Ham on Rye - web comic

[Big Tiger]

Hi Guys, I've been working on a comic book version of "Ham on Rye."
I'm a wannabe illustrator and its been great practice for me, picking my favourite chapters and trying to translate the story to picture form. I read the book when I was 19 and thought about doing this for a long time, just got the motivation in the past few months.
You can see the comic book so far here.
Any feedback or comments would be more than welcome.

 

[bospress.net]

I really like it. I think that it is very well done. Have you talked to the estate about publishing it?

I love Henry Sr's teeth.....

 

[hank solo]

Yeah, its good stuff. Welcome aboard.

 

[Bukfan]

Great stuff! I like it. Please make some more, and you should try getting it published too.
Welcome aboard!

 

[Black Swan]

Really cool!

 

[d gray]

nice work, kid!

i bet the "old alley cat" himself would've approved.

 

[Erik]

Hmmm, when does the cat start off on the "fermented milk"?
Nice start. Reminded me of Spiegelman's MAUS
But who do the cats represent in Maus?
I guess Buk could still fit in...

 

[d gray]

holy synchronicity erik!

it did bring to mind maus but not in that way...:DD

 

[Bruno Dante]

Before I opened the thread I expected to hate this but, on the contrary, I think it's pretty good. And welcome aboard.

 

[Big Tiger]

Thanks so much for all the positive comments, it really means a lot to me. I haven't really shown this to many people so having Bukowski fans enjoy it's great.
I wouldn't really know where to start to get it published, maybe once I've got a few more chapters done I'll give it a go.
I haven't read Maus but I'll check it out. I had Robert Crumbs style in mind doing this, for some reason I felt a connection between him and Bukowski.
I'll give you all a heads up when I get more work done on this mutha.

 

[Silly Pyscho]

I enjoy this.

 

[bospress.net]

I know some publishers... Getting permissions would be the tough part, though.

The one critique is that the fonts are a bit different from panel to panel. Maybe they are slightly resized and that is causing them to look different. Is the plan at some point to hand letter? If not maybe change the font?

And we hate most adaptations of Bukowski's work so the fact that you have so much positive feedback should mean a lot. We not pushovers for sure...

 

[d gray]

that's the only criticism i would make as well - hand lettering is the way to go.

 

[roni]

What I like about the lettering tho is, that he uses different fonts for dialoques/bubbles and comments.

 

[d gray]

you can do that by hand, just vary the size and style.

i think it looks too mechanical compared to the hand-drawn illustrations.

johnny 2-cents has spoken...

 

[Big Tiger]

Yeah the writings not great, its better then my serial killer handwriting. I'll look around for a better font at some point or maybe look for somebody to do it by hand. I wanted an old school typewriter font for the captions which is why the speech is different.
I'm at the stage where I'm going back to redo some of the frames, I think about 30% need redrawn. Thats the beauty of photoshop, I can just paste them over the top.

 

[d gray]

I wanted an old school typewriter font for the captions which is why the speech is different.

that's a great idea, you just need one that looks more authentic "old school" style.

there's lots of examples on the web -

 

[Big Tiger]

Hey good people. I've been working on a graphic novel of Ham on Rye for a while now, I just finished a new chapter so I thought I'd give you all a heads up. You can see the story so far here.
I posted on the new blood section a little while back (threads now merged, ed.) and got some great feedback, one of the things people didn't like was the font. I'm using a new one for the captions which I think looks a lot better but for the life of me I can't find anything better for the speech bubbles.
I'm at the stage where hopefully I can go back and improve some of the other chapters, loads of the drawings are pretty crappy so all going well its going to get marginally better.

 

[bospress.net]

I think that the typewriter font is perfect. The speech bubbles look really nice too. Maybe you can find something that works better, but these seem to work.

 

[Erik]

Ditto. Much better.

 

[Short Bus]

It's shit.
We get comic Shakespeare and comic this and comic that for students-it is shit too-good for you for having a talent but it is shit-create something anything that doesn't suck off someone else's work.
You ever read that quote about having your ladder against the wrong wall???

 

[Black Swan]

how about if Hank always wore the same shirt, which would be different than his friend's, so we could spot him. Something with stripes or a logo? Or a different nose. Just a thought... I like the style very much. Profile shots are great.

 

[Jordo]

Great stuff!

 

[Bukfan]

Well done, Big Tiger! It should be published as a graphic novel one day. If I were you, I would shop it around to the various comic book/graphic novel publishers once you have enough material for a first volume (it'll probably take more than one volume making "Ham On Rye" into a graphic novel).
I like the comic book style font in the speech balloons. I think it would look nice for the narrative parts too, but I do get the point of using the typewriter font.

 

[Big Tiger]

bosprss, erick: Thanks, I'm happy with the caption text and the speech font will do for now
short bus: I'm happy to get some critisism but struggled to understand what you are saying, is it just the concept of doing a Bukowski comic you hate? I'm an illustrator, not a writer but I can't really take the heat for other adaptions you hate. A Shakespeare comic does sound shitty though.
black swan: yeah you've got a good point, I think I'll make bigger differences to the characters as I go on
Jordo, Bukfan: thanks guys, it means a lot to me

I've got a new chapter up, although its now chapter 2 of 6, I'm not working in sequence. In this tale Harry learns the facts of life in the same way we all did. Check it out

 

[Bukfan]

It's pretty good! Keep up the great work.

 

[growing beard]

I've been working ... its been great practice

It all depends on the purpose of this project. As a hobby, I'm all for it. Pay homage, share it around, establish your rep, stay inspired, introduce people to Hanks work. But as a professional product you'd be pissing up the wrong tree. I don't feel that anybody should make money collaborating with someone that ain't collaborating back. There's no negotiation, which is why what you're doing, if you're doing it for professional product, amounts to sucking

off someone else's work.

- not just any someone, either, but a dead someone of all things.

Or maybe Short Bus is just jealous, and he secretly loves your skill and wants you to illustrate his work instead :wb: ... But then, like everyone else on this thread, I agree that your talent is tops man. Just don't forget to use it on with people who are alive and can suck back. :cool:

You ever read that quote about having your ladder against the wrong wall???

no but i heard the one from sac newton: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

 

[bospress.net]

It all depends on the purpose of this project. As a hobby, I'm all for it. Pay homage, share it around, establish your rep, stay inspired, introduce people to Hanks work. But as a professional product you'd be pissing up the wrong tree. I don't feel that anybody should make money collaborating with someone that ain't collaborating back. There's no negotiation, which is why what you're doing, if you're doing it for professional product, amounts to sucking - not just any someone, either, but a dead someone of all things.

Where to start... If he gets permissions from the copyright holder, do you approve? If he publishes this without permissions, he will get sued. Do you oppose all posthumous work? Some Bukowski treatments are pretty offensive, but not only do I like this one, but think that Hank would like it too. The only way to know is to ask the estate. If they approve, then that is as good, really, as Hank approving.

And not sure how making money especially if royalties are paid to the estate is offensive. This seems to be the same tired, old argument that Bukowski just wanted to write and drink and hated the idea that people made money off his writing ("he was just about the words, maaaaan...") It is complete bullshit. He understood that it is a business and that it afforded him and now his widow a comfortable life.

 

[Short Bus]

It's shit because it isn't your idea-all you have done is take someones else's work and drawn cats with words-thats it. They may be very nicely drawn cats. I like cats-but are you seriously without some originality are you afraid to sweat? Saying your just an illustrator doesn't let you off the hook for using work that isn't yours to promote your work. You can of course and people may like it-people liked Vanilla Ice when he used the Queen riff. So yes you have a goal. Be Bukowski's Vanilla Ice.

 

[jordan]

you're shit, because your generic criticism isn't your idea - all you have done is take some trolls' comments on comics message boards and reposted it here - that's it.