Got some interesting reader feed back on whitechapel, i like it when people are that thoughtful. Nice comments in general, i thought I’d respond in a way to this part “The next few pages are all very basic and well, I don’t know what you could loose or gain, if anything.”
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This is a good time to address that because even more than the last while with the shift to B&W [addressed in the notes with page 22 by the way], I expect that some readers will fined the ensuing 8 or so pages kind of, mundane? This part of the story is depicting something that is – Charlie’s day job. So, that’s kind of the point. That’s what’s to be gained. And the shift to B&W, it’s about that not in Oz feeling exactly. It’s not all about always impressing you all. Had I sexed it up it would fail to communicate the correct tone for his story. It’s a challenge often for story tellers to suppress the urge to wow, when the story needs us to step back, and just show and tell. Our ego loves it when you say something like “Okay, this opening is a brilliant juxaposition and I doubt I’ll see something like it for a long time. Top marks.” But if we just suck up for more of that, well i might as well just save myself some time and do a book of prints.
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One thing about good storytelling is it should not be about pandering to the desires of the readers – even if what they say they want is to be thrilled all the time, it makes for ultimately dull stories with no contrast or truthful context. In comics, with all the escapism, people often loose sight of this. It’s one of the reasons the literati smirk at mainstream comics when they do. Fandom is so often adverse to a little pain and effort in their reading, it’s quite lazy. And creators in that world – which i myself take part in from time to time for a decent rent check – are cowed for fear of slow sales into agreeing fervently and going along with the less mature readers demands – rather than taking chances like Alan Moore did with Watchmen and V, and pushing the reader to work a bit.
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Reminds me of some reviews for a short story I did with Rantz Hoseley a little while back, i think the reviews totally missed the point of it, by saying “a brooding noir psychological thriller where nothing really happens” and another called us “emotionally manipulative“.
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Well honey, I think by nature fiction is manipulative through and through, so i make no apologies for that. Silly. Of course sometimes you don’t notice, and the authors do not want to be obvious about it. But Widows is a highly stylized compressed Noir story so being overt about it was sort of the thing. But it’s funny that people say this about internal dramas a lot, that they are over wrought, or that nothing happens – i often feel the same away about action packed books so even more amusing to me. Just because it’s happening inside the character does not mean nothing is happening!
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Ever sat next to a partner who’s chewing on something in their head, about you or someone else? The tension in the air so thick it can be cut? If you think nothing was happening I’ll bet that relationship didn’t last long, dummy.
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I do worry about boring people though, so i was careful in pacing this scene, to keep it just long enough to make you feel his routine, without i hope turning you off. Mind you the pacing in this story is for a printed book, and it’s going to take two weeks to get thought the next 4 pages online. So i hope you can enjoy the little moments and in jokes. It pays off i promise. :)
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So some news, Dream Life is going to move to a new home soon. I’ll be keeping this first chapter archived here, but converting this portion of the sequential site to a guest spot so we can feature different cartoonists work. The new home is still something I’m going to keep to myself for the moment, other than to say i’ll be joining one of the two premier, most trafficked web comics sites on the web, and keeping all my rights for this story. ;)
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Also if I’m lucky at some time I’ll have something on Zuda too, so that’ll be kind of awesome.
