Archive for December, 2004
December 28, 2004 at 12:31 pm · Posted by matt
What compels every screenwriter adapting a comic-book to include the origin story?
Thousands of readers were entranced by Hellboy for years without having a clue where he came from. Batman, X-Men, Spiderman, Daredevil: all great characters whose movies were (in my opinion) bogged down by exposition on the characters’ origins. In many cases, it is an important story, but it doesn’t need to be told first.
After reading this post on Rampage, I realised that, this year, a studio did, in fact, release a superhero movie that skipped the origin story on most of its characters and it was a glowing success.
December 23, 2004 at 6:49 pm · Posted by kalman
There are some really interesting ideas and interpretations on the nature of Superman and how to handle him creatively put forth, both in Newsarama’s latest interview with Karl and in Newsarama’s new interview with Grant Morrison
I know Karl loves Superman. Grant clearly does too. I know a lot of people love Superman (whatever their varying opinions on the current state of the books may be).
Me, I’ve always just kind of found him dull.
Not in that ‘Oh he’s too powerful’ kind of way, nor in that ‘He’s such a goody goody’ kind of way that most people who appear to agree with me bring up to elaborate. My issue is more that he’s just too damn ubiquitous.
Everyone knows Superman.
Everyone knows his story. Everyone knows (most of his) powers. Comic readers or not. I’ve always been more interested in reading about and discovering characters I don’t know.
That’s just personal preference though, and in no way conveys any kind of value judgement.
More significantly, he carries the burden borne by every major franchise character — there’s a status quo, and it will never be shaken up. At least not in any meaningful or permanent way. I’ve always preferred stories where anything can happen, no one is safe, and you never know where things are going to go, because there is no classic template to compare or adhere to.
And Superman, being ostensibly the first superhero, hasn’t really been in that place since sometime in the 40’s.
Now this may sound like I have a Supes Hate-on. I actually kind of thought I did, but then it occured to me that I’ve really loved certan instances of the character. Superman in Kingdom Come comes to mind. …oh wait, there was a whole new status quo to play him off aganst in that. Um… okay Superman: Secret Identity then! …nah, that won’t work either. While it was constructed utilizing a lot of the key Superman puzzle pieces, it wasn’t really Superman. It wasn’t Kal El from Krypton, and thus it was a whole other life that proceeded to go in those very unexpected ways I mention above.
Still, both projects, particularly visually, really played up the grandeur and iconic nature of the character. Despite the rest, if that element were present month to month, I could see myself maybe running to the store for it. Now that my boy Karl here will be drawing a Superman title, and Frank Quitely, one of the most innovative talents of the last 20 years (IMHO) is drawing another, that’s a likelier scenario than ever before.
Karl, in his interview, really struck at the core of why Superman is such a great character to him, and Grant, in his interview put forward some really interesting sounding ideas. Fresh stuff that, in that inimitable Grant way, is also really obvious, but just never thought of until he comes along to breathe life into a tired franchise.
At one point in the interview Matt Brady throws this doozy at Grant:
NRAMA: (…) in your view, is Clark the mask Superman wears, or is Superman ClarkÕs mask, or are both masks for the alien, Kal-el?
Here, I think, is the kernel of something.
This is something no one (to my knowledge anyway, maybe I just missed because I was too busy spouting anti-Superman rhetoric all the time…) has really hit on before — that while Batman (and almost any hero with a secret identity, but Batman embodies it flawlessly) is a duality, Superman is actually a trinity.
So just now as I was making noodles it hit me — a scenario for Superman that could really make me spit up my shreddies. And it rests on this, Superman is really Kal El, the alien. (which was essentially Grants’s answer, but then he proceeded to elaborate on other aspects)
So here we have this alien being of great power stranded in his new home. He tries to be Clark Kent to fit in day to day and not terrify people, and he tries to be Superman - the all-American ideal that his foster parents in Kansas taught him to be.
But they’re both a struggle to maintain. The very thing that hooks people about Superman, the absolute sincerity (the look in the eye that Karl mentions in his interview) makes it absolutely impossible for him to carry off either of these roles with any ease.
And thus we have tension, conflict, contradiction — all that good stuff.
One result is that while Clark can show up at the Daily planet, do his job and not make waves, the minute anyone tries to get close (Lois, Jimmy, etc.) the cracks really start to show. His alien nature makes all the deceit and headgames necessary to maintain that role, that false identity, impossible for him. Anyone close to him will find out very quickly just who and what he is.
I guess the ultimate extrapolation of this idea would be the Miracleman-esque situation of those closest to him seeing their own flaws cast into such sharp relief next to him that they can’t bear it and freak out and flee, which Alan Moore has already done so beautifully. Although, faced with that very scenario Miracleman chose to doff his Mickey Moran persona altogether. Kal El I think, would keep trying, because he sincerely wants to connect with us. After Lois goes mad or whatever (never understood what he saw in her anyway), he goes on, meeting new people, new women, new friends and tries to learn from his mistakes, play things a bit differently, hoping ultimately to find someone who can handle it. Maybe this means Clark moves around a lot. Why not?
The other result is that while Superman does his thing, stopping trainwrecks and bank robberies, — what Warren Ellis once called something like “being the ultimate fascist policeman”, basically maintaining things as they are, and never looking at the bigger picture; I’m totally paraphrasing from memory here… — his real nature would feel compelled to get pro-active, and address the problems he’s uniquely equipped to tackle, essentially to change the world for the better, because he can.
The ultimate extrapolation of that would probably result in something sort of like The Authority, which I gather was created directly out of the above idea. Unlike The Authority however, who are human (mostly, I think) and thus, fallible; he is the real goods. More than human. The conflict would arise from his farm boy upbringing telling him to keep his head down, know his place, and do what’s right. Actually thinking that over for a second maybe it’s more of a matter of interpretation. Do what’s right, but on what scale? The farm boy looks straight ahead at what’s in front of him, while the alien looks at a whole planet.
So looking at both these threads, we have two dynamics that have, admittedly been tackled elsewhere, but not at once, and never with Superman.
Big thoughts. Cold noodles.
Track of the Day: Ovary Stripe - Kasabian
December 20, 2004 at 12:04 am · Posted by karl
This is not the cover to Adventures of Superman #630. It’s a mock-up I drew in an attempt to convince DC to let me do my own covers for the series ON WHICH I AM THE NEW MONTHLY ARTIST as of ISSUE #640. More details (and a brief interview) over at Newsarama.
It’s good to finally get that off my chest.
Kalman and I jammed on the colours, and I think it came out A-Okay. Click on it for a slightly closer look.
December 16, 2004 at 4:49 pm · Posted by matt
Check out the rest of my illustration portfolio.
December 15, 2004 at 12:47 pm · Posted by karl
I wrapped up my issue of The Outsiders yesterday. Something felt different.
Usually, about halfway through an issue of anything, I become painfully aware of just how much work I still have ahead of me. I start counting the pages, struggling through the mounting depression, until finally, when the job is done, I breathe a sigh of relief and relax in front of a movie with the knowledge that I’d successfully completed an issue.
Not so this time.
I don’t know why, but I barely noticed I was working through most of this project. I’d produce page after page and then a couple of weeks later, I’d look up at my bulletin board and think, ‘Jesus. When did I do all of those pages?’. And before I knew it, the issue was done, and I was left feeling satisfaction not at having finished the thing, but at the relative ease with which I’d finished it.
Now, is this positive or negative? I mean, on one hand, it’s great that I can do my job with much less stress and fewer insecurities about my abilities (both to do the work and to do it on time). But perhaps it’s also indicative of a lesser effort on my part. Shouldn’t I be more engaged in the process? I’d hate to think I’m sleeping through any of these pages, or ‘phoning them in’. Maybe I should try mixing up angles and drawing things I’m less comfortable with.
But you know, I’m pretty happy with the way this book turned out. There are some genuinely effective mood changes in the story, some good expressions, and I feel that I’ve conveyed some solid characterization. And I’ve been experimenting with some different forms of rendering and lighting (admittedly, to a limited degree). Most remarkable, though, is the feeling that I’m ready to jump right into the next project!
Anyone else ever experienced this? I’d love to hear some feedback…
December 13, 2004 at 5:58 pm · Posted by kalman
…I did some Star Wars artwork (for the RPG), but wasn’t really happy with it and so I never posted any of it.
Then, more recently, I did some more, but still wasn’t happy with it and so I never posted any of it either.
Now I’ve finally done some Star Wars work I can stand, and so here it is for your viewing pleasure, newly added to my gallery page.
I’ve actually got several books worth of Star Wars art in the can, almost all of it deemed post-worthy, so this section should be growing in the coming months.
Additions: I’ve added Justin Gray to the collaborators section in my links. I’m working with Justin on the Vampirella & Witchblade one-shot I’m currently drawing (more on that in a future post).
I’ve made all my links pop-ups so you can explore them without ever leaving the cozy warmth of the horhaus.
And I’ve added a link to my Amazon wishlist.
‘Cause ’tis the Season.
‘Cause I can.
Track of the Day: Don’t be Afraid of the Robot - Electric 6
December 11, 2004 at 2:09 pm · Posted by karl
It took a lot of mission-running and unethical dealings, but Orrika Tigone has finally earned a place at Jabba The Hutt’s side.
Why is it that this video game graphic looks more like Jabba than the painstakingly rendered efforts from the Special Edition?
And why am I playing this?
I need help…
December 8, 2004 at 1:24 am · Posted by matt
Introduction: My name’s Matt I hope this sketch doesn’t offend horhaus’ pre-teen audience.
Also, I’d like to send props out to all the comingupforair.net readers who’ve followed the link over here… that means you, mom. (btw, I promise I’ll rake the lawn as soon as I get off the computer).
December 4, 2004 at 1:10 pm · Posted by kalman
IÕve noticed that IÕve been talking and reading a lot about deadlines lately; living with them, the intricacies and pitfalls of navigating them, of the way they string together to create, in the absence of punchclocks and HR departments, the only real map of where youÕve been (or where youÕre going) in the open sea of freelance life.
Living this life as long as I have, IÕve gotten only marginally better at the elusive art of time management, and I still find myself often doing the goof-off/deadline crunch two-step.
A note to Art Directors and Editors: by goof-off I actually mean working hard consistently and committedly. Any lateness is due entirely to all the love and care I am lavishing on your project.
In a recent Permanent Damage column, Steven Grant writes of his own struggles with the apparently malleable nature of deadline time, and proposed the following laws:
1) “The amount of time required to complete a project will automatically grow to exceed the amount of time available.”
2) “Scheduling creates a gravitational field that attracts unrelated events toward the scheduled block of time.”
He actually, included a third law (sort of) but it completely went over my head, and so IÕll run with his ball and interpose a third law of my own, which is not really my own since it was originally observed by my arch-enemy, back before he was my arch-enemy.
3) ÒThe last 10% of any project takes as much time/energy as the first 90%Ó
Actually, his observation simply referred to time. IÕve found though that in most Work-for-hire circumstances itÕs actually energy. See, the last 10% of any Work-for-hire project invariably involves manic cramming, thus the time it takes is actually comparatively short, the energy required, however, is always monumental. When it comes to personal work of any kind though, IÕve found that both the time and energy required to break through that last 10% easily equals the first 90%, and often exceeds it.
In closing, IÕll leave you with a quote from the late, great Douglas Adams, a spectacular blower of deadlines:
ÒI love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.Ó
Track of the Day: Hands around my Throat Ð Death in Vegas
December 1, 2004 at 6:46 pm · Posted by karl
Had enough of television? Bored of watching whatever pirated bit of film you’ve downloaded?
Look no further: the Horhaus Work Cam is back online!
As promised, the Cam has been repositioned so that you can now actually see what I’m working on. It was no easy feat to mount my iSight above my table, but it’s in place and it’s aimed squarely at my current page (kind of off-kilter, admittedly, but I move the page around a lot, so your chances of getting a decent view are pretty good).
Thrill to the repetitious movement of my pencil! Gasp as I redraw a figure for the umpteenth time! Cringe as I add blacks to areas which should clearly be left alone! It’s like watching a Bob Ross show about comics!
Seriously, though, enough people have asked me about my work process that I thought this would be kind of interesting, and it’s the kind of thing I always wished I could see.
Still do, in fact.
So I’ll keep this thing online whenever I can - obviously, a lot of what I’m working on can’t be shown before it’s published - and hopefully I’ll have enough stuff going on to keep it interesting.
Enjoy, and don’t judge me too harshly. It usually works out in the end…
Sad Update: The Work Cam is down once again. I can’t seem to make it work properly through the firewall, and I’m having trouble with the dynamic IP thing. sigh. Maybe later…
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