What a lovely place to spend time...

I wandered over to the Tor website and for some reason I followed a banner link to the website for Sailor Twain. I think it was because the image was of a steamboat and the steamboat figures in my nanonovel, somewhere. I didn't know the link was to a web comic.

I have nothing against web comics. Or rather, nothing that I don't also have against paper ones. I just don't follow them well, anymore. Or don't care about the story. Or want to invest the time and attention in a series even when I love the concept and story.

Until now.

I don't know what it is exactly about the Sailor Twain comic. It's a combination of all the elements that go into the site, the pages, the story. Then, I discovered that the author and artist is also an editorial director at :01 First Second Books. I originally heard of the company when I picked up Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, a textbook for creating graphic novels and other combinations of words and pictures.

I have been reading the book from the beginning, taking occasional dips below the fold into the posts and comments.
I'm behind writing my nano novel, but I reward myself by spending time aboard the Lorelei, immersed in the rich blacks and sparkling whites, and moody grays of Siegel's charcoal.

Yes. He draws the comic and "colors" it in charcoal. It's real Art. OK, I think of anything drawn in charcoal as being "real Art" since I have been avoiding charcoal all my drawing career.

But, there is another aspect to seeing this as Art.

Since beginning the book, I've been seeing the world differently. Especially how noses might be drawn. I know that's a strange bit of focus and it's not the only thing, but it's an important bit for me. I had recently heard somewhere that Art changes how you see the world. This Art is simplifying how I process the world visually. I'm also thinking of how to write stories differently, or how to visualize things like costume and setting.

Mostly, given the month of November and our multitudinous manifestations of monstrous something-that-should-begin-with-m, the big thing I'm getting from the web comic? Trust simplicity.

NOTE:  I've just come back visiting the blog post and discovered that the images I'd linked to are gone. Not sure how that works, but it might have something to do with the comic now being published in French.  I'm going to try posting a link to one of the images again. It's wonderful to be able to see the images out of context, to appreciate the beauty of a single panel and the work that produced it.
m 4April12