| Medusa |
[19 Dec 2009|08:46pm] |
Last post for today, I promise!
Dylan Meconis has a really great Medusa character design that I adore so I used it as reference for my very first attempt at sculpting a face.
It came out a wee bit creepier than I intended and though it's obviously a Medusa I don't think it really looks all that much like Dylan's Medusa. Oh well.
( A Turnaround )
|
|
| Tentacle Bouquets |
[19 Dec 2009|07:46pm] |
 On Etsy Now!
These are about double the size of my previous potted tentacles. Reg'lar pots were .5" and tentacles usually stood about 1.5" high. These pots are 1" and 1.5" tall with the tentacles practically tickling the sky at 3" tall.
Top-down view so you can see the pearly beaded "soil" they're sprouting out of.
( Individual Portraits )
I like to keep my fingers busy.
|
|
| Merry $%@# christmas |
[19 Dec 2009|03:27pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 creative |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Tuxedomoon |
] |
WARNING: This comic is NOT work/religion/science/family friendly
|
|
| Animals for Animals: Concertina Bat |
[18 Dec 2009|10:29pm] |
|
Here’s the last Animals for Animals painting that went up for public sale – a fruit bat! A tip of the hat to Jenn, who suggested the concertina.
Thanks to everybody who purchased one of the animals this month; thanks to you I’ll be able to donate at least $550 to Heifer International (I had to raise a bit past that to cover all the transaction fees from Paypal, Etsy, and my postage service).
As soon as the deposit clears, I will be donating the money to Heifer for a Knitting Basket, which represents two llamas and two sheep, and a Hope Basket, which will go towards some rabbits and chickens.
You’ll also be seeing an owl and a dormouse posted here soon (if the people who asked for them are okay with the world getting to see them once they’re finished!).
If you’d like more information on Heifer International, they’ve got a great website, and their print catalogue is the only charity publication that elicits smiles from me when it turns up in the mail.
{wp version}
|
|
| Early experimentation with the graphic format |
[18 Dec 2009|08:30pm] |
|
In lieu of a substantial, thought-provoking post, perhaps reflecting on the year, I present THE SPACE DOG, created when I was in second grade, interspersed with the sort of comments that might be offered by a severe critique partner.
Is this about Laika? If not, title should be changed. And do you want your readers to immediately think about your protagonist marking territory? If not, don’t put the dog among trees.
Okay, so she’s young and little — does she have a name? Where was she going when she got lost? What’s this about a trail she was “supposed” to go on? Who’s giving this dog orders?
Also, I’m not loving the brown-on-brown. We can barely see the dog. Is that a deliberate choice? Losing her in the illustration as she’s lost in the narrative?
And is that a tree, or a letter Y with a green cottonball on top? Can you explain why there only seems to be half an inch of sky? Are you playing with the picture plane? I get that formal experimentation can be a vital approach to graphic storytelling, but it seems an odd choice for this text.
All right, finally this story has some stakes. But you’re draining all the tension away by just baldly stating that she “accidently” (You have a spellchecker, right? I recommend using it.) got into a “test space ship.” How did it happen? What’s the test? Exclamation points are not a substitute for coherence. Good use of burst lines around the cop’s whistle, but why are there no NASA personnel depicted? Are the people in yellow intended to be perceived as wearing uniforms? If so, for what organization?
Also, I wish I did not need to point out that all your people are far too close to the ship, which incidentally lacks a platform. Research is important!
Ah, yes, Mars. The green planet. See above re: research. And again we have a sliver of colored sky, with what would appear to be stars, unless they are fireflies, or flashlights, or flaws in the paper — you give us no indication in the text. And again, you seem to wish to actively avoid all narrative tension. “She got out.” No panic upon realizing that she is trapped, no struggle to free herself — you deny your readers any chance to become engaged with the plight of your protagonist.
All right, I’ll ignore the massive physics fail and merely recommend, again, that you do some research. Again, you have entirely failed to create dramatic tension here. I don’t even know who this dog is! How am I supposed to care?
The arrow seems to suggest an interest in diagrammatic illustration. Perhaps in light of your artistic limitations, you should consider using that style throughout.
Pure wish fulfillment. Isn’t it really the author who would want to live in a world where she would never get lost again?
I will comment here only to note that this “owner” — is the lack of names meant to be universalizing? There are far better ways to achieve that goal — makes her first appearance on page seven of eight.
This haunting page almost redeems the ham-handedness of the rest of the narrative. The empty space calls into question the happy ending on page six, forcing the reader to wonder if “The End” is merely the conclusion of the story, or the end of the world.
Originally published at sararyan.com. You can comment here or there.
|
|
| Daily OCD: 12/18/09 |
[19 Dec 2009|01:26am] |
|
http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Daily-OCD-12-18-09.html&Itemid=113 Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: Critic John Seven names Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco one of the Decade's Best Graphic Novels, in a list focused on "graphic novels for people who don’t want to read comics." (via The Comics Reporter) • List: Matthew Price of The Oklahoman gives Ganges #3 the 9th position on his 10 Best Periodical Comic Books of 2009: "Kevin Huizenga continues to be one of comics' brightest indie creators... Huizenga uses his talents to immerse the reader inside Ganges' head." • List/reviews/analysis: On the Inkstuds radio program, a roundtable of prominent critics (Sean T. Collins, Tim Hodler, & Chris Mautner) join host Robin McConnell for a discussion of 2009's standout books, including our two "You" books, You Are There by Tardi & Forest and You'll Never Know, Book 1 by C. Tyler • Reviews/analysis: The Hooded Utilitarian's contrarian critical roundtable of Ghost World marches on with Ng Suat Tong, Vom Marlowe, Kinukitty again, and more Noah Berlatsky, who also points out that you can follow the whole thing here • Review: "What's better than a new story by Jason? Why, several in one volume, of course! ...[T]he more of Jason's weird energy and quirky, poignant storytelling that I can consume at one time, the better. ... It's kind of a mystery how well he's able to do it, crafting easy-to-follow stories in such a minimalist style, but luckily, they're incredibly enjoyable, so one can easily get lost in them, forgetting questions of craft and technique because those aspects become all but invisible. ... [Low Moon] is another great example of the strange alchemy that Jason has mastered, drawing readers in to compelling tales of people caught up in oddly familiar situations, even when they're dealing with something that's off-kilter from reality as we know it. That's the Jason touch, and long may it continue to grace our pages." – Matthew J. Brady • Plug: In Richard Metzger's profile of Steve Ditko for Dangerous Minds, he says "I may be a little late to the game on this one, but I recently got a copy of Blake Bell’s Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko , a coffeetable book published by Fantagraphics last year and it is a wonderful and fascinating look at Ditko’s life and work. Kudos to Bell for putting together such a volume which was clearly a labor of love and unique erudition." • Interview: Excerpted in its entirety from The Comics Journal #300, the conversation between Ho Che Anderson and Howard Chaykin • Things to see: What's this, another "Blind Date" strip from Dash Shaw? • Things to see: Drew Friedman revisits a Sports Illustrated illo of Tiger Woods and Mike Tyson he did a while ago and ponders their subsequent role reversal • Things to see: If you haven't seen the comics section in the San Francisco Panorama from McSweeney's yet (featuring Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Kim Deitch, Seth, Art Spiegelman etc.), Flickr user Steve Rhodes has a mess of photos of the whole dang paper • Things to see: Paul Pope draws Captain Easy in action (our Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Vol. 1 is currently scheduled for February) (via The Comics Reporter) • Things to see: More cut-outs (older ones this time) from Tim Lane • Things to see: More Post-its from Anders Nilsen • Things to see: I'm happy to report that Noah Van Sciver's cartoon interviews for The Comics Journal continue at TCJ.com, kicking off with David Heatley
|
|
| Periodical defense! |
[18 Dec 2009|07:38pm] |
|
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/12/18/periodical-defense/ 
Re what we love to talk about endlessly in the comments, Brian Hibbs shows up to rescue the endangered maiden pamphlet on his charger of charts. It’s an excellent essay that touches on the attention economy, the monthly payment option, and the fact that periodical sales are up in both units and dollars over the past decade. The last decade is a *bit* misleading since ten years ago we were in the comics equivalent of the Great Depression but the fact stands.
Where Hibbs makes a good point is that the tankoubon ($9.99 manga-sized paperback) model is one that is enabled because the material is already serialized in Japan. And as someone who had worked on P&Ls for traditional book publishers on the costs of making graphic novels, yes, paying a living wage page rate for something that will sell between 10-20K copies IF YOU’RE LUCKY is challenging.
Hibbs also flatters me by referencing my “satisfying chunk” theory and stating that 22 pages CAN be a satisfying chunk — it’s just that these days, it isn’t, but that is a creative problem more than anything.
Where the problem lies, I think — and perhaps this is some of my own doing — is the psychological effect of the “standard attrition” model. It is a fact that comics periodical sales on monthly titles go down on a continuing basis at rates that threaten their profitability. While the war may be a win, the individual battles all seem like “lose.” Or as a widely quoted Tom Spurgeon line from yesterday has it:
I hate to backseat drive companies because I’ve barely made like sixteen dimes from working in comic books, but at some point it seems that if well-regarded series after well-regarded series is broken on the rocks of a market that won’t respond to them, you should start to look at changing the game board to be more receptive to such series as opposed to picking up a game piece you think might work better.
I’m not sure the game board is the only problem. Editorial malaise, increasingly watered down and uninspiring “house styles,” and the tyranny of “branding” have all taken a toll on the spark of creativity that is what makes successful entertainment.
Take another look at Matt Price’s list of 2009’s best periodicals:
1.”Unwritten”
2.”Irredeemable”
3.”Superman Secret Origin”
4.”Chew”
5.”Supergirl”
6.”Incognito”
7.”Detective Comics”
8.”Resurrection”
9.”Ganges”
10. “Daredevil”
A subjective list, to be sure, but all of these titles have gotten a wide range of praise and attention, so they could be emblematic of the Class of ‘09. (I know GANGES is a ringer but let’s play along.) They also exhibit a fairly significant degree of individual creator vision, or at least craft (I haven’t read SUPERGIRL but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt). I haven’t the time right now to run all the numbers, but UNWRITTEN is up to issue 6 and selling at a level that is a big success for a Vertigo book In This Economy, (north of 15,000 copies) and CHEW has been a big success story out of left field while maintaining a still low (in the scheme of things) but rising sales level.
Of course these books are all overshadowed by events and their henchmen, but there is life in the pamphlet…WHEN ALLOWED.
Who is strangling the periodical? I would have to say, at this point, the buyers themselves, caught in a cycle of fleeting thrills. It’s like getting high huffing glue from daddy’s workbench. It’s temporary and it lasts about seven issues.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
colleencoover's Friends Page
