Part of the fun behind this concept for me was researching the “western slang” for enough hours to make it all heavy in the brain for the sit down session it took to write the 8 pages. It’s all gone now, of course, but I’d be happy to re-learn the glossary I put together as I went along.
That’s the lesson for writers out there trying to write in the “voice of the times” for flavor, or characterization: Take notes! Treat it like school all over again, emerse yourself in the workings of the language, the vernacular, the intent and structure of the phrases. Watch old movies if you have to, read old western comics (that’s how I got sucked into this whole idea in the first place), just make sure you feel comfortable BEFORE you start otherwise it could all fall apart during the writing process.
These were all lessons learned for when I moved on to script Raven Nevermore. There are way more characters in that plot and I tried to create a “vernacular framework” for each one. Notes, notes, notes! I created a spreadsheet even! Do what you have to do, but stay consistent to the voice you create!
This page sets up Lone Strangers friendship with his horse Spur. I wanted to create a sort-of Lone Ranger and Silver (amongst many other examples). Stranger’s reply to Spur, was also meant to suggest that he can hear the horses thoughts–like an animal empathy.
It’s said that a cowboy trusts his horse more than the men he rides with… actually, I have no idea if that’s “said”, but it should be! The guy just wants a friend… is that so bad?
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Lone Stranger Pitch: Page 3 of 8
Here we get Stranger trying his damned hardest to stay inconspicuous. This is the kind of troupe I enjoy in Western characters, like Clint Eastwood, or even DC Comics’ Jonah Hex, they just want a peaceful night with their drink and to be left alone. But as is the undoing of Western Heroes, trouble always keeps a keen eye on them with intent to turn a night sour.
I’ll talk a little about the color palette and page texture choices with this post. The idea from the start was I asked Emmanuel to try something new. I knew I wanted to attempt a more parchment-like approach to the page, so Emmanuel went with pencils and no inks with some bits of color on a tinted paper.
I loved the experiment, but what I discovered in the post-production process is that scanning toned pages is erratic on the uniformity of the whole. For example, some pages had a more tan hue while others a more reddish hue, or the pencil details were more gray in some and black in others. I think it was an auto correct function of the scanner compensating for the image’s levels, but ultimately I choose to work on the pages digitally to try to find a happy middle.
This took HOURS… and at the end of that experience, I still wasn’t happy.
Finally, I settled on one last night working on the pages and stripped them of the toned paper around the panels and then created layers of each panel, and another set of layers for components within each panel. I played with the hue, contrast, levels and saturation of each component, within each panel, within each page, and then used a textured stock image to unify the page itself.
I liked the idea of the warm hues to identify the setting and people in it, and then desaturating Stranger’s skin to make him seem even more out of place on a visual level.
If I were to do this again, I’d like to stick to white paper and do colors and texturing in post-production. You can’t learn lessons without taking chances and experimenting! That’s the motto I live by and I don’t regret it!