Will Eisner’s Chapter Nine

The writing process for a graphic novel. What is it? What does each writer work through to find the story that he/she wants to tell in this medium. Then, what decisions does the writer have to make about imagery to support the story and the dialogue.

In chapter nine of Will Eisner’s, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, he explains that the writer is writing for the artist. This is an easy thing to bridge if the writer and the artist are the same person. But when they are two different people, similar to film, the visual of what was originally intended could be lost to the artist if the writer does not communicate effectively to the artist’s needs. As with film, there are limitations that a writer needs to remember. In film the limitations may be due to budget, equipment or actors, but with comics it is the fact that the writer has remember that the visual is a still image limited to the artist’s abilities, space and text. Continue reading “Will Eisner’s Chapter Nine” »

Buffy is back and getting what she wants?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer the hit TV series becomes a Dark Horse Comic series still scripted by Joss Whedon.  The amazingly playful nature of the main characters thankfully is not lost in a very new world that they created.  The comics begin after season seven of the TV series and things are a bit different.  The world of slayers has expanded from 2 to 2000.  About 500 are working in Buffy’s organization in various small groupings or cells as the American government has labeled (really targeted ) them.  All willing to fight demons, vampires, whatever evil threatens their world even another army.  A group of slayers and Buffy are hold up in a Scottish castle and Dawn, formerly the Key, is now a giant.  Where is Willow?

The comic runs with a certain amount of familiarity from the TV program but that allows for continuity for fans and a solid base for newcomers.  The characters are drawn to resemble the actors that portray the TV roles but there are slight physical differences so it’s not just Buffy from TV in a comic.  These folks have their own look and are a bit more grown up than their TV counterparts.  Xander for example, one-eyed and leading the group of slayers in Scotland. Yes I said leading.  Deploying squadrons, barking orders and still managing to use his really bad sense of humor to his benefit in leading this band of women who could all kick his butt.  I am so glad he has found his niche as Sergeant Fury and I can stop worrying about his future.  Nice young man with good construction skills which will hopefully satisfy him once Buffy’s destiny is fulfilled is a horrible epitaph. Continue reading “Buffy is back and getting what she wants?” »

Willow deserved better

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a hit television series that became an action packed Dark Horse Comic series.  As a die hard Buffy fan I was captivated by the Buffy series and ecstatic with a comic dedicated to Buffy’s number one friend, Willow.  Willow the tremendously powerful witch who once tried to destroy the world and is a lesbian who was an integral member of Buffy’s Scooby Gang but had a tremendous individual appeal.  Brilliantly smart and powerful but still Willow, somewhat guillable, kind hearted and possibly evil.

The comic that bears her name introduces us to the idea that a journey must be taken to determine or get to the heart of where her powers come from.  A journey for which she must have a guide and the choice of the guide is her’s.  She is led into another dimension where she meets a group of female beings, guardians you could say, who are there to aid in the journey/quest.  She is led by a snake like creature who appears to have a good intention but she is eventually revealed to be untrustworthy.  Maybe she was part of the journey in the form of a test of some kind but her introduction seems also necessary to introduce a bunch of throw away characters.  The episode ends with Willow denying her one true love, Tara, as a guide and selecting the snake lady as her guide on this journey of wisdom. Continue reading “Willow deserved better” »

Angst, Dream or Wasteland

I happened upon Teenage Wasteland vol 2. of the Marvel comic Runaways by accident. I was trying to decide about whether or not to make a phone call and the book was by the phone. Rather than make a decision I diverted my attention by picking up this book. Was I instantly intrigued by the striking young woman on the cover or so indecisive that a diversion was well received. Whatever the cause I started reading this teen story. Not having read Vol. 1 I had to pick up the slack quickly but was easily able to grasp each main characters backstory. Before I knew it 40 minutes had passed and I had read most of the volume….why?

The story is of six teens bound together in their mutual plight as the children of super villains who have formed a multi-faceted organization of evil know as The Pride. The kids thought their parents were boring, squares, like most teenagers do until they discover a deep, dark secret. Their parents true identities are revealed during an occult like ceremony called The Rite of Blood where a young girl is killed as a sacrifice. The parents then frame their kids for the murder when the kids run away from home. True family values. The kids form a vigilante family so to speak determined to take down their parents and general evil in the city of Los Angeles. Continue reading “Angst, Dream or Wasteland” »

Possible episodes for K2 graphic novel

Here is the possible ten episode plot layout for K2 Investigations. From this plot layout came the ideas for the mock-up of the first page that has been created.

Episode One – Introduction of the K2 Investigations and characters. The first case will jump into K2 Investigations most current case and will introduce the characters Kassandra Kinkade and Xochitl Eva Mateo. The case will reveal pieces of the main characters back story, but will mainly be about their organization, what they do and how they work to solve crimes related to LGBT issues and clientele.

Episode Two – This episode will dig deeper into the character and back story of Xochitl Eva Mateo. It will reveal the reasons of how she first meets Kassandra Kinkade and her starting K2 Investigations. It is these reasons, the search for her parents killers, that fuels her work with the agency. It is also because of her parents that Xochitl feels the need to help others through the private investigations company, she wants to live up to her memories of them.

Episode Three – This episode will cover the back story of Kassandra Kinkade through a case that hits closer to home more then she would like, when Theus Alastor, is held by homeland security for being a terrorist. Her mentor may not only have been made by their previous boss, but she now has to deal with the U.S. government and corruption. If she does not get Theus released and back underground it would mean that both of them would be killed by Acario Panagakos.

Episode Four – In this episode, K2 Investigations current case deals with a government agency and their discrimination against a masculine lesbian employee. K2 is hired by the employee’s lawyer to help get evidence of the discrimination against the employee while on the job. This case will start to reveal information that about Xochitl’s Father and his work. This will episode will start to change Xochitl’s feelings about her parents and the work they did.

Episode Five – Kassandra Kinkade disappears in this episode and for the first time Xochitl works with Theus Alastor to help find her. Xochitl, who thought she knew her friend well, learns more of K2′s history then she’d even known before. By the end of the episode, when Theus and Xochitl uncover her whereabouts, Xochitl is not longer sure if she can trust K2.

Episode Six – It’s PRIDE and K2 Investigations is celebrating by having to solve a disappearance case after a festive Pride party on the upper east side at Xochitl’s penthouse turns sour. In this episode, it will be the first time that Xochitl becomes aware that her feelings for K2 have changed. K2, however has become even more distant and detached than is normal even for a character with Aspergers.

Episode Seven – In this episode, Detective Foster has had enough of K2′s meddling in his cases. He starts to dig up information about the agency and its owners, one of which he has meet, Xochitl and the other he has never meet before Kassandra. This episode will be light and fun, it will give readers a chance to see Xochitl and Kassandra working together after the rocky relationship from previous episodes because of their common enemy, Detective Foster.

Episode Eight – Ties between Acario Panagakos and the pharmaceutical company that Xochitl’s Father worked for become apparent. The irony of the Xochitl and Kassandra seems less ironic as Xochitl starts to suspect that Theus and possibly Kassandra have something to do with her parents death. She turns for Detective Foster for help.

Episode Nine – The conspiracy thickens when K2 Investigations is seized by Homeland security and all employees are taken into custody except for K2 who was able to secure herself in their panic room. She goes undiscovered as the rest of the agency is taken over. She has to spend days secured in the panic room, till finally she caves in and destroys Alchemis, the AI she’s built, to escape.

Episode Ten – It all comes together and ends. Xochitl learns of her Father’s research and why he and her Mother were killed for his discovery. She learns that it was not K2 and Theus who murdered her parents. It was the pharmaceutical company, but K2 and Theus were sent by Acario Panagakos to protect his investment in the pharmaceutical company. Xochitl learns in the end, that Theus and K2 set out to protect her and escape from Acario Panagakos.

This is only one possible direction for the story and as I get further along in the writing, it may change as I get to know and understand my characters better.

Changes to first page mock-up

After reviewing and receiving feed back on the panels for the first page, here are some of the changes that I will be making:

1.  Delete the next to last box.
2.  Add a new box at the end: This box will have more of the conversation between Detective Foster and Xochitl and explain his comment, ‘You again.’
3. Adjust the text in the bubbles. Maybe consider using a different style for the text and text boxes.

The mock-up was created not as a final, but really for me to start to visually see what the story could look like. What has really become apparent for me is the control that I can have over the image. The camera angels, the color, the lighting, the lines, the mood and atmosphere.

I want to try several different techniques and styles. I want to add color or toy with shading to change moods. I really like the shading techniques used in “7 Extraordinary Things.” Maybe trying small things like color as an accent to highlight certain aspects that need to be differentiated. An example would be Kassandra’s AI that she built and developed called Alchemis. In some ways, he is a character even though he is just a machine and using a color such as green could highlight when he is part of the moment and interacting with the characters. Also, Kassandra  is legally blind but the glasses that she wears help her to see by decreasing the light. They are a reverse of night vision glasses, thus maybe highlighting how Kassandra sees differently can add a bit to her characteristics. I do want to stick with the ‘Film Noir’ look and feel, but I want to be incorporate the lighting techniques used and the high and low angles of the framing.

Being able to play with style, techniques, framing and more is what has me excited about working in a graphic novel format and is something that I do not get a chance to do with scriptwriting. In scriptwriting, through words, I have to try and get the images and scenes across in a manner that will hopefully direct the scene, but ultimately that complete control of what the visual aspect will be ends up with the director and the video editor even though the story stays intact. With the medium of a graphic novel, the writer has this control. The writer tells exactly what he/she wants to be in that frame or moment. This is what is very appealing to me as a writer and amateur artist.

From Kate Kane to Batwoman

In 2009, Batwoman or Kate Kane was introduced as the lead in Detective Comics issue #854 written by Greg Rucka. The first few issues followed Batwoman hunting down a crime gang. This plot was a somewhat typical and expected storyline of the comic book issues. So much so that Batwoman could have easily been substituted with Batman. But this changes, when a twist at the end of issue #857 reveals the head of the crime gang to be Kate Kane’s sister.

The next three issues reveal Batwoman’s back story. The issues tell of her Mother’s death,  her coming out to her Father, her meeting Renee Montoya and her transition from West Point drop out to vigilante, Batwoman. These issues transitioned the storyline for me from being plot driven to character driven. As a writer, I decided to review these issues further to understand why I enjoyed reading these issues more then the first three introductory issues of Batwoman into the Detective Comics.

Right from the start of issue #858 the reader is taken to a different place and time just by the style and panel layout of the first nine pages. The style is reminiscent of the old 1950′s Batman comics from the choice of words and picture use  to the coloring and illustrations. The storyline and plot also take a turn focusing on Kate Kane’s relationship with her sister when they were young and at a time when her Mother was still alive. While the issues prior to #858 show Kate Kane’s relationship with her Father and other women, the episodes mainly focused on the telling of the plot and how Batwoman would discover who was the crime gang’s leader. In these prior issues there is also a level of detachment between Kate Kane and others which help to set up issue #858 and the sequential issues that tell Kate Kane’s back story.

The pages ten through fourteen orient the reader in the future. They explain how the pages before and after relate to Batwoman. Immediately, these pages pull the reader into a different time and place similar to the first pages by their style and layouts. The illustration is modern, detailed and dark while breaking out of standard square panel layouts by using a set up that breaks the fourth wall where the artist extends the illustrations to the edges and across pages while incorporating the ‘panels’ or points of focus within as part of the entire page illustration. While this layout can be seamless and artistic it is often difficult to follow. As a reader, I found that I had to look over/read the pages more then once to truly understand their meaning. I felt the reason for having to reread these pages was because of this chosen layout and the interdependent nature of the words and picture in the design.

The following pages, after this section, return to the same style and layout as the first pages. This more standard type of layout, flows easier and tells Kate Kane’s history effectively. Some could say this simple layout is boring, but it helped with the telling of emotions in the events as well as the telling of the ‘human’, relatable and vulnerable side of Batwoman.

Issue #858, #859 and #860 all use the same method for the storytelling of Batwoman’s history with each issue building up to the next to reveal Kate Kane’s transformation into Batwoman. These methods, overall, worked well for me as the reader to find the vulnerability in the main character that made her less of a detached superhero and more of a woman looking to heal her wounds while finding her place in the world.

Stories for humans when writing a comic

Storytelling is about sharing the human experience whether it is through photography, acting, writing, painting, poetry or a combination of them such as graphic novels. Through stories we share our commonality, our inhibitions, our emotions or our fears.  It is these moments in stories that we get pulled into the telling and find the relatable elements.  The situations and actions that have audiences wanting to follow along and come back to learn more about the characters. Thus, it is through good storytelling that memorable graphic novels are made.

In Scott McCloud’s, Making Comics, he explains that there are,

“…three qualities that no great comics character can do without. An inner life: a unique history, world view and desires. Visual distinction: a distinct and memorable body, face and wardrobe. Expressive traits: traits of speech and behavior associated with that character. (p. 63)”

It is through these characteristics that strong characters are built and foundations are made that will help the creators to “…predict what they’ll do in any given situation (p. 64).” Fundamentally understanding a characters’ inner workings  will help to better foretell how they will behave in any give situation and predict the characters’ emotional responses. These emotional responses are what creates relatable characters that help to express the stories that humans share with each other and that the creators often want to tell.

In creating K2 Investigations, as the creator, my challenge will be to find my characters’ inner lives. What drives them, motivates them and propels them to act and behave in the situations that I will layout and plan for them.  By having this understanding of my characters it will help to create a story that is character driven first and plot driven second as well as help to make the storytelling flow easily and coherently.

Knowing the characters’ inner workings will help me to develop their appearance, their ticks, their habits, their clothing and most importantly their reactions with each other and in their situations. Through Scott McCloud’s book, Making Comics, I am learning the tools that will help to develop these details by establishing back stories, mapping out character designs and importantly knowing their behaviors.