Refuge Graphic Novel

Webcomics Nation

2008-09-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

I have edited my comics slightly so they fit over at the Webcomics Nation site. Have been doing this as I will change server soon and in the gap my comics will still be viewable over there, and, actually, I do quite like the format/site layout at Webcomics Nation. Also, It allows me to see what my ‘side scrolling’ comics look like on a flat ‘normal’ page layout (landscape, one above the other, on a vertically scrolling page). It might even be an improvement maybe, I think, surprisingly. I am still in the process of uploading pages but have managed to put a fair amount of the following comics up:

Refuge (serial comic, four chapters so far),
Sand-Pit (Word Comic),
JoJo (Word Comic),
The Knife (Part of Refuge),
The Stranger (old word comic) and
Train Journey (part of refuge separated form new comic narrative),
already uploaded to my little area of the site. More stuff to come!

The Webcomics Nation site is soon to merge with Comics Space. When this happens, in a few months time, people will be automatically redirected to the new site, so I’m told. Not sure what this new place will look like. If it is a problem I will be looking for a decent site to house my comics. At the moment I cringe at a lot of content on Webcomics Nation, that’s when I dare to look. I suppose I can’t speak really. There are some good things I have read there. For me Webcomics Nation good as the design there seems to accommodate my comics well and it may get more people who enjoy comics to look at them. Saves being stuck out in the blogosphere I suppose. I will have to look around a bit more to see what other hosting sites there out there now. Who knows what this new ‘Comics Space’ is going to be like. I am happy currently but in two months time that may change. Be easy to upload somewhere else.

A long time ago...

2008-09-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

...I lived in a cramped room with hardly any space on the table to draw. Hunched up against the bed I drew a comic. I had been trying a few drawings, then some writing. Why not put the two together? It was the winter of 1992. Below is the first result. Working with a fine point marker pen. It seemed to come together sort of. It was my first attempt at a word thing.

The Knife

2008-08-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

New short sequence in two pages (page one above). Click on image for the full story, Posted at Webcomics Nation. This is the second story in a series. First one here. Crosshatching or no crosshatching, that is the question? I decide what the hell, whatever fits with the story. Sometimes crosshatching is a good way of creating textured blacks. This enforced fixation with the toy train, the theatrical forest and the plastic Indians is only temporary. Like a dream I think these things fit into some logic somewhere. Inside that train carriage it must be so uncomfortable. Why don't they escape to the forest? I don't know.

Some Changes

2008-07-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

I have taken Chapter 4 and included it into a new comic narrative that just contains a series of dream sections. I felt that this chapter 4 was needlessly over complicating the 'Refuge' story and could be included in a separate narrative on it's own. I have a series of dream sequences sketched out and they will be inked up as and when, to add to this one. So currently there are four chapters of 'Refuge', Chapter 5 now being Chapter 4. The old Chapter four is now the first chapter/Number of 'Train Journey' (provisional title). I hope that all this makes some sort of sense.

JoJo

2008-07-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

A word comic that I have been working on for too long now and that I have to finally put up online or throw it in the bin. Not complete, not even finished, but it is at least some physical evidence of work, that I have been doing something for the past weeks. I could show you several different versions and they could all be put up. In fact putting this up gives me the chance to bring it to some sort of conclusion. It is a relief, yet I am still fighting back urges to re-do panels and adjust the narrative.

To do something short. To confine a passage to the minimum number of panels. To use words and abstract imagery/signs to suggest space and things happening, just like in a normal narrative only in this the text comes to the fore and the imagery is more integrated into the words rather than the other way around.

Click on image for larger version.

Finishing Chapter 5

2008-03-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

Chapter five of Refuge Online Comic is now all uploaded.

I may well of course go back and change details or the angle of something. Things always look different once you go back and look at them again when uploaded. I am constantly seeing things from a fresh perspective. I am starting to work on another comic to be uploaded later in the year. Also looking forward to putting up chapter 6, Starting next week. My scanner is bust so when I get an new, cheaper, one plugged in and working I will put up some more preparation sketches.

Comics site change of address

2008-01-15T05:47:00.000-08:00

Just a note to say that my Comics site "Refuge" is still there only the site link has now changed to:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/refuge/Homepage/index.htm

Until further notice.

It was www.refugecomic.com but I have had recent server problems with lycos. As a result some of the homepage links on this blog may not work.

Refuge Flash Animation Part 6

2007-12-13T20:30:00.000-08:00

Refuge on Youtube

2007-12-06T06:07:00.000-08:00

In six parts so far:
Refuge - Part 1	Refuge - Part 2
Refuge - Part 3	Refuge - Part 4
Refuge - Part 5	Refuge - Part 6

Refuge Flash Animation Part 5

2007-12-05T16:16:00.000-08:00

Refuge Flash Animation Part 4

2007-12-02T11:23:00.000-08:00

Refuge Flash Animation - Part 3

2007-12-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

Refuge Flash Animation - Part 2

2007-12-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

Refuge - Part 2 - animation/moving image

2007-11-28T18:38:00.000-08:00

Refuge Animation - Flash and Youtube - Part 1

2007-11-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

I have made an "animated" version of Refuge comic and have put it on the www.refugecomic.com website. Click on the image above to link to the Flash version of the animation. Below is the Youtube version.

Early Sketch: chapter 4 dream sequence.

2007-10-26T02:02:00.000-07:00

A shortened version here of the beginning of the train dream sequence. I went off on a journey myself when inking this up and included a whole lot of other panels both to help it read better and also to include an idea I had about a place I wanted my characters to go to. I managed to get it all back to the house in the end. They end up being turned into a child's marble and thrown out of the cabin. This section started with meta morphing and so it finishes with metamorphosis too. I wanted to leave it open as to who was dreaming what and about whom. Essentially the dream is about both of them.

I wanted to enthuse this section with optimism, like a wish fulfilment, if only in dream form. Eventually reality slowly enters t nearer to the house the train gets. The self propelling train running along the track.

Page 7 of 12-panel Refuge Sketches

2007-10-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

Early drawing again, a following on page from the last post. Originally I had the idea of placing panels at stages with regular gaps of time in between. In some areas this turned out to be unpractical in the final inked up narrative. Also the fat character (smaller) I had to make thin in order to differentiate him from the other one in some scenes. You can see that the initial train scene is shorter. I extended it by almost a chapter (4) in the final horizontal web comic.

I had an idea for Hungarian dancing at one point as I wanted it to be a eastern European dream. However it ended up being more American western, on the prairie. I liked the idea of running through the long prairie grass. Also that landscape and culture is so set that it is interesting to put things in it that are maybe unexpected.

Experimenting with size the characters find them selves in self propelling toy train that stops when it wants to (or when I want it to). The space they are in is a convenient 3D panel with the scenery passing by them only getting out when I have decided that it is the right place. Then they go from claustrophobic interior to open expanse, then back into interiors again but separately this time and each follows his own parallel narrative in his own separate part of the dream. Joining back again having changed from their individual experiences and the dynamics of the relationship have changed (in the dream that is).

I had the idea that the characters would be at once children and grown men at the same time and life would fluctuate between so called childishness and adult behaviour.

The dream behaviour allows the narrative to travel from place to place that are variously linked by objects, words, symbols and a certain amount of repetition along the way.

Further planning pages from Refuge updated later.

Early Sketches for Refuge

2007-10-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

This is an early drawing for what would have been page 6 in this 12 panel portrait format. Pencil on paper. Trying to create an domestic interior world. I later decided to cut the panels down to 12 and put them in landscape format for more of a left to right reading which I thought suite the narrative flow. Pencil enabled me to quickly suggest form and shape. Having scanned them in to the computer they then seemed to take on the appearance of charcoal or even pen and ink. Something that I may focus on for a finished comic in future.

Further planning pages from Refuge updated later.

Refuge update

2007-10-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

More panels for Chapter five of Refuge Online Comic.

Going to post some planning sketches. Some relating to the rest of the story and others showing the planning drawings for panels already uploaded. It started out quite different to what it is now. I started out drawing 12 panel pages, portrait style.

The characters were also different. I had to do a few redrawings of the first pages in order to create a way of drawing that I was happy with.

I was thinking even of keeping the pencil drawing look or even using charcoal but settled on pen and ink (or a simulation of) for the final version. I may however use pencil or charcoal again in the future.

Refuge Chapter 5 Updated

2007-08-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

New panels for Chapter five of Refuge Online Comic.

A fine Cabaret

2007-06-18T01:58:00.000-07:00

Line of images tacked on the end. Uploaded for your perusal. A fine Cabaret. Trying to find those lines of reality, from pin ball machine to fairground harlequin, try to develop an abstract feel for light and dark. The characters travel into the hidden layers of the comic, but deeper into nothing I would suppose? Fifty five layers so far and counting. Perhaps at some point I may get back onto the rails. Head for that distant exit and for the next chapter; are characters gestures, lines only, or are the as important as the interiors? Is it because of narrative flow that the protagonists allude to reality or have I lost that already? Sometimes I wonder what kind of space is being created, what kind of meaning the whole thing could have, sometimes its better that you don't know these things, follow your intuition along the track and come out where you come out. I have to start reading back; it can't go on for ever. Can you dip into it, I don’t think so.

Refuge Panels

2007-05-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

Some new images uploaded for the comic. Is the end of this chapter in sight? Not quite yet, some more panels before that Chapter Five end panel. I find myself working at night lately. Cups of tea and toast, wandering too and from the kitchen, staring at panels, more tea, the birds twittering outside marking the beginning of late morning. Under siege, barricaded in to my flat, I turn on my screen and shield it in case all the light attracts attention. Relief comes with the rain thudding against my windows, providing a veil, separating me off, giving me time get on with work. Any excuse will do.

Back to Refuge

2007-04-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

Been away for some time but now I am back. I have had to do something compulsory, useless and very tiresome. Now I am slowly conditioning myself back to the old habits of daily comic’s creativity, institutionalising myself again in my work room. Got some new ideas for further comics but these I put aside now to push on to chapter 6 of Refuge. I have a basic plan drawn out in pencil from which I am gaining most of my narrative but the urge occasionally is to fantasize, much like the central character, to dream and follow that dream where ever that may go, even if that might mean traipsing off the path slightly and having to go back and edit. Such is the strangeness of drawing comics.

The Queue

2006-11-25T15:58:00.000-08:00

"The queue" 6ft x 2.5ft. Oil on linen.

Old painting here that I did in 1987; that seems so long ago now. As a background to this I had spent a few years drawing at Leeds train station waiting room.

I have done more paintings and drawings of Leeds train station, of the fleeting images of people caught mid-journey or sitting and waiting on a old red circular seats. I shall be uploading them to the Refuge site in the Drawings section together with my archive of drawings and artworks from the past.

Stumbling into Comics

2006-11-24T05:25:00.000-08:00

I have been interested in comics for some time now but I did not “grow up" with comics, apart from the children’s weeklies an annuals of the seventies i.e; Beano, etc. I mean by growing up all of the super hero comics and Judge Dredd stuff. I was introduced to comics by a friend and was first struck most by the artists that focus on an outward display of drawing skills in the traditional sense. I was also one of those that were drawn towards a comic more by its surface look or style. Many of the comics that I scoffed at at first later became my favourites. Once I had gotten over any prejudices that I may have had these comics seemed more original and personal in their approach than others that I had read previously (I began to cultivate more patience for different or new things, a continuation of my personal development in fine art, having once walked around galleries completely discrediting artworks that late came to have a big influences in my own work). I have come to realise that it is very much the combination of narrative flow and use of written language, it’s compatibility with the drawing style, that is the judge of whether a comic works or not and that these aspects of narrative require plenty of time and effort to appreciate fully.

Being involved in Fine art at the time of my first attempts with comic art I also liked the fact that it was a very easy area to get involved in, the practitioner needing only a paper and pen to get started. The medium also has a similarity to film and some of the structures of writing. Being interested in film and writing I found it interesting to combine these interests with drawing which has formed the basis of all of my artwork thus far.

I did not or do not feel that the bridge over to comics from painting is necessarily a difficult one but is subject to the personal prejudice and habits developed by the individual artist: Painters (Fine artists) tend to be perfectionists in a different way to comics artists. They tend to focus on refining the look of something and are much more concerned with keeping the art open to interpretation so as not to block off a viewers imaginative response. In comics the artist is much more involved in directing the viewer through a series of avenues and up to a point dictating their response. While working of my initial experiments with comics I tended not to be bothered so much with clarity or definite meaning in terms of signs or symbols. I steered away from conventions, wanting to create something “individual”. I followed my own intuition and did not have a thought for other comic styles (although these did seep in as I progressed). Seeing where something went seemed like a more exciting way to go at that time. Sometimes a narrative can have a more organic feel, more true to a thought process, each segment being drawn one after the other, building like a pile of bricks only anylising later what you had done and then editing.

You can tell that I had spent a long time with Abstract expressionism and had digested all of the rhetoric. It is a handy way of starting something off as 1. You produce a lot of work and 2. Initially at least it does not require any fore-knowledge. As a consequence of this process I began thinking of comics as being a good medium for expressing psychological realities, a way of expressing a minds eye view of the world. Areas of Fine art that cover this area tend towards the precious and the obscure, whereas in comics it takes on the mantle of documentary making, story telling, to tell a story that develops from somewhere in your psyche and is an expression of your inner reality. To have it directed and not hinted at or hidden inside unfathomable complexity to me was the opening of a new avenue of interest, one that I wanted to explore further.

Road Kill

2006-11-20T06:34:00.000-08:00

A new comic here that I have done, having drawn a version of this some years ago and now I thought it was time to give it a re-draw, experimenting with this kind of nineteen fifties style tonal drawing. I tried to keep it sketchy and may add some dialogue to the final page if that works. Also I plan a longer story in mind to include this scene and perhaps put it out as a book. I am going to get on with Refuge for now.

Vernons Arcade

2006-10-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

More panels for Vernons Arcade

Chapter 5: REFUGE Webcomic

Chapter 5 Updated

2006-10-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Chapter 5 updated.

REFUGE Webcomic

Refuge - Update

2006-09-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

Chapter 5 updated.

REFUGE Webcomic

Live Discussion

2006-08-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

The following (below images) is a short exchange of comments responding to an update that I posted on the Refuge mirror Livejournal in the altcomix comics community. I thought the content was interesting and instead of letting it get lost amongst the continuous flow of posts there I have posted it here for blog readers as well:

Chapter 4 finished:

Chapter 5 started:

scarfe:-

This is very interesting. Forgive the long post, but I have to bring in some quotes to make sense of what I want to say.

Anyway, a side scrolling internet comic like yours does not fundamentally change the way comics are read, but it does change the dynamic in an interesting way. What is lacking is the sense that each sequential panel is part of an already present holistic structure since the reader only has one or two panels to start with and no sense of what is going to happen next. According to Charles Hatfield, comics are composed of several kinds of tension, one of them being Sequence vs. Surface. He explains:

“In most cases, the cussessive images in a comic are laid out contiguously on a larger surface or surfaces (that is page pr pages) . . . . From a reader’s point of view, then, there is always the potential to choose: beween seeing the single image as a moment in sequence and seeing it in a more holistic fashion, as a design element that contributes to the overall balance (or in some cases meaningful imblance) of the layout” [Charles Hatfield, Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005) 48-52.]

In the case of Refuge, getting a sense of the wider design as/before you read, the choice of seeing the sequence or the overall design, is much more difficult. As a result, although every comics sequence is to some extent uncertain, your comic has a strong sense of unpredictability. I’ve only read the first two of your stories, but the oddness of the situations add to a sense that anything could happen. In addition, having the comic on the surface of a webpage adds movement to the static image sequence. My scrolling, the panels appear to move past you, something that can’t be achieved to the same effect in comics that are static and inert except in our minds.

Very cool.

Neil:-

Hi, first of all thanks for the in-depth analysis. I agree that the page layout in comics does give it an extra dimension and allows the reader not just to look at individual panels but also across the surface and at the interaction of that panel with the page/pages as a whole, this in turn adding to the object nature of the printed comic.

The online comic can not compete, I suppose, with this object reality but instead has to use its own quite separate context to advantage. The comic has to work in some way with its inherent make up. Because of the interactive nature of online art it is almost impossible not to have to scroll down or across, or click onto the next page etc, to view it. Some comics, like mine, have tried to make this activity an integral part of the comic, trying to create an extra illusion of time and space through the illusion of an endless narrative, let to right (or right to left) and up and down.

The side scrolling comic does not rely so much on the surface look of a page as apposed to the individual panels, I suppose it is putting narrative, story, the thread of one image after another, above the look of a page. The notion of time passing becomes both physical and illusionary with the moving images from left to right. Once a panel is gone, it can be in the past and replaced by another so the panels accumulate in memory but also at the same time the reader is always at a certain point of the narrative, a point in time that is fluid or seems transient, about to change and not sure, as you say, what is coming next. I feel that time is a real issue with side scrolling comics, that notion that you are scrolling a strange real of film around inside one of those old children’s viewers.

As a comic artist I get involved in the narrative, sometimes to the detriment of continuity of overall look, so this inability to have the whole chapter day to look at on the few pages suites my work process. I have however not blocked the option of doing print comics, in fact I intend to reorganise this one at some point to bring it our in print volumes. There seem be two audiences for comics, one for print and one for the web.

This is a fascinating subject ‘scarfe, I could go on longer but this could turn into a lengthy essay. Have just been to your site and you appear to be studying graphic narrative as part of your MA cultural studies thesis. What sort of areas are you going to cover? That sounds interesting.

Thanks again for the comments.

scarfe:-

My MA thesis is actually finished as of today, actually. I just have to print it and have it bound. It is called "FOREIGN BODIES: COMICS, HABITUS, AND TRANSCULTURAL INTERACTION." Essentially, I'm looking at Joe Sacco's Palestine and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Persepolis 2 to explore how incredibly well suited comics are to represent the unspeakable or unthinkable process of what Pierre Bourdieu calls "habitus" because the comic form simultaneously presents the material and discursive bases of power and meaning making. That won't make any sense if you are unfamiliar with the concept of habitus (and even if you are, it still might not make any sense). I could go on to explain, but I don't want to bore you.

As for your comic, I like what you said about the interactive quality of online scrolling comics and how you tried to integrate that quality into your comic. You describe it as kind of like a strange reel of film, and I think that is a perfect way to describe it.

There is a scene in one of your strips (if they can be called that, which I doubt) where the two men jump of a train and the panel grid switches from a horizontal to vertical progression to create the sense of downward momentum. I really like that. This can be done in print, but because the reader/viewer of an online comic can scroll, those panels appear to move in the downward momentum they attempt to depict. One of the things I always hated about early “web comics” or comics on DVD that big superhero publishers like Marvel and DC put out was that they were basically comics turned into cartoons. The panels would slide onto screen, spin around, word bubbles would appear and disappear, static images of characters would lean forward and back when punched etc. The images themselves remained static, but they appeared to the viewer to have movement via animation. This never looked right to me. They looked lifeless because an integral part of comics is that the reader must read between the images to imagine movement in the mind’s eye. To have it done for you dulls the experience, I think. As for a web comic such as yours, it is not animation and it is not static, but kind of in between: the progression from image to image still has a sense of movement.

I don’t think it’s a matter of competition between print or online comics. They both offer unique possibilities. Online comics that are comprised of pages (like Dave Willis’ Shortpacked as a quick example) still work on that tension between reading the panels as their own discrete moments or as part of a holistic structure, but scrolling web comics offer a uniquely different way of seeing and reading. I look forward to your other chapters.

Neil:-

I won't attempt to try and translate 'Habitus' but to say that comics are a good medium to translate cultures to one another and therefore creating an understanding, particularly on a personal level. They can translate the psychological reality of a situation through the combination of text, image and narrative. In that way it can make the personal political. People are usually convinced of the reality of something more through images, if not an actual exact portrayal of events then a portrayal of their psychological reality seen through the eyes of an individual. 'Palestine' breaks through the barrier of communicating to those that do not spend all their time reading papers. Also, because of its documentary style it manages to convey the idea of a story happening in real time. There is a tradition growing I think of the real story being told in comic form, from 'Maus' the various autobiographical works to 'Palestine' and 'Persopolis'. Conveying hidden truths or the personal side of events seems to be comics strong point.

Anyway, I am sure you're thesis explains things more concisely than my of cuff remarks.

I was thinking of putting this short exchange of posts on my blog or journal as I am always lost for things to say in it about my work and think that there are some interesting comments here. These posts are just going to disappear together with my post in ‘altcomix’ as more things get posted. Is that Ok with you?

scarfe:-

"They can translate the psychological reality of a situation," or as I argue, gesture to the fact that psychological realities are not fixed, but constructed.

Feel free to post our commments on your blog or journal. I added you to my friends list, and I look forward to your updates.

Refuge Chapter 5 Updated

2006-08-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Chapter 5 updated

REFUGE Webcomic

Chapter five (Friends) continues with some new panels just uploaded; a new character enters the story.

Chapter 5 Started

2006-08-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

Update - Chapter 5

REFUGE Webcomic

Chapter 5 is up now. The first dozen panels.

The Oafs

2006-07-31T06:56:00.000-07:00

Click on image to view enlarged version:

Comic here from a while back. Thought I'd upload some colour.

End Of Chapter 4

2006-07-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

Update - conclusive panels for Chapter 4

REFUGE Webcomic

At the end of Chapter 4. I now have to go back and "edit" some of it, redrawing slightly certain panels to maintain continuity.

Refuge Update

2006-07-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

Update - eight more panels for Chapter 4.

REFUGE Webcomic

Getting towards the end of Chapter 4 now; Another twist in the story.

Refuge Chapter 4 Latest

2006-07-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

Update - more panels for Chapter 4.

REFUGE Webcomic

Have tried to reorganise the home page. Of course future images/sections will demand changes also. I want to put a section for all of my old drawings and artwork, online exhibitionist that I am.

New Update

2006-07-10T02:33:00.000-07:00

New panels for Chapter 4.
Refuge Home Page

Info:
Being currently unable to upload images (my computer having broken down resulting in the deletion of all files etc. Luckily I have a back up CD of comic stuff, unfortunately minus my recent weeks work) I did make an upload just before the damned thing bust on me so at least I have stored some work on the site. Nothing is on my computer and I now am spending all my time uploading software and copying files across. I suppose you have to just grin a bear it. Anyway the files are up. I'm sure other people have been in this situation. For a moment last night I was staring complete destruction in the face; of all my last years work, gone, getting a bit shaky. What a relief to find the back up disks. Things are re-surfacing slowly though. I am going to have to redraw last weeks work! I might take the chance to edit some of the older panels too.

New Word Comic

2006-06-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

Click on image to view enlarged version:

I have been working on a series of word comics, example above, alongside other things. This one can be linked to from the Refuge Comic Home page.

Refuge - Update

2006-06-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

Update - more panels for Chapter 4.

REFUGE Webcomic

Refuge - Inside the train

2006-06-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Update - Inside the train.

REFUGE Webcomic

Changes

2006-06-20T04:49:00.000-07:00

More tinkering with the home page. Trying to make use of the side scrolling nature of the comic. Also trying to make the home page clear and navigatable. I hope it is clear that there are going to be in total approximately 12 chapters, 4 of which are done (or almost done, coming to a finish.

Still have some niggly bits to rectify including re-doing the comic title "Refuge" in graphic form instead of text; I have to do this across the comic and this will take more time.

New Refuge Home Page

2006-06-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

I have at last got around to updating the REFUGE home page. It will need some more work I know. This is as good as I can do at the moment. I am open to constructive comments as to how to make it more practical, improve navigation etc.

I have tried to design it to allow for future comics to be placed on the same site. Also I am going to draw up a home/front page as an intro to artwork; I am thinking of putting my backlog of artwork up If I can get time to scan it all in.

Refuge Update

2006-06-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4 - top of the train.

REFUGE Webcomic

Refuge Webcomic Update

2006-06-08T02:42:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4 - back to the train.

REFUGE Webcomic

Comic Over-complications

2006-06-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

Idea for a comic where the structure is repeated; the character experiences some event (large or small) and only experiences, feels the effects of, thinks or his life is effected by it, after the event. He does not experience the here and now. This can work out circular and the character can then act in a way not in line with the "normal" reactions to original events due to his either playing down or exaggerating the original experience. Then what is real and not real becomes vague. This is a framework for a series of short comic stories on a theme, much like "Litte Nemo In Slumberland" in repetitive structure leaving the fill in story quite open. I would have to think of a repetitive ending.

There is the idea that once an experience has happened i.e; after the event, it can be looked back upon, can be invested with emotions and fragments of memories so that the image of that event, its memory "takes on a life of it's own". The artist can use this "life” to create new "experience" that uses the various artifices of composition, narrative structure and materials etc. to enrich the experience, like pouring dye into clear water, to simulate it, to create a hyper real equivalent or a completely separate organism based upon the emotional after-charge of the original experience when reflected upon.

Experiences of course merge together in memory and a remembered event is infused with a number of other similar events and the present surrounding events of the day. Something repeated is something changed. Almost the air in which it is floating in transforms it. The atmosphere contaminates all new born events. The maker always leaves his or her print. Recapturing something is then a tricky business. The found thing symbolises all of those like things that one has experienced throughout ones life. Things are continuously being transformed, taken apart and being re-put back together again. It seems that the closer I get to the original the further I get from my own experience of it.

New Horizontal Panels Added

2006-05-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Horizontal panels for Chapter 4.

REFUGE Webcomic

Refuge Upload - Chapter 4

2006-05-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

Eight more panels for Chapter 4.

REFUGE home page

Refuge Upload

2006-05-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

Newly updated panels to the online webcomic Refuge.

More panels added to Chapter 4.

Info: Next trip to York to see friends, be back on Sunday to start working on new upload.

Chapter 4 Updated

2006-04-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

Newly updated panels to the online webcomic Refuge.

More panels added to Chapter 4.

Info: Am going away for a few days starting Thursday so next upload will probably be a day or so late.

About Refuge Webcomic

2006-04-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

Over the following weeks I am going to be looking over aspects of the past four chapters and editing bits if I think they need changing. This as well as continuing uploading new sections of the story. Inevitably, with the process of uploading once a week, I have occasionally to go back and edit scenes. It is rather like drawing a large mural in public with the wall I am painting on stretching for miles with interested passers by noticing changes as they go too and from work and so on(myself bein just a dirty layabout on the street). All my mistakes are on view for criticism. Had I finished the whole comic and then put it up on line then still I would have had to edit in places. It is interesting how my alertness to errors doubles once a section is uploaded so I then have to dash online and take down my washing to replace it wit cleaner stuff.

Refuge is progressing each week but I imagine that for a reader it is such a slow moving development. I can only upload so much in a week and this may take seconds to read and even then no conclusion as I have left it unfinished ready for the next upload. These are inherent problems with the way I have chosen to create the comic.

Being a long comic I know that it is going to take a number of months if not years to finish and even then I may well go back over some of it and edit bits. I do have other shorter comics on the go and they will appear later in the year.

Additions to Chapter 4

2006-04-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

Click here to view the newly updated online graphic novel 'Refuge'.

The journey carries on.

More panels, more panels, more panels! When will chapter four ever end?

Refuge - fourteen more panels

2006-04-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

Click here to view the newly updated online graphic novel 'Refuge'.

Chapter 4 updated:

Am now recovered from illness. Have started a Discussion forum for 'Refuge comic': information about Refuge and some comments by myself posted up there already.

New panels for Refuge

2006-04-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Click here to view the newly updated online graphic novel 'Refuge'.

More panels for chapter 4

Seven more panels this time: am presently ill with flu so next weeks update may be postponed.

Refuge - Chapter 4 updated

2006-03-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

Click here to view the newly updated online graphic novel 'Refuge'.

More panels for chapter 4

Refuge - Chapter 4 Started.

2006-03-17T13:21:00.000-08:00

Click here to view the newly updated online graphic novel 'Refuge'.

Chapter 4 now started!

Morning Improv, Bugs and Drunken Comics

2006-03-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

After the finishing of the third chapter of 'Refuge', Scott McCloud and his Morning Improv, Joe Zabel(Webcomics Examiner) at Drunken Comics Reviews and Mathew Badham at the U.K. comics blog Bug Powder have linked to the Refuge Webcomic site, giving me far more traffic than I could ever have imagined possible.

I have started a Live Journel, mirroring this blog to advertise Refuge updates and link to like minded friends online.

Refuge - Ch. 3, # 8

2006-03-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

Click here to view the newly updated online graphic novel 'Refuge'.

Chapter 3 virtually finished!

Refuge - ch. 3 - # 7

2006-02-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

Click here to view the newly updated online comic 'Refuge'. This 700 + panel long Graphic story is updated weekly.

Another section of Chapter 3 added:

Near the end of chapter 3. Further updates to come soon.

Refuge Comments

2006-02-19T03:16:00.000-08:00

Joe Zabel: "Disquieting, dreamlike fantasies played out in sublime sidescrolling panoramas."

Jonathan Page: "A nightmare... there's a strong mix of claustrophobia and foreboding in it...waiting for the next update is like waiting for a storm to appear.

It has the dream like quality of nineteen thirties strips too, the sudden violence or distortion of reality I remember from Krazy Kat et alia. The tight close focus on bodies moving (a restricted palate, repetitive, simple) creates a mesmerising rhythm - i.e. you can't get away for a bit into a comforting, spectacular, take-up-four frames landscape etc, you're always mise en scene."

Comment by . After reading 'Refuge' - a graphic novel online.

Chapters so far:

Chapter One - "A home"

Chapter Two - "Going Out"

Chapter Three - "Migraine"

Chapter Four - "Detour"

Refuge - more panels - # 6

2006-02-18T14:25:00.000-08:00

Click here to view the newly updated online comic 'Refuge'. This 700 + panel long Graphic story is updated weekly.

Another section of Chapter 3 added:

Chapter 3 is updated once again. I have also given the chapters a face lift and added new titles. You can now leave comments and look out for updates on the Refuge home page as well as this blog

Horizontal Scrolling?

2006-02-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

To me Horizontal scrolling can create a continuous narrative that doesn't have the breaks that conventional page layout can have. It projects the reader on a journey across one long strip of images, propelling the story forward and aiding the momentum of the narrative.

It almost creates in itself a new medium, one in-between print comic and cinema, whilst also harking back to the excitement of old children’s theatrical projectors.

Scrolling using the arrow keys on the keyboard can give a pleasant experience, watching the images scroll past at a readable pace - scene one, now scene two and so on. You can just sit back and watch the screen, yet it has all of the 'language' of comics.

What does this side scrolling experience provide for the viewer? I'd be interested to know if anybody has any experience of side scrolling and what their opinions are, the good and the bad.

Refuge - Ch. 3 - # 5

2006-02-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

Click here to view the newly updated online comic 'Refuge'. This 700 + panel long Graphic story is updated weekly.

Chapter 3 Started.

Chapter 3 is started. I have also updated the index page and chapter navigation pages, adding drop down menu navigation and chapter titles. The index layout is updated to include brief information about the comic and it creation, in a news page format.

Refuge - Update, Ch. 2 - # 4

2006-02-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

Click here to view the newly updated online comic 'Refuge'. This 700 + panel long Graphic story is updated weekly.

Chapter 2 Finished!

I have decided to put the beginning of the story up quite quickly (as I have it already stored, bar last minut editing) to enable readers to get involved in the story a bit more. I am now working on putting up Chapter 3.

Refuge - Ch. 2, # 3

2006-02-06T17:20:00.001-08:00

Click here to view the newly updated online comic 'Refuge'. This 700 + panel long Graphic story is updated weekly.

I have updated half of chapter 2 with the second half to come soon.

Refuge - updated, issue 2

2006-02-03T10:38:00.000-08:00

Click here to view the newly updated online comic 'Refuge'. This 700 + panel long Graphic story is updated weekly.
'Refuge' reads horizontally across a continuous page (use arrow keys to on keyboard to navigate). Currently the story is split up into six chapters.

Chapter 1 is now completed and will be followed next week by a section of Chapter 2 and so on and so on...

Refuge - graphic novel online - # 1

2006-01-27T04:47:00.000-08:00

Click here to view my new online comic entitled: Refuge. I will be making weekly updates to this 'Refuge' from now onwards.

Refuge is going to be approximately 700 + panels long and reads horizontally across a continuous page (use arrow keys to on keyboard to navigate). Currently the story is split up into six chapters.

The first part of chapter one is online and will be followed next week by a further part of the story and so on and so on...

My Desk

2006-01-18T01:19:00.000-08:00

My desk is covered by the scree of notes, books, papers printouts and coffee stains. Angled CD cases rest up against the screen to help structure the composition, treading over wires and flattening sheets of paper like a river of frozen ice, curving around piled up books and sidling up against the video camera. I brush it away trying to find the mouse. Such a big desk one can never find anything.

Comic info.

2006-01-17T01:39:00.000-08:00

I have been working on "Refuge" for the past year now and it is finally in a state to put up online. It has been purposely made for reading on a web page, scrolling across the page using the left and right arrow keys. For the moment, as my first post, I have only put up the first scene. This will be followed shortly with further panels to extend the story. Eventually the story will be approximately 700 panels long. I have split the story up into chapters although the number and length of these may change, for practical download reasons, as time goes on.

Invariably a Comic

2006-01-15T22:50:00.000-08:00

Creatinga spot here where I can place the Graphic Story that I am working on. I have drawn out the main panels and am currently 'inking' it up past the first chapter and now in the middle of the second. There will be approximately six chapters in all. I may go back and make minor changes to narrative or image clarity in the process of inking it all up. At present there are definite things that I would like to change when I get time. For now I am making this blog and a sister site to link to, that holds the story as well as other artworks of mine.

Refuge at Grovel and Hutch Owen

2006-01-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

Andy Shaw, the editor at Grovel.org.uk which seems to be the only site in the UK that focuses on Graphic Novels, has written a few words about my online comic in the Graphic Novel News section of his site, with links to this blog and to the Refuge home page. Many thanks to him for that.

The very busy Tom Hart of Hutch Owen has also linked to Refuge from his site.

The Day Job

2006-01-09T18:01:00.000-08:00

People are constantly asking me where do I find time outside of my regular comics to do other things like bar work and driving taxi cabs.

I tell you my friends its not easy but I try to keep the dull and repetitive work going when I can even when I'm cabbing till the early hours. Some people call it an obsession but really there doesn't seem to be anything else at all that I'm good at. I occasionally get comics posts to pay my way and keep the social off my back.

I like taxiing at night because if I get caught doing it in the daytime people might gossip and I don't want the family to find out! The streets are so quiet what with everybody drawing comics on their own in their rooms these days; it's easy to get found out. Only just the other day a man was in court being charged for not carrying a comic characterisation of himself inside his wallet. That was in the Planet funny papers I read that.

I tell you, I was having a chat with my friend Jimmy the other day and we were both criticising this country for its lack of interest in public transport. Nobody bothers to go out anymore! Who needs a taxi? They're all too busy drawing and reading comics and graphic novels. I mean the taxi trade and other old occupations such as bus drivers, street cleaners (who needs to clean a clean street, nobody goes out!). I sometimes wish everybody was a whole lot more outgoing like in America. They got a whole transport industry over there. If things persist as they are I think I'm going to emigrate, go where my taxiing skills are more appreciated. OK, there are some small self employed (unlicensed) taxi cabbers floating around out there - er, me being one of them, but will the transport system ever take off in this country, who knows. You do see some taxi's riding around with what look like passengers in the back but it's always foreign owned firms!

Oh I dream of one day getting a passenger, maybe a chatty sociable person who simply has to get out of those extreme, creativity inducing conditions. Get away from the monotonous job of developing panel after panel and drawing the same characters again and again. He or she could maybe risk a breath of fresh air and act as if they're briefly sauntering into the back streets and hey presto, into the back of my cab! I have one of those new silent electric running engines. So lights off and round the corner we go. Even If the client stops there and gets off to rush back to the building it would be something, a bit of taxiing, I gotta keep it up. Anyway, back to my room to carry on with the comic. They are supposed to come out quarterly. Drawing materials are handed out now on social benefit. Prime Minister Groening is now on a record third term in office. The way things are going I think I'm going to take up pizza delivery!