Failed experiments 1 and 2: Brushed-in fur, and real grey wash

I was trying to reduce the labor and wrist strain of drawing Sodie’s fur by doing it with a fan brush. I don’t like the way this looks, it’s kind of dirty-looking and doesn’t suit funny animal comics. I’ve since settled on a technique of suggesting fur without drawing every single hair. Also, the grey wash here is real diluted ink, applied with a brush. The result looks cloudy or foggy; maybe OK for a noir detective story, but again, not for a funny animal cartoon. Digital grey wash is much more even and cartoony-looking. Although I prefer traditional media, like Doug Tennapel says, I’m a purist until it doesn’t work. Both effects are combined here for a pleasing fur tone that doesn’t involve carpal tunnel surgery:

Failed experiment 3: stock backgrounds
As I mentioned in another post, using stock backgrounds doesn’t work because background elements always seem to end up in the wrong place, interfering with the characters. You can use Gimp to make the background lighter, but this just looks weird and processed:

Failed experiment 4: hand-drawn balloons with computer fonts
My hand lettering sucks, so I’ve begun using a font, but I don’t really like computer-generated balloons. So I’ve been trying to do the balloons by hand, and the letters in Gimp:

The problem here is that it’s hard to anticipate how big the balloon has to be. Sometimes it ends up too big, other times, too small. The solution is to use the Gimp path tool to make the balloons, instead of the oval select, which makes perfect ovals:

It looks a little vector-graphicy, which it is, but I don’t think it looks bad, and it gets the balloons to fit.

So that’s it. This is a process of continual experimentation and improvement for me as I keep the stuff that works, and jettison the stuff that doesn’t. Stay tuned…

If you had read the graphic novel you will no doubt notice some similarities between the original thumbnail layout and the final version. Looking back at these I was also struck by the differences that were later made. In fact, when I originally mapped out the book it was only going to be eighty-four pages long.

I always enjoy doing thumbnails because it’s my first shot at actually “doing” the comic. I don’t worry about mistakes- in fact that is the whole point of doing thumbnails. The idea is to get down how you would like to pace your story, how you will compose the pictures, and place word balloons, etcetera. Not that there wont be revisions later on of course. But just try to imagine spending the time to draw and ink, say, ten pages only to have your editor tell you, “Nah, the layout doesn’t look right. You should’ve done it this way. Go back and redo all of it.” Or, worse still, imagine having a finished manuscript of two hundred pages only to be told to trim it down to one-fifty. I’d rather redo sketches any day!

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions please let me know. I will continue this series as well as post new stuff soon so stay tuned.!

© 2012 Michael Yost 5/16

Write Your Word Balloons In A Post!
Jose and Ian will pick 2 to 3 finalists each week.
Then you will ALL vote in a quick 24 HOUR POLL every week!
Winner Wins a Prize and Sees His/Her Cover Complete With Word Balloons!
Contest ends at one second BEFORE Midnight (11:59:59 pm) US Central Standard Time on Friday 3.9.12

THIS WEEKS PRIZE!
A PRISTINE MINT copy of
Craig Thompson’s AWESOME
Habibi Hardcover!

☛ COMPLETE CONTEST RULES☚
1. WORD BALLOON entries MUST BE POSTED on this post on the Inveterate Media Junkies website. NO EMAILS please.
2. You may ENTER as OFTEN as you like! There is no limit to the number of entries! You can write WORD BALLOONS for 1, 2 or ALL 3 Covers!
3. Contest will run from the moment this post first appears on the Inveterate Media Junkies website until 11:59:59pm CST 3/9/12. You must post your proposed WORD BALLOONS by 11:59:59pm for your entry to be valid.

Write Your Word Balloons In A Post!
Jose and Ian will pick 2 to 3 finalists each week.
Then you will ALL vote in a quick 24 HOUR POLL every week!
Winner Wins a Prize and Sees His/Her Cover Complete With Word Balloons!
Contest ends at one second BEFORE Midnight (11:59:59 pm) US Central Standard Time on Wednesday 2.29.12

THIS WEEKS PRIZE
A complete SIX VOLUME SET of  Bryan Lee O’Malley’s
Scott Pilgrim #1-6!

☛ COMPLETE CONTEST RULES☚
1. WORD BALLOON entries MUST BE POSTED on this post on the Inveterate Media Junkies website. NO EMAILS please.
2. You may ENTER as OFTEN as you like! There is no limit to the number of entries! You can write WORD BALLOONS for 1, 2 or ALL 3 Covers!
3. Contest will run from the moment this post first appears on the Inveterate Media Junkies website until 11:59:59pm CST 2/29/12. You must post your proposed WORD BALLOONS by 11:59:59pm for your entry to be valid.

“This is not a pipe.”

In comics theorist Scott McCloud‘s seminal work Understanding Comics (1993), there comes a point following his convoluted description of Magritte’s “The Treachery of Images” where he asks the reader, “Do you hear what I’m saying?” In the next panel he adds, “If you do, have your ears check because no one said a word.” The joke is, of course, that while his comic doppelganger is depicted as talking through the use of word balloons, no words are being spoken. We are reading, not hearing. And yet, sound (or rather, its representation) remains a crucial part of reading and enjoying comic books.

Magritte was trying to get us to think about the treachery of visual representation, while McCloud points us of the treachery of aural representation. A stylized “SPLAT!” is certainly not a sound, but our instinctual understanding of sound helps us to interpret what is otherwise a silent medium in ways beyond the mere the descriptive effect of a sound’s depiction. The way comics use sound can teach us about the function of sound in understanding the visual and textual. As McCloud asserts, comics depend on the reader to create closure between parts of an imagined whole in order for disparate panels to make sense. While it second-nature for the comic reader to interpret the depiction of sound in comics, the closure enacted to make stylized textual elements into “a sound” is a central way that this is enacted.

The most famous use of comic sound effect words is probably from the old 1960s Batman TV series—where the “SOCK!” and “BONG!” of superhero and sidekick reinforced the campy aesthetic of the program. It is telling that the Batman-theme (and the fight scenes in general) uses horn flares to emphasize those “POW!” and “BIFF!” moments. The suggestion is that the ostentatious representations of sound that these textual flare sound effect words provide are an empty signifier. There is no sound behind that sound. The weak-sounding slaps and smacks of knuckles on flesh would never suffice for the larger than life world of comic superheroes, and the more out-there comics get the more difficult it is to trace a relationship between the textual/visual representation and any sound in the real world. There is no point of comparison by which to understand the “SHREEEEEE!” of a launching “zirrer” in Kurt Busiek’s Astro City, but only the vague evocation of some loud shrill noise.

And yet, comic readers not only understand these representations as sound, but there are also a variety of visual clues given that help the reader interpret some quality of those sounds. The most ubiquitous example of sound in comics is, of course, the word balloon—so ubiquitous in fact that it is easy to take for granted the fact that comics have their own conventions for handling and describing sound without recourse to adjectives. The irony is that the shape and texture of word balloons (just like the shape and texture of sound effect words like “BOOM!”) that help to convey the quality of sound become nearly invisible to the reader. Just as any literate person sees a word they know and interprets it for what it is meant to represent and not a collection of individual letters, the dripping icicle-like shape of a word balloon is read as a cold tone or the sharp points of the balloon are read as loud and abrupt.

In her essay “The Comic Book’s Soundtrack” from The Language of Comics (2001), Catherine Khordoc provides a very good overview of the use of sound in comics using the example of Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix to provide examples of the various ways word balloons and the implanting of onomatopoeic words directly into the panel image itself are used to represent sounds in comic books. Yet, the function of the representation of sound in comic runs even deeper than simply translating the quality of sound itself; it also serves to help establish timeframes for panels (or sets of panels) and functions in establishing the closure the reader performs in making sense of both individual panels and their context within a sequence of panels. Discrete sounds—whether it’s the “FWOOSH!” of the Human Torch flaming on or long-winded pseudo-scientific explanation of the Negative Zone by Mr. Fantastic—require the passage of time to be intelligible. In order for sounds to be differentiated, they must have some form of beginning, middle and end (or in the parlance of synthesized sound, “attack, decay, sustain, release”). This means that in comics, a medium where space and time merge, representations of sound are crucial to making sense of action, in particular, to the passage of time within a singular panel—for while time can be shown to pass between two or more panels through the process of closure (implicitly understanding the movement or occurrence not depicted between panels that makes them sequential), a singular panel is not necessarily a discrete moment, as an entire conversation can occur within it, requiring readers to perform closure even within the scope of a single panel.

For example, in the second panel below, despite the static image, the passage of time suggested by the conversation about Spider-man’s wounds and payment leads the reader to make sense of the sequence between it and the panel that follows. It is the reader’s understanding that it takes time to talk and listen out loud that helps make the time of the panel apparent.

Click to Enlarge.

Perhaps the most telling evidence of the centrality of sound, at least to the superhero comic genre, was Marvel’s decision to include a synopsis and explanation of the action at the end of each issue of the “‘Nuff Said,” “silent” month of comics back in 2001—wherein there was no dialogue or captions.

There is still a lot to consider when it comes to sound in comics—not just the rhetoric of sound or sound as a signifier of time, but sound as identity. Representations of sound in comics can serve as a form of character signature, and I do not mean only famous lines like Superman’s “Up, up and away!” (which really emerged from Superman radio plays), but iconic sounds such as Spider-man’s web-shooters going “THWIPP!” or Wolverine’s claws, “SNIKT!” that over time have come to be more than just descriptive sound-words, but signifiers that are unique for the characters themselves. (See TV Trope’s page on signature sound effects)

In the end, this brief overview will hopefully serve as a starting point in generating more thoughts on not only how our familiarity with sound informs our reading and interpreting of comics, but how this (admittedly) very general idea can be applied to other ostensibly silent and primarily visual media. The use of sound in comics is a perfect example of how the transparency of sound can make it presence and function easy to overlook. Furthermore, the way in which it is used to orient the reader and help provide closure between and within panels, and identify characters clues us in to the importance of its role and the importance of considering where and how else it might function. I, for one, am going to keep thinking on it and looking for examples of in comics and hope that others join their thoughts to the discussion. Until then, as Stan Lee would “say,” Excelsior!

It’s a great space. Bright, colorful wall, and visible as soon as you walk into the art center.

These Conversation Pieces are a  collaboration with a poet I met at the Belfast Poetry Festival last year.  She came up with the words, and I made the pieces.  The words are what could be the possible first line of a possible poem. The viewer can mix and match the words in any order they want.

DoodleComix: Thought Balloon Clusters

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Suppose a comic character has multiple thoughts all at the same time? Or what if he is  thinking about a few things, all at once. How do you possibly represent that in a comic book? Why, with linked evolving thought bubbles and big-concept balloon clusters, of course!

In this video, I demonstrate my doodle comix word balloon drawing technique: I started by drawing the standard comic book word balloon, but then I continue drawing the shape so that it overlaps several times on itself. I also add additional flourishes, such as curly-cues and feathers (for fun and visual interest).

In this video, I use a comic book word balloon to create an interesting piece of doodle art. Basically, I start by drawing the familiar word balloon shape, and then — using automatic drawing (one of the many art games used by the Surrealists), I cause the word balloon to metastasize, growing over and over onto itself, until it ends up being snarled, checkerboard patterned ink drawing, complete with whiskers and bumps….yet it’s still a word balloon! I won’t place words into it (yet), but there’s no denying that the word balloon is actually saying something…it’s just up to you to translate the various shapes and lines into sounds, thoughts, and ideas!

Check out those word balloons! They go into and back out of the page to avoid the zombie’s head!

How did that make me feel, Roast Beef?