Thursday, January 03, 2013

My TAG Comic Book Contribution




So strong as a visual storyteller I don't have to do balloons

8 comments:

MrGoodson2 said...

You can really tell that page 3 is the all digital page. No pencil thumbnails for it. Got to finish that Kirby monster painting today.

Tom Moon said...

Very cool Ellis! But, for what it's worth, I had a bit of trouble following what was happening on page 2.

Panel 3 shows the first guy falling, his baseball cap hanging in mid-air, indicating that he's already fallen into the hole.

The next panel shows the ground collapsing underneath the safari cap guy, so I assumed that the bottom panel showed HIM falling into the hole.

It took me a while to realize that the squirming figure on the left of the bottom panel was the third guy, head hidden, holding onto the safari hat guy so he wouldn't fall.

I think it would be more clear if you changed the cap hanging in mid-air to a shot of the first guy STARTING to fall, maybe his legs disappearing into the hole; something like that?

Rickart said...

Cool! Art for the Book! Excellent!

MrGoodson2 said...

Good notes Tom. The kind you want. Marty informed me of confusion and gave me notes and I used them. I may revise yet again. But if I don't, this is it Rick. Do the rt clk, view image for the highest rez. If that's not good enough I'll email them to you.

MrGoodson2 said...

It really does look like a guest artist did page 3. Forgot to put glasses on the pith helmet guy, didn't give him a brushy mustache. Looks as different as Wood and Ditko together.

Davis Chino said...

Ellis, this looks so great!! I love it!! And yr "Crypt Keeper" figure is the best one I've seen since the E.C. crew came up with the original (seriously--I'm sure you've noticed how all the new horror anthologies include their own take on the Crypt Keeper role--but yours is the most distinct and memorable one I've seen--well done, man!).

I agree with what Tom's saying about some slight confusion on page 2--but I thought it was clearer than it used to be! (maybe take the frame where the second guy's starting to fall (the one after the floating cap) and put that third figure in the bkg? He could even be moving to grab the second guy?)

Really looks great! Love the lack of dialogue. Tho' I wouldn't mind a pithy comment from our Crypt Keeper.

Davis Chino said...

"...comment from our Crypt Keeper in closing."

MrGoodson2 said...

Marty. I could do some revision. Maybe tomorrow. What is interesting about this strip is the reduction process involved.

From 10 pages of thumbnails to a wrap in three.

To having dialogue thought through clearly in my head to realizing it was better off without.

Ron Thompson and I watched an "experimental" film compilation VHS tape about 18 years ago.

Just old student film level crap that someone in New York was touting as avant garde.

They got William S Burroughs to do a couple of sound bites and just cut and re-cut the same footage into slightly different sequences over and over.

Real time suck waste of time to even try and watch it.

But I discovered even with something as pointless as that film, that the mind tries to reassemble it as a story.

I guess the lesson is, just make an effort. It's liable to come out better than you think.