Inkhat Got All Official!

New Website!

Inkhat Is Working On It!

If you pre-ordered White Out at SPACE, you will be pleased to know that the reprints were ordered and are on their way. Of course printing takes for-freaking-ever, so it will be about 4 weeks before I will have your order on its way to you. On the upside, I decided to upgrade them to paperbacks because they look/read better. Thanks for your patience, guys!

Inkhat Welcomes You!

A special hello to everyone who is coming here from SPACE! It was wonderful meeting you. I had a marvelous time...and there's still 4 hours to go! Turns out I printed too few of my new White Out book and completely sold out. I'm making a special order, though! I am also working on the new website which will be up soon (like a week or something). Also maybe paypall will help me sell you guys some books online. Stay posted inkhatians! Adventure's on the horizon!

Inkhat Has a New Book!

SPACE is fast approaching, much to my surprise. I could have sworn it was in April this year! Well I guess I promised I would go, so I had to get some books together. Inkat will be for sale, as well as a space adventure I wrote and Beth Sparks illustrated. I haven't actually seen the final of that comic yet, but Beth is an amazing artist. I'm very excited! In addition, I will have a collection of two of my painted comics: Gray Horses and Napping of the Deeps. They are collected into one book: White Out. Here's the cover:

Hope to see some of you at SPACE! It should be OUT OF THIS WORLD. Heheheh

Inkhat is Working on Something New!

My goal is finish inking it tonight. We'll see how that goes.

Edit: the comic is now available here: http://www.lesliejanderson.com/?page_id=278

Inkhat Takes Pictures!

Just posted the last picture on my Photo-A-Day Blog. A whole Year! Whoa!

Inkhat Hates Narration!

Supposedly the nice thing about art and literature and music is that you don’t have to defend your opinions. There are, of course, social expectations as well as expectations of contemporaries that limit expression, but we should be okay with girls liking Twilight if it really moves them so powerfully.

I go back and forth on this. Sure I can tell bad poetry when I see it, but I really want to be able to enjoy things without stigma. For instance, in an ideal universe no one would demand a defense of my intense addiction to Disturbed’s “Down With The Sickness.” However, that world doesn’t exist. Worse yet, if you live in the strange magical universe of Academia it is suddenly unthinkable that you would have an opinion or taste that you cannot support. The result is that I have trained myself to constantly question my opinions. I’m sure this is good for me or something. I’m sure it will make me a more intellectual or well rounded person or some shit, but mostly I find it exhausting and irritating.

Whatever, that’s not the point. The point is I’ve figured out why I have a problem with too much narration in comics. If you don’t know what I mean, take a look at Lynda Barry’s 100 Demons, which I think is the worst example I have ever seen. (Let me be clear that I'm not saying the whole comic is terrible, just this specific element).

I’m not sure what makes this a comic and not an illustrated book? I mean, look at it. I’m sure those pictures are very nice, but I can’t see them! The only place in which illustration is used to assist the text is in the final page when the boyfriend transforms into the mother.

As Johanna Drucker mentions in her article, “What is Graphic about Graphic Novels,” “In Western culture, the differences of word and image are freighted with value judgements that map onto reductive binaries of spirit/flesh, pure/sullied, ‘truthful/deceptive....” In other words, media must fall into one or the other. This is a fight that graphic artists have been familiar with for a long time.

The point is, Drucker also explains that artistic innovation both reflects and eventually rejects previous standards. An example of this might be in early printing when printed books were done in the style of handwritten manuscripts, even though there was no reason to do so. In this case the comic is imitating a traditional autobiography, heavily narrated. It’s basically an illustrated book. The proportion of words to images is heavily skewed toward words and the balance that is so essential to good comics is lost.

I can understand why many autobiographical novels give in to the temptation to rely on heavy narration. It eliminates the shaky barrier between artist and narrator and allows them to speak directly to the audience. This is always a tricky question in all writing. We never know where the speaker and writer diverge. It becomes more so in graphic novels where we are doubly aware of the presence of both a set of characters and a writer/artist. The autobiographical comic collapses this distinction. This collapse may make narration an obvious choice.

However, it leads to sloppy storytelling. It requires very little innovation or decision making. A movie going audience would never put up with a voice over in every scene. It would be considered sloppy and amateur, perhaps limited only to an immature or young audience. The same is true for comics. It is hard to tell a story through image and dialogue. I get it. I’ve been there. However, every writing teacher I have ever had has drilled “show don’t tell,” into my head. Narration comes between the audience and the characters. A narrator must intervene with a logical interpretation which undermines both the emotional and artistic.

There are instances in which this may be used to enhance the piece, but, as with any creative element, it must be used intentionally and carefully. Though I can understand the temptation to use the traditional forms of story telling, especially since they have already been tried and tested, but I must urge my fellow artists to innovate and defy convention. Especially if it is dangerous. In closing:

Oooowahahaha!