FMP. Leeds Haunted - The Middleton railway tracks ghost

Kicking this project of with some history research of the Middleton Railway.

The Middleton Railway in Leeds is the world’s oldest continuously operating railway, having been established as early as 1758. Today it is operated by a trust, ensuring that the pioneering history of this engineering feat is preserved for future generations. The railway also holds another, less salubrious world’s first, in so far as the site is thought to be the location of the first ever human death caused by being struck-down by a locomotive. In 1821, a young man by the name of David Brook was walking home from work along the track of the Middleton Railway. It was the start of December, so night had fallen early and the area was experiencing thick, heavy sleet, obscuring vision and blocking out the moonlight. The wind was up, whistling past David’s ears with a high pitched screech. As the young carpenter continued to plod along the tracks he was totally unaware of an approaching locomotive. Likewise, the train’s driver was unable to see more than a few meters in front of the train as it trundled through the night.

When David became aware of the approaching steam engine it was already too late. The train struck him down, pushing him onto the tracks and dragging him under the moving carriages. When David’s body was discovered it was mangled and broken. Reports stated that one of his arms was cleanly torn from the shoulder and that the victim’s stomach had burst open, exposing his guts and organs. The corpse was a bloody, pulped mess, having been rolled along the track under the train for as much as 100 meters. The young man left behind a wife and two daughters. According to the local legend, David’s wife and children were unable to support themselves following his death and were evicted from their home. They ended up in a near-by Poor House, where they became the de facto slaves of a factory owner. Sadly, the poor house was where the two daughters ended their lives, both succumbing to an outbreak of TB in 1823.

Since the accident all those years ago, reports have been made of a ghostly figure wandering along the stretch of track where the accident took place. Witnesses have described seeing a man, dressed in a thick coat, stumbling along the railway line, often with one hand over the top of his face, as though he was sheltering his eyes from the elements. The ghost has been observed for as much as a minute at a time, before suddenly disappearing in a flash of light. Interestingly, the figure appears to be fading with time. Early sightings described a totally life-like apparition, whose appearance was indistinguishable from a living human being. More recent sightings, dating from the 1980s and 1990s describe a transparent figure. Although the details remain clear, the ghost has become see-through.

From research and reports its said that the ghost is seen walking the strips of tracks to and from the station. I did have in mind of drawing someone at the station waiting a train then seeing this manifest before them...but that isn't true to the story and looking at the location of the tracks there isn't any places that would suit the story...the tracks are mainly destroyed and some pulled up but the ones that are there are at the pavements out side industrial estates and what not so they are not as good as a location for a comic strip...remember this has to be believable.

following the tracks on google earth i found the tracks around 200 yard away from the site that this tragic accident happened that is more suitable...still a long shot but we will see how it terns out for the location of my story. The location I found runs along side of a set of 5 aside courts. with a path that runs along side the old tracks and that leads to and from a sport academy in south leeds. so it wouldn't be uncommon to see some one walking home from college or work on this path or walking their dog. (south Leeds stadium)

below - from the Leeds Academy to that estate is where my story will be told, the white path from the college you see is where my character will be walking through to get to the estate.

Here is where the apparition will take place.

This story holds 2 characters, a girl in her late teens early 20's and the ghost. 

the girl concept - 

I want the characters to my comic to be as realistic as possible, I read that some comic artists who create their own comics use models as reference (when they are not working to a deadline ad have time) they have a model or actor come and take shots of different expression and different poses to help create their comic. so I felt doing this would help me get that realistic characters by having a body of reference to work from.  I got Georgie to be my model for this one as a test to see the difference from working from reference and actual people as my characters than making characters up through a concept. I drew the photos into my sketch book then scanned the into digitally ink them to give it that crisp and professional look. I'm certainly happy with how they came out, using a life reference has changed my game completely I feel with the level that they came out it will lead to a stronger looking comic book.


the ghost concept.

I was going to try a sayonce to contact a ghost and ask if it would be my model for the comic but I realised that might take some time and that's not what I have right now. so I used myself as a prop for this guy and used my imagination to make it look more ghostly, I did try to make this character look less like me by changing my bent nose and the facial hair. I think it's important to keep the ghosts human-like as research states that it's always humans seen, none of my research says that they had seen a creature that looks something like ghost busters. BUT I do need it to be creepy...so I gave them a no eyes look and this guy got a tormented look on his face as his fighting through the blizzard.

whilst drawing this piece I started to question how to represent my ghosts in my comic, should the viewer be able to see them all the time as they following characters? of should they only appear when the characters see them? on films, its creepy seeing the ghosts behind the door even thought the star can't see them but it's also creepy not seeing what's making things go bump in the night.



Whilst creating the layout and rough compositions of the panels I decided to create the story at night. I found this a challenge and didn't want to do it due to not doing a night scene before...I know I could have done it by lots of positive black space and hues of blue but that's not how its done in the high standard comic books you see today. so I decided to learn this skill now whilst I create this comic. I didn't want a tutorial on this because I fell that when you watch them you pick up the habits and the style of the artists making the tutorial. and I'm happy where y style is at the moment it seems natural and doesn't feel forced in any way and it taken me a good few years to get to this point ( yes I am influenced by other artists and other styles but I don't want there to be significant changes to each panel e.g my style character with a different style background) it would through it off. so the best thing I should do is read and look at how comic artists have done this and then put the comic book away and translate that into my comic in my own way.

The comic book that I started to read was called OUTCAST its a creepy comic all about demonic possession a lot of the comic is based in the night so I got a lot from this comic. not only that but as the issues go on the artists change so I get to see how other artists approach a night theme with the same story.





Below - an issue file that shows my step by step of how im creating the pages for the comic.



page 1


I was happy with the colour choices I made to represent that night scene. I feel that there's no question whether this scene is night or not. keeping the background minimal detail helps the focus on the story of the characters but there's enough information there to set the scene.

Page 2


Out of the 4 pages, I think this is my favourite page, the backdrop panel works well, I think it helps show what's happening, is happening in the space of a few seconds. the body languid captured in the character that's stood on the banking is my fav part of this page, there is very little detail in this its solid blacks and colour and its the part I'm most proud of...surpisingly becausee I usually love the more detailed things.

Page 3


throughout creating this 4-page comic, I tried to think of it as a movie, using different camera angles to help the story be more interesting and scarier.  I struggled with the colours of the ghost, I tried glows and greens and it never looked right the colours you see now are what I feel make this more convincing and more creepy.

Page 4


Overall I'm happy with the results. I think it's a strong short comic, yes there's parts that I know I will revisit to touch up and spend more time on, such things as the trees in page one and the character in panel 5 of the overhead view. but putting that aside I'm really happy with the night scene, as I stated before,  have never drawn a comic set in the evenings using the ways that other comic artists do.  The panels flow and are interesting...each page speeds up and slows down for the full effect of the story. All these I will take with me and use throughout this publication.

FMP. Leeds Hsunted

I enjoyed COP that much that I want to recreate the project again :)...Joke! i did enjoy the practical very much. i feel that the research and the response to that is what made my project enjoyable and successful. illustrating war stories into a comic book format was great i feel it showed me my strengths of story telling....even though i got a great grade and a great feed back from my advisor i felt the pages that was created was really week, the images wasn't strong, wasn't strong as i know I can create. The reason was that i was so hung up on the research and the style that i had left my self no time to make the final pages great. Taking all that in to consideration and realising that working from primary research, first hand experience Is what i do best and the feed back from my tutor backs that up. it says that I should conceder this for future projects.

This time around will be the same research tactics...interviews, on site research nut what i will do differently is manage my time so that i can actually create full pages with nice quality work.

So i know what i wanted to, I wanted to work with my strengths and create a publication from research but I was at a loss of what to research.there was no visual evidence of my planning, it all happened in my head so theres no documentation of mind maps and what have you...sorry.

Like most my projects i mention i'm a huge movie fan, thats where i want one side of my profession to exists (concept artist in tv and film...the other side is to publish my own comics and to be a successful comic artist) So when watching some scary film I was entertained and questioned how people say they have seen shit like this (ghosts and demons) even though I am skeptic to the after life and the paranormal, listening to the stories that people say about the hauntings they have experienced still entertains me in the same way a film does, it gets my creative mind going. I never say I  dont believe the stories because i think thats just rude, and who am i to say that they are lying because i dont know that!...it entertained me and creeped me out and thats good entertainment and thats good enough for me. so this lead me to an idea of visually documenting peoples hauntings and experiences. but because thats a pretty wide range I decided to keep the research local and ask people in the Leeds area. so like i always do i jumped the gun and started playing around wit a title and it lead me to 'Leeds haunted' I then wanted to make a publication not only of peoples stories in there homes or what have you but of actual locations in Leeds such as scary old pubs or the abbey even. a combination of famous locations and the publics encounters made for a good book. but i dont want it just to be all pictures... My plan is to create a publication that looks at locations of Leeds. with each location there will be illustrations of that along with text, statements of peoples paranormal experiences at this location. in the publication will also be stories told in the comic format to better tell the stories. This publication will be for entertainment it wont be a statement that says YES Leeds is haunted but just some entertaining stories for fans of comics and creepy tails.

I started this project by looking at horror comics and illustrators to be inspired and influenced and just to get a idea to see if this can actually be done comic wise...if the pros dont execute a creepy story through image then i wont be able to.

Researching Leeds and its most haunted places. To my surprise the Leeds Beckit university has the most encounters and stories that I found. To look at this issue file you would think that this research took my the best of 3 days. hours of reading, and filtering the dud stories from the good ones, watching hours of video documenters about Leeds history and haunting.
The research was so inspiring i felt that with the information and the contacts i gained through my research allowed me to create a stunning entertaining publication.

I created this poster to invite people to share their stories with me. I tried to express that feeling of someone is in your room and that creepy sensation of not wanting to turn around. This must have happened to everyone in their life at some point so everyone can relate. Having some connection might trigger stories of pursued the viewer to share their stories.


(LEFT social media RIGHT poster)

 

I put the poster on social media accounts, Facebook and Instagram with a message asking for stories.



From my research i gathered i found the most haunted locations of Leeds:
The Abbey, Thackray medical museum, Temple Newsom,  Armly prison, Town hall, Music house theatre, the becket university and  other streets and parks. I sent out emails to all these locations explaining what i am planing to create and asking for any statements from staff or any other connections to the location. Just awaiting a respons...i will document the response through the development of this project. because i have taken on a rather big task i have decided to create as i research...meaning i research one location and create one location at a time so that i'm not waiting for all the replies.

I have had some feed back from the posters ad from the word of mouth. I have 2 stories from students from leeds college of art, and through word of mouth I have planned a visit to a pub that my peer works at and she has told me there is a chance she can get me access to the haunted going ons above in the run down hotel. she tells me that other staff have stories and locals share stories of encounters in the local pub. she may also get me a contact of someone who works in the town hall that is on my list of most haunted Leeds list.