GOING DEEPER INTO PRODUCTION MODE! Progress report on my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics, Chapter 3, The Chthonian Turn. It is subtitled The Cats’ Revenge as it starts heading in the direction of a funny animal comic.I am approaching the mid-way point in completion of the artwork, averaging one page per day. It’s been a struggle maintaining this rate.
Serial production offers the opportunity of revisiting the work at some future date with the opportunity to make changes. With hindsight, the possibility of reworking things and adding new material seems appealing. One hopes it would improve the material…as this wouldn’t happen till after I have published a first edition.
About half of this issue is being hand-printed and/or painted. Those are the areas I have spent most of the time working on. The remaining half will be digitally printed. Most of the page numbers are being stamped, some directly onto the page, others scanned then printed.
Over the past month I have completed the artwork, printing and the finishing stages of the labelling, stapling and bookbinding. I started out stitching the sections together but found that I lacked the skills to do the job properly. I abandoned this approach and switched back to the simpler form of stapling…however, I shall endeavour to master stitching techniques in future.
It looks interesting as a volume being half hand-printed and half digitally printed. The varying pages are sometimes shuffled together. In addition to adding pages of colour and print-made texture this method has resulted in a shorter period of production.
The feline characters continue to assert themselves. This altered the generic pattern from auto-bio to funny animal comics with the odd not so humorous scene.
Notice of publication should be posted on this Blog around the end of the month. It is intended take place at a comics event in Germany…but we will have to wait and see about that, Michael.
Publication of the second issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics, Chapter 2: A Blot On His Escutcheon is forthcoming. September is looking increasingly likely subject to completion of the printing, binding and delivery of the comics. The comic will form part of an exhibition of my works on paper at a new gallery in Glebe called GAUGE. Below is an image of the title page. The image has been constructed from elements of photography, printmaking, typography and collage. It shows Doctor Comics returning from a shopping expedition. UPDATE: Exhibition dates have been firmed to 18-29 September 2013 but still no firm launch date for the comic…which is beginning to raise thoughts in the long term of its potential development into a graphic novel. We will have to wait and see about that!
There are books, cats, fish and the occasional bicycle that appear in my comic…the one which I am currently in the process of creating. The title is BLOTTING PAPER. The principal character, Doctor Comics, is an alias of mine…an avid reader and collector of comics. He has two pet talking cats who also read comics, preferably graphic novels, and who regularly eat fish…sometimes these two activities are combined…despite the good doctor’s distaste of stains on his comics fish is a favourite dish of the Doctor’s, too,…but not whilst reading comics! The first chapter refers to books and comics, including graphic novels, both cats and one fish. The location, Glee, is a fantasy label for Glebe, the suburb of Sydney in which I live. It is a bookish suburb near the academic precinct…Sydney University, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Technology, where I work. Being tertiary education territory it has several bookshops, cafes, restaurants and pubs…and is within walking distance of the Sydney Fish Market…which is of special interest to the Doctor Comics character and his cats. I go there often, myself but leave the cats at home. The Bookseller of Glee (below) is a portrait of Roger Mackell, the proprietor of one such bookshop, Gleebooks…and a good friend of mine. Doctor Comics shops at and occasionally writes reviews of graphic novels for this bookstore. The proprietor refuses to sell coffee and cakes! With the emerging trend of cafes in bookshops, I wonder how long he will manage to hold out?
In addition to drawing, cartooning and printmaking, photography is being incorporated as a graphic tool. Below are two photographs from the Sydney Fish Market that have been graphically manipulated and merged…one of stacks of shipping containers…the other of me shopping with a bag of fish that I have purchased. The photographs were subjected to a graphic treatment then collaged together…to show Doctor Comics returning from his shopping expedition. He is carrying a bag of fish and wearing a backpack which is full of books and comics .
Despite the intention and the progress made…it is now looking likely that the first issue of my comic won’t be published this year after all. It is nearing completion, however, and I feel certain that I shall have something to show in early 2012. In the meantime there are these blogged progress reports. The shape of the comic continues to move in an “artist book” direction. It retains some semblances of an art comic, and an Australian one at that, despite some Japanese influences. The figure in the overlaid drawings below, is the older Doctor Comics character, doing some printmaking in his studio. It goes on!
There has also been some script editing. This has resulted in both extensions and deletions. I found that I needed more space to convey some sequences which weren’t working…and other parts were either too difficult or time-consuming for me to draw!
My box of uppercase rubber type. (Photo by Louise Graber)
The type in rubber-stamped, printed form prior to editing, cutting and pasting.
The other interesting development has been the photographic aspect of the project. Initially employed as a reference device for locations, objects and figures, photography has now become more prominent. Some pages are starting to look a little like sequences from a Mexican foto-novela or picto grafia comic. This was not my original intention. There remains, however, the anticipated drawn and printed elements along with the traditional rubber-stamped text (see the photos above). I hope to confirm the completion of the first issue and announce its publication date, shortly…but I won’t hold my breath, Michael.
Production of the first issue of my comic Blotting Paper continues despite delays from my ongoing academic commitments. However, my intention of having the first chapter finished by the end of the year remains. Comparing research to production I have discovered the enormous amount of time it takes to design and create artwork. I can write a thousand word critique of a comic in just over an hour…but creating one page of comics art will take me several times that. Many of the comics creators that I have interviewed say their rate was “a day per page”. I wish!…but I don’t really mind as I love the feeling of being deep in creative space. At the moment, besides printmaking, I am also doing some drawing. I love it and the mental space it takes me into. I like the feeling of getting lost in there.
I am experimenting with a range of image-making media to produce the artwork and text. Below are some of the images that have been generated through printmaking at Studio Buljan, in Sydney. (My thanks to Katharine Buljan for the access to her studio). These prints appear in the first chapter of my comic The Ingurgitator. The chapter begins in sunshine in Sydney then things take a dark turn into the subconscious terrain. There is also the evening ritual wherein Doctor Comics cooks dinner…then drinks wine whilst reading his recent comics purchases. During this time he converses with his feline friends. The evening often ends in a dream state that is a melange of art, thought, taste and reflection.
These images are monoprints, so called for their singularity…only one of each is made. However, by re-inking the block and marginally alterating the images, a degree of continuity is maintained. This enables a sequential element to come into play. I have learned this approach in creating the artwork for animation projects. For me, working in printmaking, comics and animation is both labour saving and exhaustive. The images come up quickly but the act of re-inking and printing the block destroys the originals. There is no going back. I enjoy working with the inky element of printmaking. It is so graphic! Any thoughts? Comments about this and my posts are welcome, Michael.
The above image is an experimental graphic impression of the typographic design of the title of my emerging first comic. Keen to experiment graphically with rubber stamping I have moved the letters during printing to create a smudged effect. I have also used some askew registration and mixed the fonts. How postmodern! My comic is based on my experiences…both practical and metaphorical…that I have had in a career in higher education. This involved teaching and research at an art and design college…followed by a university, in the disciplines of film, video, animation and visual communication design. The subject of comics often arose and I actively endorsed that. Initially considered as an effective method of teaching storyboarding it then became a medium in its own right. I also began to research the comics medium. This ultimately led to my doctoral research in comics studies and the gaining of my Ph.D in that field. The Art and Design schools of Sydney College of the Arts were virtually neighbours. As mentioned in my previous post, I became involved in printmaking when I temporarily swapped classes with a colleague…my graphics students with her printmaking students for a couple of sessions, and her students learning animation with me. I became very interested in the printmaking studio and its graphic methods…and began to learn printmaking techniques myself. The printmaking lecturer and I taught each other the rudiments of our respective skills. It was a good exchange. I enjoyed it both as a technical medium and as a form of artistic expression. Consequently, printmaking became an adopted part of my artistic practice. In my own comic production I have employed printmaking to generate titles and visual expressions. These have been edited and combined in my developing graphic novel project Blotting Paper.
I experimented with the visual communication design elements of the work and found this approach both exciting and productive. I also began to think of my project extending beyond a single issue…possibly even becoming a graphic novel?
The ‘graphical impressions’ are drawings and prints of graphic memories. These were generated and printed in ink from rubber, wood, lino and other surfaces. The titles were made with rubber type and my name credit from a linocut. Besides printmaking as a method of image-making I also did some drawing…using traditional metal dip pens, pencils, felt-tipped pens and brushes plus a range of inks.
PRODUCTION UPDATE: Recently the production progress of my comic has experienced a few interruptions. On the plus side of this I have been working on interesting studies projects during the delays. One project involves the works of Tezuka, Rintaro, Matsumoto and Miyazaki, and their films. These include Galaxy Express 999, The Dagger of Kamui, Laputa-Castle in the Sky, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Another project involves workshops in the sosaku hanga technique of creative Japanese printmaking. Both of these activities will form part of a Japanese Cultural Festival in Suva in the South Pacific. I shall be participating in and teaching at this event. In terms of my comic’s progress, I have pulled some pieces of completed work together. I have also been modifying other work that I had considered completed. That’s the title page design(above) for the first chapter The Ingurgitator, as it currently stands. Although created in colour a black and white version may appear in the comic. It consists of a combination of image-making techniques including drawing, painting, inking, printmaking and collage. The original collage/sketch, below, was made during a trip to Shanghai to attend the Animation Expo in Hangzhou in 2007.
So there is my third post on this blog…a month since my previous post…which seems to be a better and more manageable gap…and the second post on my comics project. I would love to hear any comments and suggestions about my blog…including the frequency of my postings, Michael.
Doctor Comics 