Help Stephan Franck Create the Next Edition of Silver!

Silver by Stephan Franck

Animator, director and graphic novelist Stephan Franck is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for his latest graphic novel - SILVER - volume 2. You can read an interview at FLiP with him here, where he talks about what inspired him to create his first edition of Silver. Anyone who wants to support Stephan to create the next installment should follow this link!

Lovelace and Babbage in Print At Last

Sydney Padua's long awaited graphic novel, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, is now on sale. Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage were 19th century inventors who between them pioneered the world's first programmable computer - still in working order in London's Science Museum. To read more about Sydney's book, see our 2013 interview here at FLiP.

Lawrence Marvit introduces Myths from the Underground - out tomorrow!

Myths from the Underground is a new graphic novel from Eisner-nominated artist Lawrence Marvit. Ever wondered what happened to all the gods from ancient mythology whom no-one worships anymore? Wonder no more. They're still here, very much alive and among us - you just haven't noticed them. In an exclusive interview with FLiP, Lawrence explains how it all came about.

Stephan Franck talks about Silver - courtesy of the CTN

 

"You have to be your own person, or die." ~Stephan Franck  

The Creative Talent Network (CTN) often hosts interviews with creative individuals in the animation industry doing especially interesting work. Below is the text of a recent interview with Stephan Franck, animator, director, storyboard artist and now the author of a highly successful series of independently published graphic novels - Silver. Stephan also happens to be a former kumrad from many an animated film, and a friend of FLiP Here, Stephan talks to CTN about how he got Silver off the ground. 

Stephan Franck's graphic novel Silver - just launched!

Con-men, crypts, buried treasure... and zombies

In March we interviewed animator, story board artist and director Stephan Franck, who has just published his first graphic novel - Silver. Until now it was only available from the Dark Planet Comics website, but Stephan's new book now has a commercial outlet - you can download the complete eBook for just $1.99 from comixology.com.

Introducing Silver - Stephan Franck's new Graphic Novel

Silver, a new Graphic Novel by Stephan Franck

Stephan Franck is a master storyteller who has worked as an animator, storyboard artist and designer on projects such as The Iron Giant, Space Jam and How To Train Your Dragon. FLIP asked him to talk about his new graphic novel, Silver, soon to be released.

Sydney Padua's awesome new book

Sydney Padua is an animator, writer and graphic novelist who is working on her first full-length graphic novel - The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage. FLIP persuaded her to put down her pencil and answer a few questions about her new book.

Some Unique Gifts to Fight Over

In the United States, unless your TV has been broken, your newspaper shut down, and your internet connection failed, you know all about "Black Friday".  This term is not in reference to post-Thanksgiving bowel movements.  This is the day, the awful day, when media advertisers rile people into such a frenzy as to act out as a mob of deal-hunting vigilantes.

So what's a mild mannered, somewhat sane, hunched and goofy person to do?  Well, let FLIP rile you  into a geek frenzy with some cool, unique gifts from people who have been featured in this year's FLIP!

Ready?

Mark Kalesniko's "Tarantula"

Mark Kalesniko is back with an all new, 40 page graphic adventure of his alter-ego Alex - a character last seen in Mark's brilliant graphic novel Freeway.  When asked for comment, Mark told FLIP. "Alex's worst fear just crawled in."

I'm not much for comic books, but Mark's work takes such a strange twist on simple, daily living, like an autobiography told on hallucinogenics.  He may well be the Hunter S. Thompson of graphic novelists (I say this about his creative work, not his lifestyle).   

See and read all of Tarantula at the Fantagraphics website.  

And read more about his graphic novel Freeway in FLIP.

-Steve

Lovelace and Babbage - The Graphic Novel

Lovelace and Babbage - by Sydney Padua

My old friend and animation kumrad Sydney Padua has some excellent news for fans of her webcomic - The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.  Pantheon books, publishers of the best selling Maus and Persepolis, have engaged her services to complete a graphic novel of the adventures of her Victorian  heroes. The real Charles Babbage was a 19th century inventor and mechanical engineer who pioneered the concept of a programmable computer. Though he was unable to build it in his lifetime, a working copy now exists in the Science Museum in London. Ada Lovelace was a gifted mathematician and also the daughter of the legendary Lord Byron - mad, bad and dangerous to know.  Sydney's comic has gathered a huge following online and I for one can't wait for the publication of her book. I shall be at the launch party, pestering her for signed copies. - Alex

At last - A Graphic Novel about the Hunched and Goofy

Mark Kalesniko’s graphic novel Freeway is a truly brilliant, hilarious look at the hunched and goofy lifestyle in our industry's ground zero.  His humor is wickedly honest, his storytelling unflinching.  His graphics capture the blinding stark light of Los Angeles with a pace that pulls the reader through at a wicked pace.  Freeway should resonate with anyone who has worked in the LA animation scene and experienced this less-than glamorous life in the San Fernando Valley.

-Steve

By Mark Kalesniko

Freeway tells the story about Alex Kalienka, a layout man, stuck in traffic on the 134/101freeway as he heads to work. While trying to keep calm and get to his destination, his mind bounces from one thought to another exploring his life, fantasies and fears. These thoughts show Alex imagining a golden age of animation in the 1940’s where great artists work in creative collaboration and mutual respect while contrasting with the present day reality where office politics, petty jealousies and boredom are the norm. It is this contrast of the romanticized past with the realistic present that sets a conflict that Alex tries to resolve as he drives to work. The theme, as with my other books, is what you perceive or imagine something or someone to be is for the most part the complete opposite in reality.

As with my past works, I do incorporate some autobiographical elements in my stories. Like many writers, I write what I know, or better yet, imagine what I know. The beauty of writing fiction is combining my experiences, experiences of others, and imagination to create a story that is satisfying to the reader. For instance, in the 1970’s part of the story - where Alex comes down to L.A. - that experience really happened to me. I did come down to try to break into the animation business and was so overwhelmed that I hid in my hotel room and ran home. But that is where I end the autobiographical element and bring in the fictional part of the story.  Alex is pretty much by himself at the hotel, so I added the religious character of Walter so he could have someone to tell his story to.  That never happened in reality. The same with the mystery girl, there was no girl breaking into hotel rooms when I was there, so I added her for drama and a little sexual tension. That’s what makes writing fiction fun, combining different elements to make for an interesting story.

The characters in Freeway are composites of people that I have known both in and out of the animation business. On one project I was working on, there was a rumor of a cleaning lady spotting someone running around naked after hours. I never heard if the nudist was seen again or who it was, but the image stuck in my head. Years later, when I was writing Freeway, I thought why not make Paul the nudist, as his way of venting his stress and frustration. Again I knew no such person but it made a great way to add a fun personality trait for one of my characters.

Freeway, as with all my books, starts with index cards. I write down scenes, plot points, and dialog on the cards and tack them on a board. Because Freeway has a very complicated storyline, set not only on a freeway but also in 3 different time periods, I put each time period on a different color card.  For example, the freeway sequence would be white, the 70’s sequence pink and so forth. After I had all the ideas down, I began to shuffle the cards into a coherent story using the colors to help me keep track of which story was coming up next.

Once I felt I had a full outline, I began to write the script using the index cards as my template. The script was made up of seven chapters, all titles of songs from the 1940’s. Each chapter had a certain theme.  For instance, in Chapter 3, “If You Were The Only Girl In The World,” I wanted to explore the women in Alex’s life including his girlfriend Chloe, and his obsession with the mystery girl on the freeway.

Once the script was completed, I would take each chapter and break it down, drawing tiny crude thumbnail sketches of each page and its panel placement, action, and dialog. From there I began the drawing process. On past books, I would draw right on the board, but because Freeway had so many characters, time periods, and cars, it was easier to draw roughs separately on scratch paper and trace them to the board. Once drawn, I would ink the page and it would be complete and then I would send it to my publisher who would do the lettering and balloons. If you want to see some of the rough sketches, thumbnails and photos used in my book, go to my blog at www.markkalesniko.blogspot.com/ .

Freeway took ten years to create.  My previous works took on average of three to four years, and I thought Freeway would be the same. What I didn’t take into account was the amount of research that was involved including the re-creation of the 1940’s Bunker Hill district - which does not exist anymore - or the complexity of drawing thousands of cars, which are extremely difficult to draw. Also, I wanted the book to be pleasing visually and to do that I had to render each drawing quite extensively which was very time consuming.  My hope was that when completed, the reader will be able to go on a visual trip that they can go back to time and time again.

The marketing is mostly done by my publisher. They send out my book for review and set me up for signings or talks at Comic Con, Ape and Miami Book Festival. I’ve also set up a web presence with my website, blog and Facebook to help promote the book.

You can order Freeway through Fantagraphics Books at www.fantagraphics.com/markkalesniko . Also I have a link to the Fantagraphics website at my blog, which I mentioned above, and at my website at www.markkalesniko.com  .

At the moment, I’m finishing up a 38 page, Alex story that I will be giving away on my publisher’s website.  That should be done in a couple more months. After that, I have a couple of ideas for longer stories which I will do some outlines on and then choose which one to do next. 

I want to thank Steve Moore for setting up this arrticle. Steve and I go way back to our days as animation students at Cal Arts and his support and interest in Freeway is greatly appreciated.