Sunday, October 25, 2009

Last Days Of American Crime

A few months back, I posted some pencil samples from a forthcoming crime comic book. I got the script from a friend but I did not say the name of the book. Now the book has a 10 page preview out on the stands and I can compare my art to the final product.The book is called the Last days of American Crime published by Radical Comics and it was written by Rick Remender. I know Rick from way back and I was excited to read his script. I am assuming that the Radical Comics artist followed the same script, so I was interested to see his interpretation.The artist is Greg Tocchini and it looks like he did all of his art on computer. Our establishing shots are a little different but I think we both included all the storytelling the writer asked for. I have put my version next to his for comparison and critique. What do you think?

5 comments:

Shawna said...

It was really interesting to see the side by side comparison. You both did have good establishing shots, but I connect and feel more in your last three panels. The faces and angles you used to show the other people in the world give off a feeling of desperation and horror. The last panel of the girl shooting up is particularly touching with her muscles straining to show her desperate need for the drug.

Don Hudson said...

I think that in the latter panels, I remained closer to the main guy. We both had to keep the man's face hidden, but I kept it closer in the action.

Steve Buccellato said...

Interesting!

I like them both, actually. Interesting choices.

Your last 3 panels are more shockingly violent and in-your-face.

Tocchini's protagonist is more mysterious, moving unseen from shadow to shadow.

Even though we don't see his face, your guy is right there in the open--ignoring the violence, while it ignores him.

I like Toccino's page design and storytelling. But I wish he put more detail into the backgrounds so it wouldn't look like such a generic city.

My favorite panels:

On your page, I like the central image of the guy walking through the burnt-out city. Great details. Feels like he's walking through Hell.

On Toccino's page, I love the last panel--the high angle looking down the stairs. Very moody and interesting. One could argue that the girl is too pretty, but I guess this is comics! It's a nice panel.

The girl in your last panel is horrifying! But, I know that's what you're going for; it works.

Like I said, both versions have interesting choices. One doesn't often get to see how 2 different artists interpret the same written script. Thanks for sharing!

Marie Javins said...

I agree with Steve. Both show interesting choices. Lots of similarities and some difference. Lots of individual pieces are similar, but the story is slightly different in each. In Don's piece, the storytelling is traditional and there is a focus on draftsmanship, so the camera is giving equal weight and distance from all panels. In the other one, the artist chose to focus on the layout giving weight to items in the top and bottom panels and using the middle ones more as background.

Or not. What do I know? I'm not an artist.

Don Hudson said...

Thanks for the input everyone! And Marie, you have a lot of great experience that I respect. So I think you know a lot!