Retrospective - The Turkish Lieutenant, Part 2

This week, I pick up where I left off last week and look at the second half of DELILAH DIRK AND THE TURKISH LIEUTENANT, as published by First Second Books in August 2013!

First, though: in the last instalment I mentioned that the tea recipe Selim recites in the prologue of TURKISH LIEUTENANT is actually the recipe for a "Blood of My Enemies" tea designed by Reader Nikki long ago. She commented on last week's post and reminded me about a little publicity initiative timed with the release of DD2. Custom tea website "Adagio Teas" had just popped up and Gina at First Second suggested making some custom Delilah Dirk teas. I asked Nikki if she could use her superior tea knowledge to design two "Signature Blends" using Adagio's ingredient options. The results were a new version of a Blood of My Enemies tea and a The Blades of England tea. The first is not available right now as it needs to be updated with their current ingredients, but the Blades of England variety is available. If you try it, let me know what you think!

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CHAPTER THREE

When we left off, DD and Selim were flying through the rain (below). I just noticed that I added two additional pages here for the First Second edition. They draw more attention to the scarf and make DD more frustrated about her new ship-mate.

I am reminded how much I like doing simple similar-panel progressions like this (the second row below). I think I moved away from them as part of an effort to make the comic pages less like film storyboards (my natural inclination) and more like illustrations. In storyboards, this kind of panel progression is just how the format goes. It's its natural state of being. But I've always wondered whether they're as successful on the comic page. I worry that if they're not used carefully, they become "spot the difference" challenges.

It's also boring, drawing the same thing again. "Well Tony," you might say, "you could just duplicate the panel and re-draw only the parts that need to be re-drawn."

Reader, you are correct, and this is where we encounter an annoying, inconsistent pet peeve of mine. I don't like it when I see duplicated artwork in comics. On the other hand, when I see that an artist has re-drawn the same art, I always shake my head and think, "why didn't you just duplicate it? Most people will never notice!"

I often waver between "the miniscule details of comics craftsmanship are very important," and, "if the average reader won't notice, it's not worth the trouble." Read on to find out which side of the Principles Coin we land on in a few pages…

Ha ha, the line about "nice, dependable solid ground" (above) made me laugh, re-reading it. I like the lines about "I can carry this crown / did you want to carry the crown," too. The "I can carry this crown" panel is walking the line in terms of silliness, but it's also exactly my kind of nonsense.

This panel (above) says something about "the search for a comfortable style." I needed an up-shot of Selim, and I remember trying and failing several times to achieve something that looked good and was consistent with the other, more "cartoony" drawings of him. So I went the other direction, ending up with something unusually structural. Notably, this panel is in the original version of AQUEDUCT, i.e., it's not a later revision. Maybe that's when I should have realized that pursuing a graphic look was not going to suit me.

I've tried to include "curse you, Delilah Dirk," (above) at least once in every book. It's supposed to be a nod toward the cackling, maniacal, over-the-top villains of melodrama and Saturday morning cartoons. Big, scenery-chewing villains. It's supposed to be fun.

Recently, for Reasons, I was making general notes on Delilah Dirk's "villains" and ruminating on this "curse you…" element. I wrote, "I think this choice is tonally risky but my gut has, so far, let me get away with it… I like that it reinforces DD’s fame; the villains already know her name. It implies that she is a repeated nuisance, and I like the contrast between “a repeated nuisance” and showing the audience genuine, heartfelt sentiment and caring heroism. The villain is also the only character allowed this explicitly corny treatment which, in a way, feels true-to-life."

Though… "The Evil Army of the Pirate Captain Zakul (The Terrible)!" (below) — especially with the "Gasp!" — is also pretty silly. Any illusions I have about restraining the corny elements are mistaken. For better or worse, I don't think I'd write something like that today. It's difficult, figuring out how silly to be. I like silliness. Only, I think these days I try to find ways to make it emerge more believably from the characters and scenarios, as opposed to having it be something meta-silly, like this. That is, "gasp! the Evil Army…" feels like a nod and a wink between me, the author, and you, the audience, instead of some fictional-world silliness between characters (like the "I can carry this crown" business above).

I was feeling proud of how clever this little turn (below) is — DD tells the villains to go away, they do, she thinks she made them, turns out they were just clearing out so the cannons could fire — really patting myself on the back, that's a nice scene…

…but then I noticed the two panels at the bottom where I absolutely just duplicated the artwork, so feel free to ignore any lofty sermonizing about craftsmanship from a few paragraphs ago.

When I look at this (above), I remember how much fun I had drawing it. You can rest assured that when I'm drawing things blowing up, I — a middle-aged man with a mortgage and complex political views, who exercises for his health and engages with a variety of introspective practices in pursuit of living a fully-realized life — make little explosion sounds in my mouth.

This whole scenario is so ridiculous. And so much fun to draw. I remember having a hell of a time trying to figure out how to render all the water and the general "wet" effect. I think it holds up!

On this final page of Chapter Three (above), the sky is definitely a reference to the sort of mid-1800s illustrations I would have been gorging on. Most likely David Roberts (below). All throughout this chapter the colour design was likely chosen to mimic those old illustrations.

CHAPTER FOUR

On the recurring topic of "trying to figure out a drawing style," I am struck by how strongly these pages contrast with the characters' appearance in Chapter Three. These two pages (below) were also additional pages created for the First Second edition.

It's a good addition — DD is teasing Selim, and we get the sense that they're becoming friendly. Plus, I get to incorporate some actual history I researched (salt and pepper being extremely valuable for travellers of the time). I like the humour of the "Partial Inventory," contrasting the serious-looking typography with the dismissive text. The gem-in-a-slingshot bit is cute, and it tells us more about DD's priorities; specifically that she is not money-crazy.

Like the "fishermen" sequence from Chapter Two, it's a low-stakes, playful pair of pages. These ones have the added bonus of doing some character work.

Pages 124 through 129 — including that nighttime double-page spread — were all new for the First Second edition, too. I'm trying to remember whether Calista (my editor) asked for something or whether this was something I had decided was missing. I checked my emails, but those types of editorial discussions have a frustrating tendency to take place over phone.

The dialogue gets a little too close to "talking about the themes" for my comfort, but it's quickly defused by a pretty vista and some more teasing.

I also re-did the page below. Looking at them now, I can see how the new page is better, but I still like the old one.

I'm not sure why I replaced the reference to Mornington Crescent (which you'll probably only see if you can zoom in on the image). Maybe Tealin knows, I vaguely remember talking to her about it. Maybe Mrs Trellis can write in if she knows. Certainly the new version makes more sense, but I like an obscure reference as much as the next nerd. 

Now! This next part is fun.

For the entire rest of this chapter, I had two directions planned out, and I liked them both. Friends, I am horrible at making choices. I hate having to do it. So I roughed them both out. Would you like to read the entire alternate Chapter Four? You can do so right here.

I remember showing this to a few trusted readers. Tealin, you must have seen this, right? I can't imagine I wouldn't have asked you. I remember roping in Rebecca Dart, and I probably asked Kenny Park, too. This all would have happened in 2010, before First Second was involved.

In the end, I think the response was ever-so-gently in favour of the Chapter Four you see in the finished book. I'm sure I was hoping for a landslide victory for one option or the other, but in the end I probably still had to Make A Choice. Ugh. My friends — talented and generous with their time as they may be — are useless.

I like this twist on Selim's narration (above). The visuals tell the truth while Selim lies to us, except in telling us lies, we interpret something truer than if he had spoken a truth. Ooh la la.

And then it's time for some actual genuine sentiment (above). Selim does the thing that I suspect many of us struggle with. I certainly do. He chooses the thing he thinks he wants — or thinks he should want — instead of the thing he actually wants. On the next page, he justifies it to himself in detail. I assume this is what people mean when they say "write what you know." I don't know anything about being a prudish Janissary lieutenant but I do know what it's like to make this kind of choice and then tell myself all the reasons I was right to make it that way.

I'm sure I added the lattice shadows to provide some visual interest to a scene that is mostly talking heads. I'm surprised how rendered the colours are in DD1. This page is more painterly than most, sure, but looking at it now my overriding thought was "how was I ever that comfortable with colour?" I'm sure I wasn't. I've just forgotten how difficult it was.

Hmm, this crack (below) about marrying "one or more of my daughters" doesn't read how I'm sure I wanted it to. I am honestly certain I phrased it like that just because it sounds funnier than "come back and marry one of my daughters," but reading it now I wonder about some sort of polygamous lifestyle which was not my intention. Nothing against polygamy, I would just rather have the reader focusing on the idea of, "I like you so much I wish you were my son-in-law."

Callbacks! I used this format (above) in Chapter One to show you how DD became who she is, I'll use it again to show you Selim's parallel journey.

More callbacks! Look, I just like symmetry. It's satisfying.

Well, that's a funny action sequence.

Since finishing DD1, I have somehow formed the loose opinion that action sequences and the comic book format are not well-suited to each other, like action sequences are "bad value." That opinion is wrong. Now, I do think the first few pages of this action sequence are not offering a lot, but this whole cannon / bridge bit is delightful, even if it would certainly kill him in real life.

I like his waffling (below) and that she pretends not to know why he's there.

And then Selim airs his feelings and DD makes fun of him for it and they end up as travelling companions. I think I stuck the landing, as they say. I wish I could remember how this last sequence came together, but my guess is that it was a lot of intuition and a lot of trying to find fun ways for DD to undercut Selim's sincerity. Selim says "you ruined me," which I remember liking at the time, but it reads a little Jerry Maguire to me now.

I also find these final lines very satisfying. They feel naturally-spoken (as long as you're on board with the term "travelling companion"), but do a good job putting a bow on the story's themes. That's a best-case scenario, right there.

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There are two things which strike me, thinking about DD1.

First, I don't think this book is what I expected it to be. When I told myself, "I will make the type of comic I want to read," I'm pretty sure I was not visualizing a story that roams across the Turkish countryside, thinking about ideas of duty and honour, being introspective and struggling toward the realization of one's truest character. I would have visualized explosions, and I'm glad those are in there, but when I started with Delilah Dirk, I was probably thinking of something more like DD3. A lot of the stuff that's in DD1, I'm not sure where it came from.

There are pluses and minuses to this. On one hand, maybe it means I listened to the characters and followed the story where it led me. I hesitate to say, "it took on a life of its own," but it did the nearest thing. When it told me it wanted to zig, I zigged with it. When it said it wanted to zag, we zagged. But I still made sure we drove by the ice cream shop.

On the other hand, it meant that when I was done, I was still "hungry" to keep going with DD and Selim. There were still things I wanted to do. We made it to the ice cream shop, but one of those zags took us away from the backyard barbeque joint I really wanted to wait in line for.

Second, when I look at DD1 now, I see work which is more carefree and playful than the books that followed. I see the product of someone who is certain that people will love this story. It's not the product of someone who arrogantly does not care what people will think — he very much cares — but because of his certainty, it feels like he doesn't care what people think, and he does silly things like the fishermen scene, and "curse you, Delilah Dirk," and Flora of the Turkish Countryside, and dropping our heroes into trees from great heights. For better or worse, he has not read a handful of scriptwriting books. He does not consider himself an "author," he does not feel like he is part of the Publishing Industry. He is not leaning on these characters or their story to keep a roof on his head. He is simply doing what he had been told, everywhere he looked: making the book he wanted to read.

The downside to this is that there are careless elements — the wrong tea cups, or some overly-anachronistic language, or the "one or more daughters" line. Those and many other little aspects could be improved without sacrificing the playfulness. 

This is all very useful to revisit, now that I'm in the middle of DD4. I want it to be more playful than DD2 or DD3, or at least more playful than I remember them being — we'll see how they compare when I eventually revisit them, too. But there are also a lot of good practices and ideas that I've picked up over the years. The language can be more intentional, the action can be exciting and fun without straining believability (I'm looking at you, "falling out of the boat into a tree").

THE TURKISH LIEUTENANT. What a weird and fun little book. I'm so glad I was able to make it, and I'm so grateful to everyone who helped.

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Tangentially, this week I used Lightroom Classic to process all these photos (instead of one-by-one using Photoshop) and I am honestly alarmed at how much easier and faster it was. Just goes to show, sometimes it is about the right tool for the right job.

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Next week: an intermission between "retrospective" posts! I have some non-DD drawings you might enjoy.

Until then,
I remain,
does not consider himself an "author,"

TC