Update #21 - January 2021

HELLO!

Before I start, thank you to everyone who has continued to support me, and thank you to my newest patron, Khess!

Thank you all so much; it really means a lot to me to have your support!!

WHAT HAVE I BEEN UP TO?

I've continued rollerskating in my basement, since it's been much too cold and wet for the skatepark. 

I've been attending Graphic Novel Bookclub, which has resumed meetings on Zoom: we've read Nimona, which I loved, and Sex Criminals, which I did not.

I've also been really into caring for my houseplants? I got a little water meter that I use to see how wet the soil is. My avocado plant that I grew from a pit is almost a year old; it's looking great. So is the plant that grew from the leaf Aidan's sister-in-law gave us for Christmas, which I just as typing this have figured out is a night blooming cereus (even though I was definitely told what it was twice). 

WHAT HAVE I BEEN WORKING ON?

This month I started on a project I tentatively titled Romeo and Juliet but Gay and at the Skatepark, or Skatepark Shakespeare for short.

It all started because I was showing my friends a picture of a shirt design I saw on Tumblr because 1. I badly wanted to buy and wear it (I apparently can't; they only print bulk shirts for youth groups. I even emailed them asking if there was any method for purchasing a single shirt and was told there was not) and 2. it reminded me of an obscure Metalocalypse character.

My friend Marin said the magical words: "shakespeare but the production takes place in a 90s/00s skatepark."

I was immediately obsessed with the idea.

I decided I wanted to draw a comic based on that line of Romeo's. I knew I also wanted to include the preceding lines and the "for I ne'er saw true beauty 'til this night" line.

First, I looked the lines up in my book.

I also looked the lines up in an abridged script from when I went to Shakespeare Camp in the summer of 2004.

(Yes, this is why I like Romeo and Juliet so damn much; I imprinted on it when I was eleven.)

I chose the lines I wanted and started deciding how to replace some of the Shakespearean words with "skatepark words" (i.e. whatever slang or otherwise humorously modern words I could think of) while retaining as much of the rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter as possible. I also thumbnailed possible panels.

I made more panel thumbnails and refined the dialog.

I turned those thumbnails into a three-page rough draft.

I refined three-page rough draft with the panel text I'd chose and noted possible tricks to feature.

Moving to my sketchbook, I sketched out one last three-page rough draft while looking at reference images. 

I started on JT's character design and his skate set-up. I wanted him to be a gay trans man with a mullet, who wore full safety gear when skating. For his set-up, I planned to reference Moxi Jack boots with Avanti plates, Moxi Fundae wheels, and a CIB slide block.

I also jotted down some character design ideas for Romeo, who I gave curly, chin-length blonde hair, and Benvolio, who I gave a beanie and used to replace the nondescript Servingman that Romeo usually has this exchange with.

I started working on the last page first.

I did some studies for the trick JT does on page three, a backside boneless (per CIB's Roller Skate Tricktionary: "A toe-stop plant on the top deck. Traditionally done as part of an air, the plant should continue your momentum back into the transition. Optional to grab the other leg.")

I considered a couple different angles, referencing photos and video stills.

I drew JT with some possible colors, and warmed up by drawing from video stills in preparation for sketching pages one and two. 

(Also, possible graffiti that I did not work into the background of the finished pages but wish I had.)

I did some quick studies of video stills to try and understand the pose on panel three of page one. I wanted to draw JT either carving ("performing long swooping turns") or pumping ("using your momentum and the transition to generate speed").

When the pages were sketched and lined, I swatched a selection of my markers so I could start deciding on color palettes.

I did color thumbnails of JT, Romeo, and Benvolio's flat colors, and to decide on sky color and possible lighting effects.

I did more thumbnails to decide the coloring of the sky and lighting.

Since design-wise, I wanted red to be the Capulets' (and by extension, JT's) color and blue to be the Montagues' (and by extension) Romeo's color, I decided I wanted the color of the night sky during the scene where they meet to be purple, a mix of the two. 

So thats how I drew the three-page comic! I'm currently typing up a longer script, and have finished transcribing two of five acts. (It's a long term project ok? Ok.)

I haven't designed Mercutio yet, but I do want him to be on inlines. I did some studies from an inline slalom video. 

Hey, while I have your attention, why not run through my opinions on an exhaustive list of Romeo and Juliet adaptations?

I've never seen Romeo + Juliet (dir. Baz Luhrmann, 1996). I've heard good things.

The first adaption I ever saw was Romeo and Juliet (dir. Franco Zeffirelli, 1968), which I watched with my mom after I finished my stint as Juliet at Shakespeare Camp in 2004. I do like it and regard it fondly, but I've always found it uncomfortable too, for varying reasons at varying times.

My very favorite adaption is Private Romeo (dir. Alan Brow, 2011), which I watched on Netflix in the early 2010s as a closeted gay trans man. It's a strange adaption for numerous reasons, but I love it a lot.

Finally, I owned several volumes of Manga Shakespeare, one of which was Romeo and Juliet, which I reread many times during my teenage years. 

The desire to draw my own version of the play was implanted in my heart at a tender age, but until now (?!) I have not had the skills to do so.

Now that I'm basically just talking about Romeo and Juliet-related media I've consumed, let's move on to:

WHAT HAVE I BEEN CONSUMING?

Beastars by Paru Itagaki (Vol. 1 - 9)

I'd heard of this manga before, but never read it until my housemate's brother lent his books to us! I'm enjoying it a lot; the art style is very cool and the characters are compelling.

I've had a lot of conversations with my housemate about how interesting and thorough the world-building is. I expected it to have a straight-forward herbivore/carnivore oppression dynamic, but it also has other interlocking aspects, such as small/large creatures and common/rare species. And on top of that, the different aspects of what a society set up this way would look like have been thought through thoroughly.

We're watching the anime which is also cool! I will probably talk about it in a future "What Have I Been Consuming" section.

Come Home, Indio: A Memoir by Jim Terry

The author balanced honesty with empathy when portraying others in his life. The art has dense, intricate linework, I believe made by a brush.

Part 5 is hardest to get through because of jump from comic pages to illustrated paragraphs but very worth sticking with for the first-hand account of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

The last four pages are gorgeous and hopeful.

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

I'm a big fan of Hyperbole and a Half. It was a huge inspiration to me when starting to draw my own comics. 

I used to wonder a lot if she was doing ok, because her first book, in which she detailed her struggles with depression, came out and was followed by total radio silence for many years.

Having read her new book, the answer is clearly: no, she was not ok at all. Unlike her previous book, which was more like a collection of independent stories, this book deals with overarching themes of mortality, fear, loneliness, and connection.

Though she maintains her signature style, her art has definitely made improvements; I was struck by the backgrounds and scenic compositions that would periodically appear. When first flipping through the book, I mistook some of the drawings for photographs.

Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction (writer) and Chip Zdarsky (artist)

I read this almost a year ago for Graphic Novel Book Club (the meeting never happened; the club was put on pause due to Big Virus) and was unimpressed; I remembered it as a bland comic created by a pair of straight guys trying to portray a kinky feminist librarian woman (that they also coincidentally found super hot) and a self-insertish milquetoast dude love interest. The two plan to rob a bank for tragic backstory reasons and are 100% the kind of couple that would cruise for a unicorn on tinder.

A copy didn’t come into the library until after the club meeting, but I figured I’d give it a reread anyway. I had remembered correctly. This is ‘be straight do crimes: the comic book,' and it is every bit as dull and immature as that sounds.

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Another read for Graphic Novel Book Club, but one that I liked immensely. 

You might know Noelle Stevenson as the creator of the She-Ra reboot (which I have not seen) and Lumberjanes (which I have not read much of). Nimona was her senior thesis, originally serialized as a webcomic.

The drawing style is wonderful: simple and expressive. It's a huge inspiration to me, and one of the first I think of when contemplating art styles for graphic novels. The world-building is unraveled slowly as we see the characters move through the plot, and mixes a fantasy setting with sci-fi trappings in a delightful way. 

The characters have personality and depth; the relationships between them are laid out concisely, then shown through moments of detail to be more nuanced than our initial perception of them. The story brings me to tears at multiple points during every read through.

It's just really, really excellent.

THIS MONTH’S MUSICAL JAMS

Despite a brief flirtation with sea shanties, my Bruce Springsteen kick has extended into its third month.  Here is an ever-expanding playlist of my favorite Springsteen songs. 

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!

If you have any questions or stuff you've wanted to talk to me about, do leave a comment below!

Hope you're doing well!

<3,

Dave