Gawain Project: The Darkest Hour 1-3

[sigune]

"Herzeloyde summoned a false priest, of whom it was said that he rode as fast as a woman's thought. She thought him to her with all her soul's fierceness. But he only arrived the next morning, by coincidence, as he told the guard, because his mule needed rest, and because he himself would have tea with the lady of the castle."
- Adolf Muschg, Der Rote Ritter (1993)



Today's quote is, I fear, my own quick meagre translation from the original German. Forgive me. I just tried to get the gist across.

I am back with more story! It starts rather slowly, I fear - I considered bigger jumps, but they didn't satisfy me. I hoped to draw four pages by today, because that would make a neater beginning, but I have had to arrange a birthday party while the universe conspired against me, so I got less done than I would have wanted :/. It's three pages then, as usual.

We are going back in time for some very necessary backstory. Don't worry about the pace: it will soon pick up :).

Comments

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. For some reason, I love the closeup of the face puffing out wispy clouds.

Also, I don't know why, but the bird tracks really distracted me in the first piece, though the rest of it is awesome.

(Please remember that I know nothing about art--this is just me babbling.)

And I am often intrigued by wordless stuff. This really was interesting.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

The bird tracks - I added those in an attempt to show that the landscape is covered with snow. Not sure if it works :P.

I love dialogue, as you can imagine, but as comics are also a visual medium, I try to avoid unnecessary text. It's a challenge, but one of the things that make drawing comics particularly exciting :-).

[sophierom.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping up with this! I'll have to go back to the beginning soon, but I wanted to stop by and say - Wow! I especially love that first panel (not sure if that's the correct terminology).

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Great to see you :D! I am so glad you like this, despite the complete wonkiness of my perspective drawing ;).

There's no need to go back to the beginning just yet, because this is the actual beginning. I thought I could skip this part of the story, start by introducing my hero, and then return to the material I'll be treating in "The Darkest Hour" when it seemed convenient. But I find that I can't. So basically what I have been posting so far (the story drawn in brown ink) will fit after the story arc I started today (in black ink). I know it's a clumsy arrangement, but this is really a draft and not a finished/polished comic... So I have an excuse for being clumsy ;-). And this is the real start of the story, I promise :P.

When this arc is done, I will make a post with all the episodes I have posted so far in their proper order *g*.

episode order

[bettyboop-comic.livejournal.com]

I don't agree with you (again!)
Telling stories out of order doesn't invalidate the order you give them. Introducing your hero first & only then setting up the stage makes perfect sense, both from a story-telling & a commercial pov. Certainly chenging the order in which you tell your story only to conform to chronology seems a waste of energy.
As always, I may be misreading your statement there, but still felt the irresistible urge to chime in with my own much valued opinion ^_^

ps: hope you're home enjoying this holi-day.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I haven't been able to do a lot of enjoying, what with the disastrous party preparations :(. (Just promise me never ever to patronise and/or recommend Pain Perdu in the Walpoortstraat; they completely ruined four days of my life.) I'm totally worn out and I haven't been able to do any of the things I had been hoping to accomplish this weekend. *sigh*

As for the episode order, I am very much aware of the fact that a story doesn't need to be told chronologically, and that you can get really great effects by not telling it chronologically (I just finished re-reading Y :P). Despite that, I think that in my case it would be a good idea. For one thing, the impact of the Darkest Hour episode on Gawain's story is not - I think - going to be immediately or explicitly obvious. I don't think that telling it first will give the game away. Rather, if I tell it right, I think it will make people wonder about its place in what comes next. Secondly, it will introduce a few characters and relations that are quite pivotal. I wouldn't want to spring those on the reader out of the blue. Thirdly - plotting is just not my strong point. Playing with chronology takes quite a bit of craft if you want to pull it off successfully.

Eh, I don't know. Maybe it can stay where it is. But then I'm going to have to do things like writing "Ten years previously" over panels, and I don't like that :/.

I also do agree with you that it may not be a very good idea to put off introducing the hero. But I don't know yet how I'm going to solve that problem :P.

As this is a draft and a work in progress, your "own much valued opinion" is indeed very much valued :D. Just lemme think...

[bettyboop-comic.livejournal.com]

You know best what is important to the story, evidently, but there ARE other ways of having the reader figure out a certain scene is set prior to certain events without the obvious use of captions. Different color panel borders, wider gutters, different shape borders etc. Or simply have the reader figure it out, even if it would mean re-reading, which, you know, isn't a crime!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I should hope it isn't :D. I do it all the time!

As for the story, I'm already differentiating between this episode and the one with Gawain by using black for the past. But I don't think that is enough. - I'll just draw the episode first and worry about sequence afterwards ;-). I don't think that's very professional, but this being a draft I have excuses for everything *g*.

[death-ofme.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the perspective for the first page was really interesting. I stared at it for a good minute before realizing what it was and then my brain sort of went "COOOOOL!!!"

I'm intrigued...who are these sleeping men....who is that sneaking in....what's going to happen...?

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Not telling (yet)! :D

Ach, perspective - it's never going to be my friend, I think. I knew perfectly well what I wanted from the first page, but the execution is quirky at best :/. It's a relief to hear that it does looks cool when people have finally figured out what it represents ;P.

[corbye.livejournal.com]

Is this the eunuch we were introduced to previously?

The birds eye view in the first panel is beautiful. At first I thought it was a Japanese abstraction, especially since the contrasts of dark and light in the figure's cloak look rather like the eyes in a peacock's tail.

Sinister or merely an early visitor?

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Can't give that away, sorry! :D

LOL - these few pages really do lay bare my major shortcomings, don't they? The perspective is positively wonky. I'm not sure it's a good thing that readers have to stare at a page for a minute before it's clear what is shown - though I am very flattered by the suggestion that it might be a Japanese abstraction XD.

Yes, it's the Mysterious Mr Eunuch. I like him so much that I let him open the story :-).

[bettyboop-comic.livejournal.com]

Perspective looked more than fine to me. I think I'd seen some of the sketches you did for that first page previously, and at no point was it unclear to me what you were doing/portraying. Also: if the image presented is unconventional (i.e. Bird's Eye view) even the best illustrators will have their audience recalibrate their vision to accept the image. By no means does this reflect on your PERCEIVED/ALLEGED shortcomings.
That one image is at least as good as say, Terry Moore or Wendy Pini.
Not to slight the other people here, but how many of them read comics regularly?

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Oh, sinister! I love the bird tracks in the first one, and the puff of smoke in the close-up -- very evocative without being too complicated.

Very curious to see where it's going.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose the storyline will hold too many surprises for you ;-)...

Sorcerers are such fun! Klingsor does appear sinister, I agree. He's something like the anti-Merlin :).

Thank you!

[ysilme]

Just starting re-watching this, since it's been far too long since the first time...
I love the top view perspective of the first image, it's a great way to start, like zooming in. The bird prints are such a sweet detail. ♥

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you for taking the time for this! I hope you enjoy the story :).