Three Men in a Small Room: Spilled Coffee, Misappropriated Shakespeare, Lights Out

2011-08-08T00:35:00.015-04:00

Here we go with the first update to the web site in quite a while, this time in the Comics section. When I first set up the web site, I only had a couple script samples available. Now you can find a full-blown comic called "Assume the Position," written and drawn by yours truly. I drew a lot as a kid, but I never had any real training, and I wouldn't call myself an artist, hence the scripts with out actual comics, so why draw one now? The simple answers -- I was challenged (more on that later) and just to try it.

Origins

A few years ago, I wrote the script for "Assume the Position" with a different plan in mind. In part, it's a sequel (or another chapter) of a story you can find in the script "Call Me Chuckles." After some frustration trying to find artists (and frankly some laziness), I decided I'd write something that would use photographs instead. I knew I'd have to recruit my friends and that they might not want to appear on camera, so I also wrote with the idea of intentionally obscuring faces. Because the story shows an interrogation, this claustrophobic idea works in terms of story, as well. So I wrote it, starting with the dialogue and then going back to describe the images. I even made up some thumbnails so I could figure out how to stage the photographs and how lettering might fit (some of the pages are very wordy). I showed the script and thumbnails to friend Joey Cruz and got some good feedback, and then for various reasons (some I can't remember), I shelved it.

The Challenge

Jump ahead to February or March of this year. I pulled the idea out of the proverbial drawer and started taking some of the photographs, the ones that only required one character or just props, and monkeying with them in Photoshop.

I kind of liked what I had and took examples with the thumbnails to a meeting of the DC Conspiracy (a local group of comics creators). Cartoonist Andrew Cohen looked at the examples and the thumbnails and gently challenged/encouraged me to try to draw the comic in a simple style, and over a number of months that's what I did, buying the proper tools, teaching myself to letter on the computer (to a point), drawing and inking the pages, refining them, and finally putting it all together.

Post-mortem

I have no illusions about the quality of the art here. I'm more or less happy with how it turned out, that I actually completed the project, but it's not a stunning masterpiece, and I haven't found my new calling. That said, I think the visual storytelling works effectively. As for the writing, well, in some ways the final product works more as an extended scene than as a story, but I liked playing with the dialogue rhythms and pitting silence against verbosity and the way that works in a comic not just as words but as a visual. Finally, as a writer, sitting down to translate my own words into drawings had a positive effect. It put me in the the artist's space and will hopefully will lead to clarity on my part in the future.

See for yourself (unless you have an aversion to misappropriated Shakespeare and/or profanity).

Welcome To the New Blog

2011-05-30T12:51:00.003-04:00

Hey, it's a new blog mostly for updates to michaelcowgill.com or what's going on with creative endeavors. Nothing to report just now beyond that, though some comics things will be dribbling out at some point.

The Abstract Garage Blog

Three Men in a Small Room: Spilled Coffee, Misappropriated Shakespeare, Lights Out

Welcome To the New Blog