A Life So Free page 7
November 18th, 2013Peyre speaks to us about the unbridled freedom of the Upper Country in A Life So Free page 7. Think about the Canadiens of the early 1700s. They’ve come to this vast wilderness after leaving a hyper-civilized Europe where everything is controlled, monitored, and prescribed. The forests of Europe are long gone. Every scrap of land is claimed. And then they come here. The North American wilderness must have been intoxicating. It was complete freedom without structure or restriction.
Minuiko did a fantastic job at capturing that feeling with this page. The flying geese above Peyre as he stands as straight and unbent as the pine trees behind him. And to contrast that, we have the woodcuts of Japethan life, bound in squares, with figures bent in servitude. Wonderfully done on this page, Minuiko. To see a preview of her next page, please vote for Snow by Night on Top Web Comics.
This week’s SpiderForest Webcomic of the Week is What It Takes by Kez. This is the story of Colbey, a martial artist who has survived the end of the world. In this grim, post-apocalypte landscape, the strong exploit the weak. But there is a glimmer of hope. a city where it is rumored to have technology, safety, and even an elected government. Yet can this place be real or is it just a legend, and what does it have to do with a man named Peter Wolfe. Read and find out!
If I remember correctly, this is my first comment on Snow By Night. I am absolutely adoring this vignette, both in terms of its lyricism and the art. I love the comic normally, but I just HAD to express my appreciation for how beautiful this vignette is.
” The forests of Europe are long gone”
Well, there still are some pretty big in Europe, even now.
I don’t really understand this hate against civilization as a whole. If they hated this so much, why taking pieces of it with them ? Isn’t that incoherent ?
He hates feudalism. So does everyone who is not a feudal lord. There are probably feudal lords who hated feudalism! The technology and meritocracy re not his enemies.
I was reminded of Rousseau by the text in this one.
The colors here are so enticing, compared to the views of civilized life, which seem to be taken from the books so loved by his wife.
Are the geese supposed to be reordering? I see a lot of geese flying here, and the V formation, um, goes the other way–the lead goose cuts the wind for the others, until he/she gets tired, and then another takes over . . .
Process question: When collaborating on these vignettes, how much art direction do you provide with your page text, and how much revision/feedback occurs once a page’s images are sent to you?
I try to leave a lot of it up to the artists. My script gives general direction along with the dialog. I include a paneling suggestion, which the artist is free to ignore. Minuiko picked the composition, the pose, the appearance, and the expression. She also decided to make the inset panels into woodcuts, which was brilliant. My script just said make them muted. When I get the script back, I often need to make minor changes to the captions and dialog to make what was actually drawn. For this vignette, I’m ruthlessly trying to delete words from the captions. Less is more with comic captions.