Just a Tad

The Brush of Greatness: Milt Caniff

Here and there it's a little shaky or not as slick as the impression it makes.  In our era of Photoshop retouching to the point of overkill, such ink imperfections are rare but these reveal that this is the work of a man, not a god.  Yet most of the biggest names from the Silver Age of comic books treated Milt Caniff as a sort of deity.  With TERRY AND THE PIRATES and STEVE CANYON, Milt Caniff brought exotic adventure to the comics page.  There's nothing like it today.  The only thing left in the "Funnies" are gag a day strips, gag panels, puzzles and an occasional soap opera.

These pages that I've scanned are from the Famous Artists Cartoon Course.  My dad had wanted to be a cartoonist.  At USC he did a single panel cartoon for The Trojan but had to carve a linoleum block for printing!  That trained his brain but did nothing for his line quality. When he graduated it was the Depression when you took any job you could snag.  He did sample strip of a character at a race track but I don't think he drew more than one strip sample.  Anyway, I benefited from his library of "How To" books, many of them about cartooning.  The Famous Artist Course was the absolute best, giving be early training in art that I still use today.

Part of the course featured biographies of the "teachers," big name cartoonists of the forties and fifties.  That's where you'd get examples of their work.  My three favorites were probably Milt Caniff, Al Capp and Willard Mullin.  Mullin was a guy whose work I had never seen because he was a sports cartoonist, a category that had largely disappeared by the time I could read the comics for myself.  But Milton Caniff was the adventure guy:

 Here's a page of the varied cast of TERRY AND THE PIRATES.  The broad treatment of the character personalities are mirrored in the designs.  You could easily write a biography just from the look of any one of them.

 Comic strip creators were media stars back then.  Movies, TV shows and Broadway musicals were based on the work of Caniff and Capp.  Capp was on the cover of Time Magazine but today few comic fans have even heard of him.  

Okay, no dazzling insight from me just clues to set you googling for further info on the masters of the cartoon image.   Happy New Year.  -- Tad

 

Fantastic Animation Acting

 This wasn't the post I planned on.  I wanted to show some classic Milt Caniff to give you an idea of why all the classic comic book artists idolized him but storyboarding all day and scripting by night, all with a deadline, doesn't leave much time for blogging.   Oh yeah, and it's Christmas.  So apologies.

I'm enjoying the storyboard work and not the least because of the great storyboard crew that sits all around me, many of them producer/directors themselves.  We're all using ToonBoom Storyboard Pro on Cintiqs and one of the cool things about it is that it's easy to share your work as you go along, not something a storyboard artist usually does.  But we work to a soundtrack, add lots of poses so basically we're producing animatics.  It makes for a great creative atmosphere and the swapping of ideas.

But one of the things we shared was the trailer for How to Train Your Dragon in 3D.  Click on that and watch the trailer now.  Go on.  I think we were more excited to see this than Avatar.  First, it's a new project from Chris Saunders and Dean DeBlois who gave us Lilo and Stitch, one of the freshest Disney 2D movies to come out in the last decade or so.  It seems like this, along with Kung Fu Panda, really point a new direction for Dreamworks - contemporary in feel but without massive pop culture references.  Kudos to Jeffrey for making a home for those guys.

Anyway, in the center of the trailer is a sequence where the hero and the dragon become friends.  It is amazing what the dragon communicates, with absolute clarity, just what he wants the kid to do.  There's heart, personality and a great deal of honest humor.  Study the tilt of the head to the shoulders, the swallow, the lip smack, all the little bits that equal a personality.  FANTASTIC! Plus you have that great Chris Saunders sense of design giving us a unique looking creature. 

I've got nothing to do with the picture.  I guess I'm technically working on a Dreamworks TV project but it's through another studio so I'm not beholden to SK or G.  But I'm definitely going to make time to see this movie when it comes out.  

Now go watch that trailer again!  -- Tad

 

Too Many Headshots

Why wasn't I this good at graphic analysis when I drew these pages in the first place?  Let's tick off what's not working in these pages quickly. Or maybe it's just a matter of taste. 

First off, unless you're dealing with ads interspersed through your comic you should be aware of what pages face each other and what pages are revealed as you turn them.  Unless you've done something strange, like starting your story on the inside front cover, the odd pages will always be the ones you turn.  Every heard of a novel called "a real page turner?"  That's when you can't help yourself from turning the page to see what happens next.  Think hard about the last panels of odd numbered pages.

So the tilt of the bed in the first panel matches the tilt of the Ouija planchette of the last panel of page 6. (See post above).  That's either brilliant, a mistake or non-consequential.  In this case I'm calling it a mistake because it's not only mirroring the planchette but also line of girl heads in the next panel.  The story point here is about fright.  That is better served by chaos, panel compositions that fight one another rather than imitating each other.  I had some fun with the sound effects though.  

I felt "SCREAM" was better here than another "AAAA" or "Aieee!"  I should not have had "Shriek" in the next panel.  Graphically it's bad, it's too similar to the FX gag in the previous panel and regardless of content, a word balloon would look better here.  

As the title says, there's probably too many head shots on the first page but I still like it.  There's lots of variation in composition.  The pacing is off at the start.  I'm not sure the action is clear.  What would have been nice is a quiet moment after the floating planchette.  It drops to the board.  The girls warily check it out then relax, along with the reader and then the bed lifts.  

With that kind of set up the bed levitation would need to be bigger, at least the whole top tier of the page.  You don't always have the pages to spare and that sort of pacing is more common in film than comics.  In fact, the sequence I've just described would work much better moving than flat on the page.

Color note: as soon as the weird stuff happens, Amber's room shifts from pink to red.  And check out that last panel - chock full of suspense so you'll turn the page.

Page 7 has a great reveal after that page turn, nice girl threatened by pointy things.  The next two panel showing a door closing on its own is an attempt at portraying poltergeist phenomena.  Does it work?  You tell me.  Seriously.  I can take it.

I like Em at the center of the scream a lot.  But now that I look at it, one my easily think that Em's the one who is screaming.  That wouldn't hurt the story point but it paints Emmaryn as a different sort of character than I intended.

 Next, girl attacked by make up.   For clarity and value added horror, I think it could have been a wider shot and show hair being pulled.  Last panel is an old but still serviceable gag.

I've posted the next page before.  I like Em's face being surround by panels that tell two stories: the attack on the girls and their escape as the "weedlings" become aware of Emmaryn.  Their dialogue starts sketching the world they think Emmaryn belongs in.  The last panel and word balloon provide a big bombshell and reason to turn the page; if Emmaryn isn't human, what is she?

As the creatures become more real to Emmaryn, they become visibile.  I used a couple of different techniques to suggest that they're "fading in."  I decree this to be a good page.

Warning, it's late and I'm tired so I'm not proofreading the above.  Of course the warning would be  better at the top of the page but I'm fine with it down here.

And finally, to celebrate the crap tons of suspense in that last panel.  The next post will take a break from my examination of Emmaryn.  --Tad

More Pages

Okay, here's more pages of my comic, EMMARYN.  If you want to get into comics in any creative capacity, nothing beats actually producing a comic.  You quickly understand the amount of work required, the speed you need to produce on schedule and all the less exciting bits that go into creating a comic.  I was really pleased when I finished the first issue of this.  Learned tons.   Then my taste improved and I see where these pages are working and where they really come up short. 

So here's some more analysis of my comic by a little older, a little wiser me.  First off, some general comments:  I think it's fine to keep backgrounds to a minimum but only if you put some real work into the set up panels where you clearly define the location.  I came up a little short in that department.  Secondly, it's obvious my default pose of Em is 3/4 right and I  use it waaaaaaay too much.  Lastly, my inking is still sad.  I'm not going to mention that anymore because it will become tiresome.   So here's the next page:

 
 Panel 1 should have been a wider shot showing the full staircase, a feeling for the upscale house and a clear presentation of the geography of the two girls on the staircase.  Also, here's the first of the nearly nonstop 3/4 faces on this page.  The space around the lettering seems clumsy.  I have no idea of how to fix it... I suppose I should refer to some of the books I have that explain it.

Panel two would be okay if the first panel was changed as described above.  The two heads of Emmaryn being so close is clumsy.  I like the middle tier of this page so this panel should not have close ups on heads.  The two girls walking down the hall would've made for a nice panel.  

Panels 3 thru 5 are fine, sort of animation on the page.  "Fwap" could use a better lettering choice to helf the feel of the impact.  Panel 5 shows me experimenting with balloon placement to suggest voices in the background.

Panel 6 could use a better background considering it's the stage for the next several pages.

Panel 7 - Is fine.  I purposely avoided using the actual Ouija Board.  There have been tons of talking board designs so I think I'm safe legally.   But even if this comic was published by Oni, Image or whoever, it's too small potatoes for Parker Brothers to worry about it.

The final panel is a Mignola technique; show a detail that foreshadows the upcoming story.   

Page 5 is decent save for the two three quarter angled Emmaryn's in the top panels.  The opposing head in the top right and bottom left panels are cool so it's panel 1 that should be changed.  The storypoint is Em's isolation from this group a a better panel would be a couple of the girls in the foreground with the board and Emmaryn small in the background.  There'd be more variation on the page, contrast with Panel 2 and set up the physical relationships of the characters.

The final panel is another glimpse of the weird world that's coming.  It may confuse the reader but won't distract him too much from the story.

The third page is  hurt by the bottom panels which are too similar to many of the medium shots on the page.  It's getting a little obvious that the artist was trying to avoid drawing hard stuff. 

Panel one.  Note to artists: practice drawing hands.  A lot.  It really says a lot about your level of talent and experience.  Em's hands look okay but she's evidently playing with some sort of human/crab hybrid.

The middle panel is another experiment that I think succeeds fairly well.  It's like quick cutting in film with overlapping dialog.  Actually, you tell me if you think it's working.

 Okay, that's it for now.  Another glimpse into what I think of my work.  I'll try to spend a little more time writing about my intentions rather than what a bad job I did of meeting them.  

Later!  -- Tad

The Animated Girl

Emmaryn/Spryte started off as a character in an animated pitch.  The roots of the idea go back about a decade to a faerie detective who held a big gun that shot magic.  The detective became two kids, both half faerie.  Back to a detective type called Mage Raven with a half human sidekick, Spryte.   The were joined by Carbunkle, a boogey man who hung out with that first detective.  Then Spryte and Carbunkle stepped out on their own.  At this point I'm not sure I'd want to sell Spryte as an animated show because she's been with me too long to hand over to a corporation.   You'll not that I'm not publishing any Spryte pitches.  That's because I don't want her story spoiled.  Some sort of web or self published version will surface sooner or later.  But don't get me wrong, she'd be great in animation.  And there's a reason why I choose to work in animation.

It's the people.  

I was originally drawn to the industry because it seemed like the only place stories of the fantastic were being told.  The stories I wanted to work on were too expensive for live action movies.  Of course, that all changed with Lucas, Speilberg, ILM and cheap CG.  Now the theaters are packed with geektastic films and often they're the films topping the box office.

But what I really enjoy about the medium is that it collects incredibly talented people who work as a team to create something.  Artists are usually pretty individualistic yet animation requires a slew of them to leave a mark on every frame of film.  

Putting a crew together is always a joy for me, both for the opportunity of hiring familiar talents and discovering new ones.  It's all about hiring people better than me to bring my ideas to the screen.  It's awesome.

There was I time in my life, back when I had a beard, that I envisioned myself producing a comic strip in a cabin in Colorado and listening to a lot of John Denver.  I can't imagine that now (although you can't top John Denver and the Muppets at Christmas time).  I enjoy the exchange of ideas within a studio.  Everyday you either learn or share something about art, production or storytelling.  Stories are plussed by other writers whose scripts are plussed by actors and a gaggle of directors and storyboard artists who add variations and improvements.  

Currently, I'm not running a show.  I'm on the crew.  In just the cubicles around me are "storyboard artists" who've directed prime time comedies for years, produced seven DVD movies in six years, and have created series for several studios.  It's the nature of the business that directors fall back on storyboarding until another directing gig opens but the studio seems to have intentionally collected a crew that can divide up and run several shows at once.

Of course, with the wrong atmosphere or schedule, even a brilliant team can be reduced to churning out hackwork.  But when it clicks on one of my shows, I feel like I'm on top of the world.

Okay, next time I'll try to have more content about the creative process or at least more analysis of my comic work.  In the meantime, here's another pivotal drawing of Emmaryn.  It's not the one that began the journey but the one that brought her into her teen years.   Later.  --Tad

 

 

The Many Faces of Spryte

Comic Books, along with jazz and baseball, are America's major contributions to the culture of the world.  The blend of words and pictures allows for a unique type of storytelling that can't be done in prose or any sort of motion picture.  You can tell the same story, but not the same way.  

For my taste, the best adaptations of comics to film are not slavish mimicry of printed panels.  The best take the essence and reinvent it for the movies.  That's what IRON MAN, ROAD TO PERDITION and SPIDER-MAN 2 did.  SIN CITY and WATCHMEN were interesting experiments but distance themselves from the audience by imitating specific panels, SIN CITY especially.   But I've digressed.

Spryte's first foray into print was in the pages of ZOWIE DEUX,  an anthology of stories all playing with the subject of Tikis.  Hey, why not?  I volunteered way too late and really rushed my submission.   I drew on various sizes of paper and cobbled it together in Photoshop.  Coloring was made up as I went along and backgrounds were near non-existant. Here's a sample:

   

The story was that the Menehune, the Hawaiian version of the Little People, were causing mischief but couldn't be tracked down.  Turns out they were hiding in the foliage of aloha shirts.  There were some fun running gags but what the story really needed was about a two page action sequence instead of the one panel in the center of that second page.  In the end (spoilers) the Menehune control tourists like they are Sims.  I  should have written a shorter story or passed on the project.  On the other hand, you learn a lot bulldozing through something on a short deadline. Even in this joke story Spryte won't take off her coat, although it's played for laughs with a capper gag at the end.  But eventually it would take a more serious turn and we'd learn about her dead father.  But not in this story and probably not with this sort of tone.

The next time Spryte took comic form, although unpublished, she had a name change to EMMARYN.  I think it's a cool sounding name, vaguely Celtic, a touch Tolkeiny, and it happens to be the name of my granddaughter.  Here's the first three pages of the comic.  Emmaryn isn't in the first two.  I thought I needed to show that there was a larger tale to be told since the rest of the issue plays out in suburbia.

   
 

I thought I was really being smart by doing the first two pages last, when I was really warmed up and in the groove.  They're definitely some of the strongest in the issue.  The problem with that plan is that page three hits you in the face like a brick wall.  C'mon, I should have been able to draw a better car than that.  Look how cool that spider is, I can't draw a freaking car?  Anyway, the first two pages make complete sense once who learn the behind the scenes story.  Of course that wouldn't be until issue three or so.  Maybe that structure was ill conceived. 

But I'm fairly happy with the first two pages.  The inking is slightly better and the characters have a solid style.  A style that seems to have nothing to do with the characters on page 3.   Em is older in this version and intentionally not traditional cute.  Mom is a mess.  I shouldn't have worried about trying to get a family resemblance.  The major weaknesses of the page are the lack of solid backgrounds and  the character design.  But the panel to panel storytelling is decent.  It's a little funky starting with the tiny panel on that last page, sort of a golden age thing to do, but 1) obviously drawing cars are not my strong point and 2) the page was about introducing characters.   Now that I think of it, the conversation could have happened on the walkway and doorstep which might have increased the awkwardness for Emmaryn.

I think what I'd really like to do is work with an artist but   thumbnail the comic myself because the arrangement of panels is such a big piece of the storytelling.  Or I suppose I could learn to draw better.  Next, what I enjoy about telling stories in animation.  --Tad