For some time now I’ve been meaning to write about my progress on Tonoharu: Part Two. Just this week I finished the artwork for the first quarter of the book, so I figured now would be a good time to devote a blog entry to how things are going.

Out of Tonoharu’s four parts, Part Two is looking to be the longest of the bunch. It’s a good 40% longer than Part One, and is filled t0 the brim with hard-to-draw crowd & city scenes. *Sob*…

Just to clarify, when I say the artwork is 25% done, I mean that I’m 1/4 of the way through the drawing, inking, and computer stuff for the actual comic itself. I have not yet so much as even started any of the final edits/tweaks, nor have I started the dust jacket artwork, nor any of the incidental design work. And even once the book is 100% finished, I’ll still need to deal with production and promotion issues, which will tack on another couple-few months on to Tonoharu: Part Two’s release date.

So the million dollar question is: when will Tonoharu: Part Two be done, printed, and available for sale? The honest (but unhelpful) answer is: I don’t know. It’s still too early to say with any confidence. I’m shooting for a release in the second half of 2009 , and if I’m able to stay on schedule, that could/should be possible. But an accident I suffered earlier this year reminded me in no uncertain terms that things don’t always go according to plan, so for the time being, I’m not going to commit to anything more concrete than maybe 2009.

My apologies to those who would prefer for the book to come out sooner, or to have a firmer release date. Trust me when I say that no one wants to see Tonoharu: Part Two come out in a timely manner more than myself, as my dream of making a living as a cartoonist is contingent on me, y’know, actually having comics available for sale. Rest assured that I work on this comic seven days a week, and make a little progress everyday…

I should hopefully have a slightly clearer sense of the release date with the next progress report, which I’ll write when the artwork is half done. If I’m able to stay on schedule, that update should occur in three to four months. We’ll see…

I just received word from my distribution partner Top Shelf Productions that the first printing of Tonoharu: Part One is almost sold out!

A second printing is in the works, but due to the time it takes to produce a hardcover book, Tonoharu: Part One may be unavailable in stores for a couple/few weeks. So those who want a copy in the very near future (or those who want a first edition) should get it from their favorite retailer now!

 Or if you can’t find it anywhere else, you can always buy a copy directly from me.

A big thanks to all those who helped to make the first printing of Tonoharu: Part One a success: the folks at the Xeric Foundation, Chris, Brett and Leigh from Top Shelf, the blogs and publications that give it coverage, my friends and family, and especially to the people that bought a copy! Whether my foolhardy dream of eking out a living as a cartoonist will pan out over the long haul still remains to be seen, but I’ve off a good start, and can’t begin to express my thanks to those who helped me get to where I am today.

This is a short entry, but since I’m busy prepping the second printing, I’ll leave it at this. Tune in next Friday for a new web comic.

Pictured:

This is the tenth (and final) entry in a series of posts describing my process for creating my graphic novel Tonoharu. This post deals with the “post-production” edits (for lack of a better term).

I’ve been drawing comics since I was in junior high. I’ve experimented with all sorts of formats & sizes, drawing styles & materials. Most of these experiments were dead ends, but little by little (by the process of elimination if nothing else) they helped me to realize what sort of comics I wanted to make. By the time I started working on Tonoharu in 2003, I had a fairly strong sense of what direction I wanted to go in, not only for Tonoharu, but (presumably) for the works that will follow it.

But that isn’t to say that I had all the fine details ironed out. Daydreaming and theorizing about the comics I wanted to draw only took me so far; only by committing something to paper was I able to see what worked and what didn’t in practice. For the things that didn’t work out, I did my best to make them right after the fact, via graphical and textual edits.

Editing the Pictures
When I started drawing Tonoharu, I hadn’t completely settled on what the characters would look like. For the main character in particular, I had a hard time capturing the qualities I wanted express in his face, which was unfortunate because he is in practically every panel. But as I drew him over and over, his facial features slowly evolved, and he started looking more and more as I had vaguely imagined him in my mind’s eye.

The problem was, the drawings of him from early in the book looked almost nothing like the final character design (as can be seen in the before and after shot at the beginning of this entry). I mean, I’m fine with some variance from drawing to drawing, but he looked like a completely different person.

So I ended up redrawing the faces I didn’t like, and frankensteining them into the original drawings using Photoshop. This took months and months of dedicated work, and became more encompassing as time went on. Ultimately virtually every face of every main character in Tonoharu: Part One was edited in this manner at least once, in some cases two or three times.

Okay, I’ll admit, I’m an insane perfectionist, and I got a little carried away. But I think being so nitpicky about the characters faces has given me a better understanding of how to do it the right way, and as a result I won’t need to do as much digital plastic surgery to the characters in Tonoharu: Part Two (maybe only half as much… sigh).

Pictured: A sheet of revised faces. Yes, I’m crazy.

Editing the Text
I have a tendency to be too wordy in my comics (and in my blog entries) and I’m always trying to curb that. It’s possible to make a good comic that’s wordy of course, but after a certain point it starts to resemble a picture book, or an illustrated screenplay. Comics that really play off the strengths of the medium tend to use words very economically; often with ten or less words per panel, and only rarely over fifteen. Take a look at any random Peanuts comic and see what I mean.

So as I edited the text of Tonoharu: Part One, my rule of thumb was to try to keep the number of words per panel under fifteen (or ideally, under ten). And unless I absolutely couldn’t help it, I tried not to go over twenty words per panel at absolute most. I was always looking for ways to tighten up scenes and make them less wordy. Iris Murdoch once said “To be a good writer, you have to kill your babies”, and that’s what editing the text was like for me. I would fret over every clever turn of phrase I was considering editing out, but nine times out of ten I realized the work was better in its absence, and wouldn’t dream of putting it back in once it was gone.

Pictured: The same page, before and after textual edits. I know it’s too small to read the actual words, but as you can see, the “before” version is a virtual wall of text, with the “after” version having been trimmed down considerably.

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Well, I guess that just about wraps the Creating Tonoharu series up. There were a few other things I wanted to write about in more detail; maybe when Tonoharu: Part Two is close to being done, I’ll revisit Creating Tonoharu and fill in the blanks. But for now, I’m sick of writing about my creative process, so I’m declaring the series provisionally closed.

As such, next Friday’s entry will be about something completely different. Stay tuned.

Creating Tonoharu–#1: Laying The Groundwork
Creating Tonoharu–#2: The Idea
Creating Tonoharu #3–Writing the Script
Creating Tonoharu #4–The Design (1/3)
Creating Tonoharu #5–The Design (2/3)
Creating Tonoharu #6–The Design (3/3)
Creating Tonoharu #7–The Drawing
Creating Tonoharu #8–Inking
Creating Tonoharu #9–Computer Stuff
Creating Tonoharu #10–Final Edits

This is the ninth post in a series describing the creative process behind my graphic novel Tonoharu. This installment offers an account of all the computer related stuff I do once the artwork has been inked. I’ll try my best to avoid technical jargon, but to explain this in a totally layperson-friendly manner would make this entry way too long, so I’ll occasionally use the technical terms (with wikipedia links for those that actually want to know more about some of the technical stuff) and hope that the accompanying pictures make what I’m talking about at least somewhat clear. Note: all artwork shown is from the work in progress, Tonoharu: Part Two.

I do all the computer stuff using programs from Adobe Creative Suite 2. First off I open Photoshop, and scan the piece of artwork in at a resolution of 1200 dpi (dots per inch), in grayscale mode. I then reduce the image size down to 40% of its original size.

That done, I zoom in. It’s still possible to faintly see the pencil lines at this point, so I adjust the levels until it appears as pure black and pure white.

Above: Before adjusting the levels. Below: After adjusting them.I then change the image mode from grayscale to bitmap (i.e., from an image mode that has shades of gray to one that only has pure black or pure white), save it as a TIFF image file, and then close down Photoshop.

Then I open up Adobe Illustrator, a vector-based graphics program (as opposed to Photoshop, which is a raster-based graphics program). It’s in Illustrator that I add all the background colors and the text. I start off by importing the TIFF image file. I then create a new layer, and put the image file on the topmost layer and lock it, so I don’t accidentally select it again. Then it’s just a matter of adding the second color (the light blue color found in the book) to the bottom-most layer, using the pen and shape tools.

The reason the second color is showing up as yellow instead of the light blue that’s found in the book is because it’s easier for the book printer that way. The yellow I use in the computer file is the “Y” channel from the CMYK color model. Designating it as a standard CMYK color as opposed to a spot color makes it less prone to hiccups when the printer is converting the files into printing plates. Sorry, that’s a lot of jargon, again… oh well.

The greenish color is 100% yellow and 20% black, which appears as the grayish blue color in the final book. Once I’ve added all the yellow and green, I finish off with the white accent “color” (it’s actually just ends up being the color of the paper in the book).

Above: Adding white. Below: How the colors look without the drawing on top of them.

Once all that’s done, I unlock the layer with the image file on it, and combine the image file and background colors by using a clipping mask. Then on top of all of that, I add in the words, and adjust the word balloons and tails.

Above: Messing around with the word balloons. Below: The end product. 

Once that’s done, I save the Illustrator file, and export that into Adobe InDesign, which is a page layout program. It’s there that I finally see how all the panels work together.

The red arrow shows the panel I was working on. The yellow boxes are placeholders for panels that haven’t been drawn yet.

And that’s pretty much it. I only have to do all that about 400 times, and I have a book.

Well, almost. I actually do some final edits to it before I consider the work to be truly and totally complete. And next week I’m finally bring the Creating Tonoharu series of posts to a close with an entry about that. Stay tuned!

Creating Tonoharu–#1: Laying The Groundwork
Creating Tonoharu–#2: The Idea
Creating Tonoharu #3–Writing the Script
Creating Tonoharu #4–The Design (1/3)
Creating Tonoharu #5–The Design (2/3)
Creating Tonoharu #6–The Design (3/3)
Creating Tonoharu #7–The Drawing
Creating Tonoharu #8–Inking
Creating Tonoharu #9–Computer Stuff
Creating Tonoharu #10–Final Edits

Last week’s entry was about what a typical week is like for me as a Monbusho Research Scholar in the Calligraphy Department of Shikoku University in Tokushima, Japan. This week I want to write about the people I’ve meet here, and about my surroundings.

The People
The person I was most nervous to meet was my advisor, Professor Morikami. This is the person I’d be working with for the next two years, so my whole experience would be greatly influenced by how well I got along with him. Before arriving to Japan, I had never talked to him, and didn’t even know what he looked like. My contact with him had been limited to a few e-mail exchanges conducted in Japanese. He used extremely formal Japanese, and his e-mails were always short and businesslike, which lead me to wonder if he wouldn’t be a distant, strict teacher. I envisioned him scowling in disgust at my poor speaking and listening comprehension during our first actual conversation.

All of those worries dissolved immediately when I met him for the first time. He’s extremely friendly and patient, and goes out of his way to use simple, clearly spoken Japanese when he talks to me. I couldn’t ask for a better advisor.

Pictured: The venerable Professor Morikami, in his office

My fellow students are also great. I have a desk with the other calligraphy grad students, and they’ve taken me under their wing, helping me get settled in when I first got here, inviting me out on various outings… a bunch of class acts, all the way.

Pictured: Some friends at my birthday party. No one parties like calligraphy grad students… NO ONE!

The Places
While I couldn’t be happier about the school, faculty, and students, it’s a bit harder to get enthusiastic about the area I live in. I mean, it’s adequate; there’s a place to do grocery shopping within walking distance of my apartment, a couple restaurants… it’s just kind of boring. I’m living in a suburb of Tokushima called Kitajima, about a half hour away by bus from the city center, where all the action is. That wouldn’t be too bad, except that the buses only come once every ninety minutes or so, with the last one leaving at like 7pm. So you can’t just show up at the bus stop, you really need to plan ahead, and make sure you wrap things up really early, or you’re stuck with an expensive cab ride. I’ve always been impressed by Japan’s public transportation system, but when you get out in the sticks it’s less inspiring. A bicycle is high on my list of things to acquire.

Pictured: A couple shots of the area I live in. Like I say, it’s alright…

My apartment is fine too, though it sort of feels like it was put together from a plastic model kit. And I swear the walls are made out of textured poster board.

It’s actually bigger than I was expecting, but then that’s not saying much because I was expecting it to be the equivalent of a short hallway. It is, but it’s the equivalent of a short hallway that’s really wide, like they have in hospitals. Awesome! As you can see from the photo below, I sleep in a weird bunk bed type thing, with the area below the bed, and the trianglar stairs leading up to it, serving as storage.

So all-in-all my apartment’s okay, except for the ridiculously small “kitchen”, shown here:

Pictured: My kitchen… shown at ACTUAL SIZE

So to sum up my impression of my first two months here:
Shikoku University’s calligraphy program, students, and teachers: Great!
The area that I live in: Meh. But my opinion may approve once I get a bike and can explore a bit further out.

I’ll write more about my experiences as a Monbusho Scholar at some point in the future, but that’ll do it for the time being. The next two entries will be devoted to finishing up a long delayed series of posts about my process for creating my graphic novel Tonoharu. So check back the next two Fridays for that.

At the beginning of April, I came to Japan on a Monbusho Scholarship to study Japanese Calligraphy at Shikoku University. Previous blog entries about exactly what the Monbusho Scholarship is and how I got involved in it can be found here.

Now that I’ve been here in Japan for almost two months now, I think I have enough of a sense of what the experience is shaping up to be to write an overview of what a typical week is like.

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Although I’m officially designated as an independent research student, the calligraphy department faculty has been kind enough to allow me to sit in on regular classes for the first semester, to serve as a crash course to the various styles of Japanese Calligraphy. Every weekday I have one class, except for Thursdays when I have three. Below is a list of the subjects I’m studying:

Regular Script (twice a week)
Seal Script
Semi-cursive Script
Cursive Script
Penmanship
History of Chinese Calligraphy

This goes without saying probably, but all of the classes are conducted in Japanese. In fact I wasn’t even sure what the calligraphic styles were called in English when I started writing this blog entry, and had to look them up on Wikipedia.

For all but the history class, the classes are pretty hands on. They usually begin with the professor providing a short explanation about what we’ll be practicing that day, possibly in the form of a mini-history lecture.

That’s followed maybe by a demonstration, and then the rest of the class is devoted to practicing writing something from a handout or our textbook.

The History of Chinese Calligraphy class, on the other hand, is a standard lecture class. This was the class I was most worried about when I first started. Much to my surprise, however, I’m actually able to understand most of it (with the help of my Japanese electronic dictionary) and it’s pretty interesting.

I will say this though; my Japanese level is such that I need to pay really careful attention to understand what is being said. I can sustain that level of concentration for about an hour or so. After that, my comprehension takes a nosedive, and by the end of a ninety minute class, I just can’t keep focused, and understand almost nothing. So by the end of the day on Thursday, having attended three classes totaling four and a half hours, I’m physically exhausted down to my bones. On Thursdays I drag my carcass home the minute classes are over, and veg out.

On every other weekday, I usually stay at school after class and practice what I’ve learned. There’s a huge room for this purpose, carpeted in felt. Oftentimes other students will be in there, practicing calligraphy on long sheets of paper laid out on the floor.

So far I’ve been very happy with my studies here at Shikoku University. I haven’t been here long yet, but feel like I’ve already learned a lot. I’ll write about some of the harebrained conclusions I’ve drawn, as well as show some of my calligraphy, at some point in the coming months.

But for now, I’ll leave it at this. Next week’s entry will be devoted to my new surroundings, and the people I’ve met here.

There’s a paragraph-long review of Tonoharu: Part One in this week’s EW (the magazine with the GROSSEST initials in the publishing world). May 23 cover date, page 126. As always, I can’t seem to find a weblink to it…

They gave me a “B”. That’s pretty good, right? I wouldn’t even want an “A”, because then it’s like I’m the teacher’s pet or something.

Anyway, check it out. The same issue also features a cover story about Sex and the City, all the more reason to take a look at EW this week…

Thanks to EW reviewer Sean Howe for the writeup, and to Lemel Williams for letting me know about the review.

*UPDATE*:  I just found a link to the review online:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20200850,00.html