Kirchner on visual storytelling

Posted August 29th, 2021.
Cataloged under Paul Kirchner, Comics, Storytelling and Inspiration

I like telling a story without dialog. It forces the reader to fill in what’s happening, and as long as the narrative is clear I think the reader gets satisfaction from that. I’ve heard it said that a humorous story always leaves out a key element that the audience must fill in, and the satisfaction of making that connection – “getting it” – provokes the laugh. Omitting dialog is one way to force the reader to fill in the blanks.

Paul Kirchner
Postscript in “The Bus”, June 2015

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Creative work is good for the soul

Posted August 27th, 2021. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Paul Kirchner, Age, Creativity, Inspiration and Living

I am now in my sixties and drawing comics again has rejuvenated me. It is not only that I am doing the kind of work I did in my youth, but that I am directing my mind to think along the same lines that it did back then. [...] To do creative work is good for the soul. As long as you have an enthusiasm, you have happiness.

Paul Kirchner
“Awaiting the Collapse” (2017)

Scale tricks for inking

Posted August 31st, 2021. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Paul Kirchner, Comics, Process, Inking, Drawing and Style

I could never adjust to the “half-up” (150%) scale at which mainstream comics had to be drawn. I preferred to work twice up and that wasn’t an option.

[...]

I often photocopy a sketched frame, reducing or enlarging it to a size I think more pleasing, and then tape it back on the tracing paper, which looks like a patchwork quilt by the time I’m finished.

Paul Kirchner
“Sex, Drugs & Public Transportation: My Strange Trip Through Comics”
From “Awaiting the Collapse”, Tanibis Editions, 2017