Rough Stuff #2 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

No. 2 Fall 2006 P R E S E N T S

$6.95

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

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Featuring

PAUL GULACY! Interview & Art Gallery

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Jonah Hex, Sandman, Superman, Atom, Superman, Supergirl, Batman TM & ÂŠ2006 DC Comics.

82658 27766

Volume 1, Number 2 October 2006

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics! EDITOR

Bob McLeod PUBLISHER

John Morrow DESIGNER

Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Christopher Irving COVER ARTIST

Paul Gulacy COVER COLORIST

FEATURED ARTISTS 3

Brian Apthorp

Frank Brunner

Jerry Ordway

Alex Toth

Matt Wagner

Laurie Kronenberg CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Seastone Marketing Group

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW 30

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE

SPECIAL THANKS

Brian Apthorp Frank Brunner Paul Gulacy Jerry Ordway Alex Toth Matt Wagner Ray Wong Eric Nolen-Weathington Roger Clark David Hamilton Ken Steacy Michael Eury ROUGH STUFF™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Bob McLeod, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: ROUGH STUFF, c/o Bob McLeod, Editor, P.O. Box 63, Emmaus, PA 10849-2203. E-mail: mcleod.bob@gmail.com. Fourissue subscriptions: $24 Standard US, $36 First Class US, $44 Canada, $48 Surface International, $64 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Central cover art by Paul Gulacy. Jonah Hex TM & ©2006 DC Comics. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2006 Bob McLeod and TwoMorrows Publishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

ISSN 1931-9231

Paul Gulacy

A Special Memento Ray Wong

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS 2

Scribblings From The Editor Bob McLeod

Cover Stories Paul Gulacy and Frank Brunner reveal the process they go through when creating a cover.

PrePro A look at the art of the pros, before they were pros.

Rough Critique Editor Bob McLeod critiques an artist’s sample page.

Rough Talk Comments and opinions from our readers.

For more art by our featured artists, visit www.bobmcleod.com/roughstuff.htm

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D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

P R O H T P A N A I R B

vanpart of the new is p or h pt A an Bri y, but mic books toda co in g n ki or w guard tals in the fundamen ed ot ro l el w he’s very ons are t. His compositi sexy, of good comic ar d powerful and an l u ef ac gr e gures ar inker dynamic, his fi delighting the , te ra trs fi is ic lighting and his dramat to ink! ould be a ball w ls ci n pe is H in me.

BRIAN APTHORP: Ghost #11, cover The pencils for the cover of Ghost #11. I did four covers, for numbers 9, 11, 13 and 17, and this is one of the better ones, I think, though she’s considerably sexier in the other three. But it was really cool, working on each, because I didn’t have to adhere to any story situation; they were simply compositions of my own devising, portraits of her and her peculiar situation, trying to be evocative. ABOVE: The cover for Ghost #11, inked by Gary Martin. GHOST TM & ©2006 Dark Horse Comics.

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BRIAN APTHORP: Dreaming Special: Trial and Error, pg. 28 This is from The Dreaming Special: Trial and Error, written by Len Wein, for Vertigo from sometime in the late ‘90s. It was inked by Scott Hampton, one of my favorite artists and persons, and I am proud of it, basically. Another of those ‘phantasmagoria’ pages, looking like Victorian wallpaper, I suppose—but it was depicting the magic world of the Dreaming, and again, the ol’ reliance on the colorist to separate a bit, down the line. DREAMING TM & ©2006 DC Comics/

BRIAN APTHORP

Vertigo

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BRIAN APTHORP: Dreaming Special: Trial and Error, pg. 18 The background was filled in on computer just to give a sense of how the thing was designed-for. The light amount of blacks on the figures, relatively, deemed it necessary to pull them out of the black emptiness of the courtroom background. But I sent Scott Hampton some marker studies, saying how it was difficult for me to push the blacks as far as I wished, to encourage him to help “get me there” in his masterful inks. And what a draftsman! Nobody ever inked my stuff with such sensitive drawing fidelity, and of course, he improved a lot of things in the bargain. I loved working in this dark environment, of my own choosing, actually. It was just hard to let go of reflected light and all that. It’s a struggle for me. DREAMING TM & ©2006 DC Comics/ Vertigo

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D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

FRANK BRUNNER

en one of has always be Frank Brunner is very tists. His work ar te ri vo fa y m ows no imagination kn is h d an , al su sen for ly best known ab ob pr s e’ H . ARD THE bounds ANGE and HOW R ST . R D on s fort azing his definitive ef doing a lot of am en be s e’ h s, nt year DUCK. In rece k. commission wor DR. STRANGE TM & ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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FRANK BRUNNER

Characters, Inc.

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FRANK BRUNNER

Characters, Inc.

ROUGH STUFF • OCTOBER 2006

PAUL GULACY: Catwoman #25 cover

rough: When Dan Didio asked me on board as the new penciler on Catwoman, I decided to pick an important scene from Ed Brubaker’s script, which had her crashing through the boarded-up window of a crack house in that first issue that I drew. It just screamed grand entrance. I decided on an upshot of her, but I needed a photo reference in this particular case, which meant I needed a model. CATWOMAN TM & ©2006 DC Comics

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COVER STORIES hat happens between the initial layout of a cover, and the finished, printed piece? Usually a lot of changes—some brought about by the pencil artist, some by the inker (assuming they’re not the same person as the penciler), and some at the request of an editor or publisher. We asked a couple of this issue’s pros to give us a little insight into these classic covers.

PAUL GULACY: I nixed the opaque projector and rendered the scene freehand in pencil while holding a photo still. Jimmy Palmiotti then did his usual inking magic (below). In a situation of a monthly book with tight deadlines, I felt he and I as a team worked great together. The only thing I didn’t like about this was the goggles. I was adhering to the design the former team used which, according to Ed, was based largely on the same worn by Joe Kubert’s Enemy Ace character. If it were up to me, I’d nix them altogether. If she can run, jump, leap and do everything as a cat, why can’t she see at night like one? I’m for seeing Selina Kyle’s gorgeous eyes. CATWOMAN TM & ©2006 DC Comics

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INTERVIEW

PAUL GULACY By Michael Kronenberg

has worked for every major publisher and has been associated with some of comics’ most memorable characters and titles. To thrive as long as he has in an industry as grueling and sometimes

cruel as comics has been not only his ability as an artist and storyteller, but tantamount to his skills as a survivor. Numerous times over the years a Gulacy art job would hang on the balance of which inker was selected for his pencils. There have been some outstanding embellishers he has been partnered with—Dan Adkins, Terry Austin, and Jimmy Palmiotti to name a few—but too many times he has been mismatched and his idiosyncratic style has been lost. With the release this month of Jonah Hex #12, Gulacy embarks on a new venture with his art: inking his pencils.

“…you never saw me doing my own “I never get tired of it. It’s what I do. It’s “…I almost completely go straight on the

covers when I was on Master of Kung Fu, because I just got under the wire on the deadline and there was no time to let me do the cover. Knowing that, I decided to make the slash page the cover.

”

ROUGH STUFF • OCTOBER 2006

my outlet for self-expression. Marlon Brando once said in an interview, ‘Never give 100 percent, and hold back some reserve.’ You can’t come in with the big guns every time. You pace it.

”

board with pens and brushes over pencil lines that only I can decipher. I can finish a book in four to five weeks, pencils and inks. My deal with the editors is that I’ll be happy to patch in any mistakes if need be.

”

or over thirty years Paul Gulacy has continued to be a creative force in the comic book industry. He

caught up with Paul while in the middle of his Hex assignment. Among other things we discussed why he can now meet his deadlines penciling and inking, Master of Kung Fu’s legacy, Daniel Craig as the new James Bond, a Gulacy top ten movie list, and his upcoming projects.

MICHAEL KRONENBERG: What has changed most in

when Jimmy Palmiotti was buried in work and couldn’t finish the last seven pages of JSA: Classified #13. So, Mike Carlin asked me if I could wrap it up. I hadn’t inked myself for a long time, probably years outside of covers, so this was a good opportunity to hone my skills. It was a blessing, because it wasn’t so much something I wanted to do as something I needed to do—not

the comic book industry since you started?

only a good career move, but personally, very spiritually

PAUL GULACY: The immense amount of talent now

uplifting, and Jimmy totally understands that. In fact,

working in this business is overwhelming; there must be

Jimmy encouraged me to ink Hex. He said, “Go ahead,

thousands of people and hundreds of

show ’em what you got, dude.”

titles to choose from; the entire world knows who the X-Men are;

KRONENBERG: How has inking impacted your schedule?

creators own their properties;

GULACY: It’s not a problem because I almost completely

Hollywood now banks on huge

go straight on the board with pens and brushes over pencil

box office hits and profits

lines that only I can decipher. I can finish a book in four to

based on comic book charac-

five weeks, pencils and inks. My deal with the editors is that

ters. It’s all moving very quickly

I’ll be happy to patch in any mistakes if need be.

and don’t ask me what the future holds, because I don’t have a clue. KRONENBERG: Starting with the new issue of Jonah Hex, you will begin inking yourself. How did this come about and why? GULACY: It started

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A S PECIAL MEMENTO By Ray Wong

andering the floor on the second

truly exquisite renderings of Natasha Romanoff. Gulacy

day of the 2005 Comic-Con

brought the Black Widow to life in that portfolio, infusing a

International in San Diego, I

dark and sensual vulnerability into the character that captured

stopped at a booth to watch an

a sense of intrigue, passion, and danger.

artist in action. The man, slight-

Over the years, I sold all of my original art, including

statured and sporting an earring, used a fine-tipped

the Black Widow plate, and abandoned the world of

drawing pencil to shade the bare, upper torso of Shang

comic books altogether. I only came to the comic conven-

Chi, the Master Of Kung Fu (MOKF), and I stood and

tion to pick up a few toys for my four-year-old son, but

observed in quiet fascination. I had been a huge MOKF

seeing Gulacy in person triggered a wave of nostalgia. It

fan in the ’70s and ’80s and especially admired the

brought to mind a simpler time in my life before the

intricate detail of Paul Gulacy’s artwork in the comic.

responsibilities of wife, children, career, and monthly utility

Though I had collected comics and original art in the

bills—a time when reading a new issue of Walt

early ’80s, I had never met Paul Gulacy, and I didn’t know

Simonson’s Thor or purchasing an original page from

the man transforming a piece of paper into a work of art

Paul Gulacy’s MOKF meant the world to me.

in front of my eyes. I could only gape when a fan lugging

To serve as a memento of a more innocent time in my life,

a black portfolio came up and greeted the artist by name.

I commissioned Gulacy for a sketch of the Black Widow. He

The fan and Gulacy proceeded into a dialogue about

told me it would be ready by Sunday afternoon, the last day

MOKF and the conversation eventually veered into a discus-

of the convention. Though I hadn’t planned on attending that

sion of the artist’s depiction of female characters. To me,

day, I said I would come pick it up from him.

nobody drew women like Paul Gulacy. In my collecting days,

When I returned late Sunday, Gulacy took one look at me

one of my most prized possessions was an original plate

and immediately broke into profuse apologies for not having

from Gulacy’s Black Widow portfolio. Never had I seen such

my art ready. He must’ve seen the disappointment on my face because he offered to do the piece after the convention and mail it to me. He wrote his e-mail address on a card and asked me to send him my address. I did so the next day, and two weeks later, a UPS package arrived at my door. My heart ran a two-minute mile inside my chest as I tore open the package. When I saw the pen and ink drawing of the Black Widow, I probably jumped higher than Shang Chi executing a flying roundhouse kick. I couldn’t have been more pleased. I held in my hands a piece of art that I wouldn’t have traded for a John Byrne X-Men cover. No, not because of its monetary value, but because of what it represented—a personal rendering of an awe-inspiring character done especially for me by one of my all-time favorite artists.

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Thanks, Paul, from the bottom of my heart. Ray Wong is a freelance writer who has contributed to BACK ISSUE magazine, and his opinion editorials have appeared in the San Diego Union and the LA Daily News. He can be reached by e-mail at raywongwriter@juno.com.

PRE-PRO

ave you ever wondered how your favorite pro’s art looked back before he turned pro—back when he was just sitting at home dreaming about becoming a comic book artist? How would his early efforts compare with yours? Well, each issue we’re going to show you some examples of just that! The following art was contributed by some of our featured artists. It was done by them before they started working in comics professionally—but it’s easy to see they’d soon be ready for the big time!

BRIAN APTHORP: Okay, here’s a page I did as a portfolio piece, long before my first published comics work in 1990. I took it and a package of other pages to the 1983 San Diego Con— the first I ever attended, I believe—and showed them to actual editors at Marvel and DC. I believe it was Larry Hama who told me, “When you get your speed up to 3 pages a day, call me,” or something to that effect. I walked away knowing I’d never be making that call; and I still haven’t, I’m afraid! My wife Lori read a current issue of the F.F. and wrote down the plot, so I had a “script” to work from of a professional story which I had not yet read. The F.F. was my sentimental favorite of all the titles I used to read as a pure fan. This is the least embarrassing of the pages that were in that package, actually. Characters TM & ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc..

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D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

Y A W D R O Y R R JE

ing. He can do everyth Jerry Ordway d ks, he paints, an in e h s, aw dr e writes, h l. With all prolif ic as wel ly ib ed cr in s e’ h ould be think his ego w ’d u yo t, n le ta incredibly that t he’s actually bu , om ro a to in Superman too large to fit e’s my favorite H y. gu e ic n very CTION humble, and a e to work on A m r fo or on h as an title. artist, and it w g the Superman in do as w e h COMICS while

JERRY ORDWAY: All-Star Squadron #23, pg. 23 This page of rough layouts is pretty finished, and as I recall in this period, I didn’t have the luxury of reducing them on a photocopier. I was able to reposition elements, but could have used more dead space for balloons on the finished page. I often inked the layout in marker, and tried to work out details as best I could to make the tracing go faster. Art courtesy of Steve Lipsky Characters TM & ©2006 DC Comics

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JERRY ORDWAY

Art courtesy of Steve Lipsky

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JERRY ORDWAY: All-Star Squadron #23, pg. 3 Here, I was clearly more rushed, and left more work to the light-boxing stage. Again, I wish I could have reduced the layout by 25 percent, so I could have drawn more of the Liberty Belle backshot in panel 3. I never was able to stay within the page size when working on tracing paper, as it was larger than the 10" x 15" size of the final art board, and I invariably drew beyond the borders. Art courtesy of Steve Lipsky Characters TM &

JERRY ORDWAY

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D U R E F E A T

ALEX TOTH

I S T A R T

rtuToth, who unfo x le A ry da n ge The le ar, was earlier this ye ay aw ed ss pa y natel ow. His ery artist I kn admired by ev sition sign and compo de of se n se rt expe ult His art is diff ic d. le lle ra pa n u were se he preciate, becau ap just to s n fa e m for so his art down to d re pa e H g. n t of renderi ziness, didn’t use a lo e; not out of la or m g in h ot n sary and what was neces um effect. but for maxim

lex Toth was an artist’s artist. He was highly respected for the simplicity of his designs. Diagonal shapes make a drawing more interesting than verticals and horizontals, and he was a master at using diagonals. He also was expert at placing blacks to create well-balanced

designs. He had a uniquely playful style of visual storytelling that was always fun to see, but his forté was not superheroes. While his work could be very dynamic, he was more interested in black-and-white design and storytelling than in Kirbyesque superheroes. But even as he struggled with the long underwear guys, his brilliance shines through in these pages. He worked in animation as well as comic books, and we have a sampling of both. Alex Toth art comments by Bob McLeod

ALEX TOTH These were character designs of the Fantastic Four in costume for the 1960s animated TV show. Notice the use of heavy black shadowing on the Thing. Toth was known for his good use of blacks, but here I suspect he was also looking to avoid drawing all of those bothersome bricks. Fantastic Four TM & ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ALEX TOTH Super Skrull model sheet for the animated FF show. Again, a strong use of blacks, unusual for animation. He managed a Kirbyesque feel, but still his own distinctive style came through. Super Skrull TM & ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ALEX TOTH Galactus model sheet for the animated FF show. Nice streamlined design of his costume. I guess they needed him smaller for the show, because he’s more like 100' tall in the comics. Galactus TM & ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ALEX TOTH This is a page from DC Comics Presents #84 (Aug. 1985). I’m not sure if the partial inking here is by Toth, or by Greg Theakston. Kirby originally drew a 17page story, and when DC expanded their page count to 24 per issue, Jack wasn’t available to add pages, so they pieced in a 7-page sequence from Alex to fill the page count (the Toth stuff was on pages 3-9 of the issue, with Kirby everywhere else). CHALLENGERS TM

ALEX TOTH

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D U R E F E A T

MATT WAGNER

I S T A R T

miliar I wasn’ t very fa y sa to y rr so I’m (so ’s art up to now er n ag W t at M with t I gained little time!), bu so s, st ti ar y man r him nt of respect fo ou very am s u do en a trem is feature. He’s th r fo t ar is h g examples of interesting while gatherin und was more fo I g in aw dr y er ic color work, versatile, and ev for his fantast n ow kn s e’ H . fore e curtain. than the one be peek behind th g in at in sc fa a art is but his pencil

MATT WAGNER: This was done several years ago for a collector I met at a con in Ohio. He had several “themed” sketchbooks going and when he mentioned his Elric gallery, I perked right up. I’d long been a fan of Michael Moorcock’s most famous incarnation of his “Eternal Champion” cycle of novels and had even recently turned my son on to the books as well. In fact, I had even done a huge painting of Elric back in my high school days, which a college friend later bought from me, making it one of, if not the, first professional piece I ever produced! My take on this piece was to counteract many of the other interpretations I saw in this collection—most of which were fairly bombastic, depicting Elric in ornate, fantasy armor or enshrouded in a swirl of eldritch energies and spells. Much of the Elric novels begin with Elric traveling incognito in his journeys through the “Young Kingdoms.” As a not-quitehuman albino Melnibonean, he really stands out in a crowd, and so often has to travel enshrouded in a cloak. I’ve also often been disappointed with how many people portray Elric’s mystic sword, Stormbringer (which is as much the main character of these tales as Elric himself). Either the artist throws the sword in as an afterthought or they make the weapon so immense and unwieldy that its appearance is all but ludicrous. I drew the blade to look powerful and a bit too heavy for such a thin character to use, yet still be functional in a battle. Art courtesy of Rob Ledford ELRIC TM & ©2006 Michael Moorcock.

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MATT WAGNER: These two pieces were done as turnaround designs for the Grendel set of PVC figures released through Dark Horse. For those unfamiliar with the title or concept, Grendel is a multi-generational character that finds itself incarnated in a variety of different personas and time periods. As a result, I tried to have each of the six featured variations of the character express his or her persona through both its posture and also the smaller details. For instance, the first sketch shows the Brian Li Sung version of Grendel. Brian’s story is a short and tragic affair and, in one sense, he is one of the least successful Grendels—he’s not a very capable fighter and, in fact, isn’t at first even consciously aware that he’s being “possessed” by the Grendel force. Thus, his posture is almost too alert—twitchy, in fact. His oversize and out-of-place athletic shoes only serve to heighten his ineptitude. By contrast, the second sketch shows the Eppy Thatcher version of Grendel—a harlequinesque character who lives several centuries in the future and who serves the story as a frenetic wild-card that disrupts and, eventually, destroys the various power-players that drive the main narrative. As a result, Eppy is shown as a swirling ball of energy, spritely and active. The round discs on which his feet are perched are magnetic-field, levitation devices. Art courtesy of Michael Farineau GRENDEL TM & ©2006 Matt Wagner.

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MATT WAGNER: Grendel This is the original incarnation of the Grendel character, Hunter Rose, facing off to do battle with his arch-nemesis, Argent the Wolf. It’s funny, my son and I just watched Leon: The Professional last night and, similar to when I first saw it years ago, I was struck with its amazingly coincidental(?) similarities to the story of Hunter Rose: an unstoppable, ninja-like assassin (in the former, an idiotsavant, in the latter, a genius) who has an ever-deepening, neosexual relationship with a prepubescent girl and whose main opponent is a ragedriven “good guy” who is actually more of a beast than a man. This sketch was done when I had just begun to experiment with drawing on toned paper and then using both black ink and colored pencils to render the drawing—a technique I have since made a GRENDEL TM & ©2006 Matt Wagner.

MATT WAGNER

hallmark of my convention work. Art courtesy of Elizabeth Bouras

OCTOBER 2006 • ROUGH STUFF

ROUGH CRITIQUE By Bob McLeod f you’re serious about improving your penciling, send us a sample page and I’ll publish and critique one page per issue sent in by our readers. Many begin-

ners struggle with the same problems, and I think it’s helpful to see a critique of another artist’s work. This issue’s sample page was sent in by one of my former correspondence students, Gibson Quarter.

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Gibson, you’ve made a lot of progress since the lesson I gave you a couple years ago. This is a professional level page in many respects, but most pages can still be improved upon a bit. There are many things you’re doing well, but I see a few things you could do to make this a better page, and improve your work in general. I’ll start with what I like about the page. Your composition is very well balanced for the most part. You’re using a lot of diagonals, and your blacks are balanced over the page as a whole. You’ve got a good mix of large shapes and small shapes, long shots, medium shots, and close-ups. You’re varying the camera angles well, creating a page with a lot of visual interest. Your figure drawing, while somewhat weak, is good enough, and your characters are interesting and fun to watch. You’ve got a good amount of backgrounds, giving a good sense of place to the action. But I’m assuming you know all of this. Now let me point out some things you’re probably not so aware of. While your composition is good, as I said, I think it could be better. In panel one, the head, hand, and camel are all isolated elements. It would be better to unify those elements as I have done. A shadow on the ground helps connect the hand to the figure, and by tilting the knife the opposite way, it connects the camel to the other elements. Overlapping the blade on top of the camel adds needed depth. Your blade looks as if it could be lying on the ground next to the camel. I also enlarged the guy’s head a bit, to eliminate his left shoulder, which doesn’t need to be in the panel. This also gets the edge of his head away from the panel border. Part of good composition is focusing exclusively on what needs to be in the panel, and cropping off or leaving out everything else. In panel three, I think it was a poor decision to make the flag protrude out of the panel. Things like this are too cutesy for the rest of your style, and there’s really no point to it. The flag can easily be made to fit in the panel by lowering the whole building. This also gets the Washington monument away from the panel border (it’s never good composition to have the edges of objects touching, or almost touching, the panel border). I added the shadows in this panel for depth. Your background is totally flat. In panel four, the guy’s face is what’s important. So why do we need to see his shoulder? Why not zoom in on that face? Close-ups and long shots usually look more