Heart of Gold Act I ö Bible

Copyright © 2018
by Tannenbaum Press (Elisabeth Baumgartner & Viviane Tanner)

All rights reserved. This booklet or any portion thereof may not
be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the
written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief
quotations in a book review.

First Edition, 2018

Manufactured in Germany.

www. heartofgoldcomic.com
ve.tannenbaum@gmail.com
HEART OF GOLD BIBLE
Behind the scenes of Heart of Gold Act I

Eli Baumgartner ö Viv Tanner

 FIRST DRAFT
Back in September 2016, we applied to Sparkler Monthly’s comic submission process, for
which we drew five pages of a possible Heart of Gold scene. This particular scene doesn’t play
in the beginning of the story but appears later in the 2nd volume we planned (so it’s kind of a
sneak peek).

Between submitting these pages in September and starting on inking and colouring the ac-
tual first pages of the comic, we first worked on the thumbnails of the 1st volume for several
months, so there is a slight notable style change and the use of heavier blacks compared to our
current pages.
All in all it’s always exciting for us to look at those old pages, which will definitely look different
once we reach that scene in the comic and draw them anew!
 PÈRE DUNANT’S CHURCH
Karlskirche (Vienna) Candle Rack (Vienna)

“The God who

Organ of the Jesuiten-
sees/Good sees me.” kirche (Vienna)

Église Sainte-Blandine (Lyon)

Stairs to a church entrance (Vienna)

The Fall of the Rebel Angels (by Gustave Doré)

Confessional (Lucerne & Vienna)

Statues of the Karlskirche & Peterskirche (Vienna)

For this entry, we put together what inspired the interior and exterior of Dunant's church, the
main setting of Heart of Gold.

Back when we started writing the script we had the idea of having Heart of Gold be reminiscent
to a play, or even a musical (both in writing, staging, build-up and setting), which means there
was going to be one main location with little deviation from it.
Having only one setting proves to be quite difficult, however! So what we're trying (and have
been trying to do) is bring a twist into it with different lighting, color palettes and angles. There's
also quite a bit going on in the background; told throughout paintings, statues and stained
glass windows. Some of this stuff will get a slight twist throughout the story, so keep an eye out
on that!

The church is a big conglomerate of Swiss-Austrian-German-French churches we managed

to visit or get pictures of. We blended a lot of their elements and structures, though the main
aspect of the church still remains the altar with the god-rays and clouds, and the window be-
hind it.
It's a cleverly constructed altar that has the sun shine through the window, giving the rays and
the triangular centrepiece - which has the Hebrew words EL ROI, or "The God who sees/God
who looks after me"- an almost magical glow. This inspiration stems from the Viennese Karl-
skirche, an absolutely stunning church in the heart of Vienna. It was built in reminiscence of a
patron who was known to heal plague sufferers.

If you ever happen to be in Vienna, check it out!

STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
The stories behind the stained glass windows of Kasper Dunant’s church were very fun to incor-
porate, since both symbolize parts of canon, as well as alternative universes containing Kasper,
Ionel and other characters.

The left one partly explains bits of Kasper’s origin story.

Lillies, particularly darker coloured lilies, are the flowers assigned to Kasper, as these plants are
used for funerals and symbolise death.
Pictured above is a samaritan - which once again pertains to Kasper, whose profession in
particular is all about helping people. Not to mention that his namesake, the famous Henry
Dunant, was the founder of the Red Cross and a good samaritan as such.

As we move upwards through the clouds and rays of sunlight we see a priest praying to a
darkly-coloured angel - this is part of Kasper’s origin story. We’d love to explain more but it’s a
spoiler (for now), unfortunately.

The lamb symbolises “[...] the dual role of Jesus: he redeems man through self-sacrifice, yet
calls man to account on the day of judgment”1. This in particular aligns with Ionel’s ideologies
and virtues, as he may find himself in similar roles. The angels above are simplified Cherubim,
powerful heavenly beings that serve as guards of God.

The window on the right represents our Of Templars and Priests alternate universe.
You’ve probably already seen a bunch of pictures with Ionel as a templar/knight and Kasper
as... well, as a medieval priest. We’re not going to spoil too much about this story since we’d
love to officially work more on that one in the future.
The bottom of the window shows a monk who is giving benediction to a devoted templar,
both standing for Kasper and Ionel.

The daffodils below them represent eternal life and the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Easter),
both of which may or may not relate to one of our characters.
The cherries on the tree “[...] symbolize a sweet character (Ionel) and the sweetness of Par-
adise”2.

The labyrinth in the center is known to represent the human life with its trials and tribulations,
the center of it being the divine city Jerusalem. Believers could mentally reenact the pilgrimage
into the Holy Land by looking at it.
The two Tatzelwürmer are worm-like cryptids/mythical creatures and that’s all we’ll tell you
about them for now.
They’re holding onto the scallop shell, an important symbol for pilgrims. Countless trails scat-
tered throughout Europe that are leading to Spain are known as Camino de Santiago and pil-
grims like to carry a shell with them on their journey.

The small window on the left containing the indulgence stands for Kasper and the sacred,
burning heart on the right for Ionel.
The thrones above are winged wheels with eyes, angels of the Lord that symbolise divine jus-
tice.
1 “Lamb of God”, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_of_God, August 17, 2018
2 5 Fruits in art and their spiritual symbolism, aleteia.org/2017/07/20/5-fruits-in-art-and-their-spiritual-symbolism, July 20, 2017
 PAINTINGS, SKELLIES & MORE

P. 72-83 P. 82 P. 119
So far, most skeletons that made it into Heart of Gold were used purely symbolic - depictions
of them on page 118, 119 and 140 are actually not the reality of what happens in the comic. If at
all, we'd like to think that only Kasper sees them as a way to showcase only he sees decay and
death. The painting with the healing priest is a pretty clear representation for it. Or at least,
we hope so!

So anything after is less an actual representation of paintings, reliefs and even Kasper's chasu-
bles, but more of what his vision morphs into.

P. 143-150
P. 140

P.108
 P. 131

P. 124 P. 125

For the tympanum we used both existing tympanums (like the cathedral/Minster in Bern) and
paintings to let ourselves get inspired.
Bosch's paintings of hell really nailed all that suffering and hellishness, so he probably was the
biggest source for the side of hell.

Some trivia about the hell part: On page 127, where Kasper stands around contemplatively,
there's a close-up of people stuck in hellfire - one of them is actually the priest from the painting.
There's another close-up on page 137 with a man standing under an archway, also in hell - on
the archway is a lilly, which we've already established as Kasper's "flower", and there's a wheel
amidst the fire which bears a semblance to the Thrones we talked about in the section about
the stained glass windows.
So, while everything points to Kasper's path ending in Hell, Heaven has no hints or the like re-
sembling Ionel, considering he doesn't believe in the concept.

P. 127 P. 137
IONEL’S APARTMENT
1) Oscar Peterson (Jazz-Pianist)
Concert in Montmartre, France
1978
P. 14

2) Le Nom De La
Rose
Umberto Eco,
P. 41
1980
3) French Jazz
Magazine
1981

4) A Field Of
Yellow
P. 43 Flowers
Vincent Van
Gogh,
1889

P. 19

5) Inspiration for fictional “Dance

Macabre” Poster
6) Festival International de Jazz
P. 14 Montreux, Switzerland, 1971
7) Rimsky Korsakov “Scheheraza-
de”
8) Deer Statue
Some attentive readers have already picked up on Ionel’s taste in decoration.
There are a lot of pictures and posters framed in his apartment, most of which aren’t picked
with much deliberation by Ionel - he hung them up because he likes them and some he at-
tained through the concerts he had visited or given.

For example:

ö One is from a visit to the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971 when he was a teenager. (6)

ö The Danse Macabre is a bit of a nod to the amount of skeletons and dancing Eli draws, which
has some symbolism in Heart of Gold. (5)

ö The painting of the flower field is a reference to Ionel's early concepts, where a golden flower
field held a special place in his heart. (4)

ö Most furniture Ionel owns is from his grandmother; someone who played a vital role in rais-
ing him. He bought a used Blüthner (a referral to the German word “Blüte”, which means
petal) piano himself, however.

ö There’s multiple things scattered across Ionel’s table, one of which is a Jazz magazine. Ionel
mostly focuses on classical music, having been taught it almost exclusively. But he’s trying to
get more into Jazz lately, having always been fascinated by it. (3)

ö The book on his table is “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco, a book about monks
being murdered in a monastery during the middle ages, which is a bit of a joking nod to our
"Templar" alternate universe. (2)

ö Viv actually bought the small deer statue on a holiday in Italy. The deer is also Ionel’s spirit
animal. (8)
 NEWSPAPER
FRENCH

Friday April 22nd, 1983 | Local, regional and national news | C4

Among loansharks: Revealing what’s beneath the surface

After having brought in the 33 year old male, C., for tax fraud and other matters that are yet to be investigat-
ed, a whole landslide of criminality was brought into light. The company Callaghan & Partners is currently
under investigation for corporate fraud. Evidence also suggests illicit loan sharking, currently estimated
that around 24,000 - 30,000 people are indebted to Callaghan & Partners. Callaghan herself denies any
claims and refuses to make any further statements regarding the claim. The firm was brought to life in
1972, starting as a hybrid of a travel and stock company, but after just a few years Callaghan focused com-
pletely on the stock, and furthermore, loaning aspect of her business. Current investigator Roche states,
“Although the suspect, C., faces serious allegations he is currently under witness protection, helping to
shed more light on the case.” much to the dismay of other officials. “C. will see to his crimes, but as of now,
he is the best lead we have to find the offenders currently responsible for thousands of people in debt.”
Obituaries, funerals, memorial services
Obituaries
Tragic accident on April 21st; a young woman died
instantly as her motorcycle and an oncoming car
collided.
The car’s driver was unharmed but is currently sus-
pected to have been driving under the influence.

Catholic Funeral Service

Our organization takes care of your funerals. Thus,
we take charge of the body of your deceased, con-
tact the parishes and cemeteries.
The Catholic Funeral Service also provides the nec-
essary personnel and equipment for your loved
one’s funeral.
Our association is committed to respecting the dig-
nity of all human beings, refusing to merchandize
funerals and accompanying families at all stages
of the funeral. Please contact the funeral services
Catholic Funeral Service for more information.

Memorial Service
The family of Philipe Cortot has planned a memorial
service on April 24th. The body of Philipe C. was dis-
covered in his apartment on May 10th, having passed
away quietly in his sleep. He had suffered from a long-
term illness, though it is said that the condition had improved almost miracously over the last
few years. The service will tribute to the souls Philipe C. had saved during his time as a firefighter.

Historical Journal Entries found “Templar Chronicles”

Lausanne - Purely by chance did the local historian W. stumble upon mysterious, antique texts
in a small bookstore at the Avenue Virgile-Rossel. “This might be the light that casts away the
shadows of ambiguity concerning the templar trials.” Historian W. proclaims in a recent inter-
view. Apparently the entries were written not by a templar but the monk accompanying him.
Their relationship is, at this point, unclear, though the journal entries share more insight on the
situation back in the late 13th century.
Historians are excited to announce that the scripture might reveal some facts about the Trials
of the Templars and the injustice brought upon them. Currently the journal entries are under-
going the process of preservation, though researchers are positive that they will be available in
a special exhibition at the local museum soon.

Big man knocks over child in mall

Alfeld - How lousy! A 1.90m tall man knocked over a child while running in a mal last Wednes-
day.
Due to the force of the impact the child has been gravely injured and had to be taken to the
hospital.
 SCENE TITLES
All titles are musical terms in french, in the vein of the comic’s setting.

An ouverture is the beginning to each suit in a piece. It’s pretty self-explanatory, considering
this is the prologue to HoG.

Originally a study and way for someone to improve their playing abilities, etudes are short piec-
es emphasizing a certain technique in an aesthetic setting. The scene focuses on Kasper’s heal-
ing and Ionel’s confrontation, then denial of the healing - practiced actions in this case.

“Sonore” means resonant, or something played with rich tone and is a direction for a perfor-
mance. The scene starts out mellow, but expands into something “louder”, with the church
bells ringing, the mystery starting and Ionel’s musical performance on a stage.

A prelude is a brief introduction to another larger musical piece. In this scene, Ionel and Kasper
meet in front of church after a funeral; tender beginnings to something larger - their friendship,
as well as the funeral that’ll have some significance in the 2nd volume.

We’ve deliberately made the choice of calling them scenes in reference to plays/movies and we
also borrow a similar film-like approach as to how we structure them. Movies have a 1-minute
per scene rule of thumb - which can be a little hard to translate into comics, so we went with a
broader definition. Being - one scene tells one story that, without the other scenes surrounding
it would be confusing to a new reader.
The scene opens with Ionel being rejected from healing again and ends with a conversation
about God. It’s a familiar tune as we’ve had similar themes before, and that’s the point of a
reprise. It means to repeat an early part of a piece later on.

A rondeau is made up of two parts - A and B, that show a repeat of both schemes in the song/
piece. As its shortest scene, it showcases a bit of an antagonism between Ionel and Kasper over
a candle, another repeating element in this comic.

Described as a graceful, slow dance in 3/4 between two people, we found the title “Menuet”
fairly fitting for the slow-paced scene where both characters discuss Heaven and Hell in front
of church.

As the final scene of Vol I, we chose “Coda” as the title since it means bringing a piece to an end.

We’re never ones to say what a scene should cover and entail but having a point of conversation/a conflict/a
theme touched up and brought to closure is a good place to start. The length of each scene in Heart of Gold
varies - while most span 15-20 pages, we have one behemoth of around 40 pages. We could’ve split it up in
smaller parts but found the focal point was never quite resolved unless we expanded it to 40 pages. We’d say
there’s no guideline to how long a chapter should be, and we’re usually not one to keep everything uniform.
 PROCESS OF A PAGE
1) Thumbnail
First, we do the thumbnails for each individual page. We started doing
all thumbnails for volume 1 back in October 2016, which was a back and
forth of "Viv, we used a similar composition two pages ago, we can't do
it!" and "Eli please, it's wildly different". Lots of discussing, lots of crying,
lots of watching movies and checking comics for inspiration.

2) 3D
We built Ionel’s apartment and
Dunant’s church in Google
SketchUp and use them as a
reference. The program is really
handy and saved us at least half
the amount of time, letting us
produce the comic way faster.
Modelling does take a lot of time
and patience, though!

3) Sketch
Eli does the sketch (first doing a flat silhouette, then lines). This is another back and forth,
though. Sometimes it doesn’t work out well, the anatomy isn’t right, or Eli’s simply not sure
if they captured an expression convincingly - that’s where Viv comes in, redlining faces, shoul-
ders, butts, everything - or giving pointers. For example, page 29’s Ionel was completely Viv’s
sketch, Eli just inked it.
4) Inks
We split inking into back-
ground inks, and character
inks. Eli inks all the characters
and some backgrounds, and
Viv does the grunt work from
backgrounds.
 5) Color Palettes
We decide on the palettes together and then Eli distributes the colors on min-
iature versions of the inked pages.

6) Flats
Viv loves doing flats. They pick the col-
ors from the small palettes and fill in
the inks accordingly.

7) Shading
Then it’s Eli’s turn again – with shad-
ing the characters and backgrounds.
Figuring out a shading was tough and
a lot of trial and error. It still is! And as
we find more brushes and how to use
them, we try to incorporate them into
the comic. It’s a steady process in itself.

8) Finishing Touches/Lettering
For the last part, Eli adds lighting and
checks the values, then hands the final
file over to Viv who does the borders and
lettering, cropping and adding a noise
filter to give the pages that Extra Grainy
Look. Viv also scales them down and up-
loads the pages online.

The blur tool we use is called “Shape

Blur” in Photoshop. We picked a musical
note for it.
 COMPOSITIONS

Trying to connect/create a con-
sistency between multiple im-
pressions of the scenery/people
on this stage. Line through sever-
al circle shapes to connect them
Bow created from the cup’s steam
to form a line/curve of action
Line to the right and down
- something we use a lot for
flow/readability, since our lay-
outs are rather old-fashioned/
stick to the limits of their frames

Window framing - first with Ionel on an earlier page, later on Certain points reminiscent
with Dunant. Symbolic for both characters trapped in a predic- of Ionel - hair color/-style,
ament that has no easy solution or an easy way out, if at all hands/fingers, suspenders
Another line that goes from the
right downwards, additional
to our attempt of including the
golden ratio to meet Ionel’s eye
(worked out better in the thumbs)
Curve to lead the eye and make
the composition more interesting
Line following the hand/red
to give the motion of the cur-
tain-fluttering more dynamic
Triangle composition - in-
troduced in the renais-
sance to depict religious
themes (similar to the
golden ratio)
Line leading along the hats
and motions for better flow
Visually separating the can-
dles/darker part from the up-
per half to transition into the
surreal/symbolic scene
Leading line with the shadows
beginning from the upper-mid
left, turning into the left again with
the other line from the shading to
meet in the middle, leading down-
wards with Dunant’s silhouette
Line leading the eye through
the cross and the characters
Line- and triangle-composi-
tions
 PALETTES
Transition

ö For the beginning of HoG, we decided on ö The flashback, marking the actual begin-
using a muted, neutral palette ning of HoG is dominated by yellows but
ö The colors are supposed to seem some- kept with an even more limited palette to
what regal, the atmosphere solemn indicate the passage of time

ö Ionel’s apartment is held in pastel colors to ö The closer we get to Ionel’s struggle, the
indicate that he is, in fact, a soft boy paler the colors become

ö The palette for scene 2 was based on the ö ...we add a hint of orange to create an un-
previous one, though focused on gold and settling feeling as Dunant heals
yellow a bit more. But not for long... ö It turns to heavier blues to symbolize isola-
tion/regret/loneliness

ö Still lonely ö For their first meeting and the one in

scene 3, we planned on using a combina-
tion of gold and blue
ö Gold will always be the color introduced
by Ionel and Dunant’s blue melancholia
often caries tones of red with it
ö Back in Ionel’s apartment the pastels make ö ...as the scene progresses, the colors be-
a return and so do brighter colors in the be- come darker, more muted. We had the in-
ginning. However... tent of the atmosphere feeling suffocating,
uncomfortable

ö As Ionel leaves, we return to a hint of red/ ö And once Ionel comes ö Since it’s a flash-
burgundy from Dunant. We use the green in, he brings in some back, we use a more
from the previous pages as a complemen- lighter tones with him limited palette. The
tary color as well heavy use of blacks
are supposed to be
less comforting to
our protagonist

ö After the flashback, we return to the pale ö As the scene progresses to a more light-
purples and greens Ionel introduced in er tone, the amount of yellow increases
scene 2

ö Since the beginning of scene 3 is rath- ö ...because shortly after, the mood is elevated both
er grim, we use a heavy amount of dark by Dunant’s strangely positive mood and Ionel’s
blues with some gold accents in between... appearance
ö The characters meet on a more friendly term this
time around, which leads to the colors gaining
in saturation, nearly vibrating as the dark palette
merges with the light one

ö Hardly any colors are taken from the last scene, ö As we learn more about Dunant, the colors get
as scene 4 introduces a pink-heavy palette. It sym- darker, though the red is still prevalent throughout it
bolizes the increasing depth of their conversation all. It can be seen as a warning and Dunant’s fatalism
and the tidbits we learn about Dunant that way
 BRANDING
For the branding and logo creation it helps to break down and brainstorm what is important
for your project to present it.
Questions such as 'What symbols or aspects do you personally enjoy?' and 'What would be
representative of it?' helped us with refining the branding. Fonts play a big role too, especially
when picking a specific type.

As many of you might know, logos for products and in this case, webcomics, may be just a
font, a symbol, or a font together with a symbol. We've seen a lot of webcomics opt for the first,
but we wanted to have some recognizable symbol that we could use for other things (such as
stamps, or just as a general aesthetic for HoG-related things).

As we do with anything art-related, first thing for us was to look for inspirations.

There’s only so many catholic symbols that aren’t too bold so we went with a favored motif of
ours - a halo. We found Depeche Mode’s album cover actually pretty inspiring, so we tried to do
some designs.

All drafts were immediately done in Adobe Illustrator, though we sketched some very rough
ideas on paper beforehand.

At first, we thought of separating the logo from the font, so we developed them separately.
The font is called “Ethos”, a serif font - a choice we went with since it would fit the theme and
maturity of Heart of Gold more than a sans-serif or script type one. It’s clear, but still elegant.
There was also the decision of aligning the bars of Heart of Gold’s H, e and a, as well as the
shape of the t. That was actually the biggest headache for us!
Later on we tried to combine the logo with the font.
We went for the entire symbol above the font, one ray intersecting with the of's o but a no-
ticeable gap between it and o's counter (the hole in the middle of the letter) to make it more
pleasing to the eye.

We like to keep our palette for this project very unified and simple, with mostly black, white
and gold. We used a darker, less saturated blue for the website, but try to stay in the gray-scale
region otherwise. Too many colors can sometimes spoil a nice presentation, so keeping to 3-5
colors helps!

As for our website, our good friend Sarah Hiebl helped us out a lot with it. It's based on the
Comicpress/Comic Easel theme on Wordpress and she worked some CSS magic to make the
background have some rays (a .svg we've provided), as well as implementing other fun features,
like a slight glow around the pages. We also drew some social media icons that fit the style
(light for Viv, and dark for Eli).

We've actually been talking about some smaller animations for the future layout of our website.

Fun fact: Our actual intention was for our website to be dark for the duration of Volume I, and
as soon as Volume II begins, we'd switch to a lighter palette, reflecting the character's palettes.
THUMBNAILS