Characters: First Glimpse

When musing on Ecclesiastes I think, "These reflections are weak; exquisite dialog will beef up the plot."

When editing dialog I think, "These word balloons are weak; exquisite characters will beef up the story."

When creating characters I think, "These talking heads are boring; an exquisite narrative arc will beef up the plot."

When shaping the plot I think, "This plot is weak; exquisite model sheets will beef up the message."

When drawing model sheets I think, "These black and white drawings are weak; exquisite penciling, inking, and coloring will beef up the drawings."

On and on the chase goes. I aspire to exquisite-ness (new word) yet exquisite-ness eludes me at every turn. It's like jacking up a car four corners at a time; I'm running around shoring up sagging aspects of this work in progress in a semi-hallucinatory frenzy. It's not one big project, it's ten million little projects. The exquisite product "in my head" is light years beyond what is actually being produced which is decidedly un-exquisite (another new word). And yet I keep hoping all the pieces will coalesce, fall together, merge seemlessly into one glorious finale (when mixed metaphors flow like Niagara I'm in a creative rant mode).

Here's the first un-exquisite glimpse of who we're dealing with in Ecclesiastes University in order of appearance. I apologize for the poor scanning job; eagerness to post before leaving for work necessitated haste/waste. CS Lewis said, "Half a loaf is better than no bread." I say, "A hasty scan is better than no scan."

One further observation: the alien son looks nothing like his alien father. How do I explain this?  Choose one:

A. The son is adopted.

B.  In their alien universe achieving enlightenment (as the alien dad has done) results in an evolutionary casting off of vestigial mechanical accouterments: hoses, wheels, goggles, etc.

C. There's a dad lookalike inside all those mechanical accouterments. The son is just decked out in the youthful fashions of on his planet.

D. I am lazy and don't want to draw two Steam Punk aliens inside the space ship. 

E. The world views of both aliens is so different I didn't want to confuse readers by drawing them similarly. Their disparate appearances is symbolic of their disparate means to galactic unity: technology vs. metaphysics. 

And a final question: what's up with Karenoia's lack of chin? She's an adaptation of this old caricature:

Random Observations about Cartooning

With as much effort as I'm putting into this graphic novel the thought has occurred to me more than once, "Buy a computer soft ware art program for the finished product." It's not the $600 price tag that deters me, it's the learning curve. Drawing on a tablet just doesn't seem right to this old time ink-slinger. Yet, the colored pencils and colored markers I've been using look terrible. Granted, I'm knocking out talking heads at this point rather hastily simply to give the dialog a mouth from which to emanate. But the Platonic graphic novel in my head looks much better than the way Draft 5 looks on the screen or on hard copy.

I just finished page 33 (66 half pages). The changing background color is working for me....but I've yet to crack the following problems:

1. How do I help readers keep the many characters clear? At least I haven't given them Russian names. I actually haven't given them any names in the text yet. Do I add a "Cast of Characters" page? If so, up front or in an appendix? Or sprinkled throughout the text when they each make their first appearance?
2. Do I need a background? All those photos of the university class room may be pointless since the talking heads take up almost the whole panel. 
3. What will sustain readers' interest? It seems at this point only a very dedicated student of Ecclesiastes would stay focused. Everyone else's eyes will glaze over given the monotonous repetition of panels, layout, and talking heads.
4. Do I cite references, days, name of lecture? I do on the blog where I'm posting the rough draft (click HERE). But readers of the final product will not have access to additional factoids.
5. Is there a way I can leverage 2000 talking heads to my advantage? Rather than trying to break up the monotony with a sly inclusion of field trips, long shots, Power Point and lap top screen images (pretending that 2000 talking heads in a comic book is normal), maybe I can claim the talking heads as my raison d'etre. I'm not interested in changing the name Ecclesiastes University, but maybe I can add a tag line letting readers know I'm including 2000 talking heads on purpose, with artfulness, and with existential intention. Now to come up with such a tag line: 49 University Students Recoil from a Socratic Cattle Prod, Ancient Existentialism Unleashed on One Hundred Fertile Cerebrums, or, Be Glad I Didn't Draw Each Synapse. I'll keep working on it.

The pace of production is slow, slow, slow. But it's a zen-like, pleasant slow. I doodle alone in this big house sans five kids and loving wife. I'm somewhat astonished that I can sit in silence (apart from the melodic noise of our neighbors chickens and horses) for five hours scribbling, inking, scanning, and uploading. If I were under an editor's deadline I'd be in big trouble. But as it is I'm progressing at a pace that fits my work load, energy load, and interest load.

Which raises this important question: is there rhyme or reason to the ebb and flow of one's focus? For the first time since last December, earlier this week I spent two days not working on Ecclesiastes University. I wasn't depressed (I don't think), bored, or passionless about this project. I watched TV, Netflix, read good books, cleaned the house, washed clothes, went to work. But I couldn't muster the oomph to put lines on paper. If I knew what factors deterred me from productive labor I'd know what to avoid. 

That facial expression book I bought a while back is helpful. As are the reference photos I've been taking of hands, body language, etc. I don't draw from nothing; I use reference materials. 

I perused a collection of a reprinted newspaper comic strip called Foxtrot. It's consistently funny in 4 black and white panels. It's hard for me to be objective about my humor since my humor-o-meter is distracted with the other meters against which I am constantly measuring myself: philosophy, character development, drawing facial expressions, and many more. My First Readers are giving consistent feedback that my book is not funny and I believe them. It's in my mind to rework the dialog once I complete Draft Five: inserting jokes into a narrative flow will be easier than adjusting the narrative flow around the jokes. Or so I tell myself.

Detail, page 29

I cut and pasted friend Mark's old caricature here which is illustrative of the style of drawing I anticipate using in the final draft. It also demonstrates why I'm so unhappy with the rough cartoons I'm using in Draft Five. I'm working with drawings that are only weak approximations of what I envision the finished product to look like. But even with shaded caricatures like this I'm not sure good drawings are enough to sustain readers' attention. I'm zealous to write dialog that is sterling in its own right, the addition of well crafted drawings only adding value. 

No wonder my lawn gets mowed so infrequently...I'm obsessed with this project.

Draft Five, pages 1-5

With great joy I introduce for the very first time pages 1-5 of Draft Five of Ecclesiastes University.

There are many changes begging to be made...not only in the heads (too big) but also in the scanning (too dark), pagination (too small), color (absent in background; once added the word balloons will pop out in stark contrast), word balloon tails (for all my weeks of tweaking I still must re-position the little gap where I'll attach the tail--dread!), camera angle (too many close ups; I want students walking around at some point), character design (these drawings are the first of hundreds and I suspect we'll sharpen, simplify, and hone their features as we go), setting (no walls, desks, or props), and more. 

I visualize what the final art will be and a part of me wishes I could show readers the finished product. But I dare not invest that much time on a final draft which no one but me has seen. I don't trust myself; I need others' input before putting the finishing touches on Draft Six.

Putting this together was bliss...yet I feel a twinge of anxiety about sending this to my first readers. Why? Their mission will be to evaluate the script; I fear their eye gate will take precedence over their text editing lobes. I suspect these drawings will solicit a dozen comments for improvement but it's the words I want them to evaluate. 

This is the first day (Eccl. 1:1-8a). In the next thought unit the characters will have different clothing, seating arrangement, and background color. 

Of the nine characters I've introduced in this first installment, two will drop out and of those that remain all will be influenced (for good and ill) by Dr. Q's lectures. 

Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy of Drawing

Rather then cook up characters out of thin air I thought I'd peruse my collected drawings for candidates. I have boxes and boxes of stuff I've drawn over the years and I kept them "in case I could ever use them in the future." That future is here!

I then plop myself on our living room couch and think graphically!

I didn't leave clear directions when plotting chapter one so I'm using sticky notes to figure out who is sitting where.

I then sketch the character on rough Draft Five. I'm coloring them in, too, just for the fun of it. Pictured above: the character I've named Karenoia (the anxiety queen), and Joker (the bon mot king). I've also got preliminary drawings of Dr. Q, TA, and a few others.

This new stage of creation has my adrenaline pumping, dopamine surging, and serotonin gushing. The pleasure is hard to describe but take my word for it, few endeavors bring me this much joy.

Talk About Options.....

Once again my reach exceeds my grasp. Doing layouts is more time consuming than I initially realized. It's fun work, but can't be rushed. Take for example the following page of dialog. There are four speakers and six word balloons. (The final cartoon will have six speakers but I grabbed this page at random and am too impatient to find a page that better illustrates my point).


Since eyes scan left to right, top to bottom, Dr. Q is always in upper left hand corner. But there are dozens of variations of how to arrange the other speakers in the panels.


Rather than give four speakers four word balloons (Sample One below), I stretched the text in panels two and three, and four and five, in order to slow down time. The nanosecond it takes for readers to move their eyes from one panel to the next is just enough time to create the illusion of passing time.

SAMPLE ONE

With the magic of Publisher program I can combine panels; Sample Two (below) has been morphed from six to two panels...and I've added several non speaking characters. I'm toying with the idea of having these "extras" tell their own story in pantomime.

SAMPLE TWO

Now notice what happened in Sample Three (below). With a rearranging of word balloon "tails" and linking them I can move speakers around in the panels. Readers see the speakers with their word balloons when I place them to the left of the panel....or readers see the words first and find out later who is doing the speaking when I move speakers to the right.

SAMPLE THREE

These minor details aren't so minor. While I'm not really sure which way is best, my gut tells me to try 'em all and keep readers' attention with variation.

The option to make panels vertical isn't really an option. There are no tall buildings, aerial shots, or flying birds to accommodate. The pictures really are in service of the words and not the other way around. Getting too fancy with the illustrations would, I suspect, detract from the story.

Bringing Draft Number Two in for a Landing

Today is May 13 (2012). My deadline for finishing draft two is May 15. I think I'll make it! Already I'm drooling over the next tasks. Once all 420 pages are completed I'm going to:

• read the whole thing cover to cover in hard copy. I'm still old fashioned enough that I don't trust editing on screens. I'll be looking for major plot gaffs, repetitions, and other errors.
• read the whole thing through the eyes of each character. One of the reasons I've attached pictures to the word balloons is so I can scan the document with my eyes tracing the dialog of each character. Are they consistent? Do any of them make out of character comments? Is there growth (toward or away from Dr. Q)? 
• read the whole thing again visualizing sections. I've broken the twelve chapters into 25 working files (EU1 to EU25). But each of those files contains thought units which will be identified by unique background colors. Within each thought unit I'll be checking to see how many characters are present, how many I can expunge, replace, or combine with others?

Once those corrections are made I then begin the delicious work of printing finished pages on which to draw pencil roughs. This will help with blocking (where characters stand), setting (what's on the class room walls?), clothing, passage of time, etc.

Final draft four will be lightly penciled, then inked, then colored with color pencils.

I hope to scan those pages for public consumption either here on Blogger (if the quality coheres) or on a new website dedicated to this project. The anticipation is releasing dopamine into my system even as I type. Creativity is so much fun. 

First Full Pages

I've been creating this graphic novel on Microsoft Publisher. Each phrase from Ecclesiastes is printed in the word balloon of the first of six panels on an 8.5" x 11" (landscape) page. My plan from the beginning was to clip and paste two landscape pages on top of each other in the Paint program. Having just reached page number 250 I thought I'd combine two landscape pages for the very first time.

Disclaimer: the faces are provisional, the word balloons need a new font (Comic Sans is over used) in all caps (as seems to be the industry standard) and they lack the tail thingy that lets readers know who is speaking. The coloring is haphazard, the pagination is convoluted (250 Publisher landscape pages = 125 Paint pages; not sure how to number them yet). My point in this exercise is to check the readability of the word balloons and to see if the background color makes them more legible. The text is in its second draft so further editing is in store.

Background. There are four characters in this thought unit, Mr Q (speaking the words of Ecclesiastes), the evangelical Christian girl who is sweet on the militaristic vet, both of whom are chided by the feminist with big hair.

Here are the results.

Addendum: Now that I see what a completed page looks like on screen I see I've got much more work to do to make it legible. I'd planned on posting the finished pages on this blog but I think I'll need my own domain name. That means more expense but after all the work I'm putting into this thing (30-40 hours a week) I want to show case the work in a quality way. Setting up web sites is relatively easy these days but I'm not yet ready to launch something new.

First Stab at Color

First stab at color, page 207, Eccl. 6:12, draft 2 (or 3...I've lost track)

Meet The Cast

This is the cast I combine and juxtapose to create a compelling narrative as students react/respond to Mr. Q's lectures. They are stand-ins, reading lines for whoever will play the future character. There is some jockeying and competition between these candidates; they each want the job. Staring in this graphic novel will be a great boon to their careers and fame. Final casting is still way off but I am impressed with the acting skills of these script readers.

MAIN CHARACTERS (non of which have proper names yet; they're identified by predominant trait)

ENTHUSIAST This student loves Mr. Q regardless of how obtuse or self contradictory the lectures are. He's a loyal Golden Retriever type, fawning to a fault.

ANXIETY DRIVEN. This poor soul is whipped back and forth by Mr. Q's doom and gloom. I'm not sure of her back story (yet?) but she's hyper sensitive to threats, risk, and danger. She lives in perpetual fear, hyper vigilant to all worst case scenarios, which is all of them.

JOKER. Every sit com needs a wise cracking quipster. He's only in the class for a grade; his highest value is being liked as class clown.

PRE-LAW. This fine actress engages Mr. Q in a protracted discussion about estate planning. She got so fed up with his lack of cooperation that she leaves in exasperation.

 DOOFUS. Joker tells jokes. Doofus is outrageous in his silliness. He's a champion of lost causes, ignorant of his own ignorance, and zealous to absurd proportions.

SENSUALIST. He loves sex, pleasure, wine and cigars and vacations. He's not above snorting a snoot full when the opportunity arises, which isn't often enough in his mind.

VEGAN PSYCH MAJOR. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but this lover of co-ops, organic foods, social justice, and psychology with feather ear rings and facial piercings fascinates me. She's too prickly for any romantic interests but I love this woman's opinions...which she shares effortlessly.

SCIENTIFIC MATERIALIST. This guy has zero tolerance for superstition, faith, or god talk. He's irritated by religion and the many unverified claims Mr. Q makes. This guy is a skeptic, atheist, logical positivist, and brilliant. A necessary and important player in any philosophical discussion.

HIP HOP ARTIST. Don't think only bling or gold teeth define this guy. He's brilliant, pissed, creative, intolerant of any bullshit, and a welcome addition to discussions of social justice, economics, and racism. Keeping a lid on his potty mouth is my biggest challenge with this guy.

 EPICUREAN. Any mention of food in this class (of which there are many) and Mr. Epicurean is there. He loves Mr. Q's frequent carpe deum statements, "Eat, drink, and be merry."

FOIL. Somebody's got to move the plot along without a joke, wise crack, or philosophical profundity. That's this guy's job. I also think he's going to play a significant role in the future somehow. Of all the characters he's the most reposed. By contrast the others appear reactionary, frantic, and on speed.

FEMINIST. Another one of my favorites. Like the Scientific Materialist this character has little patience with fanatics. She's also the watch dog for patriarchy, sexism, and gender inequality. When we get to later chapters she's going to justifiably flip out. Stay tuned.

MILITARIST. In college on the GI Bill, this guy loves guns, force, and military might. So far he's only played a minor role but in upcoming chapters he'll go bonkers with many of Mr. Q's dovish comments.

AGED HIPPIE. How can we discuss death-saturated Ecclesiastes without a fan of the Grateful Dead? The 60s glory days are behind him but he's not deterred. He's still fighting the Man, the plastic people, and the rising cost of dope.

TEACHER ASSISTANT. While not identified as such yet--I'm only to chapter 5:10 in rough draft 2 and this character's true identity has not yet become public among the students; they think he's just a brown noser--this character is necessary to clarify some of Mr. Q's more obtuse statements. He'll give the wrap-up lecture (Eccl. 12). I use him sparingly but he comes in very handy when I need to make sure readers understand (though not necessarily agree with) what Mr. Q is saying.

MATERIALIST. This marketing and business major loves money. Discussions of social justice, existentialism, and death are irrelevant to him since his highest ambition is becoming a multimillionaire before he's 30.

FUNDAMENTALIST. Ah yes, how can we forget this key player? Her enthusiasm for absolute Truth works against her because Mr. Q is a moving target. She glibly writes off any philosophy that contradicts the Bible, which is often in this class. Her emotional fervency and closed mindedness do not earn her a lot of friends in this class. She's okay with that, however, as she wears her persecution complex on her sleeve. I'm trying my hardest not to create a straw man with this character.....

ACTRESS. This is the first (of many) students to drop the class. Her passion is happiness and the tenor of this class is so morose she bailed in the first week. She switched majors and chose a new career guaranteed to bring endless bliss, acting.

PARTY GIRL. Tanning, Cancun, drama, and her dad's largess keep this gal going. "This class sucks but I need the credits," she whines. But like all these characters we don't know what she'll be thinking by the end of this class. I can't wait to see what happens.

Creativity and Writer's Block

I've pressed through the wall of impenetrability. Having expunged from my first draft of Ecclesiastes 3 all boomer-isms, I was left with nothing but blank space. My efforts this week have been focused on filling that blank space with images twenty-somethings could relate to. I have no clue if I'm close but I feel good knowing I've come up with new 28 ideas.

Artist Jasper Johns nailed it. This to me is the essence of creativity--editing, rough drafts, mutations, and the elimination of vestigial words/images. Keep adding something often enough and soon you've got something.

Without boring readers by listing all my aborted attempts at gen-y-ifying Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, I can say this:

I've chosen to lighten the mood and not post images of Hiroshima (a time to make war), MLK assassination (a time to kill), hoarding (a time to keep), or wacky faith healers (a time to heal). Even though such images would have proven good fodder for student reactions, those images are heavy handed. Mr. Q is obtuse enough without my all to obvious renderings. I'll let his lectures carry the somber tone; he doesn't need my help.

This decision of course makes hash out of 3:14, "God does all these things so that we may fear him."  Mr. Q's point in this poem about time is, "providence is loaded with example after example of oddments, conundra, and counter examples of eudaemonism." Mr. Q is whining (justifiably) about the problem of evil. My artistic sense tells me to restrain myself, go light, and save my ire at evil until later; we've still got nine more chapters of morbidity to deal with.

In addition, drawing images inspired by 2012 pop culture will unfortunately mean in three years or less my book will fall out of favor. The shelf life of humor is notoriously short, increasingly so in our day of data smog.

Yet, it still feels right to me to lighten the tone in this iconic poem with humorous images that reflect 28 experiences in the life of a university student ("a time to weep" getting a tattoo or piercing, "a time to tear" holes in the knees of one's jeans, "a time to hate" boomers like me asking gen-y folk to fix my computer, and 25 more).

If anyone is keeping track, it took four pages of mind dump to come up with 28 new thumbnail images. The toughest verbs to gen-y-ify were, "a time to plant, heal, tear down, gather stones, and give up searching." At this stage I'm leaving behind this time poem confident I'll get another chance to edit it again after letting these ideas marinate for several months as I work on the rest of the text.

Doing something to something and then doing it again until you've got something unleashes dopamine in the pleasure centers of my brain which is incredibly fun!

The Characters Are Taking Shape

The last few days have been a blast creativity-wise.

The first draft of Ecclesiastes U contains many, many pages of word balloons each of which are filled with dialog. While writing that dialog I had no clue who the speakers were. I wrote without specific characters in mind. It was a stream of consciousness process. I’d read a phrase from Ecclesiastes in Mr. Q’s word balloon, then reflect, respond, and riff on each phrase, writing down my rough ideas like mad and eventually typing them into the Publisher template of six panels per page.

I'm now sorting through and categorizing those word balloons according to speaker. Some word balloons are best suited to the hedonist; others are best suited to the scientific materialist. Some to the Teacher’s Assistant. In the first 40 pages I’ve come up with 11 or 12 main categories of comment meaning I’ll now have 11 or 12 main characters.

Here’s a pictorial survey of the convoluted process of creating words before pictures.

Here's page 11 of the first rough draft; speakers of each word balloon are unidentified

I drew a dozen or so random cartoon faces using a brush pen; the final drawing
will be rendered in Micron .05 pen and then colored with Prisma Color pencils.

I cut and pasted those faces onto sheets for easy clipping

I scotch taped faces to appropriate word balloons in each panel (pages 1-40, so far)

FYI: The guy in the first panel is Mr. Q. Panels 2, 3, and 6 is a rapper (Hispanic or black, haven't decided yet). Panels 3 and 4 is a cartoon depicting the Teacher's Assistant. As mentioned, there's no guarantee the final characters will look anything like this. 

I was always under the impression one created characters with values, histories, temperaments, and idiosyncrasies first. Then writers put those characters together in a variety of situations and let chemistry do the rest.

I on the other hand reversed the sequence. I first juxtapose the philosophy of Ecclesiastes with the musings of university students. This in turn creates reactions of puzzlement, anger, outrage, confusion, humor, and so forth. And then finally, to make sense of those reactions, I isolate the speakers according to character.

Here’s the challenge: Those thumbnail sketches look nothing like the final character, size, gender, age, facial hair, hair dos, or attire. Their facial expressions are inert and they’re all talking heads. The finished product will include wide angle shots, long shots, close ups, facial expressions, full body action (in a classroom), and color. These thumbnail sketches are useful to distinguish one speaker from another but I am working hard not to allow these pictorial references influence how the final characters will look.

This is all wonderfully complicated. If there is an easier way to create graphic novels I don’t know it…which is understandable. I’ve never drawn one before. 

Facial Expressions

Remember this scene from Shrek I? Shrek just heard from Fiona that she's got a "big" day ahead of her but Shrek knows she's about to meet "short" King Farquardt. He looks at Donkey with a face that says, "I don't know whether to break the news to her or not...should I?"

Out of context it's not that funny (although it is a fabulous digital drawing). In the film this facial expression triggered a big laugh. It was a non verbal gag. I aspire to the same heights of subtlety as these animators.


Ergo, I just ordered on Amazon a book entitled, "Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists" by Mark Simon. I'm hoping when I start drawing I'll benefit from this guide. 

This morning I began writing dialog for chapter 11; I'm almost done with the first draft! Once completed I'll review the entire collection of accumulated pages (about 400 by my reckoning; the files are separated and I don't have an accurate page count just yet). The wait is killing me! I'm so eager to wed text with images.

PS: I have a friend about to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and he's currently in the "accumulating gear" stage. In like manner, this stage of creating my first graphic novel is in the accumulation stage. My friend is eager to walk; I'm eager to draw. But beginning either project ill-prepared would mean disaster. Without proper gear he'd get cold, wet, tired, and hungry. Without my proper gear (dialog, references, commentaries, etc) I'd produce a less than sterling bit of art. I want sterling!

Stray Drawings from the Archives

1972 comic me and my buds drew 

Bellevue Community College Newspaper published some strips, 1972.

To drum up business at fairs I'd pass these out to people wandering by, 2004

I like faces AND groups! 2005