comes in the afterglow of clinking glasses with much more accomplished artists in the same field. That, and the dawning realization that MoCCA 2010 is creeping up faster than expected.
I gathered my scattered sketchbook beats and translated them into a raft of too-too-detailed thumbnails until I reached the end of the climax and the beginning of the resolution. Reaching that milestone was more satisfying than I can say.
Bolt should be a fun and fast-paced little ride—a nearly-wordless sprint in the shoes of a quirky new character that will, I hope, give readers a junk-food thrill without recycling tired clichés. I don’t want to build up any unrealistic expectations, but this may be the greatest single comic book you or anyone else has ever read or will ever read, ever. That, or it will help pass the time while you’re on the can. Either way, I’m easy.