Welcome to part two of my creator commentary for Surface Tension.
Issue One of Surface Tension was primarily concerned with setting up the story. In Issue Two I wanted to change gears and take the time to establish the relationship between Ryan and Shauna and provide more of the backstory of the community. I felt it important that we spend some time with these characters before events pick up and take a turn into more dangerous territory in the next episode.
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We’re straight into the action in Issue Two!
I went through a number of designs for the monster on this page (I call it the ‘coral-form’). In some of my early designs the creature had the features of a shark-toothed deep sea fish, but then I thought that the whole fish-shark-monster thing had been done to death in both comics and film. I ultimately decided that the creature should not have a wholly defined form, but one that is constantly shifting. There are times when it looks vaguely human, and then others when it displays more animal qualities. The outer skin of the creature resembles a mixture of coral and tumours. We’ll learn more about the origin of this monster and its quest in later issues.
Examples of early design drawings for the coral-form.
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The speech on this page should be familiar to readers of Issue One – it resembles the voice of the coral. We heard a similar speech when Megumi first touched the coral sentinel in Ghana. This is our first indication that the creature could possibly be a part of the coral.
I had fun creating the backgrounds for scenes that take place within the coral. I would pour coloured liquids into a bath tub of clear water and then light and photograph the swirling patterns that formed in the water. This gives some of the colours in the page art a natural quality that is hard to achieve with digital effects alone.
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The scene at the burning chemical plant was based on a real life incident from my childhood. My family lived in a very small village by a river and nearby was a huge chemical plant that exploded! At the time, the Flixborough disaster, as it is known, was Britain’s biggest post-war explosion and the blast covered a wide area. Nearby houses were destroyed or damaged and the surrounding land had to be cleared lest people got exposed to the chemicals.
Of course, in recent times, through the news we have all witnessed much bigger disasters such as the Fukushima tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, of which this scene is reminiscent.
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The enigmatic figure in the cloak wears a mask that I based on Native American gorget shell masks. The mythology of Native Americans is very much drawn from the natural world, and with the design of this mask I was making a link between these origins and the European pagan tradition glimpsed on the island of Breith. Images of ancient worship of nature are a common visual theme throughout the story.
Early concept drawing for ‘Shell Face.’
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For all you superhero fans, yes that is someone wearing a cape and flying!
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This scene was born out of a conversation I had with a friend of mine over dinner. At the time I was disillusioned with where humankind seemed to be heading – the consumption and destruction of our natural environment seemed very much a foregone conclusion and this troubled me greatly. I was of the opinion that maybe the planet would be better served without us. My friend was making the counter argument that mankind would learn to live and grow with the planet and that in future scientific advancements could repair any damage that mankind had inflicted on the environment. I was less than convinced but it was an interesting discussion – Megumi and Mary make counterarguments in a similar debate that is at the heart of the story.
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The character Shariq is of Asian descent and his parents follow the Hindu faith. However, I didn’t want Shariq to be defined by his heritage or religion. I just wanted to present him as another island dweller trying to make the best in the current circumstances.
In this scene we see Shariq glimpse the ghost of an unknown woman in a Sari; she is possibly a relation of Shariq. I enjoyed drawing the scene of her standing by the abandoned car and we see that the car is being absorbed by the natural environment.
During my time on Surface Tension I became a little obsessed with the study of trees and the drawing of their form. Looking at this page I thought that I possibly didn’t quite succeed in getting these trees right! I decided to go outside and do some life drawing of real trees in the pages of my note book. I became quite fascinated by their many forms. In some ways drawing trees is like drawing the human figure and just as easy to get wrong! I recommend all budding artists to go out and sketch trees, it’s a great way to learn and observe form.
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The little seafront high street was based on drawings I did of Lyme Regis, a seaside town on a stretch of the British coast that is rich in fossils. I thought about making fossils a motif of the island of Breith, but I quickly dropped this as a visual device. The only remnant of the fossil motif is the ammonite pendant that Mary sometimes wears, which I introduced as a visual metaphor for the extinction of dinosaurs and humanity.
In the flashback scenes we learn that people have quickly grown used to the presence of the mysterious coral structures. I imagined that the islanders would capitalise on the corals by offering tourists boat tours of the corals and selling coral based paraphernalia in the sea-front shops. The corals may be an unexplained mysterious presence but the beneficial effect on coastal communities would cancel out any adverse concerns. This moment of celebration is about to take a sinister turn.
Note the enlarged lymph nodes on the neck of the school mistress in panel two. This is an early indication of the sea-sickness. You can spot similar signs in later panels featuring Ryan and Kyle. In my commentary for Issue One I mentioned that I was being treated for cancer at the time of drawing Surface Tension, and that the condition shaped some of the creative ideas for this story. The appearance of these swollen lymph nodes is a case in point. Lymph nodes are the body’s natural defences. Their function is to absorb and nullify infection.
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Ryan’s father Ray is based on the type of working man that I was surrounded by when growing up. Many of them fell on hard times during the 80s when Britain started to shut down its coal and steel industries. Feeling abandoned and frustrated by their loss of employment and purpose, many of the men turned to drink as they struggled to maintain their family and homes. Ray is such a character that has fallen on hard times with the loss of his fishing business and the death of his wife. He drinks too much and through his frustrations at life and work is quick-tempered.
Fish stocks are in decline around the world due to over fishing and pollution, and as a result many fishing industries and communities are disappearing. After the alien corals replenished the waters with new life fish were beginning to thrive once more. For a short time Ray is given a new lease of life as his fishing business returns to profit.
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Ryan’s father Ray is based on the type of working man that I was surrounded by when growing up. Many of them fell on hard times during the 80s when Britain started to shut down its coal and steel industries. Feeling abandoned and frustrated by their loss of employment and purpose, many of the men turned to drink as they struggled to maintain their family and homes. Ray is such a character that has fallen on hard times with the loss of his fishing business and the death of his wife. He drinks too much and through his frustrations at life and work is quick-tempered.
Fish stocks are in decline around the world due to over fishing and pollution, and as a result many fishing industries and communities are disappearing. After the alien corals replenished the waters with new life fish were beginning to thrive once more. For a short time Ray is given a new lease of life as his fishing business returns to profit.
This scene represents the conflict between employment and the environment. We often hear in the news about the creation of new jobs by building factories, roads and airports – undertakings that could damage or destroy the environment but are pushed through for wealth and job creation. Fracking is one such industry. This duality is at the heart of our modern life: the need for a sustainable clean environment for our children’s future versus the short term requirement for jobs and profit.
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You cannot beat a moment of fictional TV news reporting as a short hand to establish global events in a post-apocalyptic drama! My favourite use of fictional television news as exposition has to be in the film Dawn of the Dead (1979).
The film starts by showing us the chaos within a TV news studio as a producer struggles to keep his channel on air while his crew abandon their posts. Without the need to introduce us to the outside world the chaos of the studio acts as a metaphor for the break-down of normality. The rules of the zombie outbreak are presented to us by a beleaguered ‘expert’ that is being interviewed on the news programme. It perfectly highlights the crumbling state of society whilst getting us up to speed with the plot and is a brilliant use of media as exposition.
The bunker on this page is based on a World War Two German bunker. During WW2 the only part of Britain conquered by the Nazis were the British channel islands. Believing that the British would launch counter attacks Hitler ordered the construction of an ‘Atlantic Wall’ on these islands. This saw the building of impregnable concrete walls, bunkers, towers and tunnels around the coast of most of the islands. The islands remained in German hand for the duration of the war and many of these fortifications still stand today as a reminder of the Nazi occupation. Some of them have even been turned into hotels!
One of the many WW2 German built fortifications and gun emplacements on the channel islands.
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Kyle’s bedroom looks rather spartan! If I had allowed myself more time I would have drawn lots of the standard items that would be found in a boy’s bedroom. Alas, I was racing against time to get the issue finished and had to take the decision to move on to the next page.
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Note the drawing of the panel frames. When I show a character under the influence of the coral I tend to draw the panel frames by hand so that they have a rough wobbly appearance. This visual guide will come in useful when indicating the influence of the corals on certain characters.
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It amuses me to note that I am sometimes prone to drawing overly expressive mouths! This is possibly due to my influence from Japanese horror manga, especially the works of Junji Ito. Ito is fond of drawing overly wide, screaming facial expressions. I highly recommend Junji Ito’s ‘Uzumaki’ as a brilliant example of Japanese horror manga.
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More screaming mouths! Yaaaaaaggggghhhhhhh!!!!
Many years ago when I was influenced by artists like Moebius or Geof Darrow I would have drawn all of the underside of the car in detail. However, I have come to learn to trust shadow and light in place of detail a lot more in my drawings. I would like to better represent moving detail as a sweep of the pen and for this page I looked at how artists like Katsuhiro Otomo might render a fast moving scene.
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This scene almost feels like it belongs in a fairy tale – a monster living atop a lighthouse tower with a baby needing rescuing inside. It sounds like a weird horror version of Henson’s Labyrinth movie!
I actually scrapped the original page for this scene as I felt my first version was too hokey and revealed a little too much! Sometimes it is best to leave a little to the imagination. Just for you, dear reader, here is a panel from the original deleted version.
See you for Issue Three (on sale now)! Beware the water! Beware the sea-sickness!