Howefitz Blog

The air smelled of stale pages and small children. The teenagers jostling in to the room reminded me of the wildebeasts that make short work of Mufasa, leaving Simba fatherless. I shed a tear for my daughter Calli and my unborn son. They will never know what it is like to have a father. My oldest, Kat, had betrayed them. She had led me to this pack of wolves, this den of geeky jockularity. I stood before them, notes quivering in my hand.

I was going to teach comic books to teenagers.

Kirby help me.

OK, so my foray in to educating youngsters wasn’t quite so dramatic, but I did feel nervous. In High School, I had found a taste for the stage. The theater was something that I loved and although I would not eat a thing the day of a performance, once I was on stage, I had never felt so high.

But I was reciting lines. I was moving because a director told me to move. I was making a mockery of a foreign accent because that’s what I thought the character needed. The words were not my own. The actions were not my own. The face, more often than not, was not my own.

It’s very different when the words are your own. You feel more vulnerable. Even if you care about your subject matter deeply, you can get so paralyzed with fear of rejection that it becomes impossible to convey your passion.

I have a very deep affection for the comic book medium. I wear it on my sleeve, well okay, my chest, most of the time. In fact, that’s how I had found myself standing in front of this gaggle of teens. I had been noticed at the library checking out graphic novels every other day with a different character on my tee-shirt each time.

A librarian had asked me if I draw comics. My inner Ralph Macchio had said, “Well, you know, not professionally.” My outer self said “eh.” I hang my head to think that, when put on the spot, I am not as eloquent as the Karate Kid. All that aside, the library let me teach a class with the somewhat erroneous title, ‘How to Draw Manga’.

I began by telling the kids that this was their class. They could doodle while I talked, and if anything I said sparked an idea or question they could interrupt me at any time.

I had promised Kat that I wouldn’t just read my notes. I agreed that that was just too boring. I promised her a cool class.

So there I was, clutching my notes like they were the last root on the cliff.

“I think I’m boring you. Am I boring you?” I said, finally pulling my eyes off of the paper.

“Maybe some drinks will wake them up?” the librarian spoke out.

Bless you. I hadn’t even noticed her setting the liquid refreshment out.

I tried my hand at a couple of jokes and gave it up. I let Kat demonstrate Chibi technique on the big dry erase board, and I demonstrated speed lines.

Feeling I’d completely lost my audience, I moved along to the activities I’d shamelessly stolen from Scott McCloud‘s ‘Making Comics‘.

The crowd suddenly got lively! I took them out of their comfort zone by having them all write a title on the top of a piece of paper, then they swapped with a neighbor and drew one page comics based on the titles they received.

They laughed and joked and teased each other, loosening up to others’ ideas. I pointed out a couple examples from their peers of nicely paced pages and well drawn art.

I then had them create sound effets based on items in the room. I found it interesting that two girls on opposite ends of the room chose to represent ‘shine’ as a sound effect.

Lastly, we created a character together that is a female alligator that wears mini-skirts and halter tops, eats people that give her gas, says ‘Rawr!!’, collects pencils, lives under the bed, has a walrus as a best friend, keeps one of the classmates as a pet, and makes a living by mowing lawns with her teeth.

The class clocked in at about an hour, after which I felt I had truly lost only two of my students.

One of the best things about it was I felt that I was able to quickly adapt to my surroundings and actually have fun with the situation, and that fun bled in to the kids.

The absolute best thing was that Kat and I shared a moment together that wasn’t around the TV or because I’d just given her money.

I would definitely do this again.

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For posterity’s sake and the benefit of my own feeble mind, the class was held on Tues., Jun 9, 2009. The somewhat ill-fated notes are posted below. I had typed these in a Comic Sans font, in all caps, to give them more of a comics feel. Given the limitations of fonts in blogging, you’ll just have to imagine…

IN PUTTING TOGETHER THIS CLASS, AND TAKING INTO ACCOUNT MY OWN ARTISTIC LIMITATIONS, I HAVE DECIDED TO PRESENT THIS AS MORE OF A ‘PICTORIAL STORYTELLING’ CLASS THAT AN ALL OUT ART CLASS. IN THE NEXT NINETY MINUTES OR SO, WE WILL TALK ABOUT WRITING AND STORYTELLING AS WELL AS ART.

THE FIRST RULE TO CREATING COMICS IS: THERE ARE NO RULES! KEEP THIS IN MIND AS WE PROCEED, IT WILL COME IN HANDY! ^_^

WHERE TO BEGIN?

MOST OF US BEGIN EXPLORING THE CREATION OF COMICS BY COPYING OTHER PEOPLE’S COMICS. THERE ARE A LOT OF BOOKS THAT WILL TELL YOU STEP BY STEP HOW TO DRAW LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. LIKE THE VAMPIRES IN ‘TWILIGHT’, HOWEVER, YOU’LL NEVER BE FULLY SATISFIED. YOU HAVE TO FIND YOUR OWN STYLE. DRAW FROM LIFE ITSELF, DON’T JUST COPY IT.

I WANTED TO BE AN ANIMATOR WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, AND ONE RECURRING THEME I HEARD AS I STUDIED THAT ART IS THAT ‘AN ANIMATOR IS AN ACTOR WITH A PENCIL.’ I FEEL THE SAME IS TRUE OF THE COMIC BOOK FORM. YOU NOT ONLY NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOUR CHARACTERS FEEL, BUT WHAT YOU WOULD FEEL IN THAT SITUATION AND BRING THOSE EMOTIONS OUT THROUGH YOUR PENCIL, PEN, BRUSH, ETC.

WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM? WHAT KIND OF STORIES SHOULD I TELL?

I TOOK A WRITING CLASS FROM ORSON SCOTT CARD (THE AUTHOR OF THE CLASSIC ‘ENDER’S GAME‘) A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO. IN THAT CLASS, NATURALLY, THE QUESTION OF WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM CAME UP. ORSON ANSWERED THAT MANY SUCCESSFUL WRITERS COME UP WITH A CLEVER ANSWER FOR THIS QUESTION TO USE AT BOOK SIGNINGS, CONVENTIONS, ETC. HIS FAVORITE OF THESE CLEVER QUIPS CAME FROM HARLAN ELLISON, WHO WOULD ANSWER, ‘FROM YOU, THAT’S WHY YOU DON’T HAVE ANY!’

THE TRUTH IS THIS: IF A STORY IS WORTH TELLING TO YOU, THEN TELL IT. THE REST IS JUST DETAILS!

HAS SOMETHING SO INCREDIBLE HAPPENED TO YOU THAT YOU JUST HAD TO RUN AND TELL A FRIEND? WHAT IF YOU RAN TO YOUR DRAWING TABLE OR COMPUTER? DO YOU KEEP A DIARY? ANY OF THOSE STORIES THAT YOU FELT COMPELLED TO WRITE DOWN FOR YOURSELF COULD MAKE FOR AN INTERESTING STORY TO SOMEONE ELSE: WHY NOT MAKE IT A COMIC?

WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, I WASN’T EXACTLY POPULAR WITH THE LADIES. I WOULD SOMETIMES LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND SEE A FAT PIMPLY MONSTER STARING BACK. SO I CREATED A CHARACTER THAT WAS NOT ONLY INFLUENCED BY ELEMENTS OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS (JACK SKELLINGTON AND THE SAVAGE DRAGON), BUT I ADDED THE FACT THAT THIS STRANGE LOOKING ALIEN EMITTED A PHEREMONE THAT MADE HIM IRRISISTABLE TO HUMAN FEMALES. IT GOT TO THE POINT THAT THE WOMEN HE WAS TRYING TO SAVE FROM MUGGERS IN DARK ALLEYS WERE GETTING IN THE WAY! MEANWHILE, THE ONE WOMAN HE WAS TRULY INTERESTED IN WAS STRANGELY IMMUNE TO HIS POWERS. ALL THESE STORY ELEMENTS SPRANG FROM BEING AN INSECURE TEENAGER! (I LIKE TO THINK THAT STAN LEE SUFFERED FROM THE SAME KIND OF INSECURITIES, WHY ELSE WOULD HE CREATE THE THING, HULK, AND PETER PARKER?)

TWO JEWISH KIDS FROM NEW YORK (ALSO NOT POPULAR WITH THE LADIES), ONE OF WHOM HAD LOST HIS FATHER TO A SENSELESS MURDER, CREATED A CHARACTER THAT WOULD LIVE ON IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF CHILDREN AND ADULTS ALIKE FOR GENERATIONS. WITH WORLD WAR HEATING UP OVERSEAS, THESE YOUNG KIDS CREATED A STRANGE VISITOR FROM ANOTHER PLANET. HE WAS STRONG AND HANDSOME, LEAPING TALL BUILDINGS IN A SINGLE BOUND. THE CREATOR’S NAMES WERE JERRY SIEGEL AND JOE SCHUSTER, AND THEIR CREATION WAS SUPERMAN! THEY WERE ABLE TO TURN THEIR FEELINGS OF HELPLESSNESS INTO SOMETHING THAT CAN BE ENJOYED TODAY.

WHEN YOU THINK OF MOVIES BASED ON COMICS, I’M SURE THE FIRST MOVIES YOU THINK OF ARE BATMAN, SUPERMAN, IRON MAN, X-MEN, ETC.

COMICS ARE NOT, AND SHOULD NOT BE LIMITED TO SUPERHEROES. WHATEVER YOU DREAM CAN BE A COMIC.

WHAT ABOUT ‘ROAD TO PERDITION’, ‘GHOST WORLD’, OR ‘V FOR VENDETTA’? THESE WERE COMICS TOO!

POPULAR ANIME SUCH AS ‘FRUITS BASKET’, ‘NARUTO’, AND ‘RANMA ½’ ALL STARTED AS MANGA!

SO WHY COMICS ANYWAY?

IF YOU CAME TO THIS CLASS, YOU’RE OBVIOUSLY INTERESTED IN COMICS, OR WHAT WIL EISNER CALLED ‘SEQUENTIAL ART’. BUT HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT DRAWS YOU TO COMICS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

UNFORTUNATELY, HERE IN THE UNITED STATES COMICS HAVE BECOME SYNONYMOUS WITH SUPER HEROES FOR THE MOST PART. IT’S ALWAYS INTERESTING TO ME THAT COMIC STRIPS ARE KNOWN FOR A WIDER RANGE OF GENRE (POLITICAL, FUNNY, ADVENTURE, SOCIAL COMMENTARY) AMONG GENERAL SOCIAL CIRCLES THAN THEIR LONGER-LENGTHED COMIC BOOK COUSINS.

THE TRUTH IS THAT COMICS CAN BE ABOUT ANYTHING, TOLD IN ANY STYLE, WITH ANY TYPE OF CHARACTERS YOU WANT.

WIL EISNER, THE CREATOR OF ‘THE SPIRIT’ TALKED OF WRITING ONLY WHAT HE KNEW. YOU NEVER SAW FLYING PEOPLE OR ALIENS IN HIS STORIES, JUST BASICALLY REAL PEOPLE.

ART SPIEGELMAN WANTED TO ADAPT THE STORIES HIS JEWISH FATHER TOLD HIM ABOUT WWII INTO COMICS, BUT DECIDED TO CAST THE JEWS AS MICE AND THE NAZIS AS CATS.

COMICS ARE DIFFERENT THAN ANY OTHER MEDIUM IN THAT COMICS CREATE MORE OF A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CREATOR AND THE READER OR VIEWER. WHEN YOU WATCH A MOVIE, YOU’RE DRAGGED ALONG BY THE DIRECTOR TO WHATEVER THE DIRECTOR WANTS YOU TO SEE AND NOTHING ELSE. TIME IS COMPLETELY LINEAR, YOU ARE IN THE MOMENT THE DIRECTOR WANTS YOU TO BE IN.

WITH COMICS, HOWEVER, YOU AS THE READER ARE AWARE OF THE NEXT PAGE. EVEN IF YOUR EYES ARE FOCUSED ON A PARTICULAR PANEL, YOUR PERIFERAL VISION IS PICKING UP THE SURROUNDING PANELS. YOU AS THE READER HAVE THE POWER TO READ AS FAST OR SLOW AS YOU WANT, WITH THE CREATOR HAVING SOME, BUT NOT ALL OF THE CONTROL.

THE FIRST COMIC I REMEMBER REALLY THINKING ABOUT THIS WITH WAS FRANK MILLER’S ‘THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS’. THE JOKER IS IN PRISON AND STAYING THERE BECAUSE HIS MOTIVATION TO ESCAPE IS GONE: BATMAN’S IN RETIREMENT AND SHOWS NO SIGN OF RETURNING. EGGHEAD COMES TO VISIT JOKER AND TELLS HIM THAT SOMEONE WANTS EGGHEAD TO BUILD A BOMB. THE JOKER TAKES A PUFF FROM A CIGARETTE, BLOWS OUT THE SMOKE, THEN ASKS, ‘WHAT KIND OF BOMB?’ THESE FOUR PANELS MADE UP THE FIRST ‘DRAMATIC PAUSE’ I REMEMBER BEING CONSCIOUS OF IN COMICS!

THE TYPICAL SINGLE-ISSUE COMIC IN THE US IS 22 PAGES. THIS DOESN’T LEAVE A LOT OF ROOM FOR DRAMATIC PAUSES OR LENGTHY EXPLANATIONS! THIS LEAD TO CREATORS CUTTING TO THE CHASE AND LETTING READERS FILL IN BLANKS OR INFER INFORMATION. THE LONGER FORM OF THE GRAPHIC NOVEL HAS OPENED UP GREATER OPPORTUNITIES FOR TAKING TIME WITH STORIES AS THE CREATOR SEES FIT.

TO SCRIPT OR NOT TO SCRIPT: IS IT EVEN A QUESTION?

I HAVE SEEN MANY BOOKS AND INTERVIEWS ON SCRIPTING COMICS. PLEASE REVISIT THE FIRST LINE IN THIS REPORT: THERE ARE NO RULES.

WRITERS SUCH AS ALAN MOORE (WATCHMEN) ARE REPORTED TO GIVE THEIR ARTISTS VERY DETAILED SCRIPTS THAT THEY WANT FOLLOWED.

OTHERS, SUCH AS STAN LEE (HE HELPED CREATE THE ENTIRE MARVEL UNIVERSE) TAKE A MORE COLLABORATIVE APPROACH. STAN WOULD MEET WITH HIS ARTIST AND HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT WHAT WOULD BE GOING ON IN THE STORY. (“LET’S HAVE A NERDY KID BITTEN BY A RADIOACTIVE SPIDER!”) THE ARTIST WOULD THEN DRAW THE STORY THE WAY HE WANTED, AND STAN LEE WOULD ADD DIALOGUE LATER.

BRIAN TALBOT (TALE OF ONE BAD RAT) GENERALLY WRITES AND DRAWS EVERYTHING HIMSELF, BUT IS METICULOUS ABOUT PLOTTING/SCRIPTING. TALBOT USES INDEX CARDS AND WRITES PLOT ELEMENTS/DIALOGUE ON THEM. HE THEN LAYS THEM OUT AND MOVES THEM AROUND UNTIL THE STORY IS JUST RIGHT BEFORE PUTTING PEN TO PAPER.

ERIC LARSEN (SAVAGE DRAGON) JUST SITS DOWN AND DRAWS. ERIC ONCE KILLED OFF A CHARACTER BECAUSE SHE WAS ‘IN THE WAY’ THE WAY HE HAD DRAWN THE SCENE, THEN LAMENTED AFTERWARD THAT HE HAD PLANS FOR HER!

WHATEVER YOUR STYLE, JUST FIND ONE THAT’S COMFORTABLE FOR YOU.

WAIT, WASN’T THIS THING CALLED ‘HOW TO DRAW MANGA’?

TOO TRUE. LET’S START WITH A DEFINITION OF ‘MANGA’. MANGA IS SIMPLY THE JAPANESE WORD FOR COMICS. JUST AS AMERICAN COMICS CAN BE DIVIDED INTO GENRES SUCH AS SUPERHERO, WESTERN, SCIENCE FICTION, ROMANCE, ETC. SO CAN MANGA. PROBABLY THE TWO GENRES MOST IMPORTED TO THE US IS ‘SHOJO’ MANGA (MANGA FOR GIRLS) AND ‘SHONEN’ MANGA (MANGA FOR BOYS). DON’T THINK FOR A SECOND THAT THESE LINES ARE SET IN STONE. ‘RANMA ½’ AND ‘NARUTO’ ARE CONSIDERED SHONEN, THOUGH THEY ARE READ BY MANY GIRLS!

NOW THAT MANGA IS BECOMING EVEN MORE POPULAR THAN TRADITIONAL AMERICAN COMICS, AMERICAN ARTISTS ARE TAKING THE HINT AND ADOPTING A MANGA STYLE. IT’S GETTING HARDER TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO. SOME COMICS ‘EXPERTS’ LIKE TO DIFFERENTIATE TRUE JAPANESE MANGA FROM THEIR AMERICAN COUNTERPARTS BY REFERRING TO THE AMERICAN VERSIONS AS ‘OEL’, OR ‘ORIGINAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE’ MANGA. SOME SUPERHERO ARTISTS SUCH AS MARK BAGLEY(ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN) AND HUMBERTO RAMOS (IMPULSE) HAVE ADOPTED A MANGA STYLE, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE ILLUSTRATING MORE TRADITIONAL SUPERHERO STORIES. SVETLANA CHMAKOVA’S ‘DRAMACON’ IS AN EXAMPLE OF AN OEL MANGA THAT CAN GO RIGHT ON THE SHELF NEXT TO TRUE JAPANESE MANGA AND NO ONE NOTICES! (ok, Svetlana is a Russian living in Canada, but I can adopt her for America, right? ^-^)

AS THE LINES BLUR BETWEEN WESTERN AND EASTERN CULTURES IN COMICS, THEN WE CAN START BLENDING THEM ALL TOGETHER, RIGHT?

SOME DISTINCT ELEMENTS OF MANGA THAT HAVE WORKED THEIR WAY INTO AMERICAN COMICS AND ANIMATION

CHIBI-THE VERY EXAGGERATED EXPRESSIONS FOUND IN MANGA HAVE SEEPED INTO AMERICAN CULTURE. (JUST WATCH AN EPISODE OF ‘TEEN TITANS’ TO SEE WHAT I MEAN)

ACTION OR SPEED LINES- THIS BLURRING OF THE BACKGROUND TO COMMUNICATE SPEED HAS ALSO MADE IT HERE TO THE WEST, TO THE POINT THAT MOST READERS TODAY DON’T THINK OF THIS AS CULTURALLY DIFFERENT AT ALL.

CARTOONY FACES THAT ARE FULL OF EXPRESSION-MANGA TENDS TO SIMPLIFY FACIAL EXPRESSIONS IN ORDER TO CONVEY A LOT OF EMOTION IN A BASE FORM. AMERICAN COMICS TEND TO GO FOR MORE REALISM. THE IRONIC PIECE OF THIS CULTURAL DIFFERENCE IS THAT A LOT OF WHAT IS CONSIDERED TRADITIONAL IN MANGA WAS INSPIRED BY THE WORK OF JAPAN’S ‘GOD OF MANGA’, OSAMU TEZUKA. SOME OF HIS INSPIRATION? THE WIDE, EXPRESSIVE EYES OF DISNEY’S BAMBI!

OK, SO LET’S GET TO WORK

SCOTT MCCLOUD’S ‘MAKING COMICS’ IS FULL OF ACTIVITIES TO GET THE CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING. LET’S TRY ONE!

GRAB A PIECE OF PAPER AND DRAW A QUICK TITLE LOGO AT THE TOP. SOMETHING GENERAL, LIKE ‘IS THAT YOUR DAD?’ OR ‘HAVE YOU SEEN THE LIBRARIAN?’

NOW, SWAP WITH A NEIGHBOR.

USING THE TITLE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN, CREATE A SINGLE PAGE COMIC. WE DON’T HAVE A TON OF TIME, SO DRAW FAST! STICK FIGURES ARE EXCEPTIBLE, THE NAME OF THE GAME IS TO TELL A STORY!

LETTERING CAN BE IMPORTANT

SOME COMICS, LIKE ANDY RUNTON’S ‘OWLY’ DON’T NEED LANGUAGE AT ALL, BUT WHEN YOUR CHARACTERS NEED TO TALK, WHAT FONTS/LETTERING SHOULD YOU USE? THE ALL CAPS STYLE THAT I TYPED THIS IN IS A TRADITION, BUT MANY CREATORS ARE LOOKING AT OTHER STYLES.

Using Caps/Lower Case is actually a break from the norm in comics.

Just beware of harder to read fonts, you’ll lose your readers!

SOUND EFFECTS ARE IMPORTANT, AND FUN! THE STYLE OF YOUR SOUND EFFECTS CAN MEAN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONVEYING INFORMATION AND MAKING YOUR READER FEEL LIKE THEY’RE IN THAT WORLD!

I.E.

BOOM!

TINKLE! TINKLE!

TIME TO TRY THIS ONE OUT. LOOK AROUND THE ROOM AND DESIGN TEN SOUND EFFECTS THAT REPRESENT THINGS IN THE ROOM. SEE IF YOUR NEIGHBORS CAN TELL WHAT WOULD MAKE THAT SOUND!

WHERE YOU GO FROM HERE...

NOW LET’S JUST CREATE.

MALE OR FEMALE

PROFESSION

HOBBIES

HOW THEY DRESS

PETS

FRIENDS

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Tags: art, Comic book, comics, Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card, Ralph Macchio, Scott McCloud

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