Talking Heads

Hi, folks:

The late, great Wally Wood had a trick: making one panel on a page the dominant one. I call it the "glory panel"; I don't know what if anything he called it.

Here's an old page of mine that has aged better than a lot. I'd been drawing comics for ten years at this point.

It's basically a "talking heads" page: almost all dialog, more emotion than motion. The glory panel (panel 2) serves as an establishing shot. So it created an opportunity to not only reveal the characters' world, but to give a sense of depth to the page.

Many, many students aren't comfortable with perspective. They see it much as I saw Photoshop back in the mid-90s: as an approaching, inescapable monster that must either be eluded or struggled with.

But almost everything's worse in the dreading than the doing. I made friends with the Photoshop ogre in a adult-ed course in '97, and it vastly expanded what I could do to make a story better--in countless ways.

So it goes with the perspective beast. You best it by knowing it and making nice. And like Photoshop, you can enjoy it at many different levels of expertise.

So why mention perspective?

By being in a comics class, you are declaring that there is a world or three within you which you want others to see. Perspective is one way that you can make that world more "buyable," more engrossing. And I think I did a pretty good job on that glory shot (though it's more than a tad suburban *wince*).

This is from a title called Doll and Creature, published 2006, written by powerful Rick Remender, inked by talented Mike Manley, editor of Draw Magazine, penciled by me.

To wrap up,  proper perspective is something you don't need in every style, but it can be a great plus. Better to know it and not need it, than vice versa.

JH

P.S.:
There's a simple trick in panel 2 I highly recommend: dropping a triangle of black shadow across the background, allowing nearer objects to visually break up the shape. I think it pushes the nearer stuff closer! It's even more effective when object in front is a character. Great attention focuser. And no perspective needed.