EMOTIONAL ENERGY

2006-02-23T12:06:17Z

I have always said that comic books are artistically and emotionally the hardest thing I have ever done. I liken a picture to a 100m sprint. No matter how fit you are, virtually any able-bodied person can run 100m. Virtually any artist can hammer out a single piece of work.

Now if you’re an artist and used to pumping out single pieces of art of varying quality, take into consideration what it takes to do a comic book page. The average comic book page these days has five panels. So take your last five pieces of work and hang them next to each other. Imagine they can only be sold as a whole. What’s the quality like? Do they all stack up? Are there some weaknesses?

A comic book page is only as strong as its weakest panel*.

At any point over the course of the page, if you weaken, then you weaken the page. It takes a fair amount of emotional energy to keep this intensity up.

How long does it take me to do a page? For me it’s anywhere around 10-12 hours.

Now some of you might argue that it takes some artists more than 12 hours to produce a piece of artwork. So therefore, isn’t an artist who is crafting a single piece of art working emotionally just as hard as a comic book artist producing several images on the page?

Negatory.

Images have different levels of difficulty based on your disposition and what you’re working on. Your emotional energy peaks and troughs based on where you are in the picture, it’s a journey. It’s the difference between travelling to once city and staying there for a month: you learn the ins and outs of the city quite well. You learn how to save time, where to go, and what to expect. It becomes familiar, welcoming and comfortable. That’s a single image.

A comic book page is like travelling to five cities in a month. You’re constantly learning, rethinking and redesigning what you know, what you’ve learnt and what you want to learn with each and every city. The emotional journey begins anew every time, every city… every panel.

There’s also a really keen metaphor here for travelling. Anybody find rushing to the airport an easy experience? Usually it’s fraught with stress, anxiety, disruption and chaos, coupled with the fear of missing your plane. Planning each and every picture and panel is like that. That blank canvas is a space that comic artists have to visit many times before their piece is completed.

And every time you fear that this is the one plane you’re going to miss… and ruin your entire page.

* One of my work tenets. This phrase keeps me honest when I consider cutting corners and taking shortcuts.

The First

2006-02-23T12:05:06Z

Who am I?

My name is Jason Badower.

For those of you who know me, you can read this with a wry smile on your face.

For those of you who have found this through some unfathomable means probably involving the sacrifice of small children or simply a good search engine… “welcome.

I am a comic book artist working as both artist and art director for Space Dog, the marketing/media arm of Top Cow. Space Dog’s job is to test and create comic books as a proving and developing ground for intellectual property in other media. My job is to draw said stories, and oversee the art, storytelling, character and visual design of the other books thrown onto my lap.

I work with my talented writer sidekick, JAn (pro. yarn). As my job is to edit art, his job is to edit stories. I’m sure his name will crop up here heaps. You can check out his LJ at: http://jan-event.livejournal.com/

While I have been doing comic books in Australia for the last 15 years, I have only been a professional for the last two years. I am currently 20,000 words into a text/essay/book on comic book storytelling. When I have a name and career behind me to add some weight to what I’m saying (going from theoretic academic, to practicing professional) I will get the damn thing printed.

In the meantime, this LJ will serve as chronicle, diary, portfolio and insight into my career, thoughts and ideas. The topics will mostly be about comic books, but I might self-servingly sneak some personal items in here too.

So why an LJ?

An LJ is the most obvious way to inform others about my life. Working in a visual medium (comic books), it is fruitless and almost pointless trying to describe what I’m working on, or recently finished.

Show, don't tell.