An Ode to our Art
Hi-Fi — By Kristy Miller on November 10, 2009 11:11 PMSo, I’m checking out FB the other day and notice that local artist/illustrator Tony Parker is talking about an article he is mentioned in. Turns out that the dude who wrote the blog (where Tony directed us on FB) was really on NPR talking about comics and then wrote up what happened. Did you follow that?
Here’s the link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/08/tension_deficit_disorder_why_s_1.html
Point is, Tony is illustrating Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which is major cool so shout out to Tony. The dude who wrote the blog (& was interviewed by NPR) talks about art in comics vs words in comics. His point was that the complete novel of Androids was going to be in the comic–verbatim. Now I think this is pretty cool but dude wasn’t so keen on the idea. Anyway, I was reminded of a client we had once who did amazing pencil illustrations and then would ink himself. He was totally into the research and was way accurate and the whole thing. Problem was he didn’t like the fussy word balloons (or color for that matter) cluttering up his art. Now, granted it was amazing art, it could have been a freakin wood block print there were so many lines, but it was very cool. Honestly, he was probably right and it didn’t need color (or too many word balloons) but you still gotta tell people what is going on and not too many people buy mainstream–aka money making–books these days without color. It’s like our generation (ok my generation) watching black & white movies, sometimes it’s cool but generally we’d rather see it in color.
Where does one talent end and another begin?
Sometimes a team just clicks you get a penciller, inker, writer, colorist, & letterer (& hopefully editor) that just kind of gel and things are easy. You learn what each other like, what each is going for, and when one gets gripe-y you can just shake it off and not take it personally. Booster Gold comes to mind (for cohesion not for the griping–really Dan!) penciller is writer & creator of the character. Inker, colorist & editor all get along great. On our end we don’t have much contact with letterer but he seems like a nice guy. 
This book is fun to work on and fun to read and even if we are in a massive deadline crunch it’s really not too much of a hassle.
On the other hand we have some projects that are a mess from start to finish, seems like no one is driving the bus. Every person involved wants to make their “mark” and prove that they know what they are doing. Penciller doesn’t want the art covered up, writer doesn’t care about the art at all and doesn’t get why it’s a big deal to put the balloon over part of main dude’s face. Letterer & colorist are stuck in the middle, & where is the editor you ask–good question!
I get that you put your heart & soul into whatever project and let’s face it most of us wouldn’t be in this business if we weren’t looking for a little recognition. I mean just wait (if you haven’t done it already) until the first fan asks you for your autograph. In three seconds you go from nobody to the next Megan Fox or Brad Pitt, you are convinced you can do no wrong and everyone wants more of what you got!
Sure, the reason some books are so popular is for one particular artist–maybe you are loving the pencils or the story (no one ever buys a book for the sad little letterer or colorist.)
If you think about it I bet the books you read the most faithfully you read because you DON’T notice any one thing particularly. Everything meshes, it feels comfortable and that is because one piece isn’t fighting another.
Brian was just interviewed for a podcast about color. (http://deconstructingcomics.com/?p=215) Some of the questions were along the lines of why does some comic color look murky, some look crisp, some have over-the-top effects, etc. Brian’s general answer (& the Hi-Fi answer) is the color needs to compliment the art. And by the art he means the story as well as the pencils. (We also get told what to do by editors sometimes and aren’t given a choice but that’s another issue.)
I think the answer to the question {Where does one talent end and another begin?} is that you shouldn’t be able to tell.
Kristy Miller
VP, Development
Hi-Fi Design
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3 Comments
Thanks for the insight! Appreciating these peeks into the world of Pro Coloring.
-Kevin Conley
Kristy, you couldn’t be more correct. The last sentence you wrote makes sense. This is an issue that most production artists deal with in , I think, a sort of blind eye, but in some cases it is not in their control because their are other people in charge, so to speak, such as editors, or producers, etc., etc…. However, like you said, we are not given the choice, a whole other issue…entirely! Anyhow, I like this idea you brought up, it is something the CG industry in general has battled with for a long time now and since the technology keeps getting better, the talent can “gel” better. Well, just gel completely!! Looking at the motion picture industry, for example, films like “Jurassic Park” showed you can believe that a dinosaur is in front of you and the characters on film.(of course, once I saw JP, I knew Episode I was comin’ for sure!!) If you take a frame and just look at it, you can not tell what is CG by comparison. I think it goes with out saying, we know it was created artificially, but there is no evidence, or discrepency showing it was created by CG tech or not. Another words, there are no visual clues to stand out showing its fake. So, its this concept of how to get the photo-realism, is it done with a camera? or is it puppets? or CG? is it good animation? Just can’t tell, therefore its believable and everyone enjoys it. So, I understand your logic, completely. Also, for a group of people to successfully put a project like a comic book, or a film, or animated film, and make it gel in all aspects of the production is quite a talent by all involved, and that is a feat to appreciate and recognize. That’s the stuff to put in a gallery or museum.
Actually, I should correct myself about “most artists…….blind eye”…, its really most artists deal with it with a blind eye on purpose, aware of it but not in control of things….whole other issue,of course, but artists are not at fault there,…just wanted to be more clear. This goes, I think, more from like 10 – 12 years ago. Today, the tech available makes it easier to gel all areas of a production, and the talent can show there are no limitations to artistic success…..
Basically, no matter the technology involved, the talents for art and the art for good storytelling will make any limitations or inconsistencies worthwhile, to read or watch.