Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Happydale mini page 6

This is the last page of the mini comic Seth drew from his talks with Andrew Dabb.
If you were a publisher, would you give a chance to a newcomer who came to you with this work?
It is funny how different a turn the actual Happydale book took. I think they must have had a fully realized story that led in that direction, but just various ideas in this direction.

6 comments:

j_ay said...

What a treat that was! Thanks for sharing that, Vicki.

Geoffo said...

Thank you so much Vicky, for everything.

I just reread the Batman - Snow.
Really different from Iron Man//FF Big In Japan, but still, there is so much the Seth's touch, little things that only he could make it work.

Vicki said...

Jay, Geoffo, thank you both for writing.
You know, Geoffo, Seth WANTED each of his books to have a different style. He tried consciously to do that. So the differences you notice, those were on purpose. But of course, there are some things that are just his way of seeing the world, and his understanding of what made good illustration.
I have reread some of the comments he made in his e-mails to his editors at Marvel (reprinted in the trade paperback edition of Big in Japan), and he put so much careful detail into his pictures, that if you were looking for metaphysical roots of the issues in the story, you would find clues to them. So much stuff that the reader doesn't expect to be shown, but that make the story fit together much more than you might think.

j_ay said...

Ah! Thanks for pointing that out. I always mean to flip through the trade paperback versions (when I get to a place that sells such things, like London) to see if there is bonus Seth stuff in the back.
(I’m a fan of *comic* books* and don’t really like them compiled in trade form. I enjoy the monthly editions and also feel that edition NEEDS to be supported otherwise the companies may cancel a comic before it gets to be enough issues to compile in trade-form).
That said, I’ve beaten my 4 issues of Big in Japan up pretty good (from constant flip-thoughs, of course)…maybe a collected edition would be a good thing…

Did the Vertigo people contact you about anything laying around (sketches, etc) to be including in the upcoming Vertigo Pop collection?
And the Seth Fisher Estate *will* be seeing some money from this, yes?

Vicki said...

Jay,
Thank you for caring. No, the Vertigo people didn't ask me about Vertigo Pop TOkyo sketches, though I actually have a LOT of them, because he did a lot of the working out of the look of those pages in a notebook, which is intact. Maybe I should ask them?
I didn't think of it before...
I am not sure if we will get royalties for this. They bought the right do redo it from us at the outset. I don't know what the contract specifies. Hisako did get royalties from Marvel, so it seems reasonable that she will get something from DC as well, but nobody is holding their breath.

j_ay said...

“Maybe I should ask them?”

Don’t go out of your way. It would be WONDERFUL to see these sketches but apparently Vertigo didn’t think to ask.
I’d imagine with a January shipping date they already have, or are already close to, going to press.
Damn shame they didn’t think to ask…


“… but nobody is holding their breath.”

Well, I’ll be writing them a letter then.
Every little bit helps and what’s right is right.

[don’t worry, it will be a polite letter ;) ]