SPECTATORS - Part 24
Plus, photos from San Diego Comic-Con!
So.
Very.
Sleepy.
Brian here, just back from a surreal and spectacular SDCC. It was amazing to finally put (masked) faces to so many of your Exploding Giraffe handles, so thanks again to those of you who were able to make it out and put up with my bonkers schedule.
Spectators co-creator Niko Henrichon and his family were also traveling last week, so we’ve just got a short update for you this morning, as Val and her fellow ethereal sprits continue to process the loss of the latest “incomer,” a newly arrived ghost who decided to “move on” rather than endure this intangible quasi-existence:
Hmm, what has relentless voyeur Val just noticed just off-panel?
Find out next week, as we return with multiple new pages, including one of the craziest double-page spreads of all time, as an important new scene begins.
For you loyal paid subscribers in The Tower, I finally got around to answering your excellent process questions from last week’s private chat about my script to the first 30 pages of Spectators.
Frequent and valued contributor Bojack Norseman wrote:
Also, on the subject of writer-artist collaboration, and back and forth, I’m curious if you could share your thoughts on when and how to give feedback or even “corrections” to the artist. To take one example, as pointed out in another comment, Niko’s depiction of Val is nothing close to “moderately overweight.” What goes into the thinking when the artist’s depiction substantially differs from the one you had in your head when writing the script? (Assuming the thought isn’t just “Oh wow that’s so much better,” as I’m sure it often is).
As I always tell my collaborators, my descriptions are only ever suggestions, and unless it’s vitally important to the plot, I welcome them to “re-cast” characters however they might envision them. For that opening scene, I was much less concerned with what 2022-era Val looked like than what she was looking at.
And our multiple drafts of Spectators’ first page to the contrary, I actually rarely suggest changes at the layout stage, and I try NEVER to request changes to the finished pencils. If something’s not “right” at that point, it’s entirely my fault, and I just have to work to better communicate my thoughts in future pages.
Comics—even what will eventually become a “standalone” graphic novel like Spectators—are all about forward momentum (both in terms of the narrative and their creation), so I think it’s important to keep the train running and not get bogged down on edits.
All that said, at the layout stage of today’s installment, Niko and I agreed that the final panel required one tiny change to better serve as a low-key “cliffhanger,” one that will hopefully guide the reader’s gaze off of this page and (eventually) into our next scene.
Here was Niko’s wonderfully detailed first take:
And his quick edit, which I think made a subtle but important difference to our largely silent exploration of the art of spectating:
Thanks for your tireless dedication, Niko. I can’t wait for all of you to see what he’s cooking up for next week.
I regret that I was too busy getting marched from press junkets to panels across the secret Fancy People Corridors beneath Comic-Con to snap many photos, but here are a few quick pics from inside the whirlwind:
Behold Paper Girls co-creator and fellow Executive Producer Cliff Chiang, not even breaking a sweat as he was filmed drawing our characters live in front of countless crew members, publicists, etc. I can’t even write an email in a coffee shop without having a breakdown.
Here we are aboard the “IMDboat” with Paper Girls stars and absolute A+ human beings Camryn Jones (Tiffany), Riley Lai Nelet (Erin), Fina Strazza (KJ), and Sofia Rosinsky (Mac).
If you were lucky enough to catch our panel, you got a small taste of how otherworldly talented all four of these performers are. Like the heroes of our story, these young women are all badass professionals, wise beyond their years, who have been thrust into a terrifying and adult world of endless conflict (television, not a time war), and nevertheless meet every challenge with grace, humor, and most importantly, friendship.
But the little thieves will also steal absolutely anything not nailed down to a set, so keep an eye on your props, producers!
Massive thanks to heroic makeup artist Christine Nguyen for making all of the dudes on the Paper Girls team look so pretty for our interviews. Nice photobomb, Sofia.
The hilarious Nate Corddry (who plays an important new character named Larry) failed to bring a coat to our rooftop premiere, but the always dapper Cliff came to the rescue with one of his backup jackets, which somehow fit Nate like it had been personally tailored for him. Hollywood magic!
And here we are introducing the first three episodes with supremely kind and sage showrunner Christopher C. Rogers, one of the big brains behind the unforgettable masterpiece that was Halt and Catch Fire.
Check out legendary letterer/designer (and one of the sharpest critical minds in comics) Jared K. Fletcher posing with the iconic logo he created.
Sorry I don’t have any shots of Paper Girls colorist Matthew Wilson, but he was too busy winning yet another richly deserved Eisner Award to join our screening. Congrats, Matt!
I’m apparently nearing the limit of what your inbox can handle, but if you’re interested, I’ll try to post some more shots to my dumb Instagram this week.
For now, thanks so much to everyone at SDCC for running such a safe and successful first show back, and to all of my friends at Prime Video for taking excellent care of my family and me.
I promise not to let my sellout Hollywood plugging overwhelm Exploding Giraffe, but all eight episodes of this first outstanding season of Paper Girls debut this Friday, July 29, and I’m enormously proud of the show, so I hope you don’t mind me asking:
Do you subscribe to Prime Video, and if so, do you plan to check out Paper Girls this week?
Regardless, I’ll be back in a few short days with one last Paper Girls-centric dispatch, which will include an opportunity for you to win some outrageously cool prizes, so stay tuned…
Missing getting my shiny moon-head powdered every morning,
BKV
Do I have Amazon Prime? No. Am I going to watch Paper Girls? You beat your sweet ass. How? Haven’t figured that out yet, but to paraphrase Jurassic Park, Will* finds a way.
*I’m Will, if that wasn’t clear.
1) No 2) but as soon as we have Prime again it's definitely going on the watchlist. (due to budget, we rotate the monthly streaming service. This month is HBO).