Obscurum

The Beast at 10,000 ft

Updated page: 25

Been a while, yes?

I've been working on Sweet Enemy's site for the past couple of days. I have to support her in becoming a full-time painter. Not just because that is what she wants to be, but because she promised to buy me a helicopter after her one-woman show at the Guggenheim.

There is a missing sound effect in this piece. The largest panel should have a juicy, but also subdued sound effect, but I couldn't come up with a good one. The best I could come up with was "RUTCH", but I don't think it works. Suggestions?

Also, would all you who've been following this prefer the page-by-page update notices, or would you like me to wait until the whole thing is done?

Also an update to the 'six questions' post. I'm only doing it because my dad actually emailed me to correct something (and I'm just pretty happily surprised he actually reads my blog). Apparently, I didn't live in Brookline, but in Brighton.

Also, also, met a potential freelance client at the local independent bookstore. Had an espresso. It as 7:30 pm. I loves me my bitter strong coffee, but wayyy too late. It's midnight EDT and I'm not sleepy. No big deal if it were Friday, but...

Listening to while posting: "Mr. State Trooper" by Cowboy Junkies (a cover song made their own in the same way that Jimi made 'Watchtower' and SRV made 'Voodo Chile' their own)

The Beast at 10,000 Feet

Updated page: 24

This is a small update; just one page. I did have to do some shuffling in the overall layout (due to critique by Sweet Enemy). I finished the rough layouts to the end and it's going to be thirty-one pages.

Each page is like a cliffhanger. Is that bothering anybody? I feel that I've been laying it out to be read only on the web and not in a book format. I wonder if that's bad or not.

To make up for the small update, here's a present: the only song I know of that is about Aquaman. It's sort of like "Jimmy Olsen's Blues" only with Aquaman and Batman. Check it.

Listening to while posting: "it's the love" by The Breeders

The Beast at 10,000 Feet

updated pages: 22 and 23

Oh, man, oh MAN!

The final battle has been joined! Man. That was fun to draw. The hardest so far was The Plane Crash Page. I've never drawn a plane crash before. Action is hard enough, but a good plane crash is really tough.

We're almost done! I'll beg big 'ol critiques when this is over.

Listening to while posting "My Brother Chris" by Apartment ( on the Soma FM station: Indie Pop Rocks.

The Beast at 10,000 Feet

Updated Page: 21

It's a bit chilly here tonight. About 40 deg F. Almost started up the woodstove again, but didn't. We're counting down to the climax. Hoo, boy!

Personal thing. Two years ago, I tried to get my friend KickEnemyMen into mountain biking. I re-built my old bike and gave it to him (with a suh-weet 1998 Marzocchi Z2 on the front!). He hardly rode it and when he came up here to ride last summer, I may have pushed him too hard. He may come around, but until then, he bought one of these cool things! Definitely not an offroad machine, but he can commute on this thing and it's easy on the back. Hopefully, I'll be heading over to the Right Portland next weekend to help him put it together.

Listening to while posting: "Knock-down, Drag-out War" by Weezer

The Beast at 10,000 Feet

updated page: 20

There's a thunderstorm overhead, so I'll not take too long. The action is heating up. Only six pages left (unless I've laid out wrong).

listening to while posting: East of the Sun (West of the Moon) by Frank Sinatra

The Beast at 10,000 Feet

Update: Page 19

This page, though not big, was actually really hard to do. I won't ruin anything by saying what was hard, but man, I've never had to draw this particular thing. Getting close to the end!

Listening to while posting: Hawaiian Love Song by Elvis Presley (man, Pandora. com serves up an eclectic mix)

So, the Unamed Comic is not just updated , it has a tilte!

First, let me rectify a great wrong. When I was trying to write the script for this thing, I was having a hell of time with the ending. I had trouble reconciling the altruism of the main character with her desire to stay alive. Desperate, I turned to good (and sadly neglected by me) friend Rambler. As a novelist looking for a publisher and (former fellow bookstore employee), I thought that she could help me with my problem.

She denies offering much help, but I will beg to differ. She was a great sounding board and the ideas bounced back and forth until the ending emerged. In the way of a good teacher, it looked (and felt slightly) as thought I'd come up with the idea all on my own, but I could not have done it without her. She also claimed to be 'riveted' by my long semi-script of the ending, so I better do it right.

So, the title! Today I went to the store where she works to pick up a boxed set of Narnia that Sweet Enemy ordered and mentioned the story still had not title. I first mentioned AndreZero's idea of "The Devil's Breakfast". She agreed it was a great phrase, but it didn't really fit the story (except in a post-modern sort of way). I then mentioned the title I'd had in my head that was, to me cheesy; a mix of titles form a 50's monster movie and a Twilight Zone episode: "The Beast at 20,000 ft". When I mentioned this, her fact actually lit up and she said she loved it. So, on her advice, that is the name, though the actual altitude is changed to reflect the average cruising height of a DeHaviland Twin Otter. I give you:

The Beast at 10,000 Feet

Thanks, Rambler!

As far as the comic goes, I've attempted a sort of graphic trick usually reserved for newspaper comics and I'm not sure it works. Let me know.
Listening to while posting: "Birds Fly" by They Might Be Giants

Unamed comic

New page: 17

I think my quality is slipping on this, but I posted it for story's sake. If the story goes over well, I'll re-visit. However, I WILL FINISH THIS!. I can't not after the pain this has given me.

But, now, my drawing arm is tired. You know how your muscles feel weak after a good workout? That's exactly how my right arm feels. I'm taking a break for a day, no drawing. No computer. just ice, wine, Farscape and Sweet Enemy.

Listening to while posting: "You Made Me Love You" by Benny Goodman

unnamed comic

Pages added: 13 - 16 new

Tired. So tired.

And more broke.

I feel ill. I've been working like a dog on this and I hope the results are worth it. I'm nowhere near making the deadline. I just finished roughing out the last pages and the total is twenty five. I am now behind my schedule of two pages inked and posted a day, and even if I were on schedule, I wouldn't make it by Friday. I'm going to post a link to what I've got and then finish this thing.

I won't keep the same pace, but I'll move fast so that the styles don't change after page 16.

Just a warning, if you care, some of the new pages are labeled GR for the grossest thing I've drawn since high school. I shouldn't feel weird about that, but I do for some reason.

Ah, well.

listening to while posting: "Born Again" by Badly Drawn Boy

unnamed comic

Pages added: 11 and 12 new

Went to a fundraiser last night. LOTS of money for land conservation and MTB trailbuilding. Many local merchants donated stuff for a raffle (chain lube, technical clothing, socks a new fork, etc.). I won nothing, but Sweet Enemy won a pair of really nice socks; size large (her feet are decidedly ess-emm-all).

So, I missed a night. The action is ramping up, I hope my skills are up to it. MAYBE six more pages, maybe eight. Have until Thurs. Hope I can pull this off.

unnamed comic

Pages added: 9 and 10 new

Whew. This is moving fast. It really feels like the 24 hour comic day, only more drawn out (no pun intended).

I am desperately trying to keep the quality from going down as I get closer to the deadline.

The action is actually starting in this. But, it's more of a Stephen King sort of action...

unnamed comic

Pages added: 7 and 8

Had to day off, ostensibly to take my car to the mechanics ($509.82 for exhaust leak, seasonal tire swap, brake job and oil change). Spent most of the rest of the time drawing. In addition to today's update, have two penciled for inking tomorrow and one more laid out.

I'm a bit worried that this may be slow getting to the action, but I feel I need to show character relationships in order for this to work. Thoughts?

Listening to while posting: For All We Know by Nat King Cole

Unnamed Comic

New pages: 5 and 6.

Boy, did I screw up. I sketched two pages last night. Tonight I traced those two pages in blue pencil. Then I inked those two pages. Then I scanned those two pages. It wasn't until I brought them into Illustrator to typeset and panel them that I noticed my mistake.

Both pages were .5" too short.

Crap.

Crap.

Crap.

If I didn't tell you, you wouldn't notice. I juggled the frames to fit the correct size, so there is no real image difference. What sucks is that in missing that, I lost a half-inch of artspace to work with.

Moron.

What also sucks is I have NO time to go back and do it again. This whole project is forward motion, or stopping.

Listening to while posting: "Gates of Eden" by Bob Dylan

Oh, this is going well. It is also going very badly. I'm moving quickly, but trying not to rush. I have eleven days to have this available for judging on the challenge. I'm allowing some leeway in the art because this challenge isn't always about the art quality. That being said, the... mistakes bug the bejeezus out of me.
Since the layout is going rather well, I think I'll just tighten up the artwork and re-ink it once the challenge is over.

I have no idea how I should pace myself, but I'm trying to have two inked pages a night. We'll see. I'm going to have to start working at lunch.

Please check it out and let me know what works.

Listening to while posting: nothing. Sweet Enemy is in bed. Noise is kept down

AndreZero lent me Pax Romana by Johnathan Hickman. He didn't say anything about it except that he'd like to see what I thought of it. So, here's what I think of it.

It's purty. In places, it 's darn purty. Check out this cover:

Isn't that nice? Bit like Kent Williams from Wolverine/Havoc: Meltdown (which, unbelievably, I cannot find an image for!). However, the interior art is also a ot like Kent Williams. Is this a bad thing? Kent Williams was good, right? He was, and he also knew how to pace comics, Mr. Hickman, not so much. Williams, in Meltdown, used an interesting technique: when there was a flashback, he'd take the action out of the standard comic frame and do gorgeous multi-layer set pieces with dialog floating on top of it. In Meltdown, as an accent, it worked perfectly. In Pax Romana, not so much. This is because nearly every page is like this AND the dialog is set in sans-serif type. Any designer will tell you, bodies of text need serifs to link the words together to help the eye connect the words. So, sans-serif type, poorly laid out, plopped on top of gorgeous set pieces, looks like this for twenty-eight pages:

Hickman also breaks up the action with spreads like this:

It's the minutes of a meeting, for crying out loud! Sweet Enemy really didn't like this and stopped reading immediately. This is really lazy writing. He could not pare the story down to it's elements, as good comics should, so he fills it full of text. There are, in the middle of the story, set pieces with lengthy character biographies. Seven of them of varying lengths. Yawn.

The story? Oh, yeah, the story. I managed to figure out that it has the potential to be a good story. In 2035, the the dying Catholic church, working with scientists from CERN, use time travel technology to send mercenaries back to ancient Rome to help Constantine defeat his enemies. Pretty cool. Hickman, however, makes it boring. The characters are all stiff and have less life than a Mignola drawing. Check out the decisive battle from issue two where the mercs fight the armies of Licinius and Maximinus. What should be at least a page of action is this sorry thing:

Sure, it's purty, but stale, flat, motionless purty. Even if you haven't read Scott McCloud's book, you should realize that a battle (especially one that is the pinnacle of the issue and the entire point of the first two issues) should have at least a little action.

There is also a writing issue. The dialog is as flat and lifeless as the art. Mr. Hickman must not have read the lines out loud, because people don't talk like this. Especially hardened mercenary officers talking to their soldiers who have already (one would hope) been briefed on the mission:

So, I cannot recommend this comic at all. It is ambitious in story and scope, but it is a half-assed production at best. Quickly written and lazily plotted.

Now, so you can harp on my comics (and speaking of ambitious scope and quick writing), I've begun posting the final piece for the Weekly Challenge (with Ann, Murray and Queeg). The final challenge in the multi-part is The Conflict. Since, showing the epic battle would make no sense without the story, I've decided to do the story. I've got two pages inked, four more penciled and a further four plotted. I am pushing the envelope of my writing, drawing and plotting abilities. Pushing it hard. I also have a three week deadline (two, now), so this is moving fast.

I might be able to pull it off. The first concession is to work at small size (5" x 8.5") rather than full (9" x 13.75") and reduce. I'm also inking quickly, but it seems to be working okay. One thing missing, however, is a title. so it is called The Unnamed Comic

Listening to while posting: Closer by The Tiny (on Pandora.com)

So, I seem to have preempted Swinebread's comments about the guards in panel two (they are walking in different directions). Almost as soon as I'd finished this, I was unhappy with it. I rushed it at every point; pencil, ink, color. The only thing that worked well, was the layout (and this worked because I'd taking time to work the layout).

So, I've started again. Taking my time, shooting digital photo references and generally treating this whole page as a lesson. And, I stared with the escort:

They still look a bit like they're walking in different directions, but it still works better overall. I was trying to avoid them pointing in the exact same direction and becoming static.

As far as the style is concerned, I'm going to try the clearline style with color and local color shading e rather than the classic comic book ink shading. Let's see how it works. I'll probably hate it tomorrow and re-do it AGAIN. I'll post the entire page in a day or so, but I really needed to do this right away for my own peace of mind.

Storywise, I'm actually going to try to collaborate with a (nearly published) writer friend. This may not be up her alley, but she's willing to try. I need her because, while I've got the overall story and setup, I've gotten stuck in a character motivation towards the climax.

Listening to while posting: "Sunny" by Jason "Lefty" Williams (Lefty is a one-handed guitar player. He's only got one hand! He's also a really nice guy, too

So, the Weekly Challenge is continuing. It's a multi-part challenge, and it's getting big.

First came the hero then came the associate (read: sidekick). Then was the environment.

Now comes. The Counterpoint (or The Villain):

I'm only partially happy with this. And, as ususal, I'm getting less happy as I look at it. It was a bit rushed, no real sketching other than thumbnails and very few references. I really wanted to get it posted before the weekend. Next time, better.

Listening to while posting: Scherzo: Allegro & 4 Finale: Allegro by Ludwig Van. Perform'd by Joseph Krips conducting the London Symphony Orchestra

I finished off a sketchbook yesterday. Woo! It's got just over a year of stuff in it and is the first sketchbook that I wouldn't mind someone looking at 'un-expurgated'.

Here's the last thing I did. It's Long Tall Sally berating Captain Armsakimbo for something. (without any background reference, he looks far away, when if fact LTS is very very tall. Hey, it's a sketch! Whaddaya want?)

Here are the first things in the new sketchbook. Pictures of Anne Margaret Johnson for the Weekly Challenge.

Listening to posting: Exquisite Dead Guy by They Might Be Giants

The funny thing about this topic for the WC is how many of the posters didn't know what an anachronism was! They were confusing it with an incongruity (one 'anachronism' suggested was a deer in a grocery store). Man. I suddenly feel very, very smart.

Well, the idea of a steam-powered robot is not a product of the steampunk genre. Harry Harrison actually had a backwards planet with steam robots in one of the Stainless Steel Rat books.

This is not that particular robot however. The guy is based on a photo portrait of an ancestor of mine that sits next to my great-grandfather's pocket watches (these mechanical marvels are astounding. I'm saving up the $200 need to repair one of them. Interestingly, I live in rural Vermont, but there is a vintage watch repair place within walking distance of our house).

The piece took about 4.75 man-hours from sketch to posting. I'm not good with coloring; I have no real color sense (which probably explains my C+ in painting in art school and my subsequent foray into graphic design and typography). So, I colored it in full-color with lots of local color shadows and then "sepia-ed" it. The full-color one is here . This is the one I posted at the Weekly Challenge.

listening to while posting: Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt (not the Roger Rabbit version)

So, here's my entry for the Weekly Challenge at Ben Caldwell's site.

This is both a quickie and an expansion of an older work. It is expanded off of a tiny drawing I did for a workmate (I've been drawing her a 'weekly monster' for about 8 months). At the time, she'd said it was the very creepy. This may be the grossest thing I've drawn since this.

It felt a bit weird to do, but I think that unreal things (like abulatory, blade-weilding teddies) are scary in a different way than, say, characters from a Rob Zombie film . An unreal evil, you can imagine what it'd be like, but in your heart you know it isn't a real threat. The new 'gorenography' films portray ordinary-looking people doing nasty things. It's too easy to believe that such things can happen in real life.

That's why I'd do an abulatory, blade-weilding teddy leaving bloody footprints, but never, ever a regular guy in jeans and a t-shit. Call me a wimp, but it creeps me out to even imagine drawing that scene...

The work itself was a quickie because I did the final pencil in my sketchbook at lunch, inked it at home with an 01 Micron. Since my scanner is down (stupid ac adapter, breaks after 7 years of being dropped over and over!), I had to photograph it with a very old digital camera.

I'm still not great at coloring. I'm still concentrating on growing my linework skills right now, so this will have to do for the moment.

So... BOO!

Also, last weekend the art supply store (with no website) that my wife (STILL FEELS WEIRD!) assistant manages hosted 24 Hour Comics Day! I'd suggested it as a good thing for the store to do, especially as the nearest one was being hosted +60 miles away. We had 11 participants including three kids. It was... not easy. It was, however, fun. Fun in that, "this is my first mountain bike race in a decade" sort of fun. I managed 11 pages and that was average for the group. The only one to complete 24 was a retired art teacher/professional cartoonist.

So, want to see what I look like? The local weekly paper Seven Days (a cool, free paper that does real news and actually has well-written articles) has a video blog and the video-blogger-girl stopped by around midnight, I think? We were all pretty loopy by then. I'm the guy who uses the phrase "It sounds cheesy". Yup, that's me.

The work is... not bad. Not great, but not bad. Worth expanding into a real story (that someone else needs to script. Anybody?).

listening to while posting: "The World is a Very Scary Place" by The Gothic Archies from 'The Tragic Treasury'. Funny how apropos that is...

Thursday, May 8, 2008

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