<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by e:
<B>i quote edward gorey as one of the fundamental influences on my comic, but i think that you parallel the feel of his world far more closely than i. <P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Don't be upset, but I have utterly no clue who Edward Gorey is.
I have a feeling it probably has to do with the origin of the word 'gorey', as commonly used in description of b-grade horror, no?<P><B> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>whether or not you have read gorey there is an intense likeness to not only his artistic style, but to his terse and macabre writing as well. <P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well, as to the writing, that's a bit how I tend to do my poetry when I have a mind to write it, or more often, lyrics to my songs. (I'm a band, of course.)<P><B> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>i tend to have a real problem with people who draw in black and white, and then add color to some portion in order to call the reader's attention to it. it's usually overdone, and often arbitrary and annoying visually. i most especially hate that technique when it's used in photography. you, however, seem to have used it in a calculated and proper fashion. <P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Heh, heh, get this: I started scribbling the first strip in black ink. Then I ran out of black ink. Then I went looking for ink and the first catridge I found was red. "I went... ooo... red... blood... that'd be good" and slapped it on. After I finished with the red I decided I had no desire to seek out more ink. Typically I draw entirely in black ink. I don't even pencil it first most of the time (laziness, I'd guess) and then give it to my coloring slave and let her color it. With Stitch/Suture, well... Let me be honest. My color slave got sick, and I got tired of drawing my comics in black and white and not getting to see them in color for a god awful long time. (Ooo... that reminds me to go check if she's got any more ready for me!) That combined with an extremely annoying day provided inspiration for a prelude comic that I could do as I felt necessary until the actual strip started. I've always drawn skeletons for some reason... they've been an interesting subject to me ever since I was like 5. I remember staring at skeletons in an encyclopedia. Skulls and skeletons are one of the few things I can draw realistically (along with leaves and trees, oddly.) <P><B> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>your style, insofar as this cartoon is concerned, is loose and bordering on unfinished which i also tend to hate, because every ding-dong art student on the planet adopts that style at one point or another in their schooling. again, however, it fits the context of the comic and adds to the feel. <P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>That idea behind that is not so much unfinished but rough... raw... like splintered wood. Sharp and such. The borders of the comic are intended to sort of remind you of old wooden fences falling into disrepair and claw marks at once. I don't consider myself an art student, incidently. I guess I'm an artist... it all sort of flows together. I think writing is most important to me, but photography is getting interesting as well. I'm probably more into music than I am into drawing, however... but I do all of these things.<P><B> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>there is room for improvement. certain panels - the one with the opening door where the nurse is entering, for instance - seem too vague, or too minimally defined. <P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Oh, I know. I didn't like those, but the nurse, well. Bleh. I didn't want to draw a nurse. She was essentially to the story but I didn't want to DRAW her. I could draw her nicely if I were using my cartoony style, but not in my semi-realistic style, so I just sort of scribbled her and moved on, because I really, really didn't want to draw her.
Well, it's also that she's a far less interesting subject. Again, I did NOT want to draw her, but I needed her for the story. Oh, the reason her head isn't visible will become clear in a bit. I spent much more time drawing Johnny/Stitch, as he is the interesting one.<P><B> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>i feel that the scratchy, loose style of drawing that you've pursued in this comic is one of the most difficuly to pull off. it's quite difficult to make something look rough and loose without it looking like you just don't know how to draw. <P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Good, scratchy... I was trying to get that out. The narration and even the art is sort of through the eyes of Johnny/Stitch... sort of how would you feel if this was happening to you... Angry and hurt, are two words that come to mind. Thus the art, and the lettering, even, and the narration, I tried to make sound angry and hurt.<P><B> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>you're doing fine, i think, and if you don't plan to follow through with that style in your comic proper, then forget everything i just said.<P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Yes and no.
Yes and no. As (I hope) will become clear, Sex-O-Rama (the main comic, as opposed to Stitch/Suture) is sort of a meeting point between my more realistic style (skeletons and trees) and my comic style, along with my "really strange angles and perspectives, often physically impossible" style.
Stitch himself, (I hope I'm not giving too much away) is and will be a part of Sex-O-Rama, and whenever he shows up, things are gonna get a lot more like the Stitch/Suture strips.
<P><B> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>all in all, i like it - more than that, i liked it enough to comment. <P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>That makes you one of a total of two, however.
Thanks for the compliment, but I don't think many people share the thought.<P><B> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>it's not some played-out anime rip-off, it's not some superhero recycled crap from the 1960's, it's not "kathy", and it's not espousing to be something it isn't. <P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well, I do get into the realm of making fun of and even so far as attacking anime within Sex-O-Rama proper, played out is not something I think applies to Stitch/Suture or Sex-O-Rama.
As far as superhero stuff... I could /not/ do that. Superheroes are dull as shit. Unless you count Barry Windsor-Smith's Weapon X as superhero. Now, I know it's X-Men related and everyone hates it or is a Johnny-come-lately, but damn, BWS is fucking incredible in that book. The rest of Marvel, hell, DC, Image, and everyone else, should be on their knees in supplication. Oh. And I never once understood Kathy or why it was funny.<P>Also, its hard to be something you're not.<P><B> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>while thematically similar to other comics and graphic novels i've read, you've begun something rather original in only four strips, and i look forward to seeing what happens in the future.<P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Thematically similar in what ways? (Of course, I have the advantage at this point, because I know what happens next and you don't.
<P>Oh, I meant to bring this up before when we were talking about Edward Gorey. My influences. First off, I've been a heavy reader for years. I love sci-fi and horror. I love Phillip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Poe. My taste remains similar in movies, sci-fi and horror. However, I have a deep, enduring love for b-movies. The more terrible to better.
My movie influence is pretty obvious, I'd wager. I love Night of the Living Dead to bits. Romero rocks. No two ways about it. However, I /also/ love Return of the Living Dead, which is largely a parody, although the humor is not as shclocky and obvious as the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness movies. Return basically takes all the conventions of a good b-grade zombie flick and raises them to new, laughing at what it's doing all the time. Now, Stitch/Suture isn't funny. Oh well. Sex-O-Rama is sometimes and isn't others. A lot of what I like to do is take common themes and formulas and drop them on their ear. With just a slight twist something common becomes disturbing. Hell. The murderous rabbit/alien hybrid in Sex-O-Rama is sort of what Bugs Bunny might have been if he'd been kicked into the skull repeatedly when he was little. Sex-O-Rama is going to be sort of a fever dream Tiny Toons. I like to poke fun at and even overtly attack things I enjoy a lot. I also like to revisit and distort things I enjoyed as a child. Oh, back to Poe for a moment. I think I've discovered why his works are creepy. He hammers the same thing into your head hover and over again. Read the beginning of Fall of the House of Usher. He goes on, page after page, about how dank and depressing the old place is from the outside and how shitty it made him feel. Just thought I'd interject that. whether or not I choose to build up a sense of dread in similar fashion remains to be seen... probably not, though. Making things outlandish violent as clearly visible is something I learned from b-grade horror movies. I don't think I even know how to be subtle anymore. I kind of wish I could make things scary by not showing stuff and letting your imagination do it, but the best I seem to be able to do in that sense is not show actual acts of violence, only show the victim afterwards. I also think black and white movies tend to be more creepy in general because there's that cloud of darnkess, almost. No color... sort of washed out and lifeless. Lots of stuff can sneak in that isn't supposed to be there. Lots of shadows and greys... undefined areas... a lot happening there... a lot. You can't see it all like you can in color, especially modern color. I'm trying to somehow come to terms with my love for this dark, shadowy 'don't see it happen or the aftereffects, just hear the scream and cut away' horror and my love for the super outlandish 'over the top geysers of blood limbs everywhere' horror that I enjoy because it's just so rediculous I get a kick out of it. Interesting little dilemna... I've been told it makes my work more dynamic, but it pisses me off and I sort of wish I could kill it. (Oh, yes, I prefer to spell dilemna that way isntead of dilemma, archaic though it be. Dilemma sounds/looks stupid to me.) Oh yes, I was talking about influences, wasn't I? Let me cut it down some:<P>Books: Poe, Dick, Gibson. Movies: Romero, and lots of random other b-movie directors (Night of the Living Dead rocks). Comics: Barry Windsor-Smith's Weapon X, oh, and the recent and short-lived (new) Deathlok series from Marvel. Their choice to kill the book has made me hate them more than ever and I refuse to buy their refuse anymore.
<P>Boy, that was short.<P>------------------
-Space Cadet Ginrai
* Super Prolific Cocaine-Laced Late Night Sex-O-Rama *
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