Previewsworld creating stylized characters

PREVIEWSWORLD CREATING STYLIZED CHARACTERS SERIES

Violent Love needs graininess and sandiness, it's dusty and pavement-oriented. This is not always an easy way to do things, usually I spend a lot of time simply choosing the color to be the single spot of color on the page (laughs). All of it was over the top, so I played with minimalism in its artwork. My inner penciler/inker constantly fights with my inner colorist because this book needed a different scopeвЂ¦ Polar was cold and cool, made of pure visual contrast. VS: Yes, the approach is completely different. What's going on with the color choices in this comic? They seem very specific to places, times, and attitudes. HMS: Having worked with you on Polar, where introducing more than two colors was considered radical for volume 3, I look at Violent Love and I feel like you must have had some kind of massive breakthrough in your coloring perspective. If I'm working in the earlies 70s, I'll search stuff produced during those years, things like Dog Day Afternoon or even Richard DonnerВґs Superman! I checked on the Daily Planet office workers there. Or look at advertising and comics from the right period. As you say, little daily things are the most difficult, so the best way is simply searching moviesвЂ“comedies or dramas of the years you are working onвЂ“and check those little things. Fiction is also a great element of documentation. You can find things like 'Chinese style desk in colonial San Francisco' or 'serviette ring of the 50s'. VS: God bless the Google search! Honestly, my computer's search history is really weird (laughs). Is the Internet your new best friend for photo research? Not to mention the story is set in locations where you may never have visited. HMS: Is it an unusual challenge for you to try to capture the detail of a story inspired by real events? I noticed in the first issue that there's a level of texture to American life during different time periods that seems really specific. I proposed some ideas for the logo, but it was finally Dylan Todd who created the ultimate logo with that awesome papercut effect. I think it was Frank who suggested that we maintain this structure while using a different color theme for every issue. But sometimes solutions come easily! This time the composition came about because we needed stuff to show off and to move the reader, but I had some doubts about the final design of the facesвЂ¦so with the first issue cover, I tried out the idea of presenting the figures with their faces overlapped by the large white space. So I work a lot on concepts, and this time was no exception.

I don't want to simply have characters running towards us with the title above them, I need to define a style for it allвЂ¦ The covers have their own sequence, and they are also a narrative. For me, the cover is the wrapper on the gift, and our first contact with the reader. VS: When I face a new project, I work a lot on the 'look' of the series. Tell us about some of your choices and why the final version became the final version.

PREVIEWSWORLD CREATING STYLIZED CHARACTERS SERIES

HMS: I'm not letting you get out of explaining how you all came up with the logo for this series and the design of the final cover for #1. Not only is Santos an artist to watch, he's one who is already shaping the way we view comic art in the 21 st century. I inherited the role of editor on the third volume of Polar while working for Dark Horse, a highlight of 2016 for me.Д¬omics pros and fans alike have nothing but praise for Santos' experimental approach to the comics medium, and in reading the first issue of Violent Love, I saw even more development in his style and narrative choices. Already optioned for film, the series originally appeared as a webcomic, which Santos converted from 'silent' comics to 'speaking' comics for print. Santos is the creator of the Polar, a noir spy thriller trilogy of graphic novels from Dark Horse Comics, presented in a horizontal format and minimalist in spot-color choices.

Written by Frank Barbiere, illustrated by Victor Santos, with design work by Dylan Todd, the first issue immediately appears stylized, emotive, and suggestive of a period setting, all features I've come to expect from artist Victor Santos. Forthcoming from Image Comics in November, the series is inspired by true crime stories and tracks the relationship and criminal career of Daisy Jane and Rock.

Violent Loveis the collaboration of creators who share a fascination with crime stories and the ways in which they develop and define characters as no other type of story can.

Previewsworld creating stylized characters