Flaming Artist

This page is an example of my design strategy for the book. I established a fairly rigorous rectangular grid for the panel layout, with either two or three tiers per page, adhering to this for the most part. This produces a fairly even, metronomic baseline, which can be easily broken for heightened dramatic effect. For this near-rape sequence, I varied the panel shapes to slashing diagonals increasing in length during the four-page sequence, creating a feeling of descent.

Other examples are the meeting of Frank and Eliza Gray on pages 25-28 by using horizontal panels with each character on opposite sides of the composition, separated by their word balloons. Then followed immediately pages 29-31 where Frank threatened by Greg in Jack Kerouac Alley shown by narrow vertical panels giving a staccato, knife-like feel.

Page 64 introduces Colonel Thorpe, the main villain of the piece, partners in crime with Madam Tse. He is a pretend civic-reformer, bully-pulpit-wielder. He is based on Karl Rove. One of Andersen’s main themes in “Fogtown” was to show that all the characters wore masks, were liars on many levels. Sadly, that aspect had to be given short shrift as the novel was repurposed to fit in the Vertigo Crime format.

Fogtown has now been reviewed in Monkeysee, an NPR pop culture blog.

The San Francisco Chronicle reviewed Fogtown! This is particularly cool as Fogtown is set in San Francisco! Read it here.

One of my favorite aspects of cartooning is casting; i.e., designing the cast of characters. Over the years I’ve saved old model packs from TV series I’ve worked on with the idea of repurposing characters in my own work. In these two pages, two characters are lifted from King of the Hill, which I was working on at the time. Frank Grissel’s lawyer on pages 56 and 57 is based on the model of Peggy Hill’s real estate agent boss, Chris Sizemore. The uniformed SFPD office on page 56 is Enrique, one of Hank Hill’s co-workers at Strickland Propane.

Page 57 is also the first appearance of Madam Tse, part of the criminal conspiracy afflicting the city by the bay. She went through several design permutations before we (Bob, Andersen and I) arrived at the current version. Andersen insisted that she sport the hairstyle worn by Jean Simmons in Angel Face.

This page is part of a sequence that is heavily influenced by 50’s film noir. I watched various DVDs and freeze framed, sketching several scenes to swipe their compositions, lighting, costuming, casting, etc. Movies I found especially helpful were The Dark Corner, Vicki, and House on Telegraph Hill.

Toth was a key Caniff acolyte as a young man in the late 40’s, but branched off into his own style in the early 50’s. He took the “Caniff” approach to an even more extreme level of simplicity and graphic innovation. His calculated simplicity served him well when he transitioned to TV Animation in the 60’s, working primarily as a designer and storyboard artist on The Herculoids, Space Ghost, Sea Lab, Superfriends and a host of other Hanna-Barbera series.

This is one of my favorite sequences in the novel. I was emulating two of my favorite cartoonists, Milton Caniff and Alex Toth.

Caniff was the auteur of “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon,” and one of the most influential American cartoonists from the mid 30’s to the late 70’s. His inking style was almost macho in its sloppy expressiveness, creating high contrast, dramatic, muscular drawing.

Toth was a key Caniff acolyte as a young man in the late 40’s, but branched off into his own style in the early 50’s. He took the “Caniff” approach to an even more extreme level of simplicity and graphic innovation. His calculated simplicity served him well when he transitioned to TV animation in the 60’s, working primarily as a designer and storyboard artist on “The Herculoids,” “Space Ghost,” “Sea Lab,” “Superfriends” and a host of other Hanna-Barbera series.