The Riches, Season 1

August 12th, 2007

My God I’ve been busy. But, I have finally finished watching the last 7 minutes of the penultimate [NOTE: I do not usually use the word penultimate, but it seemed like it would save on typing... this of course would have been true had I not been compelled to write this note] episode of the first season of The Riches, and then the final episode.

I still really like this show. And, maybe it’s just that it plays to my favorite topics. I mean, I became a writer because I never felt all that good about the possibility of only living one life, and converting to Hinduism seemed like a bigger commitment. This is the story of people who spend all of their lives being other people.

I’d like to say that it’s a look at society from the outside, and in a way it is. It’s a look at a caricature of society, I’d wager for both the Travelers, and the Buffers. And that’s why it works.

As I said in my first post, it’s like a sitcom plot gone bad. Everything always seems on the verge of being given away, but that’s not it, really. Things are given away, things do change. Everything that can go wrong, does. But these people are professionals, and so they have a few tricks to avoid mayhem that should ensue.

In the final episodes, Dale, the former head of the Traveler’s camp, tracks down our heroes, and sets up shop with their biggest local enemy. He seems like the biggest possible threat to their carefully laid plans.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Pete, the best friend of the read Doug Rich, the dead man whose family they are all claiming to be, arrives on the scene.

These two dangerous problems move in closer and closer, and in the final minutes of the season finale…

Well, that’s not the point of this blog. Seriously, check out this show if you haven’t.

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The Cheap Ass’ guide to Comic Lettering on the computer

August 12th, 2007

Step 1: prepare your art.

If you are hand drawing the art, scan it, and use a photo editing software to clean it up. I use a combination between Gimp and Photoshop elements, not because Gimp is deficient — it is an amazing product, considering that it’s free and matches photoshop pretty much point for point (though I will say the default included lens flares, a favorite effect of mine, are not quite up to snuff, but I do use an older version than the current), but because elements came free with my wacom, and I don’t use the wacom very often. Also, I don’t have to wait for X11 to start up on my iMac.

first.jpg

I always add the copyright at this stage (which is convenient, as I’m not about to put a comic up here without a copyright)

Step 2: Plan your page.

Determine where you need to add words to the background, for signs and such.

backgroundletters.jpg

For dialog See where the white space is, and think about the words you intend to use. [NOTE: If you're lettering your own work, this is also a good way to learn to edit. Once you know how much space you have, you must come up with creative ways to trim a sentence away here and there. Alternatively, you could actually do what you're supposed to, and plan the lettering before you start drawing your finished art, but I know it takes a while for that to make it into the process].

dialog.jpg

Step 3: Get a vector graphics program.

A vector graphics program is really necessary. Unfortunately Illustrator, which is the default, widest used of these programs is around $1000, and if you’re doing this for fun, you’re not going to buy it.

There is a solution, though (one which does not involve theft, admittedly a cheap option, as well), Inkscape. It takes a bit to get used to, like Gimp, but it seems to match up pretty well with illustrator. There are a few things I haven’t been able to find, admittedly, but it will do the job, and it’s free.

Download it!

Step 4: Place the background words first.

The bubbles appear on top, so start with the signs and such first.

If the words go behind someone or something, put them there in their entirety, and then erase as necessary. It’s important to do this, so that if there is a point where the words should appear again on the other side of an object, you actually get them lined up right.

backgroundletters2.jpg

[Note on fonts -- here I am playing around with one of the new fonts I got from comic craft -- destroyer. It was a free font, with purchase of the others. I'm also using Bauhaus 93, which came with the mac, Battle Scarred, one of the Comicraft fonts I knew I had to have, and my personal favorite, Blambot's 10 cent comics. I sincerely recommend checking out Blambot, if you're just getting started, as you can get quality comic typefaces for free to play around with].

Step 5: Bubbles/captions

Place the words first

dialog2.jpg

Then put the bubbles over them, using the circle tool

dialog3.jpg

Set the stroke of the circle, properly.

objectpulldown.jpg

stokeandfill.jpg

lower the bubble object

objectlower.jpg
dialog4.jpg

Create a tail for the bubble using the pen tool

pentool.jpg

Click enter once you have what you want [NOTE: this is the simplest, you can add a turn to it, or make it more impressive, as you desire]
:

dialog5.jpg

Shift select both the tail and the balloon with the selection tool

selecttool.jpg

and merge them using the path > union function

pathpulldownonunion.jpg

Step 6: I usually create a border around the panels using Inkscape as well as well. Just use rectangles to create a border, and then use the union function as above.

Step 7: Go to File > Export to bitmap (selecting the “page” option)

Step 8: re-open Gimp or Photoshop, and save the file as a jpeg, gif, or something else that’s smaller than a bitmap or png.

And there you have it… it’s not so bad, eh?

See the final product, here.

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NOTICE: To the font obsessed…

August 6th, 2007

This blog was never intended to be so very comic book geared, but as it has become that way, I feel well within my rights as the guy who pays for the hosting, in talking about something of an unlikely obsession for me. I like fonts.

I’m not a particularly gifted letterer, admittedly, and my lettering, like my art, is a bit stark, really. Obviously, I like it that way, or I wouldn’t do it that way, but it’s not for everyone, and I don’t think it needs to be. I am, however, branching out and doing more, and so, to that end, I took advantage of a sale at Comicraft to purchase a few new fonts [NOTE: the sale ends today, so chance are that this may end up seeming like gloating, rather than being informative, unless a lonely confused letterer should stumble onto my blog by complete accident before midnight].

Admittedly, I feel a little bit odd, as I’ve always been a Blambot guy. Blambot, for those of you who don’t know, is pretty invaluable for anyone starting off in lettering. They offer a number of free fonts, for use in non-commercial projects (okay, basically any project that is self-published), and a number of pay fonts (including my own personal over used favorite, 10 cent comics).  Nate definitely has a great eye for fonts, but I’ve always wanted to play around with some of Comicraft’s fonts as well.

 Comicraft wrote the book on computerized lettering (literally I own it, it’s a fun read). The work that they did on “Age of Apocalypse,”  really revolutionized the industry of lettering, which has always been one of those parts of the comic assembly line that gets forgotten, rather than made fun of (like inking) by people who don’t understand. For years letterers were asked to do something that even monks gave up when Gutenberg came along and modified a wine press to print Bibles in a hurry. It’s a very important part of the process, and these guys were responsible for the words making sense, and being readable.

 I envy that, because while my handwriting isn’t exactly chicken scratch, I am working to improve it to the point at which it can be called chicken scratch. My lettering is even less impressive. I’ve worked with a lettering guide, and spent a long time on the basics, but anything I have lettered by hand, I had to re-do via computer (with the exception of the occasional single word on a shirt). It’s faster, looks better, and allows me to blame the computer if I misspell something.

 So, I guess the next big project I take on, after the one I’m working on currently (to be posted at some point in the future, some place on the web) will be done in the Tim Sale font . It’s got lower case! I’m easily amused… next week I’ll try and post on small sharp shiney objects.

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Interview with Matt Camp, artist on “Zero Killer”

July 29th, 2007

I had a bit of a shock this morning - Matt Camp, artist on Zero Killer, commented on my review of issue #1. Not being one to let the opportunity pass me by, I dropped Matt an email in response, and he consented to an interview.

For those of you who have not read the issue, I’m not going to post any art here, because I do not like the idea of being sued. But, please go out and buy a copy. If you need a reason take a look at this cover image.

So Matt, how did you come to work on this project?

I had put together a 5 page sample for the NYCC ’06 show and showed it around, it had gotten good reactions but no work. That same night Jade Dodge (Shadows), Devon Devereaux (Tales of Hot Rod Horror), Arvid Nelson (Rex Mundi) and I had dinner and I had brought along the sample. Arvid really loved it, so we chatted about his recent move to Dark Horse and how he liked it. So to make a long story short I went home and got an email from Arvid asking if I was interested in doing something creator owned through Dark Horse and I of course said yes.

What have you previously worked on?

I started at Image with “Shadows” [Ed.'s NOTE: Newsrama has some art posted from the series here] , written by Jade Dodge, and illustrated by myself, then I did a fill in on the “Cisco Kid” for Moonstone. Besides a few pin-ups that’s it, but I am doing something with another company that I don’t think I can talk about yet.

How difficult was it for you to break into comics, and what would you do differently if you had another chance?

I’ve only ever submitted twice, once to Wildstorm, which was very fairly rejected, and then later to Image, which got picked up pretty quickly. I’ve been very lucky, hopefully it stays that way. If I could do anything differently it would probably be finding out the tone of what I want the books to be like earlier. Starting a new series has a lot to do with finding your footing, and once you have that you go from there, but finding that is hard to do.

What advice would you give to someone starting out? And by this, I mean real practical advice that you’ve never seen in print… too often this becomes “keep at it,” but what I mean is something technical and specific.

Keep at it does sound like a cop-out doesn’t it? I would say learning all the steps it takes to make a book is pretty useful. Knowing how to color, letter, and even write is helpful to an artist and it also provides a basic knowledge when working with the people that do that with you. If you try and think about what they have to have to do a good job it’ll really aid you and them in the long run. Another good piece of advice is to really study how a page gets laid out, panel structure and variation of shots, sometimes the want to make things look really exciting destroys the need to tell a good story, and young artists fall into that trap pretty often. Even knowing how thick to make your panel borders is good, changing those really alters the look of the book.

How closely do you work with Arvid Nelson and Dave Stewart?

Arvid and I talk on the phone once or twice a week, emailing almost daily, usually to discuss ideas since pretty much every page has something in it that has to be designed in one way or another. Dave on the other hand I just leave alone, he doesn’t need my help at all so I just keep my mouth shut. He just won another Eisner [Ed.'s Note: Yesterday, in fact -- and I feel the need to point out that this was posted here before it made it up on Wikipedia, though Colleen Doran has a full list up], so all I really do is compliment him. Our editors Philip Simon, Ryan Jorgensen and Scott Allie have been pretty helpful for bouncing ideas off of, and coming up with their own. It’s definitely a team project.

What’s your background in terms of art training?

Self taught, but I’ll still hopefully take some Kubert school classes through the mail eventually, I never want to stop learning.

You manage an almost photo-realistic view of the city in this project, what kind of research did you have to do for that (what with it being the burnt out husk of 1970s New York)?

So far I’ve been to Manhattan twice and luckily brought my camera both times, really if I use reference for ideas I just ignore buildings that look new. Buildings are something that always scared me so it’s been a good learning experience. But the perfectionist in me has to see it for himself, so going to New York was a must. And a write off.

I have to admit, this kind of surprised the Hell out of me, as the backgrounds in this book really reach out and grab you.

I’ve got to say again that I’m really looking forward to seeing where this goes from here. The first issue is available now wherever comics are sold [Ed.'s NOTE: Okay, not exactly, they sell "Archie" at the grocery store, but haven't really moved on to more mature minded titles, but you know, like comic shops should have it, probably Barnes and Noble, or Borders...], and the next issue comes out on September 19th.

Many thanks to Matt for replying to my questions!

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It’s a lot like an ice cold Faygo…

July 28th, 2007

For the first time in a long time, I finished a book during my travels last weekend. I started a second one, but I’m not sure when I’ll have time to finish it up.

The book in question that I finished, however, was “The Switch,” by Elmore Leonard (perhaps best known as the author of “Get Shorty,” and a few dozen other books which have been turned into movies). The sequel to “The Switch” was “Rum Punch,” which featured a character named Jackie Burke, whom Quentin Tarantino remade into the star of his 3rd feature film “Jackie Brown.”

I love Elmore Leonard’s work for two reasons — it’s messy character driven madness with snappy dialog, and because he writes about Detroit and Miami, which I love both of. In fact, the Detroit stuff I love the best, as I was born in the Detroit area, and still view it as something of a paradise.

I understand that this makes as much sense as viewing DC as being laid back, but follow me here. We lived an hour north of Detroit in a town called Lexington, which sat on Lake Huron — I had a beach in my backyard. Whenever we went into the city, I got toys or money. When I left there, I went to Rocky Mount, NC (which is pretty close to Hell). Even going back to Michigan since, and seeing what these places are really like does not take the nostalgia away. No amount of giant carnivorous flies [NOTE: true story, the last time I visited the area, I went down to the public beach that was near my old house, up on Lakeshore, and this family was just leaving, and they had left behind, I guess thrown out onto some rocks on the beach, a pristine peanut butter and jelly sandwich with one bite taken out of it. I walked away from there, and walked back within a minute, and the sandwich was gone. No one had gone near it, no large animals. I have no idea to this day how that happened, and frankly do not want to know -- to be honest I wish this were a joke, but it's really, and it's terrifying] can make the sickly sweet taste of Faygo Red Pop taste any less wonderful.

The story focuses on the kidnapping of a woman in a very bad marriage [NOTE: kidnapping seems to be a fairly common thread in Leonard's writing, as it was also employed in "52 Pickup," which I understand was made into a less than satisfactory movie staring Roy Schneider. I haven't seen it, so I hope it's better than I've been told, because the book is great]. As it turns out the marriage is worse than it seemed, as the husband is cheating on the wife, and filed for divorce just before the kidnapping occurred.

Strangely, Louis, one of the kidnappers (played by Robert De Niro in “Jackie Brown”), comes across as the hero of the book. In fact, the thing that’s so strange about the story is that you end up empathizing with the characters who should be the villains. In “Rum Punch,” you get to see them very much as they really are, but in this book, it’s a much more laid back, and fun view.

I’d have to say that “Rum Punch” is the better book, but “The Switch,” is definitely more fun.

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Woo-Hooo!

July 28th, 2007

Saw “The Simpsons Movie” this weekend, and I have to say, it’s perfect. Exactly what it should have been.

It was the biggest episode of “the Simpsons” I’ve ever seen. It’s 85 minutes long (about 4 episode’s worth), and manages to focus on each member of the family in turn [NOTE: Maggie is, as usual, not a very prominent character, but she has a fair amount of screen time].

As with the best episodes of “the Simpsons,” I can’t explain it without sounding like a lunatic. But it’s definitely got a great deal of the elements which made us all fans in the first place, without some of the things which have been slowly souring us on the experience. This is due in large part to the fact that the writing staff is made up of the creators, veterans, and the best loved from the past 2 decades.

The story is linear, for the most part, and manages to touch on most every character from the series, but not in a way that hurts the story.

It’s not the greatest film ever made, but it made me smile during a pretty tough week, and it’s definitely worth the price of admission.

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Batman #666

July 28th, 2007

Compelling, confusing, and weird… or as Wizard Magazine would say, “Grant Morrison has done it again.”

In honor of the 666th issue of Batman, DC Comics let Grant Morrison do what is commonly referred to as “pulling a Grant Morrison.” That is to say, that they let him go strangely off topic, and show a future world where Batman’s son, with Talia, the daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul, has become the new Batman, and Barbara Gordon is the new police commissioner.

Much like Morrison’s last few issues on X-men, the issue makes next to no sense, because it clearly involves a lot of continuity that no one has written down (apart from, possibly, the strange voices in Morrison’s own disturbed genius brain). It’s like reading the 10th issue of a story arc, and not being able to get the other 9.

Some clear themes emerge from Morrison’s view of the future:
1) Shoulder pads will return
2) Batman dies
3) Damien, Batman’s son, does his best with what he has (which apparently includes an immortal soul).

Actually, on point 1, the costume looked an awful lot like the one in the “Countdown” preview art. Hmmmm. Perhaps I’m thinking about this too much.

Either way, the story is a lot of fun, and relatively easy to follow, and it’s always nice when Grant has someone to tether him a bit to solid ground, which Andy Kubert does fantastically in this story.

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A short review of Zero Killer and a long digression on Darkhorse Comics

July 18th, 2007

I just finished reading the first issue of “Zero Killer” from Darkhorse comics, and I’m going to review it, but first let me talk about myself a bit.

When I graduated from college, I was not expecting to enter the workforce. Being a physics major does very little to prepare you for it, because they kind of expect you to just continue on in school until you get a PhD or off yourself from frustration. Consequently, when I decided not to pursue further studies, in my early final semester, I had no idea what I would do. So i decided that I could draw, and I created a short sample to send to various comic book companies.

It was a 4 page “Flash” sample in which he battles Gorilla Grodd. In my youthful insanity this made perfect sense to me, despite never having read a Flash book, or anything involving Gorilla Grodd. I also decided it was a good idea to draw exactly 4 comic pages — the only 4 I’d ever drawn — and send them in, like a 5 year old might. Not exactly what one would expect from a rocket scientist, but hey.

So I sent them to 3 publishers: DC, Crossgen, and Darkhorse. I did not send them to Marvel, as it was the tail end of the 90s and I just couldn’t draw that many pockets.

So, DC sent me a form letter on DC Stationary, which was awesome.

Crossgen, in what I’m sure is a clear sign of why they went out of business, sent me a long hand typed letter from the head of the art department extolling the virtues of sticking to it, and how he had been rejected time and time again, etc. It was a very nice letter, and undoubtedly the best rejection letter I have ever gotten out of the hundreds and hundreds [Note: I used to laugh when I heard people say they could wallpaper their house with rejections -- I could wallpaper the Capitol building].

Then I got the Darkhorse rejection. Now, I feel privileged, because Darkhorse no longer sends rejection letters, due to the costs, and also it was a full letter, where so many I’ve gotten have been barely legible scrawled sentences on the other side of my query letter. But it was the single most evil thing I’ve ever gotten back from a publisher. I really want to find it, but it’s not in my rejection letter file [Note: actually it's my rejection letter and death file, where I keep rejection letters, and programs I get at funerals -- they just seemed to belong together, as it's a reminder of something you feel you should remember, but just don't want to] I’ve just discovered. The message of the letter was pretty clear — “You, sir, have no talent. You must realize this by now.”

Now, admittedly, I didn’t have any talent at the time, and to be honest, if you look at my work now (which is much improved, and not the first 4 pages I’ve ever done), I may be able to pull drawing duty on a small press book, but I’m not really ever going to be a big time player in the drawing world (I’m really a writer who draws, not an artist who writes). All the same, it came as a nasty blow at the time.

So, I’ve tended to avoid Darkhorse since. I am reading “Buffy” now, and will probably submit a project idea or 2 to the venerable independent company at some point in the future, but over all, there’s still kind a bad taste in my mouth because of that reject letter. I hope you take that into consideration as I write this very short review, because these creators had nothing to do with that rejection letter.

“Zero Killer” is set in a strange dystopian post-apocalyptic present. That’s right, no future for these guys. The apocalypse happened, and it happened on Nixon’s watch. This book sets up a number of very interesting possibilities, and seems like a combination of “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” and “Kamandi,” with the sensibilities of “A Boy and His Dog” thrown in.

The story seemed to start of slow, with a number of memes which will be familiar to anyone who is familiar with the post-apocalyptic literature of the last 50 years. Devastated city [Note: in what might be a little unsettling to some, due to the timeline of the apocalypse in the story, the Twin Towers are still standing, and are in fact the first image in the book], damsel in distress, the one good man who acts bad and is inevitable unbeatable, and the attractive woman who dominates something, and wears very little.

The art is great, and the all the elements are there. I think where they go from here is crucial, and it could be similar to Kirkman’s “Walking Dead,” which started in the same way with the zombie memes but kept going, or it could flounder. I’m hoping for the former, as I like what I’ve seen thus far, and it has great potential.

Posted in comics | 2 Comments »

[Organization Announcement] You no longer have to be registered and signed in to leave a comment

July 18th, 2007

You no longer have to be registered and signed in to leave a comment. I am however still reviewing comments before they get posted. It’s nothing personal… I just hate the clutter of spam.

For example, 2 spammers commented on my Bio with the following:

- “When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.”

and

- “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.”

Now, in response to these, I want to be clear that I am not the Messiah, and I do believe in airplanes (though I am a physicist, so I do not believe in bumblebees), so neither of these posts gets to stay, except in this format, where they will be emblazoned on my blog forever.

My theory about what separates man from the animals has always been that what we see as evil in animal kingdom is survival (well, except for cats, who are a little evil, but cute so it’s okay), whereas humans do things just because they can, for their own petty stupid reasons.

Not sure what benefit posting these two comments on my blog in an unread section would have on the world, as though someone would see it and say “Oh my God, Lord Kelvin said that? I simply must go to your porn site to see more of his foibles!” So I don’t see how this will benefit the spammer.

Maybe I’m just giving my readers too much credit, but I don’t think so.

Comments welcomed, and on this one post, I will okay any comment from any one, spammer or otherwise, provided that it doesn’t completely creep me out.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

We tried to put them in the right order… but they kept catching on fire

July 15th, 2007

So, I saw “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” on Wednesday, after an extremely long Tuesday. Ann had gotten tickets for us in advance, and so despite being up until 3am the night before, and having to get up early that morning, I was going regardless.

Also, the theater was having problems, unfortunately — the film stopped 3 times. So all-in-all, not an ideal experience.

I would have to say that the new film was most similar to the film version of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” In the same way that film zipped along, not letting the story breath, this one tried to do far too much, and cut out far too much while attempting it. My own views on the editing have already been presented here, so I won’t go into it.

The first thing noticeably cut from the film, was really the Order of the Phoenix. I mean, they’re there, but there’s so little that’s done with them.

I definitely wonder how this would have been if I hadn’t read the book, as this is the first film I’ve gone to see after reading them. The great part about this was that Ann didn’t spend the entire time tugging on my sleeve to point out every bit of meaningless minutiae that was left out. The problem is that my memory is better than hers, and so I remembered twice as many things as she usually does while she’s tugging on my sleeve.

Over all, the film was good and recommended, but I seriously hope that for once they do a full on director’s cut version when they release the DVD, because you can tell there’s more footage there, and I just don’t think a “cut scenes” section is going to do it.

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