Illustration: Second Place

Will Staehle
Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Warren the 13th

Objective: With Warren I wanted to create a style of graphic novel that is unlike the norm for comics. For one, I decided to do all the artwork directly in Illustrator because it was the best way for me to achieve the style I wanted. I am studying to become a graphic designer, so I also wanted to bring a sense of design to the art and panel layout - as well as the text itself. The story is about a turn-of-the-century bellhop who happens to be cursed. I feel the fact that I chose to work on this project entirely on the computer turned out to be a pleasant contrast to the old setting of the story and the references to other illustrators such as Edward Gorey.

Tools used: I did all the artwork, panel layout and text in Illustrator®, primarily using the pen tool to create the graphics. The pen tool was a good way for me to achieve the angular style I wanted, and it also lent itself well to the more curvilinear and organic shapes I made as well. As for assembling the order of the pages themselves and preparing them to print, I used InDesign®.