Character- and Color-Designs for Alfred J. Kwak
| "Character- and Color-Designs for Alfred J. Kwak" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Authors | Harald Siepermann Hans Bacher |
| Publisher | Not applicable |
| Language | English |
| Release date | August 1988[1] |
| Number of pages | 257 |
| Binding method | Hardcover |
| ISBN | Not applicable |
| Location | Dusseldorf - West-Germany |
The "Character- and Color-Designs for Alfred J. Kwak" book is a production asset that is made by Harald Siepermann and Hans Bacher for the Japanese animation team at TV Tokyo that contains a vast amount of character designs for the animated series. The character designs are based on what was needed for Herman van Veen's original episode outlines. The book reveals a list of episodes originally slated halfway the series, before the animation team had made changes to them. The book is in English, but mostly uses the Dutch spellings of character names.[1]
This book is likely to be the inspiration for the book shown in the first cut of the opening to the series.
Only 10 of these books were made.[2]
Content
- This book has not been released to the public, however several sources, including the Harald Siepermann archive, have publically released information, photo's and scans from this book. Moreover among the users writing for this wiki some have had an inside look into the book and can speak with some authority on its contents.
This book contains over designs for over 250 characters made for the production of Alfred J. Kwak. The following structure is how the Contents on page 1 depicts the different sections of the book. Apart from chapters 2 and 4, all pages are read with the longest side of the page on top.
1. Logo
Page 2 depicts a logo-design that includes the Alfred J. Kwak logo lettering and a picture of a leaping Alfred Jodocus Kwak, as well as a three monotone logo variants of different size. One of these monotone logo's is used on every comparative size sheet page and some color model sheets as a stamp.
2. Notes
The third page contains notes on how to read the subsequent chapters. It explains how the comparativee size sheets have all the characters combined for connected episodes (story arcs) and how the sizes relate between size sheets.
A second paragraph talks abot the color model pages. Each color model page indicates colors with colorcodes. Normal numbers stand for graphic marker numbers, P numbers stand for Pantone numbers, MM means magic-marker and AD is for AD-markers.
3. List of all the characters
Pages 4 through 9 contain a list of all the characters, with their continuity number to find the accurate page, their Dutch character name, character number, episode appearance and how many characters the sheet contains.
4. Comparative size sheets
Page 10 through 44 cover all the comparative size sheets features pages for all 52 production episodes divided over connected episodes. Some episodes require multiple pages, making it 30 sheets in total. The charts contain uncolored versions of the characters standing in line to compare character heights, with each character having their sheet code beside them. Every episode title is rendered in thick calligraphy letters.
5. Color model sheets
This chapter covers the bulk of the book starting at page 45 through to the final page, page 257. Each character features a stamped Character Model Sheet table, that shows the character code, the sheet number, the episodes in which these characters feature and a date. There is also an "ok. by" cell, but that one is left blank on all pages. The characters are ordered by sheet number, however the order does not follow chronological appearance order, nor are they in the order of creation. It is unknown how the sheet numbers came to be.
The characters are all rendered in color with calligraphy letters showing their name. Next to the colored pictures are an indication of building blocks, showing the structure of the characters as an instruction of how to draw them. Some characters share a character sheet, like Johnny Hollyday and Henri Dropshot and a few characters are shown with props to illustrate their characters further. Several characters also have a completely rendered background. The most recurring characters get more character sheets showing them in a variety of poses and alternate costumes like Alfred Jodocus Kwak, Henk de Mol and Dolf de Kraai.
These character design sheets reveal several names and spellings that would otherwise remain unknown. Also there are a variety of unused characters, for example Al Oog, S. Drijver and Big.
Errata
- There are several misspellings in this book, likely attributed to Harald Siepermann and Hans Bacher not having Dutch as their first language. Jonkheer Poen van Kalekoen is called 'Koen van Kalekoen'. Krabnagel de Kater is called 'Krap Nagel'. Jonkheer (lit. "squire") is misspelled as Junkheer. Draken (lit. "dragons" is misspelled as Draaken. The episode title "De sneeuwman" is misspelled as "De sneeuman". Other variations in spelling of character names are likely not attributed to misspellings.
Gallery
For a full gallery of publically released pages and pictures, please check here.
Main staff list
Authors: Harald Siepermann, Hans Bacher
Release date: 1988
Location : Dusseldorf - West-Germany 1988
Publisher': Not applicable
ISBN: Not applicable
Production
Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Maarten Mulder (23 March 2018). "Alfred J. Kwak character guide on the Harald Siepermann Archive". haraldsiepermann.com.
- ↑ Maarten Mulder (23 March 2018). "Alfred J. Kwak character guide on the Harald Siepermann Archive". haraldsiepermann.com. Archivist answer in the comments.