I’ll be honest, the assignment to create an actual little comic for this class was undeniably intimidating. Usually on Sundays we’ll have sketches, which I think you agree is a word that carries a lot less pressure. On a sketch, you can make mistakes; it’s a creative process that can go in just about any direction. For this week’s Triptych, we had frames and words, and it looked a lot more like a finished product.
Initially, I figured I’d go for a little visualization of fencing, something I picked up recently, because I though the different positions and unique clothes would pop on the page.
That idea tanked, however, as soon as I realized there wouldn’t be much plot to a textbook demonstration of a lunge.
It occurred to me that it might be interesting visually to zoom out on a face, having some sort of big reveal in the final frame. That’s when I remembered a short film named KARA by Quantic Dream, about an android being assembled.
I thought it would be great to try and give my twist to that idea by ironically presenting Clark, the perfect person (his name even hints at that): intelligent, working, kind, handsome… and to show him as a robot, thus giving the message that no human being can be “perfect”, and even giving an argument that perfection lies in imperfections, just as humor does.
Though the final product can be deceiving, I actually drew this one by hand! You can see the original sketch and brainstorming here:
I then traced over that with pen to make it neater…
Finally, I scanned this version and made the final product by cropping the initial picture to create the other two frames. I actually really enjoy how they’re set, the shape they give is much like the mechanical arms assembling the CLARK model in the final frame. It made me feel a little like Spiegelman, using the entire page to tell a story. It was fun to play around with the literal meaning of a heart of gold, and see it all come together!
The Secret Language of Sabrina 