I have a strip called Anecdote that's been appearing in the Brooklyn weekly I work for since late 2008. It's also on Drunkduck.com. (I'd love to have my own site to put it on, but technical ignorance gets in the way.)
I thought I'd try putting up a few of what I've thought were the stronger ones (sometimes verbally, sometimes graphically, and even both on a good day!)
This thing is still in "throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks" mode. Some things are sticking now, but most of the characters, to my annoyance, still don't have names. (Not my fault---most of them haven't told me their names.)
If anybody would like to see more, drop by www.drunkduck.com/anecdote. I've had very little feedback, positive or negative, over the last 66 weeks, so any thoughts 't all are welcome.
Thanks!
i am a fan
ReplyDeleteJLG said, "I've had very little feedback, positive or negative, over the last 66 weeks, so any thoughts 't all are welcome."
ReplyDeleteSometimes not getting a ton of feedback is a compliment. It might just be a sign that it's having a complex effect on your audience and they're not sure how to put their thoughts into words. I'll give it a try though...
These are fantastic!!
That probably doesn't help any, does it? (even though honestly, count me in as another fan.)
If you don't mind me offering critiques, the main thing I see that might need improvement is the lettering. It's good to think of the text as part of the art, asking yourself how it's placed within the panel and composed within the box or balloon. On the second strip, first panel - "you know those guys..." seems kind of scribbled in there. I think it would still have the intended effect if the lettering was the about same size as the previous text, maybe just a point smaller, maybe italicized. On the other hand, I like the way you used the different fonts on the third strip. The others are okay, perhaps just give the text a tiny bit more breathing room within the balloon.
Otherwise, I do believe you're on to something with these strips. I will definitely buy The Complete Anecdote book when it comes out.
Thank you!!!!
ReplyDeleteBut yep. Me and my lettering. We've never had a good relationship. (If you recall, on Snow Stories I made the idiotic mistake of trying to dash out the lettering in INK as fast as I could, thinking that the slow, careful approach was making me tense up. Needless to say, that didn't work out. I was left with the task of going in there and digitally erasing every word. Eesh.)
However, things like "you know those guys..." looking scribbled in there is actually deliberate. I'm shamelessly copying the "added mumblings" that appear in the translated manga of Mohiro Kitoh (a masterful storyteller who remains sadly obscure even among the modest manga audience in the US.) Obviously, the lower-case font and tilted angle of the asides is how the translator or letterer's choice, and not knowing Japanese I can't know if this directly reflects what would have appeared on the original pages, but I imagine it was the best English approximation of whatever was originally conveyed. I copy it because I've always thought it was funny. (It's kind of a comics equivalent of the Fleischer-era Popeye's ad-libbed mumblings. XD)