Here's the last (boo hoo!) page of King Pest, written by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin...

Anton Writes: Ah, the ending. Full circle. While I like the wet footsteps (they look a bit like oil now that I look back on it) my favourite part is the drunk dude on the dock.
And that little dot just under the slime.
And the fourteenth pebble.

That should keep 'em busy.

Thanks for reading my blurtings. And a big thanks to Antonella and Nick for adapting and showcasing the strip.

Nick writes: ...and thanks Anton for letting us showcase your brilliant work!

Saturday, March 31, 2007 10:04:07 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest page of Edgar Allan Poe's King Pest, adapted by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin...

Anton writes: Ok, well everyone loves this page. I guess it is the most interesting, plus it's the climax of the story, so that makes sense! I really enjoyed drawing those waves. If I can somehow always draw organic shapes, and no straight lines, I'll be happy.

Friday, March 30, 2007 9:30:07 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest King Pest...

Thursday, March 29, 2007 11:25:05 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest page of Edgar Allan Poe's King Pest...

Artist Anton Emdin writes: This page seems to work very well. It's got some good comic angles, humour, and my favourite technique... the silhouette.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007 9:45:29 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the next page of King Pest, by Antonella with artist Anton Emdin...

Anton writes: The last panel here - where they're butting heads -  is one of my favourites. I think I went a bit overboard with some of the grey tones in other parts of the strip, but this panel has nice balance of black, white, and grey.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007 10:03:42 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page 12 of King Pest, written by Antonella with artist Anton Emdin...

 Anton Writes: Check out the amount of text here! I was super-glad to have Glenno on board at this stage.

Monday, March 26, 2007 9:37:47 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest page of Edgar Allan Poe's short story King Pest, adapted by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin...

Sunday, March 25, 2007 10:26:37 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest page of King Pest, by Antonella with Anton Emdin...

Saturday, March 24, 2007 12:10:53 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page 9 of King Pest, writeen by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin, based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe...

Anton writes: I love drawing portraits of crazy characters, so this page was a blast! I used to do a regular spot in a street newspaper called The Sydney City Hub. I did this thing called "Sydney City Weirdoes, where I would draw all the strange people I met working at a little corner store in a bohemian area. Some of them looked a little bit like these guys!

Antonella writes: I loved describing these portraits. I put into them all those things kids love ~ Poe gave good descriptions to start with ~ and I hoped that the artist could translate the words into visuals. At the time I didn't know which artist would be choosen to draw this story. It is up to the sensitivity of the editor to match the artist with the scriptwriter. I think this match has worked very well!

Friday, March 23, 2007 10:10:02 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest page of King Pest, the strip Antonella wrote last year for Graphic Classics, drawn by Anton Emdin...

Thursday, March 22, 2007 9:47:31 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page 7 of Edgar Allan Poe's King Pest, adapted by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin...

Anton writes: It's here we meet the infamous King Pest. In the original story he had a feather strapped to his head. I'd originally drawn this in all the panels, but the editor made me change it to the crown you see here as he thought his american audience may mistake the ghoul for a Native (Indian) American.

Antonella writes: In the original Poe describes King Pest and his outfit: his head was adorned with a 'plume', by which Poe meant the kind of plume used by Victorian undertakers to decorate the horses which pull the hearse - I was talking about historical mistakes, this is one of them. I spent ages looking for the right plume... Now I know why he has a crown on his head.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:18:35 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's Antonella and Anton Emdin's King Pest page six...

Anton writes: Seeing as though I was in constant pain, and could only rotate my wrist a few degrees, I decided I'd need to lighten the burden a little. I asked fellow comic artist Glenn Smith ( http://www.glennoart.com/ ) to help me out by doing the inking of the hand lettering.

Besides being an excellent artist in his own right, he has the knack of being able to copy styles really well. Can you tell the difference between these last couple of pages and the first few?

Antonella writes: One problem I found dealing with Victorian authors is that although they loved to set their stories in historical times, often they described things contemporary to themselves. In this case Poe set the story in an undertaker's shop. There were no such things, as he describes them, in that period. I love to be accurate, especially in a historical setting, so I spent ages trying to find anything compatible with the description in Poe's story. In the end I found myself wrestling with hamletic doubt: should I be faithful to the setting (1348) or to the author (1835)? 

Kudos to Glenn Smith for the excellent job!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:07:32 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest page of Antonella and Anton Emdin's version of King Pest, by Edgar Allan Poe...

This story was originally published in the Edgar Allan Poe edition of Graphic Classics (3rd edition), in 2006.

Anton writes: I think it was at this point that I decided to go and fracture my wrist. Well, actually, SHATTER my wrist. The drawing one, of course.

I was skating (skateboarding) on a little half pipe, and decided to try something new. Well, it didn't quite work right, and after I picked myself up, I noticed that my arm was a different shape. I got taken to the hospital, where they promptly sliced my arm open, screwed all the bone fragments to a large metal plate and stitched me back up again.

The surgeon did a bloody good job of it. I was back at the drawing board within a month or so, and somehow managed to ink two of these pages a day with a very stiff swollen and painful arm.

Antonella writes: I know I set myself a three-lines-per-box rule, but every rule is made to be broken. These boxes are very verbose, but it's quite impossible to gag Poe... therefore I cut the dialogue. 

I didn't know about Anton's wrist until I was told by the editor, Tom Pomplun. I had assumed it was something less serious, until I read what Anton wrote above. What a true professional Anton is! 

Monday, March 19, 2007 10:47:33 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's part four of King Pest, by Antonella with artist Anton Emdin...

Sunday, March 18, 2007 10:40:06 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's Antonella Caputo and Anton Emdin's King Pest, part three...

Anton writes:This was a fun panel. Originally, I was going to place the narration box on the top left, but I liked the octopus too mch. Saying that, there's a cool monster under the box now. And you'll NEVER know what it looks like!

Antonella writes: I know this box has more then three lines, but there's a lot of space! Pity about the monster, but I found  the art of this page very enjoyable indeed. The more you look at it, the more things you find!

Saturday, March 17, 2007 1:13:43 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page two of Edgar Allen Poe's short story King Pest, adapted by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin...

Anton writes: Before I started this strip, I was given instruction by the editor to keep my text small. I have a habit of making the speech almost as big as the artwork (a habit that's stuck from years of gag cartoons). Actually, I see handwritten text as art in itself. And a dying art, to boot. But who am I to talk? I've used a computer font for the narration in this one. "Mary-Jane Windlin" or something like that.

Antonella writes: I'm used to dealing with Victorian authors and Poe has something in common with the rest, in that they all use a lot of words! I always try to be concise, bearing in mind that the artist then has the task of fitting all those words into boxes. Early on, I set myself a rule: no more than three lines per box. I try to stick to this, if only because as a reader of comics, I like to enjoy the artwork without having a load of text getting in the way!

BTW I have always envied artists like Anton who have such clear handwriting.

Friday, March 16, 2007 10:41:18 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the new story we're running: King Pest by Edgar Allan Poe. It's the story of two lads looking for a beer and finding love. Ok, put this way it looks like chick-flick stuff, but since Poe is the author of the story, and it's known that he wasn't a cheerful chap, in fact he set it during the Plague of 1348. Not cheerful at all! For all those people who like splitting hairs,  he described things that didn't exist at the time, for instance there were no caretakers as such and funerals were something for very rich people. Anyway. Apart from the historical inaccuracies, this story is a lot of fun.

The artist is a very nice guy from Sydney Australia, Anton Emdin. He has been able to grab the spirit and give the right twist to the story. I hope he had as much fun drawing it as I had writing it. Anton does a lot of other things, check them out at www.antongraphics.com

I hope you enjoy reading it ~ Antonella

Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:43:55 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0]