Following a Dream and other nonsense!

I have been enamoured of the comic book genre for years and years, without ever really stopping to wonder where it all began.

I have the vaguest memories of  of reading an British weekly comic book for children, with the title "Robin", before I was five years old.  According to the Wikipedia page about it, the magazine lasted from 1953 to 1969.

The strips within Robin were the usual stuff of the time.  Television shows for children, converted into comic strip format mixed in with other preschool style characters.  I guess it must have worked for me because I have been a fan ever since.

Then came RANGER, which began in 1965 and was incorporated into the "Look and Learn" magazine by 1966.  As the Wikipedia page says, it is now best remembered as the birthplace of "The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire", originally drawn by Don Lawrence, which continued in the Look and Learn until it's final issue in 1982.

I guess that my tastes had shifted because I didn't follow the Trigan Empire into the Look and Learn. Instead, by 1967, I was buying the Odham's Press comic book, "Terrific", which was a companion to their "Fantastic", which eventually absorbed Terrific in 1968.

Terrific, reprinted strips, in weekly pieces, that originated in the Marvel Comics offices in the USA.  It was here, in glorious Black & White, that I fell in love with The Avengers, Dr. Strange, Iron Man and The Sub-Mariner.  I discovered the powerhouse of comic book art that was Jack Kirby and I also fell completely under the spell of Steve Ditko and Dr. Strange.

As it was 'want to do', the publisher continued to roll one title into another, until the "Power Comic" magazines, Fantastic, Terrific, Wham, Smash and Pow, were all in one comic book.  I used to have a bag, full of the issues, folded open to the episodes of The Fantastic Four, until we moved again, in 1970 and they all went in the bin!

An example of the Odhams Press Power Comics.

Ah, but at the new school, in the new city, I met guys who were main-lining the excitement of the original, four colour, imported American Comics.  They were impressed by my knowledge of the histories of the Marvel characters and pretty soon we were all collecting different characters, in their own titles.

Steve Rogers, no kidding, collected Spider-Man.  Andy Morton collected The Avengers.  Steve Walker collected Dare-Devil and I collected The Fantastic Four.  It was a neat set up and we continued that way, helped along by Andy's discovery of a second hand book dealer, who sold old comics, until 1972, when the other guys discovered girls and sold out their collections to me.  Ah, Birmingham, England and the smell of all those old comic books!

I continued to collect, eventually connecting up with other fans of the medium.  They, in turn, introduced me to the fledgeling comic dealers of the time, 1973 into 1974 and I dived right in.

Some of the people and places, that I will cover in more detail later on, were, in no particular order:

Alan of Japetus Bookshop,

Peter Lennon, dealer,

VJ an Indian guy, dealer,

Andromeda Bookshop,

Phil Clarke and Nostalgia & Comics

Toronto, Canada, 1980 onward.

The Silver Snail,

The Dragon Lady,

Unknown Worlds,

Now & Then Books, Kitchener,

Unicorn/Worlds Collide, Oshawa,

Gnu Books, Oshawa,

Comics & More,

Planet X,

The Beguiling,

The Labyrinth,

BMV.

That's it folks.  More later.

Tessa Stone and Hanna is not a boy's name!

Quite some time ago, I stumbled upon the work of Tessa Stone, a writer/artist who had been

making regular additions to her Web Comic, Hanna is Not a Boy's Name.

The story was on hiatus, even when I discovered it and it has never returned,

which is a shame, because it was very good.

As far as I can tell, this was the very first page of the strip and it set

the basic tone for the Addams Family vibe of the story line.  Which

was a mix of light hearted, screwball comedy and traditional horror elements.

One of the most arresting things about the strip was Tessa's use of colour and her willingness to experiment with the story telling & layout.

From searching around the Web for information, it becomes clear that,

from the very beginning, the strip was intended to be a test-bed for Tessa's

developing skills as a cartoonist.

Skills that were already well developed and only improved, over the short amount of time that the strips were being produced.

Suddenly, without explanation, Tessa stopped adding to the story and as far as I know, has never returned to it.  Instead, she turned up again in collaboration with writer

Ananth Panagariya, as the artist for their book "Buzz" which was published in December of 2013.

Unfortunately, I don't find the direction that Ms. Stone has moved in,

with respect to her cartooning, captures me.  At least, not in the same way that Hanna... did, right from the start.

Then again, it wasn't aimed at an old guy like me.

I still return to my saved files of Hanna is Not a Boy's Name and admire

the talent on display there.

In her eclectic panel designs, she reminded me of the work of the Golden Age comic book

artist, Bob Powell.  Michael Gilbert, another very talented guy, pointed his work out in

an early interview and I was surprised to discover that Bob Powell had worked in the studio of the great Will Eisner, as a young man.

A solid cartoonist, Mr. Powell worked in the field for many years

and even contributed to a couple of books for Marvel Comics in the 1960's.

He also worked on the Mars Attacks trading cards.  Look him up on the Web,

he was a complex human being and a prolific artist during his time in the comic book trenches.

Time Flies and I Post so Little! Toth, Hicks, Immonen & Grist.

Once again, I find myself lagging in the new Posts department.  I have the attention span of a butterfly and I am easily distracted, just look at any of my old school report cards for confirmation!

The best news to come out lately is the arrival, tomorrow, of the third and final volume of the Alex Toth books from IDW.  I look forward to picking it up!

I visited the TCAF, 2014, held here in Toronto last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it but the ridiculously long line-up to get back into the second floor exhibitor's hall, curtailed my visit.  If I go again next year, I will know not to leave that floor, if that is where all of my interest lies.

I got to meet Faith Erin Hicks and buy a piece of her artwork from her at a very reasonable price.

I also got to exchange a few words with Adam Warren, of Empowered fame and also buy a piece of artwork from him, although I paid considerably more for it!

This is the piece that I got.  Minus the lettering, that was added in the production stage and the positioning of it is a rough pencil outline on the original.  Nice, even if I do say so myself.  Thank you, Mr. Warren.

Otherwise, I am still trolling through my collection and trying to educate myself in the "tricks of the trade" that are employed by comic book artists.

One of the best of the Page Constructors, to enter the field in the last twenty odd years, has to be Stuart Immonen.  Who, coincidentally is also a Canadian and lives, I believe, somewhere here in Toronto.  I actually met him, at a convention here in town, in 1997 or 98, long before I realized how good he was but I didn't pass up the opportunity to buy a small pencil drawing from him!

No one today constructs a page as well as you do, sir.

It is all so effortlessly readable and you direct the reading eye so well.

I am also rereading the work of the English cartoonist, Paul Grist.  Who has to take the prize for being the worst producer of comic book series ever.  Mud Man has been stalled for far too long!

And there was Kane, a truly wonderful cops and robbers book

And of course, Jack Staff.  A series that has languished for far too long.

Please, please, please, mister Grist, do some more work on your own wonderful characters.

Making Comic Books: Part Two

 On the road to an understanding

of the structured thinking that goes into making a

comic book page read well.

I took the image above from my paper files,

it is a page from a Marvel Previews magazine

and I believe that it was a cover to

Avengers Classics #4.

It is also a classic example of a well 

designed comic book page 

that has been laid out to guide a readers

eyes through the panels in an enticing manner.

In the hand drawn diagram below, I am

trying to illuminate the way in which

the artist is augmenting the reading experience

in an almost subliminal way.

 

In an aside, it has always seemed to me, that this

aspect of constructing a comic book page, has a

lot in common with stage magic and sleight of hand

card magic.

That led me to wonder about one the masters of

comic book construction, Jim Steranko.

Steranko was an accomplished practitioner

of sleight of hand magic, he even wrote a book about how to do it.

I have often wondered if it was the Steranko's

familiarity with subtly controlling an

 observer's eyes, which, in magic,

is used so that we see only what the magician 

wants us to see and in comic books is used to direct the eye in a similar way, was what attracted  him to the medium in the first place.

I am convinced that it is part of what quickly propelled him

into the top tier of comic book artists of his day.

It didn't hurt that he had an eye for design,

 that was second to none, either.

Below is another page from my torn-out-of-Previews-pile and I cannot recall who the artist was or what the project was called.  If anyone knows, let me know and I will add the

appropriate credits.

Once again, below, in my tracing paper overlay,

I try to impart some of the "tricks" that a

cartoonist can use to direct the reader in a subtle way.

There are no concrete rules to this endeavour and

there are as many different approaches as there are artists

BUT the general principles are sound and they will

enhance the pleasure of a reader's experience.

It comes down to the basic fact that anyone,

with sufficient ability, could draw a comic book

and many have.  That being said,

then what is it that makes us, as readers,

prefer one person's work over another?

I like to think that it is the 

General Principals of Panel & Page Structure

that I have attempted to show here.

There are adjuncts to this theory too.

How to make the last panel on a facing page

cause the reader to turn the page, almost without

being aware of doing it.

I will address that issue and others next time.