{"id":650,"date":"2015-06-13T01:48:10","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T05:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/makingcomics.spiltink.org\/?p=650"},"modified":"2015-07-22T23:42:26","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T03:42:26","slug":"girl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/girl-2\/","title":{"rendered":"girl#2 – a comic about tropes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trope – noun -(\u02c8tr\u014dp) plural: tropes\u00a0: A word, phrase, or image used in a new and different way in order to create an artistic effect.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. – a : A word or expression used in a figurative sense : figure of speech
    \n– b : A common or overused theme or device : clich\u00e9 <the usual horror movie tropes><\/li>\n
  2. : A phrase or verse added as an embellishment or interpolation to the sung parts of the Mass in the Middle Ages.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"g2thumb\"Tropes are not ALL bad, but they most assuredly are a thing. As a writer, it’s both handy, and important to be conscious of them. They can help build stories via familiar narrative beats, arcs, and characters. But they can also be overused, and there is a tendency for them to become out of date, both stylistically, politically, or philosophically with the times. Some themes become taboo because of that, or\u00a0simply because the audience turns away, stop being popular. The Happy Nuclear Family<\/a> of early american TV is one has fallen in and out of fashion a few times. Sometimes by being reinvented by\u00a0a new definition of family, or happy. On the other hand, trends in the way they are used can reveal how writers end up reflecting the status quo of societies, and help enforce it by doing so. A fun but sometimes disheartening way to spot tropes about women, is by applying the\u00a0Bechdel test<\/a> to your story. It’s not a pass\/fail test, some great stories fail it. But the fact that most genre media does fail it rather consistently, does not reflect well on the diversity of voices depicted in many comics. You can’t legislate that kind of thing very well, but it’s good to be mindful of it in our own work in order to simply do better, smarter, stories that generally think twice before relying on a trope we’ve seen more than once too often. So think of tropes as tools. What is ultimately good or bad about them, is how they are used and utilized.<\/p>\n

    As a fun way to talk further about this, and share some more examples of my process, here’s the complete breakdown of a comic I did for Gutters<\/a>, with\u00a0Jim Hardison<\/a>! It mocks some common\u00a0tropes found in many action comics.<\/p>\n

    How it began: this was a small paying job. I was contacted some time before about doing something with the site, it seemed like fun and the pay wasn’t bad, so I said yes. When my turn came up the script they sent me was these!:\u00a0‘The Continuing Adventures of Two Guys Fighting’\u00a0& what I call, “Girl\u00a02”.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Jim Hardison\/Character
    \nThe Continuing Adventures of Two Guys Fighting!<\/p>\n

    (five panels)<\/p>\n

    Panel 1. A muscle bound, mustachioed and lamb-chopped superhero in an old-timey tights and leotard-style boxer\u2019s uniform, Professor Fisticuffs, is punching a muscle bound, sleek and high-tech looking super villain, The Decimator, in the face. Professor Fisticuffs has a black eye and his lip is bleeding\u2014he\u2019s been getting the worst of it until now. In the background, two women are watching. One is Dixie, the girlfriend of Fisticuffs, an attractive blonde in the good-girl\/Lois Lane mold who is biting the knuckles of her hand in dramatic concern over the outcome of the fight. The other sports a short, punky hair cut and wears fish-net stockings and mini-skirt. She\u2019s scowling.<\/p>\n

    SFX: BIFF!!<\/p>\n

    PROFESSOR FISTICUFFS
    \nYou nearly had me there, Decimator, but now I shall thrash you within an inch of your life, foul villain!<\/p>\n

    Panel 2. Over Professor Fisticuffs\u2019 shoulder as he is throttling the Decimator, whose face is turning red, veins bulging at his temples.<\/p>\n

    THE DECIMATOR (gasping)
    \nIt\u2019s always\u2026this same pattern Professor Fisticuffs\u2026<\/p>\n

    PROFESSOR FISTICUFFS
    \nCome again?<\/p>\n

    THE DECIMATOR (gasping)
    \nBad guy gets you on the ropes\u2026looks like you\u2019re going to lose\u2026then you win! You always do in the end. It\u2019s not like the writer can actually kill you! The comic\u2019s called Professor Fisticuffs for god\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n

    Panel 3. From behind the Decimator as Professor Fisticuffs holds his opponent\u2019s head in both hands and brutally knees his kneeling opponent in the face so that his face is forced into profile and blood is exploding out of his nose.<\/p>\n

    SFX: CRUCH!!<\/p>\n

    PROFESSOR FISTICUFFS
    \nPeople don\u2019t care about that! As long as the fight is cool, it\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n

    THE DECIMATOR
    \nIt\u2019s getting tired\u2026<\/p>\n

    Panel 4. Fisticuffs is violently snapping the Decimator\u2019s back over his knee.<\/p>\n

    SFX: SNAP!!<\/p>\n

    PROFESSOR FISTICUFFS
    \nWhat if I escalate the violence! Distract and entertain people with excessive gore\u2026<\/p>\n

    THE DECIMATOR (grunting)
    \nNo matter\u2026how far\u2026you take it\u2014<\/p>\n

    PROFESSOR FISTICUFFS
    \n\u2014it has to end the same\u2026 Damn it! I see what you mean!<\/p>\n

    Panel 5. Fisticuffs is literally tearing the Decimator\u2019s head off in an explosion of blood that\u2019s splashing gore across Fisticuff\u2019s face. Fisticuff\u2019s is grimacing as if in huge emotional turmoil.<\/p>\n

    SFX: SPLURCH!!!<\/p>\n

    PROFESSOR FISTICUFFS
    \nWait! Here\u2019s an idea!<\/p>\n

    PROFESSOR FISTICUFFS (in a separate word balloon)
    \nWhat have I done?! I\u2019ve killed the Decimator and he was secretly my own brother!! NOOOOOOO!<\/p>\n

    THE DECIMATOR\u2019S HEAD
    \nLame.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Jim Hardison\/Character
    \nThe Continuing Adventures of Two Guys Fighting! Part 2 (from a different angle)<\/p>\n

    (five panels)<\/p>\n

    Panel 1. A muscle bound, mustachioed and lamb-chopped superhero in an old-timey tights and leotard-style boxer\u2019s uniform, Professor Fisticuffs, is punching a muscle bound, sleek and high-tech looking super villain, The Decimator, in the face. Professor Fisticuffs has a black eye and his lip is bleeding\u2014he\u2019s been getting the worst of it until now. In the background, two women are watching. One is Dixie, the girlfriend of Fisticuffs, an attractive blonde in the good-girl\/Lois Lane mold who is biting the knuckles of her hand in dramatic concern over the outcome of the fight. The other sports a short, punky hair cut and wears fish-net stockings and mini-skirt. She\u2019s scowling.<\/p>\n

    SFX: BIFF!!<\/p>\n

    PROFESSOR FISTICUFFS
    \nYou nearly had me there, Decimator, but now I shall thrash you within an inch of your life, foul villain!<\/p>\n

    Panel 2. Professor Fisticuffs is throttling the Decimator in silhouette as a framing device for a closer shot on the two women. Dixie is absorbed in the fight, but the other girl is looking at Dixie intently.<\/p>\n

    DIXIE
    \nThrash him, Professor Fisticuffs!<\/p>\n

    OTHER GIRL
    \nDo you know, you\u2019re the only other woman I\u2019ve seen in this comic?<\/p>\n

    DIXIE
    \nSo?<\/p>\n

    OTHER GIRL
    \nWell, until you showed up, I was convinced that this story was just part of the systemic marginalization of women that happens in so much of pop culture storytelling.<\/p>\n

    Panel 3. Now Dixie and the other girl are talking in the foreground, turned \u00be\u2019s to each other, while Fisticuffs brutally knees the kneeling Decimator\u2019s in the face while holding his opponent\u2019s head with both hands. Dixie looks intrigued.<\/p>\n

    SFX: CRUCH!!<\/p>\n

    DIXIE
    \nWhat do you mean, the systemic marginalization of women?<\/p>\n

    OTHER GIRL
    \nHave you ever heard of the Bechdel test? It asks three simple questions: Are there at least two women in the story who have names? Do they talk to each other? And do they talk about anything other than their relationships with men? If not, they\u2019re pretty marginalized.<\/p>\n

    Panel 4. Dixie\u2019s brows are raised in surprise. Behind her, Fisticuffs is violently snapping the Decimator\u2019s back over his knee.<\/p>\n

    SFX: SNAP!!<\/p>\n

    DIXIE
    \nWow! There are just scads of comics, movies and TV shows that don\u2019t meet that criteria! Lord of the Rings! The Watchmen! Bat Man! Iron Man! I never realized!<\/p>\n

    Panel 5. The fight is in the foreground again as Fisticuffs literally tears the Decimator\u2019s head off in an explosion of blood and gore. Dixie is smiling at the other girl, who is back to scowling again.<\/p>\n

    SFX: SPLURCH!!!<\/p>\n

    DIXIE
    \nI\u2019m so glad we\u2019re not being marginalized in this script\u2026 uh\u2026 I\u2019m sorry, I didn\u2019t catch your name\u2026<\/p>\n

    OTHER GIRL
    \nGirl #2. The script just refers to me as Girl #2.<\/p>\n

    \n

    It’s a little ironic I thought at the time, that Girl #2 is called\u00a0OTHER GIRL in Jim’s script! Hah.<\/p>\n

    I liked this, and started with drawing the cast. This is totally satire, so I thought about a few ways to go at it, and decided on pretty much doing it straight more or less, so I drew a cast that matched most of my own trope expectations when I read the character’s names and descriptions. I didn’t do rotations for them, and didn’t really clean them up beyond this pencil sketch before I starter. But it’s a really good idea to do this at least, thinking out the character’s design a bit before starting the comic and having to figure it out on the go. Also do the same for all key props and locations. But in the case here, there were none.<\/p>\n

    \"charictersWB\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Next I did thumbnails from the scrip, which as per my usual recommendation and habit, had ready at least twice all the way through before drawing anything, to make sure I don’t miss anything and can see the story in my head a little. This time I started with red colour erase pencils, but then cleaned them up a bit by simplifying it all with my brush to work out the more graphic elements of the two one page comics.<\/p>\n

    The stories are structured along the same sequence, with the second strips panels depicting moments just about the same time, but seconds later, of the same scene from two points of view. The reading flow is kept dynamic with camera angle moves that try to toss you around the page in sync with the action.<\/p>\n

    \"thumbsWB\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Those were followed by pencils, this time done in Prismacolor Col-Erase Blue. I don’t typically letter directly on my pages, but in this case I did. It’s a bit more trouble If I have to make changes, but sometimes fun to do on the page like this. Given how much text there is I opted to have no backgrounds at all, to make it a lot easier to compose. It was important the balloons ride the eyeline around the page, helping to you to read them. Rather than interrupt the flow of the reading.<\/p>\n

    \"p1pencilssaftyscanWB\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
    \"p2pencilssaftyscanWB\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

    Those were then inked,
    \nI printed my blues full size this time
    \n[I don’t always work that large],
    \non 11×17 inch bristol and inked them
    \nwith a mix of pen and brush….<\/p>\n

    \"pg1inkswb\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
    \"pg2inksWB\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

    And then scanned those and coloured them digitally.
    \nI did them intentionally a bit garish, and then tried to harmonize them a little
    \nto pull that back by using a\u00a0    New Adjustment Layer and Color Balance.<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"thetwoguysfigting\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"girl2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Trope – noun -(\u02c8tr\u014dp) plural: tropes\u00a0: A word, phrase, or image used in a new and different way in order to create an artistic effect. – a : A word or expression used in a figurative sense : figure of speech – b : A common or overused theme or device : clich\u00e9 <the usual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,19,38,15,14,37,16,9,35,8,7,17,45,47,6,25,33,46,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-gallery","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-processes","8":"tag-20","9":"tag-19","10":"tag-balloons","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-layout","13":"tag-lettering","14":"tag-page","15":"tag-pencils","16":"tag-photoshop","17":"tag-processes","18":"tag-script","19":"tag-sequential","20":"tag-shorts","21":"tag-story","22":"tag-thumbs","23":"tag-tip","24":"tag-tool-tips","25":"tag-tropes","26":"tag-writing","27":"post_format-post-format-gallery","28":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/g2thumb.jpg?fit=2591%2C951&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pf76WW-au","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salgoodsam.com\/mc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}