Cisco Davis, Jr. illustrates his graphic novel with a digital camera, not a pen

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December 16, 11:37 AM

by Dylan Otto Krider, Underground Community Examiner

 

Cisco Davis, Jr.

"I knew it wouldn't live up to my expectations with such a tight budget -- so instead I opted to write it out as a book and not long after that I realized I could still portray my story visually to my audience by making it a picture book using photos," Davis says. "After a brief term of brainstorming I realized the most cost-effective way to tell TPHT was to apply my narrative to a graphic novel format.  And I've been riding that wave ever since!"

The simple technique is quite effective, demonstrating a way that independent artists can quickly produce a comic that looks like it has high production values.

"I started by hiring local actors from Baltimore by posting a casting/modeling ad on craigslist looking for 'comic book actors' and got many replies from people around the area.  After finding who I best thought could portray my characters I went on from there to photograph them and directing them like a normal production.  From there I go into photoshop and apply my own specific formula used to give it it's graphical style using a series of different filters and different layers.  I also use the program to arrange the pages and add the text and special effects."

You may be familiar with the old Mexican photo comics, but Davis's work is more like Richard Linklater attempted to do with his rotoscoping technique in Waking Life, that showed how independent filmmakers could do animation at relatively low-cost with desktops and the right software, rather than the supercomputers usually used by Pixar.

The story is about Art Friedman and Jillian Murphy, two paranormal investigators with extraordinary supernatural secrets of their own, played by Jason McCaulsky and Diana Kang from Baltimore.  "Art is a werewolf and Jillian is a psychic medium who can see and talk to ghosts," Davis says. "The story is pretty much a hodgepodge of everything supernatural -- the main story I'm featuring now in the comic centers on aliens, but there are allusions to ghosts, vampires and other supernatural themes.  The comic launched this year on Halloween to match with those themes and updates every Friday and the first Monday of the month with the newest page."

So, the technique gave him the ability to try to make his show go viral in the hopes of moving into other mediums. "I hope to someday be able to make this franchise a mainstream power player and the only way to get it out there and be discovered is through the internet.  My story is available on the web for anyone with an internet connection to access and read.  I would like to someday possibly direct a live action version of the series, either as a made-for-TV movie or even be behind the creation of the television show.  That's more of an endgame for me if it ever came to that but I actually have a lot of fun with my cast just doing the comic.  In the future however I would like to get funding to produce even more high end comics and pay my actors and be able to go out to more exotic locations to photograph."

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