One of my favorite things is to read about the production experiences of making comics from other friends and colleagues in the comics game. Admittedly I am huge special features junky. I watch the making of features on the Lord of the Rings trilogy far more than I do the movies. It gives me that inside look at what people who create these stories do and how to approach them myself. For comics these special features usually come in the form of blogs and podcasts. Much of the time as well, comics creators don’t talk a lot about the work they are doing. There are a few notable exceptions, but my favorite is the old blog Kazu Kibuishi kept while making the first volume of Amulet. I think he did a great job of just really distilling the frustration, fun and exhaustion creating a graphic novel can be. I actually think it may have been the best mental preparation for making this book I have had.
I’m in the middle of doing my final edits on Adamsville Book 1 and quite frankly, I am ready to be past this book. Especially since book 2 is really starting to form in my mind and I am anxious to turn to writing it. But Kazu did a great post about revising and what happens in comics… He called it “THE SLOWEST TYPEWRITER” I thought I would share a bit from it:
As a reader of graphic novels, it always bugs me that most long form comics read like they are the first draft of the material, when in fact they often are. And for good reason. As a creator of graphic novels, I am exhausted by my selfish reader tendencies by having to redraw page after page to smooth out the reading experience. I can see why, over the years, creators often compromised their stories under the pressures of deadlines and satiating the public’s thirst for the material. For the large amounts of time and energy a creator must spend to create the work, the reader only gets a small handful of information to chew on. Sometimes, working out the details are not an option.
This is the pickle that the readers and creators of comics seem to always find themselves in. Readers are very forgiving of the story elements in a comic book. This is unlike other media, like films or novels, where audiences often criticize stories with sharpened talons, and only the very best and most appealing works make their way through the gauntlet. Is it because comics readers understand how difficult the process is and are simply happy to have reading material? Or is it simply that we have low expectations of the medium, as opposed to extremely high ones for films and novels?
Illustration by Stephen McCranie
I remember reading this post years ago and it often comes up in my mind. See when I was making my webcomics, I really depised the immediate nature of it. It had it’s benefits, like immediate feedback and a means to share and grow an audience. But I always disliked that I felt I truly was giving my audience the first draft of my material. However niave it may be I have always seen and wanted to approach my books like a film or a novel. I’ve wanted to give people the most authentic and complete experience I could at the time in my creative life. So when I finished the first pass at Adamsville, and finally let some small section of the world read what I had made, getting the feedback that it needed work went to my heart. Not because I was hurt in my pride or anything, but because I knew I was at a moment when I could just pick my ball up and go home… Or I could do the professional thing and make a better book. No matter how much that meant revisiting material I was emotionally ready to move on from.
I may not be there yet, but I want to be a great graphic novelist. Like in my bones want it. And I don’t mean in the flocks of fans, people standing in line forever sort of way (though that’s not terrible either). I mean in the way that I repsect the craft and want give it the attention it deserves. I want it to be as profound an experience to people as movies and novels can be. Settling for shotty, misfired execution of my story is simply not gonna cut it.
It may make the process take much longer than I would like, but I hope the love comes through when people read it, close it and think… “man that was good stuff. When does the next one come out?!?”
I am wrapping my edits all up this week and I think I can honestly say I’ve made the best book I could right now. I hope that others will enjoy it. I do often get a pit in my stomach wondering about it. It’s going to be a fun new year as it finally leaves my small office space and enters the bigger world to see where it goes.
Then the typewriter will start all over again….
Here’s a page I shared on my Twitter account if you haven’t seen it. I showed it off already in black and white form, but here it is in color.
