Any experiences here when you feel that you might portray stuff as inaccurate in a comic?

For instance, things like hand-to-hand combat (no DBZ superspeed or blasting magic at each other) for instance or soldier battlefield tactics. :(

Or do you just say: 'Well its just a comic'. lol!

All my work is in the realm of fantasy so anything that's inaccurate is easily defended by saying "uh, that's how things work!" As far as stuff based on real life, I notice that very few people accurately depict the military (any branch) whether it's uniform design, lingo, or appearance. Next is fighting styles; if you're gonna say someone is a tai-chi master then at least do some research on basic stances and strikes before drawing your characters flailing about.

I use a lot of weapons and poisons and stuff like that in my story. It isn't fantasy, so I insist on things being fairly accurate. I stay within the realm of things I know unless necessary to stray outside those boundaries. (If I do have to stray, I do research. No excuse not to, since I have the internet.)

But my police department is terribly unprofessional, I'm afraid. Sometimes the cops, doctors, and other professionals don't act like they ought to. It's not terribly inaccurate, but it is a large city where everyone acts as though they live in a small rural-esque community. (I blame my upbringing. I've visited cities, but I've only really known small town living.)

Well, my comic takes place over a source of mystical energy, so I can explain a lot away due to that. There's also cognative dissonance.

But the one thing I find both unaccurate and fairly common is the whole "the training usually take thirty years, but he finished it in four." I can accept someone being grand high poomba of whatever field they work in, but I refuse to believe that they could get there through minimum training/preperation.

Wait, is this just supposed to be in my comics? Well, all three are fantasy based, but one takes place in government institution that in no way resembles any actual goverment institution, but that's about the only thing that can't be explained away by magic. Or retconning.

Extending it past comics to writing in general

As a writer inaccuracies bug the ever living crap out of me. Like I'm thinking of doing a story about vaudeville and circuses fro the '30s, but theres no way I could do it without doing a shitload of reasearch first, learning how many people are in the circus, the slang from the era, common haircuts and clothes, the hierarchy of the performers, what they do in their down time, when they travel, right before and right after a show, what the actual skits are, how they practice, and on and on and on.

I feel if I make any of the background information up that I'm a liar.

As far as fighting goes I only slightly delve into a magically enhanced superspeed realm a few times, but never try too much to get too far off base. I like to try to do the Naruto blow-by-blow fighting style as skipping around or doing flurries kind of pisses me off. And to clarify I started on the comic before I read Naruto so it's just another weird coincidence. I do do my fighting a little over the top but it's all for fun anyways and the characters are supposed to be super soldiers, except Garret. He's just.....lucky?

kyupol
Any experiences here when you feel that you might portray stuff as inaccurate in a comic?

For instance, things like hand-to-hand combat (no DBZ superspeed or blasting magic at each other) for instance or soldier battlefield tactics. :(

Or do you just say: 'Well its just a comic'. lol!

I hate to admit this, but two things in my comic are so insanely inaccurate and I feel bad about it:

1- No telephone poles in my suburban landscape. I have some sort of artistic blindspot when it comes to telephone poles in the backgrounds I draw ... (actually everytime I draw them, they end up just making the pic look way busier than I would like it to look).

2- My roads are a shade inaccurate. Like, one-lane roads are too thin. Two-lane roads are way too thin. And I tend to draw curbs inaccurately. This is one I'm working on improving. I basically don't "zone" my roads properly so they end up not being as wide as they should. I'm trying to use better reference to get them more accurate as I go.

I know these seem like trifling details. But one of the things I really work hard on in Superchum is making it very apparent that the setting is suburban. And stuff like this is just part of the suburbs, so I feel bad for not always getting it right.

I don't really have this problem, because my comic is not one on-going story. But with the current story, I looked up 15th century clothing styles to make sure I didn't draw the characters wearing something out of place. I tried to look at English dress styles specifically since the story takes place in England.

I do research, a whole lot of it, but there's no way I can make my comic really accurate, there's just too much in it for me to do that and it'd be too much work. I make it as accurate as I feasibly can and the rest is the way it is because it's my own comic version of the world.

My comic hasn't strayed into the territory where it needs a ton of research (yet). However, there IS a fist-fight coming up, and I need to get it right - so I'm scavenging the 'net for reference pictures.

When I write stories, I do tons of research. Mind you, I write mostly fantasy, so I can do enough research to know how something works, and then tweak the facts to fit me - it works the same with comics, I think.

It all depends on the quality of the writing on hand. If it's good, I'll overlook minor inaccuracies, and if it's bad I'll be more likely to notice the glaring mistakes. As for my own comic, well it's a semi-real setting so things have to be accurate, but since it's also a comic I can get away without a lot of details.

Kingofsnake
...I feel if I make any of the background information up that I'm a liar.

Actually, every writer will fake something, even if it's only a little bit. The trick is to fake it well enough to convince people it's true. I call it 'fiction'. :)

"It's just a comic" isn't an excuse or a reason for anything to me. If that's how I felt about comics, I wouldn't be doing them. I feel uncomfortable when I'm not sure if I'm portraying something accurately enough, and I know it tends to completely throw me out of the story when I notice glaring errors in the comics I read, like when people's characters speak "German" and you can tell someone used a dictionary and just slapped a few words together. So I do my research. I also find that it's great fun finding out about stuff and more satisfying knowing I have a reasonable amount accuracy in the way I portray the elements of my stories because I know what I'm doing.

No, I don't believe you should ever settle for "it's just a comic".

One of the rules I made up for myself was that you should always research things properly to get them right, or (if you can't be bothered to do the research) then make it up completely.

So ... if you say a gun is an AK47, then make sure it looks like an AK47. Or, if you can't be bothered to research what an AK47 looks like, then call it an AJ98 and make a point of saying it's a prototype.

Either way protects you against claims of inaccuracy.
;-)

I'm glad that this subject has come up again. I responded to one somewhat like this a couple of weeks ago and rather botched it. Let's see if I can nail my personal philosophy to the wall this time.

I have a background in nuclear weaponry and submarines and electronics, as well as the maintenance systems that make all these things possible. That aside, I have spent a great deal of my life as both a student and an instructor. So I'm always precise and accurate in every storytelling detail, right? Nope! Nor do I want to be. For me, the human condition, the reasons and actions, the machinations and self-sacrifices come first and technical details are an afterthought. As my stuff is nearly always set in sci-fi and fantasy worlds the technical realities should be a non-issue with me.

But I have had all this real world training and these decades of instructing others on how to do things with meticulous care and attention to detail, and you don't just shrug off that sort of thing when it comes to your art forms - at least I don't. So my sci-fi and fantasy world scenarios are as logical as possible and whenever Newtonian physics seem to hold sway, so, too, does my adherence to those laws of nature, unless I have a darn good reason to break them, and even then, such violations must be based on a logic system that fits with the established 'rules' for that realm of reality.

In my current sci-fi, gag-a-day, strip I am eventually going to have to explain why there is a gravity field in this huge space station and why this human head can speak the same language as a very alien looking creature. The reasons why - in both cases - however will be consistently logical for a Newtonian based realm dependent on the rules of physics.

If I introduce a chemical or muscularity powered projectile weapon then there will be some degree of recoil. So forth and so on. Only when I deliberately craft a bit of exaggeration for entertainment effect will I violate the rules of physics, and even then it will be such an obvious moment of exaggeration that the reader will know that this is a temporary exception to the rules, made for effect.

I know that the above is a major reason why I never craft anything set in our contemporary reality. I would feel compelled to make sure that everything was visually correct. Arrrrrrgh! The very thought of doing that much non-stop research makes me want to pull my hair.

Anyway, I think I did better this time around in explaining my philosophy concerning the rules of reality and my approach to including those rules in cartooning - my stylistic approach to this, that is.

Oh, and as for martial arts techniques as introduced to comics, that, too, would have to be correct in technicalities and in movement patterns; but then again, I can do that sort of thing in my sleep.

In particular, I'm kinda nervous depicting military tactics particularly in an ambush scenario. I've done the compulsory military training in the past (Philippines) but it focused more on the physical conditioning , marches, and a bit about shooting rifles, rather than actual military tactics. I guess it was the government's precaution against rebels infiltrating the ranks and learning tactics.

And hand-to-hand combat, I've done some MMA (mixed martial arts) classes for about 6 months and watched tons of fight videos (doesnt matter if its unskilled brawlers or professional fighters). But still I'm nervous if I'd pull it off properly.

Particularly scenes that require knowledge of FMA (Filipino Martial Arts). The best bet could probably be videos and pictures. I heard that these guys wont train you if you don't belong to a certain bloodline. And the ones that do train outsiders have more expensive prices than all the other dojos of other martial arts. :(

I always worry about depicting military well. Luckily I have a friend that is in the military and is a cop that can help me out. I try to research what I am telling a story about.

Luckily I have a bit more room for error since the comic takes place in the year 2132. And knowing the events in my time line that made earth the way it is in my comic. I still try and be close to the source though.

angry_black_guy
Next is fighting styles; if you're gonna say someone is a tai-chi master then at least do some research on basic stances and strikes before drawing your characters flailing about.

HAHA my main character I bring in at issue #7 practices Tai Chi. I've been watching videos and reading all sorts of stuff to make sure I depict most movements semi accurately.

Um . . . fellas . . . about hand to hand fighting; you may want to rethink the accuracy angle since the reality of it is that real hand to hand is minimalistic and pretty much visually boring. The combatants are focused on speed, power, balance, and blocking or evading their opponent's counter attacks if the first rush didn't take the guy down and out.

Also, hand-to-hand combat is usually a mishmash of styles. Jeet Kune do, for instance had and still has the philosophy of using whatever works. This means that you do not need to know specific techniques as much as you may need a grasp of the attack/defense philosophy of any particular style.

Tai Chi, for instance, generally goes for the same pressure point manipulations as Hapkido and Aikido but then includes cavity presses and extraordinarily powerful thrusts.

I know that you know all this, and what I would recommend for anyone on a tight budget is to first check out any free on line references maintained by martial arts schools. Then I would take a look at the used book stores in your area. It's also fairly easy just to visit any local school in your area and talk to that school's equivalent of a brown or black belt and get him or her to act as a fight scene adviser. You do not always have to go to an instructor.

The few times I ever had cause to utilize my martial arts knowledge in self-defense, though no outsider would have been able to figure out what I did. This is because the movements were minimal in nature, as fast as my limb and body would move, and essentially over before the technique could have registered. Oh and each time it was at night in a poorly lighted area.

All this means is that you have to make an artistic decision to either stick to strong realism and make your fight scenes look a bit bland and even clumsy or pretty much forget about reality and glam things up like most other artists do when it comes to the hand to hand fighting.

Oh, and as for combat situation realism I would recommend that you visit any Veterans organization, tell the people up front what you are doing and just plain ask. Most people really will help out if you are polite and respectful and very much earnest in your approach.

Re: hand to hand fights - I'm looking for reference pictures to be able to figure out how I'm going to choreograph the whole thing, CharleyHorse. :) It's not a very long fight, but I need to figure out how they're going to move in the space I have (an alleyway) - I'll spice it up with interesting camera angles and some invented stuff (which is easy for me to do, since the characters fighting aren't regular humans).

Thanks for the advice, though.

Yeah, won't be going for dead accuracy with my Tai Chi either. I just need to know how certain things look, how they move and flow. What philosophies are taught. Exercise routines, etc.

I'll of course take everything I learn and exaggerate it in the comic to make the action stick out more =D

I've made a couple of mistakes of having hands switching around alot, and an injured leg switching around also.

crazyninny
I've made a couple of mistakes of having hands switching around alot, and an injured leg switching around also.

I've done that a couple times and managed to correct it before the update. One time early on, a mistake like that led me to a new character trait for one guy -- ambidexterity.

I do some research...but it's not easy having a comic that takes place in England when you live in America. So I still go by my lousy excuse of "it's a fictional England".

My comic takes place in Japan, and when the comic was first going I didn't know as much about Japanese culture as I do now, so I'm pretty sure there's a lot of things wrong with it. D:

No government agency (or any agency/business/workplace/etc.) would allow an employee to get away with drinking while at work, let alone getting blitzed at the office on a regular basis (and frequently involving other employees in his drunken revelry).

SteveMyers22
I hate to admit this, but two things in my comic are so insanely inaccurate and I feel bad about it:

1- No telephone poles in my suburban landscape. I have some sort of artistic blindspot when it comes to telephone poles in the backgrounds I draw ... (actually everytime I draw them, they end up just making the pic look way busier than I would like it to look).

new subdivisions near my house dont have telephone poles. all wires are run underground now. superchum just lives in a new subdivision. :) i think i get a no prize for explaining something that's not a mistake.

It's at times like these that I get jealous of people with fantasy comics. That way, if someone argues the accuracy of something, you could just go, "Hey, it's MY fantasy world, okay?! It's not supposed to be realistic!" :D

JustNoPoint
Yeah, won't be going for dead accuracy with my Tai Chi either. I just need to know how certain things look, how they move and flow. What philosophies are taught. Exercise routines, etc.

I'll of course take everything I learn and exaggerate it in the comic to make the action stick out more =D

If I have my characters fight, I try to do it in a way that's visually appealing. None of the martial arts they do are real, if they use martial arts at all, though sometimes they are based off of actual moves. More often, my fight scenes are based off of certain dances, because it looks like fighting, but is much more interesting.

I've thought that the city in Cricket's Creature seems sparsely populated for how big I meant for it to be. There are other historical inaccuracies as well, but I've also made it unclear where and when the setting is which allows me to cheat a bit. For example, it's supposed to be a steampunk comic so the time period would be somewhere between 1890 and 1912 about. Yet the police carry rifles with drum magazines and appear to be semi-automatic, things like that weren't available until the 1920's. Also the streetcars that can be seen in the background in some pages appear to be 1940's models. So far nobody's actually called me on those things yet, but I would use the excuse that I just drew what I thought looks better.

Research is doubly hard for comics compared to for books. Because not only does it have to sound/read right, it also has to look right. For example, like The Dreamer, if she was simply writing a novel she wouldn't have all the headaches regarding costumry that the readers take for granted.

Or say, Hanging Tree Quarterly... because it's computer generated, you take all the period sets for granted, like "Oh the computer did that." Heh, I'm not sure where he got all his Wild West props and clothing, but I'm sure it wasn't easy either.

And it's not just limited to the set materials. It's also how ppl act. For example, how a soldier holds his rifle or how a scabbard is worn, or how a courtesan writes. All these things you don't even think about when typing it up, but suddenly makes you halt when you actually have to draw it.

I'm a stickler, myself.

Research is key! Though it helps that my comic is about education and I've been teaching secondary education for 13 years. I have characters and situations that I've seen or heard about in my career. Plus, I have a great general knowledge of the loacle where it takes place (Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley - I taught there for two years and live in Pasadena).

I used to do (But will be doing them again in the New Year) Research Profiles to post on the weekend. My comic centers on the world of education - so it's cool to draw and define some of the terminology used in schools today - most of it is universal (like Detention, Classroom Management) or just plain typical (like Note Passing, Dating).

For me, the REAL research is in observing the social dynamic in pre-teens. It's interesting to see how their brains work. Research tells us that pre-teens TODAY in the information age (ages 8-12) have perceptions and world views quite similar to young adults (ages 18-34)...except more juvenille in the execution.

But just like TV and the movies, the accuracies are not always going to be on point. Someone once said here in the forums that if you do a comic, its always best to do one where you have some common knowledge about the subject matter - and if you don't, do your homework on the subject so that it doesn't seem like you're totally fakin' the funk.

I mean, look at Marvel and DC Comics - Try telling them that scientifically Captain America's (RIP) shield shouldn't always be that accurate when thrown or that Iron Man's armor cannot possibly fit in a suit case.

It all is, what it is...Good forum topic!