the art of Will Terrell

I love Jeff Smith. I can’t lie. I was in 10th grade when Bone #1 first came out.  I was just getting into all the stories that shaped my creative life.  Sandman, Cerebus, The Maxx and all the Image comics titles, and then my friend let me borrow his first few issues of Bone and told me to check it out.  It instantly captured my imagination, just as it has SO many other people.  But the more I got into the story, the more I got into the creator.   Because I moved a lot growing up I had been in 9 schools by the time I got out of high school and I hardly knew anyone I graduated with.  But I knew comic books and comic book creators.  That’s a big part of the reason I became an artist and writer was because it was the only thing I could keep with me.  When I got out of school, even though my art was not good by any stretch of the definition, I decided to become a comic book artist and writer.

My biggest influence when I first started my forray into making comics was Dave Sim and his absolutely amazing Cerebus’ guide to self-publishing.  It was immensely informative and it got me started self-publishing and going to comic conventions.  But it was Jeff Smith that made the dream come to life for me.  Because it was his passion, personality and way with people that I connected with.  I knew it was possible to be a nice guy and make comics you were passionate about. The more I’ve done comics though the more I’ve come to admire him and what he has done not only for himself but for the industry.  He’s changed the way comics are made and read.  He and his wife nearly single-handeldly drove us from the collectors market to the book market with his push to keep stories in print and in graphic novel format, something that is common sense now.  He even pushed Comic-con in the late 90′s to create an area for independant creators, something I greatly benefited from when I exhibited for the first time in 2000.  But he did it all his own way, with passion and vision and a burning desire from within.

The closer I get to beginning my own story, the more I’ve wanted to learn about how he made that transition.  Where he developed his skills and his discipline, what drove him to do things the way he did.  Its the same kind of study I’ve done with Chuck Jones and Charles Schultz, except Jeff is still alive and working.  Last year I flew to Columbus Ohio on the spur of the moment to see his art show at the Wexner center at Ohio State just before it closed.  I used almost every buck I had saved just to see it and ended up walking 20 something miles the entire weekend because I could barely afford to rent a cab.  It was worth it though.   It helped me break through a lot of my own roadblocks.  Mostly it helped to see that there is no magic there.  Just a lot of hard work.

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON

The first time I actually met Jeff was at San Diego comic-con in 1997 during his infamous Trilogy tour with Charles Vess and Linda Medley.  Seeing the giant tree and life-size characters from these stories just captured my imagination.  And the thousands of people with wads of cash trying to buy a tiny little piece of it.  I was too shy at the time, and intimdated by the crowds to actually talk to him.  And ever since the crowds have been just as insane the dozen or so times I’ve seen him at shows.

But for whatever reason, this year at Comic-con, I just happened to walk past on preview night when no one was in line.  I feel embarrassed to admit this publicly, but I actually started to shake, lol.  I have not had a fanboy moment like this in my entire 13 years of going to comic conventions.  Not when I met Jim Lee, or shared a table with Brian Stelfreeze or Matt Wagner, or when the Pini’s invited me to afterhours, not even when I got to go to dinner with Alex Ross.  But I was shaking like a leaf this time.  And I am thankful Amber had the thought to take pictures of the moment, because I hardly remember any of it.  I thanked him for all the things you thank someone that helped shape your career, I babbled a little about my comic I’m working on and gave him a preview copy.  He liked the art a lot, and gave some very flattering compliments, and even asked me to sign it.

That was ten minutes into preview night… I was ready to go home after that.

COMIC-CON PANELS

Jeff Smith’s first Panel was a discussion with Terry Moore, where Terry announced ECHO being sold as a movie, and Jeff announced 3 new Bone stories drawn by him and written by Tom Sniegoski, who wrote  Stupid Stupid Rat-tails.  It was a fascinating panel in that it was mostly the two creators interviewing each other.  I wish I had a recording of the entire thing because it was so packed full of insight and humor.  I kept wanting to ask questions throughout the discussion, but I couldn’t think of anything I hadn’t already heard from the hundreds of interviews, panels  and articles I’ve seen about the two.  Finally I asked what their top three moments were in their career.   I’ve had a lot of awesome moments in my career so far, and I’ve been blessed in that those big moments are constanlty getting bumped off the list by even bigger one’s, I can only imagine what would make their top list. The answers were very surprising.  So small but meaningful.  I guess those are the things that matter most.

The second panel Jeff did was a CBLDF class on the creation of a comic book page.  He went through step by step the creation of a gag and a comic page, as well as all the tools he uses.  It was very informative, especially on the crafting of a joke.

“How a character starts a scene should be the opposite of how they end the scene.” If a character starts a scene happy, he should end it very upset.  Etc…

“Simplicity is crucial in telling a good story.  You don’t want to complicate anything.”

The discussion reminded me of something I read in one of Chuck Jones’ biographies where he talked about “Its not about opening a funny door… its opening a door funny.” The best comedians keep it very simple and know how to draw it out humorously.

On Writing stories….  “I think in words and pictures so I write in words and pictures.” This is so helpful.  Artists who write stories should not be tied strictly to a script.  When I was in Columbus for the art show at the Wexner center I sat on a couch in the lobby to rest from all the walking, and found an article cut out of the local newspaper where he mentioned writing all of his stories in thumbnails.  Little gestures with the scripts in word-balloons.  I think I had seen a process tutorial like that years ago too.  But I lost that little lesson somewhere in my years trying to collaborate (and failing miserably) with other writers on a comic.  Writing in script format has never felt comfortable to me.  And since I switched back to writing in pictures its been so much easier.

the TOOLS

2-ply Bristol plate – smooth finish
Windsor Newton Series 7 sable hair brush Size #1
Pelican Black ink
White Cel vinyl paint (acrylic based paint for animation)

Always front loads the brush – Keep ink towards the tip, never on the barrel.
Starts off by Loading ink onto the brush on a separate piece of paper

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So that’s my Jeff Smith Experience from San Diego comic-con 2009.  I went to about 15 panels over the entire weekend.  Most of which were about writing or making comics.  Its been a long time since I did panels, and I’m feeling really inspired from the experience.  I can’t wait to get back to work!

-Will

The main reason I went to Comic-Con this year was because of webcomics. I have been learning the art of making comic books for 13 years now and I have gone through many phases. Starting with the raw amateur passionately seeking out every little scrap of information and guidance I could find, to the mediocre professional taking jobs just for a paycheck. In the beginning I couldn’t get anyone to even look at my work it was so bad, and I spent so many years trying to “become professional” that I forgot why I even wanted to make comics in the first place. I lost that fire inside that makes a person so hungry they’ll do whatever it takes to learn, grow, apply, succeed at what it is they’re passionate about.

Back in February, I think, I went to do a store signing in Abilene, mostly to network with some artists down there and introduce myself to the store owner. Being in West Texas, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for that sort of thing. There’s only one store in my town for example. While there I picked up a little book called “How to make webcomics” by the 4 guys of www.halfpixel.com, Dave Kellett, Brad Guigar, Kris Straub and Scott Kurtz. I’ve met Scott a few times at shows here and there, and I’ve bought several issues of his book PVP. I always remember Scott at conventions telling stories so funny it left the entire room in tears. But I hadn’t yet heard much about the other guys.  Mostly I picked up the webcomics book because an artist in my sketchclub told me I needed to start thinking about doing webcomics. But honestly, I wasn’t that interested, and I let the book sit there for nearly 4 months without even glancing through it.

Fast forward to about 2 months ago, one of the girls in my comic book studio asks if she can play one of the episodes from the Half-pixel webcomics weekly podcast. Anyone that knows me knows I can’t stand talkshows when I’m trying to work, but for some reason, hearing their banter and everything they had to say made me feel like I was actually in a studio with them, and hearing all the advice and experience coming from them put a fire back into my heart. In just a couple weeks I devoured every single podcast I could download from them (63 in all!) and read the webcomics book front to back a couple of times. I’ve since been reading articles and interviews, and regularly subscribing to dozens of webcomics I’ve found that I like. Basically… I have my passion back, thanks to these guys.

So I wanted to go to comic-con to meet them in person. To thank them and to see if they’re just as nice in person as they were in print and in the podthingies. I was very glad that I did. They were even more friendly and warm than I had expected, especially with how busy they were at the show. I gave them each some of the Zebra brush pens I got from my friend in Japan, and I gave them copies of my SuperZeroes preview book, and got overwhelming response from all of them and I feel encouraged to keep moving forward. Hopefully I’ll run into them again at a show, but I’ll be on the other side of the table.

By the time I made it to their webcomics panel, Amber and I were pretty much wiped out. We were out till 3 in the morning for the Mighty boosh concert, and up really early so she could catch the Spongebob panel, and the webcomics panel was the last for the day for us before driving back to Texas. It was very funny, and awesome to see them doing the banter live. But I’m glad to be back home now. It was a great show, and an amazing week.

-Will

This is artist/writer Brian Talbot… (the one with the long hair, not the guy eating the fish taco.  That was just some guy at the restaurant earlier that day.)

Brian Talbot has done a lot of work in his career, but the book that always stood out to me was “A tale of one bad rat.” It was a very powerful story that helped me personally heal from a lot of emotional pain, and its something I’ve bought for many friends to help them.  It was cool getting to meet him and tell him in person, although I’m certain he gets it all too often  There were quite a few other artists on the panel.  I believe it was called “After the first 1,000 pages.” Referring to the fact that it takes a person 10,000 hours to get prolific at any one thing.  Which breaks down to roughly 1,000 pages in comic book terms.  I figure I am close to that in my own career. Although its hard to tell these things.

I tried doing sketches of Gene Colan and a few other people on the panel but none really turned out.  I think it could have been a really amazing discussion, but the moderator was frustratingly passive and hardly asked any questions, most of which were not all that engaging and didn’t really get artists talking to each other.  He even ended the panel early.  These things happen I guess.

The thing that came up over and over from the artists is the love for doing what you’re doing.  Not doing it for credit, or for fame or anything outside of yourself.  But drawing because you absolutely love to draw and creating stories that you want to read.  Like the Straczynski panel, talking about a fire that burns from within you, and not based on any external motivation.  This is the thing that sets highly successful creators apart from the rest.

-Will

I sat in on the J. Michael Straczynski panel mostly because my feet were killing me and I didn’t want to have to wait in line for the next panel.  I’m really glad I did though, he was very funny and had great advice for writing that only comes from decades of doing the work.  I love his outlook on things and he takes no excuses from people.  This sketch didn’t turn out great, I was too busy taking notes, and he was also very animated and hard to pin-down.

From the Notes:

“You have to be willing to fail to succeed.  Otherwise you are only guaranteed to fail.”

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On starting stories…

“First you write a scene using everything you have to say about a scene, then everything you want to say about a scene, then everything you NEED to say about a scene.”

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“If you’re having problems with a scene, it probably has to do with how you set it up in the previous scenes. ”

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“Real quality work shines in the dark.  What you have to decide is what burns inside you.  If it burns inside, people WILL see that and give you a chance.  The moment you look outiside yourself… you’re screwed.

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On worrying people will steal your ideas…
“Don’t worry about your ideas.  Worry about excuting them… NOT assassinating them.”

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Writers block comes from three things…
Performance anxiety.  Thinking too much about being good enough or not.
Not trusting your characters, trying to shove a story down a characters throat that does not fit them.
Fear – I have to make a living / will people like this?

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THE BARN AND THE COW:  When a writer is working with an artist, they often have a certain problem.  You ask an artist to draw a barn.  He wants to draw a cow next to the barn, so you say go ahead, draw a cow next to the barn.  But it ends up being a drawing of a cow that happens to have a barn in the background.

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The quote that really stuck out to me was this…

“There is trying to write… and then there is writing.”

Its been nearly a week since the con and I am still exhausted.  I’ve been busy this week with a lot of business stuff so I’m not quite back into the art swing, but I have several sketches I did of comic book creators at the convention.  After the first couple days of walking around the convention center I started looking for panels to sit in on.  Its been years since I went from panel because I’m usually stuck in a booth somewhere.  I forgot just how informative and inspirational these panels could be.  Some were particularly surprising, I will try to write a little bit about each one the next few days.  One that really struck me was the CBLDF class on figure drawing with Dave Gibbons, the artist on Watchmen and tons of other stuff.  He has some very helpful tips that I tried to scribble down as they flew at us.

Never show action in the middle, but in the beginning or the end of an action.

“Gesture: Not what a thing IS… but what a thing is doing.”

For drawing hands use the big shapes first to get the form (like a mitten) then divide into halves and break down the smaller shapes.

There were quite a few others, but I’m tired and need to get to sleep.  I’ll post more Monday.

-Will

I am sitting on the back porch of my friends house in San Diego. I can smell the sweet smell of colitas in the air, and I hear the muffled boom from the Seaworld fireworks off in the distance.  It's a gorgeous night, and I've got a lot to think about. 

We just got back from the Comic-con preview night, and I am absolutely mentally drained.  This show is madnessen.  This is my seventh comic-con, My first being in 1997.... and I have never seen anything like this.  It was packed on preview night like I'm used to seeing on the busiest Saturday nights of this show.  I can't even imagine what the rest of the convention will be like.  All I know is I'm tired, and my brain is overloaded.

For me personally, comic-con over the years has been a right of passage.  It is such a challenging experience but comes with the most amazing highs.  But more importantly, it has this ability to boil you, your relationships and your intentions down to their essence.   Any insecurities you have suddenly become impossible to ignore.   I've seen this conventon end friendships, partnerships and even relationships.  I personally have experienced many extreme dicotomies of success and total nightmarish disappointment.  I never regret it, but it's always challenging.

Comic-con is especially challenging to creators, because seeing it in person - you begin to realize that there is no magic.  You can see with your own eyes that these people doing what you want to do, are just people, simply creating work that they love.  You start to see that you could be doing it too and it seems so simple that you imagine it shouldn't take long at all.  The veil begins to fall and you start to shed those fanboy cravings and dream of your own success story coming true. 

But it doesn't happen right away.  And it isn't that simple.  You start to get caught up in this artistic purgatory between what you can do and what your ego thinks you are doing.   Comic-con is really good at checking your reality.  

Success is a process.   It's not a finish-line.  There's no One single big break that makes you successful.  Its the result of all the little actions you take every single day for years and years.    

What do you want?  Why do you want it?  and Why is it important to you?  What are you willing to do each day to get you to where you want to end up?  What are you willing to give up to make the time to get you where you want to go? 

I've been through many variations of this.  Some years, I lived in total desperation, hoping something would magically come together.  Other years, incredible success just fell in my lap because I did the work and just happened to be at the right place at the right time.   But this year feels more level.  I have been working towards something.  I still have a long way to go.  But I am finally starting to have something to show for it.  Samples to show to other artists.  Responses from them that are very humbling and promising.  Even from some that make me turn into a 12 year old fanboy again.  Its not the finish line... its just a sign that I am on the right track, and that if I keep working I'll get to where I want to go. 

 CONVENTION REPORT

Today was a mad dash.  Amber and I went to the show with Brian and Beau.  We got our badges pretty quick and got in the enormous line for the professionals to get into the exhibit hall early.  It wasn't near as long as the regular attendees lines, but it was still bad.  The wait for us was under an hour, then we poured onto the show floor and wandered about.  I stopped by just a handful of creators booths, but the experiences were enough to knock me on my ass.  I was so overwhelmed with awesome that I could only handle a few hours of preview night.   I wish I could share some of it here, but I feel it best to keep it to myself for now.  

Tomorrow I will mostly be hitting panels and taking notes. 

-Will

Amber and I have been in San Diego for a few days now.  It's been pretty awesome, but we are already exhausted, and the con hasn't even started.  The trip was long, even though we stopped off in Tucson over night.  Its just been really muggy, most of the way here and unusually muggy here in San Diego.  It's still southern California though, so I can't complain too much.

A few of the highlights so far, we got to swim in the Ocean up near La Jolla.  Gorgeous, clear water and beaches.  And for the first time ever, I got to see and swim with Dolphins.  There was a huge pod of them riding the surf the entire time we were there.  It was pretty amazing.   My Friend Brian Morante, who's family has so kindly let us crash with them for this week, brought us out to their Beach house in Mission Beach for a great bar-b-que with a fire pit and good people.  It's been a lot of fun.  Brian is such an incredible cartoonist, and recently, is starting to become an amazing painter.  He's having an art show Saturday night right after the Convention, check out his site for more information.  It makes me really miss living out here and being able to challenge each other, share ideas and trade lessons with so many amazing artists.  That and the ocean, of course.

I think we’ve had our fill though for this vacation.  We walked through Balboa park some today, I love the Botanical garden there.  We went by a few art supply stores, and a few other places I used to frequent.  And we may go to the beach one more time before, but mostly we’re taking it easy tomorrow to save energy for  Comic-Con preview night tomorrow night and the rest of the show this weekend.  But I’ve had my Sandwich from Allen’s New York Pizza, and my Classic burger from “In and Out”, and I’m so stuffed I don’t even want to think about the burrito from El Indio’s.  mmmmmm…. Now to get down to the reason I’m here.  I’m hoping to make some connections with other professionals in the industry.  Especially with already established webcomics creators, to help me get started with my own endeavor, while hopefully being able to get something back.  I’ve got a good amount of panels I’m planning to attend, and a few publishers to talk to.  So we’ll see how it all goes.  I’ll update again when I get a chance.

-Will

Sometimes when I realize that I’m living in Lubbock Texas and not some place that takes my breath away, I get a little sad. I try to remind myself of the beauty that does surround me. The sunsets, the clouds, the gigantic sky… and when I get tired of all that I sit down and sketch out someplace gorgeous I’d much rather like to be.

With less than two weeks till I head out to the San Diego comic-con.. I’m starting to feel those itchy feet to get someplace beautiful. Rather than drive myself mad I decided to do a little sketchens. I’m SO looking forward to this trip. I might accidentally forget to come back. Hmmm… thinking.. thinking…

-Will