Original Art Sundays No. 375: Surrealist Cowgirls Sheet Music Cover!

As my first Kickstarter continues (ten days left!), I'm working on new classes and plotting on the *BIG* graphic memoir, while I expand writing on a rekindled older project.

One of the items in the Surrealist Cowgirls book is sheet music for a ditty I composed as their theme.

Here's the B & W version of the sheet music cover.

I will add color to this and use it as the back cover for the book.

Lots of stuff here I like. Of course, my beloved Cowgirls. Maggie in a skirt, which we've never seen before. Homage to the vintage sheet music covers I adore so. I had some fun rendering the envirnonment, which I think is successful. The balloon sailing across the moon is a small homage to a neglected film, OZ the Great and Powerful, evoking my passion for all things Oz.

No need for an equipment list on this one. It's pretty much the same as last week's.

I plan to get the coloring done mid-week and will post it then. Expect something completely new in the next Original Art Sundays!

Original Art Sundays (Monday) No. 222: Speedy Recovery, pp. 20 and 21

A day late!
Spent a delightful time this weekend at Autoptic, talking to more indy publishers, distributors and creators. Saw many old friends.
The new work schedule is more manageable, but I'm still adapting.
Here are the next two pages of Speedy Recovery.
When we left our erstwhile band, they were escaping the manacles in Toby Continued's dungeon.

The calm after the storm, and a pun to round it out!
What's working here: the open two-panel/ one-panel effect on the bottom of page 20. The silhouette image of Speedy presenting the ruby slippers is one of the key images that drove the creation of this book.
And the Ruby Slippers reappear!
The dark semicircle arc framing the 2 panel spread is a trick I picked up from Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise, though I doubt he's the first to use it.
Rather than hand rendering the brick walls this time, I used adhesive back pattern sheets, sort of a custom Zip A Tone or Chartpak, for those who remember that!
Only a couple spreads left of this issue, then it's on to something new.

Original Art Sundays No. 206 - 209: Speedy Recovery, pp. 2 - 5

Offering a few pages today to catch up with myself. I'm still in a bit of a holding pattern on new work, but will stop indulging my imagination and whimsies and get new work done soon.

A decent chunk of story this time, largely because I didn't want to break up the prelude, also to catch up with my self-imposed schedule a bit.

Some thoughts on these.
Aside from the sloppy rendering of the bus in panel 4 and the slightly too sparse background on the MGM panel, the only real issue with this page is that the banner announcing the time and place is too small. The Scarecrow image on the wall is based on a sketchbook image of that character that I posted a while ago.
The next page is largely based on shot photos from the 1939 movie. Structurally, the biggest issue here is that the mapping of heavy blacks in the last panel, where Judy's handing Susan the ruby slippers, doesn't read properly at first glance. It needs to be clearer in isolating background and figure.
The following page is fairly successful, including a subtle bit of foreshadowing in panel 2. The date ellipse is, again, too small. Also, sparse backgrounds in the first and third images of the central banner panel. But I rather like the scolding heads in the last panel. For the life of me, I can't recall what specifically inspired that image.
The final page of this batch works fairly well. The use of the Scarecrow art from page one to reinforce that it's the same house is a nice touch, I think. The second panel echoing the cover shown on page one helps anchor the story. This page is also the first time in the story proper that we see our central character other than in silhouette. Originally, the last panel of this page was intended as the splash page for this book.
The big problem on this page is that I neglected to leave space for the title and credits- something I tend to forget when putting my own books together!
This book touches on a number of themes that are important to me: Oz, country life, trust issues, reluctance to accept your place in life, and music. Always music.
Next week: more Speedy. I had just intended this as a placeholder while I geared up for new work, but it's better than I recall it being, and I'm enjoying it greatly!

Original Art Sundays No. 181: An Oz Sketchbook

TheBack in the saddle again. I picked up a cheap scanner. It will serve.
Today's offering: more sketchbook work. In 1998, I toyed with the idea of an Oz alphabet book for children. I was discouraged from pursuing it by peers who foresaw copyright problems, but did complete a handful of preliminary work.

loose sketch done while watching 1939 film

As a former resident of Judy Garland's home town, Oz has always been near and dear to my heart. My Mother had an old edition (but not a first printing) of Ozma of Oz, and the John Neill illustrations fascinated me. although it has my sister's name in it, the booke ended up in my library- quel suprise!
Somewhere along the way, Mother  also got an older edition of Rinkitink in Oz, which further inspired my young mind and heart. John Neill has remained a primal artistic influence. The grace of his line, couple with the energy of his figures, was quite a shock.
It does need to be said that the 1939 film was my first exposure to Oz on film. As has been documented elsewhere, it is far from faithful to the Baum book in many ways- plot lines dropped out, characters omitted, the silver slippers exchanged for ruby, and so on. Despite this, the film also had a profound effect on me, though I didn't see it in color until I was in college- we only had a black and white TV set!

A more successful sketch
from the same session

I was never a huge fan of Denslow's work on Oz, compared to Neill (and later to Eric Shanower and Skottie Young). I found Denslow's stylization odd and distracting, though it has grown on me, as evidenced by the sketch on the left. I think the Lion's expression works very well here. I also like the "big sleeve" design of the Tin Woodsman.
Really, more a playful take on a rather menacing moment from the film than anything else.
Over the years, I became more invested in Oz lore (not as much as some, but it remains a significant fascination). While my Oz library is incomplete, it does include such curiosities as Roy Krenkel's illustrated version of the first novel, Philip Jose´ Farmer's A Barnstormer In Oz, the Shanower collection of First graphic novels, and the oversize Marvel adaptation of The Land of Oz.
In planning the aforementioned Oz alphabet book, I completed a few roughs. Here they are.

Layout rough, proportions clearly need work!

The most successful pieces in this lot are the Glass Cat pages, one of which appears here. When I dig it up, I'll post the Photoshop and Illustrator created version of the Glass Cat page!

Another layout rough
of a favorite character

A sketchbook piece, more successful than its digital successor!

I love the Glass Cat's attitude! I wrote text to accompany these pages, long gone (aside from the digital version of the Glass Cat page, wherever that is now in my mountain of old work).

I completed a mockup for a pirate alphabet as an alternative to the Oz project. This was also in 1998, five years before the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. There have been quite a few pirate books for children since then. So though the project was ahead of its time, it's now dated. Go figure.

Next: back to the Surrealist Cowgirls!

Original Art Sundays no. 137: Surrealist Cowgirls, It Does This, p. 10

This is a very screwy series of events leading up to this page. Owing to the hour, I will simply post the page now and amend with the details tomorrow.  Details below the page.

I began this page in July, while working summer teaching sessions. It's been done for a while now, and now it's time to post it.
The layout of the top tier was based on discussions with my former student and summer co-worker Jack Kotz. Originally I had envisioned it as an overhead high shot in 3 point perspective, but it just wasn't working.
The second tier was easy. I love the tender silliness of the bunny hand holding in the first panel of that tier. It's also telling that Louise is the one who's afflicted and she's helping Maggie.
The last tier wasn't working at all. I pictured a triumph panel.

It was working, but I wasn't completely happy with it. I couldn't get a combination of scale and emotional response that I liked.
While I really like the drawing of Louise's mule (who has yet to be named, probably apropos for a shape-shifter) , it takes up too much real estate. No room for the rest of the case, and with two more girls and the whale-mule Whalliam still left to include, I decided it just wasn't working.
So I stopped in mid-panel.
But I was only blocked for a day.
Near the end of the session, I was talking the problem over with co-worker and longtime friend Rana Raeuchle,  who suggested the long shot with scenic in the foreground.
She also showed me a doodling app for my iPhone, which I've found immensely useful in plotting layouts. I do need to get some form of stylus to use with it for detail work- not that I'll be doing anything that detailed with it, but control is our friend.
I had the brainstorm of adding the boot of our mystery man, who's been following the group clandestinely, and his familiar, the giant snail. Some nice foreshadowing there. It should be noted that this last panel was done in ink, a welcome departure. I've fallen into the habit of working with markers, and I found getting back to inks quite fulfilling, and yielding a better result than I anticipated.

the inked replacement panel!

The original Chiss

It was time to name the snail. I puttered in my bookshelf for a bit, and found Chiss in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, one of my favorite Baum volumes. Chiss is a giant porcupine who can throw quills in multiple directions. I liked the way it sounded, and the implied speed in the name worked well with preconceptions of a snail's slowness.
Even though I've been working with the Surrealist Cowgirls since 1994, I'm still learning who they are. I suppose that's what people mean when they say characters become real, but I'm reminded of the words of Jane Yolen: if you think your characters are real, try borrowing ten dollars from one of them.
The following page is now on the board. Now that the Cowgirls are on top of the ziggurat, the story takes an intriguing turn, as the quest to cure Kay Seurat-Seurat continues.

Original Art Sundays No. 125: Tranny Towers, Chapter 27

After midnight, so technically Sunday. Here we go.
The next chapter:

Another scan from a tearsheet. I need to rescan this from the original as well. The Moire' pattern on the title comes from Zipatone that was not properly put into the printer's file on their end- I gave them clean copy- and it reappears in the environments in panels three and five.
So many plot devices are, if not cliche', standards in queer and TS comics: bashing, being outed, suicide. I managed to include most of them in Tranny Towers, but I hope there was a freshness to them, or at least my own spin.
Cutesy notes: the business named Ruby's Slippers is a pretty obvious OZ reference, also an indirect nod to my home town of Grand Rapids, MN, from whence hails Judy Garland. The neighboring business, Pelican Parts, is just a bit of silliness.
The passenger in the threatening vehicle is inspired by a former assistant manager from my movie theater days, who screamed homophobic and transphobic insults and threats at me so loud that the Rocky Horror audience inside the theater was silenced. Of course, he had just been fired for doing a lousy job, but still...
The extreme tailfins on the car are obviously 1950s inspired.
Overall, I think this was a pretty successful page.
Next: Chapter 28.

Best comics of 2010: No. 3 (tie): The Land of Oz

After a rough couple days of writing deadlines and wrestling with money, I can get back to posting for a brief time.
The tie for the No. 3 spot is Marvel's Land of Oz.
I've been enjoying Marvel's Oz adaptations a great deal, not just because the writing of Oz scholar Eric Shanower is faithful to the source texts, but because Scottie Young's art manages the neat trick of being fresh and feeling at home with this book. Since the original novel was first published 107 years ago, that's no mean feat!

The story has new life in these adaptations. The duo has moved on to the third Oz book now, and I hope sales continue to warrant new adaptations through the 15 OZ books by Baum (including the short story collection Little Wizard Stories of Oz, and not including the Big Little Book The Laughing Dragon of Oz, written by Baum's son).

The writing on the Marvel Oz books is faithful not only in plot and tone, but in spirit. There are many thousands of people who love Oz because of the Judy Garland film (as do I, for reasons previously enumerated), but if those people have never read an Oz book, especially one by Baum, they really don't know Oz.
Sidebar: it needs to be said that the 1939 film is not without its problems. Those problems are skillfully enumerated by Peter David in his 1990 essay, which predates Gregory Maguire's Wicked by more than a decade. Interesting, as Maguire is building his narrative on some of the ideas in the David essay. Not to say he lifted the ideas. Far from it. Great minds often think on similar lines.
So what is the tone that eludes so many creators in adapting Oz?
Baum's stories are driven by a very sophisticated blend of wit, melancholy and pacing.
He refused to write down to children.
There have been hundreds, probably thousands, of Oz adaptations over the 11 decades since the first book. Many of these, building on the homilies in the 1939 film (which I do love, so much, despite my protestations here), have a cuteness bordering on simpering.
Again, a long post on Oz in comics is forthcoming sometime next month. Perhaps I'll do that as my birthday present to me.
Meanwhile, the book at hand.

The character designs are a nice cross between the heavy-line work of Denslow on the first book and the delicate pen work of the great Jon R. Neill on subsequent books (it should be noted in passing that Neill was an official author, or "royal historian", for seven Oz books following the Ruth Plumly Thompson series).
The pages flow cleanly and efficiently, as in this spread from issue 3.

But that's what happens when a good artist is also a good writer.
Not to take anything away from Scottie Young, but Shanower's comic work has been top-notch since his debut on some Nexus material in the early 80s. I've followed his career through the Nexus work, several appearances in Gay Comics, the First comics Oz graphic novels, the wonderful Trojan war book Age of Bronze, and now this. He's never disappointed. He even wrote a couple very good Oz novels!
And the Marvel series does not shy away from the transgender aspect of the original novel, which is quite welcome in itself.
These are fresh, smart versions of stories over 100 years old. Marvel is doing the comics world a favor in publishing them. This was just about the only Marvel book I bought this year.
That's partially Marvel's own fault. Their storytelling has been uneven, but the big sticking point is the ads. For example, in Land of Oz No. 4, there are 8 pages of ads, not counting the inside front cover and both sides of the back cover. That's a quarter of this 32 page book, which sold for $3.99. And that's a skimpy ad count compared to some. Daredevil No. 50, a few years ago, was the worst offender in recent memory, with a 50/50 ad/editorial ratio! Every other page an ad? Come on now!
In fairness, Marvel has been producing lovely (if very thin) hardcovers of these Oz series shortly following the completion of the storyline. Listing at $29.99, and probably a lot less online, that's an OK deal. Single issue price is $24 for the run.
But why gouge the reader of traditional format comics (AKA floppies) like that? Of the 8 pages of ads, half are house ads or ads for Marvel-related projects. If they need to offset their single-issue printing revenue that badly, they're in trouble.
That aside, this series (along with its predecessor, the Wizard of Oz, and the current successor, Ozma of Oz) deserves accolades.
If I've piqued your interest in matters Oz, do yourself a favor and get back issues of the paperback magazine put out by Shanower and his partner David Maxine for six years, OzStory!

Next: best of 2010 No. 2, part 1: As days go by...

Best comics of 2010: No. 8 (tie): Royal Historian of Oz

I'm from Judy Garland's home town.
When I was very young, my Mother had a 19430s Ozma of Oz with Jon Neill plates. She also had the Wizard of Oz paperback with the Krenkel illustrations.
I ended up with both books when Mother passed, and added them to my modest Oz library. Most of the Krenkel illustrations can be found at this Golden Age Comics blogpost.  Some great Jon Neill works follow it in the link.
Oz has been a big part of my life.
I'll do a separate post on Oz in comics after I'm done with this Best of 2010 run. Suffice to say that there have been some magnificent comics based on Oz, and some dreadful ones.
So when I saw this book, I was skeptical.
Many creators conflate Baum's melancholy and irony with cynicism. For some reason, there are many-far too many- "new, dark and gritty" versions of Oz. It's so tiresome. Remember the SFTV mini-series Tin Man? I believe they even used the phrase "dark and gritty" in their promos. So sad, so wrong. The worst offender in comics may be Caliber's OZ book from 1994.

 

It's powerful, sleek art. But in terms of Oz, it's just wrong, at least to my lights.
But The Royal Historian of Oz is something rare, a fresh take on a classic. It reinterprets the source material and expands on it without soiling it. As a reviewer on Guttergeek complained, "This is the sort of book that pisses me off because, like any writer, I am sick with jealousy that I did not come up with this great idea."idea.

Note the cover price! Slave Labor is to be commended for jumping on the first issue loss leader bandwagon that has served Vertigo fairly well in the last couple years.
In another growing trend, creator Scott Kovac put up a promo trailer for issue 1. Since this was also Slave Labor's contribution to 2010's Free Comic Book Day, that may have been in part an imperative from the publisher. It is one of the better trailers for I comic I've seen, and it nicely sums up some key plot points.



Here's a spread from issue 1, to give a sense of the impressive, energetic art and design.

Kovac's other comic work hasn't grabbed me. It's not bad work by any stretch, just not to my taste, but this resonates with me. It's partially due to the subject matter, of course. But I also enjoy his handling of fandom- the description of Oz fans as "a bunch of gay old men with dogs named Toto" shows an understanding of the non-fan's perception of fannish activity, as well as implying the risks of obsessive fandom.
There's also an implicit understanding of the maturing of a father-son bond as the son wakes up to what the father has really experienced, and what the father really has to offer him.
And the fantasy aspects of it are pure fun, handled with ample ingenuity.
This is only scheduled to run five issues. I hope Kovac decides he has more stories to tell in this arena, and they they all live up to the realized potential of these early issues.

Tomorrow: Best of 2010 No. 7, and issues of service.