December 2006
So after five pages of drawing buildings that were never in the script, I got back to drawing the story that began the script as “page one”. Back to Dick Hammer in a road rage, careening down the freeway. The sequence was a few pages, and I tried to make the line work wilder and angrier and more out of control. Guiltily, I figured, Well, I can always go back and reference the Chester Gould style when Dick gets to his employer’s, and is sitting with him in the bedroom (Since the Chester Gould style was my original vision for the series).
And as I drew what was originally scripted as the second page, I realized that there was more text than I wanted to have on this page. This is something I’ve felt guilty about for some time. How much goddamn text I put on every page. How comic books shouldn’t have so much writing. How no one will have any interest in trying to read through all that, including myself.
I also realized, basically on the spot, that I wanted to spend some more time showing how angry Dick gets while he’s driving. To show people flipping Dick off, and him driving like a real prick, swerving between traffic, honking, and being a dick.
And I knew I wanted to have one entry as a big panel of Dick getting out of his car and walking toward the camera, looking cool. I began to sketch out the layout, and I’d accidentally drawn the car too big, so it wouldn’t all fit. So I went with it, and drew Dick a little too big as well, so that his head and legs weren’t in the shot. And I realized it was a perfect opportunity to draw him scratching his crotch, because that’s just what he does. But I still wanted to try to capture the shot I’d had in my head, so I drew a second one, with the car fitting into the panel this time, and Dick in the panel. So the story was getting longer and longer, but now a story was being told at the pace it needed to be. This is how these kinds of accidents were happening, and I was just including the entire process in the story.
And next thing I knew, what my script described in two pages, I’d slowed the pace, and enjoyed the journey, and taken thirteen pages. Five pages I made into city scapes, and five just of Dick getting out of his car. And it didn’t matter if the page count was too high, because this wasn’t a comic that had to fit in twenty-two pages. If it took thirteen instead of two, then that’s what it would be now. And I was really pleased with everything, even though nothing was turning out the way I was visualizing. I guess sometimes things just work out okay.
So then I got to the sequence where Dick would see his employer, and where I assumed I could pull out the Dick Tracy style. And the next thing I knew, I STILL wasn’t going to that style.
I thought, I can use his compositions, or his use of cross-hatching. But I haven’t even done that now. I haven’t looked back. I haven’t even flipped through any Dick Tracy strips. I think all that stuck with me is Gould’s use of Tracy in all black. I’ll keep that for Dick, but if anything else comes out referentially, it might be a miracle.
What I did instead is just draw a few headshots of each character. And for the first time, I’m going to do cut-and-pastes, rather than redraw each face, each time you see them. And for some reason, I think it will work okay this story. I wouldn’t do it just any story.
We’ll see what everyone else thinks.
While drawing the faces, I began drawing outside the borders, because I figured, by recycling the same images, that will give me more cropping options, and I can change up the panel compositions that way. And looking at them, I thought, Fuck it. It looks good being out of the borders. I’m going to use them that way too.
I’m getting really excited about this project, and I’m only a dozen pages in. I think I have enough of a head start to begin posting it now. I’m anxious to hear how other people feel about it, once it starts going up.
[IMPORTANT! Weekly readers…Please be sure and read note 7 (seven, below!) ABOUT OUR DICK HAMMER: THE DAILIES ENTRIES]
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Whoops, fans!
In our general neglect of our “Diary of a Struggling Comics Artist” entries, we accidentally posted part two and three of our Dick Hammer: The Dailies entries (numbers 145 and 146), discussing the creation of the artwork, without first posting part one (number 144), on the creation of the story! And on top of that, we were two days late to post part three! Please accept our apologies, by allowing us to post part one and three in the same week! BUT…be sure to flip BACK to part one, (as we went BACK and inserted it chronologically, for posterity), or you weekly Diary-readers will have missed it!!
-Rob Oder, Editor-in-Chief!