My name is Sid Vane, I am a graphic artist and illustrator, creator and (for now) self publisher of Blond World, a graphic arts novel which is the culmination of 10 years of work and development.
The central character is Blonda, seen here on top.
This was the first advertising poster I designed for use when attending conventions.
WHAT IS BLONDE WORLD ;
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| I can't post this image large enough to make the text easily legible, my apologies. |
Blond World is the end result of many changes to another concept I began in 1998. I developed characters for what was then to be espionage spy stories of intrigue, a female James Bond eye candy feature, running less than a dozen chapters. Now, far removed from all that it's an elaborate 2 world story following the life of Sheila, a blonde trying to make sense of her live(s).
HOW I DESCRIBE BLOND WORLD :
Blonde World is the story of Sheila Marlen, a blonde living on Earth working as a sales support agent by day, by night....she goes to sleep. No alter ego, no super hero duality, like everyone else she goes home to bed. But, upon falling asleep she dreams of another life in another world where she is a powerful Blonde born named Blonda, who wields the Staff of truth and knowledge. With it she can fly, go through walls, cause massive electrical discharges and has unlimited strength.
Blonda's world is a nightmare of hitler's and genocide caused by prejudice and bigotry based on hair color instead of skin or language. She fights terrorist efforts on small and large scales designed to cause another war.
Subsequently when Blonda goes to sleep, she dreams of another world, a free world, where she leads a simple life, Sheila's life.
The question is, what is their
connection, and who is actually dreaming?
THE POINT OF THIS BLOG ;
This Blog, details my efforts as a graphic art novelist/comic book creator to get published. I have gone through many experiences of frustration, achievement, and discovery. Perhaps the journey I took can be of inspiration to others who dare follow in the footsteps I took, (and many others who came before me, Jeff Smith, Frank Cho to name a few) to realize their dream of seeing their creation come to life, and see their work being read and appreciated by others, and developing fans. So, here is my dream child, my life in Blond World.
I was at work at a car wash when I first drew Blonda, in between serving customers and washing cars. On the slower days I was able to draw and doodle. I also created Delilah, a brunette with a dominatrix look, and Savannah, an unscrupulous virtual sociopath Red head. This was 1998. I had no idea where I was going with these characters. In the years 99 to 2001 I created support and filler characters Nuance, Blond Raven, Blond Heart, Black Eagle, Techno Blond, Suicide Blond, and other Brunettes. Savannah was the only Red I came up with.
THE BIRTH OF BLOND WORLD;
In 2001 while working at a telemarketing company I developped the story base of spys, intending this to be a realistic 'spy vs spy' with female secret agents, with alot of flash, gadgets , high tech cars and other weaponary. Some of the costumes, were "little" excuses for outfits, hence the eye candy approach. Somehow, this went from that, to life on another world, an all female planet. I thought it was getting to ridiculous, knowing how I thought at the time this would end up in an adult only read -eye candy indeed! So I shelved the whole thing for 3 years.
In 2003 I picked it up again, creating the dream angle, this mundane blonde Sheila dreams of being a spy, her dreams are rather vivid and detailed. Is she really a spy and has amnesia? Forgetting when awakening who she is? Are her spy dreams in fact real? forgetting she leads 2 lives, each vaguely aware of the other, chalking up the whole thing to wish full thinking, the spy wants a normal life, and the normal life person wants excitement, yet they are the same person? Then the other planet approach came back, and the story took on a life of its own, mushrooming out from there.
Ok, enough history on the story, on with getting it printed; I completed a 40 page story of chapter 1, starting things off in the middle of the action, which is the best place to begin an action story. The very first Star Wars was what we know today as Episode 4, A new Hope. George Lucas began what was supposed to be his 9 story epic in the middle trilogy. It was of course very effective as we all know, and I took my cue as to where to begin from that.
The art work was B & W images, no color, no shading, figuring this would be cheaper to reproduce on a somewhat large scale. I found out otherwise. Flash forward a bit to the present;
PRINTING BLOND WORLD;
In the last year, I was able to take the original inked black and white drawings I did on paper years ago and put them on the computer and use the magic of photoshop and illustrator to enhance and "color" the images, to give them a sense of realism not possible using only stark B &W contrast images. Although I can't afford to print in actual color, the grey tones and shading I achieved really brought out the artwork, the images come alive and the stories can be told with greater dramatic emphasis. I liken using photoshop to 'coloring with light.'
The power and realism achieved with these effects
are indeed superior to straight linear back lines on white paper, not taking away anything from Frank Millar and the great work he did with Sin City, I appreciate however the 'full' look the grey shading brings, and what looks like real light as seen above.
Looks great, but getting to this point was an ordeal of unbelievable proportions. Going back to 2007, I completed 40 B & W pages of the first Blond World story, or chapter, and I was astounded to learn that it would be impossible to print up a book digitally from conventional copy machines, such as those in use at Staples, or Bureau en gros, (as they're called in Quebec) or even professional digital copy centers, that use 20,000 dollar copiers.
Problem one, the art work was on traditional 11*17 comic book page size format, in many cases they were a bleed image, meaning the artwork would take up the entire page, with no boarder around them at all. I would first have to scale them down to the actual finished copy size of 6.65 " * 10.25", (standard comic book format size) and have the correct pages pasted together, 1 with 40, 2 with 39, 3 with 38 etc, that's how comics and magazines are printed, (take one apart and you'll see what I mean, page 1 and 40 are on the same side of the same page, and on the back would be page 2 and 39). Even after doing that, I was told that digital machines are not capable of getting perfect registration, meaning that you would not have an exact line up of page 1 and 40 in relation to where pages 2 and 39 would be placed on the other side, so if you try to cut your book down, as your going to have to print this up on 11 * 17 paper, you may be cutting into the imagery and even dialogue on the other side of your page.
Apparently, you can't direct or INSTRUCT ANY digital machine as to WHERE on the page it will print the image. On a single side of a page, yes, but that's concerning an image that is smaller than the full page size. A double sided page, where your images fill up nearly the whole page, (These machines enforce a boarder, whether you want one or not), will print an image 'somewhat' in the center, but if the paper was fed into the machine or 'pulled in' differently than the one before, the image will be printed position wise on the page differently than the last. There's no way to command a copy machine, "print all images with a quarter inch margin on all sides" astounding as our technology today is, no one who manufactures photocopy machines considers this to be of any relevance. Even the most top of the line digital printers, which the average Joe Blow would be able to have access to, cant do that.
So I had to look at Offset printing. this is real professional printing, the type needed to pull off comic books, magazines, paper backs, and brochures, and anything colorful and visual needed on a mass reproduction scale...you may want to sit down for this. Just to get one sample book done, I was told would cost around $350 - $400. One book! I was told by the larger companies like Quebecor World who prints for Marvel comics, they wouldn't even look at me unless I was ready to commit to a print run of 10,000 or more. A straight B & W job like mine would cost me about a dollar a book at that size run. I don't have $100 lying around let alone $10,000.
Long story short, I decided to see what and why this stuff costs so much, what the heck is the big deal of getting registration that it does costs so *#&'@! much! I went back to school. First, to learn computers, While working at a variety of office jobs I used Microsoft Word and office, but I had no clue as to how to work with images on computer, and if I wanted to even think of getting work in the now graphic arts world, formerly the commercial art world, I had to learn illustrator and photo shop and whatever else was required.
Thats Tony
Thats Michel. I unfortunately don't have a pic of Deep, but while I'm in the Rosemount Era, let me share a few high lights with you ;
Tony and Michel were a great help. providing alot of 1 on 1 hands on instruction.
This was home for most of 2009
Habibi, my computer buddy
My friend Jay on one of his million dollar deals
You're too cool Sammy!
What!?? Where'd it go"
I didn't touch nothing and it just disappears!!
Bud the computer doesn't eat your stuff, you either touched something or you didn't!
Bud Bud Bud Bud, eh my my.
These two, great designers...but they just WOULDN'T STOP!!
Hiedleberg GTO press.
With what I learned, I was able to print Blond World myself, and saw first hand, how much technology goes into getting images lined up from one side of a page to another. The process is ridiculously detailed and intricate. Understanding the procedure is one thing, but to actually do it, and know what your doing to be proficient at it, I was in my 12th month and I was still learning the subtleties on how to get registration properly. For now, I'm my only printer and publisher. I used a Gto Heidleberg press machine (Shown above) which was built before I was born. Below are some pics of several hundred copies of Blond World chapters 1, 2 and 3. Once printing and folding was completed putting it together took over the entire Kitchen.
These shots are just the 1st issue, and at least 200 were already assembled at this point.
Assembled and uncut 
Cut, bagged and boarded.
The 'Launch' of Blonde World Happened at the annual Montreal Expozine, Nov 14 - 15 2009 at the Church of Jesus' Saint Children (Eglise Saint Enfants Jesus in french)
Not much space to work with, 1/3 of a table is all we get, but we made it work.
At least we got a wall table, where I could post my posters in back to help with attention getting.
I also brought my Mac which had a slide show running of Chapter 1. We were spoiled in this venue, the electricity was free to use. (Try to find that today!)
