Gawain comic: The Darkest Hour, 4-6

[sigune]

"Like I said, you want to make him miserable, and yourself with it. That is why old Klingsor should lend a helping hand."
- Adolf Muschg, Der Rote Ritter (1993)



It's been one of those weeks... I haven't drawn nearly as much of the story as I'd hoped. Next week I should do better :-).

Do you remember my Gawain and Ragnell picture? It won me the third prize in the Arthurian Contest at deviantART :D. I'm really pleased with that - I wasn't really expecting it to do well. Almost all other entries were digital paintings and photomanips, so I thought the judges would think my black and white, inked lineart hopelessly old-fashioned. But apparently they liked it. Hee.

I must not forget to scan and post a few Arthurs that I sketched this week. The sketches are good news, because they mean I am getting to know Arthur - and he is pretty crucial in Gawain's story. Arthur scares me. He has to be really, really strong as a character, because he truly is the best-known figure in the entire story. And he's so difficult. Well, for me at least.

Anyway - let's return to the story. As always, constructive criticism is welcome!

What went before:
On a dark winter's night, a strange figure enters a stronghold. Who is he? What is he doing there? And has anyone escaped his sleeping spell?

The Darkest Hour 1-3

Comments

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Very interesting--the first page is totally fascinating. I must admit that I was a little confused by the last page, but I'm sure it'll clear up when there's more.

Love this comic so much!

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

I confess to being a bit confused at this point. The two drawings pages are wonderful, however!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Is it page 6 that confuses you as well? It's the start of a flashback... Should I make that more clear - with frames or text? Please let me know what you feel is missing/confusing/disorientating, so that I can fix it :).

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

I looked Ygraine up, so it's a little clearer why you need her back story. I'll wait to see what develops. Normally, I like twists and turns. I don't know why they are throwing me here, honestly.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I have taken a jump back in time (again). Is that what confuses you? It's probably a bit of an unfortunate page selection anyway... I would have liked to post page 4 together with the first three - although, if I then started the next post with the flashback, it might still have been confusing/disorientating :/. Any suggestions for improvement?

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I think it's just the setup of having three pages there--had you just posted the one page, and then later posted "the darkest hour" page and the next couple pages, I think I would have been a lot less confused. ;)

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

I love all of it! Even though I have to admit to being a little confused as well.

And congratulations on your third place! That's wonderful.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thanks :D! That third place is extra funny when you consider that I was close to not submitting at all because I almost missed the deadline. I handed in five minutes before time was up XD. Good thing I did, though :-).

Can you describe what confuses you about this episode? I would like to fix it. Is it the flashback not looking like a flashback, or is it something else?

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

Hm, what confuses me? Well, I think it's the transition - I don't really understand what's going on at that point because I haven't gripped who is who yet. But just like valis2, I think that it will clear up once I see the next part. Like this, when you only have those two pages, there's a huge leap and suddenly - there's a forest. It's all part of what makes me want to read on as well, though. :)

[blue-nadir.livejournal.com]

Hmm! I understood that we were going into another scene after the title page, but it didn't come across as a flashback. Tacky as it may be, putting up a "15 years earlier" caption might clear it up. Although, it would clash with the first speech bubble in panel 1 of that page... I DON'T KNOW. Comics are complicated!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

They are :D. But sometimes there are simple tricks like using rounded frames or some such, to make clear that the timeframe has shifted... I wanted to avoid that because this flashback is going to be rather long - more of a story within a story - but if things are unclear, I'll have to change my mind :-). As for an explicit time indication, I have been avoiding that too, not for any reasons of tackiness but mostly because I don't want the timeframe to be strict. Partly because I am hopeless at mathematics ;P, but also because I want to keep within the sphere of legend. Time is elastic there *g*.

I'm thinking about my options :). Thanks!

[todayiamadaisy]

I've been thinking about what threw me about this for a few days and it finally clicked tonight when I saw your entry on The Sleeper's Den. On page 1, Klingsor says, 'But what of the stories I heard about you?' and I understand that could be a lead-in to a flashback about Ygraine. But the woman on page 3 doesn't have the same coloured hair as Ygraine on page 1, so I wasn't sure who she was. I was prepared to wait and find out in the next entry, though. I always try to remember that people reading the finished item won't be waiting a week for the next three pages; they'll be able to turn the page and continue.

I like the third panel of the man shouting for Gorlois to come back - you can almost imagine the tumbleweeds blowing past him. :-)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

HA! It's the hair! I did sort of expect the change of colour to be problematic... It will be explained later on in the story how/why Ygraine's colour has changed. But you are quite right: especially in this sketchy form, it's hard to tell whether or not the two women are the same person :/. They are, though.

-Yes, the story is indeed being written to be read in one go instead of three pages at the time. That's a bit wrong of me. It's true that the comics that used to be published two strips at a time in our daily newspaper have a kind of cliffhanger every half-page... I do try to make the instalments as neat as I can, but this time I did a rather poor job. The problem was that the title had to be on a page with an uneven number, in view of a book form. That has a rather awkward effect when posted.

Thank you for helping me out!

And thanks for the tumbleweeds - must remember them when I draw the final version :D.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

I love the drawing of Ygraine (presumably?) on the bottom panel; very Art Nouveau, with all the swirls and curves.

Arthur scares me. He has to be really, really strong as a character, because he truly is the best-known figure in the entire story. And he's so difficult. Well, for me at least.

Oh, Arthur is scary. I had so much trouble coming up with a voice for him when I wrote my yuletide fic this past December, but, for what it's worth, once I'd decided how he sounded in my head, he practically wrote himself.

I think the problem with Arthur is that he's the centre of the story, but, depending on which version you're reading, he may or may not do very much. And it's actually quite difficult to get any sort of handle on his personality because he's constantly reacting to things rather than necessarily acting of his own volition (I suppose the Emperor Lucius thing is of his own accord, but that entire episode is just strange).

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree with your take on Arthur. In many romances he just sits and watches, but nevertheless it has to be clear how and why he is a) powerful, b) successful, and c) capable of attracting and keeping strong allies. It's not easy to find a balance between older and newer material either. In the Welsh stories, Arthur is a very active character, a warrior with a short fuse. Later he turns into a wise old man who never leaves his castle - not even when his Queen is abducted.

I have too many different Arthur voices in my head at the moment ;-). Yours in the yuletide fic was good, I thought - he sounded very solid to me. And I think an Arthur should be solid :).

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

And I think an Arthur should be solid :).

I agree -- that's probably the most important thing for Arthur, regardless of what other characteristics he's given. He needs to be a king, above all other things. Even if he hates it, even if he's secretly convinced he's terrible at it -- he's got to be the anchor of the story, as it were.

Out of curiosity, what are the different Arthur voices you're dealing with? One way to look at it could be the idea of Arthur at different points in his life, since presumably his voice would change somewhat with his life experience?

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Yes, maybe I can use his age to explain some of the seeming contradictions in the Arthurs I know :-). Age can certainly account for the fact that he is a somewhat reckless, warmongering leader in some stories and a sleepy, bored king in others. I have more problems grasping what kind of man can be very fond of both Gawain and Lancelot, because these two seem so very different to me.

I think the step I must take is to wriggle free from the grasp of my source materials and fit the stories to my characters rather than to make the characters fit all stories. Most of those medieval romances seem like a kind of fanfic in which each author supported his own favourite character and manipulated the others in such a way that their hero shines by comparison :-).

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Most of those medieval romances seem like a kind of fanfic in which each author supported his own favourite character and manipulated the others in such a way that their hero shines by comparison :-).

Oh, medieval Arthurian romance? Totally full of Mary Sues. No question whatsoever about that. One need only read Yvain -- he's even got a magical lion! ;)

Malory seems to at least try to reconcile multiple versions of Arthur, although how much he succeeds is anybody's guess since Arthur really fades to the background for most of his text.

I have more problems grasping what kind of man can be very fond of both Gawain and Lancelot, because these two seem so very different to me.

They are very different, but they do have some basic traits in common, the most important of which is absolute loyalty to Arthur. I suspect that's a big part of how he's able to relate to both of them -- when you start with implicit trust, that probably helps a lot.

[ysilme]

And so it starts. Again, I'm really intrigued by the beginning.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Hopefully I can keep you interested ;-). I find that it is much easier to create interest than to offer a satisfying resolution! I have read too many disappointing endings. And now I must avoid those pitfalls myself... *grins*

[ysilme]

*grins back*
Icon love! ♥