When “Rumble” was announced last summer, the safe money was on that it’d be great. John Arcudi and James Harren had worked together on some of the strongest “B.P.R.D” stories of the “Hell on Earth” cycle, so such an assumption wouldn’t have been unfounded. That said, I still think it was surprising how good this series has been. The ideas are big, the dialogue is tight, and the character design is pitch perfect. And, of course, having Dave Stewart and Chris Eliopoulos on the roster only serves to enhance the series.
To celebrate “Rumble” we wanted to shine a light on the talents and labor that goes into making a comic that looks this good. What better way to do that than with a process post! As the title suggests, we’ll begin with Arcudi’s script for issue #4 and take you through all the stops on the way to the printer. Since no one can explain this stuff better than those who’ve actually done the work, I’ll be handing the commentary over to the creative team from here on out. I want to thank John, James and Chris for their insights and input.
“Rumble” #4 hits stands this Wednesday, so don’t miss it! And they’ve got a letters page coming soon, so folks can write to at scarecrowwarriorgod@gmail.com with questions about the story or missives of praise for dark and ancient gods!
THE SCRIPT
John Arcudi- What you’re seeing here is the culmination of a lot problem solving I’ve done between the outline stage and the final script. I try to get things as clearly expressed as I can so that James Harren has all the info and all the tools he needs. It’s not so much about nailing him down to specifics as it is a matter of making his job as easy as possible. Try to eliminate the guesswork a looser plot might leave. If he can make it work better, then obviously he’s free to do that.
PAGE SEVEN
ONE- COGAN gestures with his cigarette in his bone hand to BOBBY.
1) COGAN: IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOUR VOCABULARY HAD A BIT MORE DEPTH, BUT YOU’RE RIGHT.
2) COGAN: NOBODY, HOWEVER, IS HERE TO TAKE ANYTHING. THAT’S WHAT I CAME TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT.
TWO- BOBBY is staring down at COGAN’s bone arm. COGAN looks at it, too.
3) BOBBY: OKAY, BUT REALLY, YOU DO HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS. HOW DID THAT SCARECROW EVEN CHOP OFF YOUR ARM? I THOUGHT YOU WERE ALL IMMORTAL. OR IS HIS SWORD MAGIC?
4) COGAN: IT’S A LITTLE COMPLICATED, BUT MY SPIRIT IS WHAT’S IMMORTAL.
5)COGAN: THIS BODY? THAT’S SOMETHING ELSE.
THREE- COGAN talking and there’s a bunch of dead monsters on a field of battle behind him in a FLASHBACK panel. Their swords, pikes, axes, etc. sticking up here and there. It’s the end of the Esu/Ivir war.
6) COGAN: NOW LISTEN, BECAUSE THIS PLAYS INTO THE WHOLE “WE’RE NOT HERE TO TAKE OVER” BIT.
7) COGAN: MOST OF OUR ORIGINAL BODIES, MINE TOO, WERE DESTROYED IN THE GREAT WAR BETWEEN THE IVIR AND ESU.
FOUR- CUT TO a man’s grave; date of death 1872. The earth is freshly heaped on it.
8) CAPTION: “BUT A CLAUSE IN THE TREATY ARRANGES FOR “REPATRIATION” OF OUR SPIRITS ONTO EARTH AFTER THE WAR ENDED. YOU MAY HAVE HEARD ABOUT THAT.
9) CAPTION: “IT DOESN’T ALLOW FOR US TO POSSESS A LIVING BODY. ONLY THE DEAD.”
FIVE- A hand dramatically pushes up out of the earth! END FLASHBACK.
THUMBNAILS
James Harren- (The character design for) Cogan demonstrates a direction I’d like to move toward in general with Rumble. I want to play with shapes and expressions more, all that true cartooning stuff. There’s a sweet spot between the craft of observed form and expressive spontaneous shapes that I’m trying to find more and more. When to be literal and when to be expressive and ‘weird’ really keeps it interesting for me. It was never my desire to lean too heavily into realism or stray completely into abstract cartoons (although that would be fun), but try and walk that narrow line between the two that my favorite cartoonists seemed to walk so competently.
Continued below
Harren- I’m very lucky that John sends tight, thoughtful scripts. So there wasn’t a lot of guess work in this issue. When I read the script for this page I knew I wanted to set up a beat where the flashbacks would have more impact than the present day figures of Bobby and Cogan.
Those two [Bobby and Cogan] remain on the same eyeline, more or less taking equal parts of the frame so it sets up a mood of calm conversation. It’s a little boring but that was sorta the point. To create impact through contrast I put the flashback panels in asymmetrical compositions and used a lot of harsh diagonals. I bled the third panel to the edge of the page so we feel like we’ve let the comfort of the ‘window’ of the panel and we’re in the scorched battlefield, literally right at the fingertips of these fallen monsters. And I couldn’t imagine a hand bursting from a grave framed in any other way than a dutch tilt. In this context at least. Maybe you could play it for quirky laughs in a symmetrical Wes Anderson-style long shot…but that’s not really what we’re going for here. One thing I wish I did was put more suggestions of the bar in the background of panels one and two so it reinforces the contrast of the time and place more.
Arcudi- This is the point where pretty much all the mistakes I made in the script get weeded out by James giving them “life” as it we’re. I see what I’ve done wrong, and what can be done better and James and I get on the phone and write notes back and forth, and then James goes ahead.
INKS
Harren- Drawing-wise I pencilled it in non-photo blue and went right to inks. The schedules tight on this so John’s cool with me going right to final inks after he sees layouts. I try to keep layouts tight to hopefully inspire confidence in everyone, including myself, since I pretty much skip the penciling stage.
COLOR
Arcudi- Dave Stewart comes in and works his magic. Sometimes James and Dave go a little back and forth the way James and I do at the layouts stage, but since Dave is the best, it’s really very minor stuff. And just a note here; I love what Dave did in Panel three with those watercolor-esque fade-out up along the top of eh panel. it adds so much to the structure — and the beauty — of the page.
LETTERS
Chris Eliopolis- I get the script and art and using fonts I’ve created, I find the best spot to place the balloons, making sure nothing important is covered and that the page reads in proper order.
This book is pretty easy as books go. The art and the writing don’t overwhelm each other. Then once the color arrives I piece them together.
Arcudi- Again, the best in the business is working with us. Usually Chris Eliopoulos turns in the letters and we’re done — but occasionally I see a change I might want (usually because I made a mistake) and we go back and forth. But, again, it’s very minor stuff. And you can’t see any on this page, but the lettering he came with for Rathraq and the Esu really adds so much to the look of the book and the flow of the story.
OFF TO THE PRINTER
Arcudi- One last note, since this is ostensibly a “From Script to Print” feature, the guys in the Image production dept. are the best! Jonathan Chan and Vincent Kukua make the final proofing process a breeze. They’re also our final safety-net. If I see something I wanna change, they usually can do it right there in-house in a flash, or (as is more often the case) they catch the mistakes and correct them for us. And only then is it ready to go to the printers.
It’s this writer’s opinion that there are few comics running now that look as good as “Rumble,” so I’m glad we were able to provide this little peek behind the curtain.
Got any questions? John wants to hear them! Send them his way via Twitter or Facebook.
“Rumble” #4 will be available this Wednesday in print from finer comics shops everywhere, and digitally via comiXology and ImageComics.com.
