Comics Excercise

Thursday, April 1, 2010
The prospect of making a comics never occurred to me before, too long to draw, too lazy to commit, and most likely insecure about my style! But hey! New is good right?!...So as project, exercise of style, i decided to have a short pass at it. The idea is to illustrate one the most obscure past about a famous Villain: DR DOOM!
One of my favourite, and certainly one with HAS an origin that sparked my interest. A few googlely research later, i was drawn to the moment in his life where he wasn't the infamous Fantastic Four nemesis, but Victor Von Doom, recently expelled from university and disfigured (left cheek) by an unsuccessful experiment. From there, Victor travels to Tibet, meeting a wise man called Genghis, one the Immortal Eight, then sent to a monastery where, after taking control, he seal his fate by wearing the mask and armour that we all learned to love.
First part of the exercise, the meeting with Genghis.
I loosely started to sketch the pages with no script in mind but the general story. Dangerous, but let's see if can add some text and dialogue later on.
So here it is in a very rough nutshell!

Intro. First page. On the left side are some research for the first two pages set up. On the right, was my first pass for the first page. So far, i'm inclined to use the bottom right sketch of the left side. A simple front page, where we have some vulture chicks (yes, it's right there, with a gollop of imagination) on the top part of the page and a ram skull at the bottom.MMMHHH! Decisions! Decisions!...
Page 2.
Page 3 and 4. Arrival at the entrance of a walled cave. Yeah, now we're getting somwhere!
Page 5 and 6. Breaking the wall. Each strike brings more light into the cave. More is revealed...
Page 7 and 8. The breath of life.
Page 9 and 10. Bringing the Wise man back in the valley. Cleansing ceremonie.
Page 11 and 12. Victor Von Doom has a little thought for his mom before being summoned.
Page 13 and 14. Proper introduction to the Wise man, now in solemn attire. Presentation of the Sword.
Page 15 and 16. Flashback/ story of Genghis/the Wise man, and how he vowed to keep the Occident secured!
Page 17. Genghis presents the Sword to Victor Von Doom. A map is engraved along the Blade(design to come). May be a couple of pages will be added right after this. Victor needs to explain his back story a little, before taking off.
Page 18. And he does take off! Voila, the end!

All suggestions welcomed of course!
CHEERS!

9 comments:

  1. Haha j'ai trouvé pire que moi: 18 pages pour commencer!...Et bien bon courage!
    Mais t'as l'air bien parti en tous cas, j'ai hâte de voir le résultat final!

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  2. J'ai toujours eu les yeux plus gros que le ventre!...hehe!
    Ouai! maintenant va falloir etre serieux...ho naaan!

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  3. Salut!

    Très sympas tes dessins!
    Aussi, si tu ne le connais pas, il y a un très beau film sur le peuple Kazakh et la légende de Gengis Kahn: "Nomad, la légende d'un peuple". C'est un film très sympa de 2004, 100% d'origine Kazakh réalisé par Sergueï BODROV (lui-même d'origine Kazakh).

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  4. salut Tatoo!

    Merci bien pour les commentaires encourageant!
    Je vais m'empresser de rechercher ce film illico! Tout ce qui a trait a l'ASIE, notamment Asie centrale et Tibet me fascine plutot!
    J'essaye de me renseigner un max pour ma petite histoire et toutes les inspirations sont les bien venues a ce sujet!
    Cette histoire particulière ne reflette que TRES librement le personnage de Genghis, qui se veut plutot fantaisiste (le monde de Marvel l'est quelque peu!). Une inspiration du 'LOUP BLEUE' de Yasuhi Inoue a ete une autre inspiration (d'ou le loup illustre sur les planches). Je pense que le film japonnais "Aoki Okami" de Shinichiro Sawai et "Mongol" de Sergei Bodrov (hey! le revoila!) sont aussi de bonnes sources.

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  6. Sain-by-noo(Bonjour en Mongol; phoniquement: "sainbéno")!!!

    Erratum: Sergueï BODROV est Russe. J'ai confondu avec un autre. En fait, le "Nomad" de BODROV est assez romancé mais j'aime bien sa façon de filmer ("Mongol" aussi).

    Qq infos sur ce film (En Anglais: flemme de translater):

    1) "The Nomad" is a 2006 historical epic written by Rustam IBRAGIMBEKOV, executive-produced by Miloš FORMAN and directed by Ivan PASSER, Sergei BODROV & Talgat TEMENOV.
    It was released on March 16, 2007 in North America, distributed by The Weinstein Company.
    The film has been shot in 2 versions: in Kazakh by TEMENOV for distribution in Kazakhstan and in English by PASSER/BODROV for distribution worldwide.
    The government of Kazakhstan has invested $40,000,000 in the movie production, making it the most expensive Kazakh film ever made. "The Nomad" is Kazakhstan's official entry, Best Foreign Language Film for the 79th Academy Awards.

    2) Short plot outline:
    "The Nomad" is a historical epic set in 18th-century Kazakhstan. The film is a fictionalized account of the youth and coming-of-age of Ablai Khan, as he grows and fights to defend the fortress at Hazrat-e Turkestan from Dzungar invaders.

    3) Reception:
    Variety critic Leslie FELPERIN, who viewed the film at the Locarno Film Festival wrote that, "nearly every tenge (Kazakhstan's local currency) and euro from French-based co-production partner Wild Bunch is visible on screen, judging by pic's elaborate costumes, sets and cast of a thousand or so - real people not digitally generated extras", and that co-directors "PASSER and BODROV, assisted by (per credits) 'local director' Talgat TEMENOV, have enough skill to make "Nomad" compelling by dint of old-school sincerity and sheer spectacle. [...] [the cast shows] the necessary displays of athletic prowess and toothsome looks, particularly from the virile Becker".

    In the United States, it was a box office bomb, as the film was only able to scrape $79,123. While most of the critics enjoyed the cinematography and the action scenes, they criticized the film for rudimentary acting, confused directing and, for some critics who saw the English version, poor dubbing. The critics especially noted that the film had very poor screenwriting, for lines such as a scene between Mansur (Kuno BECKER) and Gaykar (Ayana YESMAGAMBETOVA): 'Mansur: You have the scent of the moon', Gaykar: 'Does the moon have a scent?'.

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  8. Autre film intéressant: le "Genghis Khan" du réalisateur Mongol (sûr!) M.BALJINIAM. Dans la même lignée que le "Mongol" de BODROV & PASSER.

    Et tu trouveras tout plein de très belles photos du film (portraits, paysages... que tu peux voir en maxi-maxi grand format rien qu'en cliquant dessus) en consultant les liens suivants:
    http://www.setboun.com/
    Les photos ont été prises par le photographe Michel SETBOUN durant le tournage du film "Genghis Khan" de BALJINIAM.
    La galerie de photos sur laquelle tu atterris (en suivant ce lien: http://www.reportages-pictures.com/MONGOLIA/Mongolia,%20a%20little%20bit%20of%20everything/page5.htm) est impressionnante: tout plein de pages.
    Michel SETBOUN sillonne le pays depuis 1991 et connait très bien cette culture. Tu peux le contacter sur son site (Why not?).

    Ah oui, 1 pitite BD sympa pour enfants: le "Genz Gys Khan" de Yann DÉGRUEL. Mignon. Frais.
    "Genz Gys Khan au pays du vent est une comptine poétique, un voyage d'aventures, une fresque animée. Ce voyage est conduit par trois petites miettes, Genz, Gys & Khan qui incarnent la mémoire de leur ancêtre Témouldjin le loup-bleu, plus connu sous le nom de Gengis Khan."

    Oualà missié.
    By-yar-tai (Au revoir)!!!

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  9. WOW!
    Grand merci, Tattoo!
    une mine d'or ces sites!
    Je vois que j'ai a faire a un grand connaisseur et un passionne de premiere heure! Un vrai plaisir.
    Je vais de ce pas essayer de degoter ces films...
    Du coup, tu me mets pas trop la pression pour mes illustres!;)

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