domenica 26 maggio 2013

The problem with Italian aspiring comic artist...

Thinking about that, sometimes i don't know if I should take an art-name.
My first name (Alice) is German, my surname (Sacco) is Italian but is common in U.S.A. too.

Why I say this? I noticed that when Italian aspire to become comic artist, they always point to write complex stories that only highly-educated people may understand. In those stories, a bit (just a bit?) of left-wing point of view is forced in (as if a real artist is obligated to be left winged, while creativity is an innate human ability that has nothing to do with your political view). Many times protagonists are part of social center and a gay, a disable or a black person is always forced there.

I don't want that people except from me a, intellectualoid comic just because I'm italian.

I have to admit that in RD there is a disable (Brian with his severe dyslexia) and a gay (I can't say who he is yet), but the story is not focused on those things. Those things are shown just as part of characters and help to advance the plot, but they aren't part of the message I want to send.

But what I see in Italian comics, often the protagonist is a far-left rebellious girl that does stupid things (smoke pot, not respecting polices, teachers etc... writing graffiti), just to show how far left wing or anarchist she is (why she is always a female?). When a character does those things... why he/she smoke pot? Why he/she doesn't respect authorities? Those character need a motivation behind their behaviour, and to me is noticeable that the only motivation is showing how anarchist they are.

(I know that anarchism and far left-wing are two different things, but often they are put together)

I think to show a good characters with those ideals, is important to not stick strictly in what anarchy and left-wing are.
To make a real life example, I'm a right-winged (and truly on the right-side of the spectrum, so you may have a overall idea about my points of view), but I believe that gays should have the right to marry and to adopt children. And this one is a left-wing point of view.

So, a believable anarchist may be against drugs, because he may have had a bad experience by seeing someone dying due to drugs, or even without being so extreme, he may have had a brother that did drugs and he saw him struggle to get out from the addiction... or more simple, he may be scared by drugs (You can find a lot of motivation).
Maybe a far-left character may be religious and like to read Gospel ... there are a lot of real life left-winged people that are religious.

Remember that not even Hitler and Mussolini fit perfectly in the far right ideology.

Italian are obsessed to appear highly intelligent, rebellious or whatever. The 'rebel era' was the late 60s and 70s, and it was not only an Italian thing. Italians may tell the story they really fell to tell, instead it seems that their story must be highly complicated (they may answer: if you can't understand my story, is because you are shallow).

I think a story should be true. As true I'm not talking about 'inspired to a real story'
I'm talking about being true with ourselves. I never understood when someone in Italy say 'a story should be honest' but maybe now I start to understand (if he does means what I just said).
If someone fell to tell a story about anarchy or whatever and really fell that this thing is part of himself... that's fine, he should do it, but if someone think he must do this only for the sake of other, is better that he takes a bit of time and think what really he wish, before writing.

Of course, on DA I found exception from this rule, and Italians can do good stories/good comics like everybody.

giovedì 23 maggio 2013

What does it means NOT being dyslexic

I'm not kidding. Brian, the protagonist of my story (Rough Dream) has severe dyslexia, and there are a lot of scenes where he does cope with it.
I live in a family where dyslexia runs. But I took instead Asperger syndrome and no dyslexia (my mum and my brother have mild dyslexia, my dad is colourblind).
To be honest, knowing that I will be able to read everything and whenever I want is comfortable, but now I need to know what it does means to have dyslexia.
I had no problem with imagining Olav's life with Alcohol (even if I never got drunk), but I can't imagine how dyslexia should work.
Letters are unsteady, swing, move around they say. How? I tried to search dyslexia simulators, and most of the time I still can read fluently.
I ask for help to dyslexic people, but even they have difficult to explain the phenomena.

I don't know if this is true.


giovedì 2 maggio 2013

How to pronunce Roug Dream characters' names


I did a research to learn the IPA pronunciation of names of RD character.
I don't know if pronunciation is right, it was hard to find good resources, especially for Norwegian names. I may edit them if I will find some mistake.
Here how names of main characters are pronunced:

Brian Brushes
(IPA) ˈbraɪən brʌʃɨs

Olav Sørensen
(IPA) ulɑːʋ søːʁənsən

Harald Næss
(IPA) ˈhɑrɑl nes

Bjørn Tennfjord
(IPA) bjøːɳ 'ten’fjuːɾ

Andreas Brushes
(IPA) ænˈdreɪəs brʌʃɨs

Chris Murray
(IPA) kris ˈmʌrɪ