I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday’s Storytelling discussion.  It’s still a bit early for comments, but I had one more point to discuss about the pencils before moving on to the letters in the next post.

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The first two panels are very nice.  Beautiful setup, excellent use of multiple lines of perspective, wonder period feel to everything.  Love the 1940’s cars.  But there’s not much else to say.

The third panel is the weakest on the page.  Not that it’s bad, but it’s just a bridge panel.  It does have good flow with the rest of the page as we saw yesterday.

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However — The final two panels of Page 8 are probably the best panels Sami has drawn so far — and not just because the two women are so beautiful.  

We WILL discuss Sami’s drawing talent in a future post, but I still want to look at the storytelling today. 

Not the flow aspect of storytelling –but the positioning.

Like flow, positioning of the characters in the panels is a critical aspect of storytelling and often is invisible.  I’m not refering to the ”poses” of the characters – like the haughty, arrogant cocked hip Donna has in the last panel — but more to the positions in relation to each other and to the other panels.

Take another look –

We discussed yesterday the way the important elements all line up so the readers eyes flow from panel to panel.

That’s a very important aspect of positioning.  

But there is even more subtle positional-storytelling going on here.  Look again.  Do you see it?

Here’s what I asked for in Panel Four (the first panel above), “Mid to Close of Trixie. She is a bit confused — but not comically so. More like the kind where you tilt your head to the side as if considering something you almost understand — but don’t have all the pieces yet.”

Sami nailed the look I wanted exactly.  But then he did so much more.  By positioning the two women as he did, even though they are facing each other, the Trixie in panel four is looking at the Donna in panel five.  Not only that but she is looking down on Donna — even though, on the page, Donna is higher.  Incredible.  And incredibly hard to pull off.

But that’s not all.  Even more amazingly subtle things are happening in the last panel.

Donna’s dress and elbow are crowding Trixie — forcing her out of the house — dismissing her.  And by taking away the background and even the panel border, Sami lets you know that now for Donna, ”It’s all about me!” 

The words gave you the first hint — but the artwork, storytelling and positioning let you know that your assumptions were correct.

And best of all — you felt it without actually seeing it or reading it. 

That’s the mark of a GREAT storyteller.

Mark   

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With this Blog we hope to give you some eye-candy — in the form of extra artwork by our creators and readers — but also occasionally to dig deeply into the artwork or creation of the comics. 

Not everything will be for everyone.  But that’s okay.  There should be at least something for everyone.

We jump right into the deep end today with The Art of Comic Storytelling.  This may seem to be a weird subject to start the blog with — but this page (Page 8 of Black Jack Justice - Justice Served Cold) is so absolutely perfect it just begs to be discussed.  I think you may be pleasently surprised by the thought that goes into the creation of a single page.

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Storytelling, sometimes called “Comic Flow,” is an invisible art. 

Or should be. 

Like directing or background music in movies, comic storytelling is only noticeable when it is bad.  When it takes you out of the moment, makes you think about what you are doing or, worse yet, makes you lose your place — then the storytelling has failed.

The best artists (and letterers) in comics are able to lead you along though the story without you ever realising they are doing it.

Black Jack Justice artist, Sami Kivelä, just such a storyteller.

As the inker and letterer of BJJ, I spend FAR more time looking at each page than the average reader.  So things that you don’t see — things Sami works hard to make you NOT see — are noticable to me. 

Like his beautiful grasp of storytelling and comic flow.

If you are an aspiring comic artist — or just enjoy seeing a master on top of his craft — you can learn a great deal from studying Sami’s work on Black Jack Justice.

If you are having trouble understanding the concept of storytelling — GREAT!  That shows you that we are doing our job and it is invisible to you.      

However here is a great example that can explain comic flow to you with comments by me, Mark.

(Note — this example is ONLY about the storytelling in the pencils.  Nothing else about the artwork or story is being considered here.  Plenty of time in future posts for that.)

We would love to know your thoughts on this subject. Especially if you are an artist.

Also, as this is the first real technical look at the artwork, did you like it and would you like to see more?  Maybe on the different aspects and subjects?

Thanks

Mark

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We’ve been promising this blog since day one — but it took a bunch of trees to finally get me to put it up.

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WELCOME TO THE BRAND NEW ART OF ADDICTIVE COMICS BLOG

With this new blog we hope to engage the readers and, especially, the comic creators among you in a dialogue about all aspects of creating the artwork for Addictive Comics.

The artists and writers of comics love to discuss what we do. And, based upon the comments of the first few weeks, there are plenty of you who enjoy it, too. So we have very high hopes for this blog.

Along the way we’ll discuss the pencilling, inking and even lettering of the comics as well as feature additional creations from some of our artists and fan-art from the readers.

If you are a comic artist — or just like to draw — please send in a picture or three. We would love to see your work. If you have an online comic yourself, please feel free to let us know in your comments and email some samples to us so we can all enjoy it.

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We're gonna hit the ground running with this blog, talking about the most recent pages. We'll go back and pick up the earlier pages as we go along.

Enjoy,

The Addictive Comics Gang

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I’ve just finished lettering Page 8 of Black Jack Justice and once again I had to cover up some beautiful artwork. 

But it wasn’t Trixie or Donna or even Jack that got to me finally.  Maybe it’s just an accumulation of all the wonderful art I have had to cover for the past 8 weeks.  There was the panel on page 3 where I covered Donna’s legs (which I already discussed with you on the Black Jack Justice Blog), or the massive amount of balloons on pages 4 & 5, or then covering ANYTHING in that hallway – which took several hours to ink — on page 7.  Maybe it was all that together.

But it was the covering up the TREES on page 8 that finally got to me. 

See, inkers are not JUST tracers (as I’ve heard every since that Kevin Smith movie made the line famous among people who have never even read a comic.  I “got him back” — I’ve never seen the movie.)  We’ll explore this further in the coming weeks on this blog — but for now understand that our job often involves picking the right lines from the many that the artist puts on the page.

Sometimes an artist will just “suggest” where the line “might” go.  In other words he does a quick sketch and lets the inker do the actual drawing.

Now normally all of Sami’s pencils are what we call “very tight” — meaning that he puts in all the information most of the time.  With his pencils, inking does come very close to just tracing. 

Except for the trees.  

Finally a chance to have a little fun.  Draw the trees in ink.  Really cut loose and show what I can do.  YES!

Then…

Cover them up with letters.

Uhgggg!

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Okay, that’s all a joke.  Sorta.  I really did enjoy the trees.  But I planned to put this blog up this week anyway.  It’s high time we discussed some of this.

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So…

First up — here are the pencils and inks of page 8 – sans word balloons — and a little bigger for your viewing.  Click on each page to see the larger version (opens in new window — and when you get there, you may need to click on it to make it bigger — depending upon your settings.)

Check out those trees. 

Okay, I’ve discussed the trees enough — but take a look at that mansion in Panel Two again.   It’s beatiful, isn’t it?  It’s one of those things that will take the artist several hours to draw and gets passed over by the reader in a couple seconds.  It’s just the nature of comics.  Sorta like those CGI space battle shots in the original Star Wars that took 3 days to create and lasted 2 seconds on screen.

For all you draftsmen & draftswomen and aspiring artists out there — count the points of perspective on the mansion.  I see at least 5.  Incredible.

Panel  Three is my least favorite on this page.  It’s just a bridge panel between the better stuff.  There’s nothing wrong with it — it’s just there.

Donna’s gloves are a great touch — and all Sami.

Panels Four and Five –

Sami really, REALLY captured the mood on the story with these two.  Some of his earlier stuff had been beautiful, but in my opinion these are his two best panels to date.

Here are my descriptions for the two panels –

Panel Four

Mid to Close of Trixie. She is a bit confused — but not comically so. More like the kind where you tilt your head to the side as if considering something you almost understand — but don’t have all the pieces yet.

Panel Five

Shot of Donna - drink in hand very haughty — not angry. She is “dismissing” Trixie.

Sami drew EXACTLY what I was asking for.  You don’t even have to read the words to know what is going on.  Brilliant.

In Panel Four I stated ”not comically so.”  Remember I wrote this before I saw any of Sami’s BJJ work.  So I wanted him to NOT draw Trixie in that classic comic pose — eyes wide, mouth open, hands up.  I know now that I needn’t have worried.

And the “dismissal” in Panel Five is so perfect, I want to slap her. 

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We may continue to comment on this page in the coming week and further. 

…AND we have 7 past pages that we will get to eventually. 

…PLUS I have several pieces from Sami and WAY TOO MUCH of my artwork that I will be putting up in the coming weeks.

…SO if you are interested AT ALL in artwork and enjoy discussing it, check back here often.

…BUT right now please leave a comment before you go telling us what you think and would like to see.  Comment on Page 8, the Art of Addictive Comics Blog, Addictive Comics or Comic Artwork in General.

It’s all good.

Mark

PS - For those of you who might think we’re gonna throw up a butch of old drawings here — well, we are — BUT it’s also gonna be so much more.  Starting Tomorrow.  Check back — I think you’re gonna be very pleasently surprised.

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