The Terrible Anvil
A podcast with Jess Ruliffson and Tom Hart
Jess Ruliffson and I are starting our live discussion series, The Terrible Anvil, tomorrow , Jan 11, 2024 in the Sequential Artists Workshop Flow Community and this post is an invite (you can sign up for a free 2 week trial here: https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/comics-flow-group )
And we will make it a free podcast, here and elsewhere soon after.
Jess has this whole “Bootleggers” idea about making comics: Just do it, don’t do it the usual way, the legal way, the way where you feel pressure and difficulty. Do it the illegal way. Have fun.
She’s making a book, and this conversation will be a way to make it happen.
One of our guiding questions in this podcast will be:
How do we make our suffering more fun?
Right now I'm posting a *very* general list of topics we hope to hit in the next few months.
Jess and Tom's topics (started out in order, now in no decent order!)
Ideas
Concepts
Motivation
What if I chose the wrong story to tell
Who am I ? What am I doing?
Bootleggers Guide to Story (many posts)
character turnarounds
frames and dialogue
non fiction
symbolism, character, environment
color
How to make it not fussy but great
layouts
Tight vs Loose
What story do we tell ourselves
Beats and plot points
penciling before inking
Accountability
backgrounds
art budget
art seasons
literal and metaphoric
Working: effortlessly
on speed
Lauren Groff on process
Make Your Vision so Clear that your Fears become irrelevant
Showing up and doing the work
Staying weird
Find the Fun Things to Draw
Lettering: the brussell sprouts of comics
The writer and the editor
Behind the scenes of making a complete comic
I finished! :0
our early work vs our later work
I don't know how to celebrate my achievements
Rejection Letters
And I put these as various Jess-isms:
I don't know if I reach a flow state but I leave the fear state
Faith is better than self-confidence
The SSRIs said I can do it in 30 days
Virtually all of the above are already POSTS by Jess in the SAW network, btw. This is our attempt to organize them all!
Jess, we need to put these in order! :)
To get us started, we asked some of our students: What Part of Comics is Hardest?
Here are some of their answers, abridged and edited. What part do YOU find the hardest?
Candy B- Ugh, the drawing for me. So many stories in my head but I am horrible at the illustrations and I really want to do it all myself :)
Betsy H- drawing. especially the backgrounds.
Darlene C- Planning space for narrative text and speech balloons. It always makes me nervous. I use paper and pen and have used white out on an error but white out shows up when I scan the art.
When I have to edit I draw the entire page again. I have text and dialogue written but get so deep into the trance of drawing sometimes I just forget to leave space.
I just rewatched your overview on lettering...which made me realize I need more practice in this department.😂
Uli B: Convincing people that the thing you want to tell is worth telling.
Beth T-: I love every part of making comics in the comics sense of thing. In terms of the whole creative process, it's in the early stages of a project, wrangling some sense into the many too many ideas I have that always frustrates me most. I always just want things to solidify FASTER so I can get to work (or to parts of the process that feel more like work (or to parts of the process that feel more like work). I am not a patient person.
Cara G- ditto I'm not a patient person
Donna D-I hate proofing and exporting the final files to publish - I am so afraid to miss mistakes. I also hate thumb-nailing the first draft. I made up my own process of collaging junk together so I don't have to draw thumbnails. So I guess I hate starting AND finishing LOL.
We’re going to hit on all these things on The Terrible Anvil!
What is hardest for you? Tell us, and join us in FLOW or stay tuned for our show!
PS - Why The Terrible Anvil?
This quote —> https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/emile_zola_145095