The Birth of 'Hybrid Bastards,' A Step By Step Process

Writer Tom Pinchuk Talks About The Making Of "Hybrid Bastards" 

Hello Everybody,

I'm Tom Pinchuk, the writer of Archaia's HYBRID BASTARDS.  Following my friend and fellow Archaia creator, Chandra Free (THE GOD MACHINE), I figured I'd give the Comic Vine community a look at the creative process behind my comic before the hardcover collection's released this November.  Specifically, we'll be focusing on the collaborative steps I took with Kate Glasheen, the illustrator, to make pages seven and eight, which detail the twisted origin of the Hybrid Bastards.

Comics are all about the tension between word and image.  This being our first collaboration, it took Kate and I little while to find the right balance for our talents.

Another balance in this project had to be struck between planning and improvisation.  I think a lot of comics fail when the creators play it too fast and loose, painting themselves into a corner once they start running out of pages.  So I prefer to plan things out and get a vision of the whole story before beginning.  I start with random notes, turn those into a outline, use that outline to work out issue breakdowns which I refine into page breakdowns and then panel breakdowns, getting more and more detailed until I finally have the script.

Below is an excerpt of the original page breakdowns.  You'll notice that Pages 7 and 8 are more detailed than the rest.  The "origin" was one of the first scenes I thought of while coming up with the story, so I had specific ideas for it very early on.

Each project is its own animal and even planning can become excessive sometimes.  We wanted the story to be funny and have a real manic energy.  I normally prefer to write in what's called "full script," meaning I specify how many panels are on each page, what's depicted in each panel and what the specific dialogue is for each balloon.  I used that style for the first six pages, but quickly realized that there's such a thing as over-thinking.

Kate comes from more of an abstract, fine arts background, and I think full script was a little stifling to her style.  I wanted to give her room for her own ideas about the layouts, making the whole pages pieces of art rather than just collections of smaller drawings. Playing things a little looser, I switched to what's traditionally referred to as a "Marvel script."  Here, I only describe what's generally going on in the page, then leave the artist to figure out how to break it up into panels.

You'll notice that, even though I've switched to Marvel script, I'm still playing it like it full script at this point by specifying the order of images in the collage.  I also overloaded the page with too much for Kate to cover.  She wisely suggested splitting this page into two and, while it wasn't my first idea, I'm very glad she did, because it works much better.

My apologies that these files of the inks are a low-res and little clipped. Kate didn't have access to a big scanner at the time, and they were really only for my reference.

Kate had a lot of fun with these pages.  She did a lot of research on the decals on Greek stucco painting, getting the right mix of rusty orange and cream for the water colors.  As I mentioned, these images were in my "mind's eye" from the beginning and I'm very pleased with how they came out.  They're just like I envisioned, but better.

You'll notice that she's made some changes from the inks. I don't remember if I pointed it out, or if she saw it herself - - the further I get away from working on a project, the less I remember about whose idea was whose.  Anyway,  the original layout for page 8 is a bit cluttered.  Zeus is really an obscurant on Carmine's fetus and the pregnant objects, and the sun rays don't quite gel with the rest of
the layout.  So when she got to coloring the thing, she simplified things and gave the sun rays a bolder presence, treating them as panels intertwined with the black negative space.  These changes made the layout a lot more dynamic and clear.

Getting back to what I was saying about planning vs. spontaneity, I found that using Marvel script went a long way in giving the story the kind of energy I wanted.  While I still prefer working with full script most of the time, I think it made me play things too safe for HYBRID BASTARDS.  The comic ran the risk of becoming over-written.

Because Kate had more freedom to do her spin on the material, her work inspired me in turn.  It was creative escalation. The changes, additions and omissions she'd make from the script gave me ideas for the dialogue I wouldn't have gotten had I set it all in stone from the beginning.  For me, that's most exciting thing about working with an artist like her.

Like I said, making a comic is about balance.  It's better to start with a lot and pare it down than to start with a little and then have to pad it.  At the same time, while it's important to have a plan, you need to be willing to change it in the best interests of the comic. Stick to your broad strokes, but improvise your finer strokes.

I hope you all enjoyed this look at our creative process.  Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this November. It's currently available for pre-order on Amazon and through PREVIEWS, Diamond code SEP090596