Thursday, August 21, 2008

The General Behaviour of a Spinning Shell

Here are some preparatory drawings for my Bull Project. When I asked friend Frank Cammuso for advice on how to prepare for a full-length graphic novel (and he should know having just finished one major book for Scholastic - Knights of the Lunch Table and Otto's Orange Day for Toon Books this year), he recommending totally immersing myself in the subject, literally surrounding myself with it. This is what he did for Knights where he did tons of research on the Knights of the Round Table.

So - I've been doing just that. Tons of background reading and preparatory sketches on all sorts of things I would never normally draw. Since Bull was an artillery expert, I've been reading a lot about that, and some of the things are strangely beautiful like these below. I adapted them from mathematical equations that looked at the paths spinning shells take in flight.

Slowly Rolling Fin Stabilized Missile
Slowly Rolling Fin Spin Stabilized Shell
Spin Stabilized Shell Fast Rolling Fin Stabilized Missile

I think I might end up doing a mini of all of my drawings (and maybe the prologue of the book which is a story in and of itself) for the project and release it for next year's TCAF. Would you guys be interested in something like this? I think it would end up being approx. 40 -50 pages or so.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Paris Guns

Work on my graphic novel has begun. A few weeks ago I spent a few days with Gerald Bull's family in Quebec. They could not have been more gracious hosts and I came away with a lot of valuable information and anecdotes.

The Paris GunsI also have just finished writing the prologue and am doing preparatory drawings. Above is what I envision as the image for the prologue page chapter cover which depicts the history of the first long range guns - the Paris Guns developed by the Germans in WWI.

Summer Reading List
Sequential recently posted my summer reading list. Not surprisingly, the majority of it covers my research for the Bull project.