Sydney Padua's Blog, page 9

The Wider World

Welcome to new Curious Onlookers sent hither by the divine Kate Beaton, cheers Kate!

I hope no one's put off by what will be a fairly long string of random meandering sorts of work-in-progress posts; User Experience will take me a while to put together and it's sort of one big blob that's hard to serialise.. you'll see what I mean, eventually.

An unexpected tax refund and the film industry's continued interest in Giant-Monster-strewn spectaculars resulted my profligate purchase of a 21″ Cintiq, which I got mainly for the large box it comes in in case I decide to do that book and have to move into it. The comic up until now has been drawn on a perfectly capable little 12″ model– if you're not into these sorts of gadgets, a Cintiq is a computer screen you can drawn on, like an ipad I suppose but you use a stylus and it's super-pressure-sensitive, so that it's very much like drawing on paper, except with 'Undo'. The drawing surface of the old one when you factor in the menus etc is about the size of a paperback book; the new one on the other hand is quite shockingly massive, as big as the big kind of animation paper and it dwarfs my laptop with isn't small:

Aside from *yawn* actual work reasons, the main thing I had in mind for the bigger screen was backgrounds for the comic. Now I don't know if you've looked closely at the comic at all (I advise against it) but behind those sloppy awkward characters gurning in the foreground are a few straggly lines that are meant to represent The Wider World they inhabit. Not that I'm much of a hand at landscapes anyways but for sure the small drawing area is more hampering there than it is for the characters. First experiments on the new screen:

Room for improvement to be sure, but it would have been much harder to put that kind of detail on the little screen! Reference photos of London of this era I got from the gorgeous book Lost London, and this astounding post from Spitalfields Life (a great source of London lore in general).

This is the 1840-50s London of Lovelace and Babbage, demolished with gleeful abandon by the modernising Victorians and their railways and thoroughfares! Oooh I need to have somewhere Brunel smashing through these lovely old piles with a wrecking ball.. progress, people! While rickety and drafty and infested with mice, these buildings have one great advantage, viz, that there isn't a straight line in them so it makes them much easier to draw.

The great problem now that the Wide World of Backgrounds is opening up to me, is that it's tempting me sorely to abandon my commitment to black-and-white. Here at 2dGoggles we live in a binary world of pure good in the form of Science, pure evil in the form of the Humanities, and two states, black and white, which admit of no messy ambiguities. In some ways life is smoother lived this way, except when it comes to drawing backgrounds where it is a bit of a pain in the ass to be absolutely honest. If you look at the first drawing up there even if my perspective WAS correct, which it isn't, it could never convey the same same sense of depth that two lazy minutes of throwing some grey washes on does:

I could appeal to the Deity for guidance, by whom I mean Will Eisner..

.. but even he used grey washes SOMETIMES! I shall experiment. Most of User Experience is set inside the Engine, which presents a host of difficulties, but maybe not ones of atmospheric perspective. We shall see.

Oh by the way the Difference Engine building is based on two structures at the south side of Tower Bridge stacked on top of each other; in the geography of the comic it's located in roughly the same place, without Tower Bridge of course which is too late period-wise, maybe a little further east down the river on the swampy, warehousey bit of Rotherhithe… Brunel's tunnel isn't far from there.

Each of these buildings is completely nutty in its own way, which is what makes them so very perfect for Babbage and Lovelace to inhabit.

Lovelace and Babbage Vs The Organist Pt 10

As promised, an Amusing Epilogue..

–EDITED TO ADD: That's Minion, still coping with the monkey aftermath.. come on people, he had a whole panel five months ago!– also, I usually treat typos with devil-may-care insouciance, but those were BAD, man. I need sleep.

Now that really IS the end! There aren't really any notes for this one, except that John Stuart Mill and Wilkie Collins were amongst the signatories of the petition to regulate street music. The Musical World weighs in:

But Babbage, Bentinick, and Bass have a special plea; "the public," we are told, "really want the nuisance to be abated;" and in proof hereof we are favoured with selected facts. Sundry eminent individuals, with highly sensitive nervous organisations, are pressed into the witness-box.

*****

So that's The Organist! Believe it or not it comes in at over 100 pages.. D: !!! and could have easily been much longer. I confess by the last couple of episodes (I'm not very happy with those) I was slashing material with abandon… like the giant dance number! The Organist's big number is mean to be this one, you can imagine the mass-mersmeric-musical-multimedia extravangaza to this irresistible beat:

I'm also sorry that I ran out of energy for the groovy cymatics episode. And the huge subplot with Lovelace's mother, not to mention the stereoscopic sequence! These are the perils of free-associative storytelling.

Personally I've learned many Moral Lessons from The Organist, the main one of which is, Stick to Your Rules! I think the last couple of episodes would have been stronger if I'd been firmer of purpose in keeping to the outline of the story, which (for those of you who made it all the way through my lecture) is based on the Orpheus myth. I was too lazy to stage my way around the critical point that Lovelace (the Orpheus figure) not look at Babbage until the very end of the story. Partly it's just really tricky to stage that sort of thing, and also I didn't want to lose the gag, "You've been reading poetry! I can see it in your eyes!" Only now has it struck me how much funnier "You've been reading poetry! I can tell from the back of your head!" is. Anyways it would have really helped keep the tension in the relationship there if I'd stuck to my guns.

With these melancholy reflections it is a comfort to tell myself that what I'm doing here is a first draft of something. I'm often asked, in those comments I guiltily stare at and procrastinate on answering, whether I intend to do a book at any point. I understand that authors become either WEALTHY and CELEBRATED, or STARVE in BOXES, and I'm much disinclined to the latter. At some point though I think I'll be unable to resist the urge to go back and clean stuff up, though this is probably still a ways away. I'm at a point now where I could either make the existing comics fit for human consumption, or Press Onwards, and I'm in a pressing onwards spirit.

When I started these shenaningans there were really only two stories I had in mind, one was The Organist and the other was Vampire Poets, but that's even longer than The Organist if you can imagine such a thing. We need to regather our energies here at 2dGoggles Emalgamated Comic Industries SO, I'm putting Vampire Poets to one side to simmer and the next series is (GOD I HOPE) much shorter and will be in a bit of a different format. It's called 'User Experience' and I'm pretty excited about it. BUT what with the Giant Monsters on the rampage and so forth it will take some time before I can get it drawn up.

For the next month or so I'll put up some more worky-in-progressy sketches and stuff if you don't mind. I'd also like to try to stick to a bit more a schedule. You may think the life of an imaginary comics artist is a sunlit field of lighthearted caperings and irresponsible outbursts of creativity, but actually it's riven with constant low-level anxiety. Any free moment is one in which you really ought to be drawing comics. It's been suggested that I try for shorter, more frequent comics, but that's not really how I roll. However I do have a ton of exploratory material I can put up so I'm going to aim for some sort of post every other week on Monday, with proper comics posts probably monthly, I don't think I can promise anything more frequent than that what with all the giant monster attacks these days.

Anyways I hope you all enjoyed The Organist even if it WAS a bit too long and disorganised! User Experience takes us more into the Difference Engine and its denizens, same bat-time, same bat-channel, which is to say, sporadically here at 2dgoggles.

Lovelace and Babbage Vs The Organist– Epilogue

As promised, an Amusing Epilogue..

Now that really IS the end! There aren't really any notes for this one, except that John Stuart Mill and Wilkie Collins were amongst the signatories of the petition to regulate street music. The Musical World weighs in:

But Babbage, Bentinick, and Bass have a special plea; "the public," we are told, "really want the nuisance to be abated;" and in proof hereof we are favoured with selected facts. Sundry eminent individuals, with highly sensitive nervous organisations, are pressed into the witness-box.

So that's The Organist! Believe it or not it weighs in at over 100 pages.. D: !!! and could have easily been much longer. I confess by the last couple of episodes (I'm not very happy with those) I was slashing material with abandon… like the giant dance number! The Organist's big number is mean to be this one, you can imagine the mass-mersmeric-musical-multimedia extravangaza to this irresistible beat:

I'm also sorry that I ran out of energy for the groovy cymatics episode. And the huge subplot with Lovelace's mother, not to mention the stereoscopic sequence! These are the perils of free-associative storytelling.

Personally I've learned many Moral Lessons from The Organist, the main one of which is, Stick to Your Rules! I think the last couple of episodes would have been stronger if I'd been firmer of purpose in keeping to the outline of the story, which (for those of you who made it all the way through my lecture) is based on the Orpheus myth. I was too lazy to stage my way around the critical point that Lovelace (the Orpheus figure) not look at Babbage until the very end of the story. Partly it's just really tricky to stage that sort of thing, and also I didn't want to lose the gag, "You've been reading poetry! I can see it in your eyes!" Only now has it struck me how much funnier "You've been reading poetry! I can tell from the back of your head!" is. Anyways it would have really helped keep the tension in the relationship there if I'd stuck to my guns.

With these melancholy reflections it is a comfort to tell myself that what I'm doing here is a first draft of something. I'm often asked, in those comments I guiltily stare at and procrastinate on answering, whether I intend to do a book at any point. I understand that authors become either WEALTHY and CELEBRATED, or STARVE in BOXES, and I'm much disinclined to the latter. At some point though I think I'll be unable to resist the urge to go back and clean stuff up, though this is probably still a ways away. I'm at a point now where I could either make the existing comics fit for human consumption, or Press Onwards, and I'm in a pressing onwards spirit.

When I started these shenaningans there were really only two stories I had in mind, one was The Organist and the other was Vampire Poets, but that's even longer than The Organist if you can imagine such a thing. We need to regather our energies here at 2dGoggles Emalgamated Comic Industries SO, I'm putting Vampire Poets to one side to simmer and the next series is (GOD I HOPE) much shorter and will be in a bit of a different format. It's called 'User Experience' and I'm pretty excited about it. BUT what with the Giant Monsters on the rampage and so forth it will take some time before I can get it drawn up.

For the next month or so I'll put up some more worky-in-progressy sketches and stuff if you don't mind. I'd also like to try to stick to a bit more a schedule. You may think the life of an imaginary comics artist is a sunlit field of lighthearted caperings and irresponsible outbursts of creativity, but actually it's riven with constant low-level anxiety. Any free moment is one in which you really ought to be drawing comics. It's been suggested that I try for shorter, more frequent comics, but that's not really how I roll. However I do have a ton of exploratory material I can put up so I'm going to aim for some sort of post every other week on Monday, with proper comics posts probably monthly, I don't think I can promise anything more frequent than that what with all the giant monster attacks these days.

Anyways I hope you all enjoyed The Organist even if it WAS a bit too long and disorganised! User Experience takes us more into the Difference Engine and its denizens, same bat-time, same bat-channel, which is to say, sporadically here at 2dgoggles.

Lovelace And Babbage Vs The Organist.. Finale!

You thought it would never happen! Its… Lovelace and Babbage vs The Organist! Part 11!

TA DA!! Notses:

– To those with deprived backgrounds: Dance Dance Revolution! The only way to navigate the punchcards of life:

– I love Wheatstone's fear of public speaking, though it's hard to find primary sources.. there is this charming excerpt:

– If you read a bit further in the article we are introduced to the Kaleidophone– the wavy poles flanking the stage of the Organist doing what would be a spectacular lightshow in the big-budget movie version. Here is a very thorough description of the kaleidophone and it's attendant toys– sorry for the hard-to-read site, there's not a whole lot of kaleidophone stuff out there and SHOCKINGLY, no video! I must get on this… anyways I offer giant kaleidophones as a concept for someone's next prog-rock prop.

– how villainous was Wheastone? Check out his 'Enchanted Lyre' – actually a bit of a hoax (lyre.. hah!) as is very well explained in this excellent page on Wheatstone and his nefarious musical villainy. I feel I have seriously not done justice to Wheatstone in this story, so I shall have to bring him back!

– music bothered Babbage to such an extent that I will indulge in the harmless hobby of amateur post-mortem diagnosis and speculate that he suffered from amusia, like his contemporary Charles Lamb:

Yet rather than break the candid current of my confessions, I must avow to you, that I have received a great deal more pain than pleasure from this so cried-up faculty. I am constitutionally susceptible of noises. A carpenter's hammer, in a warm summer noon, will fret me into more than midsummer madness. But those unconnected, unset sounds are nothing to the measured malice of music. The ear is passive to those single strokes; willingly enduring stripes, while it hath no task to con. To music it cannot be passive. It will strive — mine at least will — 'spite of its inaptitude, to thread the maze; like an unskilled eye painfully poring upon hieroglyphics. I have sat through an Italian Opera, till, for sheer pain, and inexplicable anguish, I have rushed out into the noisiest places of the crowded streets, to solace myself with sounds, which I was not obliged to follow, and get rid of the distracting torment of endless, fruitless, barren attention!

– I'd like to give plenteous thanks to reader Samara Weiss for sending along the full PDF of the Journals of Lady Eastlake (available in Google Books in snippet view only in Europe due to the murky state of copyright I suppose, though the ever-brazen print-on-demand pirates entrepreneurs seem happy enough to first block the text, then slap a modern copyright date on, then hawk it for outrageous sums..). Anyways, where was I… Lady Eastlake! Somewhat tedious company, but her journals deliver the priceless information that Lady Lovelace was a 'plain, odd-looking woman' who harangues people about the rights of women. Lady Eastlake gets FIFTY cookies for observing at the end of a presumably unfun mathematical evening, "Babbage and not Byron should have been her father". :D!!!!

Lovelace seems, as usual, to have improved upon acquaintance– she seems to have been stiff and awkward with people she didn't know- anyways Lady Eastlake writes a few days later, "I was amused, after my observation, to find Babbage and herself the greatest friends."

I hope Lady Eastlake likes cookies because she gets another ten cookies for this fitting coda to The Organist, written after a concert:

"Even Mr. Babbage, who hates music, said that he felt something which he could not explain, which bothered him greatly of course as he likes to understand everything."

Thanks for your kind and patient attention, everyone! I'll follow up with a post-mortem next week..

Notes to Organist 10

Belated, but (somewhat) more sober notes on the Organist 10.

.

Wheatstone

- "Wheastone has given me some very striking counsels. I did not think the little man had such depth in him. I can't write it all to you, or even a small part, but I know you will agree fully, with him when you do hear it." – Lovelace writes this to her husband, in regards to Wheastone's schemes for Lovelace's scientific writing career, or else it's about the world domination plans. We may never know!

.
The Organist

- Here is some visual reference of that Shadowy Kingpin The Organist being EEEEEVIL:

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Machines that have absolutely nothing to do with each other that coincidentally use similar mechanisms to perform operations to pre-defined patterns

- This enchanting little machine is a serinette or 'bird-organ':

These machines go back to the early 18th century, and I'm told the purpose of them was to teach canaries to sing (though surely it would be starlings that can learn tunes?). Ada Lovelace was an enthusiastic keeper of birds- she and Babbage were both big animal-lovers– isn't it nice to think of her having demonstrating one to Babbage? It's not very loud and he could have watched the mechanism!

- Babbage's Analytical Engine used both peg-barrels and punchcards. The punchcard roller from which our heroes are fleeing is of this kind:

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- The Genius/Music chart–

Babbage gives us a single data point on this issue:

This is simply not enough information from which to construct an accurate chart, so I you should know the Genius vs Music Exposure graph in the comic should not be used in any citations. I thought of just having a simple linear progression, or else maybe the effect only really sets in under severe exposure? However given the unending cliffhangers of this storyline and the extreme levels of music to which pocket-universe Babbage is subjected the inevitable convergence on zero was too dire to contemplate. So I went with a tapering slow-in and slow out of the effect:

In actuality it could actually be anything really– I mean it could be a bell curve where at some point the effect reverses:

But that would just be silly.

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IN OTHER NEWS..

I am reentering Gainful Employment in a couple of weeks, this is what I'm doing:

I spent all weekend trying on metal bikinis and turns out they want me to play the Giant Monster! Oh well. Fear not for the continued life of the comic however! Perusing the history of postings to this site I'm surprised to see that I'm producing very nearly as much comics when I'm on a film as when I'm not.. I think when I have too much time on my hands the comic becomes more of a 'job' and loses the all-important feeling of skiving off that is so essential to creativity.

Sorry to be so late on replying to comments, I'm several months late at this point I believe. At some point I will compose replies, no doubt long after the original commenter has forgotten they ever read the comic. Please believe that I love each and every comment I get and my only difficulty is in making an adequate reply.

Lovelace and Babbage Vs The Organist Pt 10

Greeting from Beautiful York on this New Years Eve! I swore I would get The Organist up before midnight*! Your slightly hysterical fearless sequential artist is battling against spotty B&B wifi but fingers crossed and champagne guzzled to bring you..Lovelace and Babbage vs The Organist, Part 10!

In an unusual, alcohol fueled move, the notes will be postponed until I am more sober, I am sure in the morning we will all agree this was the right decision. So have a very very happy New Year whatever spot on the globe you inhabit!

**and the 'don't post while drunk' award goes to… Sydney Padua!! whooo!! thank you thank you..

*actually, I swore I would finish The Organist before the New Year, but it KEEPS GETTING LONGER.

Merry Christmas!

Happy whatever-seasonal-celebrations you celebrate from 2dgoggles Amalgamated Comics Industries! I drew up this gag and then went looking for a nice Primary Document to wrap up as a present for the readers, when what should I find but this about Scottish Yuletide traditions:

Is there not one of my gags those danged Victorians won't steal! Good lord. That's the best Babbage/Christmas thing I could find, unless you count that time Babbage got naked on Christmas but that's not quite the tone I'm looking to set (a 'screw loose' you say Babbage..).

So I'll leave you with a a festive Difference Engine reference from 1867:

Happy holidays all and hope to have the next episode up soonish!

A Matter of Proportion

Someone was asking me the other day for the official proportions of Lovelace, for the purposes of building a model as an excercise, which is forcing me to face the fact that are in fact no official model sheets of Lovelace at all.  A shocking business!

This whole comic thing is as you may have noticed a leeetle haphazard, and I don't in fact have proper model sheets for anybody, as I'm sure is pretty evident from the drawing!  I'm kind of enjoying drawing by the seat-of-the-pants, I have to say.  Maybe because I'm still thinking of Babbage and Lovelace as a learning excercise first and foremost– there are advantages to having gone so far without a model sheet from that aspect.  By letting the panel-to-panel needs of the comic dictate the drawing rather than the other way around I think I've found some stuff out about how I work.

High on the 'stuff I've found out' list is that I really enjoy being able to let the characters glide between levels of 'cartooniness' depending on what's going on in the story and if they're being all cool and heroic or getting up to hijinks. So there's in fact a sliding scale of proportions, so far between around 5 and 6 heads high:

5 heads high seems to be about the size of Tintin– I've been looking at a lot of the beautiful old Fournier Spirou comics lately and I think I could probably push the proportion a bit more.  For academic interest, some comic proportions:

The big head obviously gives the comical, baby-like appeal, but it also makes it much easier to stage panels so you can read the body and the face at the same time.  Terry and the Pirates on the right there is my favorite 'straight' comic and Milt Caniff keeps to a very consistent real-life adult proportion; Bruce Timm's Batman on the left towers at a majestic 8 heads!  I doubt Babbage or Lovelace will ever attain these Olympian heights.  On the other I haven't gone so far as needing a Chibi Lovelace and Babbage but this was fun to draw:

Oh, what the heck, Chibi Brunel:

In Important Fashion News, I was visiting Bruges a little while ago and saw these boots in a little folk museum, which were so bad-ass and perfect (from the 1830s!!) that I've been basing Lovelace's whole costume around them since the moment I saw them:

The flared breeches I've been putting her in these days are totally the wrong period for both Lovelace and her awesome boots but I like to draw them so that's just too bad.

Organist 10 (of 8) is going along but wow it's getting awfully huge so we'll see how it goes..

Lovelace and Babbage vs The Organist, Part 9

Soooo many monkeys.. day late, dollar short,  here is it is! Part 9!  Remember, every single panel of Lovelace and Babbage is drawn only with ink distilled from the blood of the finest genuine Victorian orphans!   Enjoy!

PRECIOUS, PRECIOUS NOTSES!

– not a whole lot of notes for the first part, though if you want to read the actual training methods of Victorian Organ Grinder's monkeys this is fairly horrifying. So, historical accuracy on the psycho monkeys.

– mostly this episode (this whole story, really) is grown from a spore that implanted itself in my brain from The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise. It's a bit hard to explain what this is.. let's turn to the ever-invaluable Google Books, shall we?

First, the Bridgewater Project:

So far, so clear? This is an age that comes before "Origin of Species" but one that was already copying with volley of blows against its intellectual foundations from that usurping berserker, Science. The Bridgewater series was supposed to assure everyone that everything was Okay and not to worry. It seems to have gone pretty well with a bunch of respectable chemists and so on writing eight respectable little books on, essentially, Intelligent Design.

Anyways in one of these, natural-philosopher-about-town William Whewell (coiner of the word 'Scientist' by the way, in reference to Mary Sommerville) wrote the following:

We may thus, with the greatest propriety, deny to the mechanical philosophers and mathematicians of recent times any authority with regard to their views of the administration of the universe; … But we might perhaps go farther, and assert that they are in some respects less likely than men employed in other pursuits, to make any clear advance towards such a subject of speculation.

I confess I couldn't follow Whewell's argument myself, but I do know fightin' words when I see them.  As the living representative of Mathematics on Earth, Babbage couldn't be expected to take this lying down, and thus wrote the 'Ninth Bridgewater Treatise,  to, as one reviewer put it, "call the unpromising subject of mathematics into the field."

The 9th Bridgewater isn't very long but it is pretty fantastic, though even his best friends must admit it's a little disorganized.  I heartily recommend downloading the PDF or ePUB version (link is on the far right), if you want a snapshot of both 1830s scientific thought, and of the brain of that marvellous mixture of Mr Pickwick, Mr. Toad, Don Quixote, and Leonardo Da Vinci that was Charles Babbage.  It includes:

- the importance of diversity in science.  Yes, he uses the word 'diversity'.  It's Political Correctness gone mad!– All about Geology! — an astonishingly modern description of Evolution.. imagine if there was ONE RULE that controlled evolution.. what could it be.. what could it.. oh look a squirrel!  — FUND MY DIFFERENCE ENGINE YOU BASTARDS– Wanting to be really really famous is totally not a character flaw — the most unconvincing explanation of miracles using statistical analysis you are ever likely to read–  — oh and a whole Christmas cracker of other stuff.  What there isn't a whole lot of is an explanation of how mathematics demonstrates the benificence of God, but, whatever. Particularly striking is his God-the-Programmer view of the Universe, and his thought experiment– what if God created a whole bunch of universes– an infinite number!  each with different laws!

In amidst this stuff is the bit about the eternal reverberations in the atmosphere from which I've extracted the above.  This was the Big Hit of this book, though maybe does not hold up as well in terms of Science as the multiple universes thing.  At this point I should throw around some half-digested bullshit about Chaos Theory and butterflies or something.

Wonderful as Bridgewater is, its reception by the baffled book reviewers is also entertaining.. highlights:

"Some chapters have no end; many more have no beginning; and one at least may be fairly said to have no beginning, middle, or end."

The Lucasian professor still seems to labour, to use his own words, under that 'imputation of mental incapacity' of which he so loudly complains..  I particularly enjoy the comparison of Babbage's 'morbid sensitivity to neglect' to none other than… Lord Byron!

You can read these and a few more in my collection of primary docs, Bridgewater. Collected and annotated with MUCH LABOUR BY YOUR TIRELESS AND HUMBLE SERVANT who is now going to bed.

Mindless Consumerism!

Greetings, Gentle Readers! Next episode is coming along but I felt for a little change of pace to try my hand at a couple of new tshirts. BEHOLD!

We Need Coffee by sydney_padua

Lots of requests for this as a shirt, for some reason.. As always with zazzle you can fiddle around with the shirt styles and colours, male, female, or for the drunken infant in your life. I'd avoid straight black or straight white shirts– it seems to look best on mid-range tones, I did the sample girl one on darkish blue. Zazzle tip- if you don't live in the us, substitute your national dots in the url in lieu of the .com in your nav bar — zazzle.co.uk, for instantance– and you get the same page essentially but in your national currency.

And.. Enchanted Math fairy! In two styles, the Tasteful:

Enchanted Math Fairy Simple by sydney_padua

and, UBER-GIRLY:

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Enchanted Math Fairy by sydney_padua

Also availabe in men's extra-large, of course.

Next episode is rolling along, — sample:

So you see it will be VERY EXCITING! Also, there are more charts, and an epic ton of Notes. Going back to drawing now.. is it too early to break out the holiday Cognac? I think not.