…and now for the crowd surrounding the Temptations. Here’s the first free-standing dancer, with attachable arm, in 3-D:
And here she is in 2-D:
And below is something I stumbled upon while searching for reference. I include it in case you ever get the desire to finally learn how to do the Twist correctly. Incidentally, my father won a Twist Championship in 1961 0r 1962. Now in his 60’s, he never passes on the opportunity to show everyone that he’s still the champ. Sadly, I inherited none of his talent for dancing, which may explain in some small part why I spend my time making dioramas like this one.
Below are some pictures of progress on my diorama of the Temptations, now that I’ve completed the bandstand. Since the entire piece, when broken down into its individual parts, has to fit onto pages in FOLKTALES, the trick has been to keep everything properly proportioned to meet the restrictions of a 7X9.5 page. As confounding as that task has been, I’m finding the challenge to be extremely satisifying. More satisfying, though, is the eeriness created by the diorama. I’m not sure that translates into the pictures as evidently as it does in real life, but the happy, pastel colors and the general joyfulness of the scene has a ghostly quality to it. One of the things that attracts me to pop music of the 50’s and early/mid 60’s is its concentration on harmony and slick pop song lyrics that are fairly simplistic rather than emphasizing depth and profound meaning. Doo-Wop music has the same allure for me: I think of it as a tonic, but that simplicity and bubble-gum joy ocassionally leaves me baffled that there was ever really a time when things were so simple and optimistic. That’s what makes it ghostly: That loss of innocence that was never really there to begin with – no more than Norman Rockwell’s deptictions of America were a complete document of the generation from which he came. That ghost, you might say, is largely what keeps me searching through the complicated and nuanced layers of the American myth. Or maybe it’s just my imagination running away with me. Anyway, now to complete the backdrop and enthusiastic fans. Take a look:
Below are a few pictures of the complete classic five Temptations miniatures that’ll be included among the cut-outs in FOLKTALES. Now to produce the rest of the diorama – the background setting, stage, screaming fans, etc (see last post)…
And below are the individual characters, starting with Melvin Franklin…
In ABANDONED CARS, I produced a series of “collectible cut-outs” seperating several of the graphic short stories (see the ABANDONED CARS section of this weblog). For FOLKTALES, I intend to produce a couple dioramas, the first of which is my homage to the great Temptations, my favorite Motown male vocal group. My dioramic depiction features the “classic five”Temps – David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams, and Paul Williams (and back when Ruffin, Franklin, and Otis Williams still “conked” their hair – a painful, scalp-burning method of straightening hair that African-American men used in order to sculpt their hair into a pompadour. Malcolm X describes the process very thoroughly in his autobiography). I’ve always been a big fan of the playful and intricate cut-out dioramic scenes created by Red Grooms, so I can’t say this is entirely an original idea; the development of the free-standing cut-outs from Abandoned Cars to dioramic scenes seemed like a natural evolution. It is, in fact, something I’ve wanted to try for a long time. So far I have finished the cut-out of David Ruffin, one of my favorite soul singers of all time, who wasn’t always the Temptation’s frontman, but very often was. I also have finished Otis Williams. Below are the cut-outs in both 2 and 3-D (both seperately and together). But first, I want to introduce you – for those who haven’t a reference point for the Temptations – to the Temptations in action, circa mid 1960’s. In my opinion, never a cooler vocal group ever existed – and they were never cooler than when David Ruffin was their frontman.
Here are the cut-outs I’ve produced so far, starting with David Ruffin in 3-D:
Here’s Ruffin in 2-D:
Here’s Otis Williams in 3-D
…Otis in 2-D:
…and Ruffin and Williams together in 3-D:
Below is the concept sketch depicting how the diorama should generally look when it’s complete. I expect that it’ll change and become more refined as I progress, but this is a fairly useful place-holder:
I couldn’t resist ending this entry with another clip of the Temptations in action. In this case, they perform two songs – the first of which is “The Best Things in Life Are Free”, which isn’t one of their best, but is cool just to see how the Temptations harmonized and danced in sync. The second song is “Wish It Would Rain”, which IS one of my favorites in their repetoire. Please stick it out through the first song to catch Ruffin in all of his thick-rimmed-spectacle & high-Pomp’d glory. It’s worth it.
Below is the sketchbook page depictingthe origins of the whole idea of using the Temptations. Most things seem to begin by doodling in the sketchbook:
…and below is another sketchbook doodle involving a Motown-inspired concept for FOLKTALES. Not sure in what capacity, though. Maybe seperating stories? It all seems to be about exploring ways to include the influence of music into the graphic stories…
Since this story is almost entirely mood driven, concentrating heavily on dialogue, the trick has been to develop sequential panel arrangements that serve the dialogue while also enhancing it. My concern was that it would become tedious to maintain panel sequences that didn’t change for eight pages (at which point there is finally some physical action); but on the other hand, to overdo the arrangement of panel sequences for the sake of drama could be just as bad, ultimately causing distraction from the psychological tension intended through the dialogue, counteracting it’s impact. I really love these kinds of challenges in comics. It ignites my fantasies of being a film director. In this case, I turned to both film and comics for ideas: In comics, the perrenial Will Eisner and Jack Cole (specifically “Murder, Morphine & Me”); in film, the great Orson Welles.
(Splash page for one of the new stories for FOLKTALES. Also my contribution to Peter Wild’s upcoming anthology, “Pleasant Dreams: Fiction Inspired by the Ramones”.)
SPIKE, another story for FOLKTALES, is about a teenage vagabond who unexpectedly meets up with an experienced freight hopper on a cold night in a fast-moving boxcar. The experienced hopper gradually reveals his derangement over the course of their conversation. The story, although it’s never mentioned directly, takes place during the Great Depression – a time in which an estimated 250,000 teenagers – who would eventually come to be known as “Road Kids” – took to hopping freight trains as a reaction to poverty, homelessness, and a desire for adventure. The Depression created for them the perfect storm (there’s a great documentary by Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell on the subject, called “Riding the Rails”). I’ve been interested in writing a story involving these Road Kids ever since I learned about them – there’s something very compelling to me about the naked vulnerability of youth being plunged into a world of violence and danger prematurely. That’s what interested me – putting a kid into a situation where he’s forced to confront an eery personification of humanity’s dark side; but that dark side only reveals itself slowly.
The character of the deranged freight hopper comes from an article I read in the San Francisco Chronicle during the mid 90’s – a time when my enthusiasm for hopping trains was at its highest. Some psychopath had been picked up by the police who, as it turns out, had murdered several people over the course of a few years – most (or maybe all) of them on freight trains. I can’t remember the exact details. The article definitely made me think twice about hopping freight trains, though. It stands as a reminder to me that it’s dangerous to think we can count on the civility of strangers; it has always interested me just how precarious those things are that we take for granted in society – namely the dependability of things like justice, fairness, morality, decency, etc. The experienced freight hopper represents the absence of those things.
With FOLKTALES, I want to do a little more time travelling than I did in ABANDONED CARS. By that, I mean tell stories that take place at different periods in American history – most specifically the 20th century. I don’t expect to make these eras clearly explicit – although elements of the story (styles, mood, references) will make it discernible. SPIKE is the first example of this time travelling.
(There’s a movie that came out in 1933 called “Wild Boys of the Road”, directed by William Wellman, that dramatizes the experience of the Road Kids. I, sadly, haven’t seen anymore than clips of the film. It’s been very difficult tracking it down, but I know it exists out there on DVD. If anyone knows how to get a copy, please let me know.)
