Art & Comics by Katherine Roy

Through a set of serendipitous circumstances I find myself committed to the terrific and terrifying prospect of spending sixteen days traveling abroad through Egypt in winter of 2010. I have no idea what to expect, but plan to keep a sketchbook and comic diary for the duration of the trip entitled The Purple Gorilla and Other Caterpillar Tales* that I may publish portions of upon my return. This collection of drawings and comics will comprise Volume Three in my ongoing series starring the Caterpillar (see my About Page for further explanation) and may inspire me to pursue other derivative works too.

I have traveled in 14 countries, but this will be my first trip to Africa, my first time in an Arabic speaking country (so there’s no hope of deciphering signage and conversation), and my first chance to turn down a camel ride. I’m just beginning my research on what we have in store for us, but already sense some strong story leads and adventure possibilities for my comics. Expect to see a lot more of Egypt in the upcoming months!!

*Note: In the early 1950’s, publishers accidentally discovered that sales went up when comic covers featured a purple gorilla, even if the interior content had nothing whatsoever to do with gorillas of any kind, purple or otherwise. No one knew why this worked, but it did. I have braced myself for the possibility that inspiration found in Egypt will completely thwart all current thesis plans and establish a whole new project direction, but whatever I may work on as a thesis, a cover with a purple gorilla will guarantee interest. If not, I will blame Steve Bissette for telling me about the marketing power of said species.

As I prepare for our trip to Egypt later this semester, I am penciling a few pages of “before” comics, which underscore the depth of my naive upper-middle class American upbringing. I’ll be posting these pages every few days for the next couple of weeks as they are finished. More soon!

Back from Egypt! To a small beautiful town in Vermont full of hills and friendly faces, patches of mud and twenty degree weather, where my thesis awaited me with open arms and lots of questions.

Here is just a small sampling of sketches from Egypt. I had grandiose dreams of keeping a comic chronicle of all events and happenings, but when traveling with 45 other people and seeing several sights per day, it just doesn’t happen. Other plans are in the works– I’ll write more about that soon!

More sketches from Egypt! Our guides Moustafa and Amgad were simply fantastic. Here’s a glimpse of their classroom.

After a day or two of recovery, on January 25th, I sat down at my desk to begin composing a “long drawing” about Egypt, in the tradition of a 25 foot drawing that I did while living in Rome. I had anticipated that the project would be a few feet long and take about a week’s time, and I would then recommence the projects I had left in December when I went home to Christmas break. But Egypt had other ideas, and I immediately discovered that a long drawing was all wrong. ‘Longer!’ a voice demanded. ‘Panels!’ It said. ‘No!’ I cried, ‘I have to do a thesis project! I’m already behind! GO AWAY!’

But the voice just didn’t listen to me. ‘You have to draw it out! Think of what you saw, what you learned, what you thought about…’

Now, about three weeks later, I find myself closing in on finishing the thumbnailing for a graphic novel. Am I crazy? Probably. Yes. Most definitely. But tackling this isn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I am leaning on our 4,200 photos and all of my notes and sketches to draw out the things I remember, impressions and thoughts, wisps of conversations and my experience in a new culture.

This is my first test drawing, seeing if I could steal some style from Baudoin of L’Association (“Steal from the best!!” Thanks Alec!) and approach this story in a whole new way. It’s just the beginning, a little scratch at what I want to do with it. How do you capture thoughts on paper? Sear a reader’s soul with ink? How do you convey the experience of the spirit on the desert edge of the world? I don’t know. But I am determined to finish a first draft of this story by February 23rd, one month after we returned, so that I can put it away for a time, that it may resurface with clarity later.

But I am filled with renewed hope in what the arts can do.

About two weeks ago I wrote about a potential project based on my travels in Egypt, and promised to finish thumbnailing the pages for a full length story by February 23rd. “Did she finish?” asks one. “Is it brilliant?” asks another. “Can I read it right now Katherine? When will it be available on Amazon? Will you be doing a promotional tour across America?” That last part, I am quite certain, no one is asking.

The answers are as follows: YES! February 17th (5 days EARLY!!) I finished, printed and bound a 186-page booklet of a thumbnailed graphic novel. NO! It is not brilliant. Not even close. I’m lucky if half of it is even legible to anyone but me. BUT! I think I know where it is going, and that was really the point of the journey: to see if anything was there underneath the mental snapshots of our two week trip, and I think I’m onto some good leads. Tim Stout (my wonderful, talented husband) sat down with me on Sunday and helped me to extract the POINT (theme) of my story from a certain thumbnailed sequence I’m rather attached to, and I’ve spent the week diving into the pencils based on what I’ve learned about that same scene. I am excited about the road ahead over the next two months as graduation closes in. By May I should have a solid idea of where this project can go, and some sample finish pages to show for it. And, in the meantime, I will continue to do shorts, to try out different styles and approaches to cartooning. I will post excerpts from the process as I go.

Here is a sample thumbnailed spread from the Midpoint. This was executed by drawing with a wacom tablet and using photos from our trip to create page layouts on my computer:

And here is a sample thumbnailed spread from the latter half of Act 2:

This method of working has treated me very well. Using photos feels a little like “cheating,” but, hey, I took them, right? They are placeholders for drawings until I get a little farther along, but when trying to get through 10 pages a day, it was one of the best ways I found to keep moving. “Hey, I already composed this image– in a photo!– so I’ll borrow from myself. Thanks self!”

Here are a few panels from a section of my Egypt story I’ve been working on this week. I think I’ve finally figured out how to select a few key short stories from the long 180-page first draft to make a “mix tape” of events that will build to equal a complete narrative. Making the components work together while dealing with separate themes has been tough, but I think I’ve made some good progress.

I am sorry for the delay between posts folks; I should be back to two per week really soon. Enjoy!

Here’s a sample page from my thesis project with temporary digital color. I’m still figuring out what the “look” of this project is going to be, but the story is finalized and the finished pages can commence.

This is from the third chapter (of five). Page 5 of of 18 pages.

After two years of labor and hundreds of pages, my time as a student at The Center for Cartoon Studies has drawn to a close. I can’t believe how fast it has gone! The transition into life as an alumni will be a little terrifying but very exciting, and I am looking forward to whatever lies ahead.

In the meantime I thought I would share with you my final thesis project, tentatively entitled Hieroglyph, a graphic novel about an American artist traveling through Egypt. Part travelogue and part creative non-fiction, the story is based on sketches, drawings, notes, and comics from my 16-day tour of Egypt in January 2010. As part of my graduate thesis at The Center for Cartoon Studies I wrote the skeleton for the full graphic novel (about 100 pages in length) and completed a 19-page sample chapter that falls in the middle of the book. I plan to spend the summer working on bringing the writing and drawings to a more finished level so that I can more seriously explore publishing options this Fall. I’m very excited about this direction for my work; the challenges of this project have already pushed me harder and faster than anything before it, and I am excited to continue this process of creative discovery!

These drawings were done in pencil with layered watercolor beneath the line work in Photoshop. It’s been a very satisfying way to work, allowing me to maintain the immediacy of the line and adjust/redo the color as necessary.

This is the last page of repeated work from my roughs stage, posted through the spring months. Never before seen pages starting next week!!

Sorry that this is a day late, folks! I didn’t have access to the internet yesterday, so for this week I’ll post Wednesday and Friday. Enjoy!

Pages 8 & 9 on Tuesday and Thursday next week. Have a great weekend all!

Posts should continue to happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the rest of the month. Enjoy!

This week has kept me busy with graphic design work, a few self-promotion tasks, and a new caterpillar story for Boston Inbound’s upcoming comics anthology. Theme? Food! What a great subject.

Enjoy Hieroglyph! Next page will be posted on Thursday!

The building of the Nilo-O-Meter, and the subsequent discovery of the circumference of the Earth, was the most fascinating component of the crocodile temple at Kom Ombo. It’s easy to marginalize the Egyptian culture into a sideshow of mummies and sphinxes, but this, here… what a magnificent example of our curiosity and ingenuity as a civilization, and as a species, over 3,000 years ago. We have come so far, and yet I suspect that we are much the same as ever.

I hope that the chapter of Hieroglyph that I’m working on now can explore this further. I’m having my own creative war right now, but I suspect the solution isn’t too far away.

Sorry this is late! Two more weeks of installments for this story section, folks.

Sorry this is late folks! I’ll post page 17 tomorrow.