RSOM PostMortem
This is being posted here as opposed to the Tokyopop message boards to reduce the chances that it would adversely (or positively) affect final judgment. But like the mission statement, though I've been wanting to write a postmortem from the moment I shipped the thing, I understand it's primary purpose is therapeutic rather than solution oriented.
Oh, and Spoiler Alert.
example of final artwork
As may be apparent to those of the craft, I might have done at least half a dozen things that are rather jackass worthy. Choosing hard to read fonts for one, and cleaning the artwork to about 95% rather than 100%. I'd be lying if I said all of them were artistic decisions made with a great deal of consideration, but only a few were bred from a little laziness. And being half an inch off the Tokyopop mechanical specs was a problem only discovered when it was far too late to resolve properly.
A lot of this was experiment. I'm not so unfamiliar with comics and manga that "toning" or panel layout are alien to me. With "Hunter" the decision to work without tones was an artistic one. Using purely directional line work and scratchy cross hatching, I hoped to create an unusual texture that was from my own hands. As well as providing much needed practice, aiming for a final product that was free of screen tone or digitally applied tones made "filling in" those usually so empty spaces that much more deliberate and personal. The idea to use pure line work to describe force and texture is obviously not new. I'm just saying that I could use more work on it since its application is not just a straightforward process. I'm clearly not as good as some of the inking gods that are out there. And in retrospect, as I look back on it after it had shipped, applying a flat gray tone would have been adequate and far from disagreeable. I may do so later just for my own benefit and to improve the comic as a portfolio piece.
Reusing certain panel layouts, in particular for five specific pages were completely intentional and NOT lack of creativity. The theory (and this is theory only) is that using the same layouts in the comic would be like stanzas or syllables in poetry. By having the same layout for the two pages where the character falls asleep, I hoped to reinforce that notion for the one page where the character falls dead. Like wise with the page that mirrors the other, it's a moment where the character is repeating a thought in her head hopefully without my having to say so. Whether these were successful or not, I can't exactly judge in a vacuum. And if they're only successful after someone hears my explanation, then they definitely didn't work. Otherwise, I prefer uncluttered paneling as Manga that over does it I often find unreadable and questionably beautiful. Clamp does it well.
There were some moments where I refused to use techniques of the trade at my peril. I deliberately avoided blank panels to imply that time has passed. They often don't work on me and I usually miss them when I'm reading a comic. I also avoided sound effects when I felt the visuals provided the proper impact. This was for two reasons that have their origin in one. And some have found this hard to believe.
I have a hard time reading while looking at imagery. Well, not so much a hard time as it is something I can't automatically do. It's one of the reasons I have a difficult time watching subtitles. It's also the reason why in many comics, my eyes move from speech bubble to speech bubble to sound effect to sound effect usually without seeing the artwork in between. Just like I would miss action scenes in subtitled movies. I understand the power of a good sound effect, but I prefer the power of good artwork that can tell you the sound without using a word.
So, for one I really do prefer looking at an image without sound effects cluttering the page. I got into Manga for that reason since some of the ones I found (and indeed a few scanslations) didn't translate the word leaving just a graphic kanji. Second, if the image can tell you what the sound is then the word is just telling the same thing twice.
Now, I have used sound effects on some occasions. That's where I use that theory in reverse. If I can tell you what happened just by using a defining sound effect, or at least infer what happened, then the reader will "kind of" know what happened while applying a certain amount of ambiguity. (Like how you can hear Lone Wolf and Cub's carriage before you see it, or knowing there was a gun shot in the other room without being there) I can use a reveal later to fill in information retroactively. It happens in "Hunter" because she's supposed to be faster on the uptake than we are, skilled instincts and all. The reader has to keep up with her.
At the same time as I applied this theory, it really kept me from using background noises. I love the ambient sounds in the trees in a forest, but I find myself in a tough spot with placing them or applying them in comic form. If I put them in, I miss the artwork. But without them, I often don't "hear" the sound. The one moment of concession is the "kaw" "kaws" on the second page.
(I'd show the pages where I do it, but part of the contest guidelines don't allow me to show much of the final artwork. For now, those with the comic just look at page 08 for what I was trying to do.)
In retrospect, a better balance of "sound" and "silence" should be yielded to in the future.
Another example, a third or more might disqualify me at this present time
The story I believe I've explained rather thoroughly in my last post. And I don't believe any core concepts have changed since then. One thing I will say however, is that coming up with a story is far more intriguing to me than the processes involved in writing or drawing it. I enjoy the period of figuring out a story, since that's the time when I feel most like a reader. Discovering things as the story progresses and all.
In this case, the discoveries in the process were far more technical as it reminded me how often I should be drawing things to get a real hand on them. Admittedly, I'd drawn too few riversides and trees to have had a natural grasp on their construction. The forest of "Hunter" looks to my eye artificial and unfortunately secondary. More time should have been spent in the development phases to create a true primordial landscape.
Secondly, I should have designed the hunter differently. Fully clothed and equipped, she's far too styled especially when it comes to the skirt. A wild look would have been more appropriate. Frankly, the character could have used less clothing. I'm not talking Shanna or any other jungle girl design, since covering up her visible scars for a later reveal as well as the implication that the forest is a colder climate. A less structured, and far less refined design would have been more appropriate. Intentionally I was looking for a design that had no ethnic or temporal center. In retrospect, something like the pseudo-tribal designs of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus would have been more appropriate to instill an ancient sense to the proceedings.
Another thing I might not have mentioned is the fact that the protagonist is female rather than male. Though it might have been more believable according to cultural norms across societies throughout history that a hunter would be male, being a female here carries with her that many more connotations and possible elusive histories. But coupled with what she yells waking up from her nightmare, I hope you figured out that I'm implying a very specific act that was "forced on" her. She wouldn't tell you what it was directly, I don't think most victims do.
The idea that it became a tool for her to use, and that she did use it, is what causes her to cry and what causes her to think about quitting every day. There are several moments where she could make a choice to quit, but she doesn't. After the point of using the nightmare for this time, there was no turning back and her fate was sealed. Originally there was another sort of false choice available to her at the end but that was between living as some kind of nightmare source for the demons or death. But that is totally a false choice and was changed on the last night of drawing. Choices in narrative have to be real, and I think by having choices characters are suddenly that much more intriguing.
I think I've covered all I would like to say on the subject for now. This particular post is subject to addendum in the future. But hell, it's only been a couple days and I've got a lifetime to find out what's wrong with it later.
Oh, and Spoiler Alert.
example of final artwork
As may be apparent to those of the craft, I might have done at least half a dozen things that are rather jackass worthy. Choosing hard to read fonts for one, and cleaning the artwork to about 95% rather than 100%. I'd be lying if I said all of them were artistic decisions made with a great deal of consideration, but only a few were bred from a little laziness. And being half an inch off the Tokyopop mechanical specs was a problem only discovered when it was far too late to resolve properly.
A lot of this was experiment. I'm not so unfamiliar with comics and manga that "toning" or panel layout are alien to me. With "Hunter" the decision to work without tones was an artistic one. Using purely directional line work and scratchy cross hatching, I hoped to create an unusual texture that was from my own hands. As well as providing much needed practice, aiming for a final product that was free of screen tone or digitally applied tones made "filling in" those usually so empty spaces that much more deliberate and personal. The idea to use pure line work to describe force and texture is obviously not new. I'm just saying that I could use more work on it since its application is not just a straightforward process. I'm clearly not as good as some of the inking gods that are out there. And in retrospect, as I look back on it after it had shipped, applying a flat gray tone would have been adequate and far from disagreeable. I may do so later just for my own benefit and to improve the comic as a portfolio piece.
Reusing certain panel layouts, in particular for five specific pages were completely intentional and NOT lack of creativity. The theory (and this is theory only) is that using the same layouts in the comic would be like stanzas or syllables in poetry. By having the same layout for the two pages where the character falls asleep, I hoped to reinforce that notion for the one page where the character falls dead. Like wise with the page that mirrors the other, it's a moment where the character is repeating a thought in her head hopefully without my having to say so. Whether these were successful or not, I can't exactly judge in a vacuum. And if they're only successful after someone hears my explanation, then they definitely didn't work. Otherwise, I prefer uncluttered paneling as Manga that over does it I often find unreadable and questionably beautiful. Clamp does it well.
There were some moments where I refused to use techniques of the trade at my peril. I deliberately avoided blank panels to imply that time has passed. They often don't work on me and I usually miss them when I'm reading a comic. I also avoided sound effects when I felt the visuals provided the proper impact. This was for two reasons that have their origin in one. And some have found this hard to believe.
I have a hard time reading while looking at imagery. Well, not so much a hard time as it is something I can't automatically do. It's one of the reasons I have a difficult time watching subtitles. It's also the reason why in many comics, my eyes move from speech bubble to speech bubble to sound effect to sound effect usually without seeing the artwork in between. Just like I would miss action scenes in subtitled movies. I understand the power of a good sound effect, but I prefer the power of good artwork that can tell you the sound without using a word.
So, for one I really do prefer looking at an image without sound effects cluttering the page. I got into Manga for that reason since some of the ones I found (and indeed a few scanslations) didn't translate the word leaving just a graphic kanji. Second, if the image can tell you what the sound is then the word is just telling the same thing twice.
Now, I have used sound effects on some occasions. That's where I use that theory in reverse. If I can tell you what happened just by using a defining sound effect, or at least infer what happened, then the reader will "kind of" know what happened while applying a certain amount of ambiguity. (Like how you can hear Lone Wolf and Cub's carriage before you see it, or knowing there was a gun shot in the other room without being there) I can use a reveal later to fill in information retroactively. It happens in "Hunter" because she's supposed to be faster on the uptake than we are, skilled instincts and all. The reader has to keep up with her.
At the same time as I applied this theory, it really kept me from using background noises. I love the ambient sounds in the trees in a forest, but I find myself in a tough spot with placing them or applying them in comic form. If I put them in, I miss the artwork. But without them, I often don't "hear" the sound. The one moment of concession is the "kaw" "kaws" on the second page.
(I'd show the pages where I do it, but part of the contest guidelines don't allow me to show much of the final artwork. For now, those with the comic just look at page 08 for what I was trying to do.)
In retrospect, a better balance of "sound" and "silence" should be yielded to in the future.
Another example, a third or more might disqualify me at this present time
The story I believe I've explained rather thoroughly in my last post. And I don't believe any core concepts have changed since then. One thing I will say however, is that coming up with a story is far more intriguing to me than the processes involved in writing or drawing it. I enjoy the period of figuring out a story, since that's the time when I feel most like a reader. Discovering things as the story progresses and all.
In this case, the discoveries in the process were far more technical as it reminded me how often I should be drawing things to get a real hand on them. Admittedly, I'd drawn too few riversides and trees to have had a natural grasp on their construction. The forest of "Hunter" looks to my eye artificial and unfortunately secondary. More time should have been spent in the development phases to create a true primordial landscape.
Secondly, I should have designed the hunter differently. Fully clothed and equipped, she's far too styled especially when it comes to the skirt. A wild look would have been more appropriate. Frankly, the character could have used less clothing. I'm not talking Shanna or any other jungle girl design, since covering up her visible scars for a later reveal as well as the implication that the forest is a colder climate. A less structured, and far less refined design would have been more appropriate. Intentionally I was looking for a design that had no ethnic or temporal center. In retrospect, something like the pseudo-tribal designs of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus would have been more appropriate to instill an ancient sense to the proceedings.
Another thing I might not have mentioned is the fact that the protagonist is female rather than male. Though it might have been more believable according to cultural norms across societies throughout history that a hunter would be male, being a female here carries with her that many more connotations and possible elusive histories. But coupled with what she yells waking up from her nightmare, I hope you figured out that I'm implying a very specific act that was "forced on" her. She wouldn't tell you what it was directly, I don't think most victims do.
The idea that it became a tool for her to use, and that she did use it, is what causes her to cry and what causes her to think about quitting every day. There are several moments where she could make a choice to quit, but she doesn't. After the point of using the nightmare for this time, there was no turning back and her fate was sealed. Originally there was another sort of false choice available to her at the end but that was between living as some kind of nightmare source for the demons or death. But that is totally a false choice and was changed on the last night of drawing. Choices in narrative have to be real, and I think by having choices characters are suddenly that much more intriguing.
I think I've covered all I would like to say on the subject for now. This particular post is subject to addendum in the future. But hell, it's only been a couple days and I've got a lifetime to find out what's wrong with it later.
posted by elmer at 12:28 AM
2 comments
