| note to my students |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|03:07 pm] |
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I know some of you were looking forward to hearing from me this week. I've been sick with a nasty summer cold all week. I will get in touch as soon as my brain isn't all wonky. Sorry for the delay. |
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| ShutterBox |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|01:33 pm] |
 
Our attorney and friend, Ken Levin has confirmed for Tavisha and I that we own all of the rights to our entire ShutterBox series free and clear, including the copyrights, which we had never shared. As you may be aware, Tokyopop, the series' original publisher, went into "restructuring" last year and canceled publication of ShutterBox (along with many many of Tokyopop's other titles) just as we were about to turn in Book Five for early 2009 publication.
 
In answer to the numerous inquiries from some of the ShutterBox series' many fans: YES, we are now actively seeking a way to continue the series, both to publish the new volumes, and to republish the now out of print earlier volumes. We are open to and exploring both traditional publishing or through new methods. Interested publishers can e-mail me at rikki@rikkisimons.com and I'll forward any proposals to Ken, or can contact Ken directly at KenFLevin@gmail.com.
ShutterBox, the first American series published by Tokyopop (2003), is a high fantasy romance about a young lady named Megan Amano, who, when she dreams, is transported to an afterlife world where she attends school as the only living exchange student in a school for muses. Five volumes have been completed, with only four published thus far.
-Rikki |
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| A Few of My Favorite Things |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|02:02 pm] |
[caption id="attachment_239" align="aligncenter" width="465" caption="Bob Dylan in Central Park, 1965 by Richard Avedon"] [/caption]
I finally watched Don't Look Back , the cinema vrit documentary of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England. It's a fairly fascinating glimpse at the in turns surly, sarcastic, and earnest young artist. He meets Donovan, Joan Baez is there and then she is not, two British schoolgirls stand on the street outside his hotel, sighing, "Isn't he lovely?" when they catch a glimpse of him; he challenges a frankly befuddled writer for Time magazine, he gets into a drunken, high argument about someone throwing glass in the street; he gets called an anarchist. He is thin as a rail, a waif of a man, with hollow cheeks, surely the result of amphetamines, and in every hotel room, the framed illustrations of birds are crooked in exactly the same way.
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| Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures - Production art... Part 10 |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|10:56 am] |
I said I would be posting the last installment of this blog series tomorrow. This is true. But that doesn't mean I can't post something today as well. So here I am. Posting.
First up we have some more Supergirl.
  
Yup. That sure is Supergirl. Note: These images have been slapped together kinda randomly. All of the above were drawn before the series began, with the exception of the bit with Comet the Super Horse. I think that one was drawn last fall, well after production on the series was under way.
Now, one thing that's been all over the internet lately is the issue of Supergirl's shorts. Not my Supergirl, mind you. No... I'm talking about the mainstream DC comics Supergirl currently crafted by comics creators Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle.
That Supergirl, long considered overly sexy, has recently taken to wearing bike shorts under her skirt. We first saw this with the work of Renato Guede.
And more recently with the work of Jamal Igle.
Of course, our Supergirl wears tights under her skirt, so we circumvented the controversy a bit. Just a bit, mind you. There were websites chock full of outrage over the tights (though mostly over her lack of boobs). But it wasn't as bad, mainly (I think) because our Supergirl is younger. Therefore people felt a little creepier vocalizing their outrage. Also, there is the out of continuity aspect. People were less offended as the "real" Supergirl wasn't the one wearing tights. To that I just roll my eyes. I am not a believer in slavish dedication to continuity. And I'm not willing to buy in to the notion that one execution of the character is inherently more important.
Anyway, neither Eric or my myself came up with the tights. Those were introduced by Rikki Simons during the pitch process. Rikki provided color samples and I gave him two choices. Full blue dress, or red skirt. He took creative control and went with red skirt and blue tights. We loved it immediately. It made sense. Our Supergirl is young, inexperienced, insecure and unsure. A short hand to show this lack of confidence is for her to cover herself up a bit more modestly. So with that in mind, it was a very conscious choice to have Belinda Zee fly around without tights. The choice in uniform for a character is not one of fashion. We shouldn't look around and justify our decisions based off of current trends. The uniform should reflect the psychology of the person behind the uniform. Therefore advancing the story. Writing isn't just the placement of words or even the construction of a plot. It's everything. Every nuance. Every camera angle. Every expression.
And to weigh in on the shorts controversy. I like the choice. It allows Igle to draw more fluidly, with more energy. But more importantly it suggests that the "real" Supergirl has grown up a little. So the decision works visually and subtly.
Alright, tomorrow I will post the original 3 images that landed Eric and I the Supergirl job. Be warned: they are nothing like what appears in the book.
But for now, I will leave you with what I had in mind before I concocted the concept of the Moon Gang. I have a thing for imaginary rabbits.
I'm a big Captain Carrot fan. Origially, I considered a different direction with Supergirl's imaginary world. But Eric and I (along with artist Mike Shoyket) had just explored something similar in Tron: The Ghost in the Machine. Subsequently, a different direction was required.
Enter the Moon Gang. Blatantly inspired by our brief time working with the Beagle Boy's on a re-imagining of Scrooge McDuck.
You haven't seen the last of them. Mark my words. |
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| Bad Guys Trailer |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|12:04 pm] |
Gargoyles: Bad Guys, written by Greg Weisman, with art by Karine Charlebois and Christopher Jones, will be in stores at the beginning of August! It features two never-before-seen chapters and cover artwork by Greg Guler. Here's a peek at it in our trailer.
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| Supergirl and Batman limited edition prints! |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|11:10 am] |
San Diego Comic Con is almost upon us. Subsequently, Eric has illustrated two limited edition prints. These were meticulously colored at the last minute by long time collaborator Rikki Simons.
 
These will be signed and numbered and about 11 x 17. We'll mostly be camped out at the SLG booth, which is right next to the DC booth. I know that many people who read this blog will not be able to attend the convention, unfortunately we really, really cannot distribute these outside of a very limited number (for promotional purposes) during the show.
For those here for a specific purpose: The last entry of the Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures art blog will be posted on Friday.
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| From the past... part 2 - Kid Gravity |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|11:53 am] |
What did Eric and I work on before Supergirl, you didn't ask. Oh... lats of stuff. One of which was the creator owned "Kid Gravity" that ran in the pages of Disney Adventures for several years.
This is just one page, and it's from many years ago. Don't judge us to harshly.
Anyway, during the time we were working for Disney Adventures, Eric and I would frequently attend conventions. The most common pahrase we heard was: "You guys kinda dropped off the map".
Yeah. That's what we did. Disney Adventures had distribution numbers of over a million, with a projected readership figure per issue that topped 5 million. You could buy it at the check out stand of almost every grocery store. And not just in the US. It was available in multiple countries, translated into multiple languages.
I think that's about as "on the face of the Earth" as you can manage. We worked for a magazine that outsold just about every comic every month combined. Kids though... they knew. They would be passing our booth, see our work, and try to stop. Just so their parent could continue dragging them, protesting, across the convention floor to go see something that had been turned into a movie.
Not that I'm bitter. I mean, ask anyone who knows me. I'm always bitter. So you can't really say it's just this one thing. Eric and I both made a decent living for years doing what was not a tremendous amount of work. And now there is an entire generation that was raised on our work.
Hard to be bitter about that, actually.
Disney released a collected volume. But it's out of print. It can be found at Amazon here.
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| Mark Waid on Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|10:46 am] |
So, are you wondering about this Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer book? Are you thinking that maybe the high concept might substitute for story and heart? (If you're not, forget I even said anything.) I admit, when I heard about the idea, the same thoughts crossed my mind. But when I read Van Jensen's and Dusty Higgin's work, my doubts were erased. Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer has humor, pathos, and a well developed main character. I know, I know, I'm biased, seeing as I'm the editor at SLG. So don't take my word for it. How about you take the word of Mark Waid, writer of many a DC and Marvel comic, including Kingdom Come?
Of Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer, Mark Waid said, "It's funny. It's scary. It's suspenseful. It's romantic. It's the greatest thing I've read all year. And you'll notice my nose didn't grow one bit when I said that."
So there you go.
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| Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures - Production art... Part 9 |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|02:44 pm] |
So... Here we are again.
As promised, here is the start of the Supergirl artwork.
It has been a crazy week. I've been working on multiple projects at once. that's unusual for me. Subsequently I'm very tired. But that's not what you want to hear, is it? No... You just want to know about Supergirl.
One thing Eric and I knew as soon as we got the job was that Supergirl had to be played large, emotionally speaking. Her excitement and her stress, all had to be bigger than life. That way, when we would bring her emotions down to a quieter level, it would have more impact. More gravity.
It also goes along way to showing her age. I've heard it said that realistic teenagers are portrayed as sullen and surly. I don't think that's realistic at all. Can teenagers be surly and sullen? Sure. But not all the time and not all of them. And most importantly, it's not how teenagers see themselves.
That's a pitfall as an adult writer. When you start thinking that how you see things is how things actually are. The way a teenager interacts with me and how a teenager interacts with their peers are two different things. I may not be a teenager now, but I was one once. And I have a memory that can border on the photographic. I recall my teenage years vividly, as if I were watching them play out in front of me. And I must say, not everything should be recalled with such clarity.
Point is: Teenagers aren't just overcome with negative emotions. They're overcome with positive emotions as well. They're easily excitable and easily embarrassed. Imagine you're just as you are now, but you've never known sorrow or joy. You feel those things for the first time, you can barely contain yourself. It's overwhelming and amazing and horrible. That's being a teenager. And so we attempted to instill this in the character of Supergirl.
When we first meet Supergirl, she's still 12 years old. We wanted her in 8th grade, but still not quite a teenager when she debuts on Earth. Some people (mostly those who did not read the book) suggested that this was an attempt to make the character more "kiddie". Not the case. We brought Supergirl back to her roots. If you read her earliest adventures, she is portrayed as 15. But she acts significantly younger than any 15 year old I've ever known. A modern audience would have some difficulty accepting a 15 or 16 year old girl acting as young as Supergirl was when she was introduced. So we felt we could remain truer to the origins of the character by making her a bit younger.
I also didn't want to bog the story down with a tiresome exploration of teenage hormones. Frankly, it's been done to death. And if the character were older, I think it would have been necessary to make it a focus. As it was, I included the "Buzz" poster in issue 5 for multiple reasons.
1: Peter David told me I should put Buzz in somewhere. I am not going to argue with him.
2: Having this bit of Earth culture hanging over Linda Lee's bed suggests an acclimation to Earth culture that was utterly absent in issue one.
3: Having a pop-star poster on the wall suggests that teenage-girl hormones aren't absent. They're simply not the focus.
Going back to the choice of age, it was a surprisingly difficult choice. I felt 12 was a little young for 8th grade, until I did the math and realized that I was 12 at the very start of said school year. So I thought, why not have her birthday in September (as is mine), so she becomes 13 just after she starts school?
A little research turned up the fact that Supergirl has an official birthday, and it's September 22nd. Serendipity is awesome.
About the art: This is a good example of how drawing comics isn't just about on model imagery or marketable design. It's not just about drawing someone being punched by someone. It's about acting. The character must show the emotion and energy of the scene. That's more important and more sophisticated a story telling device than explaining the feelings through text. So in the majority of the above images, that's what Eric was focusing on. Acting.
I included one image that doesn't really fit the rest. Supergirl floating with her hands on her hips. It's the image that DC chose to use to announce the series. To be honest, Eric never intended that drawing to be publicly released. certainly not in any form other than perhaps this after the fact examination. It was off model within a few days of it being drawn and was not our favorite shot. But, as the book did well, we can't really complain.
Wednesday: More behind the scenes of the Pre-Teen Powerhouse! The truth behind why our Supergirl wears tights! Some other stuff I have yet to think about because I'm tired! |
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| PRESS RELEASE: Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|11:23 am] |
He's Got a Nose for Evil
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer from SLG in September You might think you know how Pinocchio's story ends: As a reward for his loyalty and heart, the Blue Fairy changes him into a real boy and he and Geppetto live happily every after. But Van Jensen and Dusty Higgins will ask readers to re-think their conception of the little wooden boy in their new graphic novel from SLG Publishing, Pinnochio, Vampire Slayer, due out in September 2009.
Drawing inspiration from the original story by Carlo Collodi, in which Pinocchio remains a wooden puppet at the end, Jensen and Higgins imagined a dark continuation to Pinocchio's story. Vampires overrun the peaceful town of Nasolungo, and the only one who is willing to fight them (and even believe that they exist) is Pinocchio, who has discovered that his growing nose comes in handy for impaling the undead. While avenging the death of his slain father, Pinocchio discovers the vampires have a deeper agenda than the mere sucking of blood.
Jensen and Higgins manage to craft a grim story story without being too heavy-handed -- it is, after all, the story of a wooden boy killing vampires -- with moments of grim humor that reflect how the book was created. "What started out as a simple joke about Pinocchio shanking vampires with his nose grew into a book filled with drama and pathos," said Jensen, who is the writer on Pinocchio, adding, "Yep, drama and pathos... and Pinocchio using his nose to shank vampires. Lots and lots of vampires."
Artist Dusty Higgins, who created Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer, sets the tone with heavily shadowed pages matched with delightfully designed characters, such as the heavily mustachioed Cherry, the carpenter who creates a crossbow he dubs "The Monsteriminator" to help Pinocchio fight the vampires. Still, Higgins notes, "We approached the story as if perhaps Pinocchio wasn't meant to live happily ever after. Maybe because of his 'abilities' he was actually meant to slay vampires. With a continual supply of wooden stakes and no flesh or blood to worry about, he's the really the perfect weapon against the undead bloodsucking menace."
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer is a 128-page graphic novel and will be in stores in September 2009. It can be pre-ordered in comic book stores now with the order code JUL090644. A video trailer is available for viewing at SLG Publishing's website, www.slgcomic.com.
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| Signing at SLG's Comic-Con Booth |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|10:40 am] |
I'm making the actual signing schedule now, but I thought you all might want to know who is going to be signing at the SLG Comic-Con booth this year. So check it out:
Aaron Alexovich (Serenity Rose)
Kerry Callen (Halo and Sprocket)
Derek Hunter (Pirate Club)
Aleister Gilgrim (The Cemeterians)
Karl Christian Krumpholz (Byron)
Kenny Keil (Tales to Suffice)
Tommy Kovac (Wonderland)
Ethan and Isaiah Nicolle (Chumble Spuzz)
Drew Rausch (Haunted Mansion, Winchester*)
Chris Reilly, Steve Ahlquist and Tara Billinger (Strange Eggs)
Mike Shoyket (Captain Blood, Tron)
Charles Soule and Allen Gladfelter (Strongman)
Serena Valentino (Nightmares and Fairy Tales)
Jhonen Vasquez (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac) and Jenny Goldberg (Jellyfist)
Landry Walker and Eric Jones (The Super-Scary Monster Show, Tron)
Greg Weisman and David Hedgecock (Gargoyles)
Also attending but at their own tables:
Camilla d'Errico (Nightmares and Fairy Tales)
Shari Chankhamma (The Clarence Principle)
Sonny Liew (Wonderland)
Comic-Con is July 23-26 in San Diego, California! But if you're going, you know that already. If you haven't already arranged to go, it's pretty hopeless for you, alas, unless you can snag one of the tickets of someone who had to cancel their plans that Comic-Con is selling on eBay.
*"What's Winchester?" you ask? You will learn!
-JdG
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| Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures Fanfic |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|04:05 pm] |
The link below leads to a wonderful Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures fan written story I recently came across. The most striking part for me was how clear the voice of Belinda Zee came through, despite me not having anything to do with this. There's a bit of ego tied in with these characters... they exist in my head. That's where they were born and that is where they will always live.
But that's ego. The truth is that a talented writer can take the characters and bring them to life. As exhibited below:
mithen.livejournal.com
The scene that plays out, and some of the perspectives held by the characters does not necessarily match how I would portray things. Nor should it. This is a well executed extrapolation from the mind of another writer. I think she does a very good job and I hope she chooses to write more in the future.
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| Airbender movie hate? |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|09:43 am] |
I just happened across a post which mention how obnoxious all the Airbender fans were being about the movies cast so I looked up the cast list. Not thrilling really so I see their point but everyone is condemning the movie before they've seen it. It could be good. Most of the problem stems from the fact that most of the main cast aren't Asian and this is disappointing but Hollywood is VERY conservative. They poor huge amounts of money into films and NEED to attract the biggest return possible. Their obligations are not to the fans but to their stockholders and I think people need to remember this. I was watching the commentary track on the film The Day After Tomorrow and the directer said that some studio exec wanted the scene where a black man kisses his white wife goodbye taken out. The director was stunned and the scene stayed but this really is still the prevailing attitude of Hollywood brass. I'm sure whether Shyamalan wanted to cast Asians or not the STUDIO has a great deal of say in what actually happens.
Now, with that sadi I just recently watched a fascinating documentary on PBS American Master called Hollywood Chinese which details the sort of rascism prevelant in Hollywood toward Asians and how even now Asian actors, in particular American born Asian actors, STILL have a hard time in Hollywood http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/hollywood-chinese/introduction/1146/ Here's a link to the PBS site about the show. I'm sure it'll be on DVD soon if not already and I highly recommend it.
So is the cast for Airbender THAT disappointing? Maybe. Sure it would have been nice if there were some more Asians in it. But a lot still rides on the perfomances and whether the actors can ACT. So it may be a good movie. And remeber- you can still buy the DVDs of the TV show! For heavens sake! Just relax! Hollywood was bound to take liberties no matter what! They always do. It's not the end of a world.
And seriously, the cartoon was entertaining but it not exactly mindblowing or groundbreaking, Besides even the cartoon fucked up the ending SOOOO bad!
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| Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures - Production art... Part 8 |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|03:21 pm] |
Yeah, I know that behind the scenes of Supergirl would be posted next. But my plan was always to make that post on Monday. Today is Saturday. So think of this as a bonus, not a detour.
So this is what a full page of pencils from Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures looks like.
This is page 21 from issue 5, to be precise. Here's a look at the same page, completed and printed:
Eric draws each panel on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. I take that stack of paper and scan it, Eric then assembles the page on Photoshop. I print it out at about 9 x 15 and he lightboxes the inks onto a piece of bristol board.
Don't ask me why it's done this way. I have no idea.
Then end result is stacks and stacks and stacks of paper. And since Eric has never sold any original art, and also not boxed it up and taken it out of my house, I get to live with it. All of it. Too much of it, really.
The upside is I have full access to it and get these opportunities to share.
So... Monday. Supergirl. The start of it anyway. There's more of her to see than any of the other characters, so I expect I will break up the images over a few posts. |
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| Mermaid #2 and yaoi too |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|07:31 pm] |
Second Mermaid W.I.P. by ~spiderliing666 on deviantART
This is the second mermaid I've ever done. The firat one came out pretty good but it was a lot of work so I wasn't going to do another one until I thought to myself- Green hair! LOL! And then I decided to draw another mermaid...
Plus I just finished another round of Yaoi reviews for Otaku USA! That was pretty fun, I read Shining Moon, Idol Pleasures, Color, Ludwig II, and Love Machine. Ironically Love Machine is nowhere near as filthy as it sounds... But it's super cute! I also have reviews in the current Otaku USA which thanks to my friend Charles I may get a copy of for free :). Unless I'm completely wrong I should have reviews of Sensitive Eyes, Awaken Forest, ZE 1&2 and maybe another one... Funny how the majority of yaoi bleeds together after awhile... So anyway- go buy it! |
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| seriously? |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|06:08 pm] |
So.. Palin is resigning?
General consensus is likely, that there's some kind of scandal that she's trying to dodge. Or it's likely that all this campaigning was just cutting into her mani-pedi/harmless animal hunting time.
Either way, this photoshoot clinched my decision to get David a subscription to 'Runners World Magazine'
http://www.runnersworld.com/photo/sarahpalin/home.html
(doesn't it look they shot her in a studio and photo-shopped her onto the background?)
And they say print media is dead. The fools! |
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| Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures - Production art... Part 7 |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|11:17 am] |
I promised Supergirl next. And that's what you're going to get. Kind of.
Supergirl isn't just Supergirl, of course. Unlike Superman she didn't arrive to Earth as a baby. Unlike Superman her Kryptonian name isn't simply a part of his heritage he discovered late in life. Supergirl's name is Kara Zor-El. But when she first arrived in her rocket back in the 50's, Superman tells her she needs an Earth name. Of course, I know a few Kara's. But I suppose times have changed just a bit.
So Linda Lee was born.
That's Linda Lee on the left. I think we debated between a ponytail and the final hair design. The images on the right were a bit of an experiment. How to properly portray Kara Zor-El in her native Kryptonian guise.
Anyway, I felt I needed a bit more of a rationale for her not using Kara as her name while on Earth. So when she crashes in the middle of Metropolis, she's swarmed by reporters. Why wouldn't she be? And they want to know who she is, the poor disoriented, confused girl stammers out her name. Again, why wouldn't she? Subsequently, she needs an identity that no one associates with a blond girl in a Superman style uniform.
In her original appearance, Linda's solution to disguising herself from her Supergirl self was to wear a brown wig. I think that if you have a formula that works, stick with it. Glasses coupled with a hairstyle change = Secret identity. I once tried this myself to great effect. Readers are conditioned to this formula. It's comfortable. They don't question it. So giving Supergirl a glasses based secret identity seemed the way to go. In fact, I was rather amazed that it wasn't already the common solution for her.
And I know there are a great number of people who question whether or not Supergirl even needs a secret identity. The answer is: Yes. Sure, she could fly around all day, performing acts of incredible strength and what not. Sure. And while that might even be the reality if a teenage girl had superpowers, comics are not reality. Comics are entertainment. And one of the key factors in entertainment is relatability.
Peter Parker/The Amazing Spider-Man hits this balance perfectly. I find now that when I go back and read Ditko's early work on the character, I skim the moments where he's Spider-Man and focus instead on the trials of Parker. I'm much more interested in how Parker will deal with Flash Thompson than I am how he will deal with the Green Goblin. I know the frustration of being a regular person with regular problems. I don't know what it is like to fight a guy in a fright mask on a flying broom stick.
Don't get me wrong, those fantastic moments are the glue that holds the rest together. But there is a balance that should be maintained. The recent Pixar film "The Incredibles" is another good example. Yes, we want the fantastic and the amazing. But we want to care about the characters first. If we don't, than the fantastic and amazing can become trite and trivial.
Of course, there is room for another take. MiracleMan is a perfect example of this. Why would MiracleMan ever change back to his human self? But this is Supergirl. A character who, despite her alien origins, was always shown to be more human than humans were. A deeply empathic and caring person who would allow herself to live in an orphanage because she believed that the rest of the world would be better served by her sacrifice.
So Linda Lee was an unquestionable necessity. Particularly when you consider that Linda is a more accurate reflection of who Supergirl really is. A young teen-age girl alone in a confusing new environment. She's not like Superman, pretending to be bumbling Clark Kent. She's really a normal young girl who just happens to have suddenly been given amazing powers and is striving to live up to an impossible heroic ideal. She's still going to be awkward and nervous and shy. If she isn't, than we can't relate to her. And if we can't relate to her, why would we want to read about her?
Next up: Supergirl. For real.
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