Sailor Twain Or The Mermaid In The Hudson

SailorTwain101

by Mark on August 18, 2010 at 12:01 am

Posted In: 4. Masters of Black and White, Sailor Twain

The above page posted several hours early. For no reason I can fathom. But Kelly, Twain’s cyber Miss-Marple-Lara-Croft-Guardian-and-Ninja, is on the case.

If you’re new onboard the Lorelei: I’m keeping a minimum of categories. One of them is “Masters of Black & White” and I assure you it’s already packed with marvelous imagery. Now even more so, because today we’re adding to the roster one of the luminaries of the current French comics scene: Christophe Blain.

If you don’t already own his Isaac the Pirate series, and Gus & His Gang—tarry not another moment before ordering them! Come to think of it, anything and everything he’s every done is worth having. I especially love his episodes in the Sfar/Trondheim hilarious mega-epic fantasy series Dungeon. All the following images, however, are from Isaac, taken from a deluxe hardcover black & white French hardcover edition from Dargaud.

Isaac the Pirate takes what is sometimes a very tired genre—the Pirate story—and reinvents, subverts, enriches and generally enhances it with complex characters, unusual storytelling, and a superb line drawing that is much copied but never emulated.

Many comics artists have lovely loose pencil drawings that are full of life and expressive as can be—but then they go to ink them. And it all goes inhibited, wooden, tight, dead. Not so Christophe Blain. His pencils range from tight to very loose, but the inking stage is always the liveliest, the most vigorous, theatrical, even.

He also explores subtle shifts in mood, and takes time to develop his characters’ mental and emotional states, in a way that I find most pleasurable to read. Above, a character called “Chemin Vert” is falling for someone in his employ, and hoping to find her. But she’s staying away.

That’s her. Alice. She started out as a secondary character, and her storyline blossoms into a major thread of Isaac the Pirate.

And there’s Isaac in this XVIIIth Century yarn on a romantic shore leave from the pirate ship he was tricked into joining.

Blain is without compare.

Felipo

August 17, 2010 at 8:48 am | #

The rainy window panel is gorgeous. I know that feeling

Hilary

August 18, 2010 at 1:57 am | #

Panel four is beautiful–an instant favorite! Love the thoughtfulness of the mermaid moment…
This page really feels like the boat in San Diego come alive.

Mary Beth

August 18, 2010 at 7:12 am | #

I agree about panel #4–such sweetness! And THANK YOU for the heads-up on Blain! And thanks for all of the other books/comics you and others have recommended these past many months! I have been steadily adding titles to my goodreads list(any other Twainers on goodreads?) and feel like I have a great wealth of “to reads.” Yet another reason to love this comic and community!

Warren

August 18, 2010 at 1:13 pm | #

Panel 4: Yes. The wordless eloquence, subtle expression and excellent quality of light and shadow make this the hero panel of the entire work, thus far. At least to me.

Anent the commentary on Blain’s inks: It’s so much easier to be vivacious in the pencil stage (for me, at least), because there’s not the tightening in the hand and at the back of the mind that says, I hope I don’t eff this up. So my inks tend to be tight as well.

I end up having to compensate in the Illustrator livetrace stage by applying some effects to the traced strokes, making them seem more calligraphic. It’s a cheat, and one I’ve never been particularly happy about. Unfortunately, scanned pencils don’t come in with the richness I’d like to see, and they lose contrast. (This could be a fault of the scanner, which is indubitably not of the highest quality.)

What I’ve been looking for is a program that lets me use a tablet to emulate the smooth organic strokes of a pencil while allowing me the option to work in layers, apply undo, choose colors and textures for the strokes, etc. Haven’t found one yet.

I’ve explored some iPad apps along those lines, and while it’s a little weird to feel like I’m finger-painting all the time, some of these might be a little more promising. (There are some vector-drawing apps for iPad as well, but the fingertip interface is more or less diametrically at odds with the precision usually demanded of vector art programs. In something like Illustrator, you draw with your arrow keys almost as much as you do with stylus or mouse.)

In any case, I suppose I’ll have to add Blain to my ever-lengthening Amazon wishlist. Thanks, Mark. I think.

Carol

August 18, 2010 at 1:55 pm | #

Love the fourth panel… and see others have remarked the same. Stunning.

Anne

August 19, 2010 at 1:11 am | #

In frame one, it’s clear that Mr. Pike is still a bit miffed. Nice touch. Love the detailing in the pilot house – especially the signal bell! And as everyone else has noted, frame 4 tells all. It’s beautiful.