Dr WTF?! Artists Commentary

This post, I'll be looking at some of the thoughts I had while drawing the adventures of Hauptmann Who. This story was written by Greg Meldrum, and I have to say it is the most inspiring script I've ever worked on. Pretty much every panel had me chuckling, and Greg has been kind enough to let me quote some chunks of the script as I go through the art. In fact, since I wrote this post, Greg has written his own commentary, so check that out here.

Before we get started though, I wish to mention the brilliant work Owen Watts did on the lettering. Owen was kind enough to allow the bouncing back and forth of the lettered art, both of us editing our work till it was just as we wanted it. I'll be looking at the unlettered art in this post, but take a look at that WAAAAOOOOWOOOOH on the first page. Great stuff.

Right then, onto page 1.

The first striking thing for any who have been following my work the past few years is the colour. There are a few jokes in this strip that simply would not work in black and white. I mulled over this choice for quite some time, but eventually decided that I had to crack open the paints. The line art took me just three weeks to do, an advantage of working at A4, but the colour work added months to the work time. The actual watercolours were simple enough, it was the hours of computer tweaking afterwards that slowed me down.

In the end it was worth it. I love the vibrancy of these colours; the pinks and the turquoise and all those stars. Hopefully I kept up the strength of the colours throughout the strip and made them a vital part of the experience.

Lets take a look at the script.

The Asteroid Belt, our Solar System. Long establishing shot of a series of asteroids arcing out into space. In the f/g, materialising on top of a convenient asteroid is Hauptmann Who’s TARDIS, which appears in the form of a large upright missile, patterned after the WWII V-2 rocket but smaller scale (let’s make it the size of a police box.)...

           HAUPTMANN (INSIDE):  WE’RE HERE. I’LL JUST EXTEND THE ARTIFICIAL ATMOSPHERE AROUND THE TARDIS TO CREATE A BIT OF LEBENSRAUM...

Starting off with a Lebensraum joke. This was the first part in the script where I laughed, and I didn't stop for the next five pages. Picture two shows the roundels inside the door, providing one of the few links between this strip and actual Doctor Who. I love the idea that the inside and the outside of the TARDIS doors are entierly different shapes, a feature we sometimes see in the show, but more due to set anomalies rather than the BBC having access to strange, top-secret, time-warping material.

Lets hop forward to the introduction of Jimi Von Hendricks. The script says the guitar... 

looks like the sort of thing Jack Kirby would have come up with if you’d asked him to design a musical instrument – still recognisable as such, but more so, in a chrome-and-steel-and-mad-valves sort of way.

My friend Jenny found this page to help me out with the Jack Kirby reference; I've led a sheltered life of geekdom and so know only a little about the American greats. I modelled the top of the guitar on the most recent sonic screwdriver, for fairly obvious reasons.

Time for page 2.

  

Cut to Brandenburg Gate, Berlin District of Germania, futuristic capital city of Earth. The gate appears much as it does in Berlin in real life, though in the distance and nearby we can see hints of a sci-fi landscape of gleaming technological structures, with the emphasis on grandiose spectacle...

For future Germania, I went looking for Nazi plans concerning their thousand year Reich. My Wonderful Lady Friend was invaluable here; being an art-historian she was able to guide me in the right direction. Seems that the miracle of concrete would allow them to take their Roman inspiration in far grander directions. That towering building on the far right was designed by Hitler himself, a sketch passed on to Albrecht Speer, from whose mind I pillaged the other buildings. Then I chucked in a few Fliegen-rad to give it that futuristic feel. Nazi anti-gravity technology is an interesting thing, I'm sure you will agree.

I toyed with the idea of doing the picture of World War Minus 1 in sepia tones; but remembered stories of the 'Mud' period of 2000ad history, and so went for the more colourful approach. In the top right of this panel we see my attempt to replicate that famous photo of St Paul's amid the bombing. 

The Flux-Fuhrer was described as having "features warped and migrating across his face like some mad, nightmarish Picasso painting." That's why I went for the green.

Bringing us to Page 3.

Here we hit the pages that needed colour. The script called for "a sort of Rastafarian version of the Soviet Flag, with the hammer and sickle coloured black and the rest of the flag made up of three horizontal stripes of equal size: green, yellow and red." Not something easy to convey in black and white. Then we have Marley Luther Lenin. As I don't normally use colour, I don't attempt to convey any skin pigments. Black ink does not convey dark skin, white paper does not convey a lack of eumelanin. Normally I leave skin 'empty', in an attempt to bring equality to my characters; hence this black character from an earlier comic. 

 

 

Anyway, my thoughts on colour theory in comics are best left for another day. Lets talk about the fact that Baby Hitler has blue eyes and blond hair! Actually, I don't have anything more to say about that. The skull has blue eyes too, and Laika has a nodding Karl Marx on her dashboard! I was going to give her some furry dice as well, but they left the cockpit a little too crowded.

Hurtling into Page 4.

Here is a description for panel 4.

Int. TARDIS. We see the back of Jimi and the Hauptmann’s heads as we go close in on the view-screen to observe the surroundings. They have arrived in the primordial void - a hallucinogenic landscape, full of all manner of bad-trip-style multi-coloured fractals and twisting patterns. Central to the viewscreen is the primal atom, about the size of a house, circled by electrons, which hangs there, throbbing. It will be the source of the Big Bang. Nearby it is Marley Luther Lenin in his techno-coffin, the grabber arms reaching up towards the primal atom. Around and above the coffin, like a fine mist, is his hovering logarithmic soul. 

I changed this a little to get the action going, having them hurtling out of the TARDIS instead of peering at a screen. In doing this I give rise to my one regret for this strip; we don't have room for an internal view of Hauptmann's TARDIS. Ah well, maybe we'll do a sequel one day. Hopefully Greg didn't mind my somewhat tame portrayal of the void before time; fractals are hard to do with watercolours.

And finally Page 5, the Money Shot...

Here we go, the Doctor's wang. Let's have a look at the script for this final panel.

Long shot. Hauptmann Who points commandingly at Jimi, who obliges by jamming on his guitar and singing of his devotion to the Hauptmann. Jimi should be throwing some kind of rock god shapes as he does so, while in the background the primal atom throbs away and the kaleidoscopic primordial void creates hallucinogenic patterns, like some atmospheric sound-to-light programme.

So, not quite what I drew. *Ahem*.  Owen didn't want this script to become known as "The one with the wang", so we censored it so that the rest of the story had room to shine. So that post the other day is the first time that particular penis has been waved about in public.

You see, it is implied here that the forthcoming 'Big Bang' is going to start the universe rolling. Also, Hauptmann is keeping his boots on, due to being classy like that. Being a Time-lord Nazi, he has two willies but only one ball. Finally we have the kiss, because stories like this end with a kiss. This is a comment on the way Doctor Who stories these days end about five to ten minutes before the credits roll, just so they can ladle on the emotional manipulation for the remainder. Also, that final heart shaped panel is lined like an Iron Cross! Isn't that sweet?

So, the guy gets the other guy, true love rules over all. Intellect and romance prevail, but do not replace brute force and cynicism. It is an interpretation of the Who Mythos that is perhaps closer to the truth of the show than many fans would be willing to admit; Who having a whole heap of unfortunate cultural baggage that seems to constantly resist going away. I'm really proud of this story, and I hope you enjoyed it.   

Dr WTF?! UNCUT!!!

I have been forced to promise not to tell you who it was that said "Of course he's uncut, he's not Jewish!"

I'm back! After over a month of not throwing stuff onto the net, I return to shamelessly self-promote myself! Seeing as I've been away, lets get stuff off to a flying start by publicly releasing the story I did for Dr WTF?! 2012. This story has been available in paper form for a good long while now, but this is the first time it will be seen for FREE!

Dr WTF?! 2012 isn't just one story, oh no. Many talented people combined to make a colourful explosion of awesome, all under the scrupulous attention of editor Owen Watts. You can find out more about it here.

I'm currently writing up my next blog entry, cramming it full of information about the creative process behind this strip. While you wait, please enjoy this tale of Nazi comeuppance, and spare a thought for the state of mind of we who created it.

Dr WTF?! 2012

Colin MacNeil's cover

Dr WTF?! 2012 is complete, and has already been seen hitting the conventions. Neither time nor space is big enough to contain the awesomeness that is Colin MacNeil's colourtastic cover, and the contents within are pretty good too!

I went trawling the internet for quotes, and I found that people had the following things to say about it:

"I RATE THIS COMIC 10/10... IT BE AWESOME!" - Alan Lewis

"The Nazi version of the Doctor was my favourite." - Mike Donachie

"Dr WTF is the most psychedelic Doctor Who anthology in existence. Crammed to bursting with amazing artists, glorious writers and RIDICULOUS LETTERING." - Owen Watts (Editor and Letterer)

The next stop in the Dr WTF?! 2012 tour is Bristol Comic Expo on 12-13th of May. Should you wish to beat the crowds, get £4.50 ready, give drwtfcomic@gmail.com a shout, and soon all this shall be yours!

Melting Robots And Other Such Delights

Things are going from bad to worse for G-127! Anyone paying close attention will be able to see how this is a bit of a cheat as far as artistic captions go, but to find out the full story, you'll have to check out the forthcoming 10th issue of Paragon. More details on that soon!

In other news, I have recently received the contributor's copy of Dr WTF?! 2012. This will be going on sale at the Inverness comic and sci-fi convention  Hi-Ex, which takes place at the end of this very month! If you can't make it to such far flung Arctic tundra, I'm sure editor Owen Watts would love to help get a copy into your grasping hands, so hop over to his blog and drop him a line. The price will be around the £4.50 mark.

'Tis the season for chronologically confused celebration, for fresh on the heals of Christmas wishes comes a whole heap of Halloween! Indie horror comic Hallowscream has now been released in tree-terrorising printed glory! Don't worry if you still find your soul wracked with existential uncertainty though; you can still download all three issues, absolutely free!

That's all the signal boosting for this week. I must now return to finishing my work for Paragon; tune in next week for more previews of what I've been drawing!

End Of February Miscellany

This week I have been joining various other Paragon contributors in getting possibly a little too excited about our recent Comic Heroes review. I must confess that each issue of Comic Heroes would cost me more than I earn in an hour, so I can't justify the expense, but that Nikolai Dante badge does almost swing it for me.

I'm particularly invested in this as they used a little of my art to help decorate the page. Mine is the stuff on the top right, the rest being the fine work of Dave Candlish, Steven Denton, and James Corcoran.

In other news, I believe I have completely neglected to mention that I've seen the fully lettered pages for Dr WTF?! and they are looking super sweet! In fact, have a preview, you know you want one:

"Enough wallowing in the past," I hear you cry. "What about the future?"

Well, this month I have been experimenting with tracing paper and found that I like it. A lot. The smooth texture, the fluid pen marks, the reusable pencils, all leads me to think I have a new favourite way of working. At least, until I find some other way I prefer over the next few weeks. I choose to see my flitting tastes as a positive aspect of my work!

Here is a picture of a boy riding a bike. Why have I drawn a boy riding a bike? It's all part of a comic I am currently putting the finishing touches onto, so there will be more news of that over the coming month. 

There will also be news of the other project I am working on. The great cyclic nature of blog posts leads me once more to Paragon's Rise of the Mekkosapiens, for which I am drawing yet more 'time-and-space-rupturing-super-violence'. Well, there will be robots and guns at any rate.

Bikes, robots, and guns. That's the shape of March to come. See you there!

End Of Year Review

Last year I discovered that there is something of a tradition among small press bloggers of creating a yearly review of everything recently accomplished. I found this out a little late to write anything up myself, and probably would not have thought much of my achievements at the time.

This was unfortunate, as it meant I failed to thank my brother for getting me to create this blog, the Legendary Shark for dishing out his scripts to all who would wish to practise on them, Matt Mclaughlin for seeing this practise work and for letting me work on his own strips, and the wonderful people at Temple APA for publishing our first collaboration; Lugal.

Lugal: Temple APA Issue 8

Not to worry though, as this time I am more prepared! The year got off to a good start when Dirk Van Dom saw my art on Lugal and asked me to contribute to Vanguard. The first issue was released in July, and my story Halo And The Gryphon was met with pretty good reviews.

Halo And The Gryphon: Vanguard Issue 1

As we were working on this project, Owen Watts released Dr WTF?! in which I provided some art for Oscar Maltby's story of Apocalyptic Whovian Fan Girls. I got to draw varying standards of cosplay, and expressed my view on the term "Homo Repticular" (no italics).

Back To The Wreckage: Dr WTF?! 2011

By the time Vanguard burst free from it's release date, I was already working on episode 3 of Rise of the Mekkosapiens. Matt Mclaughlin once again trusted me to put my pen to his words and I got to draw crowd scenes, chase scenes, and all round robot action. This has recently been released in Paragon 9, so go check it out.

Paragon Issue 9: Rise Of The Mekkosapiens Part 3

Halloween saw the release of Hallowscream, which answered some reviewers requests that I put fewer lines into my art work. I got to add another writer to my list of collaborators, and Lizzie Boyle seemed pretty pleased with the results. Don't forget this one is available for free, and can be enjoyed not just at Halloween, but every other day of the year as well!

Storage: Hallowscream 2011

That's the last of my publication credits for the year, but it certainly doesn't finish the list of work I've been involved with. The art for Halo And The Gryphon part 2 is already finished, and my work for the next Dr WTF?! continues apace. I've also managed to ensure that I have made over 52 blog posts this year. That averages out at one a week!

Next year I'm hoping to be even more productive, but I feel that will be a tale for another day. Hope you all enjoy your new year's celebrations, everyone. See you in the future!

Some More Reviews!

Some of you may remember a few months back when I posted some reviews of my work. Well, I'm back to do more shameless self promotion, on this blog that is almost entirely shameless self promotion! Go me!

To start with, my work for the next Dr WTF?! is already getting good feedback, and I'm not even past the preliminary sketch stage. Greg Meldrum seems happy with the work so far, while over on Facebook  Owen Watts claimed that "This is easily going to be the MOST INSANE story in Dr WTF?! 2012." So while editor, writer, and artist all stand around slapping each other on the back and marvelling at their own brilliance, let's anchor this post to the ground before it disappears up our collective backsides. 

Forbidden Planet International has a less glowing review of Vanguard. It's not a completely bad review, but is certainly the least positive we've had so far. Here's what it says about my work;

The art by Louis Carter starts out so strongly, that very first page above of really nice, almost abstracted shapes as the Halo makes planetfall. But after it gets too damn busy, panels just so full of detail, with everything a mass of lines and shading. It’s not bad, not at all, but if it were stripped back just a little, to what we saw on the opening couple of pages it would be so much better. But the potential here is huge.

Not to worry though, for if that was our least positive review, this next one is the most positive! Comics Bulletin has seen some cutting reviews in its time, and I think many of us were waiting for this one with nervous anticipation. It all turned out well though, take a look at this;

"Halo and the Gryphon" feels like an underground comix adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix; the big selling point for me is the art of Louis Carter, a strange and evocative mix of fine detail on the characters and a far more blocky, abstract approach to backgrounds. It looks like nothing else I've ever seen -- aside from perhaps David C. Sutherland's artwork in the early days of Dungeons and Dragons, and even that's not quite the same -- but it's stunning work.

Amusingly, the page that they picked to illustrate the Comics Bulletin review was the one that I find the most crowded, while the Forbidden Planet one chose a page in which only one of the six panels has a background to distract you.

Still, I welcome constructive criticism, and I will be considering my strengths and weaknesses as I continue working on part two of Halo and the Gryphon. As such, I would like to offer my thanks to Richard and Kelvin, and all those who have taken the time to offer their opinions elsewhere. The next few weeks should see me posting some sketches of some new characters, so don't forget to drop by again!

Back To The Wreckage

Owen Watts has begun collecting scripts for Dr WTF?! 2012. You can keep an eye on forthcoming developments over at the Dr WTF?! facebook page. While you're there, why not drop Owen a line and get yourself a digital copy of the 2011 issue?

My contribution to Dr WTF?! 2011 was some art work for the story Back to the Wreckage, written by Oscar Maltby and lettered by David Withers. You can see this entire story right here, by simply scrolling down the page and enbigginating this artwork!

 

Dr WTF?!

Dr WTF?! cover art by Carl Pearce

Remember that comic I was going on about a while back? The Doctor Who anthology featuring some of my artwork among other great stuff? Well, you may not be aware that Dr WTF?! has been loose in the wild for a few weeks now. Actual paper copies have been on sale at conventions, and now it is time for PDF versions to begin worming their course through unknowable web-ways.

Editor Owen Watts has this to say on the matter:

"Oh Dr WTF looks so tempting with it's big shiny cover and it's cavalcade of forum talent and interesting contents - but I LITERALLY CAN'T WAIT"

Well I have good news! There's a sexified £2 PDF doing the rounds - also I'm doing AMAZINGLY AMATUERISH sketches for any buyers. For a limited period!

The best way to get at this would probably be to drop by the Dr WTF?! facebook page and drop a scrawl on Owen's wall. Or, like, whatever the slang is.