Some great PiPress illos!
Wow, there is a bug going around the Twin Cities, and I got hit hard by the germs. I still have a cough, and I have no voice, but the fever has gone down. I’m finally back to work.
While I was at home nursing myself back to health, I really enjoyed reading and looking at the Pioneer Press. It was a good reminder of the talent we have in this newsroom. What makes me happy is the strong working relationship the reporters and graphic artists and designers have with one another. This was evident in Monday’s front page.
Reporter Doug Belden and graphic artist Steve Thomas came up with this fun alternative story form about a middle school English class that teaches how to create a graphic novel.
Steve tells us how the idea went down:
The writer, Doug Belden, came to me with a story he was working on about a local middle school that offered an elective course on graphic novels. His idea was to do the story as a graphic novel. I was immediately interested and accompanied him to the school for further interviews with some of the students. After seeing what graphic novels they were reading in class (and at home on their own) it became clear that the majority of it was manga or similar style art. Manga is the Japanese word for comics and print cartoons*. Manga as a term outside of Japan refers specifically to comics originally published in Japan*. The style of art is unmistakable, with characters who (usually) have large eyes and small noses and mouths (I’m no expert on the subject so an internet search on manga might get you a clearer definition.) I decided to try to mimic that style in this project considering that’s what most of the kids were reading.
As far as putting it all together, Doug sent me the text to go through and pick what I thought was important. I also had to consider what would work as a ’script’ for the graphic novel. This, along with sketching out panels and characters, eventually lead to the final product. It all came together fairly easily, or maybe it just felt that way because it was a fun project to work on.
