Rough Stuff #4 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

No. 4 Spring 2007

$6.95

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

GENE COL

JOH

TLEBE O T N

Featuring

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EVEN BISS

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D CHAY R A W

KIN

EW RO R D N

SON BIN

MICHAEL KALUTA

Volume 1, Number 4 April 2007

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics! EDITOR

Bob McLeod PUBLISHER

John Morrow DESIGNER

Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Christopher Irving COVER ARTIST

Michael Kaluta

FEATURED ARTISTS 3 13

Howard Chaykin

Gene Colan

Michael Kaluta

Andrew Robinson

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW 24

SPECIAL THANKS Stephen Bissette Howard Chaykin Jeff Clemens Gene Colan Michael Dunne Michael Eury Dave Gutierrez David Hamilton Michael Kaluta George Khoury Andy Mangels Tom Palmer Andrew Robinson John Totleben Ray Wong Eric Nolen-Weathington

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 Michael Kaluta. Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics. 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

Steven Bissette

John Totleben

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE 60

Wonder Woman Day Art Auction Helps Domestic Violence Shelters Ray Wong

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS 2

Scribblings From The Editor Bob McLeod

Cover Stories Howard Chaykin and Michael Kaluta reveal the process of creating a cover.

PrePro Art by featured artist Michael Kaluta, done before he turned pro.

Rough Talk Comments and opinions from our readers.

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

Free WRITE NOW! #15 Preview A sample of our mag about writing for comics, animation, and sci-fi—FREE! APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

E T T E S S I B N E H P E T S

e first and e was one of th Stephen Bissett e Joe graduates of th most illustrious best d he’s probably an l, oo h Sc rt be Ku AMP ork on DC’s SW known for his w load hich won a boat w s, e self80 19 e th on some stuff h THING in k or w is h d ye . I first enjo now teachof Kirby awards ex. I hear he’s R Ta t ou ab T, d T YRAN Vermont. published calle toon Studies in ar C r fo r te en C the ing comic art at

STEVEN BISSETTE Swamp Thing, reborn! (from Saga of the Swamp Thing #23, pg. 16) Not much to say — this page was a pure shot, you can still see the barely-harnessed energy of my pencil strokes. I felt as liberated, unfettered and born-again as Swamp Thing by this point in the series! John and I had been craving this juncture since the day we went after the job. I was still getting my sea-legs drawing Abby, which is apparent to me looking back on this (and other pages prior to SOTST #25): my penciling of the character was still tentative and lacking confidence. Luckily, John drew and draws female characters as second nature; his inks rescued many an Abby face and figure in my first few issues with the character. Swamp Thing TM & ©2007 DC Comics

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

Courtesy of David Hamilton

STEVEN BISSETTE The Un-Men drones (September 1983) — These predate John’s and my tenure beginning with Alan Moore; these were, in fact, done for our final issue or so with writer Marty Pasko, who launched The Saga of the Swamp Thing series with his friend, editor & ST cocreator Len Wein. From our first issue working with Marty (SOTST #16), John and I had stretched the boundaries of creature design as best we could within the parameters we were working with. With Marty and Len’s decision to resurrect the key villain Arcane and his Un-Men, John and I pushed for a fusion of insect, humanoid and mammalian forms markedly unlike those Len and Bernie had introduced in the original Swamp Thing #10. With their blessings, we really went to town, exchanging a huge number of sketches and design concepts, fusing invertebrate and vertebrate structures, which is what you see at play here with these two. It’s too bad in one way so little of this work was visible in the final product, but this gives you some idea how seriously — and playfully — John and I engaged with every aspect of the Swamp Thing gig. Building around a basic facial design which John cooked up — very Wrightsonesque, quite on purpose: that’s Bernie’s classic “Jennifer”,

STEVEN BISSETTE

in essence, with the sorrowful pure black eyes and exaggerated upper lip — I was toying with a head/body configuration subverting the real-world insect six-leg form into four legs and two arms, distinctively oriented as such. As you can see, these two sketches evoke a hivelike or ant-colony-like physiological and social structure within the new breeds of Un-Men — something that is completely lost, invisible in the issue itself (SOTST #19). As with everything I do, form follows function: the warrior “Pie-Faced Un-Man” has a formidable set of jaws, tough exoskeleton, armored cereatopsian-like head, dorsal spikes (similar to some species of ants), and mole-cricket-like shortened, thickened forelimbs and clawed ‘hands,’ for digging and/or building and fighting. Everything is softened for the drone, the same basic anatomical details, including human-like fingers and toes, and the linework reflects that softer, more pliable nature of its skin; note the harsher, tighter linework on the warrior. Again, form follows function, line expresses purpose as well as texture, weight, volume, emotion. An aside: I’ve only seen one live mole cricket in my life, in Virginia back in the mid-1970s, but I never forgot it: it’s a very mammal-like insect in appearance and movement, which is unsettling on a pretty primal level, though they’re harmless and actually very cool little creatures. All monsters are based on nature, however inventive, imaginative or divorced from day-to-day reality they may seem, and these were no exception. We’re all just mixing-and-matching, having fun with the forms! 4

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

STEVEN BISSETTE A rare example of SOTST pencils by yours truly (pg. 13 from SOTST #19) completed without full script or the complete text (balloons, captions, lettering) carefully blocked into place. Unlike every other issue of SOTST we drew from Marty’s writing, this issue — which turned out to be Marty’s final issue, as his TV and animated series scripting jobs pulled him away from the comic series — was completely penciled “Marvel style,” with Marty phoning me script pages, piecemeal, and my penciling them from his verbal descriptions. It’s not a method I prefer: one can only compose pages as single units, instead of orchestrating the complete story and imagery with narrative and emotional clarity of purpose and intent. Nonetheless, we did what was necessary. On the plus side, this penciled page clearly shows my design, compositional and story-telling sense of the period (over 23 years ago!) , as well as the ongoing influence and borrowing from Bernie’s original ST art at this early point in my work with the character: all three of those first three panels are copped from Bernie’s work in the original series. John’s inks were still pretty reserved at the time, too — we didn’t really get into drawing Swampy as we saw him until Alan’s tenure began with #20, and his reinvention of the character in #21, “The Anatomy Lesson,” gave us the license we’d long ached for to really cut Courtesy of David Hamilton

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

N I K Y A H C D R A W HO

artest is one of the sm n ki ay h C d ar How talent , with enough ow kn I s st ti ar comic d draws, le. He writes an for three peop nache. He's with a lot of pa th bo es do d an sexy, ng intelligent, ti ea cr r fo n l popular know created severa as h d an s, ok bo AN FL AGG. exciting comic aking AMERIC re db n ou gr is gh series, includin

HOWARD CHAYKIN The Flagg heads date back to 1982, before I actually began the finished artwork on American Flagg! I was playing with a look that combined elements of James Garner, William Holden, and Stephen Collins.

HOWARD CHAYKIN

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

HOWARD CHAYKIN The American Century #3 cover is a pretty solid demonstration of my process. I wanted the covers to have an echo of the boy/girl illustrations of the mass market women’s magazines of the ‘50s—the work of Coby Whitmore, Jon Whitcomb and the astonishing Al Parker.

BOB MCLEOD Art students should take note of the subtle but very important shift of the man's figure from a flat straight-on pose to more of a 3/4 view, making it not only a sexier pose with the cocked hip but adding more 3-D depth as well. ©2007 Howard Chaykin

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

HOWARD CHAYKIN As you can see, the idea was all there in the concept, developed in the rough, done on layout bond, then traced onto bristol board for a tight pencil— all done repro size—then traced up onto illustration board to twice up. Note the horizontal line behind his head—this both anchors the piece, and carries the eye to his expression.

HOWARD CHAYKIN

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

INTERVIEW

JOHN TOTLEBEN Conducted by George Khoury

ohn Totleben, another former Joe Kubert School student, is best known for his beautifully intri-

cate, award-winning linework on DC’s Swamp Thing, which is all the more incredible when you learn that he’s legally blind! It’s now extremely difficult for him to do the precise type of

linework that made him famous (not that it was easy before!). John sent me so much great art

to choose from that it was very difficult for me to choose what to print, so be sure to check the Rough Stuff page of my web site to see some more! This interview was originally conducted in 2003, but recently updated for this issue by John himself. GEORGE KHOURY: How did you discover Swamp Thing for the first time? JOHN TOTLEBEN: It would have been the very first issue. I remember seeing a DC house ad for it, and just picked up the book when it came out. KHOURY: Did you follow the entire series, even the Nestor Redondo ones? TOTLEBEN: Oh yes. I had them all, right to the very end. There might have been 24 issues or something like that, and I bought them all… even the ones that sucked. I thought that while Redondo was a great artist, better than Wrightson as far as drawing figures and women and such, but somehow he still was not quite a match for Bernie’s obviously definitive version of Swampy. While Redondo had some fairly obvious technical advantages, he lacked the sheer vision and feel for the macabre that seemed to come so naturally to Bernie. KHOURY: I thought you weren’t a big fan of the Wrightson work on the series? TOTLEBEN: That’s not true. It was his earlier pre-Swamp Thing stuff I wasn’t real crazy about, say, anything he did before 1971. I liked what Wrightson did on Swamp Thing, quite a bit. I was, at the time 13 years old, more of a Neal Adams fan basically, and I had more of a taste for that “realistic” type art. By the time Swamp Thing came along I had expanded my tastes beyond just Adams work and was able to dig a lot of other artists, including Bernie’s work. What Wrightson was doing seemed more caricaturish to me, like Jack Davis’s art, but I quickly became a huge fan of Bernie’s work on Swamp Thing. It was pretty amazing stuff, there’s no question about it. He had really set some new standards, at that time. 24

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

JOHN TOTLEBEN

KHOURY: When you began helping [artist] Tom Yeates

Frankenstein

on [the art chores on] Saga of the Swamp Thing, was it

TOTLEBEN: Well, it is kinda hard for one person to do a

I don’t remember

because it was a character you always wanted to depict?

monthly book. At some point, you always end up slipping

what this was for,

Or was it that Tom just needed your help?

behind a little, because it’s a lot of work for one person.

TOTLEBEN: Well, both. I had always wanted to do the

It’s a lot of work for two people, y’know!

but it appears to be a fairly typical quick, rough, brush-inked drawing that was possibly done in a sketchbook. Courtesy of David Hamilton

KHOURY: Was he behind right from the beginning?

character in some way or another, as it just seemed to me, if I were going to do comics – if I had to pick any character —

KHOURY: What did you think of the stories that Pasko

it would have been Swamp Thing. It just so happened that

and Yeates did together?

Tom had gotten the art assignment on the second series

TOTLEBEN: I remember thinking the writing was getting a lit-

and was working on it, so when he needed an art assist,

tle stuffy as issues went on. There was some good stuff in

which was inevitable really, it was a natural thing for me or

there… but I remember some sort of anti-Christ storyline going

Steve or Rick to pitch in. We would always jump in and help

on, with some girl or something, and it seemed to me that it

each other out in any way, on whatever jobs we were

was getting a little convoluted… boring, actually. The drag for

respectively working on when the deadline loomed.

Tom was that, after the first issue, Swamp Thing was taken out of the swamps and put in a more urban environment. Tom

KHOURY: You were already helping Tom out as early as

excels at drawing the natural world — jungles, swamps, wood-

#2? What kind of things were you doing?

lands, etc. — so for him to have to draw these boring urban

TOTLEBEN: Jeez, I don’t remember what issue it was. I

backgrounds was a waste of his abilities.

may have penciled a couple of pages or some panels. I don’t think I did any inking on those early ones; just some

KHOURY: Stephen Bissette was also there lending a

penciling.

hand to those issues, right?

KHOURY: Was Tom falling behind or was it because

might have done the cover layout, too. I remember him

you were the “monster” guy?

having done a considerable amount of work on the book.

TOTLEBEN: Steve did the layouts to #8, and I think he

TOTLEBEN: I think he was just starting to fall a little

behind, although I was an obvious choice to drag in when

KHOURY: Was Tom becoming disenchanted with the

the situation arose.

assignment?

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

KHOURY: Was the period between leaving the Kubert School and getting the Swamp Thing assignment a tough period for you? TOTLEBEN: After I got out of Kubert School, I was working with [Golden-Age comic book publisher] Harry “A” Chesler for a couple of years on The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam illustrations, so that kept me busy for awhile, and after I finished that, I had moved back to Erie from New Jersey. I picked up a few art jobs here and there, but mostly I was doing regular jobs. I had worked as a janitor, at one point, for some outfit. I ended up working at a plastic factory for a couple of months – you know, the kind of crap we all have to do before we end up escaping and doing what we want. [laughs] KHOURY: Were you having doubts that you weren’t going to make it as a professional artist? TOTLEBEN: No, I never really thought that I’d fail. I just was convinced that sometimes you just have to wait until the right moment, I guess, and that moment came, of course, when Swamp Thing came up for grabs. KHOURY: How did that happen? Did Tom let you know that he was leaving? TOTLEBEN: Tom did mention to both Bissette and I that he was going to be quitting the book, and that we should send some samples to [then-editor] Len Wein. KHOURY: Was it Tom’s idea that Bissette and you work together? TOTLEBEN: I don’t remember if it was his idea, or what, but it might have been. I don’t really remember too clearly, other than I do recall that Tom had recommended us.

JOHN TOTLEBEN Strange Adventures In 1998 sometime, I got a call from Axel Alonso asking if I might be interested in doing something for the Strange Adventures mini-series he was editing. I told him I’d think about it. A few days later, I met Mark Schultz at a convention in Cleveland, and asked him if he might like to write up something

KHOURY: This was around the time of [Bissette & Totleben’s collaboration] the Dracula story [Bizarre Adventures #33]? TOTLEBEN: Yes, that was the thing where Bissette had

we could work on together for the book. He came up with “Metal Fatigue”, and I finally got a

fallen behind on a job and he had to get it done pretty

chance to draw a cool robot story!

quick. So I went up to Vermont, stayed there for a week

or two, and we just sat down and completed this job. I TOTLEBEN: I think Tom was just probably getting tired of

did a lot of work on it, though I don’t know how much he

it, the monthly deadline grind, because he had been

had done on that by the time I got there, but it was a

working on it for over a year at that point and I imagine

pretty big book. Steve may have finished 10 pages into it,

he felt like he wanted to go on to other things.

or something, but there was still a lot left to be done, so we just sat down and did it.

KHOURY: Before getting the assignment from Tom, what were you doing in terms of work?

KHOURY: Were you two the only artists to try out for that

TOTLEBEN: Before we got on that book, I was jumping

book? Did you know if Len was thinking of anybody else?

around doing freelance stuff, only real sporadically.

TOTLEBEN: Nah, we weren’t the only ones considered. I

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

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. HOWARD CHAYKIN Jonah Hex My inspiration for the image— and this is based on memory, as opposed to actually looking at the artwork in question—was a cover for a MAX BRAND paperback by an illustrator named Roy Andersen—who did a beautiful series of covers for Warner books back in the seventies or eighties—imagery that was apparently too damned sophisticated for the western buying public. Somewhere between the concept and the finish, my rough pencil seems to have lost a bit of horse that Steve saw on the comp, so when I delivered the finish, he asked me to add a bit more horse—which the finish here demonstrates. 44

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

COVER STORIES

HOWARD CHAYKIN For a single image, I tend to work out the pattern of darks and lights more specifically than on a comics page—and as you can see, the finish is a pretty solid reflection of what was there in the rough. I was delighted to get an opportunity to do a JONAH HEX cover for Jimmy and Justin’s take on the character. According to Steve Wacker, the then-editor, he opted for the specific comp he chose because no one had done a horse on the cover—pretty odd for a western, huh? Jonah Hex TM & ©2007 DC Comics

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

D U R E F E A T

GENE COL AN

I S T A R T

e of the always been on Gene Colan has Dracula ics. His Tomb of m co in ts tis ar best ries ever, favorite comic se y m as w es ri se was) with d inked (as he of ten e always enjoye and he was pair I’v gh ou lth A . r, Tom Palmer the grey my favorite inke flustered by all e er w rs ke in any other perb even ing his work, m that his art is su e er h s u s ow ut he sh ter recently tones he uses. B commissions af g in az am g in ill do uninked! He’s st 80th birthday! celebrating his Courtesy of David Gutierrez

BOB MCLEOD These two fairly recent commissions are proof that Gene Colan is doing some of the best work of his very distinguished career at the age of 80! Staggering depth and form, dramatic lighting and camera angles, subtle rendering and dynamic poses. There's simply no one like him. Shadow TM &

GENE COLAN

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

of the background in my files to complete it.

Courtesy of David Gutierrez

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BOB MCLEOD Gene was one of the first to break away from the standard grid and use angled panels, which allow more dramatic shots and add visual excitement. Imagine this page with horizontal panel borders and see how much quieter it would be. And he always finds the most dramatic camera angle. His panels have so much depth from his constant use of foreshortening. This page and the next were never inked or published, as far as I know. When the decision was made to end the series, the script was rewritten and new pages were drawn. ÂŠ2007 Marvel

GENE COLAN

Characters, Inc.

Courtesy of Tom Palmer

ROUGH STUFF â&#x20AC;˘ APRIL 2007

DAY Art Auction Helps By Ray Wong

Courtesy of Andy Mangels

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

Domestic Violence Shelters

ow do you take a hobby like collecting comic books, memorabilia, and original art and turn it into an event that raises $15,405.33 for two domestic violence shelters? That’s exactly what Andy Mangels did on Wonder Woman Day, October 29th, 2006 at Excalibur Comics in Portland, Oregon.

The art auction, featuring donated works from comic book, animation, and comic strip

artists such as Alex Ross, Adam Hughes, John Romita Sr., Dick Giordano, Bob McLeod, Bill Morrison, Terry Dodson, Anne Timmons, and Matt Clark, benefited Raphael House and Bradley-Angle House – domestic violence shelters for women and children in Art by Alex Chung

Portland. Dodson, Timmons, and Clark appeared at the event to do signings. Excalibur Comics displayed the auction art, and proxy bidding by e-mail for a short period before the event allowed non-attendees to participate in the fun. All art

help women and children of domestic violence. He contacted two local shelters in Portland to gauge

depicted Wonder Woman — a fitting symbol to combat

the marriage of a comic book character to the issue of domestic violence

auction included an Alex Ross painting that sold for

awareness and thought the theme

$4000. Adam Hughes’ marker piece with background

would make for a great event.

fetched $777. A flowing Terry Dodson pencil drawing

Mangels had worked previously

brought $500. Ryan Sook’s exquisite pencil rendering of

with Bradley-Angle House, and

a sword-wielding Wonder Woman went for $400.

they signed on shortly after. According to Mangels, “I

of Development for Raphael House, cited that the event

put my heart and soul into

“made a critical difference in the lives of thousands of

contacting artists about

women and children in this community fleeing domestic

donating for the event. I

violence.”

started with ones I

Kristan Knapp, Development Director of Bradley-

knew, then

Angle House, proclaimed “Andy Mangels’ creative

cast a wider

‘Wonder Woman Day’ celebration offered Wonder

net.” The

Woman fans and comic book readers in general an

response

opportunity to do something locally to stop abuse

was mind-

between intimate partners.”

boggling.

The idea for the event started out as a suggestion to

Courtesy of Andy Mangels

their interest. Raphael House was thrilled about

violence against women and children. Highlights for the

According to a press release, Jessica Elkin, Director

He ended

Andy Mangels to include Wonder Woman in a charity

up with

cause. Though he had organized many charity events, few

over 100

related to comic books. An avid Wonder Woman collector,

pieces of

Mangels decided the heroine would be most appropriate to

original

Continued on page 65

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

Courtesy of Andy Mangels

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

PRE-PRO

hat did your art look like when you were 16? Did you ever wonder what a pro's art looked like back when he was in high school? Here's what Michael Kaluta was doing at that age. He even knew what a crow-quill point was! A genius in the rough!

MICHAEL KALUTA Originally drawn in a Grumbacher spiral-bound sketch book using a crow quill pen point, this drawing of the Heliumetic Navy from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom Books shows my 16-year old mind and hand at work: the mind was lucid, but check out that figure: woooo: pretty squirrely! The flyer designs owe a large debt to the airships in the Abbott art for Ballantine Books paperback covers from the ‘60s.

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

MICHAEL KALUTA

. His is so individual Michael Kaluta yle is rent, but his st pa ap e ar s ce influen been. and always has totally unique Edgar comics work on y rl ea RUCK, is h om Fr DOW, to STARST A SH E TH to ’s VENUS, continRice Burrough missions, he’s m co d an s on ok illustrati imagination. to his many bo stic detail and ta n fa is h h it sw ued to dazzle u mics. rite people in co vo fa y m of e He’s also on MICHAEL KALUTA Doorway To Nightmare #2, sketch One of the refining steps in creating the cover for Doorway to Nightmare #2... after some very rough sketching, tracing paper is put over the rougher drawing and a cleaner image is developed. This would, in its turn, be light-boxed onto the DC Comics cover stock for final rendering and inking.

MICHAEL KALUTA Shadow #10, sketch This is one of the layers done for DC Comics’ Shadow #10 cover in the 1970s... like the boat sketch with “I, Vampire” on it [see page 75], this would be flopped for use on the finished cover, then the two killers added and, lastly, the large Shadow Face looming over all. APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

MICHAEL KALUTA Batman #242, sketch In 1969 or ’70 I opted out of a DC Comicspromoted bus trip to the Sparta Plant (possibly in Connecticut) where comic books got their color separations hand made in a room full of specialized Rubylith cutters (a technique made obsolete by today’s computer coloring of comic books). Instead I hung out at the nearly abandoned DC Comics offices, doing little scribbles in a small office off the main hallway. Carmine Infantino, then Big Boss of DC Comics, leaned into the room and asked if I’d ever considered doing covers for DC. Whatever my answer was, he asked that I dope out some Batman cover ideas. This sketch is my first ever cover idea, done then and there... I believe it was Carmine’s idea for me to pull in closer and make it more of a punchy image, the Kaluta composition that eventually ended up on the comic book [shown above]. Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

MICHAEL KALUTA Batman Sketch On Placemat. The City Diner on Broadway, NYC, has a stack of these placemats, used for the breakfast set-up. However, the waiters generally bring me a small sheaf to draw on when I come in late night while waiting for my burger and fries. The “unimportance” of the paper keeps my ideas from getting “precious” and allows them to drive my hand. Not all the scribbles are kept, but now and then the germ of a finished piece is developed during this process. Other ideas, like these on this page, are held off to the side for some future use. Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics

MICHAEL KALUTA Another group of drawings done on a placemat or some similar “scrap” paper: letting the mind

MICHAEL KALUTA

drive the hand: there’s a fairy at the top left, then, to the right, what appears to be a sphinx or lion, but is actually Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN holding a string of keys. Just below that is The Batman in a pretty nice pose: it might even be the pose I used on my Batman pin-up where I have Catwoman sculpting him. Left of that is what I was tempted to call a Shadow Sketch, until I saw the high heels... it was an Idea for a Game Magazine illustration of a woman detecting her way into a basement with flashlight and legs... APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

I S T A R T

N O S N I B O R W E R D AN

D U R E F E A T

name to me, son was a new in ob R ew dr n A a fantashis work! He’s ve lo ly al re I t bu ciler and l as a fine pen el w as r, te in tic pa ncil essed by his pe pr im ry ve as w inker. I be, I know you will d an e, er h n work show cker fan, he’s a Mort Dru r ea h I d n A o! to book! gold star in my a im h s ve gi h whic

ANDREW ROBINSON Here is my layout for a He-Man front and back cover. I completed the final which included pencils, inks and colors. Sadly it never saw print due to my principles. The art director loved everything except for the coloring. He insisted on some over the top crazy coloring, which just didn’t jive with my style. I tried convincing him that I was right. Sometimes sticking to your guns means you might have to miss out on a paycheck. And I did but it was worth it- every penny. He-Man TM & ©2007 Hasbro

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

ANDREW ROBINSON Here’s a breakdown for a sample page for some Vertigo book. I really like the cartooning. And tracing off my rough helps me to keep that initial energy from my sketch. It also helps steer me away from adding too many superfluous details. Unfortunately it was too cartoony for Vertigo and I didn’t get the job. Oh well, I probably would have been late anyway.

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

ANDREW ROBINSON Trying to fit the Sinister Six into this square must have taken me three days or more, drawing and erasing until the paper turned a shade of gray. And it was just for one card from the game VS by Upper Deck. Doc Ock straining in the background makes the piece for me. And then there is Kingpin, a very simple design which makes it one of my favorite VS cards.

ANDREW ROBINSON

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

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 beginners struggle with the same problems, and I think it’s helpful to see a critique of another artist’s work. This action-packed sample page was submitted by Jeff Clemens. He says

the lead roles are played by the Kubert brothers, so I’m assuming Jeff is a student at the Joe Kubert School. Let’s see if we can bump him up to the head of the class! First, let’s begin with what I think Jeff’s doing right. Jeff obviously draws very well and with some study will soon be working as a comics pro. His composition is very good. He’s using the panel space well, focusing on what needs to be shown and nothing else. He’s using a lot of diagonals and variety in the size of the main shapes, and he’s moving the viewpoint around well. He’s also doing what Joe Kubert does so well, which is a good mix of really close close-ups and really long long shots. There’s a lot of drama, emotion, and action. The forms have weight and the panels have depth. His storytelling is very clear without needing words. As with most beginners, though, he still needs to study figure drawing a lot more. His anatomy is weak and awkward, and his foreshortening is off. He hasn’t put much thought into developing a rendering style yet, either, but that will come easily enough with a bit more study. The other thing that really jumps out at me is his lack of correct perspective in the backgrounds, which by the way, are pretty sparse. You can get by with that on an average action page, but a good sample page really needs more (and better) backgrounds. Panel 1: Jeff, I’m guessing you don’t wear glasses. All eyeglasses have nose pads, and your bridge has depth and is shown from below, yet your lens frames are flat and shown straight on. A little research and reference on stuff like this goes a long way. The eyebrows look like they’re on fire. Study your own in the mirror. But this is a great close-up otherwise. Panel 2: I generally dislike profile shots, which tend to look flat. Since the Adam figure on the right is closer to us, it would have been much better if we were looking over his shoulder. It’s unclear whether he’s just holding the sword or if he’s hitting Andy in the hand or clavicle with it. I’m guessing that you’re attempting to show him just threatening Andy with the sword, but you’re forcing me to guess by using this awkward angle. And is he losing his grip on the sword, or what? You’re also having some difficulties with anatomy here. Andy’s left thumb is dislocated (ouch!), and Adam’s left ring finger is broken (double ouch!). Adam’s right arm is

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

coming directly out of his pectoral (chest muscle) rather than his shoulder (that’s gotta hurt!). If you feel your own jawbone, you’ll notice it’s in front of your ear, not behind it like you drew Adam’s. Panel 3: This reminds me of my advice in the critique I did for issue #1, where I said think of Charlie Brown flipping upside down from a baseball hit right at him when you show someone getting hit by a punch. So you have the right idea in exaggerating the action with Adam, but the other part of my advice was about the guy throwing the punch. You need to show him putting

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WRITE NOW #15 PREVIEW! Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH (former Marvel Comics editor and Spider-Man writer), WRITE NOW!, the magazine for writers of comics, animation, and sci-fi, puts you in the minds of today’s top writers and editors. Each issue features WRITING TIPS from pros on both sides of the desk, INTERVIEWS, SAMPLE SCRIPTS, REVIEWS, exclusive NUTS & BOLTS TUTORIALS, and more! Issue #15 features an in-depth interview with J.M. DeMATTEIS, discussing his work on Disney’s Abadazad with MIKE PLOOG (who provides a sidebar interview, and our all-new cover)! We also have a NUTS & BOLTS section on DC’s 52 series, featuring script by the MARK WAID/GREG RUCKA/GEOFF JOHNS/GRANT MORRISON team, breakdowns by KEITH GIFFEN, and pencil art by JOE BENNETT and CHRIS BATISTA! Then: JIM OTTAVIANI—writer of TWO-FISTED SCIENCE—tells you about the world of nonfiction comics writing and publishing! GRIMJACK’s JOHN OSTRANDER discusses the difference between writing a character you own and a “franchise” property! STAR TREK novelist BiLL McCAY tells how to deal with editors and rewrites, and more! (80-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues in the US: $24 Standard, $36 First Class (Canada: $44, Elsewhere: $48 Surface, $64 Airmail).

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Here it is! A special Nuts & Bolts section featuring script, layouts, and pencil art from issue #24 of DC’s red-hot 52 series!

Feast your eyes on J.G. Jones’ sketch for the cover to the issue, then his finished inks, and, finally, the fully rendered cover as it appeared in your pull-file!

52 NUTS & BOLTS | 89

52 #24 FINAL PAGE ONE THE OLIVER QUEEN PANEL ONE: EXTERIOR ESTABLISHING, MAYORAL CAMPAIGN OFFICE. 1 DATESTAMPS:

Week 24, Day 1. Star City

2 SIGNAGE:

QUEEN FOR MAYOR Campaign Headquarters

3 FROM IN/burst:

MAGGIN!

(VERY CASUALLY PANEL TWO: INTERIOR. OLLIE QUEEN GIVING A PRESS DRESSED) IS IN HIS MODEST OFFICE, LEAST TWO CAMERAS. AT CONFERENCE TO REPORTERS WITH AT POPS HIS HEAD IN THE FAR LEFT, A YOUNG ELLIOT MAGGIN ATTACHED.) DOOR. (SEE ELLIOT PHOTO REFERENCE, 4 ELLIOT: 5 REPORTER:

6 OLLIE:

You rang, Ollie? than Mr. Queen, with the election less you as three weeks away, voters still see ell nutsh a political UNKNOWN. Can you your platform once more for-REPORTERS! Elliot, come talk to these nice

ELLIOT ON THE BACK, PANEL THREE: OLLIE PATS CONFUSED AS. SHOVES HIM IN FRONT OF THE CAMER 7 OLLIE:

CAMPAIGN Ladies and gentlemen, this is my to take MANAGER, and he’ll be DELIGHTED any further QUESTIONS!

8 ELLIOT/whisper: 9 OLLIE/whisper:

Ollie, what are you DOING? wanna talk to YOU!

They

Gotta take an important CALL. You say. can do this. You know what I’d Use the word “FATCATS” a lot.

TO THE REPORTERS AS PANEL FOUR: ELLIOT, NERVOUS, WAVES OLLIE SCURRIES OFF. ((more)) calls! I didn’t hear 10 ELLIOT/whisper: I SCREEN your one come IN...! 11 OLLIE/whisper:

This one, you WOULDN’T.

DISCREETLY PULLING A PANEL FIVE: TIGHT ON OLLIE’S HAND LEAGUE COMMUNICATOR SHIELD-SHAPED, OLD-SCHOOL JUSTICE SIZE OF A CREDIT CARD. FROM HIS POCKET. IT’S ABOUT THE 12 OLLIE/whisper/off:

PRIVATE LINE.

13 SHIELD:

JLA COMMUNICATOR

PANEL SIX (THIN)

DC COMICS 52

The creative process for 52 is very much a collaborative one. In a nutshell, the team of writers (Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, and Geoff Johns) works out the stories with the editor—for this issue, it was Steve Wacker.

90 | WRITE NOW #15 PREVIEW

Keith Giffen then breaks the scripts down into rough layouts (in which we see copy placement, where each number corresponds to a piece of copy in the script), which are then developed into pencil art, in this case by Phil Jimenez (which was then inked by Andy Lanning).

PAGE TWO PANEL ONE-A

WRITER CREDITS

PANEL ONE: EXTERIOR, REAR ALLEY WAY. GLANCING AROUND TO MAKE SURE NO ONE’S LISTENING IN, OLLIE SPEAKS INTO THE COMMUNICATOR LIKE A CELLPHONE, IS EXITING THROUGH A REAR DOOR. 1 OLLIE:

GREEN ARROW here.

2 OLLIE:

Who’s this? Supes, is that you? Bats? WHOEVER it is, am I glad to hear from Y--

PANEL TWO-A

ART CREDITS

PANEL TWO: CUT TO FIRESTORM, ELSEW HERE, LIKEWISE USING A BADGE AS A CELLPHONE. 3 FIRESTORM:

It’s FIRESTORM, Mr...Arrow, sir. I...umm...

4 FIRESTORM:

How...ARE you...?

5 ELECTRIC:

PEEVED. That ain’t Firestorm’s VOICE, kiddo. Who is this and how’d you get this FREQUENCY?

PANEL THREE-A

COVER AND EDITOR CREDITS

PANEL THREE:

BACK TO OLLIE.

6 ELECTRIC:

I’m Firestorm’s...SUCCESSOR, sir. the communicator through HIM.

7 ELECTRIC:

You don’t really KNOW me, but I’m a big FAN and...well...I wanted to INVIT E you to...to...

8 OLLIE:

To WHAT?

9 ELECTRIC:

N-NO, sir.

A TAYLOR HICKS concert?

I got

WHAT?

To...to...

Current 52 editor Mike Siglain explains things from here on: “I talk to the writers numerous times within the week, and they certainly talk to each other, but we make sure that we all get on the phone at least once a week to revise and tweak the scripts, and to make sure that the story is still heading in the right direction.

52 NUTS & BOLTS | 91