I’m having a pretty intense week. Act 2 has a BIG rewrite. My director wanted it all done by Wednesday. I gave it my best shot. There is a LOT of new scenes. I thought I was going to have all week to work on the Act. I wasn’t so lucky. Seems like my board revision partner got borrowed by David Silverman to work on something with him. I didn’t realize I would have to pick up the slack. I really like this show and I wanted to take my time to do it justice.
VIDEOS
For those of us that are really interested in the art of writing comedy, this is a great set of videos:
Last Friday, I finished revising the second draft of my story’s treatment. It works and reads better. I decided to proofread it on Monday, only to discover that some of the things I changed didn’t get saved in parts. That was irritating. It took me an hour and a half to proof read. I didn’t think it would take so long.
Another thing I discovered while reading it was that I REALLY got specific at that end of the treatment with the action but I was much more vague about it at the beginning. I’m not sure what I ought to do about that. Should I start adding more specific action at the beginning as well or should I leave it the way it is and work out the action during the drawing process? It would save me a lot of time in the end if I figure it out now. Although I might change my mind when I actually start drawing and then it would kinda be a waste of time.
ART
I have an illustration to finish, as soon as possible. It’s a ALICE IN WONDERLAND drawing.
I’ve been asked to illustrate the following paragraph from the book without using any text what so ever:
‘Tell us a story!’ said the March Hare.
‘Yes, please do!’ pleaded Alice.
‘And be quick about it,’ added the Hatter, ‘or you’ll be asleep again before
it’s done.’
Below is my first pass for the page. I still have to work out the comps a bit but it a good starting point:
I’ve also started some quick, exploratory sketches of the characters. This is what I have so far. The March Hare:
The Dormouse:
Below, is me, trying a rough of what might be the top part of the page:
I want to get done with this by the end of the week so I can get back to my cartoon. The ALICE illustration is due in three weeks but I’d rather get it over with now.
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First week back on the show after having three weeks off. Hit the ground running from the get go. I had to be done with the first part of my assignment by Wednesday. It took me longer than I wanted it to.
It didn’t help that I came in on Monday a bit brain dead.
I managed to get done, and was handed Act 2. Big rewrite but the episode is REALLY good. I’m happy to be working on it.
Okay, so below are two page five. The first one is the version I drew first:
I didn’t end up using it because I realized that it didn’t read the way I wanted it to. I wanted the eye of the reader to read the punchline first and THEN see the bunnies. But the way it actually read, you saw the bunnies first and then you read the punchline. I didn’t like that so I chose to move the panel up.
I was much happier with the final version.
Below is the under drawing:
Oh, and in case you where wondering why I hand draw the word balloons in my comics…I do it because it’s a comic. The word balloons ARE part of the art and part of the composition of every panel. Seems wrong not to do it.
VIDEOS
My dad is a fan of Juan Esquivel. I find his music fun and I own one of his cds. My dad showed me the video below on Friday because he said he found someone online that likes Juan Esquivel WAY MORE than him. Who IS Juan Esquivel? I’m glad you asked because the video below answers that very question. WHY am I putting this video up on my blog though? Because I thought this was a fantastic example of how one guy’s charisma can make simply talking into the camera and telling someone about what he’s passionate about, darn entertaining.
WRITING
I would be lying if I said I’ve spent every moment I had a little time, on finish up the second draft of my treatment. I got a little sidetracked wanting to start on my next project and I ended up spending the weekend trying to solve the “A” Plot. I got it to the point good spot. I told myself I would dedicate the rest of my week on my Illustrated Film. So I have. I’m happy to say the revision is coming along nicely. Hopefully I’ll have it done by the end of the week. I’m adding adjusting and generally enjoying this part of the editing process.
Since I’ve made some big changes, I’m going to have to go back to my old designs and made the necessary adjustments. I’ll probably have to do that next week.
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I got a call this week from work. It seems there was a revision that needed to be done a section of a board in a show I worked on. Turned out they were looking for the original artist that revised that part of the board. It wasn’t me. False alarm. I return to work next week. My hiatus went by surprisingly fast.
MY WEB COMIC
Below is my roughs. The blank panels I left blank, knowing that they would have panels that where the same as the ones before:
And below, is the under drawing I inked.
Next week comes the final page.
GHETTOMATION
Jim Lujan did it again. He finished this almost a month ago but I thought I’d post it up for anyone who hadn’t seen it:
WRITING
The time I SHOULD have been using to finish the last itty bitty bit of my treatment last week and this week, I spent, framing artwork, writing my process comic process for a booklet that will be displayed with my artwork, writing this blog or reading my new book on writing.
The first two things really took up a TON of my time, and they NEEDED to be done. I had a deadline to meet. This REALLY messed up my momentum in a big way. It made me stop thinking about my story, and that was no good.
On top of that, the book I ordered SAVE THE CAT! by Blake Snyder, came in the mail. I flipped through it, read a little bit of it and then couldn’t stop. The info in it is fantastic. There are some things in the book that I’d rather use DRAMATICA for. There are also some things I really disagree with, but overall, there is a LOT of stuff in this book that isn’t in a lot of other books on writing. Very good info on how to SELL an idea and put it together. I highly recommend it. I’ll be using this book a lot, along with DRAMATICA.
This left me with the dilemma of finishing my treatment somehow. The thing is, that after reading SAVE THE CAT! I have a few slight adjustments I want to make to my story. Nothing big but they need to be done. I just didn’t want to get to them until I finished the big changes I AM making.
My goal was to finish fixing the treatment before I got back to work. Well, I’m glad to say that I managed to make the fixes. I had a print out of the treatment I wrote the fixes on and I had a sheet of paper that I wrote anything new that didn’t fit on the print out. Now, I just have to retype the treatment and make the adjustments so I can have a cleaner version, but I consider myself done, since the hard part is over.
Feels good.
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No word on what’s going on with the show. This is my second week off the show. One week left to go. Seems like time is passing by fast.
MY WEB COMIC
Below is the rough of the page above:
This next page is the under drawing for the page that I inked. I increased the levels of the line work because it was drawn very lightly:
I forgot to put the under drawing of page 2 last week so I’m doing it here. I was half way through the inking process when I scanned this, so it’s not JUST the under drawing:
VIDEOS
I had heard a lot about this documentary but I had never seen it. I was made aware of it through the Man Vs. Art Facebook page. Raul Aguirre Jr. posted the link there. Now I’m posting it here as well. I recommend you take a look. It’s a documentary called IN SEARCH OF STEVE DITKO. It’s the fascinating story of mysterious comic artist Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-man. It’s very cool:
It’s about how Alex Toth, one of my favorite artists, learned. It’s something I myself have discovered from experience but I think it’s very good information to know if you don’t know about it.
Here’s the quote that ends the article. It’s great:
“It was great fun, to learn anew. You think you know enough, but you don’t. You must open up; let it in. …be receptive, admit what you don’t know, which few are willing to do. Start from square one. Again!” ~Alex Toth
WRITING
I was finally able to work out the new versions of Scene 6 and Scene 8. It was by far, one the more difficult things I had to do to date. The reason was because I had to really pin down how the magick would work in my “universe”. I knew it was blood magick, and I new it has to do with binding one’s self with a demon. I also came up with a way to make the blood rituals “practical”, but I STILL didn’t know what magick was actually going to be used against Rob.
In order to figure this out, I thought I should give each Sorcerer a “theme” or “skill” of magick they were best at. I just didn’t know what they were going to be. In order to get ideas flowing in my head, I decided to go to my bookshelf and take three Role Playing game books down. These were CONAN: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME, MUTANTS AND MASTERMINDS RPG, and MAGE: THE ASCENSION.
The Conan book helped quite a bit. It’s basically a book of the Conan universe. The chapter on Sorcery in the Conan universe was very helpful since I’m basically taking that type of magick and having it play out a in a modern setting. What I got most from it was the idea that not all a Sorcerer’s magick is done on the spot, some of it is “prepackaged” and ready to use ahead of time, in the form on alchemical items that they carry around. That would help. Only I thought that in MY universe, these items had to be “activated” with a chant and some of the Sorcerer’s blood sprinkled on it. The book also gave me good examples of spells and themed magick that I might be able to use. For example, the “serpent” themed mind control magick in the book was perfect for my Lead Sorcerer. The section on magick poisons, also got me thinking as did the section on necromancy. Unfortunately it didn’t help much more beyond that. At least it gave me a flavor of what I was looking for.
The MUTANTS AND MASTERMINDS book is a book like a catalog or buffet of superpowers which you can mix, match, and modify to your heart’s content in order to come up unique powers for a superhero character. I was looking through it so that I could better theme my Sorcerers’ powers. I was hoping to come across a power that would get me thinking. Unfortunately, I didn’t find what I was looking for. Somehow the powers where a tad too overpowered and if they weren’t, they were too subtle or generic for me to want to use any.
By this point, after thinking about it for a day or so, I knew I wanted the Other Male Sorcerer to have have Necrotic like powers. But I didn’t want him raising skeletons or anything like that. I wanted him to be more of a destroyer of life. When I opened my MAGE: THE ASCENSION book, I looked specifically into the section on Mages who could control Entropy. Though the description and the powers weren’t exactly what I had in mind, they did give me a jumping off point for my character’s magick.
As I looked at all these books, I would write down things I thought I wanted and began making a small list of key words. This is what I wrote down:
Summoning
Kothic Demon fire
Necromancy
Entropy (Focus?)
Beast Claws
Poisons
Hypnosis (Serpent)
Domination (Serpent)
Alchemy
Acid?
Knives
Wall of Blades
Dancing Blades
Flying Blades
The terms in bold I had circled, meaning I was definitely going to use them, while the other things I was trying to fit together and make something I liked with them.
I the end, this is what I concluded:
The Lead Sorcerer would have domination powers and would use mind control and hypnosis as his main form of Magick. He could also summon the giant serpent creature, but only if he sacrificed a live serpent and mingled his blood with it and chanted the correct incantation.
The Other Male Sorcerer would have power of entropy. He would throw “Entropy Orbs” which he activates with his blood and an incantation. These Orbs cause whatever they crash into to prematurely age thousands of years in an instant. He also has claws in his hands which can rot whatever they touch. He uses them in conjunction with an alchemical mist, which he hides in to reach his target. He can summon a Winged Ape by infusing some of his own blood into the ripped out heart of a gorilla and saying the correct incantation. The resulting Winged Ape would look a little zombie like.
The Female Sorcerer’s magick consists of her control over blades she throws. Due to the nature of these blade, they tend to disintegrate once used. Her main form of attack would be poison tipped blades which she controls by sprinkling them with her own blood and throwing them with an incantation. She can also control larger blade with she can send spinning or dancing, anyway she wishes, as long as he concentrates. They must first be sprinkled with her blood. She also has a blinding powder she uses, when she needs to buy time for her magick to get going. Just like The Other Male Sorcerer, she can also summon a Winged Ape by infusing some of her own blood into the ripped out heart of a gorilla and saying the correct incantation.The resulting Winged Ape is silver and has sharp metal claws.
Once I had these details worked out, it was much easier to come up with the modification to Scene 6 and Scene 8. Scene 6 I finished first. I changed the focus of the fight so that it was more about destroying the hot dog than killing Rob. I’m not sure how well that will flow but I guess I’ll find out once I have the first visual pass of it done.
Scene 8 was much tougher. The hard part was coming up with the “super attack” the Sorcerers hit Rob with, by combining their powers together. I settled with some spinning blades keeping Rob in place while the Lead Sorcerer combines his mind power with the Other Male Sorcerer to try to disintegrate Rob. The rest is similar to what I had originally written, only with the new powers.
I’m a lot happier with this version.
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Comments Off on Black Terror Kid #2 page 3 plus roughs and underdrawings. How Alex Toth learned. Steve Ditko documentary. Solving my last story problems.
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This blog is your window into the daily life of a Simpsons artist. See what it's like work on a hit TV show!
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, came in the mail. I flipped through it, read a little bit of it and then couldn’t stop. The info in it is fantastic. There are some things in the book that I’d rather use 
, 
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book, I looked specifically into the section on Mages who could control Entropy. Though the description and the powers weren’t exactly what I had in mind, they did give me a jumping off point for my character’s magick.
