September 18th, 2011 at 5:25PM
CARTLAND THE COMIC STRIP! Comic strips are something I’ve attempted several times over the years, usually to no avail. In 5th grade I made a fairly prolific attempt at it, drawing a strip called The Adventures of Kid, featuring a stick figure who violently killed whatever antagonist was in each edition. At least 50 are published in a folder on a shelf somewhere in my parents’ basement. But in more recent history, I’ve tried the multi-panel avenue twice with Go Figure (more stick figures), and The Gratuitous Adventures of Ron and Vladimir (about a cyclops alien named Ron and his Russian assassin friend Vladimir), both of which only lasted a few strips until I got uninterested or stuck. Which brings me to my latest attempt at a cartoon that extends beyond a single panel. At the suggestion of Brooke Knight, I read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, which ended up giving me a better appreciation of the art form as an artist (I already liked reading them, usually the simple not-too-wordy ones like Peanuts, but like I said I had trouble making them). Then (a couple days ago), also at the suggestion of Brooke, I started a comic strip about Stephen, the star of my thesis project Cartland, with the goal of exploring him as a character.And so begins Cartland the comic strip. I’ve already surrendered to the confusion that’s sure to stem from the strip and the movie having the same title – we’ll see how that resolves itself later. For now my plan is to not only use the strip as a way into the mind of the film’s main character, but as somewhat of a prelude/companion to the film. I’m going to do a weekly installment of Cartland the strip all the way up until the movie is finally released (during which time I’ll be in production on the film, so they’ll surely feed off each other). I’m hoping it’ll provide a good back story for the movie, and then viewers might already have some investment in the character going in. So rather than a stand-alone movie, it’ll be a movie with a several-month-long comic strip preface. I guess we’ll see how it works when it’s done!Follow along with the strip here: cartland.tumblr.com

CARTLAND THE COMIC STRIP!

Comic strips are something I’ve attempted several times over the years, usually to no avail. In 5th grade I made a fairly prolific attempt at it, drawing a strip called The Adventures of Kid, featuring a stick figure who violently killed whatever antagonist was in each edition. At least 50 are published in a folder on a shelf somewhere in my parents’ basement. But in more recent history, I’ve tried the multi-panel avenue twice with Go Figure (more stick figures), and The Gratuitous Adventures of Ron and Vladimir (about a cyclops alien named Ron and his Russian assassin friend Vladimir), both of which only lasted a few strips until I got uninterested or stuck.

Which brings me to my latest attempt at a cartoon that extends beyond a single panel. At the suggestion of Brooke Knight, I read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, which ended up giving me a better appreciation of the art form as an artist (I already liked reading them, usually the simple not-too-wordy ones like Peanuts, but like I said I had trouble making them). Then (a couple days ago), also at the suggestion of Brooke, I started a comic strip about Stephen, the star of my thesis project Cartland, with the goal of exploring him as a character.

And so begins Cartland the comic strip. I’ve already surrendered to the confusion that’s sure to stem from the strip and the movie having the same title – we’ll see how that resolves itself later. For now my plan is to not only use the strip as a way into the mind of the film’s main character, but as somewhat of a prelude/companion to the film. I’m going to do a weekly installment of Cartland the strip all the way up until the movie is finally released (during which time I’ll be in production on the film, so they’ll surely feed off each other). I’m hoping it’ll provide a good back story for the movie, and then viewers might already have some investment in the character going in. So rather than a stand-alone movie, it’ll be a movie with a several-month-long comic strip preface. I guess we’ll see how it works when it’s done!

Follow along with the strip here: cartland.tumblr.com

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