Rough Stuff #3 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

No. 3 Winter 2007

$6.95

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

ICK PAQUE

TTE

YAN

MIKE ALLR

HN BUSCEM

EE WEEKS

P. C

ELL

RAIG RUS S

Featuring

JOHN ROMITA JR. Interview & Art Gallery

64 1

82658 27766

Volume 1, Number 3 January 2007

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics! EDITOR

Bob McLeod PUBLISHER

John Morrow DESIGNER

Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Christopher Irving COVER ARTIST

John Romita Jr. & Bob McLeod COVER COLORIST

Tom Ziuko CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Seastone Marketing Group

FEATURED ARTISTS 3

Mike Allred

John Buscema

Yanick Paquette

P. Craig Russell

Lee Weeks

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW 38

John Romita Jr.

SPECIAL THANKS Mike Allred Brad Burch Philippe Cordier Michael Eury Drew Geraci David Hamilton Klaus Janson Joe Jusko Michel Maillot Yanick Paquette Walt Parrish John Romita Jr. P. Craig Russell Bill Sienkiewicz Ken Steacy Lynn Walker Eric Nolen-Weathington Lee Weeks

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 John Romita Jr. and Bob McLeod. Spider-Man TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2007 Bob McLeod and TwoMorrows Publishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 1931-9231

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE 24

What Did You Say, You’re Having a Breakdown?!? Bob McLeod

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS 2

Scribblings From The Editor Bob McLeod

Cover Stories Bill Sienkiewicz and John Romita Jr. reveal the process of creating a cover.

PrePro Art by featured artist Lee Weeks, done before he turned pro.

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

Rough Talk Comments and opinions from our readers.

FREE Preview of DRAW! #13

In Memoriam: Dave Cockrum 1943-2006 JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

MIKE ALLRED

I S T A R T

e Allred, e heard of Mik I had of cours art up to en much of his but I’d never se ther all pleasure to ga a as w it So . now eow you, and hop sh to k or w t ea ce. His this gr a wider audien to t ar an m ad M the best fully expose his e fetched one of er h n ow sh ch sket ction! Wonder Woman Day charity au an om W r de on cent W prices at the re

MIKE ALLRED: A page in progress from the upcoming Madman Atomic Comics series.

BOB MCLEOD: For the students among you, since Mike left me some room, I’m taking this opportunity to do some teaching. I really like the way Mike’s drawing different types of autos here, instead of just generic cars. He’s also composing with a lot of diagonals and placing his focal points well, i.e. the face, hands, and feet are all carefully placed and unobstructed. Madman TM & ©2007 Mike Allred

MIKE ALLRED

D U R E F E A T

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

MIKE ALLRED: This was a trip! Early in the days of the Legend imprint we were able to play with each others characters. This was when Mike Mignola’s Hellboy made a brief appearance in Madman Comics. I wish I had worked up a bigger plot for Hellboy to take part in.

MIKE ALLRED

Mignola

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

MIKE ALLRED: I did have a bigger picture for Frank Miller and Geof Darrow’s Big Guy, still one of my all time favorite comics. The 2-issue team-up (#6 & 7 of Madman Comics) became the comic book debut of their character. These copies were made so Frank could write Big Guy’s final dialogue, which explains the blank balloons.

BOB MCLEOD: Look how 3-dimensional the figures look in panel three because he used a 3/4 view. Notice also the near hand and foot of Big Guy are larger than the far ones, but not extremely so. Madman TM & ©2007 Mike Allred Big Guy TM & ©2007 Frank Miller &

MIKE ALLRED

Geof Darrow

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

D U R E F E A T

JOHN BUSCEMA

I S T A R T

hear that rtened lately to ea sh di en be I’ve much s haven’t seen n fa ic m co t en curr 0s a! During the ’7 em sc u B n h Jo work by l rsonified Marve pe lly ca si ba e h to ink. and ’80s, vorite penciler fa y m ay aw d far an you here Comics. He was cil art to show n pe t ea gr is h o much of OUGH STUFF There’s way to re to visit the R su be so e, ac in our limited sp e more! site to see som page of my web

BOB MCLEOD I’ve unfortunately never seen Buscema pencil anything like this before. John was a Frazetta fan, and this may have been inspired by the many tonal pencil renderings that Frank did. Conan TM & ©2007 Conan

JOHN BUSCEMA

Properties Intl. LLC

BOB MCLEOD Buscema often filled up the backs of his pages with little sketches, in pencil or ink, and we’re presenting as many of them as we can squeeze in on these pages, and in the margins of the other pages. These are just a few of the hundreds.

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

BOB MCLEOD I like this because of the graceful, balletic composition of such a violent scene. Notice all of the foreshortening as the various forms come forward and recede in space. Conan is twisting and writhing as much as the snake! Conan TM & ©2007 Conan Properties Intl.

JOHN BUSCEMA

LLC

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BOB MCLEOD I originally photocopied this off of the back of a Conan page when I was working in the production department at Marvel. John had put all this work into this figure just for the pleasure of drawing him. It’s fairly common knowledge that Buscema often drew sketches on the backs of his pages to “warm up” before drawing a page. Imagine my surprise when the inked pages came back to the office and I discovered that inker Ernie Chan had inked this figure, also just for fun! You can see Ernie’s inked version on the Rough Stuff page of my website: www.bobmcleod. com/roughstuff.htm

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

What Did You Say,

BREAKD

By Bob McLeod

enciling in comic books takes many forms. In the first issue of Rough Stuff, I talked a bit about how pencils have gotten increasingly “tight” and exact in recent years. If you missed that article, you can still get a copy of our first issue at the TwoMorrows website. There’s also a small excerpt from it on my website. In that article, I also mentioned breakdowns, which played a large part in my career, both as a penciler and as an inker. Some readers

asked me to explain what breakdowns are (no, I don’t mean a nervous breakdown, though breakdowns can sure make one nerv-

ous), and explain in detail about roughs and thumbnails, etc. Since this magazine is all about the various forms of preliminary art, I think it would be useful to get our terms defined and make sure we all understand exactly what we’re looking at in these pages.

GIL KANE See the finished art based on this Gil Kane Star Hawks thumbnail at www.bobmcleod.com/roughstuff.htm.

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

You’re Having a

DOWN?!? L

et’s start with a “thumbnail”. In comics,

tion to create the “composition”. The terms “composition”

JOHN BUSCEMA

thumbnails are usually bigger than the very

and “design” are often used interchangeably, but in

This is a rough by John Buscema for the cover of Galactus the Devourer #2.

small images you see on the web which are

comic art you can usually think of objects as being

called thumbnails. A comic thumbnail is usu-

designed, and scenes as being composed. So generally,

ally about 4" tall. It’s used by the artist to compose a page quickly, rather than spending the time drawing it full-size. That way, it can be discarded without having wasted too much time, and the small size keeps the artist from getting caught up in details and forces him to focus on layout. An artist might draw three or four thumbnail cover sketches to show to an editor, or just to get his ideas down on paper for his own use. Neal Adams used to draw 4 amazingly detailed thumbnail pages, each on a quarter section of an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper, and then enlarge and trace them using a projector called an art-o-graph. I think he did it just to intimidate the rest of us, which it definitely did! Gil Kane also often used thumbnails for his covers and pages, but his were more like what you’d expect. Then there’s what’s known as a “rough”. Roughs are usually full-size, but very loose, sketchy drawings typically used just to establish the size and position of forms from a certain viewpoint. There are very few details, if any. As with a thumbnail, the purpose of the rough is to establish the “layout”, which simply means placing the various elements (figures and backgrounds) of the page into posi-

Neal Adams used to draw 4 amazingly detailed thumbnail pages, each on a quarter section of an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper, and then enlarge and trace them using a projector called an art-o-graph. I think he did it just to intimidate the rest of us, which it definitely did! JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

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 YA

adian is a French-Can te et qu Pa k ic n Ya sure of inko I had the plea h w t tis ar ic m co ago. His WOMAN years ing on WONDER ul, and if amic and beautif ly will be pencils are dyn already, he sure ts tis ar te ri vo fa your r the radar he’s not one of hat flying unde ew m so en be s e’ as is! H to be recognized af ter you see th re su s e’ h , is th ith talent like up to now, but w ars to come. in comics in ye ts tis ar p to e th one of

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.

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.

BOB MCLEOD: Students take note: This is a perfect sample page. Great character shots, great camera movement, long shots, close-ups, sexy women, detailed backgrounds, good composition and clear storytelling; everything an editor wants to see from an artist! The Avengers TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

YANICK PAQUETTE: Bulleteer #1, cover Eventually, that building background got lost in the printed version.

BOB MCLEOD: Note Yanick’s carefully drawn windows. You’d be surprised how many artists don’t understand how windows are constructed. And his bricks are weathered and indicated by shadow rather than totally outlined. Bulleteer TM &

YANICK PAQUETTE

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

YANICK PAQUETTE: Bulleteer #2, cover All of Seven Soldiers’ second covers were head shots.

BOB MCLEOD: This is a good lesson in 3/4 view facial construction. Study the features, nose, lips, and eyes. They change as the head turns. I also like her neck a lot. It’s the subtleties that make figures fascinating, such as the careful curves of her lips, and the shape of the eyebrows. Loading on the mascara like this helps make a woman’s face more attractive in comics, too. Bulleteer TM &

YANICK PAQUETTE

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

INTERVIEW

JOHN ROMITA JR. By Bob McLeod

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 1970s 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: I like British comedies, too. ROMITA JR.: I love British comedies. Because during the week it’s depressing enough to listen to talk radio and politics, and instead of throwing things at the television I just put on comedy on Fridays. MCLEOD: I can’t listen to talk when I’m penciling. Music is all right, but I just can’t concentrate with people talking. ROMITA JR.: I tried listening to music and then I found myself bobbing my head (laughs) and I was losing concentration…and some songs I hate... even on my favorite blues channels, I get annoyed ‘cause some songs I don’t like. I listen to talk radio even with the commercials, it frustrates me sometimes because I hate the guys I listen to, but still it gets my system going, it’s almost like exercise, whereas music almost puts me to sleep sometimes. I tried listening to classical. 38

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

Classical puts me to sleep because I use it to go to sleep. And then the blues gets me boppin’, and then some songs are annoying, and the same for jazz. The progressive jazz is screechy and it gets annoying. Anyway, so now you know all about my habits. MCLEOD: Well, that’s an interesting thing to know. ROMITA JR.: Let me put on a headset and put you on speaker. This way I can actually work and talk to you at the same time. MCLEOD: That’s amazing that you can actually work while we’re doing an interview. I could never do that. ROMITA JR.: I can also talk and walk at the same time! MCLEOD: (laughs) OK, so let’s get going: where and when were you born? ROMITA JR.: I was born in Brooklyn, NY on August 17, 1956. MCLEOD: And where do you live now? ROMITA JR.: I live in Port Jefferson, Long Island. MCLEOD: Have you ever lived anywhere other than around the NY area? ROMITA JR.: Yeah! I spent the previous nine years in San Diego. MCLEOD: Oh, no kidding! I didn’t know that. ROMITA JR.: That’s where my wife is from. Up until about a year ago I was out in San Diego. MCLEOD: But you were still working for Marvel during those years, right?

JOHN ROMITA JR.

ROMITA JR.: Oh sure, as long as Fed Ex can reach you…

Black Panther #1, pg. 13

MCLEOD: Yeah. Do you have any brothers or sisters? ROMITA JR.: Yeah, I do. I have one older brother and his name is Vic and he lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife Nancy and his two daughters, Allegra and Christa. MCLEOD: Has he ever had any interest in art?

Courtesy of Philippe Cordier

I remember this vignette well. The idea was to have the Boer Captain look through his telescope to check up on the Wakandans. He then has something obscure his view and, when he re-focuses it ends up being a rather scary image, to him, of the Black Panther. In this instance, the Black Panther is an ancestor of the present day Panther (for explanation, please pick up the TPB... shameless plugger, that I am). The only thing, in retrospect, I would have done differently is for the page to be turned before

ROMITA JR.: He doodled a little as a young boy… when

seeing this version of the Panther. Since, as I recall, this was the first image of the Panther, it

we were both very young, when my father was doing

would have been great to see a full page shot of him in all his glory. It worked out fine the way it

Spider-Man, there was a novelty to it, but when it didn’t

was but illustrates the difference between “script” and “plot” storytelling.

come to him easily, I think he abandoned it.

MCLEOD: (laughs) MCLEOD: Yeah, my older sister was like that. Do you

ROMITA JR.: He was that way when he was a baby and

have any children?

even at 10 he’s still that way.

ROMITA JR.: I do. I have a son, Vincent, and he’s 10 and he is such a novelty in the house. He’s like having a car-

MCLEOD: Cool… How old were you when you started

toon character running around the house.

drawing? JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

JOHN ROMITA JR. This page is part of the Punisher/Batman story I worked on and it was great for the sole reason of being able to draw Batman and the Joker, after never doing them before or after. Working with Chuck Dixon and, of course, Klaus Janson on the monthly Punisher was a true pleasure but then being able to work on Batman only added to it. I think drawing the Punisher , along with Daredevil, is, artistically, more fun than any other characters. I consider Spider-Man to be my all time favorite character, in general, but drawing-wise, the Punisher and DD take the prize. The Punisher reminds me, visually, of some family and friends...and DD is just very easy for me to draw. There is a good story about the Punisher I’d like to pass along. I had based my version of Frank Castle on a variety of people I knew but I distinctly remember thinking of John Buscema’s Conan when drawing his face. During my run on Punisher, John Buscema himself was either working on a fill-in or a separate issue of the Punisher, and told the editor he was working with that he was basing his visual of the Punisher on my version! He said he liked it! What a compliment! Ironic, that he based it on mine when I was basing it on his visual of Conan! When told of this he Punisher TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics

cracked up! Courtesy of Philippe Cordier

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

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. BILL SIENKIEWICZ: The differences between Big John’s cover rough and the final breakdowns that I finished in ink were changes that I’m willing to bet were all, or in major part, subconscious on his part; changes he made because they “felt right” to him, and also improved the storytelling and dynamics. This artistic instinct on his part comes quite simply from years and years of drawing. For instance, note how he changed the position of Galactus’ outstretched thumb. Personally, I believe he did this because the thumb in the rough covered what would have been Galactus’ “metallic eyebrow”, also quite possibly obscuring or confusing (even if only a bit) the intended focus of Galactus’ attention, while also diverting the

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

COVER STORIES

Surfer’s as well. So moving Galactus’ thumb forward and downward helped intensify the thrust, the force, of who really wields the true power on this cover here. Note also the shift in the angle of the Surfer’s body compared to the sketch. It’s a minor shift of ten degrees or less, but it’s enough to strengthen the dynamism of the piece. It’s now decidedly off-kilter (I mean that in the best of ways). It’s become a bit more unsettling than the sketch, which is much more straightforward. The breakdown I inked, emphasized by John’s indication of up-lighting, shows how even the smallest of adjustments by someone possessing the right degree of knowledge, ability, and instinct can take a good idea and make it even better. All that was left for me to do as finisher was to not screw it up. I used more pen than my usual brush, because I wanted to render Galactus’ face to a greater, smoother, more realistic degree, almost like a true pen and ink portrait that I felt he needed to have for this cover. Characters TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

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! This issue, Lee Weeks shows us several examples of his early efforts, from age 12 right up to shortly before he broke in at Marvel! As good as these are, wait until you see what he can do now, in his feature on page 72!

LEE WEEKS This page is out of a hardcover blank sketchbook my older brother gave to me for Christmas in 1974. I was 12 years old and began filling the book with my own comic book stories. Often I’d get my younger brother, Dean, to do the coloring. He was much better and neater with the colors than I was. All four of my brothers could draw. I just happened to be the one who couldn’t put it down, but all of them had chops. Iron Man, Electro TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

L L E S S U R G I A R P. C

ig Russell away by P. Cra n ow bl en be I’ve art; a time I saw his t rs fi ry ve e from th p way back h Conan pin-u Barry Smith-is developed 0s. He quickly ’7 y ose rl ea e th in uce some of th od pr to on e n d has go wonderfully his own style an seen. He has a ve I’ t ar ic m co g. I’m very most beautiful and storytellin on ti si po m co ith graceful way w l work here. me of his penci so se ca ow sh pleased to

P. CRAIG RUSSELL This page, though it comes about 90 pages into The Ring of the Nibelung, is the first one I drew. I like to try something difficult for the first drawing of a project, something I can feel happy with that will set a standard for the rest of the project. Siegmund’s entrance into Hunding’s hut, a single set that had to work almost threedimensionally for the next 30 pages was just such a panel. I filled pages in my sketchbook, working out the design and floor plan before attempting the final drawing. The page also had to accommodate Sieglinde’s entrance into the story.

P. CRAIG RUSSELL Always a challenge to co-ordinate scenes with multiple characters. Everybody has something to say and something to do at the exact same time as everyone else. Just keeping the action clear is a job. This page had eight characters in an escalating crisis leading to the introduction of a ninth, off-panel, at the bottom of the page. I mourn the passing of hand lettering. Galen Showman’s lettering on this page is peerless.

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

P. CRAIG RUSSELL Another ‘spectacle’ panel as the tiny figures of the Valkyries in the upper left corner balance the fleeing figure of Sieglinde into the deep forest set against the nature upheaval of Voton’s very angry approach. (And more great lettering by Galen

P. CRAIG RUSSELL

Showman).

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

P. CRAIG RUSSELL Siegfried slays the dragon. Can’t find real life models for dragons so a lot of sketchbook studies were done of various reptiles until I could ‘construct’ one of my own.

BOB MCLEOD: Students! Let’s all take a moment (or several) to study the anatomy of those fists and that back! You should copy them in your sketchbook. You’d do well to copy the face in panel three

P. CRAIG RUSSELL

also.

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

D U R E F E A T

LEE WEEKS

I S T A R T

y Lee Weeks sylvanian budd n n Pe w llo fe y M tastic job ing out one fan just keeps turn . He’s one of year af ter year af ter another, d you can cilers to ink, an my favorite pen He does in these pages. easily see why ks, of dramatic blac t lo a h it w g n u want to great lighti d inventive. If yo an ic am n dy so are drawn, his and his layouts they should be ay w e th s ic m aw co learn how to dr ur textbook. art should be yo

LEE WEEKS Stan Meets The Thing, cover Marvel published a series of five books in 2006 where Stan Lee meets another of his famous Marvel creations in each one. I had the privilege of drawing the story where Stan meets the Thing. It was my first opportunity to work with Stan – he wrote and scripted the story—and it was simply fun. The cover (really Jack Kirby’s cover) is a riff on what I consider the greatest single issue story in the history of Marvel Comics—Fantastic Four #51, written by Stan and drawn by Jack, with inks by Joe Sinnott. And hey…I actually got to “write” some copy for the cover, too. Where on the original issue of Fantastic Four the story title reads, “This Man, This Monster”, I suggested for this one it should read, “This Stan, This Monster.” It was a natural fit! Fantastic Four TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

LEE WEEKS Cap Lives Again, #1, page 4 Cap has been pulled from the icy waters onto a Nazi sub instead of the Avenger’s ship. The first five panels are inset onto the last image. It all happens within the submarine, so I played the scene as five insets within the one exterior shot of the sub. The reference for this job was pretty brutal…but I like doing the reference so long as there is time to do it. Captain America TM & ©2007 Marvel

LEE WEEKS

Characters, Inc.

JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

LEE WEEKS Winter Soldier, (breakdown) Same page as the thumbnail. For the job, I’m “officially” doing breakdowns, but I actually take them a lot further much of the time. In fact, this page was taken further before I sent it off. Winter Soldier TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

LEE WEEKS Thumbnail for Winter Soldier, p. 14 After one quick read-through of a script, I like to go through it slower a second time with a pencil and scribble image ideas in the borders. Now that I get scripts by way of email as electronic files, I re-format them so that the right side border is about three inches. This way I can keep my scribbles next to the part of the script they pertain to. The next step after that is a thumbnail/rough at about 6 x 4 inches. This is one of those. It’s the first time we see Winter Soldier in action, so I wanted at least one full figure shot as a sort of “reveal”. I also wanted to demonstrate a sense of fearlessness in this guy (who is really Captain America’s original sidekick, Bucky), which is how I arrived at the angle of the final shot on the page. It is a big help when working with a guy like Ed Brubaker, too. He’s very good at writing to an artist’s strength, and I think it helps that he is also an artist … which I was unaware of until I met him via the phone for this job. He’s also a terrific guy. 76

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

ROUGH CRITIQUE By Bob McLeod his issue I thought it might be interesting to critique an inking sample rather than a penciling

sample. It’s difficult to really examine inks at print size, so I’m posting a large scan of the inks on my website at www.bobmcleod.com/roughstuff.htm

Marc Deering (www.electricdeerstudios.net) submitted this nice inking sample over pencils by Brian Hitch. When inking over another artist’s pencils, as opposed to inking your own pencils, it’s important to understand that your goal should simply be to enhance the pencils and make them printable. Anything beyond that is probably exceeding your authority and is likely to make for an unhappy penciler and possibly an unhappy editor. These are the two most important people in an inker’s professional life, and you do not want to make them unhappy.

In #1, you lost the structure of the eye and nose and cheek bone.

In #2, you lose the structure of the ear, and as poorly drawn as the lights are in the pencils, you manage to make them even worse. In an instance like this, you don’t try to follow the sketchy pencil lines, you just need to ink a light.

So to make them happy and achieve your simple goal, you, as inker, need to follow the pencils instead of trying to “improve” them. Many aspiring inkers are under the misconception that inking just involves the ability to make attractive lines. Every inker must master control of the pen or brush, which you have, but you also need a sound understanding of how light affects form, a sound understanding of anatomy, and a knowledge of the standard techniques used in comics to soften the transition of black shadow to white light, so that you won’t misinterpret what the penciler has indicated. If you don’t totally understand what the penciler is showing you, you can’t ink it correctly. And when the pencils get sketchy, if you can’t draw you’ll be lost. You are doing some impressive things here. Your rendering is mostly very Captain America TM & ©2007 Marvel

ROUGH STUFF • JANUARY 2007

Characters, Inc.

In #3, your outlining on the sleeve is poorly done, and your shoe is badly drawn. where I could clearly draw or render something better than the penciler, and to ink it as drawn would be senseless. And even then, some pencilers complained. One penciler told me “I know it’s wrong, but ink it like I drew it anyway, and I’ll do it better next time”.

In #4, you must draw a better shield. Here again, the point is not so much to follow the pencils, but to simply know how to draw his shield. You lost the structure of his feet, and his right shoulder and hand.

attractive, and you’re doing varied textures, which is important. You’re attempting to improve areas you feel are weak, and you’re adding things to make the art more complete. The average person looking at this would no doubt be mightily impressed, and even most editors might be. Unfortunately, though, this penciler (Brian Hitch) is not an average person. He would be likely to complain, for the following reasons. As in medicine, the first rule of inking should be to do no harm. By deviating from his pencils, you’re too often making it worse, not better. You’re imposing your will over his, and at this point he knows far more than you do. I’ve often been guilty of changing the pencils when I ink (often dramatically so) but only in instances

I’ve isolated some areas where I see you going astray, and I’ve reinked them in a way that I think would be more in keeping with what the penciler wants. These are somewhat loose pencils, and we’re not inking on the original art, which

In #5, you’ve left out a foot! This is one of the reasons why inker Vinnie Colletta was universally despised! If the penciler draws it, you have to ink it. And you got lost on the sketchy door. As in example #2 with the lights, you just need to ink a door. The penciler is depending on you to understand a simple door. JANUARY 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

We hope you enjoy this FREE

DRAW! #13 PREVIEW!

Edited by top DC and Marvel Comics artist MIKE MANLEY, the Eisner Award-nominated DRAW! magazine 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, as each artist invites you into their studio to reveal their working methods and tricks of the trade! Issue #13 features: A step-by-step demo of painting methods by cover artist ALEX HORLEY (Heavy Metal, Vertigo, DC, Wizards of the Coast)! Part Two of our in-depth interview with KYLE BAKER! Plus, interviews and demos by Banana Sundays’ COLLEEN COOVER, behind-the-scenes on Adult Swim’s MINORITEAM, a “Comic Art Bootcamp” on Composition by BRET BLEVINS and editor MIKE MANLEY, links, an extensive COLOR SECTION, and more! (88-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues in the US: $24 Standard, $36 First Class (Canada: $44, Elsewhere: $48 Surface, $64 Airmail). NOTE: Most issues contain nudity for purposes of figure drawing. Intended for Mature Readers.

DRAW! #6

DRAW! #8

DRAW! #10

DRAW! #11

BILL WRAY, STEPHEN DeSTEFANO, BRET BLEVINS, CELIA CALLE

MATT HALEY, TOM BANCROFT & ROB CORLEY, ALBERTO RUIZ

RON GARNEY, GRAHAM NOLAN, TODD KLEIN, MARK MCKENNA

STEVE RUDE, JIM BORGMAN, ROQUE BALLESTEROS

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

COMICS

ALEX HORLEY

Interviewed by Mike Manley Transcribed by Steven Tice

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!: 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: 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.? 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. DRAW! #13 PREVIEW

ALEX HORLEY

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?

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?

DRAW! #13 PREVIEW