Archive for ‘The Gaping Maw of Horror’
12 items.
I wanted to put the Lobster in a comic, because he’s been distressingly absent. I thought this was a great visual, so I was excited about it. I’m a bit disappointed in how I rendered Mary, though. I wanted to give the impression she was looking down at the plant, but I’m not so sure I did her justice. Oh, well.
I tried something new with the background. A long time ago I had scanned in part of a sheet of sketchbook paper at 600 dpi to digitize some stuff I had scribbled. I noticed the paper tooth was quite evident in grayscale mode. Since then, I have wanted to use it as a multiply layer to add texture to things. I happened to have a small patch of “unsketched” notebook paper from a scan, and I borrowed it for the background. Instead of multiply, I used the “Soft Light” layer mode. I felt it did a better job of softening the background color intensity so it would detract less from the foreground. Please let me know what you think of it. I’ll probably play with it a little more before I make any decisions, but input is always appreciated.
Extra-Holy water is Holy water blessed directly by a Pope. It gets more sanctified as more Popes succeed him. Mary had water blessed under Pope Paul III, who opened the Council of Trent. How she got her hands on Holy water from a 16th-Century Pope is another question; Yet another question is, how will she get MORE Extra-Holy water?
I hope you enjoyed my detour. It’s a nice way to break out of my routines and let my creativity loose. A downside is that it really limits how much exposition I can give. I have a limited number of panels as it is, and every time I fork the story I reduce the amount of attention I can give to any one piece. It’s frustrating, but that just means I have something to come back to some day.
Paranormal detectives will be on the shelf for quite a while, but I do hope to come back and explore this more.
Enter Catthulhu! We wrap up very shortly, then it’s back to the main character opining on the American workplace. What fun!
Some have noticed that Mary wields her gun left-handed. When I did the original concept sketches for Joelle and Mary as paranormal detectives, Mary held a large book under her right arm where she kept her paranormal notes. The more I thought about it, I decided she should write right-handed but shoot left-handed. That way, she can navigate her research while holding off abominations from beyond the veil. I’ll have to remember to publish those concept sketches at some point.
Also, I’ve spent a few comics and several hours with my new fountain pen, and I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without one. It’s great for fine linework, and even better for lettering! Plus, mine has a refillable ink chamber, so it’s less wasteful than the technical pens of which I am so fond. It’s a bit more maintenance work, but it’s a nice piece of equipment, and I highly recommend them to anyone who inks by hand.
I could spend several days, ten to twelve hours a day, working on some strips and never be happy with them. I am always looking for something light-years ahead of my ability, and keep dickering around with my work to try and achieve it. This is one of those cases where I had to stop and say, “Good enough.” I’m not a professional, and I have no professional aspirations at this point. Sometimes good enough is good enough.
On to the finer points of this strip. The second panel is chock full of little jokes. For those not familiar with the Cthulhu mythos, “Cthulhu fhtagn” is the short version of a chant. Its translation is supposed to mean, “Cthulhu waits” or, “Cthulhu sleeps”. “Catthulhu has fangs” is a pun on that, which directly ties in to the joke about Catthulhu sleeping on the world’s largest wireless station. Why is that a joke? The world’s largest wireless station would undoubtedly, in the early 1900s, be one of the warmest man-made devices. Its heat would be a Siren’s call to any cat.
The antenna is a bit atypical of the time, at least as far as I know. It is inspired by an antenna I see on I-78 in Eastern Pennsylvania. Anachronisms aside, I thought it looked neat. I even have considered the possibility that either Marconi or Tesla were members of the Cult of Catthulhu, but I doubt I’ll ever have time to explore that avenue.
We’re wrapping up soon. I envision two more Catthulhu strips, and one or two with modern-day Mary and Joelle to tie things up neatly.
The middle panel was a case of decent penciling, rushed inking, and even more rushed coloring. I got ambitious at the last minute, and it made me stay up late to turn out something I’m not proud of. This should be a lesson: Get ambitious when you have a buffer. You have more time to sketch stuff out, practice drawing, practice coloring, so you know you’ll get what you want. It also helps to have the story line planned far enough ahead that, even if you run the ragged edge of updates, you still can practice scene ideas you have. It didn’t help me here, but keep those sketchbooks going. They make a huge difference.
We’ll be getting to the action soon, but I wanted to point out why more people don’t play the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, but why a certain breed of people should: Library research is a whole set of skills. Yes, a whole set. It’s not uncommon to spend most of an adventure journeying from research site to research site, trying to determine how best to deal with the unspeakable horror of the day.
And yes, that is the hobo’s bindle on Joelle’s back.
I always wanted to have an editor’s note. I feel it lends an air of legitimacy to an otherwise amateur work.
I don’t know why, but Mary going up, poking the cop and calling him Officer Stereotype had me in stitches. And by that, I mean I was laughing.
Does anyone know where “had me in stitches” came from? Being stitched up (or worse, the next few weeks with those stitches) is pretty far from funny in my book. I can think of a few things further from funny, but they are far outweighed in quantity by those which are closer to funny. If events were normally distributed around the mean of funny, we’re talking 4, maybe 5-sigma territory.
But back to the business at hand: Anyone who can explain the origins of the saying to me gets the right to find a cookie and eat it. Found cookie!
UPDATE: Valued friend and entertained reader* Robbie C. sent me this:
Lou,
A stitch is a term for a pain in one's side; so the idiom, "in
stitches," to denote a condition of extreme amusement suggests
laughing to the point of pain. I'll start looking for cookies now.
Of course! Stitches! How could I possibly have forgotten that? It just goes to show you that even the best of us mess up; The worst of us just do it more often. Thanks, Robbie! good luck finding that cookie!
* – Your definition of “entertained” may differ from mine, which most likely differs from the definition given by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Your mileage may vary.
The Gaping Maw of Horror: Paranormal Detectives
May 27th, 2009 |Posted In: comics, The Gaping Maw of Horror
Paranormal detectives, all Cthulhu-esque!
If you’re not familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, you are not acquainted with the father of 20th-century horror. I suggest you read up, as most if not all of his works are freely available. True, he does take some cheap outs, such as describing the Dread Cthulhu as “indescribable,” but frankly, how DOES one describe the sum of terror? I don’t have the answer, so instead our paranormal detectives Mary and Joelle will battle lesser star-born abominations in the twilight of the Edwardian era.
Hopefully, it will build their characters and allow me a bit of artistic leg-stretching. As always, feedback is welcome: Hit me with your best shot.
I really enjoyed the idea for this strip, but had to rush it today to remain on time. It’s frustrating when you have an idea you like but you can’t really exercise it fully.