Two weekends ago I attended Stumptown Comics Fest-- a two days celebration of Portland comic books, graphic novels, and their creators. While I don’t read many comics, I went in hopes to learn how one goes about making comics, (after all, they’re not all that different from picture books). I went to seven or eight workshop-panels and took part in creating an instant graphic novel, (together a room of strangers write and illustrate a comic in two hours! The results are here. I did page one!). I learned about story, timing, character creation, humor, and drawing perspective.
Images from Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics.
Of course these panels weren’t comprehensive, but they were a good introduction to each topic and piqued my curiosity to learn more. The best part was that several of the panelists, professional comic creators themselves, gave recommendations for further reading on the art of visual storytelling. I ended the weekend by buying all the titles from Amazon.com. And they are:
Perspective for Comic Artists by David Chelsea
Extreme Perspective for Artists by David Chelsea (okay, so Chelsea was one of the panelists and he was totally hocking his books, but his demonstrations were amazing! I bit.)
Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner
On Directing Film by David Mamet
Making Comics by Scott McCloud
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (I already own a copy and have read it four times.)
Story by Robert McKeee
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler
A hefty list to be sure and not cheap, (I think I spent around $125)-- but if you think about it that’s a fraction of the price of going to art school-- it seems like a small investment for a writer/artist’s education. I’m half-way through reading the lot, and have found them immensely helpful so far. I’m sure I’ll refer to them again and again though the years, no matter what kind of stories I want to tell or what media I want to use. Totally worth the expense; I recommend them all.
While doing all of this reading I came up with ideas for two graphic novels! The stories will be about the lives of historical figures that I’ve been obsessed with all my life.
The first is Chief Powhatan, whose political accomplishments have always taken a back seat to the romantic legend of his daughter, Pocahontas. The second is Joan of Arc, who’s often depicted as a fearless warrior and martyr, rather than as a teenage girl who got in way over her head, (a much more relatable heroic figure if you ask me). Though I’ve often wondered what these people were like, I had never thought to tell their stories until now.
I’ll need to do a ton of research to tell the stories accurately, but for now it’s best to not get bogged down in details. I want to get the ideas down-- if only as sketches-- while the excitement is fresh.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll keep you posted on how it all goes.
Peace out!
-Jovan
