White Crane. A comic book/graphic novel written by Zanna Vaughan-Davies and illustrated by Santiago Espina.
Finding an artist...
When original artist Adrian Rodriguez had finished the character designs and the pitch scene he unfortunately became unavailable to complete the project. However, his brilliant work had done
its job and attracted interest from publishers. Leading to a search for an equally talented replacement.
its job and attracted interest from publishers. Leading to a search for an equally talented replacement.
Santiago Espina
Fortunately, after months of searching San responded to my advert and the choice was made easy...
But before San came along, many other talented artists applied. So after whittling down a shortlist of five artists, from almost 100, I sent them the script for the first page of Issue 1 (above). Here's what the best of the best came up with...
FRED
This one more than any captured the characters' thoughts and feelings in their expressions. I could
have left the page with no word balloons and you would still have known what everyone was thinking. Ultimately I felt his style was too 'indy' for the story, which I felt needed a very cinematic and modern
style to act as a counterpoint the 'traditional' nature of a 'kung fu' period piece.
have left the page with no word balloons and you would still have known what everyone was thinking. Ultimately I felt his style was too 'indy' for the story, which I felt needed a very cinematic and modern
style to act as a counterpoint the 'traditional' nature of a 'kung fu' period piece.
Youjun – Twinkle Planet Studios
Next up was this explosive opening from a young artist from a Chinese comic book studio. More than any of the pages Youjun expressed the idea in the script of the first panel leaping out of the page 'as if attacking the reader. I love this page but my one concern was that, after seeing Adrian's ultra-modern, digital art for the pitch scene I loved the blend of an Eastern story with Western art. I wanted to make a 'kung fu' story in a very Wetsern way. Ultimately this page just seemed too Chinese.
Robekka Studios
Again, this page is very cool, taking the story in another direction which would work brilliantly for a martial arts epic, but is perhaps too familiar for the genre being very strongly manga influenced.
Donny
A talented young artist who I would have been very lucky to work with, who expressed the characters perfectly, but, as with the others, was superceded by the eventual winner whose skills are just impossible to ignore...
