COLOR FOR WEB COMICS

There's some great digital illustrations on the internet. How do you like the terrific example above by Jorge Gutierrez, riffing off a character by Gabe Swarr? Web comics are a different matter. There's some first rate artists and storytellers doing web comics, but at least half of them are still struggling with finding color schemes that work on the computer screen.

The horrible fact is, that the same saturated, digital color that makes illustration look good on screens can be lethal to long-format, comic book-style storytelling.

I envy the old print media cartoonists. Newspapers and comics couldn't reproduce saturated color, so everybody was forced to use something more subdued. It was lucky for them, because faded color didn't compete with the drawings the way saturated color does.

The early days of digital coloring (before Cochran and Gladstone figured out how to do it right) produced some hideous efforts. Here (above) the color dominates the page, not the story, and the graded background give Scrooge's silhouette an eerie glow. Yuck! Some newspaper strips are still colored this way.

A number of digital cartoonists have experimented with updated versions of the old pulp color, including Gene Hole, who did this picture. What do you think? I prefer the older way, though it looks a little old fashioned now.

Some cartoonists darken the lines so the brighter colors won't dominate the characters, and that seems to help.

In my opinion textured backgrounds seem to work for digital storytelling, but not everyone agrees.

John K's color style looks like it would work great for web comics. If ever John ever does a comic just for the internet, and can figure out a way to monetize it, he'll clean up.

In addition to those already credited, thanks to Katie Rice, Luke Cormican,  Michael Sporn and Bill Peckmann. 

"ATLAS SHRUGGED" THE MOVIE IS COMING!

Longtime fans of this site know how much I liked Ayn Rand's book, "Atlas Shrugged." Now it's a movie, coming out on April 15th. Man o man, I'm in Heaven!  I pre-paid for a seat in the very first show. Anyway, that's the trailer, above.

Here's (above) a clip showing steel magnate Rearden coming home to his snooty wife and her loafer friends. When I watch this I can't believe my eyes.  Imagine a film that actually portrays a businessman as a hero rather than a bloodsucker! How delightfully unmodern!

Here (above) the heroine socks it to a corrupt union boss. Me, I like unions, but I don't like guys like this.

It's playing at a few places in the L.A. area. I'm going to see it at The Landmark Regent Theatre (above, on the left) in Westwood. If you've been to Westwood then you probably recognize the street.

The address: The Landmark Regent Theatre/1045 Broxton Ave. /Los Angeles, CA 90024-2803/ (310) 281-8223. I don't know how long the film's going to run, but advance tickets for this theatre can be had via an automated telephone service: 1(877)789MOVIE. The online site says they're not selling advance tickets just now, but that could change.

Parking can be had at public lots and on the street. The garage across from the Regent offers $3 parking after 6PM. Before 6PM the first two hours are free.

Above, a map of Westwood with an arrow indicating the theatre. Get off the 405 at Wilshire East, make for the intersection at Wilshire and Westwood, and head North toward the UCLA campus, into the village.

For those poor souls who are not fortunate enough to live in L.A., here's a site with the name and location of every theatre in the country that's running the film:

http://www.AtlasShruggedPart1.com/theaters#California

JAMES ELLROY: THE SECRET OF HOW HE WRITES

I'm 3/4 of the way through James Ellroy's (that's his picture, above) new book, "The Hilliker Curse," and I'm liking every page. It's probably his best book, and as an added bonus he reveals the secret of how he writes. Hold your hats, because it's not the advice you're probably expecting.

The book is autobiographical. It's about his obsession with the women in his life. He's a famous author, so I imagine that he's had his share of one night stands, but it's the small number of special simpatico women that he obsesses over. He's in love with being in love, and he's not above having an affair behind the back of the woman he's having an affair with.

But I don't mean to trivialize his relationships. He's genuinely in love with these women, and when problems develop, as they always do, it hurts him to the core.  It takes a special kind of woman to put up with Ellroy's craziness. She has to be smart, vulnerable to male charm, sexy in a low key, every day kind of way, tolerant of his crazy, obsessive behavior, and has to be someone he can fantasize about, somebody who stimulates Ellroy to extreme anxiety and crisis, but who is simultaneously soothing and kind.

So where's the advice I mentioned? Well, he doesn't spell it out in so many words, but we can make inferences. Ellroy can write the way he does because he's compulsively driven to put words on paper, because he has a knack for it, and...here's the secret I promised... because his personal life is full of intrigues that inspire the intrigues in his fiction. Falling in love is an adventure, and adventure writers have to have real adventures in order to write.

Does every writer have to be a Don Juan? No, not at all...just the ones with literary pretensions. Ordinary fiction works very well with convention and stereotypes. The literary stuff requires  truckloads of you-are-there details and deep psychological analysis. To be a good literary adventure writer you have to have tortured, literary adventures.

Funny cartoonists reading this are probably wondering if this applies to them. I don't know. I don't think I need too many heavy psychological adventures to learn how to have a character trip on a banana peel. Ellroy's method is still interesting, though.

USEFUL CLIPS ABOUT FILM MAKING

Above and below, some short clips about film making. I wish what Hitchcock was saying here (above) could be tattooed on the arm of every comedy animation writer: technique trumps content. The way something is said is even more important than what is said. That's why animation scripts (when they're needed at all) need to be short. The artist performers need time to create great scenes without the necessity of always rushing ahead to the next plot point.



There really was such a thing as "The Lubitsch Touch." You see it in films like "Shop Around the Corner" and "Trouble in Paradise." I've never heard it explained adequately. but Wilder nails part of it in this (above) clip.



Here (above) Scorsese makes the same point that Hitchcock makes above. What's usually needed is story, not plot.



No surprise here (above). That a film should end with us wanting to see more is obvious, but I would amend the advice to say that a scene (I'm using live action definitions here), sometimes even a shot, should end with us wanting to see more. I wish more was written about setting up shots and scenes with this in mind.

Also I feel silly for saying this, but how do you like Polanski's white shirt and grey jacket? A really good quality white shirt, when it's thick and new and super white and nicely tailored, is a glorious thing to behold.

"THE GOLDBERGS" (I MEAN, "THE FITZGERALDBERGS")

ON MULLY FITZGERALDBERGS' BROOKLYN APARTMENT:

MULLY"S DAUGHTER: "Mother! It's the new tenant! Hurry up! You have to hear this!!"

MR. PIGEONTONSILS (RECITING A POEM): "In the fragrance from a honeysuckle clinking by a vine in the raspy sun / Have I known you. / In the song what it wharples a lark on top from a meadow in June..."

MR. PIGEONTONSILS: "By larks it is wings, by butterflies also; / By hornets is stings, In the thorn is a snail, so? / The Deity is in his heaven!!"

THE LISTENERS APPLAUD.

MULLY: "Well give a look! The Age from Romance! Dat's VERY beautiful! I'm Mrs. Fitzgeraldberg and dis is my family being here. You just move in??"

MR. PIGEONTONSILS: "Ah, Mrs. Fitzgeraldberg! What awakened you outside the window, the sweet song of the thrush? Or maybe from a woodland brook a gargle, what it passed by you the window? But your question I must answer.

Yes, I am being your new neighbor, Parcy Pigeontonsils, professional gigolo from your service."

MULLY: "Gigolo!? What's dis 'gigolo?' What's dat?"

MR. PIGEONTONSILS: "What is gigolo? Gigolo is useful professhon! I read poetry to women and they give me their luff savings. Sometimes maybe, a little lambie love with honey cuddle they get."

MULLY: "Yi yi yi yi yi! Lambie love with honey cuddle yet!!? And for this women give you money!??"

NEIGHBOR: "Mully, de whole town's tukking. You know, prying heyes witt wagging tongs!  Dey say wot you are gung to the dogs with dis gigolo guy, Mr. Pigeontonsils!"

MULLY: "But I only met him two menutes ago ut here."

NEIGHBOR: "I know, but news travels fast. All over the neighborhood it spilled already all the dirt. I say dis witt all doo rispact, of cuss."

HUSBAND: "Thank you. I think my wife is with needing a rest inside, now. Cum inside, Mully!"

MULLY: "Okay. I just say good-bye to Mr. Pigeontonsils."

MR. PIGEONTONSILS: "Ha ha...you can call me 'Pussy Bunny.' Ha! I'll call you... 'Peaches'...ha ha! Just remember to me giving your life savings! Well, I must be running along. Now I should ketch a haircot."

MULLY (VO): "Ha! You funny boy!"

MR. PIGEONTONSILS (VO): "Peaches, come by me for a ivining! Dun't be beshful. I have a coffee maker in de back. It'll cust you free."

MULLY (VO): "Oh, Mr. Pigeontonsils. How could you say such things? Why you hardly know me!"

MR. PIGEONTONSILS (VO): "Know you, my gorgeous gazelle? All my life I have known your sweet with lovely, your shy with beautiful. your luff savings, your...ouch...Oh!...oh!...I feel all of a sudden faint with dizzy. It swims by me the room...!"

MULLY (VO): "Goodness! Are you alright!!?? I come right over!"

HUSBAND: "Grandfudder,what are you dung?"

GRANDFATHER: "Ha! It's always the husband the last to find out! Gangster friends I am culling! They'll toss her down a flight from cellar steps.  This way for the same price you might hit a jackpot. Could be maybe two broken legs with a neck dislocated."

HUSBAND: "With breaking legs we don't settle things."

MULLY: "He's sick! I'm just bringing him some chicken soup!"

HUSBAND: "I know, Mully! I am from trusting you!"

INT. PIGEONTONSIL'S APARTMENT:

MULLY: "Yi yi yi! You rilly are sick, Mr. Pigeontonsils! Dis chicken soup will help, you'll see! But tell me someting...why you take ladies' money? How you get like dis? Dat's no way!"

MR. PIGEONTONSILS: "(Groans) Well, when I am desolate I am nervous; and when I am nervous I cannot work, and when I cannot work I lay in bed; and when I lay in bed the maid will not clean the house. So you see....."

MR. PIGEONTONSILS: "Sigh! You're nice to me, even though I try to take your luff savings. Maybe I am all wrong in my diagnosis from this matter. I'm going to chuck it all and get by a milk route a job. Or maybe I'll try the post office instead...better hours! No more ladies' luff savings! No more gorgeous gazelle!"

LATER, BACK AT MULLY'S APARTMENT:

HUSBAND: "You did a good deed, Mully, and since my wife likes poems,  I have memorized one for you. Do you wunt to hear it?"

MULLY: "Why...yes."

HUSBAND (RECITING): " 'Oh, the Owl with the Pussycat went to sea / In a beautiful boat, a pea-green one./ They took along honey with plenty of money,/ With...er, how does that end, now? Oh yes...with a Sinatra album, a mean one.' Well, I'm still working on it. What do you think?"

MULLY: "I think it's da must beautiful poem I ever heard!"

THE END


BTW: About the writing of this post: you've probably guessed that there's lot of dialogue swipes from Milt Gross here! I wrote the story then searched the Gross oeuvre for sentences and words that would help to fill it out. I love Grossian sentences like, "Maybe sometimes a little lambie love and huneycuddles they get." I'm going to use the word "get" more often in my own writing. It's a powerful little word that packs a big punch, and it's full of funny subtext.

I risked an anti-climax to end the story with a sentimental affirmation of the husband's love for his wife. I lose points for doing that because it makes the story less hip and edgy, but it gains points because it makes us like the characters. Did I do the right thing? Who knows?

Story writing isn't an exact science and the ever present possibility of failure is what makes writing fun.

Also BTW: The story is illustrated with frame grabs from the nifty "Goldbergs" TV series, which can be had on DVD now. The gigolo is Ernie Kovacs.

VIDEO LIGHTING PROBLEMS

I'm taking a couple of days to redo the lighting on the computer desk I'm using. Most of the photo stories I've shot til now were lit with a little table lamp off to the side of my computer. I could get lots of variation in the lighting just by tilting the shade.  It worked pretty well up until recently and now, for some reason I can't understand, everything I shoot looks terrible.  Maybe the computer's built-in camera is on the fritz, or maybe the lamp has an electrical problem. I wish I knew.

Anyway, I'll be gone for a couple of days while I wrestle with this problem. My computer's up against a wall so 3/4 frontal lighting is out.  Tomorrow I'll hang a mirror in front of me and try to bounce a light off it. Maybe that'll give the illusion of frontal lighting. Aaaargh! What a hassle!

Anyway, just to fill the space for a couple of days, here's some photos that I've been dying for an excuse to post. That's Hitchcock above. Here he makes fat look fashionable.  The tight clothes come off as comedic, but they're also a serious graphic statement. You take orders from people who look like that.

Here's (above) a self-portrait of Weegee, the famous New York press photographer. Aaaargh! A beautiful but creepy picture!

Poor Weegee lived in a bare bones one room apartment in Manhattan. He slept next to receivers that picked up shortwave broadcasts from the police and fire department. 

Here's (above) a nicely lit picture of Charles Laughton. It makes me want to draw a pen and ink version of it, with lots of crosshatching around the eyes and mouth. 

Thanks to Mike, a rare frontal picture of Mortimer Snerd. It's funny, but kind of evil, too. 

Boy, the right kind of lighting can make anybody look evil, even Harpo Marx who was reputed to be one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. 

If you're wondering how to give your place a touch of class, I suggest hanging a poster size picture of Reginald Van Gleason III (above). The frame should be a gold baroque design with lots of carved grape clusters and cupids. 

I'll end with another picture of Hitchcock, this time with Claudette Colbert. Hitch looks like he's having a good time. I hope he had lots of moments like this. The biographies make it seem like he never had any fun. 

EXOTIC DANCES FROM GLADIATOR FILMS

Above: Salome, who the Bible says performed the Dance of the Seven Veils for the head of John the Baptist. It must have been quite a dance because it inspired a gazillion dances in Hollywood Biblical epochs and adventure films.

You know the kind of films I mean; the ones where where primitive women do sexy, cheesy dances when they're summoned by a hand clap. Film posters used to have sidebar pictures with captions like "TREMBLE AS YOU PEEK AT THE DANCE NO WHITE MAN HAS EVER SEEN AND LIVED TO DESCRIBE!" Ah, that was a golden age of cheese, no doubt about it.

Well, a fan named pwgr2000 has a YouTube channel where he collects this stuff. He has more than 30 of the fifties dances up, and he's gotten a start on a forties collection. Embedding wasn't allowed, so here's a  link to the clip shown above, from the film, "Bowanga  Bowanga" (a.k.a. "Wild Women"). Be sure to watch the whole video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSw272lq2CM&feature=related

It's no fun if someone isn't watching. Sometimes it's guys with pith helmets who peek out from behind palm fronds. Sometimes, as in "Serpent of the Nile" (above), it's a Roman general who ogles lustily while guzzling wine from a birdbath-size goblet.

The entrance of the dancers in this film is one of the best in all of cheesecake dancerdom. I'd love to be hauled into a room like this with me on a throne looking bored.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaX8kKjeD08&feature=player_embedded

Here's my favorite ogler, from a Howard Hughes film called "Zarak." This guy is so good at ogling that he almost steals the show from the dancer, who can't dance very well.

 Of course if you look like she does (above), you don't need to know how to dance. I  think the dancer is Anita Ekberg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fKetnPkPJo&feature=related




Thanks to Violet Stereo for this bit of exotica (above) by Joi Lansing.

CREPES: THE NEW PIZZA?

A while back I blogged about a local pizza-by-the-slice business that was making out like Gangbusters.  They fronted on a busy street that had lots of foot traffic, and they were near a bus stop that was never empty. Not only that but the pizza was delicious...the owners must have done "Tampopo"-type  research on the recipe. And it was cheap!  My guess is that they sold the pizza for cost and made their money on the drinks. Pretty smart.

I wish somebody would sell crepes like that. I love crepes, and they're perfect for eating on the run. Watch the video above, which shows how Parisian street crepes are made. They're cheap to make and can rival sit-down restaurants for quality when they're made right.



It helps if crepe vendors put on a show.  This guy is selling pancakes in India, and I'll bet he gets huge crowds.

Er...maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but I'll digress to say that crepes aren't exactly pancakes. They're thin and buttery, and don't rise like pancakes because they don't contain yeast. It's a different experience. A crepe is a thoroughbred among pancakes. With the right handling they're serious gourmet food.




Crepes Suzettes, the crepes that are made with cognac and set on fire are, after all, just orange-flavored crepes. You can make this dish cheap at home with recipes from the internet. If you don't have Grand Marnier or Cointreau try brandy, which is a lot cheaper, but which may not contain enough alcohol to burn. The TV cook Alto Brown claims it doesn't matter because the crepes taste better if doused with booze and not set on fire.

Come to think of it, Crepes Suzettes could be street food too, minus the alcohol. They still taste really good, alcohol or no.

Am I thinking about dumping cartooning in order to sell crepes on the street? Nope, no way. I just wish someone else would do it so I could get some good, cheap food.

P.S. Here's a fascinating variation on the classic recipe. It sounds like it could work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzdbG3f3vQo&feature=related

THE SCARIEST BROTHERS GRIMM STORY

And it's their shortest, too! Only one paragraph long. In German it's called "das eigensinnige Kind." In English it's called:

THE STUBBORN CHILD
From The Brothers Grimm, translated by Maria Tatar

There once lived a stubborn child, and she never did what her mother told her to do. And so our dear Lord did not look kindly on her, and let her become ill. Doctors could not cure her, and before long she was lying on her deathbed. Her coffin was being lowered into the grave and they were about to cover it with earth when suddenly one of her little arms emerged and reached up into the air. They pushed it back in again and covered the coffin with more earth, but it was no use. The little arm kept reaching out of the grave. Finally her mother had to go to the grave and strike the little arm with a switch. After she did that, the arm withdrew, and the child finally began to rest in peace beneath the earth.

Thanks to Dr. Psycho at the Childhood Fear site for the nifty graphic:

http://childhoodfear.com/tag/undead/

LABAN GESTURE EFFORTS

Recently I promised a teacher friend to repost what I'd put up about Ed Hooks (mistakenly referred to as "Hook" above) and the Laban theory of movement that he teaches. Well here are the sketches, pizza stains and all. I wonder if I made another mistake when I drew effort number one? My sketch looks like pinching rather than flicking. I don't have the book now, so I can't check it. 

I'm sorry to say that I'm not a fan of Laban's theories. I think animators would better off spending the time learning how to draw. I have to admit though, that there's a germ of an interesting idea here. Seeing the ideas laid out like this does make me wonder if some type of just-for-fun, cartoonist Kata (a martial arts term) might be possible. 

Here's (above) all eight of the Laban gestures performed by acting students. The teacher shouts out the names of different gestures, and they have to adapt the gesture to their acting of the lines.  I don't think Shakespeare's very well served here, but it's just an exercise.



This video (above) on stage movement looks like a kind of yoga for actors and cartoonists. There's some nice moves here.