Just two pages this week, because the nearer I get to the end, the tougher the writing is...
Click to enlarge!
Click to enlarge!
Monday, 23 November 2009
Friday, 20 November 2009
King Lot sketches
Until I get round to doing a complete King Lot painting, these will have to do :-). Does it show that I love his hair?
*grins*
Click for a better view...
*grins*
Click for a better view...
Sunday, 15 November 2009
The Darkest Hour 88-90
This week in The Darkest Hour: boats! Horses! And King Uther has grown a beard!
Uther is pretty dreadful, but I so love writing him. I'll actually miss him when the story is done. Fortunately I'll be able to console myself with Merlin, a series currently running on BBC, in which Uther is very much alive and ruthless, looking and sounding like Rupert Giles Anthony Head...
As for the comic, it may have to do without Uther in the future, but look, that's King Lot on page 89! Three cheers for my favourite Irish macho king! ;-)
As for the comic, it may have to do without Uther in the future, but look, that's King Lot on page 89! Three cheers for my favourite Irish macho king! ;-)
Sunday, 8 November 2009
The Darkest Hour 85-87
I can't really explain why, but the dialogue for these three pages gave me quite a bit of trouble. That is the main reason why the drawings are sketchier than usual. I wanted to post on time, but had to do a lot of work at the last minute because the writing was difficult.
One funny thing about doing a comic is that it is easier to "show, not tell" than it is when you write prose. Nevertheless, it's still an art in itself; the sequence with the nuns held quite a few pitfalls in that respect. Please warn me if you think I'm "telling" too much. It's a thing that I hate in comics. It rather baffles me that published authors get away with very flagrant instances of "telling". I mean, sometimes you need some to move the story forward quickly. But I am absolutely horrified by a comic like the latest XIII Mystery, Irina, which is currently being published in the free newspaper Metro. There is hardly any dialogue in the book. 80% of the story is told in captions! Maybe other readers don't mind, but personally I find it boring. For me, a good comic tells a story in pictures; it's not rows of pictures to illustrate a piece of prose. A matter of personal preference?
For a readable view, click the images!
One funny thing about doing a comic is that it is easier to "show, not tell" than it is when you write prose. Nevertheless, it's still an art in itself; the sequence with the nuns held quite a few pitfalls in that respect. Please warn me if you think I'm "telling" too much. It's a thing that I hate in comics. It rather baffles me that published authors get away with very flagrant instances of "telling". I mean, sometimes you need some to move the story forward quickly. But I am absolutely horrified by a comic like the latest XIII Mystery, Irina, which is currently being published in the free newspaper Metro. There is hardly any dialogue in the book. 80% of the story is told in captions! Maybe other readers don't mind, but personally I find it boring. For me, a good comic tells a story in pictures; it's not rows of pictures to illustrate a piece of prose. A matter of personal preference?
For a readable view, click the images!
Friday, 6 November 2009
The Arthurian Review, Issue 1
It seems like fun to review some Arthuriana from time to time. I have been reading, re-reading and re-watching parts of my collection, and I thought I'd share my impressions with you :). The first item on review is a novel I bought a few months ago.
Phyllis Ann Karr
“When Patrise put his head down on the table beside me and started groaning and twitching, my first thought was: and they call me the churl of this court.”
That is how Sir Kay starts his tale. Queen Guinevere hosts a dinner party at which one of the guests is murdered with a poisoned apple. The kinsmen of Sir Patrise, the unfortunate victim, accuse the Queen herself of the crime. The lady will be burnt at the stake unless someone proves her innocence by vanquishing Patrise’s kin in a joust. Alas! Sir Lancelot, the Queen’s champion, is away from court! And Sir Kay, the one knight who is free - and willing - to take up her cause, happens to be better at using his wits than at using weapons. So he sets out to unmask the killer by looking for someone with a motive and an opportunity to poison the bowl of fruit.
Idylls of the Queen is a kind of Arthurian detective novel, with the unlikely duo of Sir Kay the Seneschal and Sir Mordred as his sidekick setting off to discover the why and wherefore of the poisoning of Sir Patrise of Ireland. If you have read Malory and/or books based on him, the murder mystery is not especially exciting. The murder of Sir Patrise is an incident in the Morte d’Arthur, and Karr does not deviate from the murderer and motive as revealed there. The exciting part of her book is that she uses the poisoning as a starting-point for an exploration of the Arthurian court, its intrigues and main actors.
As Kay and Mordred, two outsiders, go around questioning knights and ladies, they uncover rather more unsavoury histories than they would have liked - all of them Malory’s, but now seen through the eyes of Phyllis Ann Karr. Karr’s own interpretation and the way in which it twists Malory’s plot (and several conventions of medieval romances) will not perhaps strike those who are unfamiliar with the Morte. But for them, too, the interaction between Kay and Mordred, each with their own reasons for wanting to track down the murderer, is reason enough to read Idylls of the Queen. Malory adepts, however, should consider themselves warned: Karr’s book does not share the Morte’s sympathies. Malory’s favourite knights do not come out looking good, and those Malory does not show in a positive light are the heroes of Idylls of the Queen.
Which brings us to…
Idylls of the Queen is a kind of Arthurian detective novel, with the unlikely duo of Sir Kay the Seneschal and Sir Mordred as his sidekick setting off to discover the why and wherefore of the poisoning of Sir Patrise of Ireland. If you have read Malory and/or books based on him, the murder mystery is not especially exciting. The murder of Sir Patrise is an incident in the Morte d’Arthur, and Karr does not deviate from the murderer and motive as revealed there. The exciting part of her book is that she uses the poisoning as a starting-point for an exploration of the Arthurian court, its intrigues and main actors.
As Kay and Mordred, two outsiders, go around questioning knights and ladies, they uncover rather more unsavoury histories than they would have liked - all of them Malory’s, but now seen through the eyes of Phyllis Ann Karr. Karr’s own interpretation and the way in which it twists Malory’s plot (and several conventions of medieval romances) will not perhaps strike those who are unfamiliar with the Morte. But for them, too, the interaction between Kay and Mordred, each with their own reasons for wanting to track down the murderer, is reason enough to read Idylls of the Queen. Malory adepts, however, should consider themselves warned: Karr’s book does not share the Morte’s sympathies. Malory’s favourite knights do not come out looking good, and those Malory does not show in a positive light are the heroes of Idylls of the Queen.
Which brings us to…
Which Gawain?
Name:
Sir Gawaine of Orkney
Looks:
Handsome, broad-shouldered and blond, with an unscathed face despite his having fought many a battle. In his forties and slowly going white.
Presence:
Low. Kay and Mordred send him off to find Lancelot. There is a lot of talk about him, though.
Character:
Absolutely sweet, in a knightly sort of way. Kay reflects that it looks as though Queen Morgause and King Lot spent all the virtues they had to give on their firstborn son, so that unfortunately there weren’t any left for the other three.
Basically, Karr’s Gawain is the opposite of Malory’s. He is very courteous, patient, protective, honourable, honest, modest, unassuming, decent - well, see Kay’s comment about the virtues. In this novel, we get a pre-Malory Gawain in a Malory setting. A particularly delicious characterization of Gawain comes from Mordred: he says his elder brother “believes in Heaven, but not in Hell”.
Rating on the Ampersand Scale of Arthurian Favourites: ****-
Name:
Sir Gawaine of Orkney
Looks:
Handsome, broad-shouldered and blond, with an unscathed face despite his having fought many a battle. In his forties and slowly going white.
Presence:
Low. Kay and Mordred send him off to find Lancelot. There is a lot of talk about him, though.
Character:
Absolutely sweet, in a knightly sort of way. Kay reflects that it looks as though Queen Morgause and King Lot spent all the virtues they had to give on their firstborn son, so that unfortunately there weren’t any left for the other three.
Basically, Karr’s Gawain is the opposite of Malory’s. He is very courteous, patient, protective, honourable, honest, modest, unassuming, decent - well, see Kay’s comment about the virtues. In this novel, we get a pre-Malory Gawain in a Malory setting. A particularly delicious characterization of Gawain comes from Mordred: he says his elder brother “believes in Heaven, but not in Hell”.
Rating on the Ampersand Scale of Arthurian Favourites: ****-
Monday, 2 November 2009
The Darkest Hour 82-84
This week: a regular three-page update, mostly drawn with my small Faber-Castell pen. I rather enjoyed it, so I guess I still haven't decided on the way to ink the definitive version. It's about time I get an epiphany though - we're finally nearing the end of this prologue...
Yesterday I was browsing one of my manga to get some idea of what about a hundred pages of intro amounts to in manga format. It's not that much. The manga in question (Mushishi, in case you were wondering) has about 220 pages per volume. In a multi-volume manga, it wouldn't be so odd to have a prologue of about a hundred pages, I think. And yes, my story is definitely multi-volume :).
I don't suppose I have mentioned the term 'manga' before when talking about my comic, but I have recently realised that manga is really pretty close to what I am making. Obviously my layout and way of telling a story are far removed from the classic European pattern. But I haven't consciously chosen the manga way. It may partly be a consequence of my sketching in an A5 notebook... That, and I just like the Japanese way of telling stories - it suits me too.
So, with that I leave you to the next three pages :). Hope you enjoy them!
For a readable view, click the images.
Yesterday I was browsing one of my manga to get some idea of what about a hundred pages of intro amounts to in manga format. It's not that much. The manga in question (Mushishi, in case you were wondering) has about 220 pages per volume. In a multi-volume manga, it wouldn't be so odd to have a prologue of about a hundred pages, I think. And yes, my story is definitely multi-volume :).
I don't suppose I have mentioned the term 'manga' before when talking about my comic, but I have recently realised that manga is really pretty close to what I am making. Obviously my layout and way of telling a story are far removed from the classic European pattern. But I haven't consciously chosen the manga way. It may partly be a consequence of my sketching in an A5 notebook... That, and I just like the Japanese way of telling stories - it suits me too.
So, with that I leave you to the next three pages :). Hope you enjoy them!
For a readable view, click the images.
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