THE VERY BAD DAY OF EUSTACE CHIPMAN Images, sketches and drawings by Jen Frankel
This is the first ten pages of a "oh, goddamn me, I haven't finished this yet" comic called "The Very Bad Day of Eustace Chipman." It's about a no-luck sweet guy called Eustace who works at a big record label owned by his uncle. Despite that, he gets no special treatment, something that seems totally lost on his co-workers. And then, one day, his life gets even crappier. And crappier...
EUSTACE CHIPMAN PAGE 1 - Eustace explains how falling out of a small private plane can actually not be the suckiest thing about a particular day's events.
EUSTACE CHIPMAN PAGE 2 - This was one of the first comic pages I ever attempted that had this level of complexity. It ended up a little darker than the subsequent pages, but I'll be able to take care of this in photoshop when I am ready to clean up all the pages and start adding color.
EUSTACE CHIPMAN PAGE 3 - I love this page -- I started to get the hang of creating a flow of dialogue that actually became somewhat of a visual addition to the drawings. It also had to pack a lot of plot into a small space, because I didn't want to spend more time with Belinda than I had to. I wanted to get straight to Eustace's distress..
EUSTACE CHIPMAN PAGE 4 - Poor Eustace. Nasty Belinda. The frame with Eustace crashed out, drugged and, aw, so awkwardly comfortable on the park bench I really love, especially the way his forearm hangs down.
EUSTACE CHIPMAN PAGE 5 - Perspective, perspective. Buildings weren't really my strength at this stage in the game, so it was fun to keep the clock toward really exaggeratedly foreshortened without adding much detail. The taxi deserves a little more attention to straight lines, but there's something about it I like.
EUSTACE CHIPMAN PAGE 6 - Full pages pictures break up the pace so nicely. Here, Eustace is the whole focus, alone with his very unhappy thoughts. And it's still morning.
EUSTACE CHIPMAN PAGE 7 - Ah, snarky Deirdre. I have some vicious future plans for her. . . By this time, I really have Eustace's appearance nailed. This is the face I'll be going back in and honing in the early pages. Yeah, it's a little dumb to go rushing in full steam ahead without a million character sketches, but I really like getting the benefit of the initial excitement of an idea, and going back later to clean up details. If I don't jump right in, I sometimes don't get very far at all.
EUSTACE CHIPMAN PAGE 8 - I was once in a small private plane myself, and the pilot had a not-so-good takeoff, and an absolutely terrifying landing. When wheels were down and the engine shut off, he turned to me and said, "Best landing yet!" Bill, the pilot here, actually looks a lot more like my old roommate, a drummer. But the takeoff was all that other guy's landing.
EUSTACE CHIPMAN PAGE 9 - For some reason, Bill's side of this conversation makes as much if not more sense to me than Eustace's, probably because poor Eustace is such a doormat. Bill has his own logic which supersedes reason, of course, but nonetheless makes its own kind of sense.
THE LAST RITE audiobook (unabridged) read by Jen Frankel
Young Maggie Stuart begins to have strange dreams, then develops what seem to be superhuman perception. Suddenly, she is thrown into the middle of an age-old battle between ancient foes. Will she stay a pawn, or can she become a force to be reckoned with herself? And just how does her teacher Mr. Hunt fit into the picture: as an ally, or her worst enemy of all?
