In a post on her artistic techniques, Colleen Doran reveals that she’s working on a graphic novel with Neil Gaiman, to be published by Dark Horse. The two previously collaborated on issues of THE SANDMAN.
The post wpould be interesting in its discussion of pencilling techniques alone!
My pencil technique is exactly the opposite of what they teach now in art school. I do not use the side of the pencil, or graphite. I use the sharp tip of the pencil, and build up everything from hundreds of strokes. This is the way old masters drew back in the day with silverpoint. It’s a look I love, but almost no one does it because it is so laborious. The popular prejudice is for the 1950-ish commercial art drawing style. I like that, but it’s not what I want to do myself.
I am using this technique on the new Neil Gaiman graphic novel I am doing for Dark Horse. You can imagine how happy I am to be doing this project! The drawings will then be colored with thin washes of watercolor, digitally, or both.
The drawing above of Thessaly and the Sandman is a commission piece and not a sneak peek at the book.
As for what this book might be about…we’ll have to call out the legion of internet detectives for that.
Ah and here you go:
She is also currently adapting a Neil Gaiman short story into graphic novel form for Dark Horse, which will be released in 2012.
Thanks to detective Synsidar for the ground work on this.
More info here
Harbor Lights Restaurant, South Street Seaport Pier 17 3rd Floor, 6-8
Gone to Amerikay, the new Vertigo original graphic novel by Derek McCulloch and Colleen Doran, will have a book launch party, benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. McCulloch and Doran will both be at Harbor Lights Restaurant in New York City on March 30 from 6 to 8 pm, celebrating the release of their new book and demonstrating their support of the CBLDF’s mission. All are welcome to join the celebration; admission will be free, though donations to the CBLDF are suggested. There will be complimentary hors d’oeurves, and special guests from the comics community will be on hand to inaugurate Gone to Amerikay. Copies of the book will be on sale, courtesy of Midtown Comics.
Hm, when events are promoted only through Facebook I never see ‘em!
Anyway, Here’s a profile of the book, Doran and McCulloch in the WSJ:
The book started off as an adaptation of “Thousands are Sailing,” a song about immigrants by the Irish band the Pogues. While it ultimately moved away from that, Irish music and folk ballads still play a key role in the story – they were “the obsessive soundtrack of my childhood,” Mr. McCulloch said.
But how to convey the impact of music in a medium where the reader can’t hear it? It was “tricky,” Mr. McCulloch said. Ms. Doran said she didn’t want to use the clichéd method of simply putting musical notes into the art, so she tried to convey the impact of the music by showing the listeners’ reactions.
She also faced an enormous amount of research to make sure everything was depicted authentically. One small panel, depicting a uniform, took her forever to do – because while she could find what the uniform looked like easily enough, it was nearly impossible to find what it looked like in color. “We were pulling our hair out.”
Here are some ink doodles from my last sketchbook(Nov 08 to Dec 08) I've been studiously keeping sketchbooks since I was 14. I think there is no better tool in exploring your own artistic potential. Now of course I have boxes and boxes of them.
I am once again looking at being represented by an agent. I was talking with the super-talented and inspirational Colleen Doran earlier and she suggested my problem with agencies earlier may have been to do with the type of agents I was looking at. That perhaps a literary agent might be a better choice than an art agency. She has done a tonne of research on the subject and published the results here on her blog. At the moment I'm talking to 5 different publishers and it's just too much. things keep petering out. So, I'll give it another try.
And finally, do you like Lord Of The Rings? Well, blogger Kate Nepveu is weekly publishing a post about her reading of the book on the Tor.com site. I'll be reading along and leaving comments. Also, I may republish my thoughts here.
Colleen Doran explains the secret history of Fallen Angels and other subjects of passing interest.
It’s February and love is in the air—but in the town of Castleton, there’s a different kind of energy crackling. At the opening of Mangaman, written by Barry Lyga and illustrated by Colleen Doran, there is a tear in the fabric of Castleton’s reality and from it drops a strange creature. He’s lithe and two-dimensional, with oversized eyes and a waist as small as his tiny mouth. Essentially, he’s a typical manga dreamboat (perfectly named “Ryoko”), except he’s misplaced here in a Western comic.
This is no ordinary fish out of water. Instead, like a graphic novel Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Lyga and Doran use the Western perceptions of manga to play with the medium. Ryoko enrolls in a typical American high school, where he is ridiculed by the school’s jocks for his unusual looks and actions that would otherwise be normal in manga. Lyga sets up Doran with plenty of opportunities for visual in-jokes. While at recess, Ryoko leaps for a volleyball, all speed lines and exclamation points—again, completely typical in an Eastern comic. Yet in this American high school, the kids freak out: “Hey! Watch your speed lines!” When Ryoko eats a hamburger in the cafeteria, he morphs into a muppet, his mouth opens far too wide into an exaggerated grin that pushes his cheeks so far up his face that his eyes become thin lines. It’s a stereotypical manga expression of glee, but the Castleton residents steer clear of him. The janitor grumbles, “Like I don’t have anything better to do all day…” as he sweeps up the drawn lines that trail Ryoko's bombastic movements (in manga they simply disappear, but here they fall and collect on the floor).
Mangaman would be nowhere near as successful without Colleen Doran. She perfectly captures the otherworldliness of Ryoko, while seamlessly dropping him into Western comic panels (Doran shapes the American teens with expert detail and depth—everything Ryoko’s visuals lack). My favorite of Doran’s subtle notes is the look of the American teenagers. Like a John Hughes film from the 1980s, the high-schoolers all look about ten years too old. It’s a fun touch to what does feel like a lost classic, because pretty soon Ryoko falls for an out-of-his-league girl: Marissa Montaigne, the knock-out blonde who refuses to give in to the bullies' bigotries.
As their relationship builds, so too does Mangaman’s metafiction. Ryoko and Marissa realize they aren’t only constrained by the town’s small prejudices; they are also trapped within comic conventions. As they attempt to escape Castleton, they exploit the actual panels that surround them. It’s a love story within a comic book within a graphic novel, and Mangaman’s heart is as big as its hyperbolic hero's eyes—a Valentine
What a tease!
I imagine that the new Dark Horse Graphic Novel will be an adaptation of one of Gaiman’s short stories, like the P. Craig Russel Murder Mysteries or the Michael Zuli strange Case of Miss Finch. Just a guess, of course.
Fortunately, you ARE an Internet detective, right Heidi?
RIGHT?
I’m excited about this, whatever it is.
http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/books/Chus-Day/?isbn13=9780062017819&tctid=100
Meanwhile, a picture book in January.
And…
Stardust: the Gift Edition – Deluxe Signed Limited ($150)
I hope that it’s an original story, NOT an adaptation of a previously published short.
@Peter – You and me both.
Torsten gave it the old college try by asking Collen Doran directly in her comments section, but didn’t get very far. I suspect an announcement should be forthcoming.
I found this statement re the Gaiman project: She is also currently adapting a Neil Gaiman short story into graphic novel form for Dark Horse, which will be released in 2012.
If that’s correct, the possibilities are fairly limited.
SRS
“She is also currently adapting a Neil Gaiman short story into graphic novel form”
In which case I would throw my full support behind the project if she were to adapt the short story
‘Being an Experiment Upon Strictly Scientific Lines’
from Angels and Visitations.
I would guess “Chivalry” among the Gaiman short stories I’m familiar with that haven’t been adapted to comics yet. I’d also guess they’d try to get her old adaptation of “Troll Bridge” in there, maybe expanded and/or newly coloured to make a two-story book like the Zulli/Gaiman CREATURES OF THE NIGHT.
Ms. Doran is usually very secretive with projects, until the publisher announces them. As she should be.
I remember her teasing artwork for “Mangaman” at the American Library Conference in DC in June 2010. The book was published in November 2011.
She did the same with “Gone to Amerikay”.
Since she posts so much wonderful and entertaining stuff on her website, one doesn’t mind the wait. It’s worth it.
—
But it does make for interesting conjecture:
What’s your favorite Gaiman short story?
Which would you like to see adapted to comics?
Who should do the adaptation?
And:
Should Dark Horse dust off the business model they used for Harlan Ellison and adapt it for Neil Gaiman?
http://www.comics.org/series/5359/