NOLA....!!!! Yeah, posted this one (above) before,
but the rest are mostly new.
So, here's a few more panels n' pages... i figured I'd toss onto the pile.
Once the book comes out, you'll have to tell me if it works or not, (because it may not).. but i've really tried to dig DEEP on this project. Walking a line too. Different ground for me. Dana is easier, more like Annie in Ojo, or Amy in Zero-Girl, your usual insecure sam kieth nerdy-but-loveable-geeky type. Easy to root for.
But Nola's a porcupine. Trouble. Ferrel. Typical Bad-Girl stuff.
But also female frailties. Stuff i haven't seen much in comics lately. Like eating and weight issues. body hair. embracing uglification. None of us are totally flawless, are we?
But hopefully not on a preachy way either. I just know a TONS of women in my life, who aren't airbrushed and look like, well... DUH.. real women. Seems stupid not to reflect that in a comic book story. Seems overdue.
Oh sure, she starts out as a cute little girl, look at her up there hugging her mom. That's kinda cute, right?
But beyond her psychical appearance, Nola soon enough discovers the same old pain everyone faces in life.
I wish i could save her from it, i really do. But hey, life does suck sometimes. So does growing up.
Challenge for me on this project is, so much happens, (her entire life from cradle to grave) is covered.
So the goal for me, is to be fair to all the characters.
But it always leaves the audience feeling cheated somehow. So that's the goal. avoiding that.
I'll try it with art sometimes too. Drawings can avoid and sugar coat, can't they?
Sure, Nola's bound to come off as a angry. Unrelenting. Hard to read or relate too sometimes. Sometimes my style matches that - is crude or rough or off putting, deliberately so.
Yet, sometime when we see things from Nola's view, her mother's to blame. That's why I decided to shift points of few ever few issues, to get inside her sister's Dana's head, Mothers, her boyfriend Spider's head too.
Step back and get a wider lens . . . . on everybody.
Now, here's your second does of Gone/Nola confabulation:
Where in, Gone is once again fallen pray to a mysterious voice in his head. Btw, if it makes you feel any better, Nola has no idea what she said to Gone either. From her side, she experiences the same problem.
some stranger whispers into her ear some profound statement, which she wakes up unable to fathom later on. Though their cosmic doppelgangers in a way. . . .
Gone and Nola never ultimately meet, talk or communicate directly in their entire lifetimes.
Yet both profoundly influence the other regardless.
Kinda cool, huh?
