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The Terrible Anvil Episode 11 - Background Music (How, When, and Why to Draw Backgrounds)

This week on The Terrible Anvil, we talked about BACKGROUNDS! When and How and Why to draw them, maybe also hopefully indirectly answering Oneita's great questions from the pre-call post over in Comics FLOW and PUBLISH:

"Personally love backgrounds and I like having them in my comics but I tend to get lost between deep perspective and foreground objects. I’m not wanting to take away from my characters but I also want to have more than a blank throwaway type environment. I’m often weighing how
Much detail in the background? How do I make my characters pop? What’s most important ,words or the characters or the silence?"

(Some other great comments from the pre-call post!)

We talked about the link between last week's topic, EXPECTATIONS and backgrounds: what we THINK backgrounds should look like, as well as what readers might expect, hence this fun John Byrne example of a fight in a snowstorm...

Jess mentioned that OBJECTS can also serve a similar purpose to backgrounds and that, as also is the case in improv theater, and also perhaps radio theater sound-effects (thanks Walter Hudsick!) that objects can be CHARGED WITH NARRATIVE. (aka PROPS!) And thought of the value of words and pictures paired together: when the caption says "We're back at the spaceship command room" and the panel has a steering wheel, I know that is the steering wheel to aforementioned spaceship and not a Honda Civic.

Regarding expectations of what backgrounds (and maybe also comics) can or should do, it's often thought that backgrounds should be IMMERSIVE and REALISTIC. Tom and Jess underlined the idea that one can draw comics that are immersive without being explicitly detailed or realistic. Something that Jess will often refer to as ART BUDGETING - asking each panel how much and what kind of information it wants to impart, and to what end. Every panel is a choice - the ones preceding and coming after inform that choice as well. You get to decide how and when to make something look a certain way, or what to emphasize.

There's lots more on this episode! Tune in on our YouTube channel and listen wherever you stream your podcasts.


Listen in for wisdom, advice, and encouragement from Eisner-nominees Jess Ruliffson and Tom Hart!

And join us next week for our episode on ... comics!

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See you next week!

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Recorded at SAW on Zoom, March 21, 2024