I appreciate this channel! I love your breakdown so much. Precise, straight to the point, good camera angles, everything feels so simplified yet so informative. I easily understand your points! Imma watch more of your case studies from now on!
Great video. I wouldn't use all the jumpcuts though. It's jarring when I'm trying to follow along, and it's inevitably pointless to show reference if I can't focus on it.
I love this video (two years late). As an additional compliment to the work, not only is the eye movement to the center row forgivable, it reinforces the storytelling. This is a jarring moment in the story and the layout reinforces that. The vertical panel is an interrupt and a pivotal moment. We are shifting from a first person and tight perspective in section 1 to a wider more objective perspective in section 2 to an even wider perspective in section 3 introducing a third observer.
One of my favourite things about Mignola is how "selfish" he is in his stylization. If you see the evolution from the first few issues all the way to Hellboy in Hell, you can see him progressively discard things that are "typical" in favor of what he feels like drawing. The shoulders of characters started as kinda square (invokes power and strength) to characters almost shaped like triangles, with no shoulders. Marble statues are absolutely everywhere, because he likes to draw them. Old, crooked houses (even in Hell) are also a vocabulary he uses all the time. I feel like he never get pressured into drawing a scene the way the audience would expect it to look like.
Fun fact: Mignola was an inker and penciler at Marvel for years before creating Hellboy, one of the comics he worked on was the Rocket Raccoon limited series
(to the editor) to add to that, please don't cut away from the drawing at all while she is working on it, unless she pauses to look up to say something. and, if possible, show the comic she is copying in the same frame as her drawing, so you can compare the two.
my god, please, whoever is editing this. It's a video on minimalism. Have mercy on my eyes. at 2:10 - moving to getting a worse angle on it. (much appreciated) at 2:45 - this is a great angle at 3:27 - you cut to the same angle. if you think about changing camera angles as turning your head to look at what is important you will do much better here. The way you cut is contrary to where the viewer wants to be looking, and it's disorienting and very noticeable. she looks up, you look up. she's drawing something, you look at what she's drawing, etc. no ill will, I just want the outcome to be better. good luck, and good day :)
I just found your channel I can't believe I haven't discovered it sooner, so much amazing content I have a lot of catching up to do! Thanks for making these videos!
i’ve never learned so many useful things about comics like i had the last hour digging through your channel… i’m pretty hyped about going back to the board rn
@elsacharretier - Beautifully put together! Would love to see an episode where you walk through your storyboarding of this, making scene comparisons that the DP created from your illustrations.
Always been kind of obsessed with how adroitly Mignola uses deep shadow, not to indicate how a scene would actually be lit, but rather to establish mood and omit any beyond the most necessary of details. In this way, the Hellboy comic has some of the finest noir cinematography I've ever seen.
This was so good. My 3rd time watching this. Can't believe how amazing the cinematography, editing, music, acting and sets were. The story boards must have been on point. The part where she gets off as she feels his heartbeat sink away was spellbinding. You feel the Euphoria. The actress killed it in that scene.
Oh now this is a good channel find. Instant sub! There aren’t enough smart, interesting people talking about comics on RU-vid, but I’m glad I’ve found one!
Great examination. Of course, it only scratches the surface of Mike's pursuit of minimalism. You could do a whole series of essays on how he simplifies his lines, as well as minimizing how many he uses. How he simplifies his shapes, how he simplifies the amount of panels he uses and how many elements are in them to convey what he conveys. I mean, just in a page you used as an example, it's filled with lush detail, and yet when you look closely, you can see the incredible economy of detail he's using to convey lushness. The picture frames have nothing in them, but with minimal lines, he conveys how they're matted and framed to indicate what they are, precious little black and white photos, presumably of rare objects or exotic locations. The other wall decorations look like antiquities from ancient civilizations, indicated just through their unusual shapes and a touch of detail here and there, never more than is absolutely necessary. At the top, three little ovals mounted in a frame, suggesting a collection of little clay masks, or decorative eggs, or something antique and exotic.The rest indicates the clutter of a classic Victorian adventurer's style office, a room narrower than it is tall, overstuffed with trinkets from the occupant's travels. But every detail feels carefully curated for maximum effect. Nothing need be added, yet nothing could be taken away without diminishing the effect. That's the core of the guy's work. He clearly loves detail as much as he loves minimalism. It's in that contradiction that his work becomes sublime.
Interesting analysis. Coming from an Industrial Design background I used to obsess over perfect technical perspectives it was a little over decade ago that I really started to understand that composition is the most important part of making successful pictures. Framed ink, Nathan Fowkes and Will Weston opened my eyes to how much of a difference simple grouping of values, use of simple shapes and overlaps with a focus on clarity are key to developing strong images.
I like this content and would like to see more breakdowns of artists like this. Some suggestions to the channel though; we don’t need as many shots of you talking, I’d rather observe more art during lecture. Also, some editing to shorten the vid, we don’t need to see every pen cap and line in real time.
Hey, b this video is super interesting but I couldn't watch it all the way through as the sound of the marker as you drew was hard to bear :( I suggest tweaking the audio when you're drawing to lessen that nails-on-chawkboard characteristic
Great analysis, wow! I would be thrilled to see something similar about Jim Lawson's work on TMNT (City at War perhaps) or about Stan Sakai's work on Usagi Yojimbo!
Heya I just stumbled upon your channel 2 years too late. Such good content. I have a question, would it have been a good idea to frame the 3 panel violence from Commissioner Gordon’s POV instead of across the street? I ask this because I feel like the intention is that we are supposed to be feeling what Gordon is feeling in this scene.
Knowing that there's a Hellboy movie where Johann Kraus pronounces "focused" as "fuckyoused" it gave me a kick out of seeing her pronounce the word the same way.
This was great! I love Wes Craig's panel design but never took the time to study it properly. Your explanation was eye-opening and very helpful. Thanks.
Individual artist should add a workshop of AI artist to do repetitious or boring work. The workshop does background or environmental views. Then the individual artist insert their character into it.
