Scott Koblish

The Eight Immortals! Page Four!

Page 4. again, a better view of teh page must be taken by clicking on the image.

I tried to make the dragon with wings and a face and a serpent's body, but without arms; I wanted something kind of different. A lot of Chinese dragons look a little silly to western eyes, primarily because they are good river/water spirits. The Occidental tradition is of murderous dragons that must be slain, I've found that to be not necessarily in opposition to the Oriental tradition, but noticeably different.

I hewed closer to the Chinese depictions of a character in the final section of the Immortal's story with mixed results - you'll see when we get there.

Matt's indispensable words-
"This first panel is gorgeous. Don’t let the seeming simplicity fool you. The wood cut rendering requires a level of skill greater than most comic artists possess. Scott’s use of traditional Chinese style makes the whole damn thing FEEL right. Authentic. Note also, visual storytellers, the way Scott segues into the “dream sequence” by juxtaposing the solid black and white of the Sage against the “dreamy” gray lines of the Hermit. Bravo.

FYI—the donkey’s name is Hirohito—a slam against the hated Japanese emperor. According to legend, the donkey can fly around the Earth in a day and sleeps inside the Hermit’s purse as a piece of folded up Origami. Scott and I actually wrote a story about this. Dude. . .?"

I've got the story in my files. I reread it last week and it's a great, great story. Just the exact way I want to move the Immortals forward. I'll try and get to it one of these days. I think it's would definitely be a candidate for the ink-wash style I did those trading cards in. I'd probably have to take a month off from work, or the equivalent over a year period. There are just only so many hours in the day.

posted by Scott Koblish @ 11:49 PM