Music On My Mind
Recently I participated in the ongoing Trial By Comics community challenge. (Check out the trialbycomics tag and join in the fun!) The theme for the week was the wonderfully entertaining Netflix show, Stranger Things. As I worked on the week’s illustration I fired up my Apple Music subscription and happily listened to the Stranger Things Soundtrack album. I’m often reminded of how music, be it a well chosen soundtrack or brilliantly composed score, can enhance and add life to any story, and the hours spent drawing and listening were one of those reminders.
Finding the Beat of Your Story
In 2006 I was fortunate to attend the San Diego Comic-Con. Being a fan of filmmaker Kevin Smith, whose public speaking engagements are hilarious and inspiring, I resolved to see him during an afternoon panel in the massive Hall H and made my way there early. I was fortunate to get seated in the hall about midway through the previous scheduled program, which turned out to be previews and discussion of the movie Grindhouse; by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. At one point Tarantino responded to a fan question and described some of his creative process. Tarantino’s films are known for their memorable, quirky, integral soundtracks; and it was fascinating to hear how deeply ingrained the music is to the films. Tarantino has related this on multiple occasions, including in the printed booklet for the compilation album, “The Tarantino Connection.”
“One of the things I do when I am starting a movie, when I’m writing a movie or when I have an idea for a film is, I go through my record collection and just start playing songs, trying to find the personality of the movie, find the spirit of the movie.”
As well as in this great excerpt from a much longer interview with Dan Rather.
In the end, Kevin Smith didn’t make it to his panel, he was stuck in the maze of traffic surrounding the San Diego Convention Center. But I left Hall H that afternoon with two takeaways.
Takeaway #1 - Rosario Dawson is awesome. She’d been on the Grindhouse panel, and upon hearing Kevin wasn’t arriving, she stuck around to entertain us with tales of Clerks II which had recently been released, get Kevin on the cell phone to apologize and joke with over the microphone, and just be a wonderfully engaging woman all around.
For a perfect nexus of a gorgeous lady, geekiness, and catchy soundtrack tunes… we can always turn to Rosario and the cast of Clerks II dancing to ABC by the Jackson Five.
Takeaway #2 - I really began to think about and pair music with my comic work in a more integral way.
Most of us have a natural tendency to “soundtrack” things. Call it a mixtape or a playlist, it’s still the same. We choose and arrange music to pair with the activities of our lives such as a long car trip, a workout at the gym, perhaps a romantic night at home… (give me a call Rosario!)
In most cases the soundtrack is an afterthought. But in the creative process of Tarantino and perhaps other recent film examples such as Guardians of the Galaxy or Baby Driver, the music becomes a character - with the soundtrack, the beat of the story, being considered before a script is ever written.
Ever since that SDCC experience I’ve endeavored to use a Tarantinoesque method when working on a comic project, integrating musical choices into my story building. Of course, in a visual medium with no sound, this soundtrack may never be paired directly with the work to the extent that it would be in TV or film, but that doesn’t matter. It helps me to build a better story, and it can help motivate me to put in the hundreds and thousands of hours of solitary work that are needed in the creation of a comic. Just as a looping Stranger Things album was a constant background as I drew Dustin and Nancy dancing, the soundtracks I build for my own stories live with me as I work on them.
Shared Playlists… The Poor Man’s Soundtrack Album
Recently I’ve been working on putting together and fine tuning a soundtrack for my current comic project, “I Thought It Would Be Zombies…” I can’t afford to license the songs and produce an album, at least not until Steem has made me filthy rich… hey, a guy can hope right? (Call me then Rosario?!?) But I can share a playlist with you.
Please feel free to check it out if you’re so inclined. If you’re already an Apple Music subscriber you’ll have access to the shared playlist directly, but if you’re not, you can listen to song snippets and just see what I’ve included to seek it out on your music platform of choice. I know that I can sometimes listen to a soundtrack and know ahead of time that I’ll enjoy the movie based solely on its musical choices. Perhaps you’ll feel the same and be excited to follow along in the creation of “I Thought It Would Be Zombies…” I’ll be continuing to refine and arrange these choices, hoping they convey a world of magic and muscle cars, action and adventure, humor and tragedy.
I’ve got a long way to go to complete issue #1… so you might need to set that playlist on repeat…
And keep on rocking…