Comic Readers
The trouble with readers, from a cartoonist’s point of view, is that there are basically three kinds of them. (Roughly generalizing, I know.) They are:
A) the plot readers
B) the character fans
C) the art critics
The plot readers enjoy a well-crafted story but can get annoyed if the thread gets lost or if the plot gets interrupted too often. They would love Alan Moore, which I also do with a sting of envy, because I admire well-crafted, clever and surprising clockwork plotlines, but I can’t be arsed to waste time on that. I have learned more about plot construction while working on my thesis, though. It’s well worth the extra work, but I still like plots that are more “life-like”, that is, with random and chaotic elements.
The character fans are the best readers you can get. They may pick one or several characters and root for them through thick and thin. They appreciate spin-offs and they may create fan art or fan fiction. I consider it very high praise indeed. It’s incredible to be able to create a fictional person that appeals to other people on many levels. Maybe this is the field where I’m most developed as an artist and writer. I’ve also noticed that the quality of my work drops considerably if I don’t care about the characters I’m depicting. Character fans usually enjoy manga or Neil Gaiman, X-Men or Heroes. They can be persuaded to follow a series just because of the characters, not because the plot is actually going somewhere.
The art critics aren’t really interested in “art for art’s sake”. They are more interested in whether things look realistic or not. I appreciate polite feedback from art critics, because it’s sometimes really difficult to research 1920’s stuff and my technical knowledge is limited. The trick is to simplify and trim your style so that they won’t complain too much about strange-looking handguns, anatomical proportions and wrongly placed door knobs, and keep their attention on the story. Art critics should not be confused with artists. Other artists are usually much more lenient and understanding, because they can see the difference between unskilled drawing and purposeful simplification. The worst breed of art critics looks for bloopers in Hergé’s art and collects Osprey Military books (I own two).
Most people are a mix of these three, of course. It would be interesting to know what YOU feel is most important in a comic.
January 20th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I’m definitely a “character fan”. I don’t like Alan Moore’s comics much, because I can’t take them seriously, i.e. they are put together so nicely that I can’t forget that some guy made up the stories.
My favourite comics are the ones where you forget that they are comics, and become completely immersed in the people and their lives.
(Maybe it’s because books to me have always been a bit of a surrogate for a social life … ;_;)
In any case, you definitely are able to create likeable and “real” characters, and tell stories where I can forget that it’s “just a comic”.
—
Except that I think you really should include the wild pig who lives together with this hermit guy. If only fleetingly, in the background of some little panel …
January 20th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Mää tykkään lukee ja kattella kuvia…, kertomukset tarttee olla jännän kiinnostavia ja hyvin piirrettyjä. Fantasiaa tai tositarinoita. Ja se kokonaisuus tarttee olla super! Niin super, et haluan albumin omakseni.
Mihin kategoriaan kuulun? Emmää tiä.
January 20th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Tinet, can I skip the wild pig if I promise to include wild pigs in the Dux’ interior decoration and/or art deco orgy PLUS have the absolutely most adorable idea for a Mochi gag? I can’t tell you what it is though…. no spoilers allowed…
January 21st, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Awww … but you can just draw him somewhere in the background, no one, besides us, has to know that they live together. >:(:)(
But okay, if you think it’s better to leave him out altogether, that’s fine, I guess … Especially when there is a totally unmentionable Mochi gag coming!!! z:o{
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 am
It’s just that I hate to redraw panels (although it happens sometimes)… When the crazy monks/hajducii appear again, they’ll bring some wild boars along. Promise!
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Ah, so you’ve drawn all the hermit pages already? Well, that changes the situation … Too bad. >:(:)
Yay for porci mistreţi haiduci ursuzi care să umble haihui!!
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Came upon your site serendipitously. Fabulous. Fascinating that you have such a strong command of English, and others. Hoping you might share your thoughts re: choice of title, character names and use of language, dialects, etc. Thanks. A fan.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Eh, sorry, that should be “porci mistreţi haiduci ursuzi care umblă haihui!!”
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:37 am
Don: Thank you for your kind words! Those are some pretty tempting questions. As for the title, “Goldenbird” refers to an item that will be revealed later. Let’s hope that it’s not a McGuffin like the “Maltese Falcon”… Some people have guessed that the golden bird is in fact Mayann, although Falco seems to be the one that’s haunted by birds. Speaking of names and languages, I’d love to post more articles about that. Perhaps soon…
Tinet: That sounds blasphemous!!?
January 26th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
As an American reader, I was confused by the title. The word golden evokes images of blonde things (more Swedish than Am. J. Baker) rather than the comic’s heroine and motif. Maltese, ebony, e.g. Falconess seems more apropos. GoldenBird seems to conjure Egyptian symbolism, rather than the jazz era or the 20’s. O. Texuka e. g. employs Firebird in the context of rebirth/Phoenix. Did you write the dialogue based on what you’ve read in newspapers? None of this is meant to be criticism. Just thought you might be interested in an American perspective.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Welcome back, Don. Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. It’s interesting that “Goldenbird” makes you think of Egypt. Even before the discovery of Tutankhamun’s grave in 1922, Egyptian art was a source of inspiration for art deco designers. This is also the time when African-American intellectuals first started to speculate that the Egyptians were a “black” civilization. So there’s certainly a connection between Egypt and the Jazz Age! However, the Goldenbird of my title is actually a Byzantine reference. (All will be revealed in due time…)
About the dialogue, do you mean period newspapers? It’s true that I came up with my first ideas for this comic while reading newspapers from the early 20’s, but those were in Finnish and Swedish. To get the right feel for the language, I read a lot about blues lyrics of the 20’s and 30’s, as well as other types of material (Finnish emigrant songs, American and European novels, research papers about various subjects, poetry, silent movies…). I try to be faithful to the characters rather than to the period, so you might find anachronisms. For example, Lou speaks heavier slang than Mayann, because she tries to act more macho, while Mayann wants to come off as more cultivated - at least sometimes. Andy’s Finnish accent is obviously easy to write, but I try to tone it down sometimes - it isn’t supposed to be that funny. (I wish I could make their voices audible!) In Falco’s case, I just try to make him sound “normal”, in spite of prayers, poetry or whatever he might be quoting. YouTube is a treasure trove - I look up old Italian movie clips and compare the way different character actors sound and behave. It’s a bit of a challenge - I know that a lot of female readers like him, and male readers tend to prefer Andy (perhaps because they’re mostly Finns…).
Sometimes I wonder if it was the right choice to write this comic in English. If I want to find a publisher in Sweden or Finland, I will have to translate everything and lose some nice blues slang in the process. On the other hand, Andy will be able to speak Tampere dialect!
January 27th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Thanks for the elucidation. Here, all things Swedish, and esp. Finnish are little known, and less understood, as my wife whose maiden name is Holmgren, will attest. If the “golden”is a Yeatsian Sailing to Byzantium allusion, it brings to mind our own Maya Angelou poems ‘why The Caged Bird Sings.” I know Yeats’s works very well, and still fail to see the connection. The dog’s Mochi name seems similar to mocha, and would seem a cool cocoa-like label for a black girl. I love your choice of poets i.e. Baudelaire and Rimbaud, and admire the craftmanship of your site. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an intelligent and thoughtful place like it on the web.
January 27th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Almost forgot. Would love to read a plot that revolves around supernatural motifs of the 20’s, mummy’s curse, Yeats’s interests in seances and mediums/fortune tellers, voodoo, creole conjuring etc. This could conflict with Falco’s Catholic mysticism/ quasi-DaVinci Code. Any reader here would find that type of thing, to quote the song by Robert Palmer, Simply Irresistible!
January 28th, 2008 at 1:07 am
The Goldenbird connection is well hidden, I fear! Your efforts to decipher the “code” are remarkable, though, and I love the Maya Angelou connection - it wasn’t on my mind but it’s just perfect!
Mochi is named after a type of Japanese rice cake, which is usually white (or pink). The mocha allusion is cute! One future story that I have in mind is set in Finland and explains the invention of a certain brand of candy, which has been recently under fire for its “racist” logotype. Some difficult issues in the past really need to be treated in an easily accessible manner, of course with due respect to everyone involved. That’s so fascinating about comics - the images speak directly to people and bring out the readers’ ideas. I’m sometimes very surprised!
The supernatural is certainly coming up in many ways. I practise drawing everyday technology right now, in preparation for the sci-fi elements. It’s a historian’s disease: must back up everything you write/draw with credible sources… it’s hard to let go of that.