Q & A With Joseph Kelly

Last week I started a series of blogs on what I think of as the Boy Book Void: that big hole where the range of imaginative, popular, inspiring books for middle grade boys should be.

I had started this quest as part of my research for my own middle grade chapter book for boys, GLOW BALL WARNING. And if you had read last week’s blog, (nudge nudge)you know I stumbled across two beacons of light in the literary desert. One of them was illustrated by Joseph Kelly.

I reminded myself that we African chics generally don’t come without buckets of courage, and jotted an e-mail to Mr Kelly, illustrator extraordinaire. I promised not to flood him with too many questions, with the hope that he would answer at least one.

And he did.

Brilliantly…

Q: Can you explain the dynamics between you, the author ( Jessica Scott Kerrin), and Debbie Rogosin, the series editor for Martin Bridge?

A: Happily, I had complete creative freedom while making the art for the Martin Bridge books, but I don’t think that would have meant as much as it did if the entire team hadn’t been as talented and dedicated as it was.

The creative core of the Martin Bridge series consisted of author Jessica, editor Debbie, designer Julia and me.  Once Debbie and Jessica had the text finalized – months of work in itself – Julia would roughly lay out the pages for the story with gaps left for possible illustrations, and then she’d email me a PDF file to look over.  I’d print the pages and tape together a full-sized rough and read it several times while making notes in the margins.  After a couple of days I’d send Debbie and Julia a list of suggestions for where I’d like the illustrations to go.  This had to be done quickly because the clock to the artwork deadline was now definitely ticking.  Mostly I would ask if the space for a picture could be moved or stretched across two pages.  Sometimes I’d want a more organic space that might cut through the text diagonally.  Once in a while I’d ask if a line or two of text could be shifted to the next page to accommodate a clearer illustration.  Debbie and Julia would review my requests, then Julia would go to work and a couple days later I’d get another PDF with the requested changes included.

Then it was pencil rough time.  The Martin Bridge books needed upwards of eighty illustrations with a schedule of only about a hundred and twenty days to get everything roughed-in, approved and then completed and delivered as digital TIFF files, so the pencil roughs had to be essentially finished line art.  Problem was, I’d have to also do all the research and design, including new character designs, on the fly. The main characters of Martin, Alex, Stuart, Laila and Martin’s parents had all been designed and approved before the first book was illustrated but there was always someone or something new that had to be drawn.  On major items like Martin’s teachers or the family house I’d submit a design to Debbie before proceeding.  As the drawing progressed I’d email Debbie batches of illustrations, mostly so she could keep track of where I was  When the pencil roughs were finished Julia would drop the art into the text and send it to Debbie for review.

This was always a tense time for me.  What if there were a lot of changes?  What if some drawings had to be completely redone? There was really no reason to worry – there are always some changes – but I guess after the big push to get the pencils done it was hard to turn the creative process off, or at least down, because – tick-tock-tick-tock – that deadline clock was running.

After a few days Debbie would send me her notes, several single-spaced pages.  Most of the notes were comments like ‘nice’ or ‘the treehouse looks good’ but there were always some changes, too.  I never argued because Debbie always made her point logically. She was right.  Once in a great while she and Julia might hash it out and decide that an illustration of another moment in the scene would be better, and that would mean a complete re-draw, but mostly the comments were things like ‘Martin’s left eye looks odd’ or ‘is that the same lunchbox he had in book 3′.  Julia had already sent me the PDF with the pencils included so I’d print out and make a new copy for myself and then cut up and tape in Debbie’s notes at the appropriate places so I wouldn’t forget to make the changes.

Now it was time to finish the finals with all the changes incorporated.  Because the deadline was looming this meant for the Martin Bridge books that I’d have to often complete up to three or four pieces of art a day.  The grayscale art was mostly shaded digitally in Photoshop or Painter, not because it was easier than using paint or ink but because I had to have a way of quickly getting consistent gray values from one piece of art to the next.  Also, all sorts of brushes can be made and saved in Photoshop and Painter for effects that aren’t timely using ink or paint.  And, working digitally, if an artist’s monitor is properly calibrated there will never be any nasty surprises when the proofs come back from the printer.

Then when all the final art for the story was finished and sent to the publisher’s server the whole process would start again for the next story — and then came The Cover.  Throughout the process of illustrating the stories Debbie and I would exchange ideas for the book’s front and back covers.  I’d often send several color roughs that would get a polite thumbs down, but when we found an idea we both liked Debbie would take the rough and vanish for a time into the Land of Meetings.  Understandably covers are a big deal in publishing.  Everyone wants to have a say concerning the cover, especially Marketing, so sometimes I’d have to try again, but mostly it was just a case of adjusting a background color or fiddling with Martin’s costume.  Then front and back covers were painted, the book was reviewed by the publisher with a scanning electron microscope (not really but close), and I would collapse in a heap until the truly wonderful, magical, without precedent moment when a magnificent FedEx box stuffed with Martin Bridge books arrived on my doorstep.

Q: What comes first, an image in your mind or an idea for a scenario?

A: For me, it’s the scenario. My mind is always flipping through a mental rolodex of possible pictures, 99% of which I’ll never sketch, let alone paint. But if I have even a simple story to plug an image into then a random picture wafting around my brain just might get lucky and become a painting.  It could be anything, even something like ‘some cows walked up a hill’, and I’ll be off and drawing.

The Pepperpot Piper webcomic is something I’ve been preparing for months. I won’t even start to design the site until this Summer. All of the research and sketching of Jazz Age cars and clothes as well as a few main character maquettes in clay are happening now, but by far the most important part is the script, a story arc in three parts, 2/3s of which is solid, done, finito and ready to draw. I’ve seen other artists dive into making their online comics without a finished script or with just a vague idea of where it’s going to go, but I can’t imagine working that way! There’s no possibility of complexity in stream-of-consciousness writing and the very real possibility that the project will wander into the weeds or crash and burn before it finds its legs. Some comics have peaked my interest only to stop dead, abandoned, not updated for months or years, victims of the trap of having a weekly deadline but nothing to say. One ongoing comic I visit has been in the midst of a fight between characters for six weeks – that’s a lot of brawling and not much story. This is very sad, all that work for so little return! And it could have been avoided by doing some planning before they started to draw.

For instance, Pepperpot Piper has adamantine rules for the lead character. Among them, Pepperpot is the Jazz Age’s spunkiest flapper, who always accepts the basic humanity of anyone she meets, even the strip’s sundry goons, mesmerists, mad scientists and robots. She is a knee-jerk humanist. She will never be drawn holding a gun or any weapon and will never resort to mayhem to get out of a pickle. There are more rules, but you get the point.  A little preplanning and maybe even a germ of a story are, I believe, pretty important before the pencil hits the paper.

Q: How do you deal with the differences between grayscale and color illustrations, and what is your preference?

A: I very much prefer to work in color. You can squeeze a lot of passion out of line art and wash, but it tries to fight you all the way since working in black and white is limiting by its very nature. It’s easy to make a character pop or direct a reader’s eye or ramp up the excitement when working in color, but black and white pretty much gives you one option – lose, or at least gray-out, that background you toiled over all day!

You rightly noted that Pepperpot Piper is in black and white. But actually what I’ve completed is in full color, though I’ll be desaturating the art and presenting it in grayscale because  – 1 – it feels more appropriate to the Jazz Age and – 2 – when or if it comes time to start selling printed strips I’m pretty certain I won’t be able to spring for printing a four color comic, no matter how much I want to. I’ll still have the color version in case a miracle happens.

To see Joseph Kelly’s work in all its wonder:

http://illustratedbyjosephkelly.com/home5.html

Make sure you spend a moment either online or with an actual copy of A Paddling of Ducks  (written by Marjorie Blain Parker). Like myself, you’ll be dazzled by the vividness of his work.

Jonesing for more Joseph?

http://www.kidscanpress.com/US/CreatorDetails.aspx?cid=613

http://www.scbwi.org/MemberProfile.aspx?u=2846741730914718