Wednesday, July 30, 2008
10 years old and she's already public enemy #1!
It wasn't an intentional thing, but in this panel Dot's silhouette really reminds of the Public Enemy logo!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Location, Location, Location.
The Young Offenders takes place in Terminal City, a fictional approximation of Vancouver, BC.
When Peter and I started The YO, we took a long walk around Vancouver's East Side - the Main and Hastings and East of there sort of area. It's the worst place in the city for homelessness and heroin addiction and all that fun stuff. It's also a beautiful part of town.
There's wonderful old buildings in the East Side. Big old houses that've existed for almost a hundred years. Hastings has tons of great apartment buildings, built out brick and now home to millions of bedbugs.
It's sad seeing such a great part of town looking so run-down, but on the other hand, it gives the neighbourhood an awesome sort of character. Really, slums tend to just have so much more personality than nice parts of town.
When Peter and I started The YO, we took a long walk around Vancouver's East Side - the Main and Hastings and East of there sort of area. It's the worst place in the city for homelessness and heroin addiction and all that fun stuff. It's also a beautiful part of town.
There's wonderful old buildings in the East Side. Big old houses that've existed for almost a hundred years. Hastings has tons of great apartment buildings, built out brick and now home to millions of bedbugs.
It's sad seeing such a great part of town looking so run-down, but on the other hand, it gives the neighbourhood an awesome sort of character. Really, slums tend to just have so much more personality than nice parts of town.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Looking at The Young Offenders – Page 01
Ah, the first page. A quiet shot. Serious men talking in the darkness. Not a hint of the youth-based super-action set to erupt.
When I first started writing The Young Offenders, oh-so many years ago, I made a few choices that I would probably never make again. One of those, was to let a minor character narrate the entire first chapter.
This is a technique I've seen used in Japanese comic and cartoon storytelling. You introduce the sidekick as the main character, and then introduce the main character through the perspective of the sidekick. In the case of The YO though, I went with the villain's sidekick.
It's not that I regret telling the story that way – it's just a storytelling method I use, that I won't use again. Part of that's just because this seems like my definitive use of the technique, so I feel like it'd come off as a little too repetitive if I tried to drop this kind of introduction piece into something again.
What's also interesting (to me) about the first page of the series, is that it takes place outside of the neighbourhood that the rest of the series takes place within. There's a sense of opulence and class to the first page, which is all that much more removed from the ones to come.
I like how this page shows no motion, but has motion to it. A man sits, and a camera slowly zooms in on him. His eyes flicker around. He's emotional, on-edge.
Darkness surrounds everything.
SHL
When I first started writing The Young Offenders, oh-so many years ago, I made a few choices that I would probably never make again. One of those, was to let a minor character narrate the entire first chapter.
This is a technique I've seen used in Japanese comic and cartoon storytelling. You introduce the sidekick as the main character, and then introduce the main character through the perspective of the sidekick. In the case of The YO though, I went with the villain's sidekick.
It's not that I regret telling the story that way – it's just a storytelling method I use, that I won't use again. Part of that's just because this seems like my definitive use of the technique, so I feel like it'd come off as a little too repetitive if I tried to drop this kind of introduction piece into something again.
What's also interesting (to me) about the first page of the series, is that it takes place outside of the neighbourhood that the rest of the series takes place within. There's a sense of opulence and class to the first page, which is all that much more removed from the ones to come.
I like how this page shows no motion, but has motion to it. A man sits, and a camera slowly zooms in on him. His eyes flicker around. He's emotional, on-edge.
Darkness surrounds everything.
SHL
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Blogging Straight Outta East Van!
I've run a few blogs over the years – too many, probably.
One of my latest blog projects (blojects) has been at comics2film.com, where I've kept a running series of articles on all sorts of random nonsense. Lately though I've been finding that my ambivalence towards comic-to-movie transitions has been showing, making me look like the bored hooker at the party.
This ain't that though, and here ain't there.
So, don't expect to see a lot of comic-movie news here, or reviews. I hate writing reviews. I love writing comics, and I love writing about comics, and I'm pretty sure that's what this blog is going to end up being about.
Why another blog? Why now? Well, I'm just trying to find new, better ways of communicating with my (potential) audience. I don't just want to write comics for myself – I want to write comics that I enjoy, but I also want to be able to share them with a larger group of people.
I've really been bouncing around the net these days, looking at the different sites for promoting web comics. Drunkduck, comicspace, comicsomethingelse, comicfuckingshit.
Some of them are pretty cool, like DrunkDuck keeps bringing me back, but a lot of the ones I've been too are pretty bizarely laid out. As well, I have a hard time seeing how some of them are going to actually generate new readers for the book. Admitedly, at several sites I've already seen a few dozen hits come in, but... They're so many thousands (millions?) of comics on-line. How do reach the people who might actually want to read yours?
Well, anyway, those are some of the thoughts that pushing this blog forward. How can the reader help me get from reader 1 to reader 10 to reader 10,000?
Anyway. Woo. Blogness!
Your super-awesome pal,
Savage Henry Lee
And your other super-awesome pal -
THE SPAZ!!
One of my latest blog projects (blojects) has been at comics2film.com, where I've kept a running series of articles on all sorts of random nonsense. Lately though I've been finding that my ambivalence towards comic-to-movie transitions has been showing, making me look like the bored hooker at the party.
This ain't that though, and here ain't there.
So, don't expect to see a lot of comic-movie news here, or reviews. I hate writing reviews. I love writing comics, and I love writing about comics, and I'm pretty sure that's what this blog is going to end up being about.
Why another blog? Why now? Well, I'm just trying to find new, better ways of communicating with my (potential) audience. I don't just want to write comics for myself – I want to write comics that I enjoy, but I also want to be able to share them with a larger group of people.
I've really been bouncing around the net these days, looking at the different sites for promoting web comics. Drunkduck, comicspace, comicsomethingelse, comicfuckingshit.
Some of them are pretty cool, like DrunkDuck keeps bringing me back, but a lot of the ones I've been too are pretty bizarely laid out. As well, I have a hard time seeing how some of them are going to actually generate new readers for the book. Admitedly, at several sites I've already seen a few dozen hits come in, but... They're so many thousands (millions?) of comics on-line. How do reach the people who might actually want to read yours?
Well, anyway, those are some of the thoughts that pushing this blog forward. How can the reader help me get from reader 1 to reader 10 to reader 10,000?
Anyway. Woo. Blogness!
Your super-awesome pal,
Savage Henry Lee
And your other super-awesome pal -
THE SPAZ!!
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