The Twenty Three : Number None : Lure

The Twenty Three is a website i'm setting up to contain extras, extended scenes, b-sides, outtakes and brand new stories from the Tales of the Hollow Earth universe. It will all be material that adds to the story, but some of which i'm discarding from the printed comic in order to concentrate on the main plotline.

The Twenty Three : Number None : Lure

Lure, for example, introduces elements of Gudrun Black's character that would be useful to a reader of issue 3, so it's getting reprinted here, as well as in a coloured version in the next edition of issue 1.

It originally appeared in Daniel Clifford's A4 Adventure Arena. Daniel provided input on pacing and storytelling and made this a much tighter story, and I'm greatful for this and his permission to reprint.

Thinking about Comics - things of interest.

Things I read that made me think differently or just more about comics in some way or other in the last year (or so). Here's a post to remind myself what they all were.

Sugar Glider 2 - by Gary Bainbridge and Daniel Clifford

Raising it's already impressive game from Issue 1, Sugar Glider 2 introduced new ideas, new characters and achieves a strong sense of place and being there. The difference between how this is handled in 1 and 2 is well worth looking closely at.

The "I'm Sugar Glider" panel is one of my favourite comic panels of the year. I know that both Gary and Daniel take their storytelling very seriously, and there are some sections of this that I've been back and forward over to see how they work. I'm really looking forward to issue 3. It's good.

Low Life - by Rob Williams, and D'Israeli (created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint)

I've read the latest two series of this in 2000AD, and so not knowing his history I'm never quite sure what Dirty Frank is capable of. This is possibly the point: his antagonists, and possibly also he doesn't either. Or if he will even do what he is capable of once he does know. Dirty Frank is a brilliantly imagined character: fragile and powerful in unexpected ways.

Stories that are both strong, character driven and laugh out loud funny. Low Life, Zombo (Al Ewing and Henry Flint) and Dredd (John Wagner mostly) are all capable of achieving this, and I'm pleased to say that 2000AD has definitely reclaimed it's place at the top of my must read list in the last two or three years.

Actually, the other thing that Low Life, Zombo and Dredd are capable of is managing to fit a story into five page episodes: always introducing the scene for new readers, always maintaing the pace for existing readers, either week on week or in collections.

Beasts of Burden - by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson

Splendid. A while ago I started writing some short stories (as part of my Story a Day in May) about a tribe of Rats, and would really like to translate these into comics and expand on them. I've not been able to figure out how to do animal comics without anthropomorphising them physically to some degree (A topic covered also in Bryan Talbot's excellent talk on the subject which i've seen three times now) or giving them the ability to carry swords of wear monocles.

Beasts of Burden shows how this can be done: in both the words and pictures. It a beautiful book, and I'm not sure enough people have read it. You should.

SuperHuman - by Michael Carroll

The first of (I believe) the second sequence of New Heroes books from Michael Carroll, which Michael very generously swapped for my own Tales of the Hollow Earth. Strong characters here, and strong development too including a very dark and not yet resolved subplot for the heroes.

This is a novel rather than a comic, though it tackles comics traditional subject matter and is actually pitched much more at comics traditional expected audience than comics currently are. Very difficult to imagine though, what format this would have taken if it was a comic, or why Michael chose prose rather than comics for this story (he is also a writer for 2000AD and the Megazine).

So, I'm planning to read more of these in 2012, as I really want to think more about this and also read more about these people - especially that of the main villain. He did seem to have been on the cusp of some self awareness in the final few pages, but this may be unlikely as those pages may have been his last. We'll see.

I might re-read Wild Cards too.



The Lovecraft Anthology (Volume 1 Edited by Dan Lockwood)

Following 2010's best single web comic: His Face All Red, i'd been thinking a lot about horror (or comics of a dark nature) and how they appear to be working best when drawn in a cartoony or ligne claire style (see also Cinebooks excellent 'Green Manor').

Understanding Comics 101 would say the minimalist creates empathy and this more nieve style might imply that the characters are childlike in their fragility, but I think that there's more to why thus combination works yet. I think horror may be the best genre in which to ask the question: how are comics different to books and films.

Anyway, the Lovecraft anthology from Self Made Hero is a pretty beautiful piece of work (as are all of the books they publish), and it would be remiss of me not to point out that the many talented artists and writers successfully do in fact find ways to express unimaginable horror in comics. That's some achievement.

Nic Wilkinson and Ian Sharman's Lettering Workshop at ThoughtBubble 2011.

This was not a technical talkas I'd expected, but was instead focused very much on artistic and storytelling concerns of relevance to not just the letterers but artists and writers also. Some very interesting points were made on the subject of reading order and pacing control that I've yet to fully process, but I have been back through my own work with an eye on 'what should I have done here'.

---

So, yeah, those were, for me, an great set of examples on why and how comics forms and formats work, how they differs from other mediums and how they are better or worse for some genres than others. All are well worth your time.

Dr Sketchy - Tis the Season to get Sketchy

Here are my images from the Dr Sketchy - Tis the Season to get Sketchy life drawing and cabaret at World Head Quarters on Sunday. Images in reverse chronological order, so the afternoon finished with....

The Creative Martyrs. Gustav and Jacob Martyr two splendid and somewhat terrifying fellows are quite, quite brilliant, and I advise you to see them if you should ever get the opportunity. This drawing I think I might have a go at inking and possibly colouring at some point:

Meg La Mania - the fantastic Dr Sketchy's resident singer. Tinsel is extremely hard to draw, but I was pretty pleased with these head and shoulder portraits:

Amelie Soleil is the chief and brains behind Dr Sketchy Newcastle, and I've inadvertently made her look possibly too strict here (that's a flower in her hand). Amelie performed an very splendid and hazardous looking magic act that involved very sharp edges...

Drawings wise, though, the top one seems a little too static, though I think I managed to get the low lighting around her face. The second, more sketchy drawing seems to have more life to it.

We arrived late, partway through a series of rapid poses from Trixie D Licious - hence the really sketchy beginnings that I'm actually quite pleased with. Moved onto pencil for the last portrait, but have far too many lines here.

Trixie's burlesque performance was quite frankly stunning. Through which the audience maintained a polite and respectful silence, possibly inappropriately so: it was a Sunday afternoon and I think she took us somewhat by surprise?

So, as Amelie Soleil later pointed out: it's cold up there, but despite our (or at least, my) struggling to find the correct etiquette for Trixie's turn, we had a great afternoon: all the performers were fantastic. We'll be there next time, possibly (having seen what is possible) with an iPad, and a Gin and Tonic might also be appropriate. Excellent.

• Photo's on the Dr Sketchy Newcastle facebook page.

Life Drawing from a while back at the Mushroom Works

Having attended Dr Sketchy's Newcastle this weekend, I was reminded to upload some older life drawing that I did last year at the Mushroom Works (I thought I already had) If you're in Newcastle and interested in doing life drawing, I recommend checking those two places out.

I'll get the Sketchy's set up soon. Here are the Mushroom works set:

 

Girls from Mars at Thought Bubble

Well, quite a bit has happened in the Hollow Earth HQ since the last preview post. Quotes from printers have been received, discarded, negotiated and re-thought. Seems most printers who are interested in doing the stapling, cutting and collating don't have a price point for black and white.

After extensive discussions on print production standards with the extremely helpful staff at That's Bang On, I've decided that Tales of the Hollow Earth will be going colour from issue 3 onwards.


If the proofs I've spent the last few nights working on are anything to judge by, I'm going to be going to Thought Bubble with my best work ever. If you want to see what that looks like and maybe even obtain a copy, I'll be sharing table 131 with Britt and Cuttlefish Comics. That's where you can find me.

I think it looks amazing and i'm really happy with it. Here's the cover:

The story continues Astrid Moriarty's investigation into the Boltzmann's Eye manifestations and also features Gudrun Black, who first appeared in the four page strip: Lure as part of Daniel Clifford's all ages anthology A4 Adventure Comics. That story will be reprinted as a backup story in the next printing of Tales of the Hollow Earth Issue 1, which will be recoloured to fit the new format.

The back cover features a drawing of Astrid and an Angler Fish, by mister Ian Mayor. It's great.

Anyway, here's a preview page:

See you all at Thought Bubble, yes?

Tales of the Hollow Earth 3: Girls From Mars

Coming Soon. Interior page preview:

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone is having a great christmas! Between now and 2011, I should really get round to writing about all the cool comics, art, craft and awesomeness that has been going on in the last few months.

I've been busy. Far to busy to blog :-)

24 Hour Comics Day

This weekend I'll be taking part in the 24 Hour Comics Day event in Heaton, organised by Martin Newman.

You can view the pain, suffering, coffee addiction, words, pictures and magic on the blog set up specifically to monitor those things here: http://newcastle24hrcomic.blogspot.com/

I've done 24 Hour Comics twice before, first time round I failed to complete the comic, though all that's really left is tidying it up a bit and lettering properly. I might get round to this sometime.

Second time round was at the Learning Revolution / P.R.E.S.S. event in March 2010 at the Tyneside Cinema, which was much more successful as I decided to improvise and experiment with a silent comic.

It didn't make much sense but it was fun. I'll probably print it up soon, but it can be temporarily viewed on Google Docs here. This is Gudrun Black, likely to appear in quite a few comics due to appear before the end of 2010, most importantly, A4 Comics Presents.

Picasso Stories

This has moved to my new Blog:

PaulxThompson at Tales of the Hollow Earth

History and That Preview

Ok, i've taken a couple of days off from the Story a Day in order to get my History and That submission in for the Paper Jam Comics Collective. Technically, it's a story, but for some masochistic reason I'm not including it as part of my story a day. Hmm. I'll get back on that tomorrow.

Anyway, it's all about German/Polish folklore surrounding the presence of nightmares, particularly those nasty sleep paralysis beasties that squat on your chest. Here's the first few panels:

The drawing was done really quick just before the deadline, and is very scribbly. It's my first go at drawing entirely with the wacom tablet. Because you can draw in white on black as well as black on white in photoshop, parts of it come out looking a bit like an etching or woodblock print, which is nice. I've also gone for proper case, basic serif fonts rather than comic ones, and let photoshop handle the caption bubbles as a style. It seems to fit quite nicely I think, different looking and somehow 'right' for subject.

Folks at the PJCC meeting this evening seemed to find the monster disturbing and cute in equal parts, so that's a victory in my book.

What else can we expect to see in History ...and That, then? Preview images can be seen on these here blogs:

• Gary Bainbridge
• Jack Fallows
• Christian Kerr
• Andy Waugh

And many more! It's going to be proper good this one.

24 Hour Comics at the Tyneside Cinema (Delayed Response 2)

As is my  way, I neglected to mention the EPIC 24 Hour Comic Challenge!

 

On March 13th and 14th, I attended the P.R.E.S.S. / Learning Revolution 24 Hour Comic Challenge at the Tyneside Cinema with fellow Paper Jam Comics Collective members Lily, Martin, Jack, Chris and fellow Tyneside Cinema screenwriting folks Melanie Holmes and Steven J. Smith.

We emerged victorious. Of particular note is Martin Newman's Beep and Evolution, which is available from Travelling man on Grainger Street in Newcastle. Martin hit on a sustainable plan from the get go, and is oddly enthusiastic about doing this more often...

My own effort makes not one ounce of sense, but it entertains me. and I'm pleased that some of the story works well enough without dialogue. I'm considering printing it up at A6.  

Photos of the event can be found here and more reliably documentary proof of proceedings can be found on the Paper Jams blog courtesy of Mike Ducket and Martin's photo's here. Thanks to Ian Mayor, Oscillating Brow, Daniel Clifford and Terry Wiley for showing up with the moral support, sweets, wasabi peas and paracetamol.

Terry (front and centre in the above pic) and Oscillating Brow also took part in the 'Drink and Draw' phase of the event. Mister Brow produced his own 24 hour comic in under three hours: Cat. Cat has been selling exceedingly well and enabled Mr Brow to obtain a pint of beer from profit alone. You cannot argue with success.

I also enjoyed the Cinema staff's attempts to use the buildings many fire exits and corridors to terrify the girls making a documentary and make them wonder that they were not actually making the next Blair Witch Project.

The event featured hammers, mountains, fists, a war between leeks and carrots on a Lovecraftian allotment, the entire history and future of Human Evolution, diagrams and marriage, cheating death, really, really good coffee and that, and as the sleep deprived must surely assert:

Tru' Dat Yo.

Face Front

I've noticed that a lot of my scenes are being drawn in an over the shoulder perspective, so that the camera can see what the characters are looking at. The problem with this is that it means that my characters are always being drawn from behind and in silhouette. They only seem to get facial expressions in inset panels and talking heads sequences not in the dramatic scenes.

So i'm going to study how other artists handle similar scenes for a bit, then maybe redraw some of my Angler Fish comic for Daniel (yes, I've drawn some at least already).

One of the things I learned in the Improv Comedy Workshops earlier on in the year was to face the audience and where to put yourself on stage, I wasn't very good at that, but maybe I can apply some of that to my drawing.

Currently working on at the moment:

• Lure
  the 4 page comic about Angler Fish mentioned above.
  STATUS: Currently Inking.
  
• WormDream
  an 8 page comic that will hopefully appear in Show and Tell.
  STATUS: Layouts and Pencils Done.
  
• Gabriel Fosco
  written by Ian Mayor - a 6 page story that will become part of Martin Newman's epic project Z.
  STATUS: Character and Set Designs, Script in progress.
  
• Tales of the Hollow Earth 2 : Entomology
  16 pages which I'd better finish soon because Mark Leonard has designed a fantastic origami monster and Stacey will probably kick my head in if I don't.
  STATUS: 4 pages to go :-)