A dash more grey before the black and white

Simon rang last night to say he's finished inking the third six-page episode of Straitjacket Ninja. All he needs to do now is electronically stick the words on it. This one was long delayed, by various things, but mostly paying work. One of the problems of restarting something like the nutty ninja on spec is that Simon and I are easily distracted by anyone waving money at us.

Water was also something that slowed Simon down. He was stranded in Nelson due to heavy rain and winds, and had a plumbing problem that means he needs to replace walls in his house.

Illness is the thing that has been slowing me down. I'm finally feeling much better after almost a month of ick. Nothing serious, but it really me stopped my living my life the way I'm used to.

I did manage to draft a Straitjacket Ninja script the other day, which despite ... or perhaps because of ... being written with a fever still holds up okay. It needs some editing, but the storyline actually makes sense when read with a less fevered mind. The story is a tribute of sorts to the creators of Knuckles the Nun, and introduces two continuing villains.

I also started sketching out something a bit more epic, but that will probably remain a sketch for now. For the moment I'm concentrating on short, punchy scripts. A few months ago I sat down and wrote three full-length comic scripts, just to see if I could. I have no idea of their quality, but it was a good exercise from my point of view. The story was a alternative reality Victorian-era detective story with vampires and other undead ... dare I say a Sherlock Holmes meets Vampire Hunter D? More an idiot second-cousin of Holmes, and a not so bleak vision of the world as Vampire Hunter D.

So the good news today is that coming soon to this blog is a sneak peek at an inked Ninja page from episode three.

The artwork is, of course, copyright Simon Morse, 2009.

Pencils

Simon tells me he's almost done inking episode three, so I thought I'd share the pencils of page six and then in a later post compare the finished inks. As you can see Simon puts a lot of work into his pencils.

The script for this page was as follows ...

PAGE SIX
6/1
[ JUSTICE IS DONE. ]
SN standing over the knocked out hoods.
(off-panel) Cop: "You there ... !"

6/2
Undercover cop car, with the cheesy removable red light thing on the roof that they always bring out. A stereo-typical undercover cop in full action pose, gun in both hands, using the open driver's side car door as cover as he points his gun at SN.
Cop: "Freeze, Police!"
[ WAIT ... ONE MORE CRIMINAL!?! ]

6/3
SN leaps so his foot goes through the side window of the car door that the cop is using to shelter behind, kicking the cop squarely in the chest (and as we find out later embedding shards of safety glass in the lining of the cops heart). This can be quite a large frame as long as the next one is inset in the bottom right corner. If you want you can have the cop's gun going off, but missing.

6/4
[ NONE SHALL ESCAPE THE LAW. ]
SN running off, leaving the cop lying on the ground.

NEXT: THE FLAT FOOT
the next episode is from the cop's partner's point of view.

Artwork copyright Simon Morse

Men in Drag

I have a story in my head that wants to come out. There are quite a few bashing about in my head, but this one is being the most aggressive in its attempts to get my attention. I've been resisting it, holding it back. Why? Because the main protagonists in it are all women.

Writing women as a male writer is something I'm always worried about. I don't want them to come across as men in drag. The story that wants to be written is about three very strong women, but all of them flawed. I've come to know the three of them rather well, as they fight to get out of my head and onto the page. I know what they like, dislike, read, watch, eat, and do for fun. I know very intimate details about each one, including things they would never tell another soul.

I think they're well-developed characters, but there's a nagging voice inside my head that tells me that there's a problem. They are all very sexy women who take off their clothes on stage.

Comics are a male domain for the most part. Many comics feature attractive females in skin-tight outfits with gravity-defying breasts for the simple reason that males, in particular boys, like looking at pictures of these women. If I write this story, and by some miracle it gets drawn and published, is anyone going to notice the writing, or will it just be fodder for young boys to use under the blankets at night with a torch? Will anyone notice how well-rounded the personalities of the women are if their physical assets are also well-rounded?

By its very nature the story does contain 'sexiness'. There are scenes in my head that are rather provocative. Am I wanting to write this story to please the teenage boy that still lives inside of me, clutching his torch tight to his chest? Is that a bad thing? Can I then justify it by adding a veneer of characterization and sophistication over the sexiness?

Am I just trying to stop myself writing by over-rationalizing? Or do I just think too much?

Art copyright Simon Morse

The Ghost of Comic Future

Simon has been busy pencilling Straitjacket Ninja scripts, and has sketched out the first five, and fully inked the first two. The pencilled pages, in all their un-inked glory, are ghostly grey apparitions of comics to come.

For me the pencils are great. They show you that it will all work out in a little while. They tell you that everything will fit in the pages, just like you hoped. Pencils are comic book appetizers . They prime you for the main course of inking.

I have very little artistic talent of my own. A few years ago I went with Simon and his friend Michelle to give some young school-kids a short talk about comics. They asked questions, we burbled on a bit, showed them some censored highlights of what we had produced, and then the teachers got everyone to draw a comic strip of their own. Mine was judged to be the worst in class. It deserved the award.

So I'm always amazed by anyone who can take an idea and turn it into art, and I'm always a little awed and overwhelmed when someone takes my words and creates a comic using them as a starting place. It's nice to be able to write something as vague as ... "Straitjacket Ninja leaps at them from above" ... and see something as real as this frame as the result. And that's only the phantom pencils. When it gets inked it will only get more real.

Art copyright Simon Morse