Boring Format Stuff

Creating a page for this series involves a few standard steps that I'll share with you today - aren't you lucky!

1. After I've written out the basic dialogue/narrative for each panel, I draw and ink the page. At this stage I don't include the speech bubbles or captions, as the text may still change. If you have a copy of the first book, "Lost Southern Cross", you'll notice that the speech bubbles and captions are drawn in by hand prior to including text. Following the final edits, this resulted in some cases of oversized bubbles/captions with very  little text, and some cases of undersized bubbles/captions with too much text crammed into them. As a result, for the next books I decided to add these in the final step of the process, rather than the first.

2. After the page has been inked, I scan it to my computer and clean it up in photoshop. This first involves maximizing contrast without losing any detailed line work. This is done by adjusting curves, increasing contrast, and in most cases manually filling in gaps and lines where appropriate. Once the page looks clean, I adjust the image size so all the pages are exactly the same size. At this point I add in the panel and page frames with the line tool.

3. I now consider the page complete until the final edit of the entire book is complete. Once the final edit is complete, I add the speech bubbles and captions in photoshop. I'll dedicate another blog post to how those are created.

This image represents a completed page, prior to speech bubbles/captions being added. It's also an example of a page with no action so I decided to use different style and composition techniques to add visual interest. #Inktober

A Clarification from Carl

Work continues with another page completed today, but I've been asked to use this blog post to correct clarify a statement from my September 23rd post "Mapping the Story." Carl took offence to my characterization of him as not being "the most coherent or thorough storyteller." I certainly meant no offence, and stated as such, but after reading his message I feel that a clarification is in order. Rather than provide one myself, I'll simply relay Carl's message to me below, verbatim. Apologies in advance for the language -


Mark - 
I'm glad you're getting your ass in gear and trying to finally finish this little cartoon of my story, but I'm a little pissed at you referring to me as 'incoherent,' and 'not thorough' in my relating of this tale to you. First of all - Fuck You! and secondly, that's just a piss poor description of the gold I've given you. You kids these days are spoon-fed entertainment like it's candy; mindless zombies bombarded with special effects, big noises, and flashy lights that you forget five minutes later. I told you a story that not only happened, but had you glued to your seat for an entire night at the bar. If you feel you need to clean it up and make it more digestible then you've missed the fucking point. The story is raw, unfiltered, and rough around the edges - AS IT SHOULD BE. Consider this fair warning - you know I'm monitoring your progress, don't screw this up.

cordially,
Carl

I chose this panel today because outside the context of the story it looks pretty creepy, but to me it's very sweet. I'm in a sweet/creepy mood today. #Inktober

First Chapter Finished - and Some Added Motivation

I hit a satisfying milestone today by finishing the chapter I've been slaving on for the past few weeks. There isn't a lot of action in this chapter as it relies heavily on dialogue, so getting through the art felt very tedious. The primary challenge for me was in finding ways to draw the same exact scene in panel after panel without looking visually repetitive.

Unique angles, modifying the line styles, and changing perspective were all used to illustrate a conversation that spanned several panels over a few pages, but simply takes place seated around a table. Looking at the finished pages, I think it works but I'll let the audience be the judge once the book is released.

The next chapter has some bold compositions to tackle so I expect momentum to start picking up over the coming days and weeks. As a compliment to my self-imposed scheduled, I've decided to take part in #Inktober drawing challenge. I only just found out about it today so I'm starting three days behind, but I'll make sure I post an inked panel or page each day for the rest of the month.

Mapping the Story

As I continue to work through this series, the most common questions I get asked relate to how it actually gets written: Is the story already written out? or more specifically - Do I start with a general idea, specific script, or any planning at all before I start drawing each page?

Since I'm working from a story told to me over the course of an evening at a local bar, I had an oral narrative to work from. However, given that it was a drunken conversation, and the source (no offence, Carl) wasn't the most coherent or thorough storyteller, I was left with little more than a basic framework of plot points and loosely defined characters. From there I created the first volume, "Lost Southern Cross", one page at a time - relying on an organic process to let the story unfold as I saw each page emerge before me. This allowed me to gauge the success or failure of visual and written elements as I went along, rather than commit myself to a direction that might not do justice to Carl's Story.

As I proceeded through the second volume, "Shadow Play," it was clear that I needed to script out the story in a more organized manner to ensure continuity, and that process has become more diligent as I completed the third volume, "The Protégé," and now find myself working through the fourth.

Even with the increased planning and scripting, my approach has been to allow for as much organic development in the story as possible. I've found that leaving space for each page to develop independently and impact the direction of the next page - and rest of the narrative- has served Carl's Story well.

While I'm confident in this approach for this project, my advice for anyone thinking about creating a graphic novel is to thoroughly script out your story first. By that I mean write it out panel by panel, with descriptions or sketches of the action in each so you can monitor balance between text and image, and also keep an eye on overall pace. Art and text serve different purposes in a graphic novel and should compliment each other in service of the story, not fight each other for the reader's attention.


Progress To Date On Book 4 - I've scripted and inked 13 pages so far (2 today). I'm not sure exactly how long this installment will be, but I'm assuming 50-70 pages as that has been the norm for the previous volumes.

sneak peak - Carl and Jeff enjoying a night out, Suzie keeping a caring eye on Charlie, and a mysterious stranger taking in the music. *Bonus points if you can guess the band that's playing.

The evolution of a drunken bar tale into a five volume graphic novel series

Me and Carl, November 2009

In 2009, while at at my local bar, I found myself sitting next to Carl. He was another regular, but rarely spoke to anyone except the staff, and usually just to order another drink. He was an old, broken down, surly bastard whom everyone was content to leave alone. However, this was a slow night; not many people around to chat with, so I decided to break the ice and ask Carl, "So, what's your story?" I'm not sure if he was trying to scare me off with the tale he began to tell, or if he'd just simply been waiting for someone to ask, but either way - he shared a story so unique and unbelievable that I promised to turn it into a graphic novel for the world to enjoy. With the first three volumes now completed, I'm left with the final two to finish his story. As I work to finish the last two installments, I'll use this blog to post progress and insights into the evolution of this project. Check back often to track the development and ultimate completion of "Carl's Story."