As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on, like, 32 things right now (one of which is that 10 Things children’s book, which is thankfully not 32 Things). I have lots of stuff floating around in my brain that I need to get out. But, when a dear friend contacts me and wants to do a small collaboration, I can’t say no.
Trying to emulate Sin City…
One of my best friends, Bill Gauthier, is an uber talented author (when he’s not engaged in his day job of teaching or tied up being a husband and father) who I’ve known for 15ish years (gasp). He gave an unofficial best man speech at my wedding (I had a very different kind of wedding), and I was the best man (and gave the Best Damn Best Man Speech in the History of Best Manliness) at his wedding. Early on in our friendship we attempted to collaborate on a comic book venture that fizzled out and went no where after a single issue, despite being enormous amounts of fun to work on. So when Bill asked me a few weeks ago if I’d be willing to draw single comic book page to possibly go along with the novel he is currently working on, I couldn’t say no. I promised I wouldn’t reveal any plot details when I posted this image (one of the perks of having a talented writer for a friend is that you get to read early versions of their work and provide feedback. I know exactly what this comic page is and why…but you’ll all have to wait until the book gets published. And I have no doubt that it will, it was fantastic), but one of the characters is a comic book writer/artist, and this is supposed to be an unfinished (hence there’s a blank space in the lower right hand corner) page he drew.
Bill envisioned the page to have a very Frank Miller/Sin City look to it, which was something I had never really attempted before. I don’t know how well I pulled it off (I’m certain no one would mistake my work for his), but it was quite a fun and interesting exercise working in such bold black and white shapes. You really have to think differently to get shapes to “feel” right and to create separation between elements. I might play around with this style in the future, if only as an exercise for my brain.
Bill’s sketch of what he wanted the page to look like.
Anyway, hopefully some day soon you’ll be able to buy this book and maybe see this page in it (if whoever publishes it wants to), but in the meantime, you can check out Bill’s blog at https://billgauthiergauthicnights.wordpress.com/ to read his musings and find some of his other books. Even if he wasn’t my best friend, I’d still recommend his work, he has a knack for breathing life into his characters and sucking you into their lives. His work tends towards horror/dark/supernatural fiction, but in my opinion it transcends genre labeling. Those genres aren’t generally what I seek out to read, but his stories captivate me, as I’m sure they will anyone else who picks them up.
Wouldn’t the last panel appear “penciled”, but not inked? How about the work appearing on traditional comic art board with the usual margin/header/footer standard board identifications? (details…)
I had asked Bill those same questions, but he felt that it felt more interrupted with nothing in that space. I think there are other, story related reasons for that, too, based on how the character was working and how he was interrupted. I also asked about adding a standard comic page template to the whole thing, but should this page see print within the novel at some point, those details might not carry over well and the readers might not necessarily “get it”.