#10 - but i wish i could quit (01-97) 



this was one of a very few comics that i have done that is not a linear story. i suppose in a way it is, if one assumes that these are the transpiring events of a day; and if you have ever worked at a copy shop, you know that it easily could be. but ever since, i've generally avoided doing comics with a semi-sourceless narrative voice, such as this one. somehow, to me, it makes it seem the comic less real--it breaks the psychological picture frame and drags another world into it, shattering the suspension of disbelief. in this case, the crow is speaking, and this really will not do, because the crow is death, and death does not speak. i would have done this comic differently, or not at all, if i had thought through the implications, frankly, i suspect that either this was a kind of throw-away comic, done because i couldn't think of anything else at the time, or because i was so eager to write a comic directly discussing the copy shop experience that i didn't come up with the right way to do it.

the panelling bothers me in several different ways. of course, as i am sure you are noticing, i didn't use panelling in the traditional sense; somehow i had gotten the idea in my head that the only way to create panelling was either by straight, unbending lines or by white guttering, the lines i disliked; but the white guttering would prove increasingly confusing, despite all of my efforts to control it.. it worked the best when the panel was filled with enough drawing and wash that to borders made themselves, as in the first one. a sub-problem in the panellingare these little jaggy lines around the numbered items . . . they aren't well done, and don't add a whole lot. in retrospect, i would have drawn the entire thing as an ongoing, almost simultaneous series of events that christopher had to contend with--and this would have been closer to real life, because tell me you, there never was just one of these things happening. but no, i had to be fancy.

in independent comics there's such a thing as being so independent that you are unreadable. don't forget that. fancy may pay chris ware, but it probably won't pay you.

the control of the wash is getting better, but you can see it is easy to overdo it. note the skins of my african american characters, and other such details. i was a little nervous about this one because of that, but out it went anyway,and people read it--or ignored it--just the same. as far as general drawing skills go--the businessman in item #9 obviously has just had his left arm wrenched out of his socket. no wonder he's in such a bad mood. and the bitchy johnson county woman in item #3 looks like schwarzenegger arriving on mars in total recall.

yes, yes, yes, the shop was like this. quite a little circus. but plenty of indy comix people start there, or so i hear.





 

Posted: Tue - April 6, 2004 at 08:26 AM             |

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