Monday, May 21, 2012

Serious Oratory Libations


Why is the Big Guy with an "S" on his chest hugging a Raccoon?
Why are they facing an empty tepee?
Why does the campfire smoke form a question mark?
Why do you tolerate such an endless string of questions?
Why aren't you clicking THE LINK to the NEW EPISODE of Super Ordinary Living?
Why oh why aren't you clicking HERE already?
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Seriously, new episode of Super Ordinary Living exploring the seedy underbelly of Comic Character Purgatory is now available for your viewing pleasure.

I created this episode using the Marvel Method made famous by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
As the writer, I jotted down two very vague sentences outlining the theme of the episode.
Then I gave the "script" to the artist.
As the artist, I tried to interpret the horribly vague script and drew the pages and panels, trying to inject as much character development and story telling into the visuals as possible.
I also made some illegible scribbles in the margin and gave the whole mess back to the writer.
As the writer, I attempted to come up with dialog and narrative that would make some sense of the senseless melange I inherited from the artist.  But I can tell you that words take up a lot of space, and the artist left very little room for words.  So I did the best I could, and turned the dialog over to the letterer.
As the letterer I spell checked the horror show of grammar-less garbage given me by the writer and tried to place word balloons on the page and still leave the Raccoon's face showing from time to time. Then I gave the finished pages to the editor.
As the editor, I complained a lot and wished that we had time to redo every step of this process.  But production schedules dictated that we publish this comic and rely on the stupidity and scarcity of our readers to leave the weaknesses of plot and tone and talent (there weren't any) unexposed.
Then I published the whole mess and sent promo copies to reviewers, one of which talked me into exposing our behind-the-scenes methodology.  Big Mistake!
We hope we haven't put you off reading comics altogether.
   Sincerely,
The Creative Team of Larsen, Larsen, Larsen, and Lasagna.

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