Insights about comics, prog rock, classic cartoons and films, higher education, sexuality and gender, writing, teaching, whatever else comes to mind, and comics. I know I said comics twice. I like comics!
Next Cowgirls page is nearly done. Since I just put in over 100 hours in two weeks, I hope you'll understand a slight delay! The page is more detailed than some of late, and I want to take the time to do this one to my full satisfaction.
Meanwhile, as I was putting some originals in order, I found another page from the aborted Pirate Alphabet project I started in 1999. This one was on the subject of women as pirates!
This was done on 300# deckle edge watercolor paper. The media were watercolors (a bit), colored inks and dyes (mostly) and crowquill and ink (a touch for outlining). I had a great time researching these ladies! Stylistically, the main figures work very well and Penny and her friend (lower right corner) are rendered in a style consistent with their appearance in the rest of the book, but there's a bit of a detach between the two styles.
Of all the projects I've left unfinished, I think this is one I'd like to complete most. It should go back on the list....
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.
Still writing like a fiend and a mile behind on grading. I have a total of 26 entries left to complete for the long-overdue Comics Through Time project, and am trying to give it priority without harming my teaching career in the process.
Always a juggling act, this academia.
Also inching along on the next page. One of these days I'll get frustrated enough to take a couple hours and put the finishing touches on it.
Meanwhile, here are a few older pieces for your enjoyment.
First up, a traditional airbrush piece from 1991. I always liked this one, but most folks who have seen it are lukewarm to it, for unspecified reasons.
I like the fact that it's hand work! I really miss my old Badger airbrush- no idea what happened to it. I suspect I lost it in the Great Relationship Disaster of '93.
So it goes.
The grasses could be a little subtler, and the fade to the sunset a bit more gradual, but otherwise this piece really grabs me.
I always thought this would be a nice T-shirt. Please don't steal it!
A few years later, circa 1997, I completed a handful of illustrations for a proposed children's book. I had written it as well. Sadly, most of the text is gone now (though I could rewrite it fairly easily, I suppose) and these illustrations are pretty much all that's left.
The book was an alphabet book on pirates.
There were a couple other pages that I liked, but they were too derivative of other works- in one case, Charles Vess' work on the Marvel graphic novel The Raven Banner, in another, Joe Orlando's pirate pages in Watchmen- so if I ever move farther on this project (big if!), I'll rework those.
Here are the pages and their alphabetical topics:
Women Were Pirates too!
Privateers
Hispaniola, the Pirate Haven
Mostly painted with colored inks on heavy watercolor paper.
Again, there are things that work here and things that don't. I'm most pleased with the image of women pirates, because my research was so spot-on, and because I like the mood of it.
The girls looking on in the bottom corner are the ostensible stars of the book. The blond is exploring the world of pirates and immersing herself in it. She shows up on scattered pages. I thought every page would be a bit much.
Next week- more something. I hope for a new page, but- more something!
The next page of A Private Myth is still giving me fits, but I think I know what's wrong now.
Meanwhile, rather than keep readers waiting indefinitely, here are some images from yet another uncompleted project.
I was working on an alphabet book based on pirates, more than a decade before the Pirates of the Caribbean films (which I rather enjoy). The book used the framework of a couple young girls gleefully talking about pirates.
Here are a couple of the pieces, done in watercolor technique using colored inks and dyes.
This piece was about Privateers, the licensed pirates of the British and Spanish crowns.
The colors are a bit off, and my control of background around people and objects was a bit lacking- still hadn't mastered masking!
And the foreground figure is a bit stiff, and the color of his coat is too close to the background sky.
So it goes.
This piece, which I much prefer, is an illustration for a page devoted to women pirates, who span all nationalities. I particularly like the one in white with the blue kerchief.
I love the subdued tones, and the interplay of inks and paper texture pleases me.
I went out of my way to get the weaponry and boats right, but I suspect I made some errors despite my best efforts.
This is another one of those "I'll go back and finish it some day" projects. Such a big pile of those!
Then again, it may have been rendered unnecessary. The market may be glutted with pirate stuff now. More's the pity, as the relative percentage of good pirate stuff to total pirate stuff is rather low. Still, I did like the last Pirates of the Caribbean film, the one loosely based on Tim Powers' novel On Stranger Tides, even if it didn't clean up the loose plot threads from the previous film in the series.
Next week: something....
The new page is completed.
However, when I left for work to do my scans, I took everything BUT the new page with me.
What a comedy of errors!
I will scan and post the new page tomorrow. I'm still one or two posts behind on my arbitrary self-imposed schedule anyway.
To make amends, here are a couple paintings, intended for a children's alphabet book on pirates.
These are colored ink and watercolor on Canson Arches paper. I love the deckle edge for this subject matter!
The girls in the lower corner of the first image feel out of place. If I were to redo them, I'd work the girls into the layout differently. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with these.
Re-reading Neil Gaiman's Dangerous Alphabetlast week, I was struck by how much fun alphabet books can be. Perhaps I'll try another one if I run out of projects!
Tomorrow: the next page of the Surrealist Cowgirls.
This coming Sunday is National Talk Like A Pirate Day!
It draws many things to me beleaguered and rum-addled mind.
We'll let my old captain, Micheal Nesmith, interrupt now and again.
Arr. Now, then.
Since Pirates of the Carribean, there's been a revived interest in our bilge-soaked seafarers. Mr. Depp's over-the-top portrayal was a delight in that it made several things about pirates clear.
They're unclean.
They're dishonest with others, and not always so honest with themselves.
They're violent and greedy.
Despite that, they're really fun!
Yes. Quite right, then.
Pirates have been fixtures in comics forever. The origins of The Phantom and Tarzan are both steeped in pirate lore. Tarzan's parents were cast away from their burned ship by pirates, while pirates killed Kit Walker's parents in the 1600s, resulting in the Phantom legacy.
It's also worth mentioning that
Ahem. As we were saying.
It's also worth mentioning that many more contemporary superheroes have walked the planks under the skull and crossbones!
Benjamin J. Grimm, the Thing of Fantastic Four fame, was, in reality, Blackbeard.
One of the smartest superhero stories, James Robinson's Starman, uses pirates as a recurring theme, first as an adventure with Starman's late brother, then as a rescued damned pirate who saves Starman's bacon.
Detective Comics Annual No. 7 featured an Elseworlds story of a pirate Batman. The story, titled Leatherwing, is part of a series of unrelated stories, set outside standard DC continuity. While they often end with the central characters assuming the same roles they do in the "canon" continuities, these outings do give the creators a chance to stretch a bit.
There are also comics that are specifically about pirates, ranging from
(stop that!) er, ranging from this early Classics Illustrated, that adapts the Yul Brynner/Charlton Heston odd little quasi-historical epic The Buccaneer (one of my favorite childhood movies)
to Will Eisner's pre-Spirit strip Hawks of the Sea, represented here in its Canadian version,
to the more recent El Cadazor, from the late publisher CrossGen, whose smart, beautiful comics were hindered by an overly ambitious business plan and the vagaries of the economy.
This book, by the usually snarky/macho and slightly misogynist (but not nearly as bad as Beau Smith in that respect) Chuck Dixon, picks up on the Disney Pirates notion of a woman as captain. Not unheard of in the world of real pirates, but rather uncommon.
Another fixture of the pirate narrative: the abandonment of identity. In all these stories, there's an aspect of the character being reborn as another, a burial at sea of the land persona, if you will. This is often accompanied by a moral shift.
Following the astounding popularity of Disney's Pirates of the Carribean films, the theme began to recur in comics, including this delightful romp from Ted Naifeh, illustrator of the transgender tone poem How Loathsome, written by Tristan Crane.
Along the same lines, there's the bright (if derivative of Elfquest) comic based on the short-lived series Pirates of Dark Water. In addition to a page of the narrative, here's the cover of the last issue, with art by the delightful and elegant Charles Vess!
And thanks to the sadly demised Disney Adventures Digest, we have comics featuring Jack Sparrow and Company, illustrated by Brett Blevins, who also did the new Scarecrow of Romney Marsh comics for the same publication!
The first story was Revenge of the Pirates, from the August 2003 issue.
The final tale was The Accidental Pirate, from the Disney Super Special, Sept. 2009.
Approximately midway through the run, this tale appeared, introducing the usually land-bound pirate The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, who was featured in a dozen or so stories of his own throughout the run of the magazine.
And the classics.
This post-trend EC title featured some remarkable art and some innocuous stories- of necessity, as demanded by the then-powerful Comics Code.
And let us not forget the use of pirates as metaphor in the meta-comic Tales of the Black Freighter, contained in The Watchmen.
I'll be having some grisly metaphor, if you will, Captain! The true nature of pirates is much closer to the surface here, and is taken to extremes by the labyrinthine S. Clay Wilson in his classic, Captain Pissgums and His Pervert Pirates!
Despite Disney's attempts to turn them into charming rogues, pirates remain lethal, often amoral figures bound by their own code. Their stories are a sort of seafaring noir, wrapped in desperation and urgency as they sail to treasure they can never spend.
This Gentle Giant song sums up the inevitable end of most pirates.
The world of pirates is colorful, adventurous and seductive. It's also nihilist, defeating and doomed. The core conflict is Man Against Sea, and Sea always wins.
