Caterpillar Publishing

I’ve been thinking a lot about thesis projects for my second graduate year at the Center for Cartoon Studies, and continue to return to the idea of doing something that takes place during a wedding, basing some of the plot on our experiences during our engagement and big event. I just ran across this quote in Wedded Bliss:

“In Western Societies today, the white wedding prevails as the dominant form of this popular ritual, and is rapidly becoming the standard for weddings internationally. Although considered traditional, this type of wedding is anything but. The stereotypical, lavish white wedding that has become a highly prescribed spectacle featuring a bride in a formal white wedding gown, a formally dressed groom, some combination of attendants and witnesses, a religious ceremony, and an elaborate– and expensive– wedding reception is largely the product of a host of marketing campaigns. The white wedding has become so overdetermined in the popular imagination that to consider an alternative seems unthinkable.”

Surely there’s something that can be said about this through comics? While keeping the theme from being so heavy handed that it becomes unreadable?

Our second year at the Center for Cartoon Studies kicks off today with Alec Longstreth’s Professional Practice class! Yahoo! I’m very excited about this year and all of the opportunities ahead, but also determined to make the most of my time and the work I have to do. David Macaulay has agreed to be my thesis advisor for the year, resuming his role as a mentor and editor from my days at RISD as a sophomore and junior. He is insightful, encouraging, and very critical; it’s all about the work to him, and I deeply appreciate his objectivity. I think it will be a great fall!

This week I’ve been working on writing scenes for a graphic novel idea about a wedding. Writing is hard! But I’m learning so much by really trying to understand structure and character development, building moment after moment into a comprehensive story. I’ve had positive feedback on the project this week from an agent with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates and from Rich Johnson (Publishing & Graphic Novel Consultant, formerly with DC Comics) during their respective visits to the Center for Cartoon Studies. My hope is to have a full proposal and a rough dummy by the end of the semester!

Alec Longstreth just had us read a short interview with Hope Larson on writing graphic novel scripts and working with an editor for our Professional Practice class at CCS. I liked Larson’s approach and philosophy a lot. It’s nice to hear of creators who work from scripts, as I’m trying it out for the first time now. I’ve been putting in long hours writing out my wedding graphic novel idea, structuring the acts, working out scenes, and now finally flushing out more of the actual dialogue. Here’s what my “Board” looks like (an idea I got from Save the Cat, by Blake Snyder), with each card showing a scene, and each row is an act (Act 1, Act 2.1, Act 2.2, Act 3). It’s been a lot of fun!

This week I’ve been exploring the dream sequence in my graphic novel, trying out images and ideas that have been floating around in my head for some time. I’m sure very little of it will last to the final version, as I’ve jumped far ahead into my story to riff on scenes that have yet to be written, but I needed to shake things up a bit. It’s been lots of fun, even if I don’t keep my version of Cerberus in the story (the multi-headed hound that guards the gates to Hades in Greek and Roman mythology). Huzzah!

Last week I had a break through with my thesis project direction! My story isn’t a drama… it needs to be a satire! This realization changes everything, of course, and makes the vast majority of my writing and drawing thus far obsolete, but I no longer want to do the serious and personal rite-of-passage story about weddings and family relationships that I originally intended, because it wasn’t going to be a FUN story (and God knows there’s enough anxiety in comics, anyway). The story I’m now planning is TECHNICALLY still a rite-of-passage, but with all of the new wonkiness and antics and escalating chaos, it should be a blast to write and draw and still get my point across. I will still be thinking a great deal about scene writing, dialogue, and Blake Snyder’s advice (in Save the Cat, a fantastic book about story and screenwriting), but I feel much more satisfied with this new approach.

I thought this blog would be a good place to show (and, sniff, mourn) all of the work being laid to rest in pieces and temporarily shelved on it’s way to the garbage. It took this stack of writing and thumbnails, page break downs and drawings to get me moving forward and find what the story is really about, what amounts to one Binder Inch of work:

I’ve put in about 8 months off-and-on of thinking time and wheel turning, which isn’t much time at all in the big scheme of things, and I count myself lucky to have this break through in November (instead of March or April) for the sake of my thesis! I have a lot of months and weeks left to act on my new instincts and keep things at a draft level.

On Friday I met with my thesis advisor David Macaulay and showed him the chapter synopsis of the new draft. He said “This is good.” Which, coming from him, is more than enough outside validation to last me through the month, even if by December I’ve ruined the entire thing with my new ambition!

Mary Magoulick, folklorist and Associate Professor of English at Georgia College, posted a great description of what a fairy tale is. Let me just quote her here:

“Fairy tales, also known as wonder tales or märchen (from the German), are a sub-genre of folktales involving magical, fantastic or wonderful episodes, characters, events, or symbols. Like all folktales they are narratives that are not believed to be true (fictional stories), often in timeless settings (once upon a time) in generic, unspecified places (the woods), with one-dimensional characters (completely good or bad). They function to entertain, inspire, and enlighten us. In these episodic narratives the main characters are usually humans who often follow a typical pattern (as in a heroic quest) that is resolved partly by magic. The fact that these wonder tales still appeal to us attests to their richness and effectiveness as symbolic communication.”

This week I’ve been examining our personal library of films, comics and books for stories that have anything to do with fairy tales, and been surprised to find a plethora of works that easily fit into the above description. Characters that are opportunistic and hopeful, themes often dealing with socio-economic struggle and lower classes seeking power, and/or a transformation process, such as the frog to prince, or the rags to riches. Aside from Disney films and literary-based works like Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, there are an incredible number of stories that use magic to teach a lesson or help complete a quest. We love magic. Star Wars is 100% fairy tale, is it not?

The trick is to use fairy tale character archetypes while still keeping the character and the story interesting. We KNOW that innocent Luke Skywalker must SURELY triumph over the black hearted cloak wearing Darth Vader from the first moments of the trilogy, but we keep watching because he is an Everyman in peril, and the circumstances of his life interest us. Magic? Monsters? A “road movie” set in space?! Sign me up!! Today Star Wars is looking just a little bit hokey, but I love it just the same, and it grabs me every time. I know EXACTLY what happens in the films… but I want to watch it again and again. Fairy tales seem to scratch some deep-seated story itch for almost everyone.

When the cartoonist Seth visited the Center for Cartoon Studies two weeks ago, he said “The only chart you have for what is interesting is your own taste.” I am realizing that I have quite an appetite for fairy tales. My thesis already is a fairy tale of sorts, but this research may help me to turn up the volume and figure out the appropriate staging. I feel like I’m on a good track.

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.

The Tomb of the Diver is an archaeological monument in Paestum, Italy. I have been there, I have seen it, and it is breath taking; a Greco-Roman vision of Dreaming and Eternity. While walking home tonight the famed diver came to mind, gracefully suspended above the water, contemplating the unknown. What waits beneath the surface of an idea? Deep places, dark monsters, and a lot of uncertainty. But it is time to stop stalling and jump in.

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!”

We’re in the thesis homestretch!! This semester is going by so fast I can hardly believe it. I’ve finally started a binder with empty plastic sleeves to hold the drafts of my Egypt project, moving from the full 180+ page thumbnailed rough first draft into the penciling stages for a section of the story. Here’s a sample two page spread from the section I’ve been working on this week:

Above is a spread of my initial thumbnails, executed on the Wacom tablet and printed to fit on 8.5X11 paper.  They are clean, but really boring: see all those medium “two-shots” I am using? This is fine in an early writing stage, but I think the panels can do a lot more to tell the story. So using a light box I then put a new sheet of paper on top of the thumbnails and do a first pass at penciling, which looks like this:

There is a lot of mess and clutter, I’ve taped in new panels, struggled with the perspective of the lounge chairs on the cruise ship, all the while trying to focus on composition, composition, composition. “What is this panel doing for the story? Can it be cut? Do I need more information? Do I need all this dialogue? Is the story moving forward? How’s my pacing? Where do the word balloons go?  Why would a grown person spend so much time filling in little boxes with pictures?” I then scan in this drawing and use the Wacom tablet again to clean things up, resize, and drop in some Google Sketch-Up lounge chairs to get them to look right, and print it again:

Now I’m pretty happy with this spread. I stick it in my binder on top of the first two drafts and keep moving forward. This is pretty much ready to pencil onto Bristol board with blue pencil, so that I can ink on top of the blue lines and delete them in Photoshop. This week I’ve done about 9 pages like this, a scene that falls in the latter half of Act 2 of my story. I’m hoping to get through about 30 pages like this, and then ink and color a sample by the time the year is through. Back to work!