Page 15

THIS MAGIC MOMENT

Page 15 is now live on Zuda! (Best viewed with the full screen feature.)

I'm a little late today with this update. I slept in because Luiza and I went out to see the premiere of New Moon last night. lol It was delightfully cheesy!

This page sees Lily unleash the monster inside of her for the first time. I wanted this instance where Lily hits Erika to feel violent and ferocious. From a technical standpoint I kept the backgrounds minumal in the first three panels to focus all the reader's attention on the action. This, I hope, also makes it read quickly so the attack just feels fast and sudden. The red background in panel two I used to make the action stand out even more in that panel and to make it feel more violent, along with the use of the CRACK sound effect. The use of rain comes into full effect on this page too. I had hinted at the coming storm (literally and metaphorically) throughout this scene at semi-formal. You can see drops of rain falling in previous pages. I wanted pouring rain on this page to further emphasize the violence and make things feel very primal and jungle like. Like Lily has transformed into a carnivorous animal. The hunter becomes the hunter as Lily stalks her prey from behind the statue.

LILY OF THE VALLEY SOUNDTRACK

As I've said before, I've been imagining this story playing out as a film and the soundtrack plays a huge part of it in my mind. For this page I envisioned This Magic Moment by The Platters playing. This song goes with the feeling of great relief Lily's feeling to finally release some of her anxiety (Even though in a negative way). I hid this song title on the page as well! Try to find it. lol

I wanted this page and the entire scene in general to sort of feel like a revenge fantasy as well, to anyone who's ever been picked on, or made to feel inadequate in school, or anywhere. Obviously her actions are misguided and wrong but I know from time to time everyone imagines clocking an antagonizer in the face. I think it's something everyone can relate to. When I was drawing this page I put myself mentally back in high school with my antagonizers to put myself in the right mindset. It was actually a very cathartic page to draw. lol

SHAPES AND BACKGROUND ELEMENTS

I explored shapes an composition in the large panel, for no specifica reason aside from trying to learn more about the medium and what can be done with it design wise. The statue and it's shadow act just as one solid block leading the eye from the top left through the two figures and to the bottom right. The placement of the dialogue balloons I also used to lead the eye in a Z pattern through the panel. Even with the girls' shadow I tried to simplify it and use a minimalist and design heavy approach.

In the large panel I littered the background with condoms, beer bottles, and beer cans. When I was in high school, my good friend Greg and I used to take a shortcut walking home through the golf course across from it. Leading toward the golf course was a rarely used parking lot area which was a minefield of condoms and beer bottles. This became my understanding of what surrounded high schools. I used these elements to also contribute to the primal and animalistic feeling I was going for with this page.

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS

The original animated film based on Dr. Seuss's book for some reason which I'm not quite sure of yet has been something I've wanted to emulate a bit with this comic. The dialogue on this page about Lily having "a wonderful, awful idea" is a homage to the film. You can probably expect to see more tributes in future pages. lol

LILY'S MENTAL STRUGGLES

I had someone ask in the comments below the comic on Zuda, if Lily was deaf. Which I guess is an understandable question since I have only revealed her thoughts through captions and she's yet to have any verbal dialogue. Here's a few videos from Youtube which describe one of her conditions examined in the semi-formal scene more clearly.

It's a difficult condition to understand and one of the things I was trying to accomplish with this semi-formal scene was to put the reader into the mind of someone who deals with it. I chose to write about this subject matter because I don't think it's often covered in comics and you rarely see stories from this perspective.

UNRELATED

In unrelated news, Luiza and I both got new tattoos last Friday! :)

Mine is a Mike Mignola skull design. I'll post Luiza's maybe next Friday once I get a pic.

Also the Lily of the Valley facebook group is two members away from reaching 1000! Do a search and join if you haven't yet. There's lots of photos and updates going on there. :)

PAGE 14

It's Friday, which means a page update on Lily of the Valley at Zudacomics.com. Page 14 goes live today.

Here's a clip from the page. To view the full page in full screen high resolution, just go to Zudacomics.com or the new direct domain name: http://www.lilyofthevalleycomic.com/.

On this page, Lily escapes the crowded area of Elmwood's semi formal event. Lily and Erika now isolated, Lily is more in her element. Erika is outside of hers and powerless really without a crowd to feed off of. The thunder symbolizes a change in Lily's mindset. In a fight or flight situation, Lily usually flees. She's beginning to recognize her thought patterns and how they're doing nothing to help her mental struggles. She decides to take a different approach to the anxiety inducing situation. I thought the storm would create more of a jungle atmosphere to represent Lily's internal changes.

"What is it, you taciturn tampon?"

- To clarify for anyone unsure of the term 'taciturn', it means someone or something which is uncommunicative. I felt rather than Erika referring to Lily again as a mute, I would use something more creative. In my mind, Erika has a whole reservoir of insulting terms she can draw upon anytime.

With the background on this page I took the opportunity to remind everyone where this story is taking place; in Canada. It's not important to the story itself but it is the setting and it is where I imagine this story being able to take place. In New Brunswick, of the Canadian Maritimes to be specific. With Canadian locations very often used as stand ins for movies and television series set in America, I just think it's important to set something in Canada and make it obvious that it's Canada. I'd like it to be as much a part of the personality of the comic as America often is in comics like Superman, Spiderman, etc.

The comic which influenced me initially to draw upon Canada and locations I've actually been to and live in was Brian Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series. Scott Pilgrim is set in Toronto and frequently uses real Toronto landmarks as locations such as Castle Loma, the CN Tower, Honest Eds, and more. The city of Toronto is as much a character in the comic as any other.

A Toronto streetcar in Scott Pilgrim:

The Scotiabank movie theatre and Chapters bookstore downtown behind the Much Music building:

These aren't the best examples, but the quickest I could find in a google search.

Get ready for a subtle tribute to The Grinch on page 15 next Friday! I have alllllot I can blog about with page 15 and I'm looking forward to it. Next Friday. :)

Also for anyone interested, the Lily of the Valley group on facebook is very close to topping 1000 members which is pretty amazing to me. If you'd like to join or check it out, it's at:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=71143685849&ref=ts

PAGE 13

Today's Friday, which means a new page is up on Zudacomics.com and I'm back here to type again.

Today page 13 hits. so here's a preview of that page. The full page is up on Zuda and is best viewed in the full screen mood.

This page continues the first person perspective panels from page 12. I explained the reasons for using this approach for the storytelling in the last blog entry for page 12. Basically it's intended to make the reader understand her fear of these situations by putting them in her place and showing things through her eyes. All eyes are on her. The laughing has been replaced now with unpleasant stares as the popular extroverted girl confronts Lily.
This page attempts to fully display Lily's shy and introverted personality by putting her in a setting completely out of her comfort zone, and one which she actually fears.

The anatomical heart in the last panel was a choice to internalize all of Lily's thoughts and emotions. All of her suffering is all on the inside and she does it all to herself essentially.

(I originally wanted to draw a magnifying glass over the heart to show it, just as a homage to How the Grinch Stole Christmas but thought it would confuse things. I intend to throw in some Grinch elements eventually though. The original animated film shares an aesthetic I'd like to include in this series.)

Anyway, the heart panel and the caption within it I wanted to convey the feeling of repressed aggression reaching it's boiling point. If you've ever been in a situation where you have so much aggression inside that needs to be released in someway, you'll likely understand the comparison to a jar full of buzzing wasps.

This page has no music suggestions. I pictured things going silent for this moment. The only background noise would be the whistling from Brad's lackey in the first panel...

This page also shows the logo for the Elmwood Cannibals; Elmwood High School's big hockey team. They wear their team jackets everywhere I imagine. I don't think they'd even take them off to sleep. Without the status symbol of the jacket, they'd just be ordinary after all.

NEW DOMAIN NAME!

Lily of the Valley now has it's own domain name. www.Lilyofthevalleycomic.com will now take you directly to the comic on Zudacomics.com. I think it'll make things alot easier for people to remember and to find. Just remember Lily is spelled "Lily" and not "Lilly" and it should make things pretty simple.

LILY FAN ART

Here's some recent fan art. The first one is by Luke Andrew from deviantART.com. His page is at: www.fireflyluke00.deviantart.com.

The second one is actually one of the daily strips of Decaffeinated Coffee by Chuck Harrison. It was featured on his site, www.dcstrip.com on Monday and was a cool surprise to me. It's not technically fan art but he drew in a tribute to the comic in the top right corner of the strip on the fridge!

HALLOWEEN

Not much else to say about this page. I hope everyone brought in a good haul of candy on Halloween. Luiza and I went to a Halloween party in downtown Toronto hosted by Warner Brothers and Rue Morgue at the Revival. We saw some really cool costumes... which made me feel pretty stupid for not wearing one. Luckily, Luiza wore one good enough to make up for my lacking. lol She was a living dead girl of sorts.

RUNNING TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

In other unrelated news, a video for Marilyn Manson's Running to the Edge of the World was released yesterday. It's quite an arty little video and with it's cinematic quality could probably be classified as a short film. A very raw, honest, and genuine display of a broken man. I'm interested to hear what others think of it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Helter Skelter!

I am the devil and I am here to do the devil's business.

Or I may just read too much into coincidences...

On Zudacomics.com, mid October:



On twitter, from @gliovampire:



Online banking:

PAGE 12

Friday's here again, which means a new page of Lily of the Valley is now up at Zudacomics.com. It ALSO means that tomorrow is HALLOWEEN. It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Here's a preview of the page. Click on the Lily of the Valley logo at the right to go directly to the comic.



So with this page I wanted to continue the feeling I was going for with page 11 but now even more from Lily's perspective. I wanted to put the reader right in the crowd with her and see things through her eyes and mind. With the first two panels I wanted to create the effect of one long 180 degree camera pan. I feel like this accomplished what I wanted and presents the crowd as a bit of a claustrophobic enclosure. I wanted the laughing faces to be even more exaggerated than on the previous page to show how Lily's mind perceives and distorts social situations. All eyes are on her.

The two bickering girls introduced on this page are adaptations of recurring characters of the same names which I used about a year or so ago in a series of comic strips. I've changed them around a bit to fit this story and the purpose they serve in it, but their premise is the same; bratty teenage girls being bratty teenage girls. This is a subject I've always found alot of humour in and always enjoyed writing. There's really nothing funnier than listening to girls talk with each other. Specifically when they're fighting for the attention of popular teen heart throbs, like Elmwood High's Hockey hero Brad.

Here's some of those strips to demonstrate the evolution of the characters. I know they're not too spectacular (a few of these are the first comics I've ever done) but I find the evolution of the characters fun to look at, so you might too.

(Sorry for the excessively large sizes.)











This last one is the most recent. I did this probably a year later than the rest and did it all digitally, which explains how sloppy it is. lol



If you're interested in seeing a few other old comic strips I've done, you can check them out at: http://adamathertonpresents.blogspot.com/2008/05/uclick-comics-submission.html . But again, they're nothing fancy. lol

EASTER EGGS FROM PAGE 11:

I said last week I'd post the Bottle of Awesome tribute that was hidden in page 11. Unfortunately the idea was an afterthough and the resubmitted page with this tribute didn't actually get published to the site. But I've cropped it out here anyway to show you. It's the bottle from the Zuda series Bottle of Awesome:



The bottle's on the left side of the screen of page 11 also say 'Nada' and 'Surf'. The bottle next to the right hand of Lily's shadow says 'Popular'. These were the references to the song I imagined playing during that page and continuing onto page 12. The song is called Popular by the band Nada Surf.

ELMWOOD'S INSPIRATION:

I thought since I've talked alot about my hometown in the Canadian Maritimes being an inspiration to my comics, I thought I'd share this image I found at www.woodstocknb.ca. This is Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada, which inspires the town of Elmwood in Lily of the Valley and was the setting in my previous Zuda comic BLOOD (You can view the 14 completed pages at http://adamathertonpresents.blogspot.com/2009/01/original-bleed-pages.html).



ZUDA COMICS FAN ART BLOG:

Here's a huge collection of Zuda comics fan art: www.zudafanart.blogspot.com .

Right now the blog is holding a poll to see which Zuda comic people want to see more fan art of. I was flattered to see that Lily of the Valley is included in the poll. :)

New page of Lily of the Valley and a new blog entry next Friday.
Happy Halloween!

- Adam

PAGE 11

Here's a clip from page 11 of Lily of the Valley. Visit Zudacomics.com or click the direct link at the top right to view the page in full and read the rest of the comic. Use the full screen mode Zuda offers to really read it as intended.



So page 11. At this point in the comic just about every page has only contained one character, Lily. The reason for this was a choice I made to emphasize Lily's loneliness and really drive home the fact that this story is about her isolation and alienation.
With the high school semi-formal sequence I really wanted to introduce a crowd scene in a dramatic way and wanted the reader to see the crowd the same way Lily sees it. It's very important to me and the story for the reader to see things through Lily's perspective. I want reader's to understand the poor choices she has made as a result of her internal pain. I don't want her viewed as a one dimensional monster who just kills for the sake of killing. I want readers to understand that she herself is a victim to her poisonous way of thinking.

So as Lily sees the crowd, it's very intimidating. It's not inviting at all. She really sees no where to fit in and the task of attempting to do so seems hopeless. Her heart rate is increasing now and her shadow suggests the monster she contains inside of her is boiling over. Containing all of her fears and anxieties and the toll of constant repression has grown into a monster bigger than herself which eventually will need to be let out. And we know it eventually consumes her as the previous sequence in the story with Mrs. Bellows and the pink flamingo clearly shows.

As for the technical choices of the page design. I felt a full page was the best way to emphasize the weight of this task on Lily. Aside from the expressionistic purpose the shadow serves it also acts as a frame to the word balloon directing the reader's eye toward it. I wanted this small bit of dialogue to have impact and show her desperation to end the pain she suffers constantly as a result of her phobias. I didn't want the dialogue to get lost in the crowd, so to speak. The crowd is all one similar tone to present it as an unpenetrable wall in Lily's eyes while Lily stands out to the reader in a white dress.

EASTER EGGS:

I hid the song title to the song I pictured playing during this scene in the page artwork. See if you can spot it. The band name is in there as well.




Found it? Now you can listen to it...



There's also a tribute to another Zuda comic series in there somewhere. If you spot it, post it in the comments below the comic. If not, check back next Friday and I'll reveal what and where. (EDIT: The revised page with this tribute did not end up being the page up on Zuda. I'll post an image of it in the next blog update though.)

OTHER STUFF:

Here's some photos of some things around my workspace at the moment.

Here's Nick Cave's newest novel; The Death of Bunny Munro. I'm posting this because the original art for page 11 of Lily of the Valley is undearneath the book. Also because it's a really cool book.



My Umbrella Academy mug. Luiza bought me this a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed both volumes of The Umbrella Acacemy written by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance and artist Gabriel Ba. I love this mug.



Framed album art from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads album. This album had alot of influence on Lily of the Valley when I was creating the concept. Particularly the song Curse of Millhaven, which is also about a teenage girl serial killer.



Two comics by two of my favourite comics creators; Paul Pope's Batman: Year 100, and Jeff Smith's Rasil. Both great books.



And I finally own the hardcover of the greatest novel ever written, my absolute favourite story ever told, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. With illustrations by Bernie Wrightson and a foreword by Steven King!



WEBCOMIC SUGGESTIONS:

Here's a few webcomics I discovered this past week which I enjoyed enough to feel the need to mention here.

First is Paul Taylor's Waspi Square. This comic's about a group of women living together in a neighborhood in Minneapolis. It's about their lives and their friendships. Really top notch webcomic. Check it out at: www.WapsiSquare.com

Second is Aaron Alexovich's Serenity Rose. This comic's about a teenage witch with intense powers and intense social phobia (something Lily also happens to suffer from). It's presented with a really gorgeous gothic style. Check it out at: www.HeartShapedSkull.com

Page 12 and a new blog entry coming Friday October 30th!

- Adam

PAGE 10

Page 10 goes live on Zudacomics.com today.

Here's a sample from the page. See the full page in full screen resolution at Zudacomics.com.



Not much to discuss about this page. Lily's making her way to the late night semi-formal at her high school.
This page I did entirely with ink and a brush. Except for some finer details where I used a fine tipped pen. It was alot of fun and I'm going to go more and more into the direction of traditional brush and ink because I really liked the result here.

It was really important to me to establish a tone in this page and the previous. At this point in the story after portraying Lily as a vicious monster, it was necessary in my mind to show the reader why she does the violent things she does. It was important to me to make the reader understand her motives. So this is why I took her back to a semi-formal where I could put her social anxiety and paranoia in the spotlight. The captions help to really get inside of her mind too to make her more sympathetic. I'm positive that anyone reading this comic will feel sympathy towards this serial killer by the end of this semi-formal scene. I want them to root for a monster.

If I could change anything on this page it would be the fact that the name of the Elmwood High School's sports team is covered and not readable. The name of the High School hockey team (this comic takes place in Canada afterall) is The Cannibals. I chose it for alot of thematic reasons and I'll surely get a chance to display the full team name somewhere eventually. The team logo is still visible so that's a fair compromise.

As for the music, I envisioned Ani DeFranco's Wishing and Hoping playing during page 9 and leading into page 10. I imagined if this were a film, the leaves blowing out from the final scene on page 8 would transition into the scene on page 9 with Lily sitting above the Elmwood damn. The leaves would bridge the two scenes together and Ani DeFranco's Wishing and Hoping would play as the camera zoomed into Lily sitting above the damn. I thought this would be a nice way to go forward from the violence and heaviness of page 8.



Wishin' and Prayin' in written on the side of the Elmwood damn near Lily as well and can be seen if you view the page at full screen and zoom in.

Next week, page 11!

- Adam Atherton