Jacob Archives

Our ever popular weekly spotlight continues this week with talented and dangerous Chris Piers!

1. One of the things that I admire the most about your work is your use of technology. Can you explain your process and comment on how you think the use of that technology has shaped your style?

I went through a phase where I used my Wacom tablet to produce purely digital lineart. It was honestly mostly a question of when I had time to work, though. Essentially I could grab a minute here and there at work and sketch, using the tablet and PhotoShop. I liked some of the structure it gave my character-work but over time I felt it really made my work "stiff." I've since tried to spend a lot more time returning to good old-fashioned pencil and ink on Bristol boards. However, I do still use the tablet. What I tend to do now is sketch out very, very loose figure work and panels with the tablet and print that out. I then use a lightbox to put it on a Bristol board and ink it. It sounds time-consuming but each stage is pretty loose and it actually saves me time.

2. Anyone who knows you knows that you have a keen love of pop culture. How do you think that has fed into your art and writing?

I do love pop culture - comics, tv, movies. But it all stems from my one basic love: storytelling. I enjoy the art of telling a story in anything from standup comedy to nonfiction novels. It all feeds into my brain and I just let myself keep all that info as surface detail. I'm more focused and fascinated with the structure of telling stories (act breaks, character arcs and motivations, themes) and use the pop-culture stuff as a sheen. Maybe it'll show up in a way I draw an action scene, or if I include a joke based on something lots of people know about, or how I design a character to include parts of actors I find interesting.

3. More than anyone else I've met in the DCC you've really grown and changed. Can you explain how the Conspiracy group has affected your personal and creative life?

It's aided me in so many ways. First of all, I have a fantastic network of friends. Fun people to hang out with and discuss art techniques one day and the news or sports the next. It also pushes all of us to constantly have new material to review with one another. The networking aspect can't be overstated. I teach part time at the Writer's Center (Writing for Comics) thanks to the DCC. I do a weekly podcast (Television Zombies) with friends from the DCC. I've done countless stories for our anthologies and jam comics, which has in turn lead to other comics offers. Every city deserves a DCC.

I really love watching directorial info in the special features of a good movie. When the director blocks out the way he shot a scene, why certain events were critical and why others ended up on the edit room floor have taught me a lot about storytelling. How to shave the fat. Getting down to what the story is really about.

Anyway, not that I think I'm a great shake, but I thought that someone might get some information out of my process for working in art. Maybe I'm doing something that someone far more talented than myself will find useful, and go on to create the next great work. It'd be nice to think anyway.

step 1

PENCILS

I did the pencils pretty quickly. This was a single piece for August Adams novel 'National Dark Roast Day'. Very clever book. I really enjoyed reading it, and I was honored that he would want me involved. Anyway, I'd like to say that August approached me with the most composed and professional proposal I'd ever scene. Not only did he tell me exactly what he was looking for (with finished dimensions) but he provided a copy of his novel, and the location in the story where my scene would take place, so I could just read what was necessary. Really impressive. Anyway, after some discussion with August on the pencils I made some changes and moved on to inking.

Step 2

INKS

I was working at 200% ratio. It's not a scale that I'm used to working with, so I kept trying to keep in mind that every line was going to be twice as thin in it's finished proportions. I tried not to add too much detail, so that when the piece was finished it wouldn't look cramped or too dense.

Step 3

Grey tones

It used to be that inking was my favorite step in the creation process, but lately I really think it's been grey washing the piece. I used Dr. PH Martins conentrated watercolor, and chose sepia so that it would be easy to determined what was a hard black line, what was watercolor, and what was pencil marks. Using the Sepia also made the original art really beautiful. I was pretty happy with it at this point, and August seemed to be right on board, so I went ahead and moved on.

Step 4

Colors

I would just like to say that I HATE working in color. I am very uneasy, and unsure of myself in this step. It sucks. I never color anything that I'm really happy about. I mean, I think my colors are 'okay' but I also think that someone else with a stronger sense of color theory could make my work look a lot better. Anyway, I wasn't really sure if I liked the colors, but I wanted to do my best and make it look as sharp as possible. Seriously, looking at this makes me feel like someone with a mutant pimple planted between his eyebrows heading into his senior prom. "Please don't look at it!!"

Step 5

Corrections

Immediately after sending the finished work to August I thought, "nope, there's got to be more green in there." The whole piece looked too washed out, and it would severely compromise what I thought was a pretty solid piece. So, another hour in Photoshop and I had something I was really proud of. Probably from start to finish this was about 12-16 hours of work, and I thought it came out well. I'm super excited that it's been finished and August is happy. Mostly that's because I foresee myself spending the rest of the year working in various projects in black and white after the last two were color.

Anyway, that's how I work. Hope you enjoyed!

Hey gang, this weeks Softshell came a day late due to my grandmothers funeral. Sorry... couldn't be helped. All I can say about that is thank goodness it's all over. My first family funeral. El Crapo.

Anyway, I had such a great time at the last dremo meeting I thought I'd show my appreciation of the group by stealing thier likenesses for this weeks installment. Can you name all the conspirators?

I wanted to put more folks in it, but there's another 27 weeks of the comic to go. Don't worry, if you're not in this week, you'll probably show up eventually. Maybe if you're super nice I'll even KILL you!

Hey gang, last week Laura and I were interviewed by Hyattart.com. It turned into a fun little Q & A style interview. Check it out HERE, and let me know what you think!

I think getting this little bit of publicity has really helped to fuel our fires, as we were able to get two pages finished last week, and it looks like we'll get two pages out this week as well!

Well, several weeks have passed since SPX, and we're all very excited about some of the books we picked up. So, without further ado...

ROTTING IN DIRTVILLE, by writer/artist James
Callahan, mixes war, zombies and an alien invasion
into a horror tale told from a timeless and unique
perspective. The only complaint I can lay at
"Dirtville"'s feet is that the title and cover are not
especially eye-catching or exciting. I was fortunate
enough to notice the book because of Callahan's
exciting portfolio laying on his table at the
convention. I saw a chainsaw cutting through
someone's head but it was done in such intricate,
Darrow-esque detail, that it was beautiful.
"Dirtville" was beside the portfolio and once I
flipped through, the art sold me. So that was the
hook.

What I didn't expect was a story that focused on the
ways war affects those far from the battlefield.
"Dirtville" follows lonely and bored teen Milton Bloom
and the few other remaining residents in Dirtville as
they go through the motions of life. The martians
have invaded and it has lead to a deep depression on
the U.S. economy. Dirtville has very few adults. It
is implied that many are either helping in the war
effort or looking for work in the city. Milton's
parents died in an accident when half his house
collapsed. He remains in the standing half, chopping
wood for the residents of the town.

The book is paced perfectly for a horror tale. It's
very slow at first but deliberately so. It introduces
you to the residents of the town and we get to know
them and their lives and they lay of the land. Once
things suddenly go to hell, it happens fast but since
we know who everyone is, you actually care about what
happens to them. None of them make out too well,
including our protagonist, who by the end of the book
looks very different.

I was especially impressed with how timeless the story
seemed. It could have taken place in the 50s or
today. In the 50s, America feared invasion by the
Soviets during the Cold War and created martian
invasion movies in response to those fears. Today, we
worry about terrorists attacking us without warning.
I think that's why zombie stories are so en vogue
these days. It's a clear and present menace for us to
bash to pieces, yet dangerous in big numbers.
Callahan merges all these ideas together and creates
some very unique monsters along the way. His artwork
features a very uniform linework but every character
is unique and identifiable. His pacing and
storytelling, panel to panel and page to page, is very
easy to follow. He draws you right in and controls
the story so well, you'd think he's been working on
comics for years. Apparently, this is his first book.
In case it wasn't clear, I recommend picking it up.

To buy this book:
Rotting in Dirtville by James Callahan.
Gigantic Graphic Novels, publisher
120 PAGES - $13.95
ISBN 0-9763038-2-5

BLACK MANE
The first comic I picked up at the Small Press Expo
was a winner of the 2005 Xeric grant. It's a
semi-autobiographical tale by writer/artist Michael
LaRiccia called BLACK MANE. The title comes
from an alter ego Michael occassionally imagines
himself as, a sort of wild lion-man. The art looked
interesting while I was flipping through and I like
real-life stories in general.

Unfortunately, I did not end up enjoying this book.
It doesn't tell a story so much as include a series of
vignettes from Michael's life and his daydreams which
became repetative very quickly. The book claims in
its opening that it is an examination on gender roles.
But the extent of that, from what I read, is that
Michael continually daydreams that other guys are
abusive to their girlfriends. He also constantly
fears confrontations and imagines becoming the titular
"black mane" from time to time and fighting back. But
in real life, he never does. Nothing is different by
the end of the story. Michael is Italian, born in
America. But in the story he's constantly being
confused for a Muslim, Indian or some other exotic
ethnicity and therefore he is exposed to racism.
Except he's really white. And EVERYONE is insulted at
some point by other people. So his righteous
indignation on the effects of racism felt a little
hollow to me.

The art shows moments of inspiration. However, it
also features pages with a confusing narrative flow
and occassional pages that are drawn sideways. There
are also pages where Michael seems to sort of "give
up" and the detail just goes away and things become
very bloopy.

The supporting cast is not developed very well either.
His girlfriend is given absolutely no personality or
history and is drawn like Theo Huxtable. There is a
part in the middle where he goes hiking with some old
friends but nothing really happens and it doesn't
relate to the main narrative at all. Overall, I can't
recommend this book. It's a frustrating account of a
guy who sees everyone around him as aggressive and
racist but he does nothing to change or confirm these
thoughts.

Your mileage may vary.

To buy this book:
Black Mane
One Time Press
96 pages - $9.95

SHENZHEN: A TRAVELOGUE FROM CHINA
One of the books I was fortunate enough to pick up at
the Small Press Expo was Guy Delisle's SHENZHEN: A
TRAVELOGUE FROM CHINA. This was a delightful
autobiographical account of writer/artist Guy's
several-month-long stay in Shenzhen, a growing city in
southern China. The book is full of fun anecdotes
delineating the differences between Eastern and
Western society, as well as exploring themes relating
to loneliness.

Guy is a French-Canadian who works for a French
animation company. He is sent over to supervise the
animators in Shenzhen after the last guy gets burned
out. It's a tough job, because everyone else is
Chinese and Shenzhen is not westernized like Hong Kong
or other major Eastern cities. The language and
cultural barriers are numerous. Guy details his
thoughts and efforts to make the most of his stay.
From food, to shopping, to exercise, to travel, this
book contains all the minutia of daily life, seen
through the kaleidoscope of living in a foreign land.
Guy's artwork helps bring some lightheartedness to a
very serious story (though not without its funny bits
involving communication and other gulfs of cultural
difference).

Don't worry, the book has been translated into
English, from its original French

I felt that this really showed me something I would
not otherwise have known about. An honest account of
how life is on the other side of the world. I also
appreciated that Guy puts so much effort into
connecting with those around him, trying to stay
active, and exploring new foods and experiences. I
highly, highly recommend picking this book up and I
also plan to pick up his other travelogue,
PYONGYANG, in which he similarly worked over in
Korea.

Purchasing info:
Shenzhen- A Travelogue From China - Guy Delisle
Drawn & Quarterly Press, 152 pages Hardcover
$19.95
ISBN - 1894937791

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE
I recently picked up a book that I heard mentioned at
SPX and I have to recommend it to everyone out there.
It's called American Born Chinese, by
writer/artist Gene Yang. It follows three very
different stories that tie together at the end in a
very unexpected way. The first story follows the tale
of the Monkey King as he struggles to come to terms
with who he is, in a tale of humility. The second
story follows Jin Wang, an high-school student in a
very white school, where he struggles to find his
place. The third story concerns a very racist
portrayal of a Chinese kid named Chin-Kee, who comes
to visit his white cousin in America, Danny, and finds
ways to embarass him at every turn. While the story
is told from the perspective of the Chinese, the
stories of feeling like an outsider are so universal,
everyone can enjoy this book.

The artwork is simply fantastic. Expressive, clean,
confident, I absolutely loved it. The lineart is
simple and the colors are mostly flat but it's very
beautiful and powerful in a somewhat similar way as
Chris Ware or Mike Allred's artwork. I thought it
managed a wide range from cute kids to exciting action
to powerful drama to biting satire.

I really don't want to spoil too much about the book,
but don't be put off by the Chinese angle if you are
not Asian. The Monkey King's story was new to me. He
seems to have hundreds of stories in China and this
was one I was not familiar with - his quest to master
Kung Fu and to be seen as an equal of all the gods.
Also, the Jin Wang (is it a coincidence that the
character's name is so similar to the author's? I
think not, as the story feels VERY believable) story
is just a perfect portrayal of the stress of fitting
in in high school that almost everyone feels, along
with themes covering friendship and dating. The
hyper-racist story of Chin-Kee seems puzzling but
eventually makes a lot of sense. None of the stories
drag and they are all equally engaging.

This is one that I'll be proud to place on the
bookshelf alongside Blankets, Shenzhen, Bone, Watchmen
and some of my other favorite comics that show how
much can be done with this versatile and powerful
artistic medium.

American Born Chinese by Gene Yang
240 pages - $16.95
First Second Publishing
ISBN: 1596431520