Page 15

I boot up my computer at 8:20 and printed the page of text to pencil.

Pencil layout and characters: 25 min.
Inking pencil drawings with pen: 30 min.
Scan and touch up lines digitally: 65 min.
Inking, shading, applying gradients digitally: 75 min.

Grand total: 3.25 hours.

This statistic is troubling on several counts.

1. My facility with digital software can be improved only minimally. I've now got the basics down and have reached my speed limit.
2. Any increase in speed will surely result in decrease in quality. Note the white ear on guy with white beard in panel four. To correct that would've been too time consuming so I left it. Somehow, once I apply gradients I can't go back and touch up things. The picture gets locked. I haven't the energy to research how to correct it.
3. At the rate of three hours per page I'm looking (at least) at 750 hours ahead of me. Daunting? Yes. Can I sustain enthusiasm, energy, and focus for that many hours? Seems nigh impossible today (I'm fighting a headache and cold).

Furthermore, Dr. Q appears twice in every page (jabbering the text of Ecclesiastes). This means I'll be drawing him 500 times. Waves of self doubt wash over me at this point. I'm a big fan of mocking bad movies (MST3K comes to mind). But now I regret ever laughing at substandard movies because 16 months ago I embarked on a journey of creating my own substandard work of art. I can hear the hoard of jeering mockers crashing the gates even now.

Me thinks it's time for a break.

Page 14

I did it. I drew three pages (six half pages) in one day. Granted, it was a long day and the quality is nothing to brag about. But this gives some indication of how long it'll be before this graphic novel is finished. If I can do three pages tomorrow (Sunday) I predict I'll finish this draft (# 9) by Christmas. That doesn't necessarily mean the book will be done. I still need to tweak draft 9--coordinate colors, shading, backgrounds, props, and any other gaffs which draft 9 currently contains--and turn it into draft 10, the finished product. Let's hope all these talking heads don't bore readers to death. I find them interesting, but that guarantees nothing. Like the alien son told his dad, "They're better than a chemistry set!" Mix 'n match and watch the sparks fly.

Page 5a

This half page took about 3.5 hours with breaks to schedule clients, wash clothes, and cook. I'm still having technical difficulties which are aggravating to the max. For some reason I'm obsessed with speed; if I were to slow down and enjoy the process my output might improve. Why speed? I'm staring at 500+ half pages (many alien pages are not even written or sketched yet) of rough drafts that need to be printed as empty text/panel pages, inked by hand with pencils, light table, and fine tip fountain pen (fun but labor intensive as I'm still fleshing out each character [costume, physiognomy, age, skin color, size], scanned, colored (fun and highly labor intensive as I continue to flail around in the deep end of this digital pool), shaded (not fun as I haven't a clue at what I'm doing both technologically or light/shade and value-wise), merged, and posted. If I increase my speed to 3 hours per half page (an ambitious estimate at this point) that's 1500 hours. If I work 25 hours a week that's 60 weeks. Even though I've been hacking away at this graphic novel for 15 months (with a 3 month hiatus), can I sustain interest for another year+? Speigelman took 11 years to draw MAUS but he was young when he started. I'm racing against my biological clock which, once the alarm goes off, I'll be infirm, decrepit, and unable to conceive--IE., manipulate pens, mouse, touch pads, scanners, etc. Also, there's a weird symbiotic relationship between my wife's deteriorating health and my obsession with mental challenges. Distracting myself with 101 tasks of creating a graphic novel is therapeutic, or so I like to believe.

Displaced Cartoonist

Since starting this blog I've mentioned from time to time the voice of my inner nag pushing me to work harder on this graphic novel. Well, a water leak in the crawl space under our house required me to move out immediately for health reasons (avoiding mold). Our comfy house has now been turned into a disaster area--all the rugs have been pulled up, soggy dry wall needs replacing, and all our belongings are crammed into two bedrooms. I'm now living in a motel for an estimated two months. Please stand by while I get used to living out of a cardboard box.

Story Boarding

Here are the first 16 pages. I'm inserting new pages of alien dialog into the previously posted 35 pages. It breaks up the talking head monotony only a wee bit.

I've tried a dozen different ways to break out of talking head format and failed. My creation is a wordy philosophical rumination and wordiness comes with the territory. Giving visual cues to who is ruminating requires me to draw heads. Many of them.

So, I'm back to my original ambition: draw those talking heads with pizzazz and verve. As I've edited the pages pictured above they've become rather sketchy and unsuitable for re-posting "as is" on the other blog for First Readers.

This creates another puzzle. When I introduce the alien narrators I'm afraid they'll be viewed as unwelcome kitsch unless I present the pages in full color and with full character development (model sheets). I'm constantly challenged to prevent the rough draft drawings detracting from story development.

If I buy the software and tablet for digital rendering now that'll require weeks if not months of learning new techie stuff which will distract from my current task: posting the rough draft for First Reader evaluation.

This poses a ton of new problems. 

How polished do I make the rough draft for public evaluation?
How long will it take to polish the first 35 pages?
Do I keep my original plan and print the Publisher pages of word balloons on card stock for pencil/ink line drawings to then be digitally colored?
Or do I try to learn how to draw them digitally?
If digitally, will the new software allow me to import 250 pages of Publisher?
If not, must I print and re-scan each page?
Once polished will First Readers subconsciously expect the remaining 200 pages of rough draft to look as polished?

One definition of creativity: throw yourself into a quagmire of complexity and then try to fight your way out.

Completed Draft Four!

Don't ask me how I did it; I'm as astonished as anyone. But after six months I'm done writing, and after what seems like 200 years I'm done arranging dialog boxes. Art Spiegelman did 'em by hand; I used technology. I hope that by doing so I haven't given the book a mechanical look. Anyway, I've been tweaking words for half a year forcing myself not to start drawing this thing. But the waiting is over and I'm giddy as a school girl.

This major shift in project management (moving from writer to artist) will be interesting to observe.

• Will my blog posts improve? My subject/predicate synapses will now be bored! 
• Will my whining about tedium decrease? Let's hope so! 
• Will my dopamine transmitters unleash euphoric brain chemicals? I can't wait!
• How long will drawing Draft Four (thumbnail sketches) take? 
• How will my initial readers respond? I've got 30 names I'm going to invite to "proof read" this thing with me. I'm going to ask them to invite their friends in secular university (age 18-22) to join us.
• Will I migrate to the drawing table I set up?
• Or will I be able to do these prelim drawings on the couch where I've planted myself?
• Will my decision to start drawing thumbnails rather than making full character design pages help or hurt? I plan on making up each character on each page and collect these into individual folders for each individual character. 

It's too dark to make a video so here are some photos of my labor since last Dec. 

You've seen this before (64 pages)

228 pages with scotch tapes faces inside

The world's most boring photo! (228 pages of scribbled character seating arrangements)

My pride and joy, Draft Four (229 pages waiting for thumbnail sketches)

The whole she-bang (with chapter division chart)

NOTE: As I add thumbnail sketches to Draft Four I'll be calling it Draft Five.

Boredom Busters and More Maus

I must not hate whining enough to quit, because here comes another whiny rant. I am simply not cut out for the tedium of connecting word balloons. There are personality strengths which allow some people to engage in repetitive work day after day. Bless them! Somebody's got to assemble lap tops, pick lettuce, or paste labels on cans of corn. But I am not possessed of those strengths. I need frequent breaks!

I just completed page 347 (arranging pages, word balloons, speakers' positions, etc). Less than 100 pages to go. I am aiming to be done by July 1 (7 days). But I've been at it for hours today and gotta shake up the slumbering synapses.

Why I’ll not win a Pulitzer Like Art Speigelman

1. Art began his project at age 24, I at age 59.
2. Art did massive background research, I none at all.
3. Art’s story is rooted in history, the “central trauma of the twentieth century.” My story is abstract, obtuse, rarefied, talking heads.
4. Art varied his time line, mixing chronologies. I, sticking to the text of Ecclesiastes line by line, am strictly linear.
5. Art used multiple locations; I’m stuck in a university class room.
6. Each of Art’s drawings went through multiple permutations, thumbnails, sketches, and drafts. I plan on doing just one rough and then ink the thing.
7. Art took eleven years. I plan on finishing my work in one year.
8. Art’s subject matter is gripping: suicide, genocide, survival. My subject matter will appeal only to the depressed.
9. Art put himself in the book, self disclosing to the nth degree, and readers get to know him. In my work I make two or three goofy cameo appearances only and readers won’t know me at all.
10. Art uses real characters (parents, guards, Poles, etc). My cast is entirely fictional.
11. While creating his graphic novel he began meeting with a psychiatrist. Me, no.
12. Art grapples with history; I grapple with existentialism, theodicy, theology, teleology, and faith.
13. Art drew in black and white; I’ll draw in a pleasant, decorative Tin Tin style.

 Why I Might Win a Pulitzer

1. Both of our works are “laced with despair.”
2. Both of our works grapple with “crystalline ambiguity.” P. 33
3. Both of our works ponder evil in the universe.
4. Both of us “write what we know.” He knew Holocaust; I know epistemological perplexity.

Okay...back to those mind numbing word balloons.

Adjusted Time Line

Just finished editing page 201 (Draft Four of EU13).

Heavy black line indicates linked panels.

Connecting word balloons, blocking panels, and making seating arrangements is more time consuming than originally planned.

How I place students on the stage affects the positions of word balloons.

I wonder what makes one so optimistic (unrealistic, grandiose) prior to a project? The notion of biting off more than one can chew is so common it's got it's own metaphor. Poor planning? Unthinking?

Here's what I think is a more realistic time line. But don't bet on it. I've been wrong this whole process.

July 15. Finish Draft Four editing and printing hard copy (ready for pencil sketches).
August 31: Finish 20 character designs complete with names, clothing, ages, gender, hair, etc.
September 1: Begin pencil sketches. Upon completion of each section (52 of them) send digital copies to selected readers.
December 31: Finish sending all 52 sections and incorporating suggestions from readers.
January 1, 2013: Begin final ink drawing (print on card stock, pencil lightly, black ink line drawing, erase pencil lines, color with pencils OR water color).
December 31, 2013. Whole book finished. Digital copies on line.
January 1, 2014. Look for publisher.


Someone once said we over estimate what we can get done in a day and under estimate what we can get done in a year. I am so bad at estimating I focus more on the immediate tasks at hand than making hard and fast predictions. This time line is a psychological ploy to keep me motivated. By extending the dead lines I feel less pressure. By missing deadlines I drive myself crazy.

Back row, L-R: Draft One, Draft Two (waiting to be visually checked), Draft Three (waiting to be visually checked).
Front Row, L-R: Draft Three (checked), Draft Four (finished, waiting for pencil sketches), Draft Two (checked).

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. 

Revised Time Line

In a previous post I mentioned I'd like to be done with Draft Two by May 15. That's only two weeks away. My self imposed deadline was overly ambitious!

Today I'm finishing EU17 (Ecclesiastes 7), page 272. I've still got 144 pages to go. Editing Draft One has been a fun but massive project since it was atrocious. Here are the challenges of creating Draft Two:

1. Characters: I wrote the words first and am now figuring out who said them. This task is sheer bliss but it's time consuming. God invented people in seven days. It takes me a little longer.
2. Character depth and consistency: My hope is to create characters readers care about. I gotta keep them "in character" and hopefully multidimensional (as if comic book characters can have depth).
3. Staging: who is on stage (in the panel), what's the fewest number of characters necessary to complete a thought unit, how often do I reveal a new character, and have characters storm out of classroom?
4. Text: the rough dialog in Draft One had potential. In Draft Two I'm sharpening the philosophy, theology, psychology, and humor sometimes eliminating the dialog entirely and rewriting from scratch.
5. Word balloons. I'm putting Publisher's Basic Shapes boxes around each text box. Six boxes per page times 272 pages (so far) is 1632 boxes too many! Again, highly time consuming. But this will save me having to hand draw them. Uniform and crisp text boxes will add a touch of gravitas and hopefully will subtlety accentuate the words; hand drawn boxes will be distracting.
6. Cutting and pasting. Rifling though my file of 20 characters, cutting out each face, scotch taping them to Draft Two is all very time consuming. 
7. Emailing. I do all this work on my lap top which is not hooked up to a printer. I therefore email finished files to my desk top (in the next room) and print hard copies there. 
8. Mulling. These first seven challenges are peppered with my ongoing inner dialog, "What's the time line of this thing? Do the characters change clothes? How do I get drop outs back into the classroom? How will Mr. Q respond when challenged by students? How will I divide the printed book? 416 Publisher pages will become 208 Paint pages. But there's no 208 page graphic novel. Do I print this as a four part trilogy? A ten part mini comic? Do I print hard copies at all or is it pure digital? Who will I get to proof read this? Do line editing? Evaluate the plot, humor, coherence, etc?"

Despite all these challenges...I'm still shooting for the May 15 deadline to complete Draft Two. 

I suspect I'm going to print a hard copy Draft Three on which I'll draw penciled layouts. (I'm anticipating the joy of designing pages, getting creative with panel shapes, and drawing detailed spreads of the whole class room). I dare not ink/color Draft Three however. That will be Draft Four. I'll give Draft Three to some folks for their feedback. Sigh....that puts me months behind schedule. Oh well. 

End of Week Update

I'm up to page 66 in rough draft #2 (encompassing Ecclesiastes 1:1-2:26). I've sharpened the text, identified who the main characters are, and decided who belongs to which word balloon. Untangling the myriad of loose themes is highly pleasurable. I work on this project before breakfast, in my office before clients show up, and after visiting Vicki. When I get home I print Publisher pages, edit the dialog again (it's amazing how weak the first draft is), cut and tape images as I create characters from those strung together word balloons.

One of the more tedious tasks is using my mouse to put thin line word balloons around the dialog boxes. Six per page, 66 pages = 396 word balloons so far. I shudder to think how many more there will be.

This graphic novel will NOT be 64 pages long like Tin Tin my inspiration. I guesstimate Ecclesiastes U will be 450 pages...way too unwieldy for one volume. So I'll have to publish it in sections. We'll see.

One of my daughters told me about STEAMPUNK yesterday.

How can I get this character into my comic?

Mr. Q Has Left The Building

Just a quick note of self congratulations. Tonight I finished the last of Mr. Q's lectures (12:8). I first put pen to paper December 21, 2011. His departure 3 months later, ends like his arrival, with him muttering "meaningless, meaningless."

If I draw this thing correctly, there will be a tinge of cinematic drama in his departure. The class has dwindled by attrition (many if not most couldn't hack his outrageous claims and walked out or dropped the class) but the few who remain have become stalwarts of Qoholeth the Teacher.

I gotta say I was sad to see him go. This is a good sign. If I, probably the most exasperated "student" of all, grew fond of the the old buzzard, I hope readers will, too.

All that's left now is to bring the TA to the front of the class and have her wrap up the loose ends (and do damage control)! Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 are not the words of Qoholeth but of an editor who added their commentary on the lectures just delivered.

I'm highly persuaded the book of Ecclesiastes is loaded with additions, glosses, and inserted verses by persons other than Mr. Q, but for artistic purposes I've made all those (often contradictory) comments come from the mouth of Mr. Q. It's possible the giant leaps and flip flops are the machinations of a double minded soul, or even a moody and intentionally enigmatic singular author, but I think not. Readers of the graphic novel will never know this, only those who bother themselves to read this blog, the behind the scenes look of creation at work.

Mr. Q has left the building. While he's gone I'll reread his entire lecture, tweaking the student comments, and designing his body, size, shape, attire, cranium and facial features.

ETC (Estimated Time of Completion) and More Decisions....

1. Finish writing First Draft dialog for final 5 sections by April 15, 2012.
2. Reread and edit entire script Second Draft (450+ 6 panel strips) by May 15.
3. Create and draw character sheets for 8-12 key students by July 1.
4. Start printing Third Draft of all 8.5" x 11" pages on paper for thumbnails on July 1.
5. Scan and post these "roughs" on Ecclesiastes University blog as they emerge.
6. Finish thumbnails by September 1.
7. Start printing Forth Draft of 8.5" x 11" pages on card stock for pencil and ink: September 1.
8. Post those finished drawings on this site as they emerge. (Check for visual clarity, font sizes, word balloon placement, etc).
9. Post last page (450?) on this blog by Dec. 31, 2012.

Still to be decided: brush pen or felt tip? Black and white or color? Will there be section breaks? It's possible that I could simply number pages 1-450+ with no chapter/section breaks. If I do make section breaks, how? We'll see. Will I limit myself to six strips per page? I'm tempted to do several one panel drawings to fill a whole page (homage to Herge and a visual relief to talking heads). Do I identify in each strip verse references? If so, how to do so unobtrusively. Do I add footnotes at the end siting my sources? I'd rather not; any direct quotes I make are public domain (I quote Shakespeare a lot, the Declaration of Independence, various philosophers and comedians, etc without credit. Will revisit this; un-credited quotes could be thorny).