Draw #13

NUMBER 13 $6.95

WINTER 2006

IN THE U.S.A.

THE PROFFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS AND CARTOONING

ALEX HORLE Y PAINTING DEMO & INTERVIEW K YLE BA KER PART TWO OF OUR IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW COLLEEN CO O VER CREATOR OF BANANA SUNDAYS

PLUS! BEHIND THE SCENES WITH

ADULT SWIM’S MINORITEAM TUTORIAL BY

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BRET BLEVINS & MIKE MANLEY! 1

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THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS & CARTOONING WWW.DRAWMAGAZINE.COM

WINTER 2006 • VOL. 1, NO. 13 Editor-in Chief • Michael Manley Designer • Eric Nolen-Weathington Publisher • John Morrow Logo Design • John Costanza Proofreaders • Eric Nolen-Weathington, Donna Nolen-Weathington, and Chris Irving Transcription • Steven Tice

FEATURES

3 COVER STORY INTERVIEW WITH ALEX HORLEY

For more great information on cartooning and animation, visit our website at: www.drawmagazine.com

Front Cover Illustration by Alex Horley

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DRAW! Winter 2006, Vol. 1, No. 13 was produced by Action Planet Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michael Manley, Editor, John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Address is PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082.

Subscription Address: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614. DRAW! and its logo are trademarks of Action Planet Inc. All contributions herein are copyright 2006 by their respective contributors. Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing accept no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. All artwork herein is copyright the year of production, its creator (if workfor-hire, the entity which contracted said artwork); the characters featured in said artwork are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners; and said artwork or other trademarked material is printed in these pages with the consent of the copyright holder and/or for journalistic, educational and historical purposes with no infringement intended or implied. Batman, Blue Devil, Lobo, Lois Lane, Maxima, Spawn of Frankenstein, Superman ™ & © 2006 DC Comics • Avengers, Colossus, Inhumans, Kang, Modok, Silver Surfer, Sleepwalker, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man, Thing ™ & © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Donald Duck, Pirates of the Caribbean ™ & © 2006 Disney Enterprises, Inc. • Daffy Duck, Porky Pig ™ & © 2006 Warner Bros. • Big Bird, Ernie ™ & © 2006 The Jim Henson Co. • Dick Tracy ™ & © 2006 Tribune Media Services, Inc. • Scorchy Smith ™ & © 2006 Associated Press • Cryptid ™ & © 2006 Michael Todd • The Spirit ™ & © 2006 Estate of Will Eisner • Banana Sunday ™ & © 2006 Root Nibot & Colleen Coover • Small Favors ™ & © 2006 Colleen Coover • Freckled Face ™ & © 2006 Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover • The Stranger ™ & © 2006 The Stranger/Index Publishing • Minoriteam ™ & © 2006 Cartoon Network • Al Space, The Bakers, Cowboy Wally, Holmes & Watson, Nat Turner, Why I Hate Saturn ™ & © 2006 Kyle Baker • Madman ™ & © 2006 Mike Allred • Star Wars ™ & © 2006 Lucasfilm LTD • John Carter ™ & © 2006 ERB, Inc. • Nightbreed ™ & © 2006 Clive Barker • Creepy ™ & © 2006 Jim Warren • This entire issue is © 2006 Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing and may not be reprinted or retransmitted without written permission of the copyright holders. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING • ISSN 1932-6882

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INDY COMICS BANANA SUNDAY AND SMALL FAVORS ARTIST COLLEEN COOVER

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BEHIND MINORITEAM AN INTERVIEW WITH THE SERIES CREATOR TODD JAMES

33

KYLE BAKER PART 2 OF OUR INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM LAST ISSUE

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COMIC ART BOOTCAMP COMPOSITION

BY BRET BLEVINS & MIKE MANLEY

And don’t miss the FREE PREVIEW of our sister magazine ROUGH STUFF #3, on page 79!

Figurative interpretation by Bret Blevins

FROM THE EDITOR Boy, where did the year go?! Why, it seems like it was just summer, and zoom! Now Old Man Winter is here to keep us all inside drawing away on the long, cold days.

But that’s okay, a nice up of hot coffee or Chia tea with soy milk (a fave around the studio here), some freshly sharpened pencils and new markers, paper, ink, a good brush, and your imagination is all you really need to get through the grey winter days. We lost many great cartoonists in 2006—Alex Toth and Dave Cockrum, just a few days ago, just to name two. It’s always sad to learn of the passing of an artist because it means we’ll never see any new art by them, and for me that’s the saddest part. However it will often get people to re-examine an artist’s work, and for some the news is the introduction to an artist that they never really looked at, and in the end that is maybe one positive about the loss of another master’s pen or brush.

With 2007 here and spring close, it means the convention season will be just about to start. I will be attending the February NYC show at the Javitz along with the crew from TwoMorrows, so stop by our booth and say, “Yo!” and grab some swell TwoMorrows product. I’m also happy to announce two new DVDs for this year, one by Bret Blevins on drawing the female figure and one by myself on drawing the male figure. After the great success and overwhelming positive feedback on my first DVD, How to Draw Comics, From Script to Print (still available at www.twomorrows.com) we decided to release two more DVDs this year, and if these are as successful, we’ll do more next year.

I’d also like to thank my contributors this issue—Alex Horley and the beautiful Stacey Walker, Todd James, and Colleen Coover—for taking time out from their busy schedules to share with us their working methods and techniques. Also a firm pat on the back to my fellow Drill Sergeant Bret Blevins for his part in our continuing feature Comic Art Bootcamp. This issue we cover composition, and even if you think you’ve advanced beyond basics, I suggest you really give this article a good reading and keep it close by the drawing table, to help troubleshoot your layouts and designs.

I’d also like to say goodbye and thanks to my layout man, Eric, who’s leaving us here at DRAW! but isn’t leaving the TwoMorrows family. Eric is just going to put his total creative energy into doing more of his great Modern Masters series for us here at TwoMorrows.

The next time you pick up an issue of DRAW! will be #14 in July, and by that time we are hoping to make a huge announcement which will mean bring even more of DRAW! to you.

Till then, keep drawing!

E-mail: mike@drawmagazine.com Website: www.drawmagazine.com Snail mail: PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082

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Interviewed by Mike Manley Transcribed by Steven Tice

TM & © 2006 ALEX HORLEY

Born in the outskirts of Milan, Italy, in 1970, Alex Horley (nee Alessandro Orlandelli) has become one of the foremost painters in the comics and sci-fi/fantasy fields.

Though heavily influenced by Frank Frazetta and Simon Bisley in his early years, Alex has since gone on to develop a style uniquely his own.

DRAW! editor, Mike Manley, caught up with Alex to gain some insight into his background and current working methods.

DRAW!: Did you attend art school or get any formal training?

ALEX HORLEY: I did go to art college first, and then to the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, and although I learned a lot about art in general, there wasn’t much to learn there for the kind of art I was really interested in.

DRAW!: At this time, who were your favorite artists?

AH: I was heavily into Richard Corben’s art at that time, which was the reason I chose to study sculpture as well, to get a better feel for 3-D and to be able to apply that to my 2-D work, to make even the most incredible creatures look “real.” Then I discovered the work of Simon Bisley, which basically summed up all the artists I liked the most: Frazetta, Corben, and Sienkiewicz. He was one of the artists who had the most influence on me back then.

DRAW!: What time period was this?

AH: That was the early ’90s. I remember that my favorite

comic then was “The Melting Pot,” by Bisley and Eastman. The story was a bit psychedelic, but I loved the art. There was a surreal feel to the whole thing. I also remember being blown away by the first Hellboy mini series. I’m totally self-taught. What I learned was from studying the art of my favorite artists and trying to figure out how they did it. If I had someone pointing me in the right direction right away it would have saved me some time, maybe a lot, but I’m glad I went through all that experimentation; it was fun to make all those mistakes....

DRAW!: So was the art school an art high school?

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COMICS

AH: Exactly, you still had the average high school instruction, with math, literature, science, geometry, plus we had other more artistically oriented matters, like anatomy, figure study. and sculpture.

Unfortunately, anatomy hours were very limited compared to other things like math (my kryptonite!)... so I learned anatomy mostly on my own. I got into sculpture as well, which I never seriously tried before. It was a good exercise, since I think it definitely helps “feeling” the shapes and volumes when you draw, as well.

THIS PAGE: Pencil nude studies.

RIGHT: Alex’s take on the Avengers that Kirby built.

DRAW!: I agree, and I always recommend taking sculpture to all my students. I would like to take it back up myself.

How long were you in school in total?

AH: I did four years of art school, from age 14 to 18, and then five years at the Academy of Fine Arts.

AH: That’s what I was hoping to find. We did life drawing from models, but there wasn’t much anatomy study, in the classic way. Everything was very experimental, so my knowledge of anatomy is self-taught. I remember buying this big book on Leonardo Da Vinci, in my early teens, with his anatomical drawings, and copying them using sepia ink.... Of course, I bought any art store’s anatomy manual as well. I think it is fundamental to know anatomy, even if you want to do stylized stuff like manga or more cartoon-y oriented things, because whatever character you build, you will know how to make it “work.”

DRAW!: Can you elaborate on what you mean by “experimental”?

AH: By that I mean simply to take chances when trying to understand how some artwork is done, what media you can use to achieve a specific result and how to use it. Not having a guide led me to many “wrong” tracks before finding the right one, but it wasn’t a waste of time. Besides having fun with it, what I learned was better assimilated.

DRAW!: Tell us a bit more in detail about how you went about training yourself as an artist. Were there certain artists you keyed in on, like Frazetta? I am a self-taught artist as well, so I am always interested in finding out how other artists went about the same process.

AH: I think the first step that most artists go through at the beginning is imitation. At some point, as a kid, I started realizing there were some artists I liked more than others, especially Jack Kirby. So what I used to do anytime I liked something, a cartoon, a movie, or a toy I couldn’t buy, I tried to recreate the thing on paper. Kirby was a great influence, because while trying to imitate him, I absorbed some of his sense of dynamics.

The feel for powerful poses, extreme perspective and the “chunkiness” of his figures helped me to learn how to block out basic shapes while drawing a figure. Many years later, I found 4

DRAW! • WINTER 2006

© 2006 ALEX HORLEY

DRAW!: Did you get any classic training such as drawing from casts or doing life drawing, anatomy? I would assume, maybe wrongly so, that attending such an art school would have led to you drilling on the basics, in the classical tradition.

COMICS

ALEX HORLEY

the book How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, and I found that many things they were teaching, I learned on my own looking at Kirby’s work. Then, with Frazetta, I started having to deal with another problem: color! I slowly started to realize how the values work, how to achieve the illusion of depth.

That later led me to study painters like Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. It’s a never-ending learning process!

AH: From Frazetta I learned mostly that, before coloring, you need to have a strong composition, lights and shadows and values figured out. Then you can move to coloring....

Some of his paintings are mostly tonal renderings in sepia or umber with just a hint of color and they’re perfect like that! Of course the choice of those few colors and the subtleties he manages to obtain—you have to see his originals!!—are part of his genius.

From Corben I learned the use of warm light-cool light— or I should say warm light-cool shadows and vice versa—and how to use it to emphasize volumes and shapes with color.

Color is also mostly based on an artist’s personality and how one deals with each subject matter. There are some rules that you learn along the way, and there are endless methods to coloring, but in the end what you want to achieve is to lead the viewer’s eye where you want and suggest the “emotions” you want them to feel through the colors you use.

DRAW!: I agree with what you say as far as color being emotional and very personal. It’s such a reflection of the artist’s emotions, his or her emotional expression toward a subject.

When you get an assignment, say a cover or an illustration—a single piece as opposed to a comic story—what is your approach, the way you go about tackling the assignment? Do you do thumbnails, small layouts, etc.?

AVENGERS, KANG TM & © 2006 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

DRAW!: Can you explain to us a bit on your thoughts on color, your approach to using it and what you learned from studying the Masters and artists like Frazetta and Corben?

AH: With a cover you have to suggest a story—or part of it— with just one picture, and at the same time try to capture the reader’s attention with it, make them go “Hey, what’s going on here?” and pick up the book. So, compared to the panels from a comic book, a cover—or any single illustration, like gaming cards—has to be more “complete”.

I always do thumbnails, whether for covers, cards, or comic book pages. It’s so much easier to block down compositions at a small size. Then I blow them up to the size I need with a photocopy or with a projector. I have to do pretty detailed sketches to get approved first, but I don’t like to do super-detailed drawings; I like to leave some spontaneity to the painting stage. If I plan too much, then it becomes sort of like painting-by-numbers. If I know exactly where I’m going, it gets kind of boring.

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COMICS AH: I use photos very rarely. I actually use photos only when I do covers for Heavy Metal magazine, for which I work with Stacy Walker, my one and only model. But even in those circumstances, I never start drawing from a photo. I always start with my own drawing, then I shoot the pictures—usually you have to take many different ones to “fit” your layout—and finally I “squeeze” the photo references into my drawing.

But I’d say that 90-95% of my work is without references.

DRAW!: How do you try and set yourself out front, separate yourself from the pack as it were, as one of many artists working in the illustration, fantasy, sci-fi, and comics field, which—let’s face it—is really going through a rough time in many ways?

CRYPTID ™ & © 2006 MICHAEL TODD.

AH: Good question.... how? I tried to figure that out for years, but in the end I just settled with my instincts. I’ve been lucky enough to keep almost constantly busy since I started working in this field. The market goes through trends and flavors; I just stuck with what I like doing and what I have fun doing. Of course, having the chance to choose the right projects helps. Some kids at conventions will often ask me “How do I find my style?” or “What style do you think I should use?” I don’t have an answer to that.

I can only say that it better be a way of working that you really enjoy because you’ll have to spend a lot of time doing it.

DRAW!: What’s your studio set-up like? I know you travel back and forth between the States and Italy; do you have similar studios in both countries?

At times I do small colored sketches—or color comps, which I suggest to do in general, in order to solve problems before you move on to a bigger surface—but I never have time now. At times I do “painted sketches” for myself, just for fun. To me those are real finished paintings; it’s all there, the energy, the spontaneity— but, you know, everybody wants “detail”! Sometimes I wish I had the guts to say, “This is my final piece!” but I like to eat, so....

AH: Heh! “Studio” is a big word. In Italy, I work in a former bedroom, turned into a comic book warehouse, turned into studio.

When I’m in the US, I work in the living room, but I don’t paint huge canvases—for now!—so I’m fine with that. Both “studios” look like an art store just exploded, taking down the action figures section of a Toys ’R’ Us....

DRAW!: How often do you use photos or models, and do you shoot them yourself?

DRAW!: What about digital media; do you use Painter or Photoshop at all in your process?

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COMICS AH: Nope. I tried, but I prefer the “real” tools. I use Photoshop, but only to scan away my paintings. I’m working on a comic book for which I’ll paint the panels separately, rather than on one page, and then put the page back together digitally.

But the artwork is still going to be hand painted.

DRAW!: What kind of computer set-up do you have?

AH: I have a Mac G5 (I think), from last year. It’s the flat screen one, which is great, because takes up so little space and it’s pretty powerful, too.

DRAW!: I know in San Diego, the last time we saw each other, we spoke a little about the ownership of the images you create versus being the hired gun, where you create images you don’t own or, in the end, control. Artists like Frazetta became wealthy because, in part, he owned or controlled the rights to his work.

Where are you on this now? Are you trying to create a body of images that you can own and resell?

AH: So far, I’ve been too busy trying to make a living, but that’s definitely the direction I want to go. I have great admiration for those guys who succeeded in that, people like Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Erik Larsen, and Eric Powell, who pursued their own projects and managed to mostly work on that. I have tons of ideas and projects on the backburner. I always focused on building a career through paying jobs, but I feel more and more that I’m going to take a chance and do my own stories and paintings.

© 2006 ALEX HORLEY

ALEX HORLEY

Before, I wanted to work on these icons, characters I grew up with. Now that I accomplished that, more or less, I feel more selfconfident and I’ll be working in that direction in the near future.

DRAW!: How does your website and doing a lot of conventions play into this?

AH: So far, I haven’t used the website venue to its full potential, but I’m building a new website right now, with which I’ll try to accomplish that and not just use it as an online gallery. I might eventually end up selling prints and maybe even my own comics online. Conventions are a great way to stay in touch with the readers, to get a first-hand reaction, good or bad, to my works. Also, conventions are great to get to know other fellow artists and share experiences and opinions.

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES DRAW!: So give us the low-down on what you like to draw and paint with.

AH: I use HB and 2B technical pencils for drawing. I smudge a lot and use kneaded erasers to model and highlight my drawings.

I use tons of copy paper for sketches or even painting tryouts. I use mainly Bristol smooth finish paper for fine rendered pencil drawings.

For painting I use 90% Liquitex acrylic colors, both tubes and pots—a few Rembrandt and Golden Colors, too. In the last few years I’ve been using Winsor & Newton University brushes, any size and shape. I have some really old worn-out brushes—some about 20 years old!—which I still use for various effects only an old used brush can get. When I use oils I use Rembrandt and Winsor & Newton colors; mostly I use Liquin, a quick drying medium, and turpenoid, an odorless paint thinner/cleaner. I paint on every possible surface, from canvas board to pre-gessoed Masonite boards (gessoboard), to heavy paper and artboards (Strathmore cold press), and often canvas paper (Canson, Figueras). I like to switch textures around, depending on what the painting subject suggests to me.

I have every possible item you can find in an art store, stored somewhere in my studio, but these are the ones I use on a regular basis.

DRAW!: What was your big break? How did you get into the business, and did you break in America or Italy first?

PREVIOUS PAGE: Opening page to the Cryptid comic book series.

RIGHT: An oil study.

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ALEX HORLEY

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AH: My very first published work was for some local fanzines, then I did some interiors and a couple of covers for an Italian RPG magazine whose art director put me in touch with Dave Elliott, who, at the time, was editor of UK’s Tundra line and Atomika’s beautiful black-&white anthology, A-1. I flew to London and met him; he was working on a new series with characters created by Simon Bisley and asked me right away to do some pin-ups of those characters. I was in seventh heaven! Even if the line was ended before my art could be published, I consider that my “big break.” After that, one thing led to another, my art started being seen around, and eventually I was contacted by DC to work on Lobo, one of my favorite characters ever. I started going to conventions to bug editors and artists which I learned is fundamental if you want your work to be noticed.

DRAW!: So Lobo was your first work for the American market?

THE SPIRIT ™ & ©2006 WILL EISNER ESTATE.

AH: Yes, it was my favorite character at the time, and still is one of my favorites today. I had a ball anytime I worked on him.

DRAW!: Now, so far we’ve been talking about mostly your painting work, but I’d also like to talk about your work drawing comics. Do you have any philosophy in regards to page layouts, or preferences in plot vs. full script?

AH: I usually prefer a plot where I have a little freedom to work with, but I work with full scripts as well and, in those circumstances, the challenge is to make it “your own” even when following detailed directions.

ABOVE: Alex prefers storytelling over the “nice drawing” as illustrated by Will Eisner, among others.

NEXT PAGE: Alex enjoys working in the “Bruce Timm style” for fun.

DRAW!: It’s a different mindset to do comic storytelling, so would you say you are more in the school of the “nice drawing” which would be more like Adams, Wrightson, or Frazetta’s comics work—even Raymond and Foster—or the “Storytelling school” which I always think of more in the vein of Kubert or Eisner, and which is more cinematic, more design-oriented in the use of layout?

AH: I tend to prefer rather “simple” layouts over too fancy page settings. My storytelling bible has been John Buscema’s Silver Surfer and Thor runs—and Jack Kirby, of course. To me, the story has to be easy to read primarily, and, like in those comics, the pages were following almost some sort of grid, but it was what was going on inside the panels that was incredi8

DRAW! • WINTER 2006

ble—the camera movements, the posing of figures, the dynamism, and the overall page’s balance of light and shadow.

If a page is full of beautifully rendered drawings, but you can’t tell which panel comes first, then I think you missed the target anyway. I think a comic book artist is the closest thing to a movie director, where you “shoot” the scenes, “direct” the characters, and edit your own work.... In short, you have to tell the story, first.

DRAW!: I saw on your website that you like to also play around with styles, you had some very animated-looking sketches and some Kirby-esque looking ones as well.

AH: I’m a huge fan of Bruce Timm’s work; I just love his approach, which is both classical and stylized at the same time.

COMICS A few years ago, I tried to work in that style, just for fun, and got hooked by it. For someone like me, who’s used to rendering every shadow of every shape and muscle in a sort of “realistic” way, plus color, it was very refreshing to approach figures using only essential black lines. The Kirby-esque ones were just me going back to my roots, when I used to want to be Kirby (silly kid!).

DRAW!: Do you do any drawing or sketching outside of work?

Do you do landscapes and keep sketchbooks, attend life-drawing classes?

AH: No, but I really wish I could. I suggest to anybody, no matter what style you want to work with, try to do life drawings as often as possible. It’s very useful to improve your understanding of the figure. Take art classes or draw your sleeping grandpa, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care much for landscapes, but I’m planning to do life “paintings,” meaning doing quick figure studies directly in oils. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, and I’m determined to find the time soon.

I have to!

ALEX HORLEY

anatomy in general was nothing short than Michelangelo-esque.

Few artists managed to render the “fleshiness” of their characters as he did. Other European artists that I haven’t been influenced by, but I greatly admire, are Jordi Bernet and Moebius (especially his early “Arzach” stories!).

DRAW!: What type of pens and brushes do you use in your comic work? What tools do you use; do you use blue pencils to rough out, etc.?

LOIS LANE, SUPERMAN ™ & ©2006 DC COMICS.

DRAW!: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

AH: “Never give up!”

DRAW!: What’s the worst?

AH: “Never give up!” [laughter] No, seriously, determination, in my opinion, is even more important than raw talent.

I’ve seen many talented artists giving up within their first year and less talented ones, who were more “driven,” ending up with professional success.

I’ve spoken with many artists, and I mean also some of my “art heroes,” and there’s something to learn from every single one, but also you can’t let someone else’s opinion or taste make you go in the wrong direction. On the other hand, there’s also people who don’t have a clue, they draw stick figures and can’t tell the difference from a real pro’s work....

DRAW!: Were you influenced in your comic approach by any of the great European artists, especially the artists from Spain or Italy?

AH: The Italian artist I studied the most is Tanino (or Gaetano) Liberatore, the artist who draws Ranxerox. His approach to figures and DRAW! • WINTER 2006

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COMICS

©2006 ALEX HORLEY

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ALEX HORLEY

AH: I don’t do many black-&-white comics now, but when I did—many years ago—I was into using markers rather than brushes. Today I would definitely go for a totally different look and would definitely use brushes instead. I used blue pencils for a really short time, but I mostly use regular pencils, both for roughs or finished drawings.

bad day destroy your ego and career. Accept all criticisms and advice.” I learned a lot from my portfolio reviews. In general, be humble, meaning to always leave open the possibility there’s something you haven’t learned yet. Besides being talented, you need to show also that you’re easy to work with. This doesn’t mean to be an ass-kisser, but just try to give an impression of reliability.

DRAW!: What type of process do you go through? Do you do tight layouts first or do you go straight to the board?

DRAW!: What do you read in comics these days? ©2006 ALEX HORLEY

AH: I usually plan out the pages at a really small size, just to have a feel of the whole page, to study balances and direction. I loosely ink them with Faber-Castell’s brush pens, then blow it up at comic page “actual size”—to see how it would work in the reader’s eye—and light box it on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of photocopy paper where I tighten up the drawing. After that I blow it up to the standard comic art page size [11" x 17"], where I either ink it or paint it. I try to not go crazy with details and leave a little room for “playing” between one step and the other.

AH: I don’t read as much as I used to—time issue again—but what I’ve been reading on a regular basis is Hellboy and Eric Powell’s The Goon. I love weird horror comics with a touch of black humor. I read and re-read everything

by Robert E. Howard, Joe Lansdale, and Richard Matheson. Lansdale especially is extremely imaginative and wickedly visually inspiring. I can spend hours looking at any Caravaggio painting. When I need to get my juices running, I just look at some of Frazetta’s painting or John Buscema’s and Jack Kirby’s action sequences... that usually does the trick.

DRAW!: Is there a subject that you would really like to sink your artistic teeth into that you haven’t?

DRAW!: Do you like to do loose pencils and do a lot of the drawing in the finish since, I think, you always ink your own work?

AH: I’ve been lucky enough to have a chance, in one way or another, to AH: Yes, I try to keep it loose. (Often I have to work on most my childkeep it loose for time reahood’s favorite characters sons.) I don’t like to trace (superheroes). my drawings; it’s like I have a soft spot for drawing them twice. dark characters and stories, so that’s what I would like ABOVE: Self-portrait.

DRAW!: And what advice PREVIOUS PAGE: Alex shows a bit of his Kirby influence in this Wonder City illo. to do. I love R.E. Howard’s would you give the nerwork and would really love vous guy standing in line to work on one of his stowith his portfolio looking to break in? ries. I also would like to work on some “adult horror-fantasy” stories, you know, something like Richard Corben’s “Den” saga. I AH: “What are you into today as far as your reading or study have tons of ideas and subjects I’d like to sink my artistic teeth in, habits across the fields of sci-fi/fantasy and comics, even fine it’s not even funny.... art? Whose work do you follow? What gets you excited, gets you going on the days when you feel the drawing or painting DRAW!: Finally, where do you see yourself in five to ten years? just isn’t coming—something that will always inspire you?”

“Be polite, don’t get defensive when an art director criticizes AH: Hopefully, still where I am right now: painting and your work; also don’t let an art director—or a famous artist—on a drawing away in my studio.

See page 40 for more of Alex’s art!

DRAW! • WINTER 2006

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COLLEEN COOVER

INDY COMICS

They say making a simple drawing is hard, and this is true, but some artists like Colleen Coover make the hard part of simplicity look easy, and that is always the mark of a good cartoonist. From her just completed Banana Sunday series to her work on Small Favors and work in-between, Coover’s art displays a classic, charming, open and inviting style, a bouncy brush line that hearkens back to the best of Betty and Veronica and girls’ comics of the Silver and Golden Ages without becoming embalmed with retro kitsch.

DRAW! magazine Editor-in-Chief Mike Manley conducted this interview over the phone with the hard working Coover from her home studio.

Interview conducted by Mike Manley Transcribed by Steven Tice

DRAW!: You’re normally a morning person?

COLLEEN COOVER: Well... yeah. I mean, I get up probably around 8:00 and then sort of ease into things, probably like, 10:00, 10:30. I’ve been doing panel borders so far this morning for very low-impact work. And then I like to go down to my gym sometimes in the morning, and lately I’ve been hanging out at Mercury Studio to do actual work with the fellows there.

DRAW!: Okay, I’ve heard of them. And so it’s nice to have that camaraderie, I take it?

CC: Oh, yeah, and they have a great space downtown in an office building, so it’s nice. It’s almost like going to work.

DRAW!: Yeah. It’s nice to sometimes break up the monotony of working at home.

DRAW!: So who is Mercury Studios?

CC: Exactly.

CC: It’s Steve Lieber, Jeff Parker, David Hannes, Ron Randall and Matthew Clark.

DRAW!: Which can get you really easily distracted sometimes.

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INDY COMICS

COLLEEN COOVER

CC: Yeah, or lazy, which is the other word for it.

DRAW!: Well, you know, there’s that laundry that needs to be done, that pile of mail that needs to be gone through.

CC: Yeah. And also I’ve found that if I go with a limited scope of what I can do, like if I don’t pack my inking stuff and I just pack some stuff to be penciled, then I’ll do more penciling. I’ll actually get more penciling work done than I would ordinarily, because sometimes, if I’m just doing whatever at home, I’ll pencil something halfway, and then I’ll get bored of penciling, so I’ll start inking it before it’s really ready.

DRAW!: Right. So you have a setup at home, your home studio, and then you have, I guess, like a space that you rent with the guys?

CC: Actually, I just sort of squat on whatever table is free.

DRAW!: So you don’t have another mini-setup there so you don’t have to haul stuff back and forth?

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

CC: I’ve got the girlfriend drawer, you know? I’ve got a box that’s really filling up. I’ve got a bottle of ink and a brush that’s sort of just staying there now.

DRAW!: “I guess we can clear some of these action figures off to let you have some space for your girl stuff.”

CC: Yeah, nothing official. Some of the people who actually pay rent there never go there, and there are still tables from former artists who used to go there.

DRAW!: So they’re the mystery artists?

CC: Yeah, I don’t think they still are actually paying rent on the place, but they still have all their stuff there. It’s a very easygoing kind of studio space.

ABOVE: Layouts from Banana Sunday.

DRAW!: I was very interested in interviewing you, because in the comics industry there seem to be fewer women, and in the animation business there don’t have to worry about doing all-nighters when you’ve are a lot of women in various positions—animators or backalready had to deal with your family as well. Whereas in the ground painters, even character designs—but in comics, at least other industries, historically, it’s more acceptable for a fellow to in the mainstream, it’s like, four or five women in total. I may go do an overnighter at a studio or whatever and leave the family be stretching a bit, but I always see, it seems, the usual suspects. behind for a few hours, y’know?

And in the alternative comics crowd, there’s a lot more women.

DRAW!: So you think it’s more that than maybe the material in CC: Right. I have my theories, but they’re all sort of conjecsome respects? tures about that. I think a lot of it has to do with the same sort CC: I also think it’s the material. I don’t think it’s necessarily of family dynamics that have made women historically less because the genres are less appealing, although, now that I’ve powerful in other industries, where, y’know, if you have a baby or something, that’s going to take time away from your art. And said that, I want to contradict myself.

I think if you’re working for yourself, that’s not as much of an DRAW!: Well, I mean, another reason I ask this is, it’s always impact. So, if you are, say, Carla Speed McNeil, and you’re fascinating for me to go into the comic book shop with my girlworking for yourself and you set your own schedule, then you

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COLLEEN COOVER

INDY COMICS

friend, Echo, because she likes 100 Bullets, she likes Sin City, she read a lot of manga stuff when she grew up in China, and so it’s always interesting for me to get her take on the mainstream stuff here. And most of the stuff, she picks it up and puts it down. It doesn’t seem very appealing to her. She sort of feels that a lot of it looks like it’s all done by the same person.

CC: Well, this is true, and speaking generally, I’m not sure who most of the mainstream stuff does appeal to.

DRAW!: Well, the same people that it’s appealed to for the last 20 years since the direct market started.

CC: I mean, as a retailer, I knew people who would buy a certain line of comics every month, or every week, if it was like a family of books, and I know for a fact that they never read them. They just wanted their complete set, because they were collectors or whatever.

CC: And not only chained to continuity, but also to marketability and what that means, not necessarily to the creator or even the editor, but to the guy in the office.

DRAW!: So now, having said all that, when you started doing Banana Sunday you had a beginning, a middle, and an end. So talking about stories that you like that have a beginning, a middle, and an end, were you very conscious of that when you came up with the concept, that you were going to do the four-issues that you could collect and then have a little trade paperback so that if somebody wanted to pick it up, they could get the whole story in one lump?

CC: Oh, yeah. Also, I don’t think either Paul or I wanted to have me be up against the deadline. I’m not that fast, as an artist.

DRAW!: So you used to work in retail?

CC: Yeah, I worked for six years in a comic shop in Iowa City, and my partner, Paul Tobin, was actually the manager there for over ten years. It was a very large comic book shop, and I know for a fact that some of our regular customers collected that way. Now, I also know that there were people who were reading everything. They would read every single Marvel comic because they had read every single Marvel comic since they were seven, and now they were 35, and they had just gotten into that habit, and it didn’t really matter to them who was writing or what was going on. And sometimes they would complain about this or that being stupid, but they just kept picking up those books.

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

DRAW!: Well, again, another reason I find this an interesting subject is also the fact that in the classes I teach, I would say I had, what, five, six female students a year. They all liked comics. Most of them liked anime. Most of them did not like superhero comics for the most part, and if they did, it was Sin City and things like that, and again I’m sort of wondering if it’s because it’s the—in those books Frank makes the women very tough and very alluring as opposed to the—I mean, it’s cheesecake, but it’s more of a macho cheesecake.

CC: Yeah, and I would also argue that what Sin City has, that maybe some of the books in the two corporations don’t have, is a beginning and an end.

It’s a story that goes somewhere with a purpose, whereas the stories with the ongoing characters are so bogged down with backstory and so bogged down with having to fit in with the rest of the Marvel or DC Universe.

DRAW!: Oh, that’s true. Everything is chained to everything else; it’s just chained to something that happened 40 years ago.

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ABOVE AND NEXT PAGE: A page from Banana Sunday from layout to finished art.

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

INDY COMICS COLLEEN COOVER

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COLLEEN COOVER

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RIGHT AND NEXT PAGE: More Banana Sunday from layout to finished page. Notice the change in panel 2, which puts more emphasis on the missing chunk of wall.

DRAW!: Okay, define fast. Are you a page a day, two pages a week?

CC: Right now, on the graphic novel I’m working on, I’m striving for four pages a week.

DRAW!: And that’s pencils and inks, or just pencils?

CC: That’s a whole page, pencils and inks. But I’ve met that goal once, so....

DRAW!: And now, how many hours a day are you putting into that in order to get that done?

CC: I’m estimating six or seven.

DRAW!: Okay, so you’re not grinding yourself down working 16 hours a day?

CC: Right. I’m also doing some illustration work, as well.

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

DRAW!: Yeah, and I was going to touch on that, as well. So I guess, going back to what we were talking about....

CC: So, yeah, for Banana Sunday it’s actually gone through a lot of incarnations, because we sort of came up with the idea years ago, and it got sort of back shelved while I was honing my skills with Small Favors. And it was only after I had done enough work on Small Favors that I really felt like I had the discipline and the skill to do a larger story, something that had a complete story arc over, what would that be 80-some pages, I guess.

DRAW!: As opposed to doing eight- to ten-page stories?

CC: Exactly, which is—I mean, Small Favors started out with one ten-page story and a bunch of one-pagers, or something like that, and it was very much “do a story of X number of pages and then figure out how to sell each individual issue with other pages or pin-ups or whatever.”

DRAW!: Which, you know, in a way, is traditionally how the business used to be.

CC: Sure.

DRAW!: When you started out, you’d get an eight-, ten-page story. Even the old Warren magazines, those were eight- or ten-page stories. DC had their anthology books like House of Secrets. They don’t really have books like that anymore.

CC: The entire Golden Age was like that, too.

DRAW!: Right, so you couldn’t start out and do an eight-page 16

DRAW! • WINTER 2006

story and then kind of work your way up to get a main feature.

They’d throw you, basically, right in the deep end of the pool and see if you can do 22 laps a month.

CC: I probably would have had a nervous breakdown if I had had to do an entire story arc right off the bat, because just the pressure of getting that much done and having the end of the project that far away would have been really intimidating to me.

Small Favors really gave me that confidence, y’know, I can complete eight issues, or whatever, of material over X amount of time.

DRAW!: Now, while you were doing that, obviously you had to have another source of income. So were you also working a full-time job, or were you doing illustration on the side?

CC: When I was doing Small Favors, I was working retail at the comic shop, and before that at a coffee shop, so that was—up

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

INDY COMICS COLLEEN COOVER

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COLLEEN COOVER

INDY COMICS “Is it a living?” versus “Is it a hobby?”.

CC: Right. I don’t know any other independent people who don’t have a job outside of their projects, other than Clowes or Charles Burns, and they do illustration work. I talked to Seth at a convention once, and he said he spends 80% of his time doing illustration work, and only 20% of the time doing comics, which explains why his stuff comes out so slowly.

DRAW!: Well, again, that’s one of the things that becomes very clear when you start to talk to more people who do the indy, non-mainstream. We have to come up with a better name for that because it just seems sort of dumb now.

CC: Yeah, and it overlaps a lot more than it originally did. If I go into a shop and there’s the Marvel stuff, the DC stuff, and then everything else, the “everything else” includes everything from Dark Horse to mini-comics, and it just doesn’t seem appropriate.

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

DRAW!: Right. And that represents something like, what, 14% to 15% of the business, but I think that 14% or 15% of the business has 95% of the variety.

CC: Right.

CC: I would call it making an income.

DRAW!: So that’s very interesting to hear. My assistant, she’s trying to break into the business doing work on her own, and it’s much tougher to develop yourself as an author doing independent comics, as opposed to trying to get your work accepted by Marvel, DC, or somebody who’s actually going to give you a $150 to $200 page rate. In the short term, it’s harder because it’s harder to connect with the audience, but I think, in the long term, if you have a body of work—you have Banana Sunday and then ten years from now, you have five or six or seven other properties, books, things that you own that you can control—I think you’re better off.

Because, in the long run, working for Marvel or DC is great—I’ve done it for over 20 years—but I don’t own anything. And I don’t control anything. I don’t control whether they reprint it in Brazil, whether they reprint it in Russia, whether they decide “We’re not going to pay you for any more royalties or reprints.” And, y’know, it’s not going to pay for my applesauce when I’m 80.

DRAW!: Okay. Again, see, this is another important piece of information. I think, something that is very fascinating and important for the up-and-coming artists, readers of the magazine, people trying to break into the business—because there definitely is economy of scale between the mainstream and the independent, the people that basically do non-superhero material—and nobody seems to talk much about this—the monetary end of it.

CC: Right. Exactly. It’s frustrating not to be able to get paid for your work right away on the one hand, but then, a comic book is a really good way to show people in the rest of the graphic art world that you can get the work done. It’s led to a lot of illustration work for me, and illustration work is a really nice way to supplement my comics work. I’ve been doing a lot of illustration work for The Stranger Weekly in Seattle.

ABOVE AND NEXT PAGE: More layouts from Banana Sunday.

until two years ago, I was doing retail full-time and then coming home at night and working for a couple of hours.

DRAW!: And now you’re able to make your living completely off of your artwork?

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INDY COMICS

COLLEEN COOVER

DRAW!: That’s like the weekly newspaper?

CC: That’s the free newspaper.

DRAW!: Okay, we have the City Paper here in Philadelphia.

CC: Right. And I get an assignment on Friday that’s due on Monday for a spot illustration, and then they pay me the next week, because everything’s “right now.” But it’s a very... as far as time is concerned, it doesn’t impact my schedule very badly because, unlike if I were to do a short story for an anthology or something, that might take me several weeks, whereas in illustration, there’s just one image, it tells a story, or whatever story the editor wants it to tell, and then it’s done, and it’s out of my hair.

DRAW!: So do you see yourself as a cartoonist or an illustrator who does a cartoon style?

CC: I see myself as a cartoonist because I don’t use models.

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

DRAW!: Okay. And you don’t use models because you don’t like to use models? That’s not the way you like to work?

CC: I find generally that if I use models I get a little too precious with the anatomy and the posing. And I sometimes will sort of look at photo reference or pose reference books just for an idea of how something difficult would work.

DRAW!: Like drapery or something? Or folds on a suit, or something?

CC: Yeah, or just how the body would naturally lie with gravity and all that. But mostly, I construct my figures with cartooning techniques, the old stick figure thing.

DRAW!: Right, right. Now, is this something that you just sort of discovered as you went along, that you prefer to do more stylized as opposed to more realistic?

and then I just never sketched in it.

DRAW!: So do you sketch outside of doing an assignment?

CC: Yeah. Early on with Small Favors I would use a lot of reference. I would reference some of the Japanese Pose Files books, I would reference men’s magazines.... Not extensively, because most of them are kind of boring and gross, but to sort of get basic anatomy, and just to get my practice in. But then I just got away from it and went in a more cartooning style.

Every comic book that I read that gets me excited about what’s going on, I’ll analyze how an artist did something or how this works and this doesn’t, and it’ll end up getting incorporated into my own work.

DRAW!: Do you keep a sketchbook? Do you practice?

CC: I know that’s kind of weird, but I don’t. I tried for a while,

CC: I’ve got piles and piles and piles of paper with doodles.

Does that count, doodles?

DRAW!: Sure, sure. Yeah. Oh, I like to ask this of artists in the interviews because I know artists who don’t ever draw anything that’s not for pay. I know artists who are compulsive doodlers who draw over anything in the world. I know artists who are afraid of the blank sheet of paper, so having something like a sketchbook is like [gasps]. It’s like they freeze up. But if you give them loose sheets of paper, they’re fine. And then some people, some artists, it’s like a journal, and they’re really into working in their sketchbook. Like Adam Hughes or Steve Rude, they’re always studying and writing down notes to themselves.

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COLLEEN COOVER

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CC: Yeah. I don’t keep a sketchbook, I think because it makes me feel like every page needs to be a finished product. I think I’m afraid of sketchbooks because I feel like I’m going to have to show it to somebody, because everybody says, “Hey, can I see your sketchbook?”

DRAW!: Noooooooo!

CC: I don’t even like people to know what book I’m reading, much less what I’m writing down. It’s just a thing with me.

DRAW!: So are you a selftaught artist or did you go to school?

CC: I took a semester of art classes in college before I dropped out.

DRAW!: What college was that?

CC: The University of Iowa. Not a good place for illustration or comic book art.

DRAW!: But a very good place for creationism!

CC: No, Iowa City is a very progressive city.

DRAW!: Oh, okay. It’s not like Kansas.

CC: It’s not Kansas. Iowa is more like “suspiciously eye your neighbor but don’t poke your nose into their business.”

DRAW!: Now, growing up, was art part of your life? Was it your family’s life, was it encouraged in any way?

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

CC: Comics were around from my early childhood because I have an older sister and we had a pile of comics. I preferred Archie and Harvey and some of the super-hero stuff. My older sister preferred the horror comics. And I would just read everything. So I basically learned to read on comics.

DRAW!: Y’know, that’s funny you say “horror,” because that’s another thing that my female students really love, they love horror. They love horror comics.

And you always think, “Oh, girls don’t want gross, decaying corpses” or whatever, but a lot of them are really into it.

ABOVE AND NEXT PAGE: More art from Banana Sunday.

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CC: The presumptions of what

women will enjoy or not enjoy are really bizarre to me. The presumption that a woman would not do Small Favors, and that women wouldn’t be a good market for erotic comics, was insane to me.

Because I’ve read romance books, y’know, and they’re basically softcore porn.

DRAW!: Well, women make up something close to 40% of the buying public of pornography in general.

CC: Oh, yeah!

DRAW!: So, yeah, that whole thing.

CC: It’s a bizarre assumption because it just assumes that women don’t have an appetite for erotic material.

DRAW!: Or don’t like to be scared or grossed out like anybody else.

CC: Right. Like the other half of the population does. I think it’s a marketing thing. I think it’s a corporate thing.

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

DRAW!: So you were saying you liked kids’ comics—you liked the....

CC: Archies and Harveys. I miss Harvey.

DRAW!: I can definitely see that when I look at your style. One of the things I really liked about— and I wasn’t really aware of your work before Banana Sunday—but I immediately liked your line.

Your line is very nice and fluid and very Archie or Harvey-esque, and that’s really hard to do. People think that it’s harder to draw like Neal Adams because you can render things all up, but it’s much harder to draw simple, because....

CC: It’s easier with a more realistic style to cover your mistakes, I think. With, say, a Neal Adams style, you can have something be slightly off and it doesn’t look off because there’s all this other stuff going on that’s more....

DRAW!: And I’m not trying to knock Neal, because I really like his stuff, but most of the samples I see from aspiring car-

toonists are stuff that is highly rendered and detailed, and that never saves any of the problems that they have with their drawing or their storytelling.

CC: I did start out more detailed and over time it developed this way. Part of that was I started reading Jack Hamm’s Cartooning the Head and Figure book.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 47

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TODD JAMES presents... the SECRET ORIGIN of

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

Interviewed by Mike Manley Transcribed by Steven Tice What would a smash-up between those old limited animation Marvel cartoons, Jack Kirby, racist stereotypes, Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, and part of the team behind Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers look like? The result is the disturbingly funny and un-PC Minoriteam. DRAW! Editor Mike Manley was asked early on to contribute to the look of the show by inking the storyboard art to look very “Kirbyesque.” So sit back and enjoy this look behind the scenes on one of Adult Swim’s newest hits—Minoriteam!

DRAW!: Where did you grow up?

DRAW!: You dropped out of art school and high school both?

TODD JAMES: New York City.

TJ: It was an art high school.

DRAW!: Did you go to art school?

DRAW!: While you were there did you have any teachers of note? Any famous cartoonists?

TJ: I went to the High School of Art and Design, which is not the same as Art Music and Art, the school Fame was based on.

Art and Design was more for commercial art and had some cartooning classes. By the time I was in 11th grade they had cut all that stuff and I dropped out. Art and Design was a huge training ground for graffiti writers and comic book kids. So in that way it was great and like nowhere else.

TJ: The one teacher I can remember was a guy named Mr. Pacter; he’d talk with a microphone. He’d tell everyone to stop watching TV and practice drawing or they’d end up as garbage men. I remember stopping for a week. I might have actually ended up doing something I didn’t like if it wasn’t for TV. Thanks, G-Force.

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TODD JAMES

ANIMATION

DRAW!: Did you attend college or take any more art classes to continue your education?

TJ: I took some night classes at The School for Visual Arts (SVA) with Don Duga and a class at Parsons in comic book art with a teacher named Ken Lendgrath—I think that’s his last name. He was a good teacher. He was very into reference files, and that was before the Internet, so having your own library of images was important.

DRAW!: Do you continue any classes now or go and do weekly figure drawing, etc.?

TJ: No, but I draw a lot.

DRAW!: Are you New York-based, or did you move to LA for the show since the offices for the company, Funny Garbage, are in LA? TJ: I live in NYC but was out in LA most of last year working. Peter and Adam, my partners on the show, both live there.

DRAW!: So I take it you were a big Marvel Comics fan growing up?

TJ: I had a big phase around the age of 12 to 14; it was when John Byrne was doing the X-Men and they had those issues with the Sentinels.

When I left Art and Design I was at this school called City which was internshipbased, and I interned at Marvel and then got hired for a summer job. I read mail, Xeroxed comic art for editors, I sat in the bullpen. I loved reading fan mail because it was usually nuts. I was 17 and wasn’t as big a comic fan then. I was wrapped up in Graffiti and Tex Avery cartoons, but it was a very fun job.

DRAW!: What other cartoonists were you into?

TJ: Well I actually didn’t know the names of the designers, the directors had the credit at the beginning.

But I loved the art.

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

ABOVE: The clean-up pencils of the character El Yo from the storyboard rough at right, for the episode “El Dia Gigante.”

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ANIMATION

TODD JAMES

DRAW!: When you first got the idea to pitch the show to Adult Swim, were you already planning the show to be done in the style that is both largely based on Jack Kirby, but also the limited animation of the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of the ’60s?

TJ: Yeah. Adam, Peter, and I all love that stuff. We love cheap stuff. I’m a huge fan of Roger Ramjet and Rocky and Bullwinkle as well. When you can get a point across simply, it’s a thing of beauty. The great thing about deciding to do Minoriteam like those shows was we knew no one else would really do that now. It’s the type of show people joke about doing.

DRAW!: Were you a big fan of those old cartoons? I know I was; I watched them everyday after school. They had great voices and very cool canned music, too.

TJ: I watched them and loved the theme songs and the characters, but even as a very young kid I could tell the animation was really lowend. I loved the Hulk [cartoon] and those were my introduction to comic art, actually.

Now I love the Thor series and Loki’s voice was my inspiration for the Corporate Ladder’s voice.

I read in a Kirby Collector that they actually bought an expensive Xerox machine to make those cartoons and Disney owned the only other machine. I think it Xeroxed onto cells. It’s funny that such a high-tech, expensive piece of equipment was used on those shows, because they looked like they just cut drawings out of a comic and moved them around.

DRAW!: Did you have any trouble getting that idea across to the network? In other words, did they get it? Were they familiar with the Marvel cartoons?

TJ: They knew exactly what we were talking about. Mike Lazzo knows cartoons, and Nick Wiedenfeld loves that kind of stuff.

DRAW!: Do you feel your audience, most of whom are in their early 20s will “get it,” get Kirby as well, or is that not as important as them just liking the show overall?

TJ: I doubt that younger people know those shows but the style of Minoriteam fits in with Adult Swim. The audience doesn’t need to know the reference, it’s just an added bonus to those who do. Also about Kirby’s stuff, it’s so influential that even if you don’t know him, you know his work. For instance, I grew up on John Byrne, who later on I could see was very much influenced by Kirby. Kirby created a ripple effect so everyone’s imitated him, most comics are based on Kirby. For a show like this, the posing needs to be an easy read to help tell the story.

He’s the master of layout.

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

TOP: Kirbyesque Zombie pilgrims ABOVE: Cleaned up pencils of an Indian chief.

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ANIMATION

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

TODD JAMES

DRAW!: Do you feel that Kirby’s style is accessible to the viewers today? It seems everything is all about the new styles, especially manga and anime.

TJ: Without a doubt; look at all the reissuing of his work. Every super-hero show on TV still has his influence to some extent.

He’s imbedded in all of it. I feel like his work is compositionally on par with Picasso. It’s almost like a perfect math equation and seemed to be done effortlessly. He was a real genius.

DRAW!: I feel that way about some of his best work as well; it is so powerful, if you blew up his panels and hung them in a museum it would be just as powerful as anything else in there visually. Did you plan from the beginning for the storyboards to really play almost a layout role in production? In the Marvel cartoons they had the art already existing, so they had to dice it up and make boards work based on the panels or poses they had from the

TOP: Rough storyboards from “El Dia Gigante.”

ABOVE AND RIGHT: Inked art of Racist Frankenstein and Fasto.

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comics, in some cases pulling poses from one comic and basically plugging it in where it was needed. Did you figure after a fashion you’d have a library where you could re-use art in the same fashion, in this case also for comedic effect?

TJ: Yes, it’s like a glorified animatic, a moving layout . Things slide in and it’s mostly camera moves. The camera is the most important story telling device on Minoriteam. Having a library of art is really common now for most animation. For us it was great for comedy to cut back to the same thing. The Marvel shows did that all the time— you’d cut back to the same three drawings of the main villain throughout a whole episode. The other thing we liked that they did was cut from, let’s say, one scene where Odin’s got a helmet with horns then two scenes later Odin’s got a helmet with wings because they needed a front view, they copied it from another comic but used it to suit their purposes.

The continuity was all messed up but it’s very funny.

DRAW!: Yes, that was funny and I realized that even as a kid. So, why Minoriteam? Did you have any other ideas before that you pitched?

ANIMATION TJ: Yeah, we had other ideas but not super-hero related.

Minoriteam is just a very strong idea and the world of superheroes is unlimited and ridiculous.

DRAW!: How do you and your partners Adam and Peter go about breaking down the show, who does what?

would oversee the production every step of the way.

The studio was kind of a Kirby-inspired clubhouse. We had some great people on our team, and everyone was fun to work with.

DRAW!: So how do you time out the show? Are the voices recorded before the board is done or afterwards?

TJ: We do script, then boards, and then voices.

DRAW!: Who directs the voice recordings?

TJ: Adam directs the voices. We all do voices on the show.

Adam is the voice of White Shadow and Racist Frankenstein as well as Neil. I voice the Corporate Ladder, Loop Hole. Peter is Standardized Test and The Scab. We have Dana Snyder, who

Below: More rough storyboards from the episode “El Dia Gigante.”

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

TJ: Well we all collaborate. We come up with ideas for villains or episode ideas and we discuss everything and figure out what we like best. Adam turns the ideas into scripts. I design the characters and storyboard the episode roughly. Next Peter and I go through the storyboard together and tighten up the storytelling.

From there we give scenes to our different illustrators to draw.

Sometimes there would be some things I would want to draw.

Then we would send them to you to ink. The inks get scanned and go to the colorists and in-betweeners. Then to our After Effects guys, then to our editor who uses Final Cut. It was all done in one office for the most part. Peter, Adam, and myself

TODD JAMES

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ANIMATION

does Master Shake on Aqua Teen [Hunger Force], as the voice of Dr. Wang on our show, as well as countless others.

Giacoia-type look. Tell us about the other artists working on the show.

DRAW!: How rough do you do the boards on your end?

TJ: Very rough most of the time.

DRAW!: Where did you learn to board?

Did you just pick it up along the way?

TJ: I just picked up as I went along; it’s how I’ve always learned.

DRAW!: Okay, now a bit of tool talk. What type of pens, pencils, and tools do you like to use? Do you rough out in blue pencil first?

TJ: Okay, well we drew everything in pencil and used brush pens on animation paper. Andy Seriano liked the big brush pens by Tombo, but Stephen DeStefano put us on to another brand called FaberCastell—those are great. We colored everything with Wacom screens on the Mac G5 and everything was animated in After Effects, not Flash.

DRAW!: Did you assign the work to be cleaned up by the artist working on the show based on their own drawing styles? I know you hired me because I can do a good Kirby/Sinnott/

TJ: Everyone we hired was hired because they could draw like Kirby or had a love for comics and the style. We did the pilot with Andy Seriano; he had done great character design on Clone Wars and Samurai Jack. He’s a huge comic fan and drew one of my favorite drawings of Dr. Wang. It’s Dr. Wang in his wheel chair pointing at you in Kirby perspective, and it appears in many episodes. On the series we had Stephen DeStefano, who’s ass-kickingly good, and he drew and inked a majority of the reuses. There was Dave Kupczyk, who looked like Thor if he was a rocker. He’s a very talented artist and was a Disney animator. Caroline Hu was an illustrator as well as the head of the in-betweeners—she could do everything. Caroline was there throughout the whole production. She was also the voice of Madam Bang Gong. Steve Jones, a talented fellow and Kirby nut, drew some excellent images of Balactus, as well as several of the Weather Man, because he was so good at doing the machinery.

ABOVE: Another inked figure—this one Weather Man—ready for the next step in production.

LEFT AND RIGHT: Two drawings of Wang, one inked (left) and one figure cleaned up from the storyboard ready for inks (right).

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

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ANIMATION

TODD JAMES

LEFT: A final inked drawing of Jewcano.

RIGHT: El Hefe inked.

BELOW: Cleaned up Figure of El Hefe ready for inks.

Steve just had a kid, so all the best to him and his wife. Dell Barras also worked with us.

He’s amazing; he is super-fast and super-good. Adam saw him drawing one day and said, “Don’t you get tired?” Dell replied, “I make the pencil tired.” Dell drew a lot of the art on “Fasto in Viking Heaven” and it’s really well done. He’s a great singer, as well, and got everyone to go to Stargazers in the Valley to do karaoke. I just spoke to him the other day; he’s a real pleasure to work with. I want to just also mention our inbetweeners, George Lowery and Nick Jeong, as well. We had a friendly, unique group and it made a fun environment to work in.

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

DRAW!: How long did it take to do an average episode? From script to the final cut of the show?

TJ: Two months.

DRAW!: What would you do on those days when the magic seemed to be hard to come by, when you get that rough patch and the drawings don’t seem to flow?

Does working in a studio help that at all?

TJ: The magic was all ways there. Adam is a DRAW! • WINTER 2006

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ANIMATION

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

TODD JAMES

ABOVE: A long pan of a very Kirbyesque scene from the episode “Nordic Heaven.”

LEFT: A final inked drawing of Fasto.

NEXT PAGE: Rough storyboard sequence from “El Dia Gigante.”

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TODD JAMES

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

ANIMATION

DRAW! • WINTER 2006

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ANIMATION

MINORITEAM ™ & ©2006 CARTOON NETWORK

TODD JAMES

ABOVE: The storyboard for scene 62. This was then given to one of the clean-up storyboard artists to do a tighter pencil drawing, and then sent to DRAW! Editor Mike Manley to embellish in a very “Kirbyesque” style.

BELOW: This is the final production drawing that was then sent back to the studio to color and composite. Often arms or hands, or other elements that had to animate were drawn and inked separately.

magician; he can do insane magic tricks. I’m serious, he can do some very freaky stuff. The environment was very magical.

DRAW!: You mentioned in our phone conversation that now the first season is wrapped and you are waiting for a greenlight to start Season Two. You are now working on Crank Yankers again, designing the puppets. Were you one of the original artists on the show?

TJ: Yeah, I’ve drawn the designs for all the puppets from the first episode on. I work with amazing puppet fabricators who build and dress them and bring them to life, Carol Binion and B.J. Guyer.

Carol has won Emmys for her work, and they are both Sesame Street alumni.

There’s a whole puppet world and I’ve been lucky to be part of it. As a kid I always loved the Muppets and the Kroft shows—you can see that influence in Crank Yankers. Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla gave me descriptions on the main characters, like Spoony Love and Elmer, the main stars, and I would draw them a few variations. Special Ed was the first one I drew. For the marks (or prankees) I draw about three versions of what I 32

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think they sound like after listening to the call. Then one gets chosen and turned into the puppet. For the marks we have a library of head types and bodies. The library grows every episode—now it’s a huge puppet bodyshop. They get put together Mr. Potato Headstyle and get custom features sewn on and wild hairdos or what have you.

DRAW!: You also mentioned graffiti art, are you into that movement? Were you a tagger back in your high school days?

TJ: Both Peter and I were deeply involved in what was going on in the New York subways in the ’80s.

It was more like junior high through high school.

We met through that world after we had both made names for ourselves back then. We could talk about graffiti writers in the same way we’re talking about comics and cartoons. It’s a very similar world with its own Kirbys, Sinnotts, Byrnes and Buscemas.

The Artist, Kyle Baker, the Comic Book Maker COMICS

KYLE BAKER

Part Deux

THE BAKERS ©2006 KYLE BAKER.

DRAW!: So who are you reading today? What gets Kyle Baker excited when he goes into a book store or a comic book store?

KB: I’m waiting for the Victor Moscoso book. I’m very upset that it’s late.

DRAW!: Really?

KB: Yeah! I’ve been waiting for that Victor Moscoso book for, like, the last five years. He’s been promising it on his website.

Fantagraphics, they were supposed to put it out in June, and it didn’t happen. I also really look forward to everything Joe Kubert does.

DRAW!: Talking about another guy who is one of the smartest guys in comics.

KB: Yeah. Eisner’s dead, but I used to look forward to his stuff.

Frank Miller. And that’s about it. I like Sergio Aragonés. He doesn’t seem to be working as much these days. I mean, he still does his two pages in Mad, but I’m not going to buy a whole

This interview is continued from DRAW! #12, where DRAW! Editor Mike Manley had caught up with the busy artist as he was in full production on the second issue of his slavery epic, Nat Turner.

Mad issue just for two pages of Sergio. I don’t like anything else in there. I like Bill Wray in Mad, but I’m not going to buy Mad just to read “Monroe” and Sergio’s two pages. My favorite stuff is really the funny stuff, and nobody anywhere is doing funny stuff right now. [laughs] I still read For Better or For Worse. I still like that one.

DRAW!: So you still read newspaper strips?

KB: I only read For Better or For Worse, and I like Dilbert, and that’s about it. I think the rest of them are pretty rotten.

DRAW!: Are you reading them online, or will you buy the paper?

KB: No, there’s usually a newspaper at the place I get my coffee on Sunday, so usually I just pick up the newspaper, read the funnies, and put it back.

DRAW!: And what about animation, TV, do you watch any cartoons on TV? Are you a fan of any of that stuff?

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COMICS

AL SPACE AND ALL ARTWORK ©2006 KYLE BAKER.

a funny idea about my kids this week, I’m in the middle of Nat Turner, so I’m not going to be able to work on the kid idea, so I just rough it out into some kind of a sketchbook. I’ve got, like, two or three, or maybe four or five, sketchbooks around here. Less for practicing technique, they’re more for keeping track of ideas, because I forget stuff. And usually when it comes time to draw, I usually have a lot of ideas. If I’m working on Nat Turner it’s going to take me away on that this week, away from Plastic Man jokes, because that’s my next job. So when it comes time to put the plan together, it’s often a matter of just going through my lists and finding 22 pages worth of jokes. Like, when it comes down to do the next Bakers book. The next book I’m doing is titled The Important Literary Journal, which is just a bunch of gag cartoons. I’ve decided that I’m never going to do a second issue of any book that I publish.

FAN’S TASTES AND CROSSOVERS DRAW!: So in the future you look to publish just all-new, unique, standalone books?

KB: The first Cartoonist book did so well that I immediately rushed out a second book. And the second book, in my opinion, is superior, because I had figured out the formula. Like, the first book, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but the second one, I put in more of what everybody liked and got rid of all the features everybody hated. So it was a better book, but sold worse. And the only thing I can think of was that it was a #2, because I’m still getting orders for #1!

KB: Um, I like what Genndy Tartakovsky does, and I like what Craig McCracken does. I don’t have TV, so I usually see everything about five years after everybody else. It has to come out on DVD so there can be bootlegs, so I can download it. Like, I just finally got around to seeing the Justice League.

DRAW!: Oh, okay. [laughs] So you’re going on KaZaa or whatever and downloading stuff?

KB: Yeah. Yeah, that’s where I see—it depends on what it is. A lot of times, if I like the show, once I see it, then I’ll go out and buy it. But 99% of the time, the stuff’s not very good.

SKETCHBOOKS DRAW!: And what about drawing and sketching on your own?

Do you do a lot of that just to keep the sketchbooks going?

KB: Sort of. I always write down ideas, and a lot of them are visual ideas. If I think of a funny picture, I usually write it down. I try to write everything down just so I don’t forget it, because I’m usually in the middle of something. Like, if I have 34

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DRAW!: Again, it’s one of those mysteries that seems unsolvable despite even some publishers overshipping second issues in the direct market, is you could sell 5000 copies of #1; #2, everybody immediately slashes all their orders on it; and then, maybe with issue #4 or 3, they’re ordering based upon what they know they actually sold of the first issue. It’s just infuriating. It just doesn’t make any sense. But again, if they can stick your #2 up on the wall, because there were less copies of it, for more money, then it would make everybody want to “order more Kyle Baker, because that stuff’s really hot!” “Let’s slab it!” [laughs] KB: Who knows? This is such a weird market. But in that audience, there are subsections. And most of the people I meet, who like my non-super-hero stuff, tend to be Dan Clowes and Hernandez Brothers fans. Y’know, they’ll say, “Oh, yes, I loved Why I Hate Saturn,” and what have you, “and I buy Drawn & Quarterly comics, and Chester Brown,” and whatnot. And then there’s the guys who like Captain America and only buy my super-hero stuff, and they want to know if I’m going to do another Batman story. And there’s not much crossover. But that other section, that Fantagraphics crowd, it’s a significant portion.

They’re not driving the market, but they are—I’d say they’re 10

COMICS

KYLE BAKER

BATMAN ™ & ©2006 DC COMICS. AL SPACE AND ALL ARTWORK ©2006 KYLE BAKER.

or 20 percent of the market, those guys buying the James Kochalka stuff. I mean, somebody’s buying it.

Somebody’s keeping Top Shelf in business.

DRAW!: And you would say what percentage of those people are your fans?

KB: I’d say that the people who like my stuff on that one end of the spectrum, the non-super-hero end of the spectrum, tend to fall into that category.

DRAW!: Well, in other words, I’m saying you figure that’s, like, half the people who read your stuff, or—?

KB: I don’t know.

DRAW!: Because even people who go to comic conventions, it’s only a certain percentage. You can’t judge everything by San Diego or you’d think that everybody in the world loved comic books. [laughs]

KB: Exactly. And an example I always use is I like Star Trek. I watched the TV show. I don’t have a TV now, but I used to watch the TV show. I rent the movies occasionally.

Yeah, I like Star Trek. If I see a Star Trek product in a store I might pick it up. But I’m not enough of a Star Trek fan that I would pay 20 bucks or whatever to go to a convention and meet William Shatner.

DRAW!: Well, what’s wrong with you? [laughs] KB: So when you’re meeting a guy at a convention, he is one of all the 90,000 people in San Diego who paid whatever it is, 30 bucks, to meet a cartoonist. And if you’re only meeting those folks, you start to think that that’s the whole world, and that’s what happens to comics and I think this is what has happened to the entire business.

STARTING OUT DRAW!: What year did you start working in comics, ’82, ’83, ’84?

KB: Yeah, ’83. I graduated high school in ’83, and I was a high school intern at Marvel. That’s where I got my start. And comic books were distributed mostly through 7-11s. The comics were 50¢, and they were on newsprint.

And what happened was, there were maybe two or three comic book stores. I remember there were two in New York, in Manhattan, where collectors sold back issues, and that kind of thing.

DRAW!: Yeah, there was one in Ann Arbor, because that’s the one I used to go to.

TOP LEFT AND RIGHT: From one of Kyle’s old sketchbooks. The guy in costume—not the unfinished Batman—is an early version of Al Space, a character Kyle would later incorporate into The Cowboy Wally Show.

ABOVE: Female nude figure study.

KB: And what happened was, DC and Marvel discovered, hey, there are people who will pay $15 for an old issue of Spider-Man, or $100 for an old issue of Spider-Man. And let’s see if we can make products just for them! So they first started just putting out—I remember Marvel put out, like, four comics that came out only directly to DRAW! • WINTER 2006

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COMICS

comic book stores, and they were slightly better format, a little bit better paper, and I think they cost 50¢ more or something.

And over the years, just everybody decided to focus on those fans, and sort of gave up on the casual 7-11 fan with the 50¢.

up old news or something. Y’know, like a lot of those ’60s guys, guys like Rick Griffin and whatever. When the ’60s ended, they all kind of looked old-fashioned for a while. You become the “look of the ’50s,” or the “look of the ’90s.” I didn’t want that.

DRAW!: Oh, yeah. I mean, they just went for the sure money.

And that’s why today the kid who’s watching the Teen Titans cartoon probably will never see the Teen Titans comic book.

DRAW!: Well, and it’s funny, because even if you can do more than that one kind of thing, comics definitely have that six-month memory, so they sort of forget that you can do something else.

So they think, “Oh, now you’re the guy that does Plastic Man.”

KB: Yeah. And that’s the thing. There are those people.

Y’know, I used to draw The Shadow in the ’80s. We quit that series because it wasn’t selling that well. And we were getting royalty checks, and the royalty checks were very small, so we said, “Hey, why don’t we quit and go work on Spider-Man or something, make some money?” So I would say that the numbers started at 20,000 and went down from there, over a year. But to this day—I mean, today I will meet people who will pay me thousands of dollars for a Shadow drawing, and there is that temptation to say, “Wow, there’s this dude wants to pay me $3000.” And you have to remember that there are only six of those guys on Earth. [Mike laughs] But what I think the comic business has done is that they forgot that and decided just to go exclusively into that business.

I mean, I try to offer things for that audience.

After I did Why I Hate Saturn I was getting lots of offers for these kinds of Gen X kind of things. Like, everybody was talking about Generation X at the time and grunge in Seattle and all that sh*t.

DRAW!: So this is right after Why I Hate Saturn came out, and they were coming to you to do more of the same thing?

KB: Yeah, right after Why I Hate Saturn, which was that kind of young hipsters hanging out in clubs, blah, blah, blah. And I was young— DRAW!: That swingers kind of thing.

KB: Yeah, and I was getting a lot of those kind of calls, where, you know, “Hey, why don’t you do this.” And I didn’t want to be the “Gen X guy.” I knew that when the ’90s ended, I would end 36 DRAW! • WINTER 2006

KB: It’s funny. I seem to have hit this point with Nat Turner where people finally get that I never do the same job twice. [laughs] Like, for the last 15 or 20 years, everybody would always complain that the new job wasn’t the same as the old job. People complained that Why I Hate Saturn wasn’t like Cowboy Wally, and then they would complain that You Are Here wasn’t like Why I Hate Saturn, and they’d complain that The Truth didn’t look like Dick Tracy. But with Nat Turner, I got no complaints. It was the weirdest thing.

DRAW!: Well, I think I would also say, the one thing about self-publishing—that I learned, anyway—is that before I self-published, people had a certain perception of me artistically or whatever, in the business, based upon the work they had seen, which is only a part of the work I had done—and nobody sees everything you do. When I first started getting into comics, I was also doing a lot of advertising, and work for Western Publishing. So I would do Barbie stuff, or Muppet Babies, all kinds of action-toy related activity books. So you have to match the style, but in comics, people’s perception was, “You’re doing this kind of Al Williamson classic kind of thing. That’s all you can do.” And then, when I do my Action Planet stuff, and I’m doing Monsterman, and I’m doing this much more cartoony stuff, they’re like, “Oh, I didn’t know you could do that kind of

COMICS

KB: Yeah, also because you know better than anyone else what you can do. Like, my stuff I think works best taken as a body of work, because no one piece is representative of the whole. But if you read four or five books, you kind of see, there’s some kind of a unifying thread there. I don’t know what it is, but everything I do is obviously a Kyle Baker product. It has a point of view or something that holds it all together.

DICK TRACY ™ & ©2006 CHICAGO TRIBUNE—NEW YORK SYNDICATE, INC.

stuff!” I remember, they turned down my stuff when I showed samples to do the What The!? comic. They turned down my stuff, because the perception was, “You can’t do funny stuff.”

Conversely, having done that “animated style,” and showing that stuff around, and doing storyboarding work and things like that, now people think I’m just the guy who does Bruce Timm, or I do the animated stuff. They forget that I used to do Batman or work in a completely different style. But by defining myself, or not allowing the business to define me, through self-publishing, it actually opened up a whole different venue for myself, business-wise and artistically.

And I learned this, too, in animation, when I was doing background design. Because I ended up doing background design for a season when they were in between having new scripts; they didn’t have any more boards to do, and because I could do it I switched over to doing background designs.

Sometimes the producer will go, “Y’know, you’re really good at doing this. And we can get another guy to do boards, but I want to keep you here, because you’re good at doing this.” So people just naturally always want to take you, as an artist, especially a commercial artist, and plug you in where it suits them best, not where it always suits you, artistically.

KYLE BAKER

LEFT: Why I Hate Saturn preliminary sketches.

ABOVE: Early Dick Tracy design sketch.

animation that you’re doing?

KB: This is animation based on the Bakers cartoons. Again, the reason I’m doing the self-publishing is to hold onto all the rights, so that anything I want to do with these characters, I can do, without having a bunch of meetings. Right now, I’m trying to get stuff happening with Plastic Man, too, and it’s like pulling teeth.

DRAW!: Has it changed how you view yourself as an artist?

DRAW!: You’re trying to pitch Plastic Man as a cartoon?

KB: No, no, because I’ve always had this plan for the future, and everything I do is with a mind towards the future, and everybody else is sort of looking at stuff, again, from right now.

KB: I’m trying to get them to make a toy out of it. I’m trying to get them to put it on Cartoon Network, anything. I’d just like to see something happen with Plastic Man. But it’s not up to me, and you have to have a bunch of meetings, and it’s like pulling teeth. And, at the end of the day, what’s in it for you?

DRAW!: So you’re looking at what you’re going to be trying to do two years from now.

KB: Five or ten years from now, yeah. Like The Bakers. Or even with the self-publishing. When I was talking to my wife about it, and she didn’t think it was a very good idea, because I do okay with DC and Marvel, and why rock the boat? And I said, “Well, y’know, the thing is, right now it’s not going to work out, but when I finally get 200 pages of material on a certain character, I can do something with it.” Like, once this new issue of The Bakers comes out, that gives me enough material to put out two color hardcovers. And once I have another couple of books come out, suddenly I’ve got a line of books. And if I have a line of books, suddenly I can get a real distributor, like Norton or Baker and Taylor, the guys who don’t want to handle you when you’ve only got one book. Right now the only distributor I can get with one book is Diamond, because they know me.

ANIMATION

DRAW!: Right, because they own it.

KB: Exactly. If I do get them to make a Plastic Man story, I hope they’ll let me storyboard it, but they don’t have to.

DRAW!: Well, it’s better to be a producer on a cartoon because you have more power, creative power that way.

KB: They don’t have to let me do anything on it. They probably won’t. So the thing about the self-publishing is I can animate The Bakers. There is a bunch of stuff is on the website now. It’s just taking cartoons out of the Cartoonist books, my favorite gags, and then animating them.

DRAW!: And you’re doing these in Flash?

KB: Mm-hm. Flash and After Effects, yeah.

DRAW!: So now, are you drawing them or laying them out?

How are you doing it?

DRAW!: You’ve mentioned it several times now, so what’s this DRAW! • WINTER 2006

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COMICS KB: I’m taking the drawings from the comic book and timing them.

I take the comic book stuff and I import it into some video editing program and work out the timing, and then I send that off to the animator, and he animates it, does his thing, and then sends it back to me, and then I open it up and tinker with it.

DRAW!: Now, this is not the same guy who’s assisting you otherwise?

KB: Yeah, yeah, it’s Simon.

DRAW!: Okay, so you send it to Simon, and he does it in what, Flash and sends it back for you to tweak.

KB: Yeah, he animates it with Flash. I do all the backgrounds and stuff.

DRAW!: He takes the poses from your comic as key-frames and then sends it back and— KB: I just change everything. [laughs] I just run all over it.

DRAW!: And what about the voices and music?

KB: I haven’t used voices because I’m cheap. I use sound effects records and stock music. I’m working on getting somebody to pay me for this stuff, and then I’ll have voices and better music.

The thing about the drawings, the thing about animation, I’ve found, is a lot of the time, even if it’s not very good, it’s always better to just have more drawings.

DRAW!: Just to have smoother movement?

KB: Just to have more changing. Just to have animation, y’know? So if a guy goes from a good pose, to a crappy pose, back to a good pose—which sometimes happens. Because the stuff that I don’t draw, he gets it right sometimes, and sometimes he just doesn’t get it. I’d rather have ten crappy drawings and then have to put another ten good ones on top, because that’s 20 drawings.

DRAW!: So you’re going to take these, little 30-second bits or whatever, and you’re going to collect them all and put them on a DVD? KB: Yeah, I’ll put them on DVD and sell the DVDs. And I’m also trying to get the stuff on TV and I’m sending them to film festivals and such. Another of my personal heroes is Bill Plympton. He’s managed to have a successful animation career, and, as far as I know, he’s never worked for any of the big houses.

DRAW!: Yeah, I’m not sure if he has or not, but yeah, his cartoons are cool and you think of his as a style, like Disney. So your goal is to repurpose your cartoons as animation shorts for festivals?

KB: As everything. I mean, I’m making Bakers toys.

DRAW!: You’re making Bakers toys?

ABOVE: Punchline from a Bakers strip.

NEXT PAGE: Kyle wasn’t able to sell his first book—The Cowboy Wally Show—through blackmail the way Wally would, but 18 pages drawn on spec did the trick.

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KB: I’m making Bakers toys, yeah, and trying to get into licensing.

Here’s the thing: like, the gag cartoons, those single-panel gags, those New Yorker-type gags? I always wanted to do what The Far Side, or like Kliban did. If you can get a nice library of maybe, 200, 500 images, you can license those, and put the same damn cartoon on everything and sales might last ten years.

COMICS

KYLE BAKER

DRAW!: Have you done the licensing show in New York at all?

KB: No, I’m just getting started with that. I didn’t have enough material. It’s what I was saying before about the book publishing, up until very recently I didn’t have enough books to get a distributor interested. Licensing’s the same thing, you need to have a catalog of images so you can go in and say, “Here’s what I’ve got.”

DRAW!: So what would you tell the aspiring, and perspiring, cartoonist, the young Kyle Baker of today, the people that are reading the magazine now, what sage advice would you give them?

THE COWBOY WALLY SHOW ™ & ©2006 KYLE BAKER.

KB: I’d say do work and get the work out. At the end of the day, I’ve found that those are the only two things that ever work. The two things that have always worked for me is just, no matter what the job is, at least just do something, and have it come out. For example, The Bakers, or even Cowboy Wally. I mean, the way I sold Cowboy Wally, which was my first book, was, I did 18 pages for free.

DRAW!: On spec, to show?

KB: Yeah, I was trying to sell it. I was nobody, fresh out of high school. And I sat there and busted my ass and did the pages. And I did other strips, too, and tried to sell them. But at least if you have something to show people, I think that’s a large part of the battle. So many people, when they want advice, they’re like, “Oh, I want to get into whatever. I want to get into writing movies,” or, “I want to get into drawing pictures.” And you say, “Well, why don’t you do some?” That’s the first thing you need to do.

DRAW!: Is to have some pictures to show.

KB: Have some pictures to show.

DRAW!: Right. Because the business world, the comics, the whole thing is very different today than it was when we were coming along. And, at the same time, look, when you were the Kyle Baker just coming out of high school, there was no Internet. There was no ability to self-publish something on the Web. KB: There was no graphic novel business. If you said, “I want to do a comic”—I mean, I was trying to get into the newspapers.

And that is the funny thing, my first cartoons, like Cowboy Wally, were designed as newspaper strips, because that’s who was buying humor at the time. And that’s where all the good cartoonists were, when I was a kid, was in the newspaper. And

that’s really what I thought I was going to be doing with my life was I wanted to be Al Capp.

DRAW!: So you were originally not thinking of going into doing comic books, per se?

KB: No, I was doing comic books, because I was a high school intern, and I was doing some backgrounds for some guys while I was there, and doing backgrounds for Joe Rubinstein and Vince Colletta. But I really wanted to be a funny guy, and there was just no way that was going to happen at Marvel. So I didn’t see a future at Marvel. And also because, after doing the backgrounds, I graduated to inker. And that really wasn’t a job I wanted to do for very long.

DRAW!: No? KB: No. For one thing, I still don’t like inking other people’s stuff just because everybody works harder than I do. I was inking CONTINUED ON PAGE 72

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39

MAXIMA, SUPERMAN ™ & ©2006 DC COMICS.

ABOVE AND NEXT PAGE: Maxima triumphant! Alex Horley’s rough pencil sketch and the final painting for a Superman trading card.

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LOBO TM & ©2006 DC COMICS.

TM & ©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

ALEX HORLEY

COMICS

ARTWORK ©2006 ALEX HORLEY.

UNDER THE COVER: Here we go, Alex Horley’s cover to this issue! We start with Alex’s pencil sketch. Next is his initial underpainting (above) to establish the tones of the painting. The next underpainting (left) adds detail, color, and lighting. And finally we end up with the finished painting (next page).

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©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

BLUE DEVIL TM & ©2006 DC COMICS.

ALEX HORLEY

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COMICS

COLLEEN COOVER

SMALL FAVORS ™ & ©2006 COLLEEN COOVER.

INDY COMICS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

DRAW!: Oh, right, yeah. The red book? He has, like, the red book, the yellow book, and the brown book.

BANANA SUNDAY ™ & ©2006 ROOT NIBOT & COLLEEN COOVER.

CC: I think it’s the red book. I love that book. And also, we collect original art from all time periods, so we have a bunch of Golden Age original art and independent original art from contemporary stuff, so I can look at an original Gilbert Hernandez, or an original Wally Wood. I’ve got an original Seth above my desk that I look at all the time; I can learn a lot just by looking at those and sort of analyzing, just figuring out what design went into this, and what kind of mechanics went into the drawing of it. Because when you see something printed it’s done, it’s flat, it’s two-dimensional. When you see an original....

DRAW!: “The veil is lifted.”

CC: Yeah.

DRAW!: I agree. I learned a lot when I shared Al Williamson’s studio, and he has this amazing collection.

CC: Oh, sure, yeah.

TOP OF PAGE: Two pages from Small Favors.

ABOVE: Go-go raids the fridge in this nice watercolor illustration of one of the featured monkeys from Banana Sunday.

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COLLEEN COOVER

INDY COMICS

ARTWORK ™ & ©2006 COLLEEN COOVER.

It starts with a rough sketch in a sketchbook (above).

Once a the basic composition comes together it’s time for a more detailed pencil drawing (right). After some fine tuning, it’s on to the watercolors (below), and Baba Yaga springs out of the Russian fairy tales to chase down her runaway hut.

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COLLEEN COOVER

THE STRANGER ™ & ©2006 THE STRANGER/INDEX PUBLISHING.

INDY COMICS

DRAW!: All the great old strip guys as well as his fantastic art.

Actually being able to sit down and look at an original and say, “Oh, that’s a brush line as opposed to a pen line.”

long time, and lately I’ve been using a #3.

DRAW!: So you started using a thinner brush and then worked to a bigger brush as you became more confident with your line?

CC: Mm-hm. Or a Milton Caniff—I have a couple of Milton Caniffs, and to see what he drew before he slopped a lot of black ink over it to create a silhouette or whatever, it’s just amazing.

CC: Lately I’ve been using the #3 because you can still get that really fine point on a #3, but then I can also get a nice, thick line if I want to, and that’s been really cool, and I feel like inking in a much bolder ABOVE: Colleen also does illustration work for The Stranger—a line. I work really small. My DRAW!: Yeah, sometimes you’d local “what’s happening” weekly newspaper for the Seattle area. see somebody would draw the pages for the graphic novel I’m Her initial rough sketch (directly above) is quite a bit different from whole thing and decide later, working on, they’re square, they’re the final inked version (top of the page), but the basic concept “Nah, I’m just going to put black 8" x 8" square, and I do it 8" x 8" remains the same. all over it,” but it was still all so that I can fit it on my scanner figured out beforehand. and not have to worry about it.

And also I do a half-sheet to rough out the page. Like, a 5" x 5" CC: Yeah. square half-sheet, and then I scan that and enlarge it and print it out and throw it on a light board.

DRAW!: It looks like you’re mostly a brush inker, so give us a lowdown on the tools you like to use.

DRAW!: You print it out in regular gray?

CC: I used to use a Winsor-Newton Series 7 round #1 for a DRAW! • WINTER 2006

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INDY COMICS

CC: Yeah, I’ll actually—well, to save ink in my inkjet, I’ll ramp up the contrast on my sketch so it’s pretty much black, and then I’ll brighten it up so that it’s gray, and then I’ll convert it to a bitmap diffusion so that it’s all dots, and I’ll print that out because it uses less of the black ink on my inkjet printer.

DRAW!: But have you ever drawn something and then converted it to non-repro blue, printed it out, and inked it that way?

CC: I have not. Even though I know a lot of people who do that, I prefer to go over it on the light board and be able to shift the page underneath that I’m light boarding.

DRAW!: So you print it out and then you pencil your finished pencils on the light box?

CC: Right. And I prefer to be able to shift my roughs around underneath my pencils so that I can maybe correct just the placing of a figure.

DRAW!: Sure, sure.

CC: Often I don’t necessarily follow the rough exactly, although sometimes I do, because I hit it on my roughs, and sometimes I don’t, so I’ll just take the opportunity to change something around completely.

CC: I like smooth. I like it as smooth as possible. I tried some manga paper but it sucked the ink into it so bad that it ended up looking like a bad Xerox. Do you know what I mean, the manga paper?

DRAW!: Right, yeah. There’s some other paper, I forget what it is now, but it’s designed specifically for pen inking, and the pads are small.

CC: Yeah, and I like that. And it’s got a horrible, horrible cover on it. The packaging is....

DRAW!: Yeah, the packaging looks like it was done by somebody in fifth grade or something.

LEFT: Colleen’s layouts for the first two pages of Freckled Face, Bunny Knees, and Other Things Known about Annah. Colleen sketches out her layouts for this book at roughly 5" x 5", so she can get two per page.

BELOW AND NEXT PAGE: The finished art for pages 1 and 2 of Freckled Face, Bunny Knees, and Other Things Known about Annah.

DRAW!: And what kind of pencil? Are you an HB? Are you a hard lead? A soft lead?

DRAW!: Yeah, I think I probably have one. Did you get it at Staples?

CC: I don’t know. I think I got it at a grocery store. It’s a .7 mm, and I think I use HB. I’m not sure. They’re blue.

DRAW!: You don’t like a really hard lead or a really soft lead, something in between?

CC: It’s either H or HB. I’m not fussy.

DRAW!: And do you like smooth or rough paper?

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FRECKLED FACE... ™ & ©2006 PAUL TOBIN & COLLEEN COOVER.

CC: I use a really cool, really cheap Papermate mechanical pencil that I got for, like, three bucks. It’s all plastic, so it’s really light. It’s got a plastic grip on it that’s actually part of the barrel. A nice thick barrel. It’s like a grip.

INDY COMICS

COLLEEN COOVER

CC: Exactly. It’s a good size, though, because it’s 8" x 11", so it sits on any scanner.

DRAW!: Okay. And you use those what, for panel borders or for inking small figures?

DRAW!: So your originals are roughly 8" x 11", 9" x 12", somewhere in that size?

CC: I use the green one for panel borders.

CC: Well, my pages right now, my originals are 8" x 8".

DRAW!: I mean on Banana Sunday.

CC: On Banana Sunday they were 8" x 13". Which is a little large for my scanner because I didn’t plan ahead.

DRAW!: Did you have to scan them in parts and piece them together?

CC: How did I do that? Oh, I did the lame thing of reducing them on a photocopy.

DRAW!: Oh, really? So you reduced them and then scanned that?

CC: Yeah. That’s a lot more work, because then you have to go through each page and edit out all the speckles on your computer.

DRAW!: Right. Do you have a preference for, or do you use any pens at all?

CC: I have some Rapidographs. I don’t know the sizes; I use the red one, the green one, and the yellow one.

DRAW!: I think that’s a #3.

CC: And then I use the red one for, like, word balloons. The graphic novel I’m going to letter digitally, but up until now I’ve done all my lettering with the red Rapidograph, which I am so ready to not do anymore.

DRAW!: You like to hand letter your books?

CC: I like to hand letter the word balloons. Actually for the graphic novel, I’ve been penciling my letters and then drawing in the word balloons so that they interact with the art, because I do not like mechanically created word balloons. I don’t like that at all.

DRAW!: Well, that also sort of fits in with the whole aesthetic that real cartoonists always used to letter their own stuff, and it’s sort of that handmade craft quality of the art form, y’know?

CC: And to me, it just makes sense, because you’re going to need to have the word balloons in there. I mean, you’re going to have to. It’s got words, and they have to go somewhere, and why not plan for where they go first and then draw around that? Which is why I always—what I’ve been doing today is laying out my panel borders and then drawing in lines to pencil in the letters so that I can do my pencils roughly around the letters. Then once I get that, depending on whether the figure goes in front or behind the word balloon, I’ll either ink in the word balloon first or the figure first.

FRECKLED FACE... ™ & ©2006 PAUL TOBIN & COLLEEN COOVER.

DRAW!: And what kind of ink are you using these days?

CC: These days I’ve been using the Koh-i-Noor drawing ink, just the India ink that comes in a larger bottle than the ones that fill up your Rapidograph.

I’ve been having trouble with it. I don’t know if it’s because my Bristol paper has been sucking the ink in too much. It’s just not as black as it used to be. People tell me that the Black Magic ink used to be good, but it used to have some sort of lead base, and they took the lead out, and now it’s not as good anymore.

DRAW!: I know that they changed the formula on Black Magic, and they changed the formula on Pelican. What I use now is the Dr. Martin’s High Carb. I find that that is the most similar to what the old ones used to be.

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INDY COMICS

CC: Which one is that?

DRAW!: High Carb.

CC: Does that have an acrylic in it?

DRAW!: No, that’s FW, that’s the acrylic-based one. No, this is the Bombay, Doctor Martin’s Bombay ink. I like that.

You can’t get it, or at least I haven’t been able to find it in a large bottle, but I actually will, every once in a while, go on eBay and buy old ink. And I still have some bottles of old Pelican and Black Magic that I use for my own stuff, and the shellac in it is definitely different, because when you lay it down, it kind of has a sheen to it.

LEFT: Colleen’s layouts for pages 3 and 4 of Freckled Face, Bunny Knees, and Other Things Known about Annah.

BELOW AND NEXT PAGE: The finished art for pages 3 and 4 of Freckled Face, Bunny Knees, and Other Things Known about Annah. The finished pages are drawn at 8" x 8" size.

CC: That’s what I used to get off of the Koh-i-Noor, but lately it just seems really thin. And I leave the cap off the bottle for a couple of days and it just doesn’t seem to make a difference.

FRECKLED FACE... ™ & ©2006 PAUL TOBIN & COLLEEN COOVER.

DRAW!: Yeah, I usually leave the cap off the bottle for the brush ink, and then just have to refresh it every once in a while. So you don’t really use crow quills or anything like that?

CC: No. No. It’s just a little bit too much maintenance for me. I don’t know. I just never really got into them.

I used them once for something and I wasn’t really pleased, and then I just sort of set them aside.

DRAW!: What about any of the Japanese brush markers or anything like that?

CC: Oh, no. I use one of these Pitt pens, or Pitt brush pens. They’re kind of cool for going to signings or whatever, and also for my roughs, and just sort of screwing around on sketches, but I don’t like them.

They just don’t get that fine line, and I can’t use them. Also, I’m really leery of working with markers because I never know what their staying power is, and, as a collector of original art, I really am sort of conscious of what the page is going to look like five years from now.

DRAW!: I know what you mean. I have some old Alex Toth pages that don’t look too good because the markers are starting to change. But today the Pigma, the Zig, they’ll say right on there that they’re archival quality, and they actually use a much 52

DRAW! • WINTER 2006

better ink. I mean, if you ink something with a Sharpie, it is going to change color. But I think the Pigma, the Zigs, and several other Japanese brushes have ink that is probably just as good as the India ink that you’re using from a bottle.

CC: Yeah. Maybe once I get this done, because I feel really weird about changing courses in midstream. I’m, like, halfway through this 98-page graphic novel I’m working on, so I think I’m going to keep using the Rapidographs. But they have become sort of a pain in my butt as far as maintaining them and keeping them clean and keeping their ink from getting— DRAW!: Yeah, it is really a pain. Now, I used to use the Koh-i-

INDY COMICS

COLLEEN COOVER DRAW!: And they never order enough.

CC: “Order more black!”

DRAW!: Yeah, yeah. That’s usually always the way it is. I’ve found that I can actually go to either AC Moore or Michael’s and they will have the Zig or the Pigma and the Faber/Castell, and I can use those. And those all have the permanent ink.

FRECKLED FACE... ™ & ©2006 PAUL TOBIN & COLLEEN COOVER.

CC: I have never yet found a brush pen that had bristles that kept any kind of real point on it.

Noor Rapidoliners that you could buy that were the disposable Rapidographs.

CC: Yeah, but their ink is water soluble, isn’t it?

DRAW!: No, it was regular India ink. The problem is that they stopped making them. Yeah, I used to love those things. I used to do a lot of stuff with them and it was great, because you could use it and then when it was done, you didn’t have to worry about cleaning it, you’d just get another one. And, of course, like everything you love as an artist, at some point they stop making it. So this last winter, they stopped making them.

For a while they stopped making the different Col-erase pencils, and I guess so many people complained that Sanford, or the company that originally made them, decided, “Oh, okay. We’ll continue to make the blue ones.” Because, I know just about every cartoonist I know, and certainly every animator, uses those things when they’re working.

CC: You know, what’s really funny is when I go to the art stores and they’ve got the Pitt pens in, like, an umber or sienna, but not black.

DRAW!: The Faber/Castell are actually pretty good, because I inked a lot of the stuff I did on Minoriteam with those pens. And my friend Rich Faber, he was using them, and the nice thing about those—every once in a while the tip will give out, but I was actually able to pop the cap open and drop some Bombay ink into the wadding inside, and then I could go back and use it again. And eventually the point would wear out and you’d have to toss it, but I was able to get three or four times the life out of one of those things. So those work well for doing that big sort of bold brushstroke. Again, I think they’ve improved marker technology so much because so many artists now use markers. I see this big changeover between what used to be the traditional art materials and what the companies are making now for what people are still doing. Like, you still get oil paint and stuff like that, but 50 years ago in any city in the United States there were a gazillion cartoonists. There were people doing pen-and-ink stuff all the time. Now we’re like the freaks. We’re like the Trappist monks still making things by hand. Most people don’t need a brush that can perform like a cartoonist needs for doing fine detail inking—like a WinsorNewton, like a good Kolinsky #3 or #2—outside of maybe a few watercolor people, and then a few people doing oil painting.

But you don’t have a zillion guys doing black-and-white artwork like you used to.

CC: Right. Yeah, I’ve almost completely stopped using Whiteout because of the magic of my computer machine.

DRAW!: I do the same thing. I still do a little bit, depending upon if I’m trying to do a trick or something, like, ink hairs going into black or something.

DRAW!: Well, because everybody comes in and buys the black ones.

CC: Oh, yeah, yeah.

CC: Yeah!

DRAW!: But I do the same, and it seems like most cartoonists now have to. You’re married to the computer at some point in DRAW! • WINTER 2006

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INDY COMICS

your process in either the creation, or at least the delivery, because most people also don’t want to bother with an original anymore, because they have to pay somebody to scan it.

CC: Yeah, even my illustration work for magazines. I used to send the original off to the magazine, and now I would never let my original out of my hands into some editor. You know, “it’s just crazy, what am I thinkin’’? But, yeah, I love my computer.

DRAW!: Now, what’s this new graphic novel that you’re working on?

business, as far as the graphic novels, is going?

CC: It would be nice to get a book publisher like a Pantheon or a Random House or something, but I don’t know. But that has more to do with the possibility of advances and royalties than with our preference.

DRAW!: But your goal is to make your living, have your art support your livelihood, as opposed to having to do something else to support your art?

CC: Yeah. You know, I don’t know how that’s going to work out—whether I’m going to become a professional illustrator CC: It’s written by Paul. It’s about 98 pages long. I guess I would classify it as contemporary fiction for lack of a better term. It’s and do comics for the rest of my life as sort of an add-on to called Freckled Face, Bunny Knees, and Other Things Known that, and consider myself a cartoonist for love and an illustrator about Annah. And it’s about Annah, who has made a date with for a job, or if the comics are going to be a viable career, two people, one woman, one man, for the evening, and she’s because I just don’t see that happening. I don’t see that as a going to go out with whoever shows up first, and as it happens the realistic goal, you know? I mean.... girl shows up first and they go out on a date. And in the course of DRAW!: Because of the type of material you want to do—you their date, people around them, and sometimes the girl who’s on the date with Annah, address us, the readers, about Annah and her don’t think that there is a big enough market? character. And basically, she’s a very messed up girl. She believes CC: Yeah, I really don’t have any desire to do an ongoing book that she has a lost twin sister named Ginger, who was created by for a company and be beholden to editorial input. And I think it her mad scientist father by removing the Penfield homunculus would be a lot of fun to do some stories for DC or Marvel that from her brain. The Penfield homunculus is the part of the brain are maybe out of continuity, so they could be a little bit more that corresponds to feelings, like sensory free to be the kind of comics that I grew up liking. and touch. And, as a result of her Penfield DRAW!: Almost like what they do with the Bizarro books or homunculus being things like that? removed and turned into her sister Ginger, CC: Yeah, that’d be great. I Annah feels like she’s would love to do a Bizarro emotionally stunted.

Comics story. I would like to This is a very convodo something out of continuity luted thing, because with—I wanted to do a Millie it’s a very convoluted the Model really bad for a and complicated while. story. But, coinciDRAW!: Have dentally, at the same you ever tried to time that Annah approach them believes that this to...? happened, her parents had a messy ABOVE: A peeved Modok along with agents of A.I.M. Do you think Marvel would go for it?

CC: We visited divorce, so it might DC a couple, be that she’s just three years ago, not with any specific projects in mind. Paul has emotionally stunted because of the trauma from the divorce, and approached people with script treatments, but if you’ve ever she’s made up all this other stuff. gone to an editor with an idea for a story, you know how that probably went. It’s just, it’s so much more difficult as a writer DRAW!: Do you have a publisher for this? to bring in something cold than it is as an artist.

CC: No. DRAW!: I think in the end, it sounds like, for you, what really DRAW!: So basically you’re going to finish it, and then shop it would be ideal would be to get a contract with a big publisher, around to publishers once you’re done? and you’re basically more like an author in that respect, where you go in and say, “Here’s my book. Are you interested in pubCC: Yeah, I think so. I think that’s going to be our plan. lishing it?”

DRAW!: And were you influenced, in any way, by the way the

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CC: Right.

COMPOSITION Does Your Drawing Pass the Test?

By Bret Blevins and Mike Manley

elcome to the second installment of our continuing series, “Comic Art Bootcamp,” which is a direct response to many of you regular readers of DRAW! who asked for us to give more tutorials covering some of the basics of drawing for comics and animation and its various disciplines.

This time around Bret and I decided to cover what may be the most important element of any drawing—the bedrock or foundation, if you will—the “Big C”: Composition! Now, we have covered the subject a bit before in previous issues of DRAW!, but as Bret and I discussed what we feel are the universal issues with many of the examples we both have seen, critiqued, and continue to see from aspiring artists, we both came to composition as the biggest issue we see artists struggle with. Composition is often an artist’s weakest skill, and it hurts so many artists’ work. Their use of composition often weakens, clutters, or confuses the design, and therefore the impact and the success of their drawing.

It is also the one big problem most students I teach struggle the most with, and like building a house, if the soil is weak and the plans poorly designed, the house will fall down no matter how beautiful it looks or expensive and detailed the wallpaper. Detail and rendering can’t save a bad composition. Cartoonists, comic artists, and storyboard artists are required to draw dozens and dozens, sometimes even hundreds of compositions in the service of telling stories, so you can see how vitally important composition is. If the average 22-page comic has six panels on a page, that is an average of 132 compositions per issue!

W

What is composition, you ask, and just why is it so vitally important? Well we are glad you asked. Simply put, composition is how a picture is built—the plan, the design. It is the organization of shape, line, texture, value, color, as well as pattern arranged in an appealing design or arrangement that uses the design principles of dominance, subordination, balance, harmony, and rhythm, to focus the eye where we, the artist, want the eye to go in a drawing or painting.

Poor planning—meaning poor design—means poor composition, which weakens the effect we artists want to give our pictures and stories. In a good, strong composition all the pieces are in the right place; moving one element or placing it in the wrong spot or arrangement would seriously weaken or destroy the design and thus the effect we want the composition to have.

Compositions also have emotional impact and the arrangements of the elements in a design contribute to the emotional meaning of the design—happy, sad, danger, peace, power, etc.

Over the course of teaching and reviewing many, many portfolios I have come up with a checklist to help you troubleshoot your compositions to see if they pass the test. What test, you ask? Well, the clarity and design test. Put simply, does your composition work to tell the story in the best fashion?

COMPOSITION: A Simple List of Do’s and Don’ts DO: make a clear pleasing composition.

DON’T: crop important storytelling elements.

DON’T: have bad, lazy staging.

DO: when planning out a panel or drawing, draw a frame around it. You’d be surprised how many artists try and design a composition without defining its proportions, by drawing a border around it. Without a border the elements of design wander and float away across the paper like cows out of the barn.

■ Is this layout/composition clear? Can you look at it in a second and tell what’s going on?

■ Are the gestures of the characters clear and strong shapes or silhouettes?

■ Can you push the design more? Create more contrast in shape and size relationships?

■ Did you explore more than one possibility to solve the design problem? Did you try another angle, another composition?

If your drawings don’t pass these tests— START OVER! No matter how well you draw, you can’t save a bad composition with lots of detail and rendering.

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COMIC ART BOOT CAMP

COMPOSITION

In the disciplines of cartooning, illustration and animation, good pictorial composition is an arrangement of shapes that convey the subject with visually appealing clarity. Line, tone, color, gradation, or modeling of form and space can strengthen clear composition, but the flat contours of the shapes that create your pictures are the strongest, most fundamentally effective means of controlling the impact of your images.

Control is the basic requirement of composition. Good composition is intentional—you design the edges and placement of each shape of every element to create effective relationships that clearly communicate your intent. Choice and discernment are essential—subconscious, instinctive composition can be excellent, but good accidental compositions are as rare as accidentally successful surgery or tightrope walking. If you don’t have or develop a strong understanding of visual clarity and techniques for composing it, your pictures will always be weaker than they can be, either in variety or effect.

There are basic visual principles that will be described on the following pages, but it’s also important to realize that composition is as personal and particular to each artist as any other facet of picture making; subject, rendering, color choices, idiosyncratic accents, or distortions of form, storytelling rhythm, mood, and pace, all these elements are supported and defined by the compositions devised to present them. In essence an artist’s “style” is a direct expression of his taste, inclinations and skill in composition.

SILVER SURFER, THING ™ & ©2006 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

The contrast between these two depictions of the same character by Moebius and Jack Kirby is more than a difference in rendering—the essence of each artist’s personality informs every choice of shape and its placement, which in turn creates and reveals their individual “style.” In each case their composition choices are the ones that most effectively convey their ideas and preferences.

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SILVER SURFER ™ & ©2006 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

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Before we explore the basic principles of good design and composition, I must mention an important but elusive, mostly subconscious aspect of composition that is very difficult to explain with rules or simple, inclusive directives. In our endeavor of creating narrative storytelling artwork, most effective compositions emerge from a personal “sense of drama”—an instinctive identification with the heights and shallows of the subject, story, characters and situations we are visualizing. I’m not sure this sensitivity can be taught, though it can certainly be enriched and deepened into greater subtlety and strength through effort and experience.

As you continue to make images, you will find a particular sensibility of effect emerging in your “sense of composition” that becomes a characteristic mark of your “style.” Notice and nurture it by experiment and exploration—as with other tenets of making pictures, it’s easy to become complacent and fall into the habit of repeating formulas that work, which dulls your capacity to express. Don’t settle for automatic thoughtless solutions to every composition problem—it thins your art into a predictable shallowness.

There are two main challenges to manipulate in a typical composition: the relationship of shapes, rhythm and contour within the content (subject matter) of the image; and the relationships of these to the containing border—the limits of your picture area. A vignette is a borderless variation, but the chief interior elements of any good composition should also be able to stand alone without a border.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

The ability of the foreground figure to stand alone as a strong clear vignetted design is not an accident. Every element of Rockwell’s compositions can be extracted this way and function beautifully.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER

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Awareness of the borders of the confining shape you must compose in is the essential starting point. In storytelling for film or video game this shape is set by the aspect ratio of the various screens used for different mediums, but in comic art or illustration the possibilities are endless. There is an optically mathematical proportion guideline that is useful for any border shape and dimension, though (see right).

A pleasing space division of any containing shape can be found by dividing the height and breadth into fifths and placing your center of interest near an intersection two-fifths in from each border. This is a ratio dating back at least to the ancient Greek principle of the Golden Mean, the concept of proportion that informs most of the world’s great architecture and art.

1

You can see in charts 1, 2, 3, and 4 how the use of this principle “breaks up” the space in a visually balanced and pleasing way. In charts 5 and 6 the division of space feels awkward, unbalanced and cramped. Chart 7 is fine for an emblem or signpost, but placing your subject dead center creates a static quality that “freezes” the picture into immobility. All of these effects are there to be exploited, of course—just make sure you are doing so intentionally.

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All children seem to have an instinctive sense of perfect compositional balance. They begin drawing or painting with an acute awareness of the borders of the paper, which guides their placement of “subject shapes,” and their deep ability to project their imagination outward frees them from fear of achieving “realistic” or accurate surface appearances. These examples are flawless compositions, full of variety and spontaneous, instinctive clarity and powerful design.

The typical process of losing this magical acuity (usually around the ages of 10-13) is a useful clue to the difficulties of good “mature” composition. A young artist usually loses the sure-fire childhood sense of composition when the phase of self-conscious accuracy of form, surface, and detail is reached. As your consciousness shifts to concern with the optical appearance of the actual physical form and nature of your subjects, along with techniques of rendering these aspects, the awareness of underlying design and “shape-power” recedes, almost by necessity as part of the learning process.

Most weak or poor composition by otherwise skilled artists seems to be a holdover from this phase of their development—they simply never completed the learning circle, never took care to “loop back” and recover their inherent, instinctive early mastery of flat design. This is important to remember if you struggle with composition because it proves this natural design awareness is still in your mind somewhere—you just have to tap into it.

As you study the following diagrams and explanatory charts, always be conscious that composition is the foundation of every good picture—-its supporting structure, its skeleton. Surface detail or tricky digital effects can not compensate for poor composition; no amount of flashy rendering can “save” a badly designed image.

Finding effective solutions to the never-ending variety of composition challenges is one of the most enjoyable aspects of creating narrative artwork. The opportunities are different with each story/character/subject/genre/medium.

It’s an endless series of inventive puzzle-solving that is great fun and the process of finding good design that expresses exactly what you want to say always improves your skills and makes your work ever stronger.

Don’t neglect it!

See you next time— Bret

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DRAWINGS BY KATY BLEVINS

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©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

The Jezebel image by Robert McGuiness is a detailed and elaborately rendered painting constructed around a deceptively simple design. As you can see in the diagram, the main lines of the forms surrounding the figure gently but firmly lead the eye toward the center of attention, her face. The extreme torque of the legs creates a bold shape that immediately draws the eye, but the intricate yet subdued textures and patterns around the body form an environment of busy decoration that not only emphasizes the smooth flesh by contrast, but also quiets the energy of the scene and allows the eye to be guided by the contours of the body and surrounding objects toward the face, accented by the mantle of dark hair and the radial verticals (pointing at a spot directly between her eyes) of the crown. Even the spiral design of her breast cup sweeps the eye into the drape and up toward the face. The single straight horizontal line intersects her head just above her brow, anchoring all the flowing curved forms and stopping the eye from drifting upward past the figure.

The illustration of the thieving maid by Howard Forsberg flamboyantly intertwines a beautifully balanced arrangement of shapes to create a dynamic tension that delights the eye. Forsberg has reversed the approach to contrasting textures used

by McGuiness above— here the most tightly rendered surface detail is limited to the head of the maid (who has also murdered the person in the bed). Her surreptitious sly glance at the corpse is the emotional center of the picture, so Forsberg has simplified all the other elements of the composition to support it as the center of attention. The dark jagged shadow shapes around her not only draw the eye to her face but add a sense of menace to both the scene and her character—and note how beautifully the other dark accent shapes (the picture frame, the chair back, the little triangle under the drape covering the foreground chair) all direct the eye toward her head. The color strength/value contrast is strongest on the head, too—there is a lot to study here!

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The poor composition choices seen in the top row of sketches are obvious. The pictures feel awkward and unsatisfying somehow; they seem wrong, unappealing. There is nothing wrong with the forms contained in the drawings, no errors in proportion, structure or perspective of the shown objects—their failure as pictures is a result of bad placement and confusing juxtaposition.

The uncomfortable position of the portrait figure shoves her against the right side of the picture area and attaches the tip of her nose and the front edge of her forelock directly to the border, linking their contours and destroying any illusion of depth or atmosphere around her head. The impression conveyed is one of suffocating closeness to a confining plane, and the empty space behind her head feels wasted and pointless. Simply sliding the same image to the left eliminates these problems and gives her “breathing room”... her relationship to the space she must inhabit now feels comfortable and natural.

The driving van is deliberately placed in the center of the picture area—a common device of advertisements—but the top version is wedged so tightly against the edges of the available space it is trapped, motionless. The foremost telephone pole cleaves to the border and the receding wires and distant hilltop line up directly with the top edge of the van. The farther pole attaches vertically with the van’s rear window frame, and the foreground contour of the road leads the eye directly to the lower corner of the picture area, forming a large “arrow” of shapes that shoot the viewer’s gaze right out of the picture. (These careless alignments of edges are called tangents, and destroy clarity, harmony, and rhythm wherever they appear.) Reducing the size of the van creates a comfortable relationship of the vehicle to the borders, and adjusting the other elements to gracefully support it as the picture’s center of interest makes the scene clear and easy to understand. Note how all the tangents have been eliminated by either separating the elements or repositioning them to create visually clear contour intersections of the overlapping forms.

The top version of the house scene is pointlessly composed and rife with tangents everywhere, making the picture a shapeless mess. View it and notice how your glance is “trapped” by the dead space between the tree and house. There is no comfortable way for your eye to move into and around the shapes of this composition. An effort is required just to separate the elements and there is no center of interest. In the bottom version all the shapes have been brought into visual harmony by more thoughtful placement and careful overlapping of the forms.

The top version of the pointing man is another set of the same mistakes. I’ll let you identify the changes that improve the second composition.

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Most final images arrive through a revision and refinement process, especially commercially assigned artwork. The early and revised versions seen here of this poster for a community festival went through major readjustments of various details, props, costumes, and the attitudes of several characters. The essential structure of the composition is largely intact, though. This is an instructive example of how crucial “foundation thinking” is to the success of any picture. I was able to change the poses and costumes of key characters and remove or alter props without destroying or even damaging my basic composition structure, rhythm and silhouette. By taking care to compose each shape within the picture, I built a foundation that could withstand a lot of remodeling without losing its integrity of design. These before-andafter examples show how secondary surface detail is to the creation of a strong, well planned image.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

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SCORCHY SMITH ™ & ©2006 ASSOCIATED PRESS.

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©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

LEFT: In this diagram of three Scorchy Smith strips by Noel Sickles you can see a master of composition at work. The lower charts are rough tracings of the solid black shapes only, yet the content of every image is crystal clear! The flow and rhythm within each frame and the larger flow and rhythm relationship of each frame to the others is a textbook of brilliant composition, and again reveals how important a carefully planned understructure is. Study these with the constant awareness that the artist has placed every shape in each square inch of every image with focused, intentional deliberation—there are no accidents here. Sickles did not just start scribbling in figures and other elements at random, hoping it would all “come together in the end” somehow.

Mike and I can’t stress this enough; good drawing is hard work and almost every first rate image is the result of much trial and effort to find the best solution. Thinking and planning are the core and essence of the process.

I’ve made many of these “black only” diagrams of various cartoonists, illustrators, and painters over the last thirty years. I urge you to make some of your own—it distills the artwork down to its foundation and reveals structural relationships that are often subtly obscured by the appeal of surface form rendering and detail.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

These two images—a panorama and a tight close up—are fine examples of complicated compositions that deftly convey a great deal of information with subtle and clear panache. The WWII painting was made by war artist-correspondent Joseph Hirsh in 1944, and is full of beautifully observed body language and the physical character of each object, animal, and machine, all arranged with a remarkably casual-seeming clarity.

The crowd of reporters is part of serialized comic strip magazine feature by illustrator Frederick Chapmanóa. A much lighter and more frivolous subject, but handled with a lively charm and vitality, flawlessly composed. Notice how carefully he has placed each shape and contour to avoid creating any tangents... an impressive feat in this tightly cropped congested scene.

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COLOSSUS ™ & ©2006 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

This explosive punch was designed as exactly that—an explosion. The diagram reveals the “burst” design of the composition, and how the main lines and shapes are used to create the understructure that carries the impact of the conflict. I started with the simple idea at far right—a starburst shape. Then the fun began as I tried to find ways to use my subject matter to create those shapes and achieve that effect.

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COMPOSITION

I’ve gathered a variety of other composition examples over the following pages. Some are accompanied with diagrams of their structure, the rest are waiting to be analyzed by you. Use the simple charts as guides for making your own--sketch freely and ignore the surface details (squinting helps with this). The point is to identify the big movements of major line directions and the large key shape relationships that support the picture. After you’ve experimented on these examples, carry on with other artwork that inspires you. Once you develop the habit of noticing the understructure of everything you see, you’ll begin to think in terms of composition before you touch pencil to paper, and your work will grow stronger. Working this way is also a great deal of fun—your options for building pictures expand into endless variety as you absorb more and more possibilities for designing space to suit your pictorial ambitions.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

MADMAN ™ & ©2006 MIKE ALLRED.

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COMPOSITION

Bending the perspective to arc the ground plane into a swell that then drops quickly away from us allowed me to “drape” Chewie over the rise and steeply tilt the buildings and background figures down sharply—somehow this optically adds weight to the axe head, making it seem deadly heavy. The jet trails of the closer flying platform subtly convey the swing-path of the axe, coming to a point directly aimed at Chewie’s head. Most of the directional lines of the background figures and moons lead toward the axeman’s head, while the main lines of the buildings point downward toward Chewie’s head, creating a double (but balanced) center(s) of interest. This image is a good example of arriving at compositional ideas through the process of solving storytelling problems—trying to clearly convey particular information using particular subject matter within particular restrictions can lead to unanticipated arrangements that will surprise you. Finding successful results is where you also discover your “style” of composing.

STAR WARS ™& ©2006 LUCASFILM LTD.

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The Leia image is a very straightforward composition, intended to echo a simple oldfashioned “pulp” feel—Leia’s curving forms are set against the rigid lines of the rails and post behind her, to accent her graceful forward thrust by contrasting curves against straights. The other elements (R2D2, the fallen soldier, the ray blasts and impact bursts) are rather methodically placed to optically “push or pull” Leia forward, accented by the spear she holds and the contour of the sand dune background.

The two black cables sweeping down nudge the eye back toward her face as the viewer’s glance circles the composition.

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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ™& ©2006 DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.

Comic book pages require a special combination of composing techniques— everything discussed in the other pages of this article, plus the relationship of the panels to each other, and the flow/placement of captions and dialogue.

This can be tricky at times!

The design of the pirate page seen here is very simple, mainly because the final color art was printed at small digest size. The diagram shows the big broad shapes and line directions used to guide the eye around and through the scenes—the key shot of the page is given the largest panel and the most active dynamic shape pattern. The first two panels are exposition scenes—long range “overview/chessboard” shots that set up and emphasize through contrast, the action of panel three and the joke punch-line of panel four, so in a sense the first two frames are designed to be more “functional” than dynamic—emphasizing clarity over excitement. But that doesn’t mean they require less thought or planning—the placement of lines, shapes and value contrasts are intended to inform the viewer (tell the story) by leading his eye through the compositions, allowing him to effortlessly glean the story

information, then gracefully nudging his eye toward the next frame by linking the shapes in a pleasing, seemingly natural and not too obvious relationship. And leave enough “dead space” in the right places for balloons and captions!

Composing with slashing diagonals in panel three “speeds up” the energy and impression of movement—which is immediately stopped dead in panel four by placing Jack Sparrow dead center and hemming him in further by the circle of pointed shapes “pinning” him into immobility (and focusing all the attention on his facial expression/acting). The contrast between the shapes used to compose these last two panels are a direct aspect of storytelling. The shift in mood/impression/effect that is conveyed by the composition under-structure make the bit funnier—it underscores and strengthens the story, and allows the drawing of body language, flowing drapery, character acting, etc., to take center stage and communicate to the reader without confusion or ambiguity.

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COMPOSITION

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

The clashing diagonals of these football players create a powerful dynamic interplay of jagged shapes, yet the composition has a very appealing grace, too. In the diagram notice how deftly the eye is led upward from the lower left, along the shadow of the tackler’s right leg, across his torso and sharply up along his right arm, arcing quickly back up the top edge of the runner’s body, down across his shoulders, arm, and the shadow between his legs to join the top of the tackler’s helmet, swoop around, down his back to the lower left border, where the trip starts over again!

This piece is typical of McClelland Barclay’s mastery—his compositions are always strong.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

The stalking scarecrow illustration has been reduced to a very simple schematic chart of its directional structure and rhythm—note how the majority of lines lead the eye to the center of interest, the girl in the loft door. She forms a cross shape, one of the strongest (and oldest) eye-catching design motifs, strengthened here by the added tonal contrast of white against black.

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SLEEPWALKER, SPIDER-MAN ™ & ©2006 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

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The Body Snatchers illustration by Mike Ludlow is a marvelous solution to an intriguing storytelling problem. Who could resist reading the copy to find out what is happening on that pool table? Drawing the reader into the story was the illustrator’s chief purpose in the days when popular fiction was serialized in mass circulation weekly magazines (Collier’s in this case)—his job was to grab and entice the viewer’s attention, but not reveal too much about the plot. Here the simple device of covering the face of the alien pod-body with the lamp focuses attention on it not as an object itself, but as the source of the other character’s reactions—the cockeyed diagonals and the eerie half-light create a suspenseful mood. Note again how all the main direction lines and contours lead the eye toward the head on the table, broken only by the pulled drapery, which stops the eye from leaving the page and swings your glance back around to the center of the composition. The giant floating dead-eyed head in the background seems to overpower the characters and trap them in a sinister oppression. Everything in this composition is precisely planned—cover the rack of pool balls and notice how your eye would run off the right edge of the page without its sharp triangular arrow shape there to jerk your gaze back toward the “corpse”.

The thrashing tangle of limbs in this Spider-Man/ Sleepwalker image creates a roiling motion and intentionally busy riot of sticky enmeshing strands to accent the tense conflict. The chart reveals a pinwheel-motif that is enhanced by the line directions of the main weblines, which shoot out from the figures in an off-kilter burst shape.

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 39

Jackson Guice. And there’s a guy who uses 200 lines to do what I would use one line to do. So y’know, I’m inking stuff, and I’m like, “Wow! If I had penciled this, I’d be done yesterday.”

DRAW!: [laughs] I guess you didn’t enjoy it as a craft, a leisurely craft, is what you’re saying.

KB: But you know, the thing about animation, how business has changed and stuff. One of the other reasons I’m where I am now, when I started in Hollywood in the ’90s, I was at Warner Brothers.

They were developing Why I Hate Saturn as a TV show and when that fell apart, I stayed out there for seven years, doing screenplays and all that junk. And in the old days of Hollywood, they used to give you a whole lot of money up front. Like, when I was at Warner Brothers, they’d give me a big pile of money, a nice contract, and they totally ruined the work, made the script suck. The show never went on, I don’t get the script back, etc., etc. But at least I got a big pile of money, and I bought a house. It was worth it. But with the kind of deals that at least I’m getting offered now in animation—I don’t know if this is the general deal, but what the people are coming to me with is, like, “Okay, here’s what we need.

We need you. We don’t really have much of a development budget anymore, so we want you to practically develop the whole thing before you bring it in. Then we’ll pay you about ten grand, and we’ll make this thing, and if it succeeds, we get everything, and you get nothing. And if it fails, you get nothing.” That’s all you end up with now, is, like, ten grand. And it’s easy enough to find ten grand somewhere, so that you don’t have to give everything up and watch them ruin your script. You know what I mean? I mean, the last thing I did like that, I did a Fox pilot, and that’s how much I made, ten grand. It wasn’t worth it to me.

©2006 RESPECTIVE OWNER.

DRAW!: What kind of show was it?

KB: It was an animated family show. They’re Fox, they’re always looking for the next Simpsons. It was written by Larry Doyle. But we shot a six-minute pilot, and I did everything, I did all the character designs and storyboards and turnarounds and color guides and everything—the whole package that went to Korea. And I find that kind of stuff frustrating, because when they finally passed on the show, they don’t give it back to you. So I’ve got six minutes of animation that I can’t do anything with.

DRAW!: Well, you can put it in your reel, right?

KB: I guess, but it’s not my best six minutes, because Fox f*cked it up before passing on it. You know, the first thing they do is they go through your script and take all the jokes out. Go through the storyboards, take all the good drawings out. You end up with a weak piece of sh*t. And then they say, “We can’t put this on TV, it’s a weak piece of sh*t.” Y’know? I can’t show that to somebody. The only stuff I show people is the comic books, because they come out in the form that they were intended. They come out in my style. It’s better than showing somebody your Fox thing and going, “Y’know, the heads were better, but they made me change the hair. Imagine this character with a blue shirt, because it would have been funny with a blue shirt.” And when I’m showing somebody those kind of projects, like I show people my Looney Tunes and stuff, and I’m always in the back of the room telling them the jokes that didn’t make it in. [laughs] You know?

“Oh, this would have been great. Originally, Sylvester’s head came off. You would have loved it. But you’ll never know.”

DRAW!: The ironic thing is that, you doing your own stuff all yourself and not having an editor and all that stuff, it puts out the pure Kyle Baker, which is what attracts them to you to ask you to work for them anyway.

TOP: Taking the kids shopping is no laughing matter, unless it’s a strip from The Bakers.

ABOVE: Animation work done for the HA! network—which later merged with the Comedy Channel to form Comedy Central.

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KB: Well, that’s the thing I’ve always found. And I don’t know if this is true with everybody, maybe I’m unique. The only stuff that’s ever really worked out for me in terms of getting other jobs has been when I did my stuff in my style. Like when I do something like Cowboy Wally or Why I Hate Saturn or whatever,

COMICS

KYLE BAKER

those are the kind of jobs that somebody will call me up and give me a job in their magazines or something, because it’s got a style to it. But whenever I do these so-called big money jobs, it’s never translated to big money. Things that are supposed to be a great opportunity for me; it turns out I spent a year of my life working on Looney Tunes: Back in Action, starring Brendan Fraser. That’s not the kind of thing you can tell anybody, to get another job.

DRAW!: Unless it’s a big, huge, giant, fat hit or something.

KB: No, well, and that, it’s outstanding as one of their biggest bombs of the year. It’s useless to me, y’know? I mean, it helps as far as, like, it’s on my résumé that I’ve done that type of work, but other than that—I wouldn’t point to that as an example of my stuff, and I don’t think anybody’s ever going to call me up and say, “Hey, we saw Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Can you give us more of that? We want something just like that!”

DRAW!: [laughs] Yeah, yeah. So you feel like you don’t want to go back and do that again, pitching stuff that you— KB: I don’t mind the pitching stuff, I just think that I like more control, and I like a reversion if you don’t go for it. It’s just—I don’t think it helps anybody to do it—especially my stuff, because my stuff is weird, y’know? I mean, they hire me because I’m weird. Or at least people who like my stuff like it because it’s weird and different. I don’t know why people hire me. People hire me, I think, based on the résumé. I think a lot of people don’t know who I am at all, and they’re just like, “Oh, I won’t get fired for hiring this guy, he’s got a good résumé.”

They go through it and they take out everything that makes it unique. Just, “Ooh, there’s too much of your style in this drawing.

Can we just hand this off and have some other guys draw it in a sort of watered-down version?”

Like, we’re thinking now, just because it seems to be something of interest to people, of playing up the fact that our family is sort of a multi-ethnic family, which hasn’t been really played up in the other

DAFFY DUCK, PORKY PIG ™ & ©2006 WARNER BROS. DONALD DUCK ™ & ©2006 DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC. BIG BIRD, ERNIE ™ & ©2006 THE JIM HENSON CO.

comics, but people are interested in it, in the subject. And it is unique, it’s something different, but you know that that might be the first thing that the network would take out. [laughs] DRAW!: Well, yeah. “Let’s make everybody all black, or make everybody all white, or all Chinese”— KB: Well, that, and we’ve got different religions, which I find interesting.

DRAW!: Oh, really?

KB: Yeah, we have all the holidays, because my wife’s Jewish, so we do Christmas and Hanukkah and everything. And a lot of families do, these days.

DRAW!: That’s very true.

KB: And that’s another thing. A lot of time I think that executives—an executive’s, I think, main focus is keeping his job.

DRAW!: Oh, yeah. They’re fear-based people.

KB: And so you will never be fired for doing something that worked before. My favorite version of that was Hook.

Because you know that that Monday, after that movie was a disaster, when the executive’s boss comes into his office and said, “Why the hell did you just make

TOP: Sketches for Kyle’s daughter, including Looney Tunes stalwarts, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. RIGHT: Alice in Wonderland sketch for Classics Illustrated: Through the Looking Glass. ©2006 CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED

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Hook?” You say, “Look, it has Peter Pan, Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, and Steven Spielberg. It’s not my fault! You can’t fire me for hiring those guys. You could fire me if I gave some unknown guy a chance to try his new offBroadway play. It’s obviously my fault for hiring undiscovered talent.”

DRAW!: Right. Well, each one of these guys gets to say yes to something maybe a dozen times a year, and every time they say yes, as I say, the torpedo is launched, and either the torpedo’s going to not hit them, or it’s going to hit them. And they may not know for six months or a year or two years.

KB: I mean, when you have Joe Dante directing Brendan Fraser and Bugs Bunny, and you spend $200 million, and the thing is the biggest bomb of the year, it’s not your fault.

Y’know? Those guys have made some hits!

DRAW!: Yeah. I think, in general, the way it always seems to play out is, they’re attracted to you because you do something unique, funny, whatever. They want to work with you. You go and you pitch them the idea. Initially, “Oh, it’s wonderful, it’s wonderful, it’s wonderful.” Then it’s the death of a thousand paper cuts. “Cut this, cut this, cut this, cut this, cut this, cut this.”

Until they have something that is pretty mediocre and pretty much like everything else they have. Because they always say, “We want cutting edge,” but they don’t really know what cutting edge is. That’s just a term they’re told, you know, you learn to parrot, you want cutting edge.

KB: And, also, they have a finite number of slots. I think things are a little different with, say, Nickelodeon, but if you’re ABC, you have a finite number of slots, and you’ve got Kyle Baker writing a pilot for you, but you’ve also got Steven Bochko writing something for you for a million dollars. So you know that thing has to go on, because you just spent a million bucks on Steven Bochko.

DRAW!: Right. And even if it’s only going to be on six weeks, you’ve got to put it on to try to recoup your money.

KB: So that really means there’s only one slot left, because you promised Michael J. Fox he could be on Wednesday, and the Steven Bochko thing you already paid a million bucks for. So a lot of times I think that people hire me 74

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to just justify their development budget. Because you’re the executive, and you’re paid to develop ten shows, even though none of them are going to go on, so you might as well hire ten guys, or next year, they’re not going to give you that money.

And next year they’re going to realize they don’t need you, because they’re only going to put on the Steven Bochko show, anyway. So why do we have this executive?

DRAW!: So it sounds like, all things being equal, the only pure Kyle Baker we’re going to get is the Kyle Baker that Kyle Baker gives us.

KB: Yeah, yeah. I think if I can build this stuff up, somebody else will be interested. I think that once I’ve built this company up to where it’s successful, somebody might—like, say, Scholastic did with Jeff Smith—take over the book, but leave it alone, because it’s already proven to work.

DRAW!: Now, would you ever consider publishing somebody else’s stuff?

KB: If I could figure out how to make the money. The secret to my success right now is that I don’t pay my artist.

DRAW!: [laughs] He works for free.

KB: Yeah, I’ve got a Batman artist working for me for free. It does look like Mad magazine, but I don’t have to pay Mad magazine rates.

DRAW!: But would you consider that?

KB: That’s the thing, everybody I would want to work with would need some incentive. Like, if I was going to publish a book, I’d want to publish, like, Gilbert Hernandez’s next book, but I’d have to give him a reason to pick me over somebody else. At this point in the game, the only people I could afford would be artists who weren’t as good as me, and I’m better off publishing my own books.

If I could get Bill Wray, I’d love it, but I’m not in a position to offer Bill Wray anything decent. If I can get this thing to the point where I’m selling 10 or 20 thousand books, then you can go to somebody and say, “Look, I’m selling 10 or 20 thousand books. I can offer you $10,000. How’s that?” Right now it would be like, “Hey, Bill, how’d you like to do a book with me and we’ll split three grand?” [laughter] For example, the animator’s working with me cheap, because he’s got an incentive. He

COMICS

KYLE BAKER

THE BAKERS ™ ©2006 KYLE BAKER.

PREVIOUS PAGE: No, it’s not Capt. Hook, but rather another literary swordsman, Cyrano de Bergerac. A preliminary sketch for Kyle’s Classics Illustrated adaptation of the novel in the early ’90s, to be precise.

LEFT: The sculptures for the Bakers PVC figurines. Another way Kyle is trying to branch out and expand his properties.

BELOW: The Bakers #1 cover.

needs a reel. So the funny thing is, I keep telling him to hack it out, because I really want just Hanna-Barbera level animation, just really limited stuff, and just get it done. But he’s trying to fill his reel, so he keeps bringing me back this fully-animated stuff. [laughs] DRAW!: I think it’s really cool that you’re doing all of these, you’ve cast your net wide, because, basically, if you can have one arrow land big, then it kind of helps you with the other things.

KB: That’s right, that’s right.

DRAW!: I understand that, I have an attic that’s full of product.

I’m even dealing with that with DRAW!, because I get copies of every issue, which, of course, I take to conventions to sell, but I still have a fair amount of my Action Planet material. So, after a year or two, you’re going to have to either have a storage place or something, right?

KB: Well, these things are selling through pretty good. I mean, I can fit, like, 50 graphic novels in a box, but I don’t know how many toys I can fit in a box. I think probably five. I can keep 200 copies of my book in my office and it’s not really going to kill me. It’s not going to take up a lot of space. But I don’t want 200 toys in my office.

DRAW!: So next year are you going to have maquettes of the Bakers?

KB: Yes, I’m going to have the dolls, I’m going to have the toys.

DRAW!: Are they plushie toys, or plastic toys?

KB: They’re plastic figures. They’re not even articulated, because I wanted to get the whole family in the box. I don’t want to just sell one figure or something.

DRAW!: Half the office space is just big, giant cardboard boxes— KB: —boxes of toys that I don’t even know if they’re moving. And that’s the other thing, the books I don’t mind having them in my office, because I know they’re still moving. Somebody’s going to order that box; I can get it out of there. The toy is an unknown thing. I really don’t know how it’s going to do.

DRAW!: So where are you getting them made, in China?

KB: I don’t know yet. I’m looking at that. I think China. I’ve got to make a couple of calls and find out how many I can seriously expect to sell, which would determine how many I can make, and things like that.

DRAW!: So you already have existing sculptures?

KB: I don’t want a garage full of Bakers. That’s my biggest issue, actually, with a lot of stuff, is warehousing.

DRAW!: So Nat Turner will be done by the end of this year?

KB: Yeah, that’s right.

THE BAKE RS

™ ©2006 KY LE BAKER.

KB: Yeah, I have the sculptures, and I’ve talked to a couple of manufacturers and got some prices. And so now I have to go back to, say, Diamond, and see how many I can count on them for, and that would determine how these things would be made.

DRAW!: So you don’t have a garage full of Bakers. [laughs]

DRAW!: And then you’ll be collecting it into a graphic novel in the spring of 2006?

KB: I don’t know, because I’m hoping to sell the graphic novel rights, whatever you call it, the book rights, to somebody else.

DRAW!: Okay, so you may not collect it yourself, if you can sell it to— DRAW! • WINTER 2006

75

KYLE BAKER

COMICS

KB: I mean, the book’s doing really well; it’s getting great reviews, people are really into it, and I’ve already, just at this early stage, gotten a couple of inquiries from publishers and agents, so I think it has the potential to get me a really huge advance. So I’m going to try and get that big advance, and if it doesn’t work out, then I’ll publish myself. But I think that if I can get into one of these big publishers, they’re probably going to want to sit on the book for a year in order to promote it. It depends. A lot of this also depends on if the buzz continues, because right now we’re getting a lot of publicity, so somebody might want to put the graphic novel out to capitalize on that, I don’t know.

DRAW!: Because publishers tend to work, like, a year ahead.

KB: Yeah, most publishers work about a year ahead.

NAT TURNER ™ & ©2006 KYLE BAKER.

DRAW!: So even if they said, “We want it,” it’s going to be a year between now and then.

KB: Right, right. But, on the other hand, if Entertainment Weekly just gave me a good review, and Time magazine’s writing a feature about it, they might want to bump up the release date.

DRAW!: So what comes after this next—because you’re not going to want to have six months between your next projects, right? Do you have something—

ABOVE: A panel from the auction scene from Nat Turner.

HOLMES & WATSON ™ AND ©2006 KYLE BAKER.

KB: Well, I had planned on getting paid when the paperback BELOW: Preliminary drawing for Holmes & Watson, Lic. PI, NYC. came out. I’m not making any money on the comic. So the paperback was my payday. This whole year has been want to do another Bible story, I want to do more black history designed around the reprint payday I was expecting when I put stories, and I want to do more Bakers stuff. It’s more of a matter the book out in Black History month, and if that’s not going to of if there’s any demand for any of these things. [laughs] happen.... That’s why I was talking about repackaging the Bakers stuff. I have about 150 pages of DRAW!: So you have a spring book, a summer book, a fall, which would follow up on this Nat Turner with the next one?

Bakers material, and originally I was just going to collect that all into one big, KB: I’ve got some new comic ideas that I would try in comics. giant book. But I’ve decided I’ll I’m going to really just put a lot in the beginning of next year, into probably put them out in putting out books of the material I’ve already got. Because the two 94-page Bakers stuff I want to repackage. Because the way that material books instead. was originally released in the Cartoonist books, a lot of people DRAW!: So liked the Bakers stuff for their family, their kids, but they can’t show them the other pages—the dirty jokes and stuff. So I want to what’s the separate them. I want to put out a book that is nothing but the gag next project stuff, and then I’ll put out books that are just the Bakers stuff. So I that you’ll be think that’s going to be what I focus on at the beginning of the writing and year, is just putting out those books. And then, I don’t know. I like drawing? the way The Bakers is going. I hope that I can follow that up. And KB: Well, I have this weird Sherlock Holmes thing I’ve been wanting to do.

The Bakers.

Let’s see. It DRAW!: Well it sounds like you’ve got a full plate. depends. It KB: And I’ve got a TV pilot that may happen. I pitched it depends on yesterday, and it went well. We’ll see what happens. how well something does, too. I have follow-ups to everything. I really

76 DRAW! • WINTER 2006

DRAW!: Well, good luck on that.

NEXT ISSUE: DRAW! #14

FRANKENSTEIN ™ & ©2006 DC COMICS.

NEXT ISSUE’S COVER BY DOUG MAHNKE!

The twice Eisner Award-nominated magazine returns, bringing you the best and real “how-to” tutorials from today’s top working pro artists in the comics and animation industries. We bulk up and blast off with in-depth interviews and demos with DC Comics artist DOUG MAHNKE (JLA, Batman, Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein, Superman, Justice League Elite), OVI NEDELCU (Pigtale, WB Animation), and STEVE PURCELL (Sam and Max).

Plus DRAW! Editor MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS bring you Part III of our Comic Art Bootcamp: “Using Black to Power up Your Pages.” This installment will cover the best ways to use black placement to enhance and kick up the energy in your pages and designs.

Also, there’s product reviews and more!

80 pAgEs, INCLUDING a 16-page color section, $6.95, July 2007 Please send your letters to: PO BOX 2129, UPPER DARBY, PA 19082 or e-mail: mike@drawmagazine.com VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: www.drawmagazine.com ALSO VISIT OUR MESSAGE BOARD AT: http://66.36.6.76/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi

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Turn the page for your FREE

ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW ROUGH STUFF magazine celebrates the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVER-BEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and even unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history. Included is commentary on the art, discussing what went right and wrong with it, and background information to put it all into historical perspective.

Plus, before-and-after comparisons let you see firsthand how an image changes from initial concept to published version.

So enjoy excerpts from issue #3, which presents galleries of NEVER-BEFORE SEEN art by: JOHN ROMITA JR. • MIKE ALLRED JOHN BUSCEMA • P. CRAIG RUSSELL YANICK PAQUETTE • LEE WEEKS Plus a JOHN ROMITA JR. interview, looks at the earliest work of some of your favorite artists, and a new ROMITA JR. COVER! (100-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues in the US: $24 Standard, $36 First Class (Canada: $44, Elsewhere: $48 Surface, $64 Airmail).

ROUGH STUFF #1 ALAN DAVIS • GEORGE PÉREZ BRUCE TIMM • KEVIN NOWLAN JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ ARTHUR ADAMS • JOHN BYRNE WALTER SIMONSON Plus a NOWLAN interview, and a new TIMM COVER!

ROUGH STUFF #2

ROUGH STUFF #4

ROUGH STUFF #5

PAUL GULACY MICHAEL KALUTA • GENE COLAN BRIAN APTHORP • ALEX TOTH ANDREW ROBINSON • HOWARD FRANK BRUNNER CHAYKIN • JOHN TOTLEBEN JERRY ORDWAY • MATT WAGNER STEVEN BISSETTE

STEVE RUDE PAUL SMITH • GIL KANE CULLY HAMNER ASHLEY WOOD • DALE KEOWN

Plus a PAUL GULACY interview, professional art critiques, and a new GULACY “HEX” COVER!

Plus a STEVE RUDE interview, an examination of John Albano and Tony DeZuniga's work on Jonah Hex, and a new RUDE COVER!

Plus a JOHN TOTLEBEN interview, art from the Wonder Woman Day charity auction, and a new KALUTA COVER!

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom.

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

JOHN BUSCEMA This is such a great example of Buscema's process.

First is the rough, followed by his finished pencils, which he later inked himself. I'm very pleased to add that I was recently commissioned to ink this piece by lightbox by the owner of the rough, Brad Burch.

You can see my inked version along with Buscema's own inked version on my site at www.bobmcleod. com/roughstuff.htm

The inked version of the languorous La of Opar was published in Marvel Comics’ Tarzan #3 (August, 1977).

Buscema’s figures of both sexes always had some meat on their bones, and his women always looked like they would be all you could handle. He didn’t exaggerate their attributes, he just made them solid.

Tarzan TM & ©2007 ERB, Inc.

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JOHN BUSCEMA

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW

LEE WEEKS Punisher/Wolverine #1,

LEE WEEKS

pg. 21 I love composing with shadows. The jungle offers wonderful opportunities for neat framing devices. In looking at this page again, I would carry more of the deep shadows I used in panels one and two into the last three panels. At the time, I was trying to simplify the background as I went along and focus more on the flight of the character, but it almost looks like a different scene to me today. Too jarring a shift.

I was extremely fortunate to be working on this project with one of the all-time great inkers – Tom Palmer. He’s a great inker simply because he’s an excellent artist and really understands exactly what it is he’s interpreting. Tom has been an important person in the last five or so years of my career. We have worked on several projects together, and in that time he became a kind of professional mentor to me...which I never really had early in my career. He wasn’t intending to or aware of it even, as it just happened as an outgrowth of our many phone conversations. A real class guy.

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW

81

P. CRAIG RUSSELL A rare example of working the drawings out in my sketchbook without resorting to posing real people. The cartoonier approach seemed more fitting to this whimsical Hellboy story.

Hellboy TM & ©2007 Mike

P. CRAIG RUSSELL

Mignola.

82

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

E T T E U Q A P K C I N A Y

ian a French-Canad is te et qu Pa k ic Yan re of inkI had the pleasu o h w t tis ar ic com ago. His WOMAN years R E D N O W on g in ul, and if amic and beautif n dy e he will be ar ls ci n pe already, surely ts tis ar te ri vo your fa r the radar he’s not one of hat flying unde ew m so en be s is! He’ recognized as af ter you see th he’s sure to be , is th e lik t n le ith ta up to now, but w to come. comics in years in ts tis ar p to e one of th

YANICK PAQUETTE: Avengers #56, pg. 4 This was a monthly book and I was feeling bad for Ray Snyder having to ink that Optic-gray city in Panel 2. Yet I still believed it provided a nice layering contrast with the white clouds.

The Avengers TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

YANICK PAQUETTE: Avengers #56, pg. 12 Wide screen horizontal shots have been my basic page structure for a while now. I blame Brian Hitch’s evil influence.

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW

83

INTERVIEW

JOHN ROMITA JR.

By Bob McLeod

F

or my money, there’s nobody working today who exemplifies Marvel Comics more or better than John Romita Jr. He’s been penciling for Marvel for over 30 years and I’ve watched in admiration as he continues to improve every year.

His pencils are fun to ink, too. But his debut back in the 1970’s was not given the warm welcome you might expect

for the son of Marvel’s own art director and longtime renowned Spider-Man artist. There were many who bristled at him daring to follow in his revered father’s footsteps, and he faced quite an uphill battle proving his mettle, but prove it he has. Like his father, he’s well known for his exciting visual storytelling on his Spider-Man work, but he’s equally well known for his hard-hitting Punisher work, and his powerful recent work on the Hulk, along with many other titles. It was an honor to interview him for this issue and I was blown away by his pencils shown here. When I called, he had to turn down his tv to talk. I asked what he was listening to while he worked: JOHN ROMITA JR: I listen to British comedy on Fridays…

BOB MCLEOD: No kidding!

ROMITA JR: Yeah, it cracks me up.

MCLEOD: Do you have a different thing you listen to every day?

ROMITA JR: No no, it’s just on Fridays. I TiVo all the British comedies from the previous Fridays and during the day on Friday I get sick of talk radio, so I listen to comedy. This is true! I get one day a week where I just listen to comedy.

MCLEOD: Cool… How old were you when you started drawing?

ROMITA JR: I’d say, according to my father, I thought I was younger, but he says about the time that he first started doing Daredevil, I started doodling. I think I was 8. I don't know if I did any doodling before that but he said I made a concerted effort to draw then, when I first watched him do superheroes. I read...he used to bring home some of DC's superhero comics—Metal Men and Hawkman and the like when he was doing romance books, but apparently I couldn’t be bothered because of the romance books.

MCLEOD: (laughs) ROMITA JR: So when he started drawing superheroes again, my father says I picked up the pencil.

84

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW

MCLEOD: Well, you’re kind of unique, along with the Kubert brothers, in having such a renowned artist as your father. Did you spend much time in his studio when you were growing up and were you welcomed there by him?

ROMITA JR: The answer to the second question is very welcome, and that's something my father has over me. He has more patience than Job, and it's not that I kick my son out of the office, but after a certain amount of time I start to lose track of things and instead of turning around, picking him up and taking him outside and playing ball with him like my father did, I get a little bit “OK, Vinny, I got to get back to work, I’m running behind.” Whereas my father was always very patient with me and always had plenty of time, and he says I was up near his desk fairly regularly once he started doing superhero books, and then when I started drawing I didn’t take the artwork up to him per se, but I would go up and watch him and then I would go down and draw. He would disappear up to his attic regularly and have overnights and deadlines and we wouldn't bother him then, but I would go up and check on him once in awhile and I’d go rummaging through his attic and take a look at old comics, and then when we moved to Queens, I did the same thing. I was lookin’ through the old books, the comics he brought home and I would sit there and read ’em.

MCLEOD: You said you would watch him and then go down and draw. Did you mean go down on the floor or go downstairs out of his studio to draw?

JOHN ROMITA JR

ROMITA JR: I never drew in front of him and

Black Panther #1, pg. 1

from what I hear, I didn’t want to show him

Working on the Black Panther was a joy for a lot of reasons....One was using Jack Kirby’s FF run as reference, another

very much because I wasn’t very good, and (heh) things haven’t changed! He says that I was not ashamed, but I didn’t want to show him because it was so...apparently in comparison, and as much as he wanted to see, I

was working with Reggie Hudlin and the other was working with Klaus Janson, who is my favorite artist to work with.

I think I referenced this assignment more than any other I’ve worked on. I spent hours, online, locating and printing out material related to Africa. It was more challenging, artistically, than any other title. However, it was more rewarding, artistically, also. This work is among my favorites.

I don’t say that easily because I always seem to feel there’s room for improvement whenever I go over the finished product.

wouldn’t show him. Eventually he saw what I was doing, but because I wasn’t very good and I was frustrated with that he says I didn’t want to show him, and even into college I didn’t want to bring any of my stuff home because I was frustrated with it.

To read the rest of the interview, get Rough Stuff #3, on sale now from TwoMorrows Publishing!

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW

85

HOW-TO BOOKS & DVDs

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Compiles more of the best tutorials and interviews from DRAW! #5-7, including: Penciling by MIKE WIERINGO! Illustration by DAN BRERETON! Design

by PAUL RIVOCHE! Drawing Hands, Lighting the Figure, and Sketching by BRET BLEVINS! Cartooning

by BILL WRAY! Inking by MIKE MANLEY! Comics & Animation by STEPHEN DeSTEFANO! Digital Illustration by CELIA CALLE and ALBERTO RUIZ! Caricature by ZACH TRENHOLM, and much more!

Cover by DAN BRERETON!

More tutorials and interviews from DRAW! #8-10, spotlighting: From comics to video games with artist MATT HALEY! Character design with TOM BANCROFT and ROB CORLEY! Adobe Illustrator tips with ALBERTO RUIZ! Draping the human figure by BRET BLEVINS! Penciling with RON GARNEY! Breaking into comic strips

by GRAHAM NOLAN! Lettering by TODD KLEIN! International cartoonist JOSÉ LUIS AGREDA! Interviews with PvP’s SCOTT KURTZ and Banana Tail’s MARK McKENNA, and more! Cover by MATT HALEY!

(256-page trade paperback with COLOR) $29.95 ISBN: 9781893905917 Diamond Order Code: JAN083936

(216-page trade paperback with COLOR) $24.95 ISBN: 9781605490007 Ships May 2008

Art professor DURWIN TALON gets top creators to discuss all aspects of the DESIGN of comics, from panel and page layout, to use of color and lettering: • WILL EISNER • SCOTT HAMPTON • MIKE WIERINGO • WALT SIMONSON • MIKE MIGNOLA • MARK SCHULTZ • DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI • MIKE CARLIN • DICK GIORDANO • BRIAN STELFREEZE • CHRIS MOELLER • MARK CHIARELLO If you’re serious about creating effective, innovative comics, or just enjoying them from the creator’s perspective, this guide is must-reading!

(208-page trade paperback with COLOR) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905146 Diamond Order Code: MAY073781

MODERN MASTERS SERIES Edited by ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON, these trade paperbacks and DVDs are devoted to the BEST OF TODAY’S COMICS ARTISTS! Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, plus a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW (including influences and their views on graphic storytelling), DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more! And don’t miss our companion DVDs, showing the artists at work in their studios!

MODERN MASTERS: IN THE STUDIO WITH GEORGE PÉREZ DVD

MODERN MASTERS: IN THE STUDIO WITH MICHAEL GOLDEN DVD

Get a PERSONAL TOUR of George’s studio, and watch STEP-BY-STEP as the fan-favorite artist illustrates a special issue of TOP COW’s WITCHBLADE! Also, see George as he sketches for fans at conventions, and hear his peers and colleagues—including MARV WOLFMAN and RON MARZ—share their anecdotes and personal insights along the way!

Go behind the scenes and into Michael Golden’s studio for a LOOK INTO THE CREATIVE MIND of one of comics' greats. Witness a modern master in action as this 90-minute DVD provides an exclusive look at the ARTIST AT WORK, as he DISCUSSES THE PROCESSES he undertakes to create a new comics series.

(120-minute Standard Format DVD) $29.95 ISBN: 9781893905511 Diamond Order Code: JUN053276

(90-minute Standard Format DVD) $29.95 ISBN: 9781893905771 Diamond Order Code: MAY073780

Volume 1: ALAN DAVIS

Volume 2: GEORGE PÉREZ

Volume 3: BRUCE TIMM

Volume 4: KEVIN NOWLAN

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905191 Diamond Order Code: JAN073903

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905252 Diamond Order Code: JAN073904

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905306 Diamond Order Code: APR042954

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905382 Diamond Order Code: SEP042971

Volume 5: GARCÍA-LÓPEZ

Volume 6: ARTHUR ADAMS

Volume 7: JOHN BYRNE

Volume 8: WALTER SIMONSON

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905443 Diamond Order Code: APR053191

by George Khoury & Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905542 Diamond Order Code: DEC053309

by Jon B. Cooke & Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905566 Diamond Order Code: FEB063354

by Roger Ash & Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905641 Diamond Order Code: MAY063444

Volume 9: MIKE WIERINGO

Volume 10: KEVIN MAGUIRE

Volume 11: CHARLES VESS

Volume 12: MICHAEL GOLDEN

by Todd DeZago & Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905658 Diamond Order Code: AUG063626

by George Khoury & Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905665 Diamond Order Code: OCT063722

by Christopher Irving & Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905696 Diamond Order Code: DEC063948

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905740 Diamond Order Code: APR074023

NEW FOR 2008

NEW FOR 2008

Volume 13: JERRY ORDWAY

Volume 14: FRANK CHO

Volume 15: MARK SCHULTZ

Volume 16: MIKE ALLRED

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905795 Diamond Order Code: JUN073926

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905849 Diamond Order Code: AUG074034

by Fred Perry & Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905856 Diamond Order Code: OCT073846

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905863 Diamond Order Code: JAN083937

MODERN MASTERS BUNDLES

NEW FOR 2008

NEW FOR 2008

Volume 17: LEE WEEKS

Volume 18: JOHN ROMITA JR.

by Tom Field & Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905948 Ships May 2008

by George Khoury & Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905955 Ships July 2008

BUNDLE THE GEORGE PÉREZ VOLUME & DVD TOGETHER, OR THE MICHAEL GOLDEN VOLUME & DVD TOGETHER

ONLY $37.95 EACH (SAVE $7 PER BUNDLE)

MODERN MASTERS VOLUMES ON MIKE PLOOG AND CHRIS SPROUSE ARE COMING IN FALL 2008 SEE OUR SUMMER CATALOG UPDATE!

THE ULTIMATE MAGAZINE FOR LEGOTM ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES!

NEXT ISSUE IN JUNE:

COMING IN MAY:

BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM 1

DIEGDITITIOANL BLE AVAILA

BRICKJOURNAL #2 (VOL. 2) Our second FULL-COLOR print issue celebrates the summer by spotlighting blockbuster summer movies, LEGO style! The LEGO Group will be releasing new sets for BATMAN and INDIANA JONES, and BrickJournal looks behind the scenes at their creation! There’s also articles on events in the US and Europe, and spotlights on new models, including an SR-71 SPYPLANE and a LEGO CONSTRUCTED CITY. For builders, there are INSTRUCTIONS & MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATIONS. Plus, there’s a feature on the ONLINE LEGO FACTORY, showing how an online model becomes a custom set, and a look at how the LEGO Group monitors its quality!

(80-page magazine) $11 US POSTPAID ($14 Canada, $20 Elsewhere) (80-page Digital Edition) $3.95 (or FREE to print subscribers) • Ships June 2008

4-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $32 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($42 First Class, $50 Canada • Elsewhere: $66 Surface, $78 Airmail)

PRINT SUBSCRIBERS GET THE DIGITAL EDITION FREE, BEFORE THE PRINT ISSUE HITS STORES!

VOLUME 1 features interviews with LEGO car builder ZACHARY SWEIGART (showing his version of the timetraveling Delorean from the movie Back to the Future), JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP (CEO of LEGO Systems, Inc.), Mecha builders BRYCE McLONE and JEFF RANJO, paraplegic LEGO builder SCOTT WARFIELD, BOB CARNEY (LEGO castle builder extraordinaire) and RALPH SAVELSBURG (LEGO plane builder), REVEREND BRENDAN POWELL SMITH (author of the LEGO version of the Bible), NASA Astronaut Trainer KIETH JOHNSON, JAKE McKEE (Global Community Director for The LEGO Group), builder JASON ALLEMANN on recreating the spacecraft from 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, features on the BIONICLE universe, how to make your own custom bricks, plus instructions and techniques, and more!

Reprints Digital Editions #1-3 (below).

(256-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $44 US POSTPAID ($51 Canada, $61 Elsewhere) ISBN: 978-1-893905-97-9 • Ships May 2008

GET DIGITAL EDITIONS OF VOLUME 1, #1-9: The first nine issues shown below comprise Volume One, and were released from 2005-2007 as Digital Editions only, averaging more than 100,000 downloads each.

They’re available for downloading now for $3.95 EACH, and issue #9 is FREE!

DOWNLOAD A FREE DIGITAL EDITION OF VOL. 1, #9 NOW AT www.twomorrows.com

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY BOOKS

NEW FOR 2008

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME JOHN ROMITA... AND ALL THAT JAZZ! “Jazzy” JOHN ROMITA talks about his life, his art, and his contemporaries! Authored by former Marvel Comics editor in chief and top writer ROY THOMAS, and noted historian JIM AMASH, it features the most definitive interview Romita’s ever given, about working with such comics legends as STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, following Spider-Man co-creator STEVE DITKO as artist on the strip, and more! Plus, Roy Thomas shares memories of working with Romita in the 1960s-70s, and Jim Amash examines the awesome artistry of Ring-a-Ding Romita! Lavishly illustrated with Romita art—original classic art, and unseen masterpieces—as well as illos by some of Marvel’s and DC’s finest, this is at once a career overview of a comics master, and a firsthand history of the industry by one of its leading artists! Available in Softcover and Deluxe Hardcover (with 16 extra color pages, dust jacket, and custom endleaves).

MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ most prominent and affable personality! Covers his career as illustrator, inker, and editor, peppered with DICK’S PERSONAL REFLECTIONS on his career milestones!

Lavishly illustrated with RARE AND NEVER SEEN comics, merchandising, and advertising art (includes a color section)! Also includes an extensive index of his published work, comments and tributes by NEAL ADAMS, DENNIS O’NEIL, TERRY AUSTIN, PAUL LEVITZ, MARV WOLFMAN, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JIM APARO and others, plus a Foreword by NEAL ADAMS and Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ!

NICK CARDY: BEHIND THE ART NICK CARDY has been doing fantastic artwork for more than sixty years, from comics, to newspaper strips, to illustration. His work on DC Comics’ TEEN TITANS, and his amazing comics covers, are universally hailed as some of the best in the medium’s history, but his COMMERCIAL ILLUSTRATION work is just as highly regarded by those in the know. Now, this lavish FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER lets you see what goes on behind his amazing art! Nick has selected dozens of his favorite pieces from throughout his career and shows how they came to be in this remarkable art book. From the reams of preliminary work as well as Nick's detailed commentary, you will gain fascinating insight into how this great artist works, watching each step of the way as some of his most memorable images come to life! By ERIC NOLENWEATHINGTON and NICK CARDY. (128-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $34.95 ISBN: 9781893905993 • Ships June 2008

(176-pg. Paperback with COLOR) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905276 Diamond Order Code: STAR20439

(192-page softcover) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905757 • Diamond Order Code: APR074018 (208-page hardcover with COLOR) $44.95 ISBN: 9781893905764 • Diamond Order Code: APR074019

R! WINNE! D R A Y AW OR EISNESRT SHORT ST BE

SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS: THE ART & LIFE OF GENE COLAN ART OF GEORGE TUSKA

• ALAN MOORE • WILL EISNER • STAN LEE • GENE COLAN • JOE KUBERT • JOHN ROMITA • HARVEY KURTZMAN • DAVE SIM • DAN DeCARLO • HOWARD CRUSE • DAVE COOPER and more!

A comprehensive look at GEORGE TUSKA’S personal and professional life, including early work at the Eisner-Iger shop, producing controversial crime comics of the 1950s, and his tenure with Marvel and DC Comics, as well as independent publishers. The book includes extensive coverage of his work on IRON MAN, X-MEN, HULK, JUSTICE LEAGUE, TEEN TITANS, BATMAN, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, and many more! A gallery of commission artwork and a thorough index of his work are included, plus original artwork, photos, sketches, previously unpublished art, interviews and anecdotes from his peers and fans, plus the very personal and reflective words of George himself, making this book a testament to the tremendous influence Tuska has had on the comic book industry and his legion of fans! Written by DEWEY CASSELL.

(208-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905160 Diamond Order Code: JUN022611

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905405 Diamond Order Code: DEC042921

“I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THIS GUY!” STREETWISE Featuring NEW autobiographical comics stories by: • BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH • SERGIO ARAGONÉS • MURPHY ANDERSON • JOE KUBERT • JACK KIRBY • BRENT ANDERSON • NICK CARDY • RICK VEITCH • ROY THOMAS & JOHN SEVERIN • SAM GLANZMAN • PAUL CHADWICK • EVAN DORKIN • C.C. BECK • WALTER SIMONSON • ART SPIEGELMAN • Cover by STEVE RUDE • Foreword by WILL EISNER (160-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905047 Diamond Order Code: STAR11522

BLAKE BELL takes a look at what its been like living with comic book creators over the past 60 years, with the people who know them best! Explore the lives of the partners and wives of the top names in comics, as they share memories, anecdotes, personal photos, mementos, and never-before-seen art! Featured are interviews with the “significant others” of:

The ultimate retrospective on COLAN, with rare drawings, photos, and art from his nearly 60-year career, plus a comprehensive overview of Gene’s glory days at Marvel Comics! MARV WOLFMAN, DON McGREGOR and other writers share script samples and anecdotes of their Colan collaborations, while TOM PALMER, STEVE LEIALOHA and others show how they approached the daunting task of inking Colan’s famously nuanced penciled pages! Plus there’s a NEW PORTFOLIO of never-before-seen collaborations between Gene and such masters as JOHN BYRNE, MICHAEL KALUTA and GEORGE PÉREZ, and all-new artwork created specifically for this book by Gene!

Available in Softcover and Deluxe Hardcover (limited to 1000 copies, with 16 extra black-and-white pages and 8 extra color pages)! Written by TOM FIELD. (168-page softcover with COLOR) $21.95 ISBN: 9781893905450 Diamond Order Code: APR053190 (192-page hardcover with COLOR) $44.95 ISBN: 9781893905467 Diamond Order Code: APR053189

JACK KIRBY BOOKS

NEW FOR 2008

WALLACE WOOD CHECKLIST The most thorough listing of Wood’s work ever published, taking more than 20 Wood experts over two decades to compile! Lists in exacting detail Woody’s PUBLISHED COMIC WORK, including dates, story titles, page counts, and even documents the assistants who worked with him! It also includes his NEWSPAPER, ADVERTISING, and FANZINE WORK, plus a myriad of more obscure Wood pieces such as GUM CARDS, STICKERS, GREETING CARDS, and more!

Also included are listings of his UNPUBLISHED WORK, and it’s profusely illustrated throughout with WOOD ARTWORK! (68-page comic book) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL032590

NEW FOR 2008

BRUSH STROKES WITH GREATNESS: THE LIFE & ART OF JOE SINNOTT During his 56-plus-year career in comic books, JOE SINNOTT has worked in every genre, and for almost every publisher, from 1940s Timely Comics to Charlton Comics, Treasure Chest, and Dell as a top penciler. But his association with Marvel Comics in the ’60s as its top inker cemented his place in comics history. This book celebrates his career, as he demonstrates his passion for his craft. In it, Joe shares his experiences working on Marvel’s leading titles, memories of working with STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, and rare and unpublished artwork from his personal files. It features dozens of colleagues and co-workers paying tribute to Joe, plus an extended Art Gallery, and a Checklist of his career. Written by TIM LASIUTA, with a Foreword by STAN LEE, and Afterword by MARK EVANIER. (136-page softcover with COLOR) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905726 • Diamond Order Code: MAR073744

ULTRA-LIMITED EDITION A 52-copy edition of the Softcover with custom Sinnott pencil portraits of his most popular characters! Call or go to www.twomorrows.com to request a copy with your favorite character, while they last!

(136-page limited edition softcover ) $69.95 ONLY AVAILABLE FROM TWOMORROWS!

KIRBY FIVE-OH!

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

The publication that started the TwoMorrows juggernaut presents KIRBY FIVE-OH!, a book covering the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 1938-1987! The BEST COVERS from each decade! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This TABLOID-SIZED TRADE PAPERBACK features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! (A percentage of profits will be donated to the JACK KIRBY MUSEUM AND RESEARCH CENTER.) Takes the place of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50.

(168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: FEB084186

HERO GETS GIRL! THE LIFE & ART OF KURT SCHAFFENBERGER

JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST: GOLD EDITION The most thorough listing of JACK “KING” KIRBY’s work ever published! Building on the 1998 “Silver Edition”, this NEWLY UPDATED GOLD EDITION compiles an additional decade’s worth of corrections and additions by top historians, in a new Trade Paperback format with premium paper for archival durability. It lists in exacting detail EVERY PUBLISHED COMIC featuring Kirby’s work, including dates, story titles, page counts, and inkers. It even CROSS-REFERENCES REPRINTS, and includes an extensive bibliography listing BOOKS, PERIODICALS, PORTFOLIOS, FANZINES, POSTERS, and other obscure pieces with Kirby's art, plus a detailed list of Jack's UNPUBLISHED WORK as well. BONUS: Now includes a complete listing of the over 5000-page archive of Kirby’s personal pencil art photocopies, plus dozens of examples of rare and unseen Kirby art!

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490052 Ships May 2008

COMICS INTROSPECTIVE: PETER BAGGE

Profusely illustrated bio of KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, the preeminent Lois Lane artist and important early Captain Marvel artist who brought a touch of humor and whimsy to super-hero comics! Covers his LIFE AND CAREER from the 1940s to his passing in 2002, and features hundreds of NEVER-SEEN PHOTOS AND ILLUSTRATIONS from his files! Also includes recollections by family, friends and fellow artists such as MURPHY ANDERSON, WILL EISNER, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE KUBERT, ALEX ROSS and MORT WALKER! Written by columnist MARK VOGER (Schaffenberger friend for the final 13 years of the artist’s life), with a Foreword by KEN BALD.

With a unique, expressive style, PETER BAGGE’s work runs the gamut from political (his strips for reason.com), absurdist and satirical (the BATBOY strip for WEEKLY WORLD NEWS), and dramatic (APOCALYPSE NERD). From his Seattle studio, Peter Bagge lets journalist CHRISTOPHER IRVING in on everything from just what was on his mind with his long-running Gen X comic HATE!, to what’s going on in his head as a political satirist. This book features an assortment of original photography, artwork picked by Bagge himself, and a look at where Bagge’s work (and mind) is taking him.

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905290 Diamond Order Code: SEP032545

(128-page trade paperback) $16.95 ISBN: 9781893905832 Diamond Order Code: MAY073779

KIRBY UNLEASHED (REMASTERED) Reprinting the fabled 1971 KIRBY UNLEASHED PORTFOLIO, completely remastered! Spotlights some of KIRBY’s finest art from all eras of his career, including 1930s pencil work, unused strips, illustrated World War II letters, 1950s pages, unpublished 1960s Marvel pencil pages and sketches, and Fourth World pencil art (done expressly for this portfolio in 1970)! We’ve gone back to the original art to ensure the best reproduction possible, and MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN have updated the Kirby biography from the original printing, and added a new Foreword explaining how this portfolio came to be! PLUS: We’ve recolored the original color plates, and added EIGHT NEW BLACK-&-WHITE PAGES, plus EIGHT NEW COLOR PAGES, including Jack’s four GODS posters (released separately in 1972), and four extra Kirby color pieces, all at tabloid size!

(60-page tabloid with COLOR) $20 Diamond Order Code: OCT043208

JACK KIRBY (1917-1994) stands as comics’ most prolific talent, with a 50-year career wherein he created or co-created such iconic characters as THE FANTASTIC FOUR, SILVER SURFER, THE HULK, X-MEN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THE NEW GODS, and a legion of others. These books pay tribute to him and his creations.

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, VOLUMES 1-6, EDITED BY JOHN MORROW

VOLUME 1

VOLUME 2

VOLUME 3

VOLUME 4

This colossal trade paperback reprints issues #1-9 of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, the highly-acclaimed magazine about comics’ most prodigious imagination: JACK KIRBY! Included are the low-distribution early issues, the Fourth World theme issue, and the Fantastic Four theme issue! Also includes over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including uninked pencils from THE PRISONER, NEW GODS, FANTASTIC FOUR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, HUNGER DOGS, JIMMY OLSEN, SHIELD, and more! Features interviews with KIRBY, JOE SIMON, MIKE ROYER, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, STEVE SHERMAN, and other Kirby collaborators, plus an introduction by MARK EVANIER.

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #10-12—the Humor, Hollywood, and International theme issues!

Also included is a new special section detailing a fan’s private tour of the Kirbys’ remarkable home, profusely illustrated with photos, and more than 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including Jack’s uninked pencil art from THE PRISONER, NEW GODS, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, HUNGER DOGS, JIMMY OLSEN, SHIELD, MACHINE MAN, THE ETERNALS, and more! Learn more about the King’s career through interviews with JACK AND ROZ KIRBY, JOHN BYRNE, STEVE GERBER, MARK EVANIER, ROGER STERN, MARV WOLFMAN, and others!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #13-15—the Horror, Thor, and Science-Fiction theme issues! There’s also a NEW special section with 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including uninked pencils from CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, JIMMY OLSEN, THE DEMON, NEW GODS, THE PRISONER, and more! Go behind-the-scenes of Jack’s career through interviews with KIRBY and his collaborators and admirers like DICK AYERS, CHIC STONE, WALTER SIMONSON, AL WILLIAMSON, and MIKE THIBODEAUX, and see page-after-page of rare and unpublished Kirby art!

Features a 1960s Kirby cover, and an introduction by STEVE BISSETTE.

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #16-19—the Tough Guys, DC, and Marvel theme issues, and a special issue detailing the intricacies of Jack’s art! Also included is a new special section with over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, featuring Jack’s uninked pencils from NEW GODS, MISTER MIRACLE, FOREVER PEOPLE, JIMMY OLSEN, KAMANDI, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THE SILVER SURFER, OMAC, and more! It features interviews with KIRBY, STAN LEE, FRANK MILLER, WILL EISNER, NEAL ADAMS, nearly the whole MARVEL BULLPEN (including JOHN BUSCEMA and JOHN ROMITA), and others, a Foreword by colorist TOM ZIUKO, and a KIRBY/STEVE RUDE cover!

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905009 Diamond Order Code: DEC032834

(160-page trade paperback) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905016 Diamond Order Code: MAR042974

(176-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905023 Diamond Order Code: APR043058

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905320 Diamond Order Code: MAY043052

SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION

CAPTAIN VICTORY: GRAPHITE EDITION

First conceptualized in the 1970s as a movie screenplay, SILVER STAR was too far ahead of its time for Hollywood, so artist JACK KIRBY adapted it as a six-issue mini-series for Pacific Comics in the 1980s, making it his final, great comics series. Image Comics recently collected the printed comics as a full-color hardcover, but now the entire six-issue run is collected here, reproduced from his powerful, uninked PENCIL ART, showing Kirby’s work in its undiluted, raw form!

Also included is Kirby’s ILLUSTRATED SILVER STAR MOVIE SCREENPLAY, never-seen SKETCHES, PIN-UPS, and an historical overview to put it all in perspective!

For the first time, JACK KIRBY’s original CAPTAIN VICTORY GRAPHIC NOVEL is presented as it was created in 1975 (before being broken up and modified for the 1980s Pacific Comics series), reproduced from copies of Kirby’s uninked pencil art! This first “new” Kirby comic in years features page after page of prime pencils, and includes Jack’s unused CAPTAIN VICTORY SCREENPLAY, unseen art, an historical overview to put it in perspective, and more! Besides presenting this classic story in never-before-seen pencil form, proceeds from this comic go toward the huge task of scanning and restoring the 5000+ page photocopy archive of Kirby’s pencil art from the 1960s-80s!

NEW FOR 2008

VOLUME 5

VOLUME 6

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #20-22—the Kirby’s Women, Wackiest Work, and Villains issues, featuring interviews with JACK KIRBY and daughter LISA KIRBY, plus DAVE STEVENS, GIL KANE, BRUCE TIMM, STEVE RUDE, and MIKE “HELLBOY” MIGNOLA! Also features an unpublished Kirby story still in pencil, Jack’s original pencils to FANTASTIC FOUR #49 (from the fabled Galactus trilogy), and over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including Jack’s uninked pencils from THE DEMON, FOREVER PEOPLE, JIMMY OLSEN, KAMANDI, ETERNALS, CAPTAIN AMERICA, BLACK PANTHER, and more, a Foreword by DAVID HAMILTON, plus a KIRBY/DAVE STEVENS cover!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #23-26—Jack’s “Greatest Battles,” “Gods,” and his Golden Age work with JOE SIMON! Features rare interviews with Kirby himself, plus new ones with comics pros DENNY O’NEIL, JIM SHOOTER, JOHN SEVERIN, and WALTER SIMONSON! PLUS: see a complete ten-page UNPUBLISHED KIRBY STORY! Jack’s ORIGINAL PENCILS to FANTASTIC FOUR #49 (the first appearance of the Silver Surfer)! Kirby’s original concept art for the Fourth World characters! An analysis comparing Kirby’s margin notes to Stan Lee’s dialogue! Plus a NEW special section with over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, and a Foreword by MIKE GARTLAND!

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905573 Diamond Order Code: FEB063353

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490038 Ships August 2008

(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905559 Diamond Order Code: JAN063367

(52-page comic book) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN042759

“HOW-TO” MAGAZINES Spinning off from the pages of BACK ISSUE! magazine comes ROUGH STUFF, celebrating the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVER-BEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and even unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history. Included is commentary on the art, discussing what went right and wrong with it, and background information to put it all into historical perspective. Plus, before-and-after comparisons let you see firsthand how an image changes from initial concept to published version. So don’t miss this amazing magazine, featuring galleries of NEVER-BEFORE SEEN art, from some of your favorite series of all time, and the top pros in the industry!

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ROUGH STUFF #1 Our debut issue features galleries of UNSEEN ART by a who’s who of Modern Masters including: ALAN DAVIS, GEORGE PÉREZ, BRUCE TIMM, KEVIN NOWLAN, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, ARTHUR ADAMS, JOHN BYRNE, and WALTER SIMONSON, plus a KEVIN NOWLAN interview, art critiques, and a new BRUCE TIMM COVER!

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ROUGH STUFF #2

ROUGH STUFF #3

ROUGH STUFF #4

The follow-up to our smash first issue features more galleries of UNSEEN ART by top industry professionals, including: BRIAN APTHORP, FRANK BRUNNER, PAUL GULACY, JERRY ORDWAY, ALEX TOTH, and MATT WAGNER, plus a PAUL GULACY interview, a look at art of the pros BEFORE they were pros, and a new GULACY “HEX” COVER!

Still more galleries of UNPUBLISHED ART

by MIKE ALLRED, JOHN BUSCEMA, YANICK PAQUETTE, JOHN ROMITA JR., P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and LEE WEEKS, plus a JOHN ROMITA JR. interview, looks at the process of creating a cover (with BILL SIENKIEWICZ and JOHN ROMITA JR.), and a new ROMITA JR. COVER, plus a FREE DRAW #13 PREVIEW!

More NEVER-PUBLISHED galleries (with detailed artist commentaries) by MICHAEL KALUTA, ANDREW “Starman” ROBINSON, GENE COLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, and STEVE BISSETTE, plus interview and art by JOHN TOTLEBEN, a look at the Wonder Woman Day charity auction (with rare art), art critiques, before-&-after art comparisons, and a FREE WRITE NOW #15 PREVIEW!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG063714

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV064024

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB073911

(116-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: APR063497

ROUGH STUFF #5

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ROUGH STUFF #6

NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED galleries (complete with extensive commentaries by the artists) by PAUL SMITH, GIL KANE, CULLY HAMNER, DALE KEOWN, and ASHLEY WOOD, plus a feature interview and art by STEVE RUDE, an examination of JOHN ALBANO and TONY DeZUNIGA’s work on Jonah Hex, new STEVE RUDE COVER, plus a FREE BACK ISSUE #23 PREVIEW!

Features a new interview and cover by BRIAN STELFREEZE, interview with BUTCH GUICE, extensive art galleries/commentary by IAN CHURCHILL, DAVE COCKRUM, and COLLEEN DORAN, MIKE GAGNON looks at independent comics, with art and comments by ANDREW BARR, BRANDON GRAHAM, and ASAF HANUKA! Includes a FREE ALTER EGO #73 PREVIEW!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY073902

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG074137

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Features an in-depth interview and cover by TIM TOWNSEND, CRAIG HAMILTON, DAN JURGENS, and HOWARD PORTER offer preliminary art and commentaries, MARIE SEVERIN career retrospective, graphic novels feature with art and comments by DAWN BROWN, TOMER HANUKA, BEN TEMPLESMITH, and LANCE TOOKS, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073966

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ROUGH STUFF #9

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ROUGH STUFF #8 Features an in-depth interview and cover painting by the extraordinary MIKE MAYHEW, preliminary and unpublished art

by ALEX HORLEY, TONY DeZUNIGA, NICK CARDY, and RAFAEL KAYANAN (including commentary by each artist), a look at the great Belgian comic book artists, a “Rough Critique” of MIKE MURDOCK’s work, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB084188

Editor and pro inker BOB McLEOD features four interviews this issue: ROB HAYNES (interviewed by fellow professional TIM TOWNSEND), JOE JUSKO, MEL RUBI, and SCOTT WILLIAMS, with a new painted cover by JUSKO, and an article by McLEOD examining "Inkers: Who needs ’em?" along with other features, including a Rough Critique of RUDY VASQUEZ! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships Summer 2008

4-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $26 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($36 First Class, $44 Canada, $60 Surface, $72 Airmail).

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DRAW! (edited by top comics artist MIKE MANLEY) is the professional “HOW-TO” magazine on comics, cartooning, and animation. Each issue features in-depth INTERVIEWS and STEP-BY-STEP DEMOS from top comics pros on all aspects of graphic storytelling. NOTE: Contains nudity for purposes of figure drawing. INTENDED FOR MATURE READERS. TWO-TIME EISNER AWARD NOMINEE for Best Comics-Related Periodical.

4-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $26 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($36 First Class, $44 Canada, $60 Surface, $72 Airmail).

DRAW! #4

DRAW! #5

DRAW! #6

Features an interview and step-by-step demonstration from Savage Dragon’s ERIK LARSEN, KEVIN NOWLAN on drawing and inking techniques, DAVE COOPER demonstrates coloring techniques in Photoshop, BRET BLEVINS tutorial on Figure Composition, PAUL RIVOCHE on the Design Process, reviews of comics drawing papers, and more!

Interview and sketchbook by MIKE WIERINGO, BRIAN BENDIS and MIKE OEMING show how they create the series “Powers”, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw great hands”, “The illusion of depth in design” by PAUL RIVOCHE, must-have art books reviewed by TERRY BEATTY, plus reviews of the best art supplies, links, a color section and more! OEMING cover!

Interview, cover, and demo with BILL WRAY, STEPHEN DeSTEFANO interview and demo on cartooning and animation, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw the human figure in light and shadow,” a step-by-step Photo-shop tutorial by CELIA CALLE, expert inking tips by MIKE MANLEY, plus reviews of the best art supplies, links, a color section and more!

(88-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN022757

(88-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR022633

(96-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB032281

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DRAW! #8

DRAW! #10

DRAW! #11

DRAW! #12

DRAW! #13

From comics to video games: an interview, cover, and demo with MATT HALEY, TOM BANCROFT & ROB CORLEY on character design, “Drawing In Adobe Illustrator” step-by-step demo by ALBERTO RUIZ, “Draping The Human Figure” by BRET BLEVINS, a new COMICS SECTION, International Spotlight on JOSÉ LOUIS AGREDA, a color section and more!

RON GARNEY interview, step-by-step demo, and cover, GRAHAM NOLAN on creating newspaper strips, TODD KLEIN and other pros discuss lettering, “Draping The Human Figure, Part Two” by BRET BLEVINS, ALBERTO RUIZ with more Adobe Illustrator tips, interview with Banana Tail creator MARK McKENNA, links, a color section and more!

STEVE RUDE demonstrates his approach to comics & drawing, ROQUE BALLESTEROS on Flash animation, political cartoonist JIM BORGMAN on his daily comic strip Zits, plus DRAW!’s regular instructors BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY on “Drawing On LIfe”, more Adobe Illustrator tips with ALBERTO RUIZ, links, a color section and more! New RUDE cover!

KYLE BAKER reveals his working methods and step-by-step processes on merging his traditional and digital art, Machine Teen’s MIKE HAWTHORNE on his work, “Making Perspective Work For You” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, Photoshop techniques with ALBERTO RUIZ, Adult Swim’s THE VENTURE BROTHERS, links, a color section and more! New BAKER cover!

Step-by-step demo of painting methods by cover artist ALEX HORLEY (Heavy Metal, Vertigo, DC, Wizards of the Coast), plus interviews and demos by Banana Sundays’ COLLEEN COOVER, behind-the-scenes on Adult Swim’s MINORITEAM, regular features on drawing by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, links, color section and more, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW!

(96-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC032848

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC043007

(112-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY053188

(96-page magazine) SOLD OUT (96-page Digital Edition) $2.95

(88-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT063824

DRAW! #16

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DRAW! #14

DRAW! #15

Features in-depth interviews and demos with DC Comics artist DOUG MAHNKE, OVI NEDELCU (Pigtale, WB Animation), STEVE PURCELL (Sam and Max), plus Part 3 of editor MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP on “Using Black to Power up Your Pages”, product reviews, a new MAHNKE cover, and a FREE ALTER EGO #70 PREVIEW!

BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE, covering major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, featuring faculty, student, and graduate interviews in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/ interview with B.P.R.D.’S GUY DAVIS, MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, a FREE WRITE NOW #17 PREVIEW, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY073896

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG074131

Features an in-depth interview and coverage of the creative process of HOWARD CHAYKIN. From the early ’70s at DC, STAR WARS, and HEAVY METAL, to AMERICAN FLAGG and now WOLVERINE, we catch up with one of comics most innovative artist/storytellers! Also, we go behind the drawing board and animation desk with JAY STEPHENS, from JET CAT and TUTENSTEIN to his new Cartoon Network show, SECRET SATURDAYS! Then there's more COMIC ART BOOTCAMP, this time focusing on HOW TO USE REFERENCE, and WORKING FROM PHOTOS by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY. Plus, reviews, resources and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 Ships Summer 2008

Don’t miss our BEST OF DRAW volumes, reprinting the SOLD OUT ISSUES!

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NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

ALTER EGO #77

BACK ISSUE #28

WRITE NOW! #18

DRAW! #15

BRICKJOURNAL #1 (V2)

ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more!

“Heroes Behaving Badly!” Hulk vs. Thing tirades with RON WILSON, HERB TRIMPE, and JIM SHOOTER; CARY BATES and CARMINE INFANTINO on “Trial of the Flash”; JOHN BYRNE’s heroes who cross the line; Teen Titan Terra, Kid Miracleman, Mark Shaw Manhunter, and others who went bad, featuring LAYTON, MICHELINIE, WOLFMAN, and PÉREZ, and more! New cover by DARWYN COOKE!

Celebration of STAN LEE’s 85th birthday, including rare examples of comics, TV, and movie scripts from the Stan Lee Archives, tributes by JOHN ROMITA, SR., JOE QUESADA, ROY THOMAS, DENNIS O’NEIL, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, JIM SALICRUP, TODD McFARLANE, LOUISE SIMONSON, MARK EVANIER, and others, plus art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, and more!

BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE, covering major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, featuring faculty, student, and graduate interviews in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/ interview with artist BILL REINHOLD, MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, a FREE WRITE NOW #17 PREVIEW, and more!

The ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages, showcasing events, people, and models! #1 features an interview with set designer and LEGO Certified Professional NATHAN SAWAYA, plus step-by-step building instructions and techniques for all skill levels, new set reviews, on-the-scene reports from LEGO community events, and other surprises! Edited by JOE MENO.

(80-page magazine) $6.95 Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: FEB084191

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: AUG074131

(80-page FULL COLOR magazine) $8.95 Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: FEB088010

ALL- STAR COMPANION V. 3

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 15: MARK SCHULTZ

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships May 2008 Diamond Order Code: MAR084108

KIRBY FIVE-OH! (JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50) The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career, spotlighting: The BEST KIRBY STORIES & COVERS from 19381987! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! Interviews with the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! A 50PAGE KIRBY PENCIL ART GALLERY and DELUXE COLOR SECTION! Kirby cover inked by DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, making this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Edited by JOHN MORROW. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: JUL078147 Now Shipping

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR084109

SILVER AGE ALTER EGO: BEST SCI-FI COMPANION OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE In the Silver Age of Comics, space was the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-bystory reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY!

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95! Subscribers to the print edition get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

(144-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905818 Diamond Order Code: JUL073885

In 1961, JERRY BAILS and ROY THOMAS launched ALTER EGO, the first fanzine devoted to comic book history. This book, first published in low distribution in 1997, collects the original 11 issues of A/E from 1961-78, with creative and artistic contributions by JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, WALLY WOOD, JOHN BUSCEMA, MARIE SEVERIN, BILL EVERETT, RUSS MANNING, CURT SWAN, & others—and important, illustrated interviews with GIL KANE, BILL EVERETT, & JOE KUBERT! See where a generation first learned about the Golden Age of Comics—while the Silver Age was in full flower—with major articles on the JUSTICE SOCIETY, the MARVEL FAMILY, the MLJ HEROES, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS & BILL SCHELLY with an introduction by the late JULIUS SCHWARTZ.

More amazing secrets behind the 194051 ALL-STAR COMICS—and illustrated speculation about how other Golden Age super-teams might have been assembled!

Also, an issue-by-issue survey of the JLAJSA TEAM-UPS of 1963-85, the 1970s JSA REVIVAL, and the 1980s series THE YOUNG ALL-STARS and SECRET ORIGINS, with commentary by the artists and writers! Plus rare, often unseen art by KUBERT, INFANTINO, ADAMS, ORDWAY, ANDERSON, TOTH, CARDY, GIL KANE, COLAN, SEKOWSKY, DILLIN, STATON, REINMAN, McLEOD, GRINDBERG, PAUL SMITH, RON HARRIS, MARSHALL ROGERS, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON HECK, GEORGE TUSKA, TONY DeZUNIGA, H.G. PETER, DON SIMPSON, and many others! Compiled and edited by ROY THOMAS, with a new cover by GEORGE PÉREZ!

(192-page trade paperback) $21.95 ISBN: 9781893905887 Diamond Order Code: DEC073946

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 ISBN: 9781893905801 Diamond Order Code: MAY078045

(10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

Surface

Airmail

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$44

US

1st Class Canada $56

$64

$76

$120

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$40

$54

$66

$90

$108

DRAW!, WRITE NOW!, ROUGH STUFF (4 issues)

$26

$36

$44

$60

$72

ALTER EGO (12 issues) Six-issue subs are half-price!

$78

$108

$132

$180

$216

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$32

$42

$50

$66

$78

Features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from Mark’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!

By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905856 Diamond Order Code: OCT073846

MODERN MASTERS: MICHAEL GOLDEN DVD Shows the artist at work, discussing his art and career!

(120-minute Std. Format DVD) $29.95 ISBN: 9781893905771 Diamond Order Code: MAY073780

For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com