South Carolina Photographer Launches "Blood Rose" Webcomic

Charleston Photographer launches “Blood Rose” A Unique Online Web Comic shot in the Lowcountry

Local photographer and actor, Charlie Thiel, has been busy lately launching his new web comic, “Blood Rose” featuring Danielle Doolin Ward, Arlene Lagos, Julio Cotto, Michelle Mills, and many other local Charleston actors. Thiel has already completed his pilot series shot entirely at Folly Beach’s popular hangout, “The Lost Dog Café” and can be found on http://www.bloodrosewebcomic.com/ He just finished completing his second series, both of which are written by the well known movie producer, Nick Smith.

“Having been involved as an actor on “Cold Soldiers”, says Thiel, I had seen the amount of work that went into making a film. I was interested in that sort of creative work, but I wasn't ready to tackle the logistics of film making. That is when the idea of creating a photo-based web comic came to me. It was a great motivator for me to practice and improve my photography skills, my lighting skills, and my Photoshop skills all while creating something with a lot of local actors that had become friends”.

Theil’s approach to “Blood Rose” is different, largely because he doesn’t use traditional drawings that one would find in a web comic. Instead, he uses his training in photographic techniques and photographic lighting. Many of the printed comic books out there are drawn by amazingly talented artists who fully understand lighting, camera angles, and brilliant composition. The comic books out there now are drawn in a (somewhat exaggerated) cinematic or photographic visual style.

“I kept looking at what they were drawing, and thinking that the lighting and angles reminded me so much of what I tried to create with flashes and a camera. I use a Canon camera along with Canon flashes in the field and White Lightning studio strobes when I'm in the studio. Once I have captured the images I am after, I use Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop for all of my image manipulation. I try to keep it simple, but as the reader will see, I will keep trying new techniques in Photoshop as the web comic progresses”. - Charlie Thiel

So far, Thiel has yet to find a single web comic using photos in this way. This is the first web comic, or comic of any kind, for that matter that is produced in this fashion. “It was exciting when I finally realized that no one else out there was doing anything like this, continues Thiel, it will give us a uniqueness that can only be to our benefit.”