Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Family Narrative
Click here to read my Family Narrative comic
(dialogue box: select "open with celtx")
Cue obligatory wall of text!
So, this one gave me a ton of trouble.
The emphasis of the assignment was supposed to be on risk-taking, and using comics as a confessional medium. Well, I've thought long and hard about my family history (longer and harder than I'd ever want to again) but I really just couldn't come up with any substantial situation that would make for a decent comic.
Don't get me wrong, I've had a life of emotional turmoil. For example, my parents had an extremely messy divorce; it was awful and caused me years of grief. The problem is, I have successfully repressed anything specific about this event. I don't remember and arguments, any words that were spoken; only fleeting images and emotions. So anything "confessional" I would have to say about them would actually be "lying," which is functionally pretty much the opposite of confession.
That's the way my mind works. I remember things in terms of atmosphere and expression, not dialogue. And I get rid of those memories which are only harmful to my future, pushing me further down the path of madness instead of progress. As a rule, I'd rather draw pictures than reminisce.
Besides that, all the most interesting things (and the most repeated tales) that happen in my family tend to happen in ten words or less, so that didn't help. Or else they're happy, plotless, childish and innocent, with bright skies and smiling faces. But from what I understand, we've been encouraged to not write about these.
So the family story I have to tell for you comes thus not from my memory, but from that of my mom and dad. Last year, when I had to write a family narrative paper for my English class, this was the one story that kept surfacing, --and now I repeat it here for you, in comic form. It takes place a little more than 20 years ago, in a country called Gabon, in Africa. My parents were both in the Peace Corps, working as math teachers in a native village, where the common language was French. They are in a new, wild place-- and one night, they hear a spine-chilling sound coming from their roof...
...as for the actual writing of this one, my main problems were: 1) I don't speak French, 2) Making a chase scene seem drawn out and interesting, and 3) conclusion, because I couldn't think of any way to wrap it up. Bleh.
...enjoy.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Slice of Life Comic
Click here to read my Slice of Life Comic
(dialogue box: select "open with celtx")
I can't decide whether this was my favorite or my least favorite comic to write.
On the one hand, it is completely mundane in every way, and involves no plot. On the other hand, it was fun to take a very brief, very mundane event, and stretch it into something (that I find?) mildly interesting. Of course, it might not be that interesting at all. But to me, who can see the color schemes, moods, characters, expressions, and layouts in my head, it's quite fun to look at.
backstory: absolutely nothing happened to me over the week, and I have very limited transportation. So I wrote about a trip to Hammond Commons for dinner during which my nose was itching uncontrollably. It's as accurate as I can remember it (subtracting specific words and things shouted out, and contracting a long conversation/event into something much shorter. But this is the gist of what happened)
So yeah, enjoy.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Dream Comic
For this comic, I decided to try something different. My dreams contain very little dialogue or plot, so I thought that instead of typing a full script, I would draw a rough version, and add minor text to clarify. Hopefully this will give a feel of the action. The beauty of dreams is that they're non-detailed-- they're, well, dreamlike. I don't feel like a lot of detail is necessary; this is the type of thing where I'd encourage the artist to use their imaginations.
I was pretty amused and surprised by this dream I had; I had to adapt it quite a bit (in the original, there were several characters that would have needed some explaining.. I tried to thin these out). The downside to the dream is that it had a few celebrity guests...
EDIT: I have decided to make a few changes to the script, to decrease its retarded-ness. Firstly, the entire first page is gone, and a lot of the second page. Instead of The Chairman and Me standing out in the rain, it is only Me, who watches with curiosity as the pouring rain suddenly changes to a blizzard. This way we get rid of Batman and Robin and the Chairman all at once... Secondly, when the Hulk lifts the car, we now change it to a normal guy, maybe the same one who was sitting next to Me in the Cafeteria previously, simply whacking the car with a baseball bat or otherwise violating it. He continues to attack the golems with the bat, just as the Hulk did.
Hopefully this makes it slightly less silly.
but enough yammerin', the script!
Click here. Select "Open in Celtx" from the dialogue box.
Or click here to read the slightly less silly version.
I was pretty amused and surprised by this dream I had; I had to adapt it quite a bit (in the original, there were several characters that would have needed some explaining.. I tried to thin these out). The downside to the dream is that it had a few celebrity guests...
EDIT: I have decided to make a few changes to the script, to decrease its retarded-ness. Firstly, the entire first page is gone, and a lot of the second page. Instead of The Chairman and Me standing out in the rain, it is only Me, who watches with curiosity as the pouring rain suddenly changes to a blizzard. This way we get rid of Batman and Robin and the Chairman all at once... Secondly, when the Hulk lifts the car, we now change it to a normal guy, maybe the same one who was sitting next to Me in the Cafeteria previously, simply whacking the car with a baseball bat or otherwise violating it. He continues to attack the golems with the bat, just as the Hulk did.
Hopefully this makes it slightly less silly.
but enough yammerin', the script!
Click here. Select "Open in Celtx" from the dialogue box.
Or click here to read the slightly less silly version.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Fairy Tale Comic-- Androcles and the Lion
Since my last comic was so over the top and packed full of crud, I decided that I ought to try something a little less ambitious for my Fairy Tale. So I chose a fable, which is usually attributed to Aesop, although it is just as often said that this is incorrect.
The basic story is that a slave runs away from his master, and while in the woods, encounters an injured lion. He helps the lion, and the lion, in return, does not kill him and gives him food. Eventually the slave is recaptured (and the lion with him), and he is sentenced to be torn apart by wild beasts as punishment for his insolence. So the lion is starved for several days, and released into the arena with Androcles. However, when the lion sees Androcles, it does not attack him. The Emperor is so impressed by this and by Androcles's story that he releases them both.
It's a nice, simple story, not like Rappaccini's Daughter. I tried to keep the dialogue to a minimum (it'd probably be passable omitting it all together) and also reduced my number of panels to 6 per page (Hallelujah!)
anyway, the comic. read it.
click here for the script to "Androcles and the Lion"*
When dialogue box opens, select "Open with Celtx" and click OK.
Gonna be honest, my original idea was this really cool sci-fi thing based vaguely on Sleeping Beauty, but it would have killed me to compress it all into twelve pages. So you get this instead.
The basic story is that a slave runs away from his master, and while in the woods, encounters an injured lion. He helps the lion, and the lion, in return, does not kill him and gives him food. Eventually the slave is recaptured (and the lion with him), and he is sentenced to be torn apart by wild beasts as punishment for his insolence. So the lion is starved for several days, and released into the arena with Androcles. However, when the lion sees Androcles, it does not attack him. The Emperor is so impressed by this and by Androcles's story that he releases them both.
It's a nice, simple story, not like Rappaccini's Daughter. I tried to keep the dialogue to a minimum (it'd probably be passable omitting it all together) and also reduced my number of panels to 6 per page (Hallelujah!)
anyway, the comic. read it.
click here for the script to "Androcles and the Lion"*
When dialogue box opens, select "Open with Celtx" and click OK.
Gonna be honest, my original idea was this really cool sci-fi thing based vaguely on Sleeping Beauty, but it would have killed me to compress it all into twelve pages. So you get this instead.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Short story comic-- Rappaccini's Daughter
Click here to skip the wall of text and read my version of Rappaccini's Daughter (opens in Celtx)
Writing this was fun, but immensely hard to compress into 12 pages. Gkfdghdakfhg.
Preface!
Rappaccini's Daughter takes place some time in old Italy. I myself imagine it later than the author probably did, mostly because I can't picture the characters in silly tights like Italians of olden times apparently wore-- I'd place it more in the early 18th century, I think. If you haven't read it, it's a story of a stubborn, spoiled, and disgustingly pretty young lad who comes to Padua to study at a university, but ends up, despite the warnings of Professor Baglioni, who is an old friend of his father's, distracted by the lovely and deadly girl next door. Beatrice's father is a mad botanist who breeds and experiments with poisonous plants; the girl herself has grown up so closely with these plants, that she herself has become immune to their deadly characteristics, and, indeed, thrives off them; but as a result, she is equally deadly to anything she touches. Even though young Giovanni witnesses the death of several creatures in her presence, he ignores all this, being far too entranced by Beatrice's stunning, unnatural beauty to care.
However, unwittingly to Giovanni, all the time he spends sneaking around after Beatrice, over many weeks, eventually causes him to be integrated with poison the way that she is; where previously he found the flowers sickly sweet, he becomes enraptured by their proximity; and over time, he, though already pretty, develops her same unnaturally radiant glow. He only snaps out of his little fantasy world when he is at last confronted again by Professor Baglioni, who warns him of Beatrice's deadly properties and causes him to pay attention to them. Although Giovanni is still not sure, he accepts a gift from Baglioni-- an extremely powerful antidote that may counteract Beatrice's poison.
Giovanni, however, is stubborn, and insists on testing this. So he buys a bouquet of flowers, with the thought that if Beatrice is truly deadly, they will wither in her hand-- however, he is shocked to find that by the time he had gotten home, they have withered in -his- hand!
The next time he sees Beatrice, his disposition is wholly changed. Despite having been perpetually warned by Baglioni of the danger, he fully places the blame for his new, poisonous powers on Beatrice, even though she never knew anything like this would happen to him. Beatrice is broken-hearted by Giovanni's cruelty and lack of love as he shouts at her disgustedly, Beatrice drinks the antidote without hesitation, eager for a way to prove her sorrow. But then the mad doctor appears, and reveals that this was his plot all along! Now his daughter wouldn't have to be lonely anymore! She had a poisonous companion!
Rappaccini's triumph is interrupted, however, when his daughter suddenly dies, as an affect from the antidote, which was too strong for her body, so dependent on the poison for survival. As she dies, she says to Giovanni, quite correctly: "Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature in mine?", which is a horribly triumphant moment, if I do say so myself, because Giovanni really is a spoiled jerk when you think about it.
Anyway.
That's pretty much where Hawthorne lets the story end. He has Professor Baglioni shout from Giovanni's window at the dumbstruck Rappaccini, something to the effect of "Is this the outcome of your experiment, Rappaccini?" before, as I say, curtain falls.
In my version, I tried very hard to keep to the story, although there are some weaknesses-- the page limit was very hard ( I think with 3 or so more pages, I could have given it better flow)-- and another difficulty was that the original short story relies heavily on introspection, which is very difficult to communicate in comic form.
But without further ado, here's my version of Rappaccini's Daughter (opens in Celtx)
*when window pops up, select "open with Celtx".
Writing this was fun, but immensely hard to compress into 12 pages. Gkfdghdakfhg.
Preface!
Rappaccini's Daughter takes place some time in old Italy. I myself imagine it later than the author probably did, mostly because I can't picture the characters in silly tights like Italians of olden times apparently wore-- I'd place it more in the early 18th century, I think. If you haven't read it, it's a story of a stubborn, spoiled, and disgustingly pretty young lad who comes to Padua to study at a university, but ends up, despite the warnings of Professor Baglioni, who is an old friend of his father's, distracted by the lovely and deadly girl next door. Beatrice's father is a mad botanist who breeds and experiments with poisonous plants; the girl herself has grown up so closely with these plants, that she herself has become immune to their deadly characteristics, and, indeed, thrives off them; but as a result, she is equally deadly to anything she touches. Even though young Giovanni witnesses the death of several creatures in her presence, he ignores all this, being far too entranced by Beatrice's stunning, unnatural beauty to care.
However, unwittingly to Giovanni, all the time he spends sneaking around after Beatrice, over many weeks, eventually causes him to be integrated with poison the way that she is; where previously he found the flowers sickly sweet, he becomes enraptured by their proximity; and over time, he, though already pretty, develops her same unnaturally radiant glow. He only snaps out of his little fantasy world when he is at last confronted again by Professor Baglioni, who warns him of Beatrice's deadly properties and causes him to pay attention to them. Although Giovanni is still not sure, he accepts a gift from Baglioni-- an extremely powerful antidote that may counteract Beatrice's poison.
Giovanni, however, is stubborn, and insists on testing this. So he buys a bouquet of flowers, with the thought that if Beatrice is truly deadly, they will wither in her hand-- however, he is shocked to find that by the time he had gotten home, they have withered in -his- hand!
The next time he sees Beatrice, his disposition is wholly changed. Despite having been perpetually warned by Baglioni of the danger, he fully places the blame for his new, poisonous powers on Beatrice, even though she never knew anything like this would happen to him. Beatrice is broken-hearted by Giovanni's cruelty and lack of love as he shouts at her disgustedly, Beatrice drinks the antidote without hesitation, eager for a way to prove her sorrow. But then the mad doctor appears, and reveals that this was his plot all along! Now his daughter wouldn't have to be lonely anymore! She had a poisonous companion!
Rappaccini's triumph is interrupted, however, when his daughter suddenly dies, as an affect from the antidote, which was too strong for her body, so dependent on the poison for survival. As she dies, she says to Giovanni, quite correctly: "Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature in mine?", which is a horribly triumphant moment, if I do say so myself, because Giovanni really is a spoiled jerk when you think about it.
Anyway.
That's pretty much where Hawthorne lets the story end. He has Professor Baglioni shout from Giovanni's window at the dumbstruck Rappaccini, something to the effect of "Is this the outcome of your experiment, Rappaccini?" before, as I say, curtain falls.
In my version, I tried very hard to keep to the story, although there are some weaknesses-- the page limit was very hard ( I think with 3 or so more pages, I could have given it better flow)-- and another difficulty was that the original short story relies heavily on introspection, which is very difficult to communicate in comic form.
But without further ado, here's my version of Rappaccini's Daughter (opens in Celtx)
*when window pops up, select "open with Celtx".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
