Rusty Banana Forge

Local comic book artists were invited to the College of Saint Benilde’s relatively new School of Design & the Arts (SDA) Building in Manila to participate in a talk with Mr. Ben Templesmith.

Ben is the Australian artist of the 30 Days of Night graphic novel series as well as others including Fell, written by Warren Ellis.

Ben talked at length about his process (planning to rendering) and demonstrated his digital coloring technique. You can view some moments of his discussion here on my Multiply site.

Some key techniques he presented and that I believe are responsible for his current rendering style include:

• Drawing and inking on gray paper and adding white for the lights.
• Bringing in photographed and painted textures into Photoshop to supply most of the darkness in his illustrations. (He has an ever growing collection)
• Photoshop’s Render>Lighting Effects filter as well as Photoshop Image>Adjustments>Variations for quick and effective global lighting & color.
• Duplicating layers on which color enhancements are then done, and then using the eraser to temper the effects
• No graphic tablet, only the Mac hockey puck mouse.

He also showed us behind-the-scenes photos of his experience with the cast and crew of the 30 Days of Night feature film. Those photos also included a fair deal of dead bodies, severed body parts, fake snow, fake fangs, fake blood. Quite humorous really.

Following his talk, we had a chance to ask him questions, such as:

• What does he do to break artist’s block ? (He doesn’t have it that much.)
• What does he fear the most? (The taxman.)
• What did he study? (Illustration, more on the business end of it.)
• What is his dream project? (He’s done it already, he’s just taking what’s comes by.)
• How’d he break into comics? (His own website and Internet forum participation.)
• How much royalty was he paid for movie rights? (A nice sum, but not life-changing, definitely less than one million U.S. dollars.)

Plus other things on white pens, copyright, and as well as his inspirations.

After the Q&A, we took photos and Ben proceeded to autograph copies of his stuff (even 30 Days of Night posters). When that was done Mr. Benjie Marasigan of the SDA gave us comic artists a tour of the multimedia floors of the building. Nice enough to teach and and to study in, looking forward to more events there.

Thanks to Fully Booked for sponsoring Ben Templesmith over and offering his books at a discount, and also to the School of Design & the Arts for hosting the talk and connecting the academe with industry.

KOMIKON 2007 is coming this November and we know what that means — Independent Komiks! We want them to be seen, we want them to be bought, we want them to be good! But if you’re the independent creator who likes to keep his/her work sucky for the KOMIKON… here are some tips!

The Art

1. Risograph or mimeograph your pencils.
   No one has time to ink anything these days. A little pencil here, a little Photoshop there and you can pretty much tell your story anyway. Don’t forget to shade and crosshatch while you’re at it. Inking only slows down production.
2. Patronize a photocopier that produces nice accidental dots, patterns and lines on the art.
   It adds some design.
3. Have a bunch of poorly drawn talking heads for your entire comic.
   Keep them in the same familiar angles all the time. Throw in some angel wings for that shojou anime feel.
4. Have mindless gun-shooting or ass-whoopin for half of the comic.
   If you’re not making a sequel, just charm your reader with some really stiff action poses. Have showers of comic book blood across the pages.
5. Never draw a background.
   Characters and words are all you need. But if you feel the need for some setting, you are always free to draw a brick wall as background, just make sure it’s parallel to your comic book panels.
6. Use the Comic Sans font.
   The font is lovable and it has the word “comic” in it. What other reason do you need? Use it whenever you make comics. Be careful not to adjust it to make it look any better, because it can happen. Just leave it the way it is. The world will love you to death.

The Story

1. Introduce all your characters by putting their faces and one-paragraph bio all in one page.
   Given the possible (untimely) demise of the comic, it’s best you introduce everyone all at once. If the readers don’t form a bond with the cast by the first page, all is lost.
2. For your prologue use paragraphs. Lots of them.
   You need to tell everyone your story idea and the spectacular world where it happens on the very first page. If you let the readers wait until the storytelling, they might get bored.
3. Have your comics be forever “TO BE CONTINUED”.
   Why bother making a second or third issue? Leave everyone begging for more and googling your name. Besides, your day job keeps you too occupied anyway.
4. Just have NO story.
   Focus on surreal and abstract visual gratification.

The Marketing

1. Put together an anthology that makes your art & story look better than it is
   No need to practice your hands off or wrack your brain, just find creators for your anthology that aren’t as good as you are.
2. Have an emo or brooding person sell your comic.
   Look for someone who doesn’t talk much, if at all. If you can be so yourself, well then even better! Many artists adore the whole forsaken artist aura, it gives starving artists a feeling of camaraderie.
3. Keep drawing, the whole day.
   That’s what independent artists do best after all. Why use your voice when your hands can do all the talking? Booth visitors just block your light and you can barely hear them over the noise anyway .
4. If you have them, keep your website or contact info a secret.
   You don’t need people getting in touch with you about your comics… you can always get feedback from your mom. Don’t bring a calling card. Keep everyone guessing just who you are and what you do. You don’t want people to think you were actually serious about comics!
5. Reveal nothing about your comic book story.
   Watch out for people who ask you what your story is about! They only want to steal your ideas! Tell them to buy it if they want to know why they should.