It's really late but I thought I'd try to get in a quick post tonight. I just finished a page of pencils for the PERHAPANAUTS backup Todd and Craig are allowing Christian and me to do. Before I start the next one, I thought it would be a good idea to catch up on my backlog of emails and put in an appearance here.
There have been a couple of times this past week when I wanted to post but it was usually to acknowledge the passing of someone I admired like Bernie Mac or Carlos Meglia. But I was tired of posting sad things and I was starting to feel like a press agent for the Grim Reaper. So I passed. Problem is, I don't have any new art to show. Well none I can show, anyway. The only thing I could dig up that I haven't posted before is this page from my aborted SINGULARITY project. I've mentioned it before. It's one of my multitude of projects that have fallen by the wayside for one reason or another. With this one, there were just too many aspects of it that kept popping up in other stories like SPIDER-MAN 2 and SUPERMAN RETURNS. As this would happen over and over, I'd change aspects of the story to be less similar. When I saw the last episode of Season One of HEROES I gave up. I knew if I changed one more thing, it wouldn't be the story I wanted to tell anymore and so I gave up.
I'll save the plot synopsis for another post but here's the first page of the first issue. Like a lot of my stories, this one started with a flashback. When I write something, I try not to worry too much about whether or not I can pull off the drawing. If I did that, my stories would be about two bodybuilders posing in a white room talking about cake recipes. I try to have fun with the writing and worry about the art later. That was the case here. I suck at drawing women and kids. And, hey! Look! A woman and a kid. Throw in some passersby in street clothes and some cobblestones and you've got the makings of a tedious first page to draw. Funny thing is, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I was really trying to channel Darwyn Cooke here. Unfortunately, I'm learning that only Darwyn Cooke is Darwyn Cooke and that I just need to draw like me if I want it to turn out right. Still, I think this came out okay. Especially after Mike gave me some pointers on how to draw kids that don't look like 30-year-old men. I had to do some digital corrections to the kid's face in panel four after talking to him but it was a definite improvement.
I really miss working on this story. It was one of the few stories I've worked on that had a beginning, middle and end already worked out when I started writing. And it was also my most personal story. But, like Mike told me, when you work on something for eighteen years, someone's bound to beat you to the punch.
I hope you like it. Most likely, this is all you'll ever see of it.
6 comments:
hey matt-
i think this is great! i know i'd love to see more of it, or even read th whole thing. i do know how you feel on the being beaten to the punch on stuff, there's a few things i've been working on that have all been done already-very frustrating!!
but yeah this always sounded cool to me so any way of getting to see/read more would be great!
Hey Matt,
That page looks great.
I think the kid, his mom, and the passersby look fine.
I wish I could draw as well as you.
It's too bad you canned this story. Don't take too long to tell you next story.
catch you next time.
Matt,
Looks good. I'm curious to learn more about the story. The art is nice too. I'm with Emilio. I wish I could draw that well.
It's still a good story, Matt. Just 'cuz some of the elements have been done elsewhere shouldn't give you pause. (Sez the guy with a werewolf story he sat on for too long...) They probably got their ideas from someone else's story. It's a vicious cycle, so take advantage of it. And, hey, at least it wasn't a zombie story...
matt!
y'know, mike always used to tell me about how distracted and disappointed you'd get when you saw elements--or hell, even whole concepts--appear in any book or movie that smacked even a little bit of an idea you had or were working on. i would always tell him that i needed to sit down with you and smack the $%#! outta ya...!
dude, that happens ALL THE TIME! you cannot--CANNOT--abandon or adjust your art because someone has struck close to your idea. there are no original ideas--everything can be traced back to the same 32 stories. hell, tellos is the friggin' wizard of oz, man!! if you look close at anything you'll see traces of something else...!
but the most important thing here is YOU! you are the unique element in the equation!! maybe there are some similarities, but NO ONE is gonna tell it the way YOU do! not in a million years!
have confidence in yourself--and confidence in your story--and don't let anything stop you or get in your way until you complete your original vision!
(and then don't george lucas it...! : )
okay, that said, now get back to work on those perhapanauts pages...!
: )
love ya!
Yeah, what Todd said. I mean, look at Perhapanauts and Proof. Similar concepts on the surface. Entirely different execution. Heck, they're even published by the same company. I think you should finish your story the way you have it worked out.
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