American Mythology (current publishers of Casper the Friendly Ghost) still have not complied on having me do work on Casper. tsk tsk.I'm about to get too busy to give them anymore grief...and they will have weathered the storm. The storm of...selling a lot more comics than they had been because of hiring a world class talent with a formidable and loud following.
I guess they don't want to increase their readership? I dunno...
BUT I might as well fire off a few more shots before I move on...Here's a one page story I cooked up as a sample of my illustrative prowess. after you read it I'll break down why this is a great joke for a kid IN STRUCTURE
Okay...THAT is a great joke for a kid IN STRUCTURE. That specific joke, probably not G rated...but the structure is how you capture kid's imaginations. and that is the job, even if you're telling a quick joke.
The thing about kids is ...Kids are smart, AND they use their imaginations way more than adults. They don't have a 20-30-40 years worth of reference and their minds are still discovering...and so their minds are always looking ahead and trying to figure out what might be...how things will pan out..how things will come together. You can't just tell them a joke to hold their interest.
The "joke" here could have ended after the first two tiers.
That's a solid joke there...that is enough to gain the confidence of an adult, that other pages will be worth reading. set up, punchline, the end. Adults may not need more than that, they have seen the world for decades and a joke that gets to the point is often what they are looking for.
but this second part, while also funny, is there with the purposes of capturing the imagination. The joke is told...but the page now gives the kid's imagination a "what's next" it keeps them in the world, gives them more of an understanding of what goes on going forward...
in their imaginations Casper is now in hell...his victim is watching...he has a taskmaster...and we have a solid understanding that Casper is indeed a prick. That world, that scenario exists now in the kid's brain...and that kid is confident ( and probably curious) that future pages will give his/her imagination more looks into that world or more worlds as interesting. Get me? If the joke ends with the first part...the world is just Casper in a house holding a milk carton...the second ending has all that other stuff going on.
and young readers, being new at everything including how to read a comic, benefit if the page layout is simple and flows easily... I've explained some of this before but have a look at the breakdown here and I'll get into why it's laid out the way I laid it out
We want to keep the visuals moving the readers eye from left to right, just like they do to read the words, and in this instance there is some important visual info we need to make sure is obvious....for the sake of the joke REAL obvious...so the reader is tempted to think ahead and predict an outcome incorrectly.
Panel 1- Caspers forward movement is enough to set the eye in motion. The floor lines COULD have also gone in that direction, but I preferred to have them go the other way to slow things just a bit and let the reader's eye dwell on the old shabby scene,
Panel 2- Has a lot going on composition wise , again to slow the eye. The curve of the spider web ( top left) the curve made by the window break ( bottom right) and the curve of the web on the milk cartoon visually encircle the scene. Casper is looking at the Carton, he's talking about the carton, the posture of the kid on the Carton matches Caspers Posture...at this point many readers minds have wrongfully deduced "oh That's Casper on that Carton...the joke's gonna be that he was kidnapped or something). The level of the camera is actually looking up at the Carton rather than being eye level with Casper.
Panel 3- This is where the fake punchline get's more wound up. "Missing" is dead center on the panel, Casper himself is making a connection to the picture. In this panel I have the floor board lines go in the direction of the next panel, because it is a visually stagnate scene and want to move past it quickly.
Panel 4- this is the spinning seam of the curve-ball catching the air...It has a dramatic Camera shot, there is not much around Casper, the arrangement of the word balloons is dramatic and slows the timing...and Casper has a startled look for the first time.
Panel 5- pow! The camera is dropped right to eye level with Casper for the first time. As far as visual movement , the tail of the word balloon and Casper's pointing finger are sending the readers eye back rather than off the page.
Panel 6- That's simple enough, Casper is looking to the right, the action is on the right and the flames almost connect to the flames in the panel on the right
Panel 7- Casper and the demon are both reaching into the direction of the lower left panel.
Panel 8- This should be obvious ...a giant fork and Casper going into the direction of the next panel.
And...that's as much as I'm going to get into this one.
It tuned out decent, I'm pretty pleased with he colors, they look old comic book-ish.
Imma post this on some of my other social media...and send it out in my mass email. Just to drive the point home that American Mythology COULD have work like this ( I say "LIKE THIS" as in I wouldn't put a story about a murdered kid in a G rated comic book) if they would only take me up on my offer...that offer is going to run out soon though, and then I'll move onto plan B of me working on a Casper project. Plan B will take a bit longer...but that's the way it goes sometimes.
Anyways...see you in a few days.
ALSO...MY WEBSITE AND STORE IS HERE ( coupon code - voodoo - good for 20% off )
https://www.arseniclullabies.com
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