Cloud 109 - Creative Musings

I'm going to depart from our usual Wednesday practice of posting a new page from Cloud 109 and just take a slight step back for a moment while I run through some of our current considerations. As many of you will be aware in common with a lot of other comic creatives we are in the process of putting together a graphic novel with nothing behind us but our own talents and a steadfast conviction that we have something worth saying.

Cloud 109 is a book dealing with real teenagers, living in a dystopian and dysfunctional world, who's one source of self expression and enjoyment is the cyber world of Cloud 109. Our intention is to create a real contrast between their day to day reality and the artificial reality of the world of avatars and online gaming. And once we've got the reader semi adjusted to that idea, we really start to play with their assumptions.

We did, at one stage early in this project's development, have a big deal publisher enthusing over what we were in the process of putting together, but in common with a lot of publishers, they have now cut back on their lists and are concentrating on their bigger selling titles and at that point we did decide that we would create our own gig with our own resources.

The truth is that for a lot of first time creators this is the only way forward, even if you have the attention and interest of a senior editor, they still have to sell you to the people with the purse strings and if you're not already tried and tested product with impressive sales figures to back you up, it is extremely unlikely in the current climate that those purse strings are going to be released.

However, at the same time as publishers are being forced to retrench, there are really exciting albeit difficult to quantify, opportunities opening up for creators, you only need to take a little visit over to ITunes to realize that we are on the brink of a communication revolution with the rise of the horribly titled but nevertheless laden with potential "app". which is tailor made for delivering comic strips in an attractive and zingy format, liberated from the shackles of printing, distribution and retail costs and even if books as we know and love them aren't quite dead yet, there are now some very attractive alternatives to help you get the message out and perhaps even generate some much needed funding.

However one of the many attendant risks of going down the self funding path is that you might be in danger of getting all self delusional, in other words (gasp - choke!) the reason that the world of big time publishing isn't beating a path to your door is that actually the magnum opus that you are devising is in reality utter crap. At this point it's worth checking out what the world of big time publishing is putting it's resources behind and asking yourself is my project in the same league and even if it is, is it too similar to what's already out there?

Here for example are what Walker Books and Random House are currently flagging up as their leading Manga titles aimed at pretty much the same market as "Cloud 109" and from the little that I can glean they are indeed very successful. But successful to the point that's it's hardly going to be worth anybody else attempting to squeeze something similar looking into an already very crowded market place, I mean there are only so many "Disneyfied" Manga titles with antiseptically clean looking teens you can produce before it all gets to look really old hat.

So I go back to our kids Cary, Rabby and Gina and I know that they are the real deal, they and many of the other faces that you see are actually real people following this story (which is another twist on reality) and even in their cybernetic incarnations their actions and words are informed by their real lives. In fact in the research that David and I have done putting this story into the hands of young readers in schools as well as friends and family, we have discovered that the thing that engages with children and particularly girls, are the real world Gina, Cary and Rabby. The fact that they don't live in a world of safe and "Disneyfied" stereotypical cliches but do have to walk through underpasses smelling of piss and vomit does give their story just that little bit extra in terms of addressing a world that they as juvenile readers (helicopter parents notwithstanding) are starting to engage with.

And talking of seedy underpasses here's some work in progress for the endpapers of our book as well as the dedicated website that we're in the process of devising.

David Hall - Disney's Dark Concept Artist

The release of Tim Burton's darkly gothic treatment of "Alice in Wonderland" got me to thinking about an earlier and even more disturbing vision of Carroll's classic text, where a visceral horror seems to attach itself to the fish eyed creatures that surround the little girl in the pinafore frock.

There's a paucity of information on David Hall, of the little that is known about him it can be established that he was born in Ireland in 1905 and spent much of his life in the U.S.A., where his incredible artistry brought him into the world of Hollywood and movie making with some of his earliest known work in this sphere involving him producing concept art for the 1933 production of King Kong.

His involvement with the rapidly expanding Disney Studio a few years later seemed a logical move. Disney who was intent on bringing a European sensibility into his feature length productions was looking for a Rackham'esque feel to much of the concept work that was going into the production of "Snow White", "Pinocchio" and "Bambi". He was also toying with the idea of making "Alice in Wonderland" into a feature, having made a previous foray into using Carroll's text as a springboard for an animated series of shorts some ten years earlier with a live action girl propelled into an animated world under the title of "Alice's Wonderland".

Hall's brief was simply to produce as many concept artworks as he could manage, whilst working with access to a team of storymen who would invite Hall along to brainstorming sessions, the artist adding the ensuing ideas to the already burgeoning pile of artworks required to flesh out Carroll's text in such a way that Leica test reels could be shot of his artworks and then presented for Disney's consideration.

In the end Hall provided an astonishing 400 plus artworks in the three months that he was working on the project, but Disney still wasn't quite convinced that it was the right vehicle for the studio to commit to. Subsequent events which were to have seismic repercussions for the studio's output (i.e. the war and a very messy and bitter studio strike) meant that the project was laid on the shelf until, in the early 1950's, the whole concept was re-assessed and Hall's brilliant but very dark vision was supplanted by a much more contemporary and lyrical feel with much of the inspiration coming from the paintings of Mary Blair (sister in law of famed animator Preston Blair whose Walter T. Foster "How To" animation books were a mainstay of every animation studio both in the U.S. and the U.K.).

So here for your consideration are these seldom seen masterpieces - ultimately way too dark for Disney but wonderful nevertheless.

All images © Walt Disney Productions 2010.
 

Into Battle! - Embleton's Look and Learn Masterpieces

Following on from yesterday's posting of Embleton's "Wulf the Briton" epic, it's worth taking a look at one of the most dynamic series of paintings he was commissioned to create.

Look and Learn was as was briefly touched upon last week, the brainchild of visionary editor Leonard Matthews. Matthews knew what he wanted in terms of quality artwork and scripts and with the best part of twenty years editing experience behind him knew how to source the material for the new weekly which would combine comics and text with truly dynamic artwork to engage with all but the most reluctant of readers.

At the time that Ron Embleton was approached by Matthews, he was coming to the end of an epic centre spread comic strip entitled "Wrath of the God's" and although the artwork he produced for Michael Moorcock's script was truly astounding he was nevertheless chary about committing to a sequel. The work that Look and Learn afforded him meant that he could safely relinquish any further input on "Wrath of the Gods' and hand over the artwork duties to John M. Burns.

Embleton then proceeded to produce some of his finest work for Matthews, ranging from black and white spot illustrations and vignettes to single and double page comic strips all with a primarily historical content but it was perhaps a series on the English Civil War and the subsequent series of "Into Battle" both undertaken in late 1962 early 1963 that saw his best work for this publication.

Working in a really loose manner he drew straight onto the art boards with pencil and then in some cases red and blue biros, before applying washes of ink and then working up areas of sharper detail and contrast with light body paint. Some of the methods he used are most apparent when you look at his monochrome work. The passing years have discoloured the original boards to a light bisque hue and it's very easy to observe where he has added lighter areas of gouache which appear as a steely grey.

These paintings are to my mind the finest works that this great artist created and in terms of atmosphere, historical conviction and sheer in your face dynamism they have never been bettered.

More of Embleton's fabulous work is featured on the excellent Look and Learn website and most of these paintings are available as quality prints from Bridgeman Art on Demand.

Septimus Scott - The Septugenarian Swashbuckler.

In the immediate post war years, when the U.K. was almost as bankrupt as it is now, rationing was still circumscribing people's lives and the world seemed as monochrome as the Ealing films that so adroitly capture a London of bomb craters and petrol coupons, there was nevertheless new opportunities to be explored and one man determined to make his mark was a very energetic and visionary comics editor by the name of Leonard Matthews.

Matthews who was working for the U.K'.s biggest comics publisher the Amalgamated Press, was never content to sit still and amongst his many innovations was a series of digest sized comics which were essentially a reformatting of a series of Western themed comics he had produced for the Australian market. The comics which had been produced to the same dimensions as U.S. comics were too big to conform to the needs of paper rationing that was still in effect in dear old Blighty. Matthews essentially chopped up the layouts to create two tiers of panels per page and reduced the comics to A5 size. The comics were a success, reflecting both the popularity of the genre and also the extreme portability of the comics which were frequently referred to as "pocket libraries".

Matthews had bigger ideas than just merely confining the new comics to the adventures of Buck Jones and Kit Carson and doubtless aware of the success of the U.S.'s Classics Comics series, decided that he should create a much broader canvas by adapting classics of children's literature with an emphasis on tales of derring do and sword play, which he was an inveterate lover of both in terms of the films and literature that he managed to absorb despite his frenetic life style.

Thus was born Thriller Comics Library (later rechristened Thriller Picture Library) and with his usual gusto and determination he set about commissioning the finest artists and writers (himself included) to make the series the best of it's kind and it has to be said that in comparison the Gilberton series of Classics Comics did look somewhat diminished.

The early covers of the series were kind of OK but not really what Matthews craved and it was his decision to move away from what was essentially colored line artwork towards the use of fully painted covers that really helped push Thriller Comics into the premier league. And there was one artist more than any other that really best epitomized the vision and intent of Matthew's brainchild.

Septimus Scott when he first came to work for Matthews was at an age when most of his contemporaries were retired, he had pursued a very successful career as a commercial artist for much of the century producing artwork for Players cigarettes, railway posters, book illustrations and pretty much anything else that his agent put his way. However, when Matthews first contacted him he was living in a flat in Brighton's Montpelier Road, his wife having moved out to live in a caravan and his career definitely in the doldrums.

The brief that Matthews outlined to the by now seventy plus artist, enabled Scott to produce some of his finest work and Matthews whose single mindedness brooked no compromises rapidly deduced that Scott's black and white line work fine as it doubtless was, should be reduced to a minimum, so that he could concentrate on producing as many covers as possible for the new series whose production quota now required four issues a month rather than the tentative two issues, they had hitherto been producing.

As a consequence Scott's work output rose to meet the challenge and in the process his work unerringly epitomized a now dimly remembered era where the likes of Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks Junior would captivate cinema audiences and authors such as Rafael Sabatini and G.A. Henty were bestsellers.

Matthews would take the essence of the vision that spawned Thriller Comics and rework it a few years later to create Look and Learn magazine and in doing so take with him many of the artists and writers involved with the series, including Septimus Scott, who continued to work on bravura historical artworks well into his eighties.

So here's a look at some of those amazing covers - there's a full gallery of Thriller Comics library covers over at The Book Palace.