Rough Stuff #6 by TwoMorrows Publishing

No. 6 Fall 2007

$6.95

H GUICE C T U

DAVE COC M KRU

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

Featuring

BRIAN STELFREEZE BUTCH GUICE C

RCHILL U H C

EN DO E L L O

RAN

IAN

Interviews and Galleries

73 1

82658 27766

Volume 1, Number 6 Fall 2007

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics! EDITOR

Bob McLeod PUBLISHER

John Morrow DESIGNER

FEATURED ARTISTS

Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

Ian Churchill

Dave Cockrum

Colleen Doran

COVER ARTIST

Brian Stelfreeze

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE

SPECIAL THANKS Ian Churchill

Butch Guice Len Gould

Paty Cockrum

Independent Comics Showcase Mike Gagnon

Colleen Doran Butch Guice Len Gould Mike Gagnon

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW 70

Brian Stelfreeze

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS

Benno Rothschild Chris Hanchey

Ruben Espinosa

Scribblings From The Editor Bob McLeod

Geoff Willmetts Glen Cadigan

Cover Stories Butch Guice and Dave Cockrum reveal the process of creating a cover.

PrePro Art by Colleen Doran, done before she turned pro.

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

Rough Talk Comments and opinions from our readers.

FREE PREVIEW of Alter Ego #73

Brandon Graham Andrew Barr Asaf Hanuka

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: $26 Standard US, $36 First Class US, $44 Canada, $60 Surface International, $72 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Central cover art by Brian Stelfreeze. 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

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

SCRIBBLINGS FROM THE EDITOR:

diting each new issue of Rough Stuff brings its own challenges and delights, I’ve discovered. We open this autumn’s issue with some really interesting X-Men character designs by British artist Ian Churchill, who’s currently drawing Supergirl. Then we have a feature on comics giant Dave Cockrum, who passed away this year,

far too young. I so wish we could have done the feature last year when he was still around. As with any artist who’s had a long career, there’s simply too much art to show and too little space to show it, so this is just a small sampling of Dave’s talent. His wife Paty graciously sent some of Dave’s previously unpublished drawings to me just for this feature. We’ve got a couple Cover Stories for you, a Spider-Woman cover by Dave that I inked years ago, and an Aquaman cover penciled and inked by Butch Guice. Then I’m very pleased to welcome our first female comic artist to these pages, the very talented Colleen Doran. She’s followed by Len Gould’s article and conversation with Butch Guice, an artist I met at a convention and induced to work with me twenty-six years ago, before anyone else in comics had ever seen his art. Then Mike Gagnon searches beyond the Big Three and introduces us to Andrew Barr, Asaf Hanuka, and Brandon Graham, some great young artists working with independent or small press publishers. Comic art enthusiast Benno Rothschild brings out some pieces from his own original art collection by Brian Stelfreeze, who goes piece by piece with him and explains in-depth his very thoughtful and intelligent approach to comic art. Then we go from Brian, a current master of comic art, to an ambitious beginner as Chris Hanchey offers up a Superman sample page for my Rough Critique. We then finish up with another batch of very interesting letters from some of our readers. Big News Dept.: Beginning with our previous issue, TwoMorrows is now offering Rough Stuff and many of its other magazines as full-color hi-res digital downloads in PDF form for the reduced price of only $2.95 (free for subscribers!), so be sure to check that out and let us know what you think. I think they’re great, because I inevitably have some images I want to show you in color: This issue in particular features a lot of color images by Ian Churchill and Dave Cockrum that are printed in grey half-tones in the print edition but are in full color in the online pdf. And as always, check the Rough Stuff pages of my own web site for art and comments that we just couldn’t squeeze into the magazine. I’ve also added some of my own prelim art there on the Editor’s Corner page. And while you’re on the web, why not visit the web sites of our featured artists, some of whom accept commissions. See you next time! Ian Churchill: http://www.theartistschoice.com/churchill.htm Colleen Doran: http://www.colleendoran.com Brian Stelfreeze: http://www.gaijinstudios.com/index.php?pg=about&sub=brian Andrew Barr: http://www.somethingagogo.com Brandon Graham: http://www.indyworld.com/graham

Bob McLeod Editor mcleod.bob@gmail.com

Asaf Hanuka: http://www.asafhanuka.com

www.bobmcleod.com

Chris Hanchey: http://www.hancheyart.com

PO Box 63 Emmaus, PA 18049

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

L L I H C R U H C N IA

came n Churchill be Ia st ti ar sh ti Bri on the gular penciler known as a re for EN and CABLE -M X Y N N CA N U act with signing a contr Marvel before g a banglately been doin s e’ h e er h w , C D g SUPERGIRL. up job pencilin

IAN CHURCHILL This was my first and only commissioned piece to date. I had been traveling for a couple of years and this was the first thing I did prior to hooking up with DC. It’s a scan of a bad photocopy , at the time I couldn’t find a scanner that would pick up the pencil line work. But you get the idea... it’s clobberin’ time! Hulk and Thing TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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IAN CHURCHILL Jeph wanted an iconic shot of Supergirl. I sketched this first before tackling the page. Another reason I don’t sketch much is because I normally end up liking the sketch more than the final page! Sketches generally capture an energy and spontaneity that is hard to recreate so I prefer to go directly to the board and sketch there.

IAN CHURCHILL This was a thumbnail for a Supergirl cover. When I sketch I normally sketch in ballpoint pen directly onto the paper, sometimes I’ll lightly pencil underneath first, but not often. I generally use red ink. 4

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

IAN CHURCHILL Before I took on Supergirl I had only seen one drawing of Mike’s design and thought I’d have more leeway with the costume. I doodled these while I was on the phone with Jeph who was trying to convince me to jump on board. Supergirl TM & ©2007 DC Comics

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IAN CHURCHILL This was a thumbnail for a page of Supergirl which Eddie thought was too “Rockwellian” so was abandoned for

IAN CHURCHILL

a different direction.

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IAN CHURCHILL This was towards the end of issue 5 and for one reason or another the scheduling was a little off, so to save time I thumbnailed a few pages ahead of time to meet the deadline. This was one that I kept for some reason.

IAN CHURCHILL

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Mr. Terrific! I doodled this while I was on the phone with Jeph.

IAN CHURCHILL I always liked this one so I kept it. I had

Ballpoint on a Post-It note!

time to kill and was in the mood to draw.

The facial proportions are stylized, but I think I like it because it’s a cross between my published style and the style I find most comfortable to draw in.

Another phone doodle, this time Captain Marvel.

IAN CHURCHILL

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

IAN CHURCHILL This was a thumbnail for a Superman trading card.

IAN CHURCHILL

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IAN CHURCHILL These next few are the gen-

So I worked it up into a

eration of a cover. These two

rough sketch first which I

thumbnails Eddie Berganza

don’t normally do but I guess

liked best and he went for

the mood just took me!

the one on the right.

The final page as inked by me. Most of my covers are generally off the pencils but I looked at this and it was screaming out to me to be inked so I thought I’d try to keep my hand in. I think it turned out quite well...

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

IAN CHURCHILL I was told the bad guy would be utilizing red sun powers against Superman. So I thought red sun—Japan— Japanese theatre with the scary masks—and came up with this. Then I was told it would be an old teched up Lex suit so I didn’t even end up showing this design to DC. What would have been the full suit. Unfinished—I gave up when I heard it was going to be the Lex suit.

BOB MCLEOD It really seems to me like DC is keeping too tight a rein on Ian’s imagination, aren’t they? It’s just a waste if this isn’t

IAN CHURCHILL

used somewhere.

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IAN CHURCHILL When I got the X-Men gig they were going through a

The Beast. This was before they decided to go in a “catlike” direction

re-design. This was a rejected Angel idea.

instead of the traditional ape-ish appearance.

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After the “catlike” decision I went off in favor of a big blue Lion approach! Rooaar!!

IAN CHURCHILL These were re-designs of DC’s bad guy team, the

This one of Mammoth was rejected which I still think is

Fearsome Five. This one of Psimon was accepted.

shame cause he just looks soooo badass!

When Eddie said there was going to be a Kandor story and that he wanted a re-jig of Nightwing and Flamebird he initially said to go for a Batman and Robin flavor. Then I was told that we shouldn’t be able to tell if they were human or not and they had to have full face masks so this design became redundant. She still looks kinda

This one was of Jinx. Again rejected.

IAN CHURCHILL

hot though...!

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BOB MCLEOD I always advise artists never to use profile poses, because they tend to look flat. But this is a good example of a design where I think it works. It’s really only Superman’s legs that are in profile, and they overlap the smaller figure,

IAN CHURCHILL

which adds depth.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

IAN CHURCHILL A rejected cover thumb for the Superman/ Captain Marvel issues I drew. Would have made a cool poster....

IAN CHURCHILL

Different angle from the

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IAN CHURCHILL Sketch for a Superman trade cover. Think I did it to get approval from editorial and to make sure I had all the spot blacks in place to my satisfaction. The final piece was inked by Norm Rapmund. Superman TM & ©2007 DC Comics

BOB MCLEOD Be sure to check out Ian’s page in the Rough Stuff section of my web site at www.bobmcleod.com/roughstuff.htm to see even more great art that didn’t fit into the magazine!

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

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D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

DAVE COCKRUM

an assisn his career as ga be m u kr oc C Dave t Murphy ng-time DC artis tant inker to lo lar became the regu on so d an , on rs Ande OES in OF SUPER HER N IO G LE e th artist on es and ting new costum ea cr , to Marvel, he 0s ‘7 y rl ea the is own. Moving h it g in ak m ly eral ing Storm, designs and gen X-MEN, co-creat e th d pe am -v the first then totally re fortunate to ink as w I s. su os ol dC classic cils in the now Nightcrawler, an n pe s e’ av D er team ov issue of the new X-MEN #94.

BOB MCLEOD Dave did dozens, if not hundreds, of cover roughs for Marvel. Many of them he finished himself, and many went to other artists. This one went to Keith Pollard and Joe Sinnott. I think I prefer Dave’s more exaggerated foreshortening, and I like the way Torch’s blast is just bouncing off in the rough. Fantastic Four TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Courtesy Ruben Espinosa

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

BOB MCLEOD While many of his cover scenes seem to

a better angle, but her pose is too awkward

have come fairly easily to Dave, these

and he’s lost the depth of the first image.

roughs take us through the development of a

Next, he shows her from the front and

cover Dave was obviously struggling with.

regains the depth but still isn’t satisfied. He

Going clockwise from the upper left, he

starts over and finds a new pose for the vil-

begins with the idea for an aerial battle, but

lainess, bringing her closer. Happy at last, he

Ms. Marvel’s too horizontal and she’s shown

sketches in the drawing, inexplicably chang-

mainly from behind. He then brings her up to

ing Ms. Marvel to Supergirl (!?) and signs off.

DAVE COCKRUM

Courtesy Geoff Willmetts

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

Courtesy Geoff Willmetts

BOB MCLEOD This is a very interest-

So he takes a totally new

ing development on this

approach, with Phoenix once

cover. Dave starts with

again up close but this time down

Phoenix up close high

on the ground with the fallen X-

in the air blasting down

Men. And notice the change in her

at Firelord, but her pose

pose between the rough and the

is too flat. Then he tries

finish, from bold and aggressive to

swapping the two fig-

more sexy and defensive.

ures, but now we only see Firelord’s back, and

DAVE COCKRUM

the composition is weak.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

BOB MCLEOD These two covers, on the other hand, change very little from conception to completion. Just some minor, though important and effective, adjustments.

DAVE COCKRUM

Courtesy Geoff Willmetts

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BOB MCLEOD I was just starting out as an inker when I first got a chance to ink Dave on X-Men #94 in 1975. He wasn’t happy with my efforts and replaced me on subsequent issues. But I got another chance to ink him on the new X-Men in this story about a trip to the Savage Land in Marvel Fanfare #3 in 1982. My inking had improved a lot, and this time Dave really liked

DAVE COCKRUM

it. His pencils were always a pleasure to ink.

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GLEN CADIGAN I’m 99.9% certain that this was a rejected cover corner block which Dave drew during his second stint on the book. They ended up going with one featuring Cyclops in the lead.

DAVE COCKRUM

Courtesy Glen Cadigan

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PATY COCKRUM Original character designs. Dave had the Starjammers all mapped out— characters, etc. He asked Roy Thomas about showcasing them but the showcase books at that time, Premiere and Presents, were booked for two years, so Chris glommed them for X-Men, changing only Corsair — making him Scott’s father —to tie them into the X-family.

Courtesy paty cockrum

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

BOB MCLEOD I don’t know what this lizard-men battle scene was for, but Andy apparently likes it, and I do, too. It really makes me want to read the comic. Great placement and movement on all the figures. The candlelight drink between Kurt and Ororo was a sketch on the back of a page. I used to work in production at Marvel in 1974, and the staff and freelancers alike would eagerly await the sketches John Buscema would often draw on the backs of his pages. Other artists began following his example, Dave chief

DAVE COCKRUM

among them.

Courtesy paty cockrum

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Courtesy paty cockrum

PATY COCKRUM I am not sure who these two characters are. Often Dave would just draw an exotic lady—then, like

DAVE COCKRUM

Mystique and Lilandra, they would end up in a book.

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This was the original design for a character called “Black Cat”— she later changed powers, got white hair and became Storm!

PATY COCKRUM These top two were character designs from Dave’s sketchbook.

Courtesy paty cockrum

This was a redesign of This was an early pos-

Sunswift from the

sible costume design

Futurians. Something I did

for Marvel Girl—looks

NOT think he needed to do

like he modified the

at all—but he doodled a

cape for Storm.

lot with characters. FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

DAVE COCKRUM

PATY COCKRUM Finished art for a Wingmen character design. The Wingmen are a group of hawkbased heroes. Skyhawk was a possible addition or modification.

Courtesy paty cockrum

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

DAVE COCKRUM PATY COCKRUM Warhawk of the Wingmen.

Courtesy paty cockrum

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PATY COCKRUM This was the original design for Lilandra of the Shi’ar empire— Chris (Claremont) saw this and wanted it for the X-Men. He built the whole Shi’ar empire

DAVE COCKRUM

around this sketch.

Courtesy paty cockrum

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

PATY COCKRUM T.H.U.G.S. T.H.U.G.S. was a very funny group. “The Rude Brood” group was their nemesis. Here is the first cover... Dave had the story worked out for issue two, but I don’t think he did any pages on it. The book was published by a small publisher for a giveaway at a store or event in either Arizona or New Mexico... somewhere out there in the desert southwest, I believe... the whole thing was kinda cheap but gave Dave a chance to get it into print and copyright it...

BOB MCLEOD Thrasher is one of the T.H.U.G.S., and Smogg is one of the Rude Brood. Dave created so many characters Marvel should have given him his own universe! Go to the Rough Stuff pages of my web site to see even more of Dave’s great art! www.bobmcleod.com/roughstuff.htm

Courtesy paty cockrum

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RUDE BROOD

THUGS THUGS

Courtesy paty cockrum

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

RUDE BROOD

THUGS

Courtesy paty cockrum

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

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.

BUTCH GUICE Aquaman Here’s a very recent Aquaman cover from beginning to end—sketch (one of five presented to the editor), the pencils—loose and roughed in since I was inking it myself, and the finished inks—which clearly show how much I leave to last minute intuitive decision making. Aquaman TM & ©2007 DC Comics

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

BOB MCLEOD I’m impressed by how little this image changed from the rough to the finished inks. Most artists make a lot of changes as they move toward the inking, as the many examples of Dave Cockrum’s cover sketches showed. But Butch clearly had this image firmly worked out in his head right from the start, and all he had to do was transfer it from his head to the paper.

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BOB MCLEOD These are Dave’s pencils for the cover of SpiderWoman #13, from 1979. I love the movement of the figures on this cover. He really captured the action well. Notice how every part of the figures are on diagonals. When you’re drawing two figures fighting in a scene, it’s always difficult to not have one of them with his back to the viewer, but Dave easily solved that problem by twisting the Shroud. Spider-Woman and Shroud TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

I always enjoyed inking Dave’s pencils, because the drawing was solid, but still open to interpretation by the inker. He would have made a lot of changes even if he’d inked it himself, so I felt free to mold it to my liking. I was very happy with this cover until I saw it in print. As you can see, I tried to do a lot of cool rendering on the smoke, but it was all colored so darkly and covered with blurbs that it was totally obliterated. I’m glad to finally expose it here.

I realize bright colors help sell books, but how much garish red and yellow does one cover need?? The phone even had to be yellow? I’ve never even seen a yellow phone anywhere. How many orange tables do you have in your house? FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

N A R O D N E E L L O C

TANT t work on A DIS rs fi ’s an or D Colleen she was published when SOIL was first she the 1980s, but in s en te er h still in as only 12! d it when she w actually create ific of the most prol ch-needed She’s been one , bringing a mu ce n si er ev s ic ness. com dominated busi ewriter/artists in al m y sl u io or to this not she shows woman’s touch e pages, where es th in er h se t nonowca hich are almos w , I’m happy to sh ls ci n pe ly ve e at her lo us a rare glimps lf. she inks herse existent when

COLLEEN DORAN A Distant Soil #31 cover sketch This is the preliminary drawing for the cover of volume IV. I really like the way the drawing turned out, and unlike most of my work on A Distant Soil, I used reference and models on the work. Most of A Distant Soil art comes entirely from my imagination. This is the underdrawing for the watercolor painting. I used the same technique on this painting as I used on Orbiter. That is, the final pencil drawing shows through the watercolor washes.

COLLEEN DORAN A Distant Soil Cover: Coda cover sketch, for the fourth volume of the series. The second piece is the preliminary drawing for an oil painting I did for A Distant Soil #30. I like the way the drawing turned out far more than I like the finished painting. I also used an unusual type of oil paint called Genesis oil. I don’t think it is a true oil paint, but it has many similar qualities. Unlike regular oil paint, it dries at 250 degrees in only about fifteen minutes. You can over paint within a half hour. This is great for commercial illustration and the colors are lovely. However, you can’t varnish it the way you varnish traditional oil paint, so you don’t get that lovely, final sheen. But if you want smooth flowing paints that dry exactly when you want them, and you want to be able to create glazes, it’s great stuff. I have a big set of it, and I don’t get to use it nearly as much as I like, but it is great for sketching in paint. 38

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

COLLEEN DORAN This may have been one of my more boneheaded decisions, but when I was self publishing, I decided to do limited edition remarqued hardcovers of my A Distant Soil graphic novels. I took custom orders from readers to draw portraits of their favorite characters in each book. This was OK, for the first 30 or so sketches, but after the next, oh, 450 sketches, the thrill was gone. I was really happy with the way many of them turned out, but I undercharged for the books and ended up losing money in the end. And I am STILL finishing off the stack of commissions! This is one of them, a portrait of Chris. I thought this

COLLEEN DORAN

turned out nice.

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

COLLEEN DORAN This is a preliminary drawing for a Lord of the Rings illustration commissioned for an officially licensed New Line Lord of the Rings

COLLEEN DORAN

convention.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

I have been doing a massive file clean out and finding all kinds of things, like this page of Disney sketches I did to practice drawing the Beauty and the Beast characters. I did the graphic novel adaptation of the movie way

COLLEEN DORAN

back in 1991!

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

COLLEEN DORAN Sometimes I barely do pencils at all, but when working for Disney, you have to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. So, these pencils from the graphic novel adaptation of Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast are squeaky clean. Disney is a demanding company to work for, and they don’t really pay very well, but I learned a lot while I was there. If I had the chance to work on something cool, I’d do it again in hopes of getting to interact with the artists, who are very good and very

COLLEEN DORAN

willing to teach.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

COLLEEN DORAN Beauty and the Beast cover preliminary circa 1991. I recall I had to do some revisions to get the drawing

COLLEEN DORAN

more on model.

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

COLLEEN DORAN Here’s the un-inked pencils to a Vampirella job I did way back in 1995. I became so frustrated by bad ink jobs and by inkers taking credit for the whole gig when my work looked good, I began neurotically copying every single page of pencils I did until I finally stopped working with inkers altogether about five years ago. I have stacks and stacks of these things, which I invariably had to drag around with me to conventions to prove that I actually did draw my own work. There was so much resistance to women artists, that I often had to prove the quality of my work over and over. Fans rarely got to see artists’ work before it was inked, but now I routinely publish previews on my blog, and now I also publish the originals of work that got bad ink jobs!

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

COLLEEN DORAN A preliminary sketch for the cover of Orbiter. Obviously, we didn’t use this one, but I liked it so much I am working it into a portrait of John Glenn.

COLLEEN DORAN Here is the preliminary drawing for the final Orbiter cover. My technique is to do a very tight pencil drawing, and then do very pale watercolor washes directly over the drawing. The pencil acts like an underpainting. In the finished work, you can see the pencil showing through the paint. I like the texture it brings to the work. FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

COLLEEN DORAN Here’s a look at a page from The Book of Lost Souls #1. This is how I normally work, which is to say, I often don’t do any pencils at all, or the barest hint of pencils, and go straight to ink. You can barely see some pencil doodles on this page. When I know exactly what I want, that’s good because it saves a lot of time. When I am not so certain, I can botch it and have to start all over, as I did in this case.

COLLEEN DORAN Here’s a bunch of cover thumbnails for The Book of Lost Souls #2 from Marvel. I don’t usually do a lot of prelims, but for this book, I ended up doing a lot of them. 46

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

COLLEEN DORAN And here is the redone page from Lost Souls #1. I decided to change the lighting on the faces, and reconsidered some of the rest of the page, but panel 1 is pretty much as I did it in the first place. Instead of just cutting and pasting panel 1, I redid it completely because I have this thing about keeping my original art very clean. Sometimes I will do cut and paste, but often I will redo an entire page to avoid having to do paste-ons. It’s

COLLEEN DORAN

an odd quirk, I know.

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

COLLEEN DORAN Here’s a portion of the pencils from issue 2 of a page of Reign of the Zodiac. I did incredibly tight pencils on much of the series and spent a lot of time working out architectural and cos-

COLLEEN DORAN

tume details.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

COLLEEN DORAN Here’s another close up of a page of pencils from Reign of the Zodiac. Keith Giffen and I went gonzo trying to come up with distinctive architecture and clothing styles for this world. DC didn’t really get behind the project and pulled the plug, even though our sales were higher than some Vertigo books which remain in print now. Oh, well. We worked really hard to create a genuine, mature epic fantasy, but the company just didn’t

COLLEEN DORAN

get it.

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

COLLEEN DORAN Another page of pencils from Reign of the Zodiac issue #2. At one point, we considered shooting pages directly from the pencils, but for some reason, probably due to work-forhire law fear, DC didn’t want me inking my own stuff. Whatever. They usually do now. These pencils were so tight we really could have saved a lot of time and money

COLLEEN DORAN

printing from them.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

COLLEEN DORAN By issue #4 of the series, I began to tire of doing very tight pencils, because while the inker did a great job, I thought it was ridiculous that I was doing this rendering just to have it covered up with ink, when if I was just inking it as I went in the first place, the job would go much faster. I did a lot of ghost inking on Zodiac. Here is a page where I penciled and partially inked it as I went along. By the last issue of the series, I was ghost inking almost every page in its entirety. Bob Wiacek needed the work, so asked me not to take his job, but I saved myself a lot of time just inking directly as I went. On some pages, he did no more than spot blacks and on a few pages, he did nothing at all. Our deal was that he could keep the money and credit, while I got all the original art I inked. So, I got to keep all of issue #8. I later bought out all of the Zodiac pages he had left. I was very attached to this series and I know Keith was devastated when DC gave it the axe.

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

COLLEEN DORAN Here is a partially inked page from the unpublished Milestone miniseries Technique. I was originally assigned an inker, but after a few pages, it was agreed that it would be best if I were to ink the series. So, for the first issue, I inked over my own very tight pencils. The second issue was to be inked over my layouts. I was into the second issue when the plug was

COLLEEN DORAN

pulled.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

PRE-PRO

id you ever wonder what the pros’ artwork looked like before they turned pro? Comic artists have so much to learn that most of them are already on their way even in high school. Here’s what Colleen was doing:

COLLEEN DORAN I thought this was cute: fan art I did of Dazzler back when I was in high school. I put this in my portfolio to show editors when I went to my first comic conventions. Can’t believe I found this! Dazzler TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

FEATURE

BUTCH GUICE By Len Gould

any comic book artists use roughs to help layout and design interior pages. Many others do not. With covers however, it is a different story. Almost all covers have gone through a number of iterations to get to their final, finished form.

Most artists sketch out a few “roughs” based upon the

requested by the editor before starting on the finished

story. These preliminary drawings are then narrowed

illustration. If production time is very short, as happens

down, and refined in a second stage for the book’s edi-

more than anyone is

tor. The editor, sometimes in concert with the creative

comfortable with, the

team, and sometimes without, will make suggestions

drawing might be

leading to the end result. This may involve the taking of

nothing more

BUTCH GUICE

elements from several roughs to combine into a new

than an

“This Untitled one is

piece, or it may be the refinement and movement of the

enlarged ver-

a simple character

images on a single prelim. Of course it is also possible

sion of a two

doodle I was playing

that the editor may simply approve the submitted layout

minute

around with years

as well!

thumbnail

ago for a possible teen-oriented

Jackson “Butch” Guice is a veteran artist who is very familiar with this process. He broke in with Marvel’s

mystery comic. The

Micronauts back in 1982. Since then he has penciled

drawing is obviously

and inked a number of comicdom’s most

based upon a real

eclectic titles: X-Factor, Dr.

person—though

Strange, Birds of Prey and

who exactly, I can’t

Ruse. Earlier this year,

recall anymore. As

Butch penciled and inked

you can see, this

the Humanoids graphic

was just a simple ten

novel Olympus and he was

minute sketch all

recently producing exceptional

about capturing an

work on DC’s Aquaman.

impression to hold in

Butch told me that he usually

my head for future

draws prelims for his cover work.

refinement—fun but

“Almost always. As a general rule,

long forgotten.”

some sort of preliminary sketch is

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

sketch—a very

BUTCH GUICE Birds of Prey #24 This is a fairly busy cover with many overlapping elements, but in general the central visual focus seems to remain strong. If I were to change anything, in looking back on it now, I’d probably remove the Lady Vic character—she’s the one element that seems distractingly out of place with everything else in the design.

BOB MCLEOD I hope we can all agree Butch is being pretty tough on himself in many of these comments. It’s very refreshing to see a pro who’s willing to be so publicly self-critical. You won’t meet many comic artists like that, so I have to hand it to Butch. Black Canary TM & ©2007 DC Comics

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BUTCH GUICE Birds of Prey #19 Preliminary “Well—this prelim is actually much more refined than most I do. I’ve taken the time to ink it in rough marker and establish the general lighting scheme on all the elements. This would be more akin to a secondary refined sketch than any sort of preliminary thumbnail I might send today. It’s rare that I would work from something this finished anymore.” Robin TM & ©2007 DC Comics

BUTCH GUICE Birds of Prey #19 Rather than intensifying the dramatic impact, I’ve managed to kill the energy completely with too much futzy rendering and labored technique. A simply terrible end result—all of which goes back to the original preliminary needing more actual thought behind it.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

rough comp suggestion of figure placement and view-

The prelim shown here [left] is a gritty, detailed early

point. You often supply several of these sketches togeth-

version of Birds of Prey #19 (July 2000). Butch said

er, and then discuss with the editor which is preferable.

“Robin’s body language works, although he takes up far

Occasionally, you end up agreeing to combine elements

too much space in the drawing, obviously crowding

of two or more sketches. Sometimes this leads to another drawing being done, but that’s not always the case.” As one would imagine, the road to the final printed piece from this initial layout can often be a complicated one. The cover is the comic book’s best chance at grabbing attention. The image has to sell the book—by conveying the contents within—while also setting it apart from its competition on the racks. As a result, it is critical that the artist and editor, in unison, fashion a final piece from these roughs. This is easier said than done according to Butch. “Keep it simple and direct, and try to strip out anything and everything which is going to be distracting visually. Those rough comps are often very crude but extremely expressive—full of creative charge and possibility. Once you start work on the actual drawing, however, the most dangerous pitfall I often face is avoiding killing the creative energy of the original sketch. It is really far too easy to drain every ounce of life out of an illustration simply by over polishing the damn thing. It happens all the time, and not just to me. I see so many lifeless pretty drawings done today completely devoid of energy. There is a real balancing act in trying to find the right moment of when to stop working a drawing.”

BUTCH GUICE Black Canary and Oracle “This one is pretty much all pencil tones as I remember. I really enjoyed my time on that book so this was something of a real treat to draw.”

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BUTCH GUICE JLA Classified “These were taken from xeroxes of random pencils I did for the Warren Ellispenned JLA Classified story “New Maps of Hell” a couple of years back. The pencils are tighter than I would normally draw for myself—and yet still loose enough to play with in the inks. A pretty typical example of my mainstream superhero penciling approach, I think. Warren didn’t write more than three or four panels to a page this story so there was a lot of drawing elbow room.” Wonder Woman and Superman TM & ©2007 DC Comics

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

everything else out of the frame. Barbara, in the back-

elements and whatnots that would probably be seen in

BUTCH GUICE

ground, is very badly done indeed—her positioning and

the interior art. Now—as I said earlier—I instead try and

Olympus character

placement within the layout seems completely wrong now

focus solely on the specific thrust of the intended draw-

A character design I

in hindsight. The drawing as a whole noticeably suffers

ing, looking to strip away anything not needed to sell the

did with Geoff Johns

from being divided too evenly down the middle by the

requirements of the image.”

and Kris Grimminger

scale of Robin’s figure. The scene itself doesn’t

for the two volume

feel nearly as integrated as it should. There

Olympus project for

may have been better sketches com-

Humanoids— just

positionally, submitted along with

working out the basic

this one, but for whatever rea-

nuts and bolts of the

son this sketch was chosen to

cyclops appearing in

be completed. It’s no excuse,

the story. It gave me

however, for the bad drawing on

an excuse to play with

my part. It should have been obvi-

inkwash.

ous to me and corrected before sending it along.” Unfortunately, Butch doesn’t care for the finished cover all that much either. “Too slick— too overworked. It falls apart completely in the finishing. It’s obvious to me now in looking at this. I knew there was something wrong at the time and was trying desperately to bluff my way through with silly rendering—when I should have been reexamining the basics of the drawing.” “It was great fun discussing (Birds of Prey #19), despite how much I might appear to dislike it in my comments. My “good” cover will always be the next one I plan on doing.” With this in mind, I asked for his comments regarding layout and perspective on a cover layout he was more proud of, and he chose Birds of Prey #24 (December, 2000). “I’m much happier with this cover. I remember the angle of the figures was a lot of fun to work out in the pencil stage.” Butch understands the role that a rough or prelim plays in delivering the final printed illustration. And as you would expect, his process in utilizing prelims has changed considerably over the years. Reflecting on his growth as an artist, Butch is quite frank regarding the extent his process has changed. “Quite a bit—I think. Early on I often tried to illustrate a cover as if the scene were occurring inside the book. I’d include all the background

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BUTCH GUICE Metal These are some layouts of the type I often draw when inking myself— very open and loose in general. All the texture and lighting decisionmaking comes about in the inking stage.

BOB MCLEOD More great Butch Guice art awaits you on the Rough Stuff pages of my web site at www.bobmcleod.com/roughstuff.htm

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

That said, editors have the final word. And the artist charged with delivering the vision of the story may not always necessarily agree with that decision. “I’m still sur-

BUTCH GUICE

prised how often when given multiple thumbnails, the

“These are cover

best and most obvious images in my opinion, get passed

sketches for

over by those making the decisions in favor of one I often

Crossgen’s Ruse and

consider weaker imagery. Sometimes it’s a case of pref-

Humanoids Olympus.

erence going with the more generic shot—sometimes it is

These are pretty

simply wanting a “poster” type of character shot as

indicative of the type

opposed to an image relating to a more specific moment

of general cover

within the story. Sometimes you simply find yourself odd

sketch I do when I’m

man out in the personal taste of these things.”

just trying to work out

This can be a stressful situation which all artists have

my thoughts regarding

found themselves in at one time or another. With the next

composition and

“big” deadline just around the corner, any artist on a

placement of blacks.

monthly title knows that some battles just cannot be won.

I’m fond of the Ruse

“It can be creatively disappointing when this type of deci-

cover if only because

sion-making occurs, but as the artist, you’re still responsi-

of the odd angle look-

ble for whether the cover delivers on its potential, or not.

ing up at Simon and

They can’t all be great covers, but they can all be great

Emma dangling on

attempts.”

puppet strings.”

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

Independent Co By Mike Gagnon

really enjoy reading and viewing comics of many different styles and genres, and I’m sure many of you do, too. For readers with offbeat tastes, some of the most interesting and innovative comics can be found in the small press and independent comics scene. In many cases the star artists of today’s mainstream comics got their start doing

work with independent or small press publishers. Recently, on behalf of Rough Stuff and the interests of you, the reader, I spoke with several rising stars on the independent comic scene. Remember these guys; one of them may just be a future favorite artist.

Brandon Graham RS: Can you tell us a little bit about your work and inspirations? BRANDON: I try to make comics about serious $#!t that people have to deal with in their lives, but I like jokes and science fiction too much, so I make comics that are about things like barbarians in space dealing with the loss of a loved one. I always end up writing from my life but I layer it under as much fun stuff as I can come up with. I’m really into the idea that you can draw whatever you feel like. I’m working on 2 books right now: King City (Tokyopop) is about a guy that returns to the

city he grew up in with this cat he has that can do anything. His ex that he’s still in love with is now with a guy who’s all messed up from fighting zombies in Korea and his best friend is running from an alien prostitution deal that went bad. The other is Multiple Warheadz (Oni Press) it’s a road trip story about a girl and her werewolf boyfriend. The story is set in a fictional future Russia and they’re traveling in a car named Lenin (‘cause it’s not stalin’). As the story goes on the car keeps breaking down and every time it breaks they fix it with different animal parts eventually making the car become a living thing. I’m inspired by guys like Moebius or Matt Howarth’s old stuff. My friends that draw are a big deal to me; the Meathaus guys and my pals in Seattle.

RS: What drawing supplies do you use? BRANDON: I like mechanical pencils and Micron Pigma pens #3s and 5s (5s to letter), then an ink and brush to fill in blacks. I use a thin 2-ply bristol board that sells for like 30 bucks for 200 sheets. It’s good stuff. I have a big metal ruler, too. RS: Do you use any approaches or techniques that are unique and may not be known by other artists? BRANDON: I rule a lot of things out by how parts of the body relate to each other, like how your foot is about as long as from your wrist to your elbow or how many heads tall a piece of the background is. It’s important to me to convince the reader that a made up person or place could be real. There’s some Hemingway quote that talks about “first start with something real,” I like to think of that in terms of illustration. If you draw a coffee cup that people can believe, it makes it easier to accept the spaceship it’s in.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

mics Showcase RS: How do you approach a comic page or illustration from script to inks? BRANDON: My layouts are really rough and I don’t really like to script a book before hand. I write down chunks of dialogue and figure out all the scenes in a story real rough then do lots of coming up with ideas as I go. It takes me like 6 hours to do a page. That’s 6 hours that I think of what I’m going to draw next. For my King City book Tokyopop asked me to do small thumbnails so they could see what I was planning. I didn’t follow most of the layouts by the time I got to the actual pages. I also do a lot of the drawing in the ink and writing in the lettering. RS: What helps keep you motivated to do comics in a world that sometimes seems to revolve around the mainstream publishers and their product? BRANDON: I don’t think of what anyone else puts out as the same thing as what I do. It’s real important to me that my work never feels tied to the industry. I think Kirby was right when he said “comics will break your heart.” The industry will break a man, but your own work should be there for you. RS: When it comes to your finished artwork what do you

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

feel are your own personal strengths and weaknesses? BRANDON: I never got too good at hands; my grandfather, Bill Randall, who was a pin-up girl artist, would tell my mom how if you could draw the human hand, you could draw anything. But whatever—if this was easy for me, it wouldn’t be so fun. What I like drawing is characters interacting with their surroundings—like someone drinking tea on a fluffy couch. People seem to like the girls I draw. A well drawn couch will only get you so many compliments, whereas you can build a career off of tits. RS: Anything else you’d like to add? BRANDON: Sure, I’ve been thinking lately how much I love this medium—the possibilities are endless it’s so untapped and anyone can make a comic. It’s amazing. For more info on Brandon Graham visit www.indyworld.com/graham

Andrew Barr RS: What inspires the work you do on your comic series? ANDREW: My comic, Something-a-go-go, is a series of stories about a luchadore named Padre Hypnos and his gun-toting busty sidekick Megan Lanchestershire and their adventures killing monsters and such. Basically just an excuse for me to draw monsters and gore and stuff. It has also got a spin-off web comic that is drawn and written by various artists I’m pals with. This is basically an excuse to get other people to draw monsters and horror stuff. Most of the stuff I do is inspired primarily by mon-

artists don’t know about other than drink a lot of Coke

ster movies and horror flicks from the drive-in era with

Classic while I’m working on big projects.

some nods to the slasher cycle of the ’80s. RS: How do you approach a comic page or illustration RS: What supplies do you use for creating your

from script to inks?

artwork?

ANDREW: Usually if I’m working on my own stuff the

ANDREW: I tend to do all my penciling with purple

script is optional, but I tend to start roughing out things

Colerase pencils. Occasionally I use other colors, but the

on a sheet of paper that I have set up with templates of

purple one seems to have a talismanic power for me.

double-page spreads, four spreads a page. Using these

Inking is done with different things, usually Windsor &

pages I’ll rough out the pages. Then I scan the pages

Newton pit pens in the Brush size as well as Pentel

and print those thumbnail images out at 11" X 17" and

brush pens—the big ones that look like actual brushes

I’ll clean them up. Usually that’s enough to move on to

and the barrel of the brush is the ink cartridge.

inking, which I’ll use a light table for. I’ll ink using either

Greyscaling or color work is done with Photoshop.

ink and brush, or pit brush markers depending on what

Sometimes I’ll use real ink when I feel like I want a differ-

I’m going for.

ent look, but not that often. RS: What helps keep you motivated to do comics? RS: Do you use any original or unique techniques?

ANDREW: I tend to do my comics as a hobby and I don’t

ANDREW: I don’t think I do anything special that other

see much out there that I really like, so since the audience

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

I started drawing as early as I can remember, probably around three years old. Since I have a twin brother (Tomer Hanuka—http://thanuka.com/index.htm) who also likes drawing, we just spent most of the time inventing super-heroes together and drawing battles and stuff like that. After the three years mandatory army service I went to art school: Emile Cohl in Lyon, France, and stayed there for three years, then moved to Paris for a year. The first graphic novel I illustrated in France with writer Didier Daeninckx is called Carton Jaune! I did another project with Didier, and then started working with Roger Martin on a western series. In parallel, I worked on adaptations of short stories for Israeli writer and close friend Etgar Keret. Two books published—Streets of Rage and Pizzeria Kamikaze. The latter was published in Bi-polar—an experimental comic book in collaboration with Tomer. Pizzeria Kamikaze has been recently published as a graphic novel

for my comics is primarily me, it’s easy to stay motivated. Other people digging my comic is just a bonus. Also most of my fans are pretty loyal so that helps, too. RS: What are the easiest and most challenging things for you to draw? ANDREW: Strength-wise I think I’d go with my character designs. Weaknesses I’d say that I’m occasionally a bit lazy. Which means that sometimes too much time passes between the beginning of a project and the end, and some stories just don’t get finished because I’m already interested on the next project I’m working on. For more info on Andrew Barr visit www.somethingagogo.com

Asaf Hanuka RS: Can you tell us a little bit about your inspirations? ASAF: Growing up in Israel in the late ’70s was okay, we were never hungry and had cool family and friends, but there was something very gray and lifeless in the surroundings. Maybe it’s the way suburbs are designed in Israel, just what you need with no extras. So there was something missing, and in the comics we used to read in these early years there was so much color and magic! People had super powers and amazing clothing—so it was the perfect place to escape to from the gray routine of everyday life... FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

from Alternative Comics.

was published by a big publisher and it’s a great book. I do comics because that’s where I feel comfortable to say

RS: What art supplies do you use?

what I need. Whatever happens in the industry is totally

ASAF: The cheapest paper and ink I can find and my

irrelevant.

Mac G5. RS: When it comes to artwork what to you feel are your RS: Are any of your artistic approaches unique, or may

strengths and weaknesses?

sound strange?

ASAF: I think I can create a decent narrative composi-

ASAF: I recently started sketching and penciling directly

tion, but when it comes to drawing cars...

with the Wacom tablet, but that’s no secret, is it? RS: Anything else you’d like to add? RS: How do you approach a comic page from script to

ASAF: There is a moment when I work on the penciling,

inks?

that out of the nothingness of a white page there is

ASAF: Basically I’m always looking for the dramatic

something alive starting to take place. That is the most

moment and start building around that. In a comic page

fun part of the process. Everything else afterwards is

it would be a frame somewhere, in an illustration, a char-

technical.

acter or an object. I try to define that one specific element that tells the story, the drama and then build a set-

For more info on Asaf Hanuka visit www.asafhanuka.com

up around it. Mike Gagnon is a freelance writer and former publisher RS: What helps keep you motivated to do comics in a

with a serious addiction to comics and pop culture.

world that sometimes seems to revolve around the main-

Friends often use this addiction to manipulate him into

stream publishers?

giving them money and candy.

ASAF: Mainstream is not necessarily bad. Watchmen FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

INTERVIEW

BRIAN STELFREEZE By Benno Rothschild

member of Atlanta-based Gaijin Studios, Brian Stelfreeze has long been a prolific cover artist for DC, and he’s also done interior art for comics such as Domino for Marvel and Matador for WildStorm. He’s now art director for 12-Gauge Comics and is doing the art for The Ride and Gun Candy. This interview was con-

ducted in November 2006 by Benno Rothschild, a comic art collector who has a special interest in preliminary art, which is of course our main focus here at Rough Stuff. The images shown and discussed here are all from Benno’s personal collection. Parts of this interview were previously excerpted by him in The Comic and Fantasy Art Amateur Press Association #70.

This lovely prelim was for a watercolor painting owned by Jim Clancy. The even more lovely finished painting can be seen on Jim’s comicartfans.com gallery.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

BENNO: These Batman splash pages were for an issue

BRIAN STELFREEZE

of Detective, correct?

I just liked the idea of

BRIAN: Yeah. It was actually a really great issue to work on. In

Batman coming down

everything that I do, and especially when I’m doing interior work, I

out of the sky on a

try to really concentrate on storytelling. Chuck Dixon turned in this

motorcycle. I thought

story that I though was amazing. It was a story in which every

that was a really

other page was a splash page or a six-panel grid, and it was really neat how it was two stories told kind of concurrently, and on

every splash page I had to try to really do a dynamic image.

BENNO: So, from here you’re transitioning into panel pages. How do you approach the panel page and the images on there? BRIAN: Well, that was the neat thing about this story, all the splash pages could be read completely separately as a story told in splash pages, and all the panel pages could be read as a story completely told as panel pages. So, with every two-page spread, you were looking at the story, and then you’d turn the page and you’d get a splash. So it was like one story—turn the page, next story—turn the page, you know, back and forth.

BENNO: Okay, and the main story is the Joker is in

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BRIAN STELFREEZE

prison somewhere?

Unlimited book. How did this come about?

You had a lot of

BRIAN: Yeah. And that’s one of the things that was interesting

BRIAN: This story came about because of Lisa Hawkins. I was

strange time dilation

about this. You see Batman trying to get the information, and at

just about to start Domino and we were still kind of negotiating

going on where the

the same time you’re seeing what he’s doing with that informa-

things and Lisa, who was one of the original editors of Domino,

six-panel grids were

tion—both stories happening at the same time.

called me up and said, “Well, it’s probably going to be a little while

telling the story of Batman going to visit

before you can start Domino. I’m also doing this X-Men Unlimited BENNO: You certainly did a lot of Batman covers along

book. Can you do me a story in there?” And I thought, “Okay, that

the way. Was it interesting to do an interior Batman

would be a lot of fun.” She gave me kind of a pick of whatever

story? Have you done a lot of those?

character I wanted to do and whatever story I wanted to tell. So, I

BRIAN: No. I haven’t done a lot of interior Batman stuff. Mainly

just decided to take on kind of a more pedestrian story with

because a lot of the stories that I’ve read with Batman don’t nec-

Cyclops. One of the things that I always think is interesting is doing

essarily appeal to me. But the story that I did in Batman: Black

stories of superheroes, but not in their superhero garb. The kind of

and White with Denny O’Neil, that was just really interesting

story with them as regular people, and then reacting to regular

girl after Joker has

because, again, it dealt with a lot of juxtaposition with timing and

people, because I like the idea of a hero as more than just the cos-

given him the infor-

I felt it was a storytelling challenge, and a lot of times I’m drawn

tume. It’s the person underneath the costume. So I like doing sto-

mation.

to a story because of the challenges that it presents.

ries where you just see them in their civvies just walking around.

BENNO: So let’s talk about this Cyclops story from the X-Men

BENNO: So who was the writer on this one?

Joker to try to get the information of where this little girl is being held and the splash pages are the story of Batman actually going to get the little

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

BRIAN: I did everything except the lettering.

stage anymore. Would that be true perhaps, just when you’re penciling on somebody else’s stuff, or do you

BENNO: Including dialogue?

think if you’re working on your own in the same way that

BRIAN: Yeah, dialogue. I wrote it, penciled it, inked it, colored

you did on this story that you would go this far with the

BRIAN STELFREEZE

it. You know, from soup to nuts on this one.

preliminary again.

If you look at just the

BRIAN: No. I wouldn’t go this far again if I was actually work-

pattern of the word

BENNO: Was that an interesting experience? Had you

ing on any of my own stuff. In fact, all the subsequent creator-

done a lot of that before?

owned stuff that I’ve done, I’ve actually really pulled back on

BRIAN: No. This is actually the first time I did the entire thing

the level of detail in a layout, but if I’m going to pencil some-

on a job, and after doing this, it really made me realize I needed

thing that’s someone else will ink, I would go to this level of

to take over more of what I did, because it really showed me

detail because that is the only way I can see the finished prod-

that I could get more of what I wanted to say on the page if I

uct. If I’m inking the project, then I don’t have to make sure all

was actually in control of more of the work. In fact, what’s real-

the blacks are balanced because I can compensate for that

ly nice is Lisa even allowed me to pick whom I wanted to letter,

when I get to the inking stage. If I need more black in the upper

and John Costanza did the lettering on it. That guy rocks.

BENNO: So, when you look at a story like this, do you see it as a significant difference between being the artist on a story and being a quote, “cartoonist,” in which you do everything and control everything? BRIAN: Oh, yeah. It’s completely different. The neat thing about it is, when you are just the penciler on the story, you have to kind of approach it in a different way because you know that other people are coming behind you, and you want to make your pencils clear enough so that the inker can follow it, and at the same time a little bit more obvious with your lighting so the colorist has no problem intuiting your meaning. So, by contrast to that, when I’m doing the entire job, it feels a little more like painting. I don’t have to finish one part of it. I can actually do one part of it and understand, well, I don’t have to put the shadows in at this stage of the game because I can add the shadows either in the inking stage of the game or in the coloring stage of the game.

BENNO: Recently, when I was here and showed you a page from the Detective story, you said this fully realized type of preliminary was not unusual for you at the time, but you have more recently changed how you lay out stories. I mean that you don’t really fill it out nearly this much anymore. At least that’s what you told me. It surprised me that you actually had finished this to the extent that you did. You were filling in all the blacks, you know, everything is really in there. Now, you said that you’re less inclined to do this much work in the preliminary

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BRIAN STELFREEZE

right-hand corner, I can put it in there. But, if I’m just penciling,

The guy picking up the

then I need to make sure everything is working. I need to make

snow isn’t important

sure my composition is working when I let go of those pencils. I

right now. If you kind

mean I’ve been working in the industry for a while now, but I

of glance, that’s cool,

still don’t have the ability to see exactly how everything will look

but I want to keep you

when the blacks are filled in. So, I kind of like taking that extra

up here for right now, and if you look at the

step and making sure my composition is correct before I turn it over to an inker.

BENNO: Tell me about the balloon placement. How much time do you spend thinking about where words are going to be on the page, and how do you integrate them into the page? BRIAN: As far as the balloon placements are concerned that’s one of the main reasons why I even do layouts. I really want the balloons to allow you to flow through the page. Like the initial splash page, for example. Looking at the splash on this Cyclops story, you start in the upper corner, and then you go down past Cyclops and you see his glasses. You go around and you follow his cane down, that’s kind of a design element that I’m using to make you flow through the page. And then you go down this bad guy’s arm, and then down to the title, and I’m doing that on

BRIAN STELFREEZE Page 6 is where the fight starts, and when you go through the pathways of page 6 to that last panel, you are finished with that action, and then you go to page 7, and that is another action.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

every page with all the word balloons. A lot of times I’m using

BRIAN STELFREEZE

the word balloons to actually move you past an action that I

I set up the action at

want to make sure you see. Otherwise, if you look at a page

the end of page 6 to go

without the word balloons, you may not necessarily know

directly into another

where the action is happening, or you might get distracted by a

action beginning on

different action like on page 3 here, for example, the second

page 7, and then we follow that action to its

panel. If you look at that panel, there’s a lot happening. There’s

end—but I’m also set-

this guy picking up the snow, there’s Cyclops kind of walking off

ting up the next action

the panel, these two guys in the back arguing. But what I want

for page 8.

you to see is Cyclops and I want you to see these two guys.

This is what’s important right here. So, the word balloons end up being a part of the storytelling of a page, as far as the storytelling composition is concerned.

BENNO: Can we talk about how you choreograph a fight scene? I think pages 6 and 7 are interesting because they kind of detail the choreographing of a fight. Are those the pages you would want to pick to talk about that? Because I think it’s sort of interesting how you choreograph a fight scene and what you do to make those elements work. BRIAN: Well, one of the interesting things about this entire story is that because I was able to write it, I was really able to do something that I think is a very important thing in comic book storytelling—every page ends up being a single story. Every page is a complete action and also sets up the next action. Then on the next page, you also complete an action. I think that a very important part of comic book storytelling is making sure that there is a reason for every page. A lot of times writers will often put you in a position where really there’s no story on a page. There’s just characters and talking. I think you

the fight reflects something that he learned from one of the other X-Men. I wanted to not only have the choreography of this entire story actually carry that physical meaning, but I wanted it to be an allegory to his learning process, and what was a fun thing to me was actually thinking of, okay what would he have learned from Kitty Pride, what would he have learned from Colossus, what would he have learned from Wolverine, and trying to come up with a move that kind of satisfied that analogy.

have to give a reader a story on every page. Otherwise, it’s just a collection of drawings that are meaningless. So on this story, I think it was really fun to actually set up an action on each page, you know and you can see that. You can actually look at that page apart from the entire story, but also you’ve got a piece of a larger story on that page. As far as the choreography is concerned, this story was a lot of fun in that it’s a fight, but at the same time the fight is about all of the things that Cyclops has learned in becoming the leader of the X-Men. So, if you wanted to just go through this page and not bother to read the story, you’d actually get Cyclops kicking the butt out of these guys, and it’s a really interesting story in and of itself. On the other hand, every move in

BENNO: One thing we’ve also talked about before is thinking about where the break is going to be between two pages that are going to be seen together and then how it is different where you are going to turn the page and see something. BRIAN: Yeah, that’s another thing that’s important in storytelling. Ron Marz is really good about it and Devon Grayson as well. Understanding the importance of an even numbered page. Anytime you get an even numbered page in a comic book, if the guys doing the ads have done their job and if everything works out great for you, the even numbered page, that’s kind of a surprise page. In a two-page spread the even number page is

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BRIAN STELFREEZE Right when you think, oh my God, this big guy is just about to crush him, you are looking at page 9 and you can’t see page 10. Page 10 isn’t the other side of the spread; it’s actually a hidden page.

BRIAN STELFREEZE Cyclops isn’t cutting loose on the guy with an optic blast or anything like that, he’s flipping the guy and holding just the guy’s thumb to do it. X-Men TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

always going to be the page that’s hidden in the page turn. So

BENNO: Is he the guy picking up the snow in the first panel?

after you’ve read page 1, you turn the page and page a 2 is a

BRIAN: No, no, that’s one of the other guys. But I purposely

surprise. So, I always like it when you can kind of save up

kind of put this guy back here and just kind of made him kind of

something and really make that page turn a big deal. I kind of

a mountain and he’s not moving. And anytime you have a fight

set up an action so that you can just see the action starting to

scene or something going on and there is one person in the

bloom at the end of the odd numbered page and then when you

background not moving, because of the contrast with everyone

turn that odd numbered page to see that new image on the

else doing something you just assume that, ahh man, when he

even numbered page then that action is the pay off for that set

starts moving, something big is going to go down. Cyclops is

up. In this story, really every story that I do, sometimes regard-

going through and just beating up all these guys and then final-

less of whether the writer has done something or not, I will

ly, you see this guy, the big guy, kind of getting up after the last

actually sometimes push the action into the next page or move

guy has been beaten. Then he starts running in, so it’s this long

things around so that I really take advantage of that even num-

arduous build up for this big guy to come through. So right at

ber page having a nice big payoff.

the end, and to me this is the best kind of storytelling, when you put a reader in a position where they don’t know what’s going to

BENNO: So Pages 9 and 10 really show a payoff. Even

happen on the next panel, but their best guess is wrong. When

more because you used a splash, obviously.

you create that doubt, you know it’s working. On page 9 this guy

BRIAN: Oh yeah, and what’s really cool with this story is that

is about to crush Cyclops, and then on page 10, you see just the

page 10 is the biggest of the big pay offs. If you look at the

opposite of what you are expecting. So, I think that really kind of

entire story, this big guy is set up way back at the beginning of

shows off what we are talking about as far as really taking

the story. You see this big guy sitting on the steps, actually you

advantage of that even numbered page.

don’t see him so much in the layouts, but in the final version you

see this big guy kind of sitting on the steps and every time an

BENNO: In this one it looks like you have a climax and

action happens this big guy is kind of in the background.

then an anti climax. Just like in a novel, you create the

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

climax before the end and then the anti-climax moves

BRIAN: Well, originally with this one, I sent in the first design

BRIAN STELFREEZE

from that.

that has the entire cover image on it, and actually that image

This is the worst thing

BRIAN: In storytelling, I think it’s really nice not to end things on

got approved. But I was really going for something different on

you can do as far as a

an absolute high. I guess in theater it’s called a slow curtain. I

this. The main focus of the cover is the image of Batman on the

cover design is con-

like giving an ending and then giving an epilogue or just kind of a

ground at the feet of his enemies.

cerned, because what I wanted was all of

slow ease out of the big moment here. I think it particularly works with something like this; this is a variation on the matura-

BENNO: Using that flashlight as the lighting effect.

tion plot. I like the idea of bringing the character to his maturity

BRIAN: Yeah, so when you look at the finished cover, every-

and at the same time you sort of end with a bit of wisdom. It real-

thing else is in sort of cool tones. You know all the skin tones of

ly kind of shows how the character has learned something. So, I don’t want you to leave with Cyclops beating up on people, I want you leave with the idea that not only has he done all these incredible things, but he is showing that he can take care of himself even without his optic beams. The dialogue for this whole story is that after he would beat one guy he would say, “Two steps forward and five steps back.” Then he would beat up another guy and say “One step forward, slide, jump,” and that’s his dialogue throughout the whole story, but when you get to these last two pages, you hear him repeat everything in reverse, and he is actually reversing all of his steps and going back to where he started and reaching down and picking up his glasses, and putting them on and walking away. So it not only shows that physically he’s completely organized, but at the same time, mentally, he’s completely organized, which to me is what it takes to be a leader.

BENNO: Okay let’s talk about some covers now. The first one I want to talk about is this Batman cover. I have 2 images from the same cover, I guess... which one did you send in? It looks like you sent them both.

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

purples and blues except for Batman who is an actual rich vivid

you’re seeing the perspective of everyone center around

color. On most occasions you actually can’t design a cover like

Batman. When I thought about that I thought it would be better

this, because covers are stacked on spinner racks, or other

if Batman’s image was more centered rather than kind of twist-

racks with the bottom one-third or one-half behind the rack, and

ed to the side like that.

that’s what most cover designs are based on. The central focus

of the cover would actually be covered. So I really wanted to

BENNO: So in the final image, did you have it so that all

kind of go for it on this, because I wanted to get it approved.

of the character’s faces were visible?

And really that’s why I did kind of a nice marker study on it. And

BRIAN: Yeah the character’s faces were visible but very dark

after I finished this and sent it in and it got approved I thought

and very subdued and all the colors on the cover were cool tones

well the perspective of everything with all the characters going

except for Batman. Actually, rather than doing his costume in pur-

down towards Batman, I really thought that maybe I should kind

ples and blues, like they normally are done, I did his costume in

of magnify that a little bit more. It’s kind of like this shot is taken

browns instead of cool colors. That made it look like that amber

with a 70 millimeter lens, so I thought well maybe everyone

light from the flashlight was hitting him and it kind of formed a nice

should be shot more with a 55 millimeter lens. So now you get

contrast between all of the bad guys and Batman. To me, and I

this distortion—you get like this almost basket effect where

always think about these things, I like the idea of all of his bad

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

guys being cloaked in darkness and Batman being, though he’s almost defeated, even then he’s in light and he’s the good guy.

BENNO: Lets talk about this Codename: Knock Out cover. Originally you did three versions of this. Tell me how you picked... well, I guess I should rephrase that. Would you have picked the one that was picked for the cover?

BRIAN: This is actually a really interesting cover assignment. Will Dennis said that he didn’t have enough time for a painting (for number 7). That’s when I told him, well, if I send you sketches by tomorrow (so he would get the sketches on Friday) I could have you a finished cover by Monday. And, of course, he jumped on it. What was really cool, was after reading through the books, for some reason rather than getting a single idea, I got these three ideas and I really enjoyed all three of them. Normally, I just try to turn in one idea because if I turn in three ideas, generally editors pick the worst one, so. . . [laughter]. So on this particular occasion, I went ahead and decided to turn in all three ideas to him, and the next day he approved the middle one, and that was great. So one of the reasons the design of all three of these is so simple and so direct, it’s because I designed it with the purpose in mind that I had to

BRIAN STELFREEZE

do this cover over the weekend.

[They] needed a cover

that with this sketch, I finished it and I

immediately, and

BENNO: So you did these three and Will picked the middle

looked at her face and I was not quite happy with how that

approved me for

one. Tell me what’s the purpose of this pencil piece that

face looked.

Codename: Knockout #8 [above], and said,

followed it.

“Okay, we’ll do sketch-

BRIAN: Well, from the sketch, I’m doing an acrylic painting

BENNO: Let’s talk about this Domino cover. You did a

and doing a lot of thin washes on the illustration board, if I do

series of four covers and this is the sort of payoff cover,

too much erasing, that affects the quality of the paper, and if I

so tell me about how you decided on this image and

do a thin wash over something that’s been erased, it will show

what were you trying to achieve with it?

up in the wash. As a result, when I’m working on board, I don’t

BRIAN: Let me tell you a little about the composition of the

want to do any erasing if I can avoid it. So what I’ll do is this

Domino covers in general. Anytime I’m doing a series of covers

“Well, I can do that!”

sort of tight pencil, then I’ll project that onto the board. That

I try to think of something thematically, storytelling wise, or

[See next page, top for

way I know I’m not going to do any erasing. It just so happens

even compositionally that will link the covers together... And

#7’s cover.]

es” and all of that. And then kind of in passing, they said, “Now I just have to find someone to do #7.” And I was like...

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BRIAN STELFREEZE

with Domino it really worked out well because I had the graphic

[Codename: Knockout

of the numbers in the background of each of them.

#7 cover] I decided to

BRIAN STELFREEZE This is the cover of Domino #4 where Domino actually goes into this

do a slightly different

BENNO: So you have the guys who are falling down

angle and a slightly

(in #4) create that same effect as the four?

different expression

BRIAN: Yeah, their bodies create that composition, and it

issue of Domino has that number graphic repeated and the

on her. So that’s the

follows through into the splash of each book.

credits are over that and there’s kind of a long panel at the

secondary head that’s down there.

compound and ends up having to beat up a lot of military guys.

bottom of each number; and if you look at the issues it’s a BENNO: If you don’t quite readily see it on the cover, in

lotus blooming. So, in Issue #1 you see a completely closed

the interior you see what?

lotus. Issue #2 it opens a little; #3 and so forth and so on,

BRIAN: When you open the book, the first page of each

Issue #4—the lotus is completely bloomed.

BRIAN STELFREEZE If you look at the com-

BENNO: Let’s talk about this Birds of Prey #14

position of Domino #1

cover. You did four sepa-

there is a big 1 in the

rate images—not hugely

back of Domino. #2 has

different in each one—

a big 2 and the image on

why did you end up

the cover mimics the

doing so many, because

composition of that big

you were talking before

graphic; so the back-

that usually if you’re not

ground is literally 1, 2, 3,

doing it for yourself

4 with all the covers.

you’re only going to do

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

one design to submit.

tion, but the editor has not so happy with it and said, “Well I like

BRIAN STELFREEZE

BRIAN: Well this is an example of me wrestling with the editors.

some elements of it, but can you change this and this?”

The Birds of Prey were

I turned in the first one and I was really happy with the composi-

Then the editor looked at that (second one) and said, “Well,

going to be in one of the New Gods books or something like that, so I had to put a lot of Jack Kirby influenced stuff on there—and so I did that. So I made a change to the composition of it to get to this second one here.

BRIAN STELFREEZE Because I was taking that (train) element out, I went for something more like this (third one). That’s the final image (opposite).

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BOB MCLEOD

we don’t think that the train is going to be an important part of

America. Tell me about why you picked four images. This

There’s even more

the story, so take that element out.”

was for the hardcover book, right?

great art by Brian on

BRIAN: Yeah, this is actually another really interesting job. Joe

the Rough Stuff pages

BENNO: Okay, so the third image was sort of a variation

Quesada called me up and said that they were doing this Captain

of my web site at

on this final one in terms of trying to figure out something

America: Red, White and Blue book. And, again, it was…

www.bobmcleod.com/

without the train in it?

roughstuff.htm

BRIAN: Yes, exactly.

BENNO: Is this a post 9/11 kind of thing? Or do you think it was . . .

BENNO: So the final image is this one [with the figures

BRIAN: I’m not sure. I think it was beforehand. And what was

facing left]?

really cool about this is, I mean Captain America is just one of

BRIAN STELFREEZE

BRIAN: Yes. These covers were actually interesting also in that I

those characters that really kind of appeals to me as an illustra-

This series of images

would do the sketch for the cover, and that would go to Greg

tor. Doing this made me feel more like Norman Rockwell,

is based on, not only

Land, and he would do the pencils, and then they’d come back to

Leyendecker, Flagg and all those guys, just going for a glorious

stuff that I came up

me for the inks and color. So, it was really, I mean it was frustrat-

sort of poster image for World War II—and that’s kind of how I

ing sometimes, but it was really amusing also in that we would go

approached this. I was in the studio with Adam Hughes at the

back and forth, and sometimes I’d come up with a design and

time and he threw a couple of great ideas at me and Cully

Greg would kind of jump in there and put in his interpretation of it.

[Hamner] was throwing stuff in as well.

with, but stuff the other Gaijin guys did, like the image out here in the upper right corner, is something that Adam

On most occasions, Greg would just do something that would

I thought any one of these would be great on the cover,

blow me out of the water, and it was just fun to jump in and ink it.

and I sent it in to Andrew Lis and he looked at all of them and

But on other occasions, Greg would do something, and I’d go,

said, “Well, I’m going for cover design A,” and that ended up

ly neat idea, sort of a

“Ah, that’s not quite what I was thinking.” Then I would get in

being the cover. I would have been just as happy painting any

Rockwell thing where

there and kind of move it back to what I was thinking.

one of the four.

[Hughes] thought, “That would be a real-

you see this little scrawny Steve Rogers

BENNO: With your inks?

BRIAN STELFREEZE

wanting to join the war

BRIAN: Yeah, so it was actually just a really great job.

What was nice is I was happy with all four of

effort, but he’s been rejected because he’s

these images.

BENNO: So, let’s talk about this Preliminary for Captain

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

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ROUGH CRITIQUE By Bob McLeod his issue’s super sample was submitted by Chris Hanchey, and it has a lot going for it. It’s very tight and detailed, with complex

blacks nicely, and giving personality to his actors. His enthusiasm is obvious and he’s put in a lot of hard effort. But effort is wasted if composition isn’t studied more first. He’s having

backgrounds. He’s studied perspective and found his vanishing points, he’s moving the viewing angle around a bit, he’s using lighting to show form, balancing

some trouble cropping his scenes to focus only on what’s important. I added frames around the parts of his panels that should be the entire panels. Everything outside these frames isn’t important and lessens the impact of what is important.

Chris, while I applaud all the effort you put into that first panel, you seem to have burned out by the last panel, which looks incomplete and sparse compared to the others. This might make an editor think you don’t have enough stamina to draw a 22-page comic job. Never show a sample page unless it’s completely finished and is the best you can do. As with most beginners, your figure drawing still needs a lot of improvement. Your figures look awkward and off-balance, and everyone looks like they slept in their clothes. Panel one is a great shot, but when you put an equal amount of detail everywhere, the buildings become a flat gray pattern. You need to create white and black areas to counter that. Even if a reference photo shows buildings with windows all over the place, you can have walls with no windows in some areas to create white space. Adding shadows easily creates black. Your globe needs shadow to make it look like a sphere rather than a circle. Panel two is a great down shot, but the perspective looks “forced” because your horizon is too low. He seems to be walking uphill. The higher we are as viewers, the higher the horizon should be. Also, your figure looks like he’s holding his briefcase away from his body like a bag of garbage. And trying to add dark shading to business suits rarely looks good unless you make it about 95% black. So I’d suggest either leaving it white with some shadows, as I’ve done, or making it all black, maybe with a few highlights. It’s better not to place your center of interest, the figure, in the center of the panel, but slightly off-center, and focus more closely on him. We’re more interested in him than the room. Panel three is another great establishing shot, in a page full of them, but it has several problems. The room is enormous, and would probably have more furniture or plants or something utilizing all that space. The floor isn’t important here in the way it was in the previous panel, and what we want to see are the people’s faces more than their shoes, so a straight-on shot would work better here, with a lower horizon and no floor showing. That would have also solved your floor tile problem. You have lines in one direction receding to a central vanishing point (VP), which is fine for one-point perspective, which this panel should have. But you

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

have all the other floor lines receding to a point off to the left, creating 2-point perspective. With 2-points, everything to the right of our central viewpoint should recede to a point off to the right. However, both points in this view would be way off-panel, so the horizontal lines would appear parallel. Just look straight ahead at whatever room you’re in and you’ll see. By putting the vanishing points close together, the floor looks wrong. Panel one is a good example of proper 2-point perspective, because we’re viewing from afar. As we move closer in, however, (unless you’re looking at the corner of a building with both sides receding away from you) you should switch to one-point perspective because the left and right vanishing points are too far away to affect our range of vision. Also, your central vanishing point is to the right of Clark, leading our eye past him to the tiny figures beyond. You should place the vanishing point right on Clark to lead our eye to him. Clark appears to be almost falling over from the weight of the briefcase, and men’s clothing always has buttons on the right, with button holes on the left. Women’s clothes are usually the reverse. Study fashion mags to learn how to draw suits. The three figures on the left should be grouped together (see how in mine they form a unified, interesting silhouette?), and her head should either overlap the window or move away from it. I also don’t like the way the edge of her skirt is directly above the man’s chair line, which flattens the distance between them. The woman behind Clark has her face buried in his shoulder for no reason, and the top of her head is on line with his shoulder. I think we can just omit her. The small figure on the right is falling over, and the figure on the far right needs to be in the panel. Don’t crop full figures out of the panel for no reason. Minimize the shadows on the floor, because you need more solid black & white, and less grey. You need to reduce the number of grey patterns because they flatten the depth and make the panels too cluttered. So rather than the solid wall of buildings outside the window, I left more open sky. Sometimes “less is more”. Panel four is too heavily weighted on the left by the large figure, and too empty on the far right, so I enlarged the figures on the right and added some interest on the wall. Here, it’s OK to crop the figure because he’s closer to us, like the figure on the left. I covered up the figure holding the cell phone because you don’t want him isolated and framed between Clark and the guy on the left. It draws attention to him and he’s not important. The guy on the left also appears to be looking at him instead of Clark, so I turned his face more toward Clark, who looks almost seven feet tall based on your perspective. So I shortened him and brought him closer. His face is really all that’s important in this panel. The guy on the far left needs to move his hand away from the foreground figure’s head. As in panel 3, I moved everything

down because our interest is in their faces, not their legs. This all probably sounds hopelessly complex, but it’s because I’m trying to correct a lot of avoidable problems. It’s much easier to construct a page correctly to begin with. Study not only what the top artists put in, but also what they leave out! Keep at it, Chris. You’ll get there. Readers who want me to critique their sample page should e-mail me or mail a photocopy to: Rough Critique. P.O. Box 63, Emmaus, PA 18049.

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

ROUGH TALK So glad Rough Stuff has graduated to its own book. It was far and away my favorite part of Back Issue! I always love seeing John Buscema’s pencil work and you had some crackers in #3. Between this issue and BI #11, we’ve had some wonderful stuff on show. All I can do is rave about the Russell and Weeks sections—so I won’t say anything beyond that. I’m elated too that Romita Jr’s pencils continue to be popular, considering he is all about story and mood and not obsession with drawing every button and fold in clothing that so many now are. Thanks, too, for the Colan portfolio. Though copies of his ’60s pencils seem as rare as Buscema’s, the few that I have seen show that he hasn’t altered his approach nearly as much as Big John. (None of this “breakdowns only” stuff for him. I wonder if that approach could possibly have worked with him?) I am one who feels that his work is better when the panels are vertical and horizontal, rather than at all odd angles. I think (for me) this is mainly because his work often has an ethereal, “loose” feel anyway. Just as weaker inkers seem to often lose what strengths are there in Colan and let it all seem too vague—(whereas strong inkers like Palmer and Giacoia seemed to know what to embellish tightly and what to leave loose and had a great stabilizing effect)—I feel that “unsteady” paneling also lets too much of Colan slip away, if that makes sense. His later commission work is unbelievably good. You know, I have nothing but admiration for Mike Kaluta’s atmospheric work. However, I really feel that if some newcomer had submitted #4’s cover for your analysis, you would have pulled it apart. Particularly the placement of the thumbs and forefingers, which totally confused the eyes and face behind it. Until I looked properly at a full-size copy, I had no idea what this cover was— except that since there were Batman ears, it had something to do with him. Anyway, enough from me. Thanks for this terrific magazine!!! Shane Foley (PS—more Buscema!!!!!!)

Swamp Thing pencil pages by Steve Bissette were, if memory serves, the first full-sized comics artwork I ever saw. Steve mailed photocopies of the art to me during the time he was doing Swamp Thing and my friend Gary Johnson was working as his assistant. Gary asked Steve to send something to me so I could see what went into a comics story. I’m a professional writer and Gary had wanted me to do a script for him to draw. I respect all the pros working in comics. I wrote and drew a couple of comics stories that

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

were published some years ago. I’ve written and drawn many more comics stories since that are just sitting around my office gathering dust. It’s a tough business you are in. And anybody who works in comics, from the big name stars to the unsung assistants, gets my respect. I’m quite enjoying Rough Stuff. I’m a writer who thinks visually, and thinking visually helps me to write clearly. Thus, I’m interested in the process that goes into visual storytelling and sequential art. There’s much useful information in the magazine for aspiring comics pros (artists and writers). For example, Steve talks quite a lot about storytelling, about designing the panels and the pages to move the story along. It helps, of course, if you have a well written story to tell, so I’m glad for the nice things said about Don McGregor, one of my favorite writers. Ragamuffins was Don’s best work, in my opinion. It’s literate, intelligent and it addresses the human condition. Gene Colan was able to provide the visual storytelling needed to convey the full emotional impact of the Ragamuffins stories. And, I would think, that conveying emotional content is rather more difficult for an artist to do than, say, twenty pages of the Hulk and the Thing slugging it out with each other. Tom Palmer did himself a disservice with what he said about his first job penciling Doctor Strange. I’ve got that issue of the comic and it’s good. Sure Tom improved over the years (we all do, with a bit of good luck and, more importantly, if we conscientiously apply ourselves to our craft), but that first job is nothing to sneeze at. I’d be delighted to be able to draw that well. I applaud you, Bob, for standing up for Vince Colletta in an article in Back Issue. It’s one thing for me, a fan, an outsider to the business, to stand up for an unpopular artist, but for you, someone within the business, to take that stand, well, as I said, I applaud your effort. Many fans, I’m sad to say, just don’t seem to get that deadlines have to be met. People are counting on work being done on time. Not just the comics people but the printers and distributors and so forth. And if Colletta could get the job done on time, then work certainly should have been assigned to him; and it was, because he was a pro who could get the job done. I’ve quite enjoyed all four issues of Rough Stuff. Keep up the good work. Will (Taliesin) Jarvis The Bissette feature in issue #4 was great, and I found the amount of commentary along with the artwork a really nice balance. Ditto the Totleben interview. I can never get enough of Gene Colan’s pencils, so that just made the issue that much tastier. The only thing

I’d suggest trying to change though would be to avoid using commissions that artists have done over the last seven or eight years or so. These days, most people who are well immersed in the original comic book art hobby (of which many make up a good percentage of your readership) have already seen the commissions online and I feel that as beautiful as many of them are, the space they take in the magazine could be better used by publishing art that isn’t readily available online. Especially these days, in which many forms of print media are being rendered obsolete by the online world. If print media is to survive, it has to do whatever it can to differentiate itself and offer different content that is not found online. In issue #5, it was a gas to see the feature on Gil Kane, who is one of my all-time favorites. I was a major fan of Keown from the first issue of Hulk he drew, but later lost interest after you stopped inking him and he began to draw more in the “Image” style, i.e. over exaggerated musculature which made it look like these characters were skinned alive, had thick steel cables tightly wrapped around their entire bodies and then covered it with a single thin layer of skin. While he is without question an excellent illustrator, he used to be a fair balance of style and substance whereas style far overshadows the substance in his art these days. I enjoyed the two pages of pencils you provided, but thought the other six pages of his typically over-rendered and over-stylized art really was pointless in a mag devoted to showing “rough” stuff. Reading the feature on Steve Rude was fun. As an “old school” guy myself, it’s always a pleasure to listen to guys who still hand letter their artwork! Speaking of “old school,” the feature on your own art was fantastic and honestly, I think you should have a feature on your own art in every single issue. Not only because it’s good and I’m a fan, but simply because you have an immense collection of photocopied penciled pages going back decades which would be phenomenal to see. Lastly, I’d like to thank you for issue #5’s Rough Critique of Stephen Molnar. As the person responsible for getting him to submit his work to you, it was great fun to finally see your excellent critique of his page in the magazine. I don’t know if you’re aware, but Stephen tells me that that the critique was really eye-opening and very helpful. So much so in fact that he has since gotten a gig drawing a short backup story in a WildStorm book! He sends you his thanks and appreciation, as do I. Keep it up Bob! Ruben Azcona http://www.ComicBookArtGallery.com

The Gene Colan stuff in RS #4 was fantastic—can’t get enough of his work. I’m also a big fan of Kaluta and Chaykin, so it was great to hear them talk about their process and see examples. If you’re interested in suggestions from a reader: I met Herb Trimpe at the SuperMegashow in NJ last month and at a panel he was giving with Michael Golden, he said that Stan Lee once told Herb that he was a so-so artist but a fantastic storyteller. Seems there’s a valuable lesson in that comment, one that a lot of “splash page only” artists could learn from. Maybe Trimpe is someone you could feature in some future issue. John Hebert was at the same show. I’m not a reader of The Punisher so I am not familiar with Hebert’s work for Marvel, but the stuff he was exhibiting at his table was amazing. Finally, a guy I’d love to see featured is Dick Ayers, who just won Eisner Hall of Fame Award in San Diego. Let’s hear from the legends before they’re gone. Keep up the great work! Regards, Bill Rogers Norwalk, CT Just wanted to say that I love the magazine! The latest issue was great! I really enjoy seeing the artists’ process and to get an idea of what they are thinking when laying out pages and such. Keep up the great work on the Mag! Andy Smith www.andysmithart.com Just thought I’d drop you a line to let you know you have a small but faithful readership here in the good ol’ UK. I’ve very much been enjoying the features of the past few issues, I love to see the process behind the finished art, especially the Gil Kane article in the current issue. It’s amazing to see how much the the final piece differed from the pencils. As a child growing up in the ’70s, I saw a lot of his covers on our newsstands over here. Of course, at the time I didn’t know it was Gil. I just loved comics, period. And the pre-pro section makes me feel so much better about my own caveman daubings... All the best, and more power to you! Anthony Lee SEND YOUR ROUGH COMMENTS TO:

e-mail: mcleod.bob@gmail.com (subject: Rough Stuff) or snail mail: Bob McLeod, Editor—Rough Stuff, P.O. Box 63 Emmaus, PA 18049

Really like your magazine, Rough Stuff. Read issue #4, just picked up #5 eager to read the Steve Rude interview. FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

We hope you enjoy this FREE

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ROY THOMAS ON HIS 1970s MARVEL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF STINT

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Frank Brunner Annotates His Association With Stephen Strange and Others

Strange Interlude FRANK BRUNNER Annotates His Association With Stephen Strange And Others

A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some months back, we made arrangements to use as an A/E cover a gorgeous Dr. Strange and Clea painting of which Frank Brunner had sent us a copy a year or two ago. Frank, of course, is one of the most successful delineators ever of the Sorcerer Supreme, beginning during Ye Ed’s reign as Marvel editor-in-chief in the early 1970s. However, somewhere along the way, we learned that our TwoMorrows sister mag Back Issue #24, edited by Michael Eury, planned to feature—in the very same Halloween month—a round-robin interview with Frank and two or three other artists about drawing the Mystic Master. So, to avoid duplication, and since I had already interviewed Frank briefly for A/E #29, I invited him to write his own comments about a number of his magic-, fantasy-, and horror-oriented illustrations for this issue. So, with Frank on tap, what am I continuing to yak away for? Except for the occasional necessary editorial comment and contributor IDs, the rest of the text you read in this section will be Mr. Brunner’s! —Roy.

WitchGirls Inc. #3 (April 2006), Cover, Heroic Publishing “This was the cover assignment that got me back into writing comics. Right after I sent it in to editor Dennis Mallone, he asked me if I had a story to go with it... and would I want to write and draw it? I begged off on the latter, but agreed to write it as a 5-part miniseries, as long as I had full creative control. I’ve finished the first three chapters (“Circles of Fear”), in which I explore some of the Gnostic books of the Bible (the books that were cut out of the modern Bible), and I’ve created an amusing partner for Rose (Psyche) and a certain Dr. Kent Buttterworth who works for her WitchGirls Inc. Detective Agency. He’s a big Sherlock Holmes fan and dresses accordingly; he’s also a retired proctologist, which makes him a natural probe and snoop in general. (Ouch!)” [Art ©2007 Frank Brunner; characters TM & ©2007 Heroic Publishing.]

Silver Comics #1 (Feb. 2004), Cover, Silver Comics Publications “This independent press effort is in the tradition of Big Bang Retro Comics, and reflects the styles of late-’50s/early-’60s comics. Even the coloring for the cover was done the old way, with several screens instead of a computer… to achieve that retro look. Each book features several continuing-character storylines, and there have been six issues published thus far. I contributed three covers to them... a ‘Mr. Monster’ cover (SC #4) and ‘The End’ (SC #6) which ends this little backstory….” [Art ©2007 Frank Brunner; characters TM & ©2007 Silver Comics Publications.]

Strange Interlude

Hawkman & Adam Strange, Tight Pencil Commission, 2005 “One of the few bright spots at DC during the ‘60s was the teaming of Hawkman and Adam Strange in Mystery in Space. I loved those books, and when I got a commission to do my version of a Mystery in Space cover, I came up with this idea, which I felt would have fit in nicely with the series. ‘The City Stealer of Rann’ is my concept, but sometimes I wonder if it wasn’t already done. Anyway, here are the rough and the finish.” [Hawkman & Adam Strange TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

Frank Brunner Annotates His Association With Stephen Strange and Others

Doc And The Caterpillar, Tight Pencil Commission, 2007 “This an expansion on the famous meeting of the two in Doctor Strange #1 (June 1974). Obviously, the caterpillar was a borrowed idea from Alice in Wonderland… which is how I thought of what it was like inside the Orb of Agamotto. Which is where Doc fled to avoid death! It’s always fun to draw everything realistically and then put a cartoon character in it… such as I did with Howard the Duck! And the advice I gave the Lucas people about Howard was just as I said: ‘It’s a cartoon in the real world, and not a guy in a duck suit!’ But my words fell on deaf ears, and the Howard movie is what it is! Later I was vindicated when Roger Rabbit appeared and was done exactly as I had wanted for Howard!” [Characters TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Strange Interlude

“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” Ink Wash, Private Commission, 2006 “It’s a natural, when a client asks for a ‘Doc and Duck’ commission, that I think fondly of seeing Fantasia as a child, with Mickey in the role as the apprentice. So here’s to classic Disney and Howard fans throughout the world! (Of course, Howard thinks he’s the magician making magic!).” [Characters TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Frank Brunner Annotates His Association With Stephen Strange and Others

Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 (May 1975), Cover “It was the hot summer of 1975. Howard the Duck was about to explode on the scene starting with the immodestly titled comic Giant-Size Man-Thing… and up at the Marvel offices, Gil Kane was perusing the latest Marvel covers that were hung on the bulletin board. When he saw my cover for GSMT #4, I guess he liked what he saw, because he got my phone number in California and called me about becoming his inker (not sure if it was for his newspaper strip Star Hawks or his comic book inking). That was a mighty big decision for me. At once I was finally recognized by a top professional in the biz… nice feeling… but to become someone’s inker was not exactly my vision of how my career would advance. So I told him I’d need a few days to think it over. “I called my sometimes mentor Neal Adams and asked for his take on it. Neal told me two things: ‘Becoming a full-time inker is not the best way to becoming a better penciler’… and something that I had not even thought of: ‘If you do take Gil up on his offer, make sure you had paid directly from the publisher and not through Gil.’ Hmmm. That kinda settled it. I told Gil I had other plans! “Now here’s the ironic backstory to that cover: When I first sent it in to Marvel, it was rejected out of hand by then-editors Marv Wolfman and Len Wein. They told me ‘Marvel doesn’t do mood covers.’ They wanted full-figure action—and gave me another shot at it! I was not happy with their opinion… but I did another cover with Alan Weiss’ help… a full-size Man-Thing attacking students in a cafeteria (as per the Gerber story). (Gerber wrote a lot of good stories that did not make great covers.) That second cover was so hated by Wolfman and Wein that they decided to use my first cover! Hey, I finally got what I wanted! But I had to do two covers first. Obviously, it was an artist’s cover that other artists like Kane recognized as an achievement. “And the fans? They consider it one of the best Man-Thing covers ever!” [©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar, Illo For October 1976 “The theme given to everybody that year was 1776, and Revolutionary War-related. The monsters weren’t especially patriotic, so we went with Ichabod Crane. It was a stretch, but at least it was the correct period!” [Dracula, Man-Thing, & Werewolf by Night TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

For more from FRANK BRUNNER, plus BERNIE WRIGHTSON, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, JEFF JONES, and others, get Alter Ego #73, on sale now from TwoMorrows Publishing!

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Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments such as “Pro2Pro” (a dialogue between two professionals), “Rough Stuff” (pencil art showcases of top artists), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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“PRO2PRO” interview between GEORGE PÉREZ & MARV WOLFMAN (with UNSEEN PÉREZ ART), “ROUGH STUFF” featuring JACK KIRBY’s PENCIL ART, “GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD” on the first JLA/AVENGERS, “BEYOND CAPES” on DC and Marvel’s TARZAN (with KUBERT and BUSCEMA ART), “OFF MY CHEST” editorial by INFANTINO, and more! PÉREZ cover!

“PRO2PRO” between ADAM HUGHES and MIKE W. BARR (with UNSEEN HUGHES ART) and MATT WAGNER and DIANA SCHUTZ, “ROUGH STUFF” HUGHES PENCIL ART, STEVE RUDE’s unseen SPACE GHOST/ HERCULOIDS team-up, Bruce Jones’ ALIEN WORLDS and TWISTED TALES, “OFF MY CHEST” by MIKE W. BARR on the DC IMPLOSION, and more! HUGHES cover!

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“PRO2PRO” between KEITH GIFFEN, J.M. DeMATTEIS and KEVIN MAGUIRE on their JLA WORK, “ROUGH STUFF” PENCIL ART by ARAGONÉS, HERNANDEZ BROS., MIGNOLA, BYRNE, KIRBY, HUGHES, two unknown PLASTIC MAN movies, Joker’s history with O’NEIL, ADAMS, ENGLEHART, ROGERS and BOLLAND, editorial by MARK EVANIER, and more! BOLLAND cover!

“PRO2PRO” between JOHN BYRNE and CHRIS CLAREMONT on their X-MEN WORK and WALT SIMONSON and JOE CASEY on Walter’s THOR, WOLVERINE PENCIL ART by BUSCEMA, LEE, COCKRUM, BYRNE, and GIL KANE, LEN WEIN’S TEEN WOLVERINE, PUNISHER’S 30TH and SECRET WARS’ 20TH ANNIVERSARIES (with UNSEEN ZECK ART), and more! BYRNE cover!

Wonder Woman TV series in-depth, LYNDA CARTER INTERVIEW, WONDER WOMAN TV ART GALLERY, Marvel’s TV Hulk, SpiderMan, Captain America, and Dr. Strange, LOU FERRIGNO INTERVIEW, super-hero cartoons you didn’t see, pencil gallery by JERRY ORDWAY, STAR TREK in comics, and ROMITA SR. editorial on Marvel’s movies! Covers by ALEX ROSS and ADAM HUGHES!

TOMB OF DRACULA revealed with GENE COLAN and MARV WOLFMAN, LEN WEIN & BERNIE WRIGHTSON on Swamp Thing’s roots, STEVE BISSETTE & RICK VEITCH on their Swamp work, pencil art by BRUNNER, PLOOG, BISSETTE, COLAN, WRIGHTSON, and SMITH, editorial by ROY THOMAS, PREZ, GODZILLA comics (with TRIMPE art), CHARLTON horror, & more! COLAN cover!

History of BRAVE AND BOLD, JIM APARO interview, tribute to BOB HANEY, FANTASTIC FOUR ROUNDTABLE with STAN LEE, MARK WAID, and others, EVANIER and MEUGNIOT on DNAgents, pencil art by ROSS, TOTH, COCKRUM, HECK, ROBBINS, NEWTON, and BYRNE, DENNY O’NEIL editorial, a tour of METROPOLIS, IL, and more! SWAN/ANDERSON cover!

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DENNY O’NEIL and Justice League Unlimited voice actor PHIL LaMARR discuss GL JOHN STEWART, NEW X-MEN pencil art by NEAL ADAMS, ARTHUR ADAMS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, ALAN DAVIS, JIM LEE, ADAM HUGHES, STORM’s 30-year history, animated TV’s black heroes (with TOTH art), ISABELLA and TREVOR VON EEDEN on BLACK LIGHTNING, and more! KYLE BAKER cover!

MIKE BARON and STEVE RUDE on NEXUS past and present, a colossal GIL KANE pencil art gallery, a look at Marvel’s STAR WARS comics, secrets of DC’s unseen CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS SEQUEL, TIM TRUMAN on his GRIMJACK SERIES, MIKE GOLD editorial, THANOS history, TIME WARP revisited, and more! All-new STEVE RUDE COVER!

NEAL ADAMS and DENNY O’NEIL on RA’S AL GHUL’s history (with Adams art), O’Neil and MICHAEL KALUTA on THE SHADOW, MIKE GRELL on JON SABLE FREELANCE, HOWIE CHAYKIN interview, DOC SAVAGE in comics, BATMAN ART GALLERY by PAUL SMITH, SIENKIEWICZ, SIMONSON, BOLLAND, HANNIGAN, MAZZUCCHELLI, and others! New cover by ADAMS!

ROY THOMAS, KURT BUSIEK, and JOE JUSKO on CONAN (with art by JOHN BUSCEMA, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, NEAL ADAMS, JUSKO, and others), SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MARK EVANIER on GROO, DC’s never-published KING ARTHUR, pencil art gallery by KIRBY, PÉREZ, MOEBIUS, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, BOLLAND, and others, and a new BUSCEMA/JUSKO Conan cover!

‘70s and ‘80s character revamps with DAVE GIBBONS, ROY THOMAS and KURT BUSIEK, TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ on Spider-Man’s 1980s “black” costume change, DENNY O’NEIL on Superman’s 1970 revamp, JOHN BYRNE’s aborted SHAZAM! series detailed, pencil art gallery with FRANK MILLER, LEE WEEKS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, CHARLES VESS, and more!

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DAVE COCKRUM and MIKE GRELL go “Pro2Pro” on the Legion, pencil art gallery by BUSCEMA, BYRNE, MILLER, STARLIN, McFARLANE, ROMITA JR., SIENKIEWICZ, looks at Hercules Unbound, Hex, Killraven, Kamandi, MARS, Planet of the Apes, art and interviews with GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KIRBY, WILLIAMSON, and more! New MIKE GRELL/BOB McLEOD cover!

“Weird Heroes” of the 1970s and ‘80s! MIKE PLOOG discusses Ghost Rider, MATT WAGNER revisits The Demon, JOE KUBERT dusts off Ragman, GENE COLAN “Rough Stuff” pencil gallery, GARCÍALÓPEZ recalls Deadman, DC’s unpublished Gorilla Grodd series, PERLIN, CONWAY, and MOENCH on Werewolf by Night, and more! New ARTHUR ADAMS cover!

“Toy Stories!” Behind the Scenes of Marvel’s G.I. JOE™ and TRANSFORMERS with PAUL LEVITZ and GEORGE TUSKA, “Rough Stuff” MIKE ZECK pencil gallery, ARTHUR ADAMS on Gumby, HE-MAN, ROM, MICRONAUTS, SUPER POWERS, SUPER-HERO CARS, art by HAMA, SAL BUSCEMA, GUICE, GOLDEN, KIRBY, TRIMPE, and new ZECK sketch cover!

“Super Girls!” Supergirl retrospective with art by STELFREEZE, HAMNER, SpiderWoman, Flare, Tigra, DC’s unused Double Comics with unseen BARRETTO and INFANTINO art, WOLFMAN and JIMENEZ on Donna Troy, female comics pros, art by SEKOWSKY, OKSNER, PÉREZ, HUGHES, GIORDANO, plus a COLOR GALLERY and COVER by BRUCE TIMM!

“Big, Green Issue!” Tour of NEAL ADAMS’ studio (with interview and art gallery), DAVE GIBBONS “Rough Stuff” pencil art spotlight, interviews with MIKE GRELL (Green Arrow), PETER DAVID (Incredible Hulk), a “Pro2Pro” chat between GERRY CONWAY and JOHN ROMITA, SR. (Green Goblin), the unproduced She-Hulk movie, and more. New cover by ADAMS!

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“Unsung Heroes!” DON NEWTON spotlight, GERBER and COLAN on Howard the Duck, MIKE CARLIN and DANNY FINGEROTH on Marvel’s Assistant Editors’ Month, “Greatest Stories Never Told” on the unrealized Unlimited Powers TV show, TONY ISABELLA’s aborted plans for The Champions, MARK GRUENWALD tribute, art by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, and more! NEWTON/RUBINSTEIN cover!

“Secret Identities!” Histories of characters with unusual alter egos: Firestorm, Moon Knight, the Question, and the “real-life” Human Fly! STEVE ENGLEHART and SAL BUSCEMA on Captain America, JERRY ORDWAY interview and cover, Superman roundtable with SIENKIEWICZ, NOWLAN, MOENCH, COWAN, MAGGIN, O’NEIL, MILGROM, CONWAY, ROBBINS, SWAN, plus FREE ALTER EGO #64 PREVIEW!

“The Devil You Say!” issue! A look at Daredevil in the 1980s and 1990s with interviews and art by KLAUS JANSON, JOHN ROMITA JR., and FRANK MILLER, MIKE MIGNOLA Hellboy interview, DAN MISHKIN and GARY COHN on Blue Devil, COLLEEN DORAN’s unpublished X-Men spin-off “Fallen Angels”, Son of Satan, Stig’s Inferno, DC’s Plop!, JACK KIRBY’s Devil Dinosaur, and cover by MIKE ZECK!

“Dynamic Duos”! “Pro2Pro” interviews with Batman’s ALAN GRANT and NORM BREYFOGLE and the Legion’s PAUL LEVITZ and KEITH GIFFEN, a “Backstage Pass” to Dark Horse Comics, Robin’s history, EASTMAN and LAIRD’s Ninja Turtles, histories of duos Robin and Batgirl, Captain America and the Falcon, and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, “Zot!” interview with SCOTT McCLOUD, and a new BREYFOGLE cover!

Comics Go Hollywood! Spider-Man roundtable with STAN LEE, JOHN ROMITA, SR., JIM SHOOTER, ERIK LARSEN, and others, STAR TREK comics writers’ roundtable Part 1, Gladstone’s Disney comics line, behindthe-scenes at TV’s ISIS and THE FLASH (plus an interview with Flash’s JOHN WESLEY SHIPP), TV tie-in comics, bonus 8-page color ADAM HUGHES ART GALLERY and cover, plus a FREE WRITE NOW #16 PREVIEW!

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ROUGH STUFF celebrates the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVERBEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history, before-and-after comparisons, critiques, early work, and more from top comics pros!

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DAVIS • PÉREZ • TIMM • NOWLAN GARCÍA-LÓPEZ • ARTHUR ADAMS BYRNE • SIMONSON

BRIAN APTHORP • FRANK BRUNNER PAUL GULACY • JERRY ORDWAY ALEX TOTH • MATT WAGNER

MIKE ALLRED • JOHN BUSCEMA YANICK PAQUETTE • JOHN ROMITA JR. P. CRAIG RUSSELL • LEE WEEKS

BISSETTE • CHAYKIN • COLAN KALUTA • ANDREW ROBINSON JOHN TOTLEBEN

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

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(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG063714

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV064024

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: FEB073911

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY073902

HOW-TO BOOKS & DVDs

BEST OF DRAW! VOL. 2

WORKING METHODS

COMICS 101:

COMIC CREATORS DETAIL THEIR STORYTELLING & CREATIVE PROCESSES

HOW-TO & HISTORY LESSONS FROM THE PROS

Art professor JOHN LOWE puts the minds of comic artists under the microscope, highlighting the intricacies of the creative process step-by-step. For this book, three short scripts are each interpreted in different ways by professional comic artists to illustrate the varied ways in which they “see” and “solve” the problem of making a script succeed in comic form. It documents the creative and technical choices MARK SCHULTZ, TIM LEVINS, JIM MAHFOOD, SCOTT HAMPTON, KELSEY SHANNON, CHRIS BRUNNER, SEAN MURPHY, and PAT QUINN make as they tell a story, allowing comic fans, artists, instructors, and students into a world rarely explored. Hundreds of illustrated examples document the artists’ processes, and interviews clarify their individual approaches regarding storytelling and layout choices. The exercise may be simple, but the results are profoundly complex!

TwoMorrows has tapped the combined knowledge of its editors to assemble an all-new 32-page comics primer, created just for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! You’ll learn: “Figure Drawing” and “How To Break Down A Story” from DRAW!’s MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, “Writing Tips” from WRITE NOW!’s DANNY FINGEROTH, plus ROUGH STUFF’s BOB McLEOD provides “Art Critiques” of promising newcomers! There’s even a “Comics History Crash-Course”, assembled by ALTER EGO’s ROY THOMAS and BACK ISSUE’s MICHAEL EURY! (32-page comic book) $2 US Diamond Order Code: FEB070050

BEST OF DRAW! VOL. 1 Compiles material from the first two sold-out issues of DRAW!—a wealth of tutorials, interviews, and demonstrations by DAVE GIBBONS (layout and drawing on the computer), BRET BLEVINS (drawing lovely women, painting from life, and creating figures that “feel”), JERRY ORDWAY (detailing his working methods), KLAUS JANSON and RICARDO VILLAGRAN (inking techniques), GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY (on animation and Samurai Jack), STEVE CONLEY (creating web comics and cartoons), PHIL HESTER and ANDE PARKS (penciling and inking), and more! Each artist presents their work STEP-BY-STEP, so both beginning and experienced artists can learn valuable tips and tricks along the way! Cover by BRET BLEVINS!

Compiles material from issues #3 and #4 of DRAW!, including tutorials by, and interviews with, ERIK LARSEN (savage penciling), DICK GIORDANO (inking techniques), BRET BLEVINS (drawing the figure in action, and figure composition), KEVIN NOWLAN (penciling and inking), MIKE MANLEY (how-to demo on Web Comics), DAVE COOPER (digital coloring tutorial), and more! Cover by KEVIN NOWLAN. (156-page trade paperback with COLOR) $22 US ISBN: 9781893905580 Diamond Order Code: APR063421

(200-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905412 Diamond Order Code: OCT043046

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905733 Diamond Order Code: MAR073747

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

TOP ARTISTS DISCUSS THE DESIGN OF COMICS Art professor DURWIN TALON gets top creators to discuss all aspects of the DESIGN of comics, from panel and page layout, to use of color and lettering:

HOW TO DRAW COMICS FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

COMICS ABOVE GROUND

SEE HOW YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS MAKE A LIVING OUTSIDE COMICS

DVD

HOW TO CREATE COMICS FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

COMICS ABOVE GROUND features comics pros discussing their inspirations and training, and how they apply it in “Mainstream Media,” including Conceptual Illustration, Video Game Development, Children’s Books, Novels, Design, Illustration, Fine Art, Storyboards, Animation, Movies and more! Written by DURWIN TALON (author of the top-selling book PANEL DISCUSSIONS), this book features creators sharing their perspectives and their work in comics and their “other professions,” with career overviews, never-before-seen art, and interviews! Featuring: • LOUISE SIMONSON • BRUCE TIMM • DAVE DORMAN • BERNIE WRIGHTSON • GREG RUCKA • ADAM HUGHES AND OTHERS! • JEPH LOEB

REDESIGNED and EXPANDED version of the groundbreaking WRITE NOW! #8 / DRAW! #9 crossover! DANNY FINGEROTH & MIKE MANLEY show stepby-step how to develop a new comic, from script and roughs to pencils, inks, colors, lettering—it even guides you through printing and distribution, & the finished 8-page color comic is included, so you can see their end result! PLUS: over 30 pages of ALL-NEW material, including “full” and “Marvel-style” scripts, a critique of their new character and comic from an editor’s point of view, new tips on coloring, new expanded writing lessons, and more!

(168-page trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905313 Diamond Order Code: FEB042700

(108-page trade paperback with COLOR) $18 US ISBN: 9781893905603 Diamond Order Code: APR063422

• WILL EISNER • SCOTT HAMPTON • MIKE WIERINGO • WALT SIMONSON • MIKE MIGNOLA • MARK SCHULTZ • DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI • MIKE CARLIN • DICK GIORDANO • BRIAN STELFREEZE • CHRIS MOELLER • MARK CHIARELLO If you’re serious about creating effective, innovative comics, or just enjoying them from the creator’s perspective, this guide is must-reading!

Documents two top professionals creating a (208-page trade paperback with COLOR) $29 US comic book, from initial idea to finished art! ISBN: 9781893905146 In this feature-filled DVD, WRITE NOW! Diamond Order Code: STAR19844 Magazine Editor DANNY (Spider-Man) FINGEROTH and DRAW! Magazine Editor MIKE (Batman) MANLEY show you how a new character evolves from scratch! Watch the creative process, as a story is created from concepts and roughs to pencils, inks, and coloring—even lettering! “The closest thing you’ll find to Packed with “how-to” tips and a comic creation tutorial; an tricks, it’s the perfect companion to the WRITE NOW #8/DRAW essential reference for anyone who’s #9 CROSSOVER, or stands ever hoped to self-publish or make a alone as an invaluable tool for amateur and professional serious bid at a career in the field.” comics creators alike! (120-minute DVD) $35 US ISBN: 9781893905399 Diamond Order Code: AUG043204

ink19.com on HOW TO CREATE COMICS

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

MODERN MASTERS DVDs (120-minute Std. Format DVDs) $35 US EACH

GEORGE PÉREZ

ISBN: 9781893905511 Diamond Order Code: JUN053276

MICHAEL GOLDEN ISBN: 9781893905771 Diamond Order Code: MAY073780

VOL. 1: ALAN DAVIS

V.2: GEORGE PÉREZ

V.3: BRUCE TIMM

V.4: KEVIN NOWLAN

V.5: GARCÍA-LÓPEZ

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905191 Diamond Order Code: STAR18345

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905252 Diamond Order Code: STAR20127

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905306 Diamond Order Code: APR042954

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905382 Diamond Order Code: SEP042971

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905443 Diamond Order Code: APR053191

V.6: ARTHUR ADAMS

V.7: JOHN BYRNE

V.8: WALTER SIMONSON

V.9: MIKE WIERINGO

V.10: KEVIN MAGUIRE

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905542 Diamond Order Code: DEC053309

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905566 Diamond Order Code: FEB063354

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905641 Diamond Order Code: MAY063444

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905658 Diamond Order Code: AUG063626

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905665 Diamond Order Code: OCT063722

V.11: CHARLES VESS

V.12: MICHAEL GOLDEN

V.13: JERRY ORDWAY

V.14: FRANK CHO

V.15: MARK SCHULTZ

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905696 Diamond Order Code: DEC063948

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905740 Diamond Order Code: APR074023

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905795 Diamond Order Code: JUN073926

(120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905849 Diamond Order Code: MAY078046

(128-page trade paperback) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905856 Ships December 2007

NOW SHIPPING FROM TWOMORROWS!

BACK ISSUE #24

DRAW! #15

WRITE NOW! #17

ALTER EGO #73

KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

“Magic” issue! MICHAEL GOLDEN interview, GENE COLAN, PAUL SMITH, and FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, Mystic Art Gallery with CARL POTTS & KEVIN NOWLAN, BILL WILLINGHAM’s Elementals, Zatanna history, Dr. Fate’s revival, a “Greatest Stories Never Told” look at Peter Pan, tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS, a new GOLDEN cover, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #6 PREVIEW!

BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE, covering major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, featuring faculty, student, and graduate interviews in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/interview with B.P.R.D.’S GUY DAVIS, MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, a FREE WRITE NOW #17 PREVIEW, and more!

HEROES ISSUE featuring series creator/ writer TIM KRING, writer JEPH LOEB, and others, interviews with DC Comics’ DAN DiDIO and Marvel’s DAN BUCKLEY, PETER DAVID on writing STEPHEN KING’S DARK TOWER COMIC, MICHAEL TEITELBAUM, C.B. CEBULSKI, DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF, Nuts & Bolts script and art examples, a FREE BACK ISSUE #24 PREVIEW, and more!

FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, interviews with CHARLES BIRO and his daughters, ROY THOMAS’ 1971 synopsis for the origin of Man-Thing, interview with publisher ROBERT GERSON about his 1970s horror comic Reality, art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, JEFF JONES, and others FCA, MR. MONSTER, a FREE DRAW! #15! PREVIEW, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $9 US Ships October 2007 Diamond Order Code: AUG074131

(80-page magazine) $9 US Ships October 2007 Diamond Order Code: AUG074138

(100-page magazine) $9 US Ships October 2007 Diamond Order Code: AUG074112

WARRIORS, spotlighting Thor (with a look at hidden messages in BILL EVERETT’s Thor inks), Sgt. Fury, Challengers of the Unknown, Losers, and others! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JERRY ORDWAY and GRANT MORRISON, MARK EVANIER’s column, a pencil art gallery, a complete 1950s story, a wraparound Kirby Thor cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY, and more! SHIPS IN OCTOBER!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL073976

JOHN ROMITA... & ALL THAT JAZZ! The artist who made AMAZING SPIDERMAN Marvel’s #1-selling comic book in the 1960s talks about his life, his art, and his contemporaries! Authored by former Marvel Comics editor in chief and top writer ROY THOMAS, and noted historian JIM AMASH, it features the most definitive interview Romita’s ever given, about working with STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, following Spider-Man co-creator STEVE DITKO as artist on the strip, and more! Lavishly illustrated with Romita art, it’s a career overview of a comics master, and a firsthand history of the industry by one of its leading artists! Available in Softcover and Hardcover (with 16 extra color pages, dust jacket, and custom endleaves). (192-page softcover) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905757 Diamond Order Code: APR074018 (208-page hardcover w/ COLOR) $49 US ISBN: 9781893905764 Diamond Order Code: APR074019

SILVER AGE MEGO 8" SUPERSCI-FI COMPANION HEROES: WORLD’S In the Silver Age of Comics, space was GREATEST TOYS!TM

the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-by-story reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY! (160-page trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905818 Diamond Order Code: JUL073885

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95! Subscribers to the print edition get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

Lavishly illustrated with thousands of CHARTS, CHECKLISTS and COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS, it’s an obsessive examination of legendary toy company MEGO (pronounced “ME-go”), and the extraordinary line of super-hero action figures that dominated the toy industry throughout the 1970s. Featuring a chronological history of Mego, interviews with former employees and Mego vendors, fascinating discoveries never revealed elsewhere, and thorough coverage of each figure and packaging variant, this FULL-COLOR hardcover is the definitive guide to Mego. BRAD MELTZER raves, “I’ve waited thirty years for this magical, beautiful book.” And CHIP KIDD, internationally-recognized graphic designer and author of BATMAN COLLECTED, deemed it “a stunning visual experience.” Written by BENJAMIN HOLCOMB. (256-page COLOR hardcover) $54 US ISBN: 9781893905825 Diamond Order Code: JUL073884

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

ALL- STAR COMPANION V. 3 More amazing secrets behind the 194051 ALL-STAR COMICS and the 1941-44 SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY—and illustrated speculation about how other Golden Age super-teams might have been assembled! Also, an issue-by-issue survey of the JLA-JSA TEAM-UPS of 1963-85, the 1970s JSA REVIVAL, and the 1980s series THE YOUNG ALL-STARS and SECRET ORIGINS, with commentary by the artists and writers! Plus rare, often unseen art by KUBERT, INFANTINO, ADAMS, ORDWAY, ANDERSON, TOTH, CARDY, GIL KANE, COLAN, SEKOWSKY, DILLIN, STATON, REINMAN, McLEOD, GRINDBERG, PAUL SMITH, RON HARRIS, MARSHALL ROGERS, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON HECK, GEORGE TUSKA, TONY DeZUNIGA, H.G. PETER, DON SIMPSON, and many others! Compiled and edited by ROY THOMAS, with a new cover by GEORGE PÉREZ! (224-page trade paperback) $31 US ISBN: 9781893905801 Diamond Order Code: MAY078045 Surface

Airmail

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$44

1st Class Canada $56

$64

$76

$120

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$40

$54

$66

$90

$108

DRAW!, WRITE NOW!, ROUGH STUFF (4 issues)

$26

$36

$44

$60

$72

ALTER EGO (12 issues) Six-issue subs are half-price!

$78

$108

$132

$180

$216

(84-page tabloid) $13 US Diamond Order Code: JUN074028

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 13: JERRY ORDWAY Features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from Jerry’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art! By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905795 Diamond Order Code: NOV068372

MODERN MASTERS: MICHAEL GOLDEN DVD Shows the artist at work, discussing his art and career! (120-minute Std. Format DVD) $35 US ISBN: 9781893905771 Diamond Order Code: MAY073780

For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt