After driving Eva to school this morning, I come back home rather than work in the office. The Center for Cartoon Studies just inked a deal to produce two biographies based on the lives of famous Americans with Hyperion Books for Children. The first subjects will be Houdini and Satchel Paige, the Negro League pitcher. I’m writing the Satchel Paige book. When I need long, undisturbed chunks of time to write, I stay home now that my studio has been transformed into CCS headquarters. First thing in the morning is when I feel most productive, and that’s when I try to write.
I love making comics, especially stories that are rich in historical context. The Satchel Paige book will take place in the American South during the Jim Crow era. During the initial research phase of a new project, I greedily gobble up books, taking notes until I feel comfortable in my knowledge of a certain place and time. So far I’ve read several Paige biographies, his autobiography, and Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South. I prefer the first-hand accounts. The language in them will be a big help when I start writing dialogue. Last night, I finished All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw, one of the most rewarding books I have read in a long time. It’s the oral history of an illiterate Alabama sharecropper who was born in 1895. Mr. Shaw remembers his entire life in exquisite detail and weaves one story after another in language so rich it’s hard to take your eye off the page. I now have a thorough understanding of cultivating cotton, dealing with boll weevils, and the price and weight of a good plowing mule.
I’ll also spend a fair amount of time looking for images to use for reference or inspiration. I just discovered the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection Web site, which offers access to more than 160,000 photos. I’m thrilled to find this collection, and it will help define the finished look of the Paige book.
My hope is that a working studio will lend vitality to CCS. Students will have an opportunity to see firsthand how one kind of graphic novel is put together by helping with research and production. Creating books will also provide a secondary source of revenue stream to supplement tuition. And in terms of marketing and promotion, these biographies, geared for a young-adult market, are likely to wind up in a lot of high school libraries where potential CCS student can discover them.
I have already broken down the Paige book into three acts, and I spend a few hours blocking out scenes and writing furiously trying to lock in the narrator’s voice. Once that voice becomes more fully realized, I merge it with the story structure. This changes the structure, adding an organic dimension. The historical comics I have done in the past have been fictional but plausible, which is to say that the events in them could have happened. Working with prominent historical figures is new. I’m sort of a believer in the Grace Paley line, “Any story told twice is fiction,” but I’m still finding my way.
I give Michel Vrana of Black Eye Design a call. Michel is a superb graphic designer and years ago published comics. In the spring, he will be teaching at CCS, commuting in once a week from Montreal. We are working together on the biography series book design, as we did on my Golem graphic novel and the CCS logo and letterhead. He sent some book design sketches yesterday, which we now discuss. I need to get something I feel good about before presenting it to my editor at Hyperion. Compared to past discussions, today’s is quite civil. After the fact, we are always both happy with the results of our collaborations, but getting there is often volatile. To Michel’s credit, he always sticks with it.
I join Charlotte, back from her Music Together class, and Rachel for a quick lunch before heading over to the office to meet a Vermont journalist who is doing a story about the school for a local newspaper. The meeting is slightly annoying because it is clear the journalist didn’t take the time to even go to the school Web site. She asks lots of questions that she could have figured out on her own. I try not to look too annoyed but after half an hour I make an excuse and run across the street to the Colodny. Just walking into the building revives me. The electricians have almost finished with the upstairs outlets, and John and Steve are that much closer to getting the walls up.
I head back to the office, and Michelle and I take off to go rent a moving van. Dartmouth College, bless its rich Ivy League heart, has a giant warehouse where they store stuff they no longer have use for. They generously give away this stuff to nonprofits. Today we make off with classroom desks, two drafting tables, shelves, and a slate blackboard. We haul it back to the Colodny where John and Steve help us unload.
I head home. The girls are in great spirits. We play Monster—we all huddle under the covers and pretend a monster is attacking us—and read a bunch of books. I’ve got the girls hooked on Little Lulu, the John Stanley classic comic. Eva has also taken a shine to my Popeye and Little Orphan Annie collections. I try to keep them away from her since they really aren’t appropriate for 4-year-olds. I’ll give her this much, she has great taste in comics.
