Hugo House
Working on Chapter 21
Sat Nov 13 2010
Been busy - took a writing class at Hugo House from Nancy Kress and did some work on other projects (you’ll hear about it soon).
In the meantime, I have been working on Chapter 21. Honest. See?
In the meantime, I have been working on Chapter 21. Honest. See?
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Webcomics and my inspirations
Tue May 25 2010
Still recovering from a fantastic weekend at the first Hugo House Writing Conference, Finding Your Readers in the 21st Century. There was a great Wacom Intuos4 Small Pen Tablet
with Photoshop. I didn’t have the benefit of a teacher or guide when I started, but now there is one that I highly recommend: The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics
.Artistically, my first, best inspiration was the late great Will Eisner. Although I loved his work in The Spirit
but it was his Contract with God Trilogy
that really got to me. Fantastic writer, fantastic artist and he could tell a deep resonate story with some funny squiggles.Many great graphic novels have come after this early genius. BTW, I got asked this a bit afterwards so if you're looking for a comic to give to non-comic people, I've had a lot of success sharing Persepolis
or Craig Thompson's Blankets
. Speaking of Craig Thompson's work, don't miss his gorgeous travelogue, Carnet De Voyage
. For younger readers, check out Girl Genius
.So how does one adapt a gritty crime drama in a webcomic? My inspirations there were none other than the work of Frank Miller’s gritty take on super heroes, especially Batman: Year One
and Daredevil: Born Again
.My other inspiration, Greg Rucka, who started out writing mysteries
but then graduated to mystery comics, like Whiteout
and his homage to the old spy show, Sandbaggers - Queen & Country
. BTW, I highly recommend Greg Rucka's take on Batwoman
.How do I write with a female lead? Well, after reading Terry Moore'sStrangers In Paradise
, I was inspired. So much so that I have an original drawing of Katchoo in my upstairs hallway.I know my artwork leaves something to be desired. If I had 3 wishes, one of them would be able to draw like Andi Watson. I find his stuff to be brilliant pieces of simple beauty. My favorites of his are Geisha
, Dumped
and Princess At Midnight.That’s all for now, but I’ve got a few more inspirations and recommended reading posts somewhere in my head waiting to be typed out.
News and stuff
Sun May 09 2010
Lo, I have been busy. I have lots of good excuses why Chapter 20 isn’t done yet. Honest.
First, I’m putting my talk together for Hugo House’s first writing conference, Finding Your Readers in the 21st Century. I’ll speaking on Saturday, May 22nd on “Publishing on the Web” with Rebecca Agiewich. For those of you who don’t know, Rebecca Agiewich had a fantastic blog called the Breakup Babe that she successfully turned into a novel. I got to meet her the other week to plan our session and her tale was quite interesting. Ironically, she was one of the bloggers I used to read back in 2002 when I was first creating the Heidi character.
Second, I just re-drew the first scene of Heidi book one. I got tired of my worst art being the first thing people saw when they were introduced to Heidi. In time, I think I will slowly re-illustrate most of book one, polishing some of the words along the way. Shoutout to @hypatiadotca for spotting my typo. I manually redid the text instead of copying it from the originals, so at least one mistake was made. As always, if you spot typos, drop me an email or a tweet and let me know.
Lastly, I am actually working on Chapter 20. It’s about half illustrated in roughs and should be done soon.
First, I’m putting my talk together for Hugo House’s first writing conference, Finding Your Readers in the 21st Century. I’ll speaking on Saturday, May 22nd on “Publishing on the Web” with Rebecca Agiewich. For those of you who don’t know, Rebecca Agiewich had a fantastic blog called the Breakup Babe that she successfully turned into a novel. I got to meet her the other week to plan our session and her tale was quite interesting. Ironically, she was one of the bloggers I used to read back in 2002 when I was first creating the Heidi character.
Second, I just re-drew the first scene of Heidi book one. I got tired of my worst art being the first thing people saw when they were introduced to Heidi. In time, I think I will slowly re-illustrate most of book one, polishing some of the words along the way. Shoutout to @hypatiadotca for spotting my typo. I manually redid the text instead of copying it from the originals, so at least one mistake was made. As always, if you spot typos, drop me an email or a tweet and let me know.
Lastly, I am actually working on Chapter 20. It’s about half illustrated in roughs and should be done soon.
Written
Sun Dec 06 2009
Write-O-Rama was a literary and financial success. We raised over $10K for a great cause. My friends and family came through in the pledges and showed some fantastic support.
Pledged
Wed Nov 25 2009
Alrighty. So far I've been pledged $175.00 towards Write-o-Rama.
I'm hoping to see a lot more support coming soon. If there ever was a way you could encourage me to keep writing and earn some good tax-deductible karma, this is it.
Please, please, please -Support Richard Hugo House by clicking here. Just put PlanetHeidi in the designation field and fill out all the other necessary information.
Write-O-Rama Laureate
Thu Nov 19 2009
I'm also once again participating in the Richard Hugo House Write-o-Rama. If you remember, last year I raised money for a good cause and did the rough drawings of what would become Tr0jan. This year, I've been honored by the House as a Write-O-Rama Laureate.
The Richard Hugo House is center for writers and readers that offers classes, youth programs, literary events, original stage productions, writer residencies and scholarships to the disadvantaged. There are only three organizations like it in the United States. It's a place of great love and support for those who love the written word, young and old. If there was no Hugo House, there never would have been a Heidi Hoffman.
In 2009, Hugo House served over 850 youth with creative writing classes and summer camps, and their scholarship fund awarded more than $13,000 to teen writers who would not have been able to attend their programs otherwise. Hugo Writers-in-Residence gave over 350 no-cost writing consultations to the public. And the Zine Archive and Publishing Project (ZAPP), which is the largest collection of handmade and small press periodicals in the nation, reopened in a bigger space upstairs. Those are just a few of the programs a donation will support.
Your gift is tax deductible as allowed by law and there are also donor benefits.
You can support us online by clicking here. Just put PlanetHeidi in the designation field and fill out all the other necessary information.
As things progress, I'll share some tidbits about the Heidi story I'll be writing during Write-o-Rama. Last year, as some may recall, I penned Tr0jan.
The Richard Hugo House is center for writers and readers that offers classes, youth programs, literary events, original stage productions, writer residencies and scholarships to the disadvantaged. There are only three organizations like it in the United States. It's a place of great love and support for those who love the written word, young and old. If there was no Hugo House, there never would have been a Heidi Hoffman.
In 2009, Hugo House served over 850 youth with creative writing classes and summer camps, and their scholarship fund awarded more than $13,000 to teen writers who would not have been able to attend their programs otherwise. Hugo Writers-in-Residence gave over 350 no-cost writing consultations to the public. And the Zine Archive and Publishing Project (ZAPP), which is the largest collection of handmade and small press periodicals in the nation, reopened in a bigger space upstairs. Those are just a few of the programs a donation will support.
Your gift is tax deductible as allowed by law and there are also donor benefits.
You can support us online by clicking here. Just put PlanetHeidi in the designation field and fill out all the other necessary information.
As things progress, I'll share some tidbits about the Heidi story I'll be writing during Write-o-Rama. Last year, as some may recall, I penned Tr0jan.
Write-o-rama
Mon Dec 08 2008
Yes, Write-O-Rama is over and it was a blast.
I got 20 pages of sketches done (sample below)
It was an immense amount of fun to spend some time up at the Hugo House, visiting the classroom where Heidi was born. I also spent an hour and took a fantastic little workshop with David Lasky which was a lotta fun.
Thank you to those of you who donated to sponsor me in Write-O-Rama. The House came within 90% of making our fundraising goal for the event. Not bad considering the impending doom of the Financiapocalpyse. Secret bonus: All Write-O-Rama donors will get FREE COPIES of the Tr0jan comic book when it comes out. (and it will be only offered in paper form).
Oh, and I had a birthday too. Write-O-Rama was my special gift to myself. So thanks again to all who helped it.
Origin story
Tue Nov 25 2008
I need to tell an additional Heidi story. Luckily, I had the very thing in mind.
As a writer, I was very interested in telling the story of the process of "hard boiling" the private detective. It also gives me a chance to make Heidi more like us... emotional, careless, fallible and very human. The current Heidi web-graphic novels chronicle Heidi's "origin story" and how she becomes the fully capable private eye that you've come to expect in detective fiction. However, I've also been itching to tell some stories showing Heidi as the full fledged detective. Well, I'm doing it. I've got a Heidi short that's been sitting in draft form that I've been dying to illustrate. But I've also decided to design and release it as a paper comic. A bit about what I mean by that.
When I first conceived of Heidi as a web comic, I didn't want to take a comic strip and whap into a web page. Having to read a comic from left to right in a series of little frames seemed stupid. Why retrofit an old medium into a new one? So, inspired by Scott McCloud's infinite canvas, the web comic layout goes down, taking a decent portion of the screen with no clutter. If you hadn't noticed, clicking on an image automatically advances you to the next frame. So basically, I made it as easy to read as possible, with nothing in the way. It's also why I haven't released any of the web comic in graphic novel form. I'd have to rethink my layout and design from scratch. Tough work for a kid who raised on Will Eisner and aspires to his fantastic use of the page. So, this new story will be designed for paper... and not for the web.
To make it all the more interesting and inspiring to me, I will be returning to Heidi's birthplace to finish this story. On December 6th, I'll be working on the story at the Richard Hugo House Write-O-Rama, a writing marathon to raise funding for the literary arts center.
So, get ready for a new Heidi short story, Tr0jan. One set in current times. If you check the Heidi timeline, you can see it's already been accounted for in the plan.
Now, the best way to encourage me to finish and publish is to sponsor me in Write-O-Rama. All you gotta do is hit the link and pony up whatever you like. Under "Designation" type "Write-O-Rama" and under "Dedication" type in "Planet Heidi". All proceeds go to the Richard Hugo House.
As a writer, I was very interested in telling the story of the process of "hard boiling" the private detective. It also gives me a chance to make Heidi more like us... emotional, careless, fallible and very human. The current Heidi web-graphic novels chronicle Heidi's "origin story" and how she becomes the fully capable private eye that you've come to expect in detective fiction. However, I've also been itching to tell some stories showing Heidi as the full fledged detective. Well, I'm doing it. I've got a Heidi short that's been sitting in draft form that I've been dying to illustrate. But I've also decided to design and release it as a paper comic. A bit about what I mean by that.
When I first conceived of Heidi as a web comic, I didn't want to take a comic strip and whap into a web page. Having to read a comic from left to right in a series of little frames seemed stupid. Why retrofit an old medium into a new one? So, inspired by Scott McCloud's infinite canvas, the web comic layout goes down, taking a decent portion of the screen with no clutter. If you hadn't noticed, clicking on an image automatically advances you to the next frame. So basically, I made it as easy to read as possible, with nothing in the way. It's also why I haven't released any of the web comic in graphic novel form. I'd have to rethink my layout and design from scratch. Tough work for a kid who raised on Will Eisner and aspires to his fantastic use of the page. So, this new story will be designed for paper... and not for the web.
To make it all the more interesting and inspiring to me, I will be returning to Heidi's birthplace to finish this story. On December 6th, I'll be working on the story at the Richard Hugo House Write-O-Rama, a writing marathon to raise funding for the literary arts center.
So, get ready for a new Heidi short story, Tr0jan. One set in current times. If you check the Heidi timeline, you can see it's already been accounted for in the plan.
Now, the best way to encourage me to finish and publish is to sponsor me in Write-O-Rama. All you gotta do is hit the link and pony up whatever you like. Under "Designation" type "Write-O-Rama" and under "Dedication" type in "Planet Heidi". All proceeds go to the Richard Hugo House.
Does Heidi have a soundtrack?
Sat Apr 28 2007
When I was writing Lex Talionis, I did it in the modern fashion. That is, I took my laptop to coffee shops and wrote there. To help find my muse, I had the iTunes cranked with what I called the "Heidi mix". Featured prominently in that mix was The West Marginals, another group of artists spawned out of the Hugo House. If you cross-reference carefully, you'll find one of the WM's is thanked specifically in the credits of Lex Talionis. We worked together on the Surveillance Inquiry a few years back, where the first seeds of Heidi germinated.
The WM are now history, having gone their separate ways. However, the music lives on at their website. Their melancholy tunes match perfectly with the latter half of the book. I especially loved Well Fed as a theme to the Heidi-Peter relationship. Burning Fuel works well for Heidi's flight to Victoria. And Four Steps and Fall Down made me almost want to give Heidi a substance abuse problem.
Prison
Fri Feb 17 2006
I went to prison as a visiting author. It was pretty moving experience, so I was compelled to write an essay on the experience.
Prison essay
Author appearance
Tue Jan 03 2006
1/3/2006.
Author appearance!
Unfortunately, you have to kill someone to get in. Literally. I've been invited to teach a writing class at Monroe Correctional Complex as part of the Hugo House Prison program. Ain't that a kick in the pants, Heidi in prison! I'm sure new ideas will come out of this. In any case, it's a rare opportunity for a web comic author to get and I'm jumping on it. Gabe and Tycho, eat your heart out.
Author appearance!
Unfortunately, you have to kill someone to get in. Literally. I've been invited to teach a writing class at Monroe Correctional Complex as part of the Hugo House Prison program. Ain't that a kick in the pants, Heidi in prison! I'm sure new ideas will come out of this. In any case, it's a rare opportunity for a web comic author to get and I'm jumping on it. Gabe and Tycho, eat your heart out.