Comics for Beginners

How to Write & Draw Comics

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ProFile: Natalie Nourigat

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ProFile-Natalie-Nourigat

Natalie “Tally” Nourigat lives in Portland, Oregon, where she writes and illustrates graphic novels, webcomics, storyboards, concept art, character designs, superhero comics, children’s books, animated PSAs, and movie reviews.  Natalie is a member of Periscope Studio, and has worked with great companies like Dark Horse, Image, BOOM!, and Oni Press. Her graphic novels include “Between Gears” and “A Boy & A Girl”.  Natalie loves traveling and learning languages.  She majored in Japanese in university and spent 2013-2014 in France (Annecy and Paris).  You can find her drawing around Portland with a sketchbook in one hand and coffee in the other.

What made you decide to work in the medium of comics?

I think I was trying to find the comics medium for a long time, that combination of text and images that’s so good for telling a story.  I remember when I was 6 I did my best to retell a scene from my favorite movie with a series of images.  When I was 12, I was writing a lot of prose and interspersing drawings to help tell the story.  When I finally read my first graphic novel at 13, it was like, “Oh!  This is what I was trying to do.”  Once I started reading comics and had that model to study, I switched pretty much immediately to telling my stories in that medium.

What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?

I agonize over my scripts before I start drawing.  Writing doesn’t come easy to me, especially dialogue, and I can spend weeks writing and rewriting even a short comic.  Having an editor helps a lot (including the times they say “hurry up!”).

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?

Don’t compare yourself to others too much.  A little competitive drive is good, but you wouldn’t want to draw like anyone else, even if you could.  It’s better to develop your own, unique thing.  As you create more and more pages, your personal voice will emerge and a lot of people will love it because it’s different than other creators’.

More at http://NatalieNourigat.com/

Can Marvel do no wrong?

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When I was growing up, the superheroes I knew where two-dimensional four-color characters in comic books. The live action superhero was the cartoony Batman TV show but even as a kid I realized the tackiness of it. It wasn’t until Tim Burton’s 1989 movie Batman that it felt like they at least tried to take it seriously.

Kids today have a much wider access to the characters in both comics, movies and computer games that let you fill the shoes of your favorite heroes. And it’s not just because CGI has improved that the movies have gotten better. It’s because really smart people are involved in making them, from script to screen.

Getting Christopher Nolan on board for the Batman trilogy was no doubt a smart decision. But no sooner had the Dark Knight died (at least that’s my interpretation) before DC Comics dropped the ball again, leaving the field wide open for Marvel to score big with Guardians of the Galaxy – a completely left field choice that won over even the harshest critics.

While DC seems to alienate fans with their new dark and gritty reboot of Superman and the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman, Marvel keeps surprising us with smart and funny movie versions of fan favorites. Apart from the third instalment that is widely regarded as a misfire, the X-Men movies have been pretty great, both faithful to the comics and smartly adapted for the big screen and a wider audience.

In the original X-Men from 2000, there is a great line where Wolverine bitches about the costumes they are prompted to wear in the final confrontation. Cyclops replies: “What would you prefer, yellow spandex?” A great tongue-in-cheek reference to the costumes of the comics, which undoubtedly would have looked ridiculous in the movie, and a great example of fan service while still having the guts to change things for the better.

The strategy has often looked far from obvious. From Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man to the complete surprise hit of the almost unknown Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel have taken bold choices both in casting and in characters, and pulled off the impossible of bringing together a band of heroes from different movies in The Avengers. They have managed to make us all interested in less known characters, at least from a non-fan perspective, and seamlessly woven together intricate plotlines while juggling dozens of characters at the same time.

This week the news that Marvel have cast Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. strange and new movies will feature heroes such as Captain Marvel and Black Panther. And at the same time this new clip and trailer from the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron aired, sending chills down my spine – and I don’t even know who Ultron is! Didn’t know I cared!

From my perspective it looks like Marvel can do no wrong and it even made me want to read some of the comics again. What do you guys think? Excited for the future of superhero movies? Or just sad that no one knows these blockbuster franchises are based on comics?

Are comics for kids?

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comics-for-kidsIn my part of the world, comics are often considered something for kids. The colorful, cartoony style often associated with comics is one reason, another is the subject matter and the stories themselves.

But what about graphic novels such as Persepolis, Jimmy Corrigan or Blankets? That’s not for kids. Yet I often find those books on the shelves of the bookstores next to Naruto and Dragonball, or at the kids literature section at my local library.

In my podcast interview with indie comics creator Jason Little, he talks about his experience with US readers slamming his brightly colored Bee books shut when they realize there’s sex and drug abuse in them. In France it seems they are much more open to adult subject matter being tackled in a cartoony way.

The whole explicit language thing is not something I ever gave much thought in my Danish career, but in the US there are certain words (see? I can’t even write them HERE in fear of getting in trouble!) that will instantly narrow down your reader segment. Some stores won’t even order a book with explicit language! Yet the US comics scene seems to have no trouble with explicit violence! For a foreigner it’s kind of hard to figure out. I can draw a naked breast from the side – a “side boob” (is “boob” a dirty word? I don’t even know!) – but not from the front.

I can understand the want to protect our kids from foul language, but surely foul behavior should be included in this? I can chop someone’s head off in a comic, but I can’t say “shit”.

Oops, just did.

The funny thing about the US scene is that the colorful superhero comics that many associate with kids, are mostly being bought by adults(!). In Denmark, the mantra for many years has been “you want to have a succesful comic book, you have to target kids”. I never bought into this. I always followed my heart in terms of what stories I wanted to tell, then worry about the audience. Slightly naive, I know. But in my mind, comics are NOT for kids. At least not the ones I read – and certainly not the ones I make. And I wish people wouldn’t automatically assume I make stuff for kids, when I say I make comics.

So, I have a question for you: How are comics perceived where YOU’RE from?

Related podcast: Colorful Sex with Jason Little

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