Cobbled together from bits and pieces of art from the stories.
Monday, April 20, 2015
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Mostly sketches. Occasionally a painting. Nothing political other than caricatures reinforcing the truism "Politics is Show Business for Ugly People".
12 comments:
This looks exciting. So you know where it will host? Squarespace I assume. Does that do all the Dreamscape type assembly of the art as buttons and all that?
Will you disassemble the original comic layouts and present it as frame advance?
Glad to see you make this happen.
"Tom Moon's Comic Book Artwork Website!" No doubts about what we just clicked on there!!
This is so great--so glad you are doing this! You KNOW we are all big fans, and we're all anxious for you to find a wider audience.
As to the design, it is very interesting to see what you've come up with--it's a trippy inversion of the experience "we" shared when I posted a screenshot of my nascent site asking for comments. I bet seeing how I'd chosen to "showcase" myself publicly left some of us a little flummoxed....
You know I love all your characters, and of course I love your art style, but I wonder if this web layout doesn't maybe shortchange both...? Your one image is so a-typical of your usual illustrations...I wonder if switching to a single evocative image might be more compelling? Something as simple as the Ivan on the hillside staring at the starry sky (the page you submitted to our notorious "T.A.G. Annual Sampler," remember?) is such a memorable, intriguing image....I think almost any panel from one of your books could be more interesting and aesthetically pleasing than the "group shot."
But maybe that's just me!
I like the clean navigation. Will you include a page for "OPPONENTS DEFEATED IN THE RING"..???
Again, I love the idea of a website--and this is a very clean start. But to my eye, it still needs more "Tom-ness."
But to my eye, it still needs more "Tom-ness."
Not more stuff. Just more TOm to the stuff that's there.
Interesting feedback Marty. Thanks! Yes, I agree that my page is kind of an inverse of your home page layout. Really shows our two different personalities at work in our art aesthetic. I like your suggestion of the "Ivan Contemplating" page. The tone seems more representative of my work in general.
I can't wait to see it all active and live! Pretty pumped! It does seem a little sedate, considering where you go with your comics, how epic they can be. You might want to consider using your Cosmic Theater logo at the top of the page, if nothing else... it's all about branding!
"Epic". That's an additional word I'll need to include in describing the work. I was talking to Maria DelCasino about various ways to brand one's work. She's been researching different methods. One exercise is to write yourself an "elevator pitch". When someone asks you what your work is all about, you need to have a very short, clear way of describing what it is you do and why people should care about it. You also need to define your target audience and write a "mission statement". It's useful for me to know how others see my work so I can take a step back and summarize it.
I love that Ivan gazing at the stars panel so much.... I think it looks great! And more importantly, it immediately serves notice that you are a serious talent creating unique imagery that deserves a closer look. It gets us intrigued. It sets a mood, too.
Very interesting what you and Mia have been discussing re: personal branding, etc. Our old co-worker and pal Scott McMahon (son of Kevin McMahon) has been finishing up a book on film-making in this new media landscape (great title: "How To Survive The Hollywood Implosion"), and much of it is focused on just these sorts of questions--(very little is on the nuts-n-bolts of making the film). I'll put up a post about it. Because lots of the questions are applicable to what we're doing here, even if we ain't aiming to make films. Very thought-provoking...
On the site as iterated: I love your spareness (and hey, are we so very opposite in aesthetics??? I tried to subdue my tendency for the Baroque on my page--just simple bounding blocks for a few simplified images, right? ;). The focus is great, too--here's my comic, BOOM. Very clear.
Like Rick, I wouldn't mind seeing the generic font/header replaced with something more distinct/handmade--or should I say, "Tom-made." More like your own "Cosmic Theater" logo.
And I have to ask--how married are you to your "copy"? I wonder if streamlining your wording might reinforce the clean nature of the site...? Some of it reads as a bit "on the nose," maybe...? Fer inst., "Tom Moon's Comic Book Artwork Website"...could you just say, "Comic Book Art by Tom Moon," or "The Comic Book Art of T.M."...?
Or, might look really great if you altered your header to read "Tom Moon's COSMIC THEATER" or "COSMIC THEATER by Tom Moon"...? And underneath this you could replace your "Tom Moon's Comic...Website" with your description of this universe ("Mysterious, Beautiful, Joyful, Sad, Absurd..Just Like Life").
And I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to trim a bit of the remaining verbiage--it gets a little self-explanatory, maybe? (the "click on Comics to see some comics," etc.) All these words/instructions sorta crowd out the simple beauty of your clean navigation bar (HOME COMICS ABOUT CONTACT).
And the mischief maker in me wouldn't mind seeing some of this verbiage put into Ivan's word balloons...make him specifically part of the greeting process/website architecture, instead of limiting him to a representative example of the art (which is still wonderful and great--I'm just making trouble trying to lower the refined level of discourse you're hoping to engender on yr page!).
And one last question: have you thought much about how you'll present the comic on the site?
I took the audacious step of inserting a possible design route into yr original post...forgive me for committing this outrage!
Thanks Marty! That's hilarious and cool. But I'm wondering if Squarespace would support the kind of tricky action.
Rick, I added the word "Epic" to the copy. Now there are three pairs of matched words which I think adds a sort of nice symmetry: "Mysterious and Beautiful, Joyous and Sad, Epic and Absurd - Just Like Life"
Glad I could help! The logo up top looks way better than the generic font. Marty, I like your stab at the look, and I love the heads with the scroll over word balloons.
"Epic and absurd"
Brilliant! That's just what it needed!
Glad my 2 cents didn't offend...just meant to add another angle. I love what you're doing!
Question: isn't it a funny/uncomfortable dilemma building your own site? What I mean particularly is the "voice" or p.o.v. you have to decide on: do you go with first person declarative ("Here's my site")? Or third person testimonial ("The amazing art of Tom Moon")? Or third person neutral ("The comic art of Tom Moon")...???
If you are anything like me, you find whatever facility you normally possess for crafting descriptions and declarations evaporates the moment you have to write your own copy.
It can be a problem....
Tom: Squarespace allows for customization--but it depends how deep you want to go. A friend of mine (Carlo) who's been gaining some skills with programming websites dug right into the code on my site and modified a setting really easily (he wanted the site to center the images no matter the format...I don't think we saved it). I know that on my site, with the particular template I've chosen, the image blocks offer the option for "caption overlay on hover" (you can find this in interface menu when you "EDIT" an image block)...in my case this only brings up a line of text (that I write) on a block of transparent color, but I would think that someone with a little coding knowledge could modify that basic block to become a word balloon...?
But then, I thought the "Bewitched" movie was good (meaning, I'm credulous).
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