Coiled Comics

We’re in between chapters, and taking the opportunity to put up a filler page, so we can catch up on things. It’s a crazy time of year, with kids going back to school and work starting to get more intense. Sherman Alexie, the famous Native American writer, once said that his wife told him that his Indian name should be “Spread Too Thin.” I’d say that applies to us as well.

Here’s an early sketch that Amanda made of Joshua’s mother. I liked how she looked, but I thought the reading glasses looked too severe. She replaced them with rounder glasses.

Bloglet By Amanda

The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a wordless graphic novel that is so exquisitely drawn it leaves me breathless. If you haven’t seen it, do take a look. I also very much enjoyed Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia, but haven’t yet gotten my hands on his Lost and Found published in March.

Remember that interview I mentioned last week? It got published this week! The easiest place to read it is on the Seattle Public Housing blog: http://seattlehousing.org/news/releases/2011/coiled-web-comic/index.html

One of the things I am still getting used to when writing for a graphic novel is to think visually. A great example of this is Shankar and the General, who are trying to figure out the virtual world using very limited tools. As I write the script, I am constantly thinking of what they could be doing to make something interesting for Amanda to draw. Hence, the General makes a map out of silverware. Shankar attempts to put an electronic headset on a dog. Right now, I’m working on a scene where Shankar is working on building a giant pyramid out of chairs.

To date, today’s page is my favorite page that Amanda has drawn. The dog treat panel was her idea entirely.