Archive for ‘comic’
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Heya gang! Welcome back for PAGE 17!
After dishing it out for the last few pages, looks like Cally’s gonna take some lumps from Everett/Warpy!
This page pretty much starts our “darkest moment” story beat– so, you can safely bet that the next few pages aren’t going to be the most pleasant for our gal!
PROCESS!
* Great panel movement out of DJ for this page– in particular how he ping-pongs the focal points of each one from right to left, down the page. It’s great storytelling chops, but it also helps create a sense of kinetic action movement, that– let’s face it, you need when you’re getting slapped around by the tentacles of a multidimensional monster.
* There’s some nice glow-effects from Lisa this week as well. I’m a big fan of color effect that Everett’s consciousness transfer machine halos around him in Panel 1. There’s something about it that reminds me of Fringe– both in context and in visual effect– and, since I am a fan of Fringe, it works out smashingly for me.
Sidenote: If you open up a Fringe discussion in the comments, beware the ultra-nerding out of myself and DJ Kirkbride. You have been warned.
* Brant adds in a subtle storytelling touch this page: Notice the progression over the last few pages of Warpy and Everett’s balloons, and you’ll notice them getting closer and closer– which, naturally, represents their consciousness’ melding together.
Brant timed out that by this page, the process would nearly be complete.
If you notice, we can barely see Everett’s balloon in Panel 4!
WRAP UP!
Actually not much to report this week– I’ve been buried under a few scripts & launching a “fun” website called Frodobooth (basically housing a moderately popular weekly image meme collection called Friday Frodos), and trying to revamp The Comic Book Script Archive. I’ve also been breaking ground on the next arc of Spy6teen! I’m actually really stoked to get into the actual writing of the next phase– as I think a number of you know, there’s a ton more stuff that goes into writing a comic that ISN’T writing a comic…so, it’s been fantastic to get back to the “fun” part!
All of which is to say, I’ve been having a blast– but I am quite buried, hence the short writeups of late. So, my apologies to you Process fans!
Next Week:
This is It?
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That’s right, you’re looking at a 12 panel page! That’s a record for our book! When we do a Page 16, Team 16 goes ALL OUT!
My original intention for this week’s page (and last weeks) was to run the pages “silent” (Brant was in total agreement!) as an ode to this comic:
…if you’re of a certain age, you surely remember this as being one of the coolest comic books of all time. Written with art breakdowns by the great Larry Hama, this issue was an amazing solo Snake Eyes tale, and featured the first appearance of everyone’s favorite ninja in white, Storm Shadow.
…and it was a totally silent issue.
No dialogue– just 2 silent, awesome, ninjas.
I don’t quite have the stones to try to pull off a Spy6teen issue totally silent, but I did think a little beat of it might be cool for Cally’s payback sequence…That said, last week’s page felt a little empty without dialogue– and with this week, I kinda felt we needed that “period” on the scene with Cally’s line…
So, although it didn’t end up being the Silent Ode I’d originally intended, at least you know that was its original intention.
PROCESS
*Man, did DJ go nuts on this page– I originally scripted it as 5 panels, but with a note that DJ could (and should) re-choreograph the scene to his liking. Actually, looking back at the script, I wrote in a fairly basic fight:
PANEL 1
Sears brings the hammer down, but Cally deftly dodges– landing a few tonfa blows along the way.
PANEL 2
Cally launches from the inertia of her attack on Sears and carries it over to grab Don and…
PANEL 3
FLIPS HIM OVER! Throwing him directly at Sears (who is totally caught off guard.
PANEL 4
THUD! Don smashes into Sears, knocking them both down in a KO!
DJ way expanded on this, over the last two pages, giving us a Cally-Hulk out sequence, that really showcased her inner Wolverine. It was something that I’m pretty sure we discussed at one point or another– and man, did he pull it off.
Like the “silent” origin of this page, it’s just funny to see the original script page and how far it developed from those simple lines.
* DJ’s been doing a lot of experimenting with action lines through this issue– and man, does it play well on this page. If ever there was a page MADE for action lines, this is it!
* With all that blood, did we move into PG-13 territory?
* Lisa’s colors REALLY pop on this page. The background gradiants in the first two tiers of panels really help the action rev up to another level.
It’s interesting to note how she varied the two tiers, giving a real sense of movement to the fight. Because the colors are different, it truly feels like Don is getting beaten DOWN.
* Brant made the most of his one lettering moment of the page. Giving Cally’s line a hard stoke to emphasize the finality of her words.
It’s an awesome little flourish– and one that might not have a direct “meaning” in terms of comic book lettering (she isn’t whispering it, or shouting it…etc) but she is saying something there– it’s just up to you, the reader, to decide what that is.
WRAP UP!
Another quick write up this week– sorry, gang, we’ve all been pretty much super swamped.
Speaking of which, due to a scheduling snafu (and the once-again-mentioned craziness), we’ll be taking next week off. On the plus side: It’s to give Lisa a much needed and well deserved Vacation!
She actually toyed with the idea of trying to color next week’s page on her laptop (while out of town), but we all nixed that idea really quickly. If there’s one thing I highly believe in, it’s that when you’re on vacation, you should BE ON VACATION!
If you find yourself really missing Lisa’s hues, don’t fret, you can just pick up the Adventure Time spin off series she’s working on, “Adventure Time: Marceline and the Scream Queens”.
Now, I haven’t quite gotten caught up in the mania of Adventure Time quite yet, but a great number of people have been telling me that it is the most awesome thing ever– In fact, a buddy of mine, who is a huge fan of AT, mentioned just last week that he thought Lisa’s colors would be great on the comic…lo and behold!
Ok, so radio silent next week– but we’ll be back in two for…
THE FIGHT ISN’T OVER YET!
Krrrrrrrack!! Man, Sears’ new nickname might be “Glass Jaw” after this!
Today’s writeup is going to be Super Quick– sorry, gang, but I’m on deadline with about 3 other projects– and naturally, everything is happening at once.
So, yeah– this is gonna be a quicky!!
Off we go!!
PROCESS
* Here’s another good example of “Page Movement” in DJ’s layouts. This is another situation where you probably won’t be able to tell until you see a printed version, but check out how it will look at as page spread in a physical copy:
The thing to notice here is how DJ orientates page 14 so that Cally is facing left– whereas we have an Angle change on Page 15, where she’s facing Right. This is something that creates the illusion of movement in a two page spread like this– Particularly effective in fight scenes!
* We’ve also got some cool stuff in Panel Borders this week: Panel 1 is inserted into Panel 2– and here we’ve got the awesome moment of Sears BREAKING THE BORDER in panel 2– which really shows off how hard he’s taking that hit!
* I love what Lisa did with the background on this page: If you notice, she muted the background details just a touch– which really helps Cally and Sears (in their colorful “costumes”) POP off the page!
* Brant got the “easy button” page this week– but I love the standout Sound Effect! Particularly the rolling movement it has, which really sells the “traveling” of the sound.
Interestingly, the page was originally written without dialogue, but DJ Kirkbride suggested that the page looked a little sparse without anyone saying anything. I tended to agree, so we quickly cribbed up Sears’ line– which I thought was particularly funny: The big guy talkin’ smack with a bunch of gusto– only to get it handed to him in the next panel!
WRAP UP!
I know, I know…super short– but I’m staring down a boatload of other work that needs to be finished by this evening– I do apologize. When it rains, it pours, as they say.
Before we go, I did want to quickly shout out a Kickstarter from Scott King of Holiday Wars.
Scott has been super supportive of us at Spy6teen, and I’d love for us to return the favor. He’s currently trying to raise funds to print the trade of his book– and he’s currently only about $900 away!
They’ve got some great incentives going, so please head over and check out his pitch!
Ok, gang– that’s it for this week!
