Draw #21 by TwoMorrows Publishing

#21 URBAN BARBARIAN

DAN PANOSIAN

Fall 2011

7.95

In The US

AND MIKE MANLEY TALK SHOP &

INTERVIEW WITH BILLY DOGMA’S WRITER/ARTIST

DEAN HASPIEL BY DANNY FINGEROTH ARTIST/INKER

BOB McLEOD CRITIQUES A NEWCOMER’S WORK

82658 27764

Plus: MIKE MANLEY & BRET BLEVINS’

DIGITAL

NS DRAW! (edited by MIKE MANLEY) is the professional EDITIO BLE A “HOW-TO” magazine on comics, cartooning, and IL AVA NLY animation. Each issue features in-depth INTERVIEWS FOR O 5 and DEMOS from top pros on all aspects of graphic $2.9 storytelling, as well as such DRAW! #1 skills as layout, penciling, inking, “Penciling” by JERRY ORDWAY, lettering, coloring, Photoshop tech“Computer Layout and Drawing” niques, plus web guides, tips, tricks, by DAVE GIBBONS, “Secrets of Drawing Sexy Women” by BRET and a handy reference source—this BLEVINS, lettering by JOHN magazine has it all! COSTANZA, inking demonstration NOTE: Contains nudity for purposes of figure drawing. INTENDED FOR MATURE READERS.

DRAW! #5

DRAW! #6

DRAW! #2

DRAW! #3

DRAW! #4

by RICARDO VILLAGRAN, cover by BLEVINS, and more!

GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY interview, inking with KLAUS JANSON, PHIL HESTER on self-publishing comics, in-depth interview and “how-to” by STEVE CONLEY, second installment of “Secrets of Drawing Sexy Women” by BRET BLEVINS, reviews, links and more!

Inking by DICK GIORDANO, interview with animator/director CHRIS BAILEY, “how-to” on web comics, BRET BLEVINS’ “Figures in Action,” PAUL RIVOCHE on “Design for comics and animation,” a discussion of trademarks and copyrights, drawing tips, and more!

Interview with ERIK LARSEN, KEVIN NOWLAN on drawing and inking techniques, DAVE COOPER’s coloring techniques in Photoshop, BRET BLEVINS tutorial on Figure Composition, PAUL RIVOCHE on the Design Process, reviews of comics drawing papers, and more!

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DRAW! #7

DRAW! #8

DRAW! #9

DRAW! #10

MIKE WIERINGO interview, BENDIS and OEMING on how they create “Powers”, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw great hands”, “The illusion of depth in design” by PAUL RIVOCHE, art books reviewed by TERRY BEATTY, plus reviews of the best art supplies, and more!

Interview & demo with BILL WRAY, STEPHEN DeSTEFANO interview, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw the human figure in light and shadow,” Photoshop tutorial by CELIA CALLE, inking tips by MIKE MANLEY, reviews of the best art supplies, links, and more!

Interview/demo by DAN BRERETON, ZACH TRENHOLM on caricaturing, “Drawing In Adobe Illustrator” demo by ALBERTO RUIZ, “The Power of Sketching” by BRET BLEVINS, “Designing with light and shadow” by PAUL RIVOCHE, reviews of art supplies, links, and more!

Interview & demo by MATT HALEY, TOM BANCROFT & ROB CORLEY on character design, “Drawing In Adobe Illustrator” by ALBERTO RUIZ, “Draping The Human Figure” by BRET BLEVINS, a new COMICS SECTION, International Spotlight on JOSÉ LOUIS AGREDA, and more!

WRITE NOW #8 crossover! MIKE MANLEY & DANNY FINGEROTH create a comic from script to print, BANCROFT & CORLEY on bringing characters to life, Adobe Illustrator with ALBERTO RUIZ, Noel Sickles’ work examined, PvP’s SCOTT KURTZ, art supply reviews, and more!

RON GARNEY interview & demo, GRAHAM NOLAN on creating newspaper strips, TODD KLEIN and others discuss lettering, “Draping The Human Figure, Part Two” by BRET BLEVINS, ALBERTO RUIZ on Adobe Illustrator, interview with MARK McKENNA, links, and more!

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DRAW! #11

DRAW! #12

DRAW! #13

DRAW! #14

DRAW! #15

DRAW! #16

STEVE RUDE on comics & drawing, ROQUE BALLESTEROS on Flash animation, JIM BORGMAN on his daily comic strip Zits, BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY on “Drawing On Life”, Adobe Illustrator tips with ALBERTO RUIZ, links, a color section and more! New RUDE cover!

KYLE BAKER on merging traditional and digital art, MIKE HAWTHORNE on his work, “Making Perspective Work For You” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, Photoshop techniques with ALBERTO RUIZ, THE VENTURE BROTHERS, links, and more! New BAKER cover!

Demo of painting methods by ALEX HORLEY, interview and demo by COLLEEN COOVER, a look behindthe-scenes on Adult Swim’s MINORITEAM, regular features on drawing by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, links, color section and more!

In-depth interviews and demos with DOUG MAHNKE, OVI NEDELCU (Pigtale, WB Animation), STEVE PURCELL (Sam and Max), MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP on “Using Black to Power up Your Pages”, product reviews, and more!

Covers major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/interview with BILL REINHOLD, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, and more!

In-depth interview with HOWARD CHAYKIN, behind the drawing board and animation desk with JAY STEPHENS, COMIC ART BOOTCAMP on HOW TO USE REFERENCE and WORKING FROM PHOTOS (by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY), and more!

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DRAW! #17

An in-depth interview and tutorial with Scott Pilgrim’s creator and artist BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY on how he creates the acclaimed series, plus learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS creates the fabulous work on his series. Also, more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more! (84-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

DRAW! #18

DRAW! #19

Interview & demo by R.M. GUERA, Cartoon Network’s JAMES TUCKER on the hit show “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” plus product reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and Comic Book Boot Camp’s “Anatomy: Part 2” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY!

DOUG BRAITHWAITE demo and interview, BOB McLEOD critiques a newcomer’s work, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies and tool tech, MANLEY and BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP gets your penciling in shape, plus Web links, reviews, and more!

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FALL 2011

CONTENTS

VOL. 1, NO. 21 Editor-in-Chief • Michael Manley Designer • Eric Nolen-Weathington Publisher • John Morrow Logo Design • John Costanza Proofreader • Eric Nolen-Weathington Front Cover Illustration • Dan Panosian

DRAW! Fall 2011, Vol. 1, No. 21 was produced by Action Planet, Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michael Manley, Editor, John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Address is P.O. Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082. Subscription Address: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614. DRAW! and its logo are trademarks of Action Planet, Inc. All contributions herein are copyright 2011 by their respective contributors. Action Planet, Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing accept no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. All artwork herein is copyright the year of production, its creator (if work-for-hire, the entity which contracted said artwork); the characters featured in said artwork are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners; and said artwork or other trademarked material is printed in these pages with the consent of the copyright holder and/or for journalistic, educational and historical purposes with no infringement intended or implied. This entire issue is © 2011 Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing and may not be reprinted or retransmitted without written permission of the copyright holders. ISSN 1932-6882. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

DAN PANOSIAN Mike Manley interviews the Urban Barbarian

ROUGH CRITIQUE

DEAN HASPIEL

THE CRUSTY CRITIC

COMIC ART BOOTCAMP

Bob McLeod gives practical advice and tips on how to improve your work

Danny Fingeroth interviews Brooklyn’s Renaissance Man

Jamar Nicholas reviews the tools of the trade. This month: Fanboy’s comic book art boards.

“Designing Hair” by Bret Blevins and Mike Manley

DRAWING AHEAD

Artistic Interpretation by Bret Blevins

ummertime. Sweltertime. As I type this the radio says it’s 103 degrees outside in hot, hazy Philly, and by the vibrations my air conditioner is making in the struggle to keep my studio cool and the Judge Parker strip I’m inking from sticking to my arm, I’d agree. I wonder how the old school guys did it? How did they beat the heat before the age of air conditioners?

By the time you all read this we should be heading into the fall and the buckle-down time of the year. I’d like to thank my buddies Jamar and Bret, my main partners in crime, along with Danny Fingeroth and Bob McLeod for turning in great articles for this issue. I’d also like to thank Dan Panosian for his great cover and interview, as well as Emmy Award-winning Dean Haspiel for his participation this issue. DRAW! is only as good as the talent we showcase. They make it possible to bring this magazine to you. And so, the usual tips of the hat to my main man Eric for the production end and to publisher and man of much patience John Morrow. Make sure you drop us a line on our blog, too, and monitor it for updates and more art at http://www.drawmagazine.blogspot.com. Go DRAW! something,

E-mail: mike@drawmagazine.com Website: www.draw-magazine.blogspot.com Snail mail: PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082 2

DRAW! • FALL 2011

DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND RAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK ND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW D INK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DR W DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AN DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRIN AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW RINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND D AW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK A D DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DR K AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND RAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAWDRINK ND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW D INK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DR W DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AN DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRIN AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW RINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND D AW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAWDRINK A D DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DR K AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND RAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK ND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW D Interview conducted by Mike Manley NK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DR and transcribed by Steven Tice W DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAWDRINK AN DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRINK AND DRAW DRIN DRAW: Why don’t you tell me what you’re working on right

DP: Yeah, exactly. It was a tough one. I would be working with pencilers at Marvel and DC, and I’d go, “Oh, my God, I can draw better than this person, and I gotta fix them in my inks.” And what you don’t realize is that they’re starting with a blank page, and it’s always easy to critique something that’s already drawn. You could probably critique Michelangelo, I guess.

now? I know you’ve started moving over from being mainly an inker the last couple of years to doing everything, penciling and inking your own work, mostly for Marvel, right? DAN PANOSIAN: Well, actually, these days, for DC and now Dark Horse, so... Yeah, I was doing tons and tons of advertising work. I got out of comics for about ten years or so. I thought I was learning how to draw, because I did inking, and I was learning a lot, and I was working with a lot of really talented pencilers, and thought I was absorbing more than I really was. But then I started doing advertising. It was kind of a wake-up call doing the storyboarding, and design work, and commercial jobs.

’em.” I’m sure there are lot of talented artists that I’ve inked that would like to break my fingers today.

DRAW: In what regard? In the fact that you feel like your

DRAW: I remember meeting you in Howard Mackie’s office

drawing—? DP: The whole blank page thing, starting with a blank page. [laughter]

DP: Yeah, that’s one of my favorite stories I tell people. How I

DRAW: So you didn’t have something already existing there.

DRAW: Aw, Dan, you shouldn’t. [laughs]

DRAW: Yeah, you can come in and be a plastic surgeon with the

pen or the brush and go, “No, that nose is just a little bit too big.” DP: Yeah, “What are they thinking? I need to fix that. I’ll show

because we were working on Quasar. landed that job, and working with you on that project.

DRAW! • FALL 2011

(above and below) Cap and Red Skull sketch cards for the Captain America: The First Avenger trading card series. (next page) Page 7 of Marvel’s Chaos War: God Squad (Feb., 2011) one-shot, penciled and inked by Dan. ALL CHARACTERS ™ AND © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

DP: Well, no, that was, like, my first actual Marvel book, you know? DRAW: That’s funny, because that was my first Marvel book. DP: Really? Your first regular series. DRAW: Yeah, as a regular series. I had jumped around a lot, and

then I think Paul Ryan had done the first several issues, and then he left, and they were looking for somebody. I guess Gruenwald and Mackie liked my work, so they hired me. That was also a time when there were a lot of changes and people jumping ships and everything. DP: Oh, yeah, that was just the very beginning of Marvel and DC and all the comic book companies really making those big fortunes. DRAW: Right, right. I remem-

ber being in the office one day and the rumor was, “So-and-so just got enough money in a royalty check to go buy a house!” DP: Yeah, those were the days. We popped in at the perfect time. DRAW: Right. So I remember meeting you in Howard’s office. Had you worked in advertising or anything before that, or were you just coming straight— DP: When I was 14 years old, I got that Marvel Comics Try-Out oversized book. DRAW: Right, with the John Romita, Jr., stuff.

DRAW! • FALL 2011

DP: I sent Marvel an inking sample—obviously the inking stuff

was better because I’m inking over John Romita, Jr. I sent the samples in, and at the time, Len Kaminski was the submissions editor. He got them, and I didn’t include my age on there, and he sent me back all these letters, “Great job. You need a little bit more work, but this is what you can expect from Marvel in the future. Here’s our health plan, here’s how much money you’ll make.” [Mike laughs] I’m 14 years old. DRAW: “Wow! I’m 14 years

old and I have a health plan!” [laughter] DP: Yeah, right, “Wow, I’ll be making more money than my dad.” So, at 14, I had it in my mind, “Oh, I’ll be working for Marvel,” so my grades ended up slipping, I ended up goofing off a lot in class. And I started getting published by smaller companies like Blackthorne when I was a junior in high school, and Malibu—I think it was Malibu—with Evan Dorkin on Wild Knights and things like that, thanks to Mike Turner, who passed away recently, but he got me the job there. But I bumped around, and when I was 21 I finally decided that, “It’s now or never, if I’m ever going to make this happen with Marvel Comics, I have to move to New York.” So I moved to New York, and everything changed. DRAW: Where did you move from? DP: I was living in Indialantic, a city in Florida. Which is right

next to Cape Canaveral, where they shoot the space shuttle off.

DRAW! • FALL 2011

Kung Fu Panda. They changed the whole thing into Kung Fu Panda. DRAW: Wow. I think we talked about that. And

that’s funny, because that’s one of the other things people don’t realize is that when you work with these big corporations and you create something, you could draw a character in the background that somehow they decide, “Wow, that’s exactly what we want.” You may create the next billion-dollar franchise, but you’re not going to get any more than your page rate out of that. DP: No, I mean, I got paid great when I was working for Dreamworks on that project, but you think I’d be a rich man with Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2, but it was just work-for-hire. So all that design work and everything— DRAW: Well, here’s what I think you should do: I think you should get a Kung Fu Panda costume, get stinkin’ drunk, show up at the premiere, and start yelling, [slurred voice] “I created Kung Fu Panda!” [laughter] DP: That’ll go over well. No, I’d love to be one of those guys that get a slimy lawyer to somehow say I created The Matrix, and finally they pay you off just to shut you up. DRAW: Yeah, yeah. DP: But I’ll never be one of those guys. I know

exactly what the business is and what I got into, and I had a great time working on that thing, and it was work-for-hire, and that’s what it is. Until you do a creator-owned book and you are behind it, then that’s just the nature of the business. DRAW: Right, that is the nature of the busi-

ness. Did you continue to work with them, or did you start jumping around more? DP: From there I started working on Duke Nukem Forever. I didn’t do the Duke Nukem ini(previous page and above) Dan’s pencils and inks for DC’s Doc Savage #15. tial design, but I redesigned all the Duke Nukem DOC SAVAgE © ADVANCE MAgAZINE PUBLISHERS, INC. D/B/A CONDE NAST. characters for that year-and-a-half, and as you know, that production stalled out. I think it took 14 years or more, a lot to deal with, and not only was I seeing everybody’s best and now Duke Nukem Forever is out, so that property has been put work, and I was seeing all sorts of fun things happen, but I through the wringer. I don’t know how well Duke Nukem Forever knew so much about the business, and it was always kind of is doing, sales-wise, but it had a loyal following at the time, and pulling me back in. That’s where all my passion and all my love is. The reason I started drawing in the first place was to draw people still know the name. comic books, and I equated the advertising and even the design, DRAW: Did you miss comics when you were doing this other everything outside of comic books to drawing refrigerators. I didn’t start drawing pictures of Conan when I was a little kid stuff? DP: Yeah, well, I’d go to San Diego Comic-Con, and it was so because I wanted to draw a refrigerator for General Electric. I inspiring when you see it. What people don’t understand about was saying to myself “Man, I’m just doing this for the money. this convention is, you go there, artists have booths everywhere, I’m not having the fun. I could have made more money if I was and they’re displaying the best of everything they’ve done that a restaurant manager.” Unless you’re doing something with a year, or years prior, and so you walk around and see every- passion, you’d better be making a lot of money doing it. That’s body’s amazing “best of ” album. And it’s crushing. [laughs] It’s the way I look at it. DRAW! • FALL 2011

Constructive analysis and criticism of a newcomer’s work by

BoB MCLeod

his issue, my rough critique features a somewhat different space or time, so I may not be as tactful as I’d like with regard to kind of submission. I normally critique a comic book sam- compliments versus criticism. This column is called “Rough ple page drawn by an aspiring artist hoping to get work at Marvel Critique,” after all. I’ll do my best to keep my comments conor DC. But this time, our sample page is from a currently online structive, but sometimes I do need to be blunt to get my point web comic called Odyssey being drawn by Samantha Gough and across. Remember that you should be your own harshest critic. written by Eric Guindon. You can read part one (and some of part Let’s start with the most fundamental, important things and two by the time this is published) online at dreamoutloud- progress to the relatively less important. comics.com/index.php?pagenum=1. If you don’t know who I The main practical difference between web comics and comic am, if you’re in fact thinking right now, “Well who does this books is the page format. Most web comics are in a horizontal McLeod guy think he is, to be critiquing anyone,” I invite you to format, because our computer monitors are horizontal, whereas visit my web site, www.bobmcleod.com. comic pages are more vertically formatted, like books. This Samantha admitted to me that she was confident to the point affects the layout options you have, making it more difficult to of arrogance until she actually started to draw this web comic... draw tall, vertical panels, but easier to draw long, horizontal and then she realized there is a lot more to it than she thought. scenes. Of course, there’s usually really no actual format restriction That was exactly my own experience when I first tried to get into at all for web comics. The comic can change format from strip to comics. “A comic book?” I thought, strip, because we can scroll down and left “How hard can that be?” Heh. Sequential “I’ll do my best to keep my or right. But most web comics choose a art requires many more skills than simple horizontal format just because comments constructive, but consistent drawing ability. At least in comic books, it’s easier. You don’t get paid more for sometimes I do need to be those requirements are usually split up making your job more difficult, and many among several people: the editor, the blunt to get my point across. web comic artists don’t get paid at all. writer, the penciler, the letterer, the inker, Either way, though, you need to conRemember that you should and the colorist. But many web comics are sider your panel shapes and sizes. Good done entirely by one person! It’s very be your own harshest critic.” graphic design would suggest that you much like making a movie all by yourself; make some panels wider than others, if imagine producing, directing, writing the script, working the only for variety’s sake, and stagger the gutters (the space between camera, doing the lighting, designing the sets and costumes, and panels). Samantha’s doing that here, but her panels on the far acting all of the roles yourself! What kind of egomaniac would right are a bit too evenly stacked. Her last panel could have been ever even attempt that? Well, hundreds of us, as it turns out. wider, and the one before it thinner. That way, we could get the Samantha is a talented artist, and she is doing a lot of things blonde into the panel. For some reason, she chose to extend panel well, of course. She’s varying the camera angles, using close-ups, one on the left and top. We do this in comic books so the art long shots, down shots, up shots; she’s even using silhouettes, “bleeds” off the page rather than remains enclosed within the and trying to do dramatic high-contrast lighting. She’s working panel borders. But that can’t happen on a computer monitor, so it hard and putting in a lot of detail, with good, convincing back- makes little sense. If you want to bleed a panel of a web comic, grounds. But she’s making a lot of the usual mistakes we all make the thing to do would be to bleed it behind the adjacent panels, early on. Some of these mistakes are easily fixed, so I think I can turning them into overlapping or inset panels. She also used an help her solve a lot of her problems right away and make a huge oddly shaped, handdrawn border for panel three. I’m guessing she leap up to a new level on her very next strip. I don’t have unlimited did this to emphasize the character’s shock at her partner’s burns.

DRAW! • FALL 2011

Page 17 of Odyssey, a web comic drawn by Samantha Gough and written by Eric Guindon. ODySSEy ™ AND © ERIC gUINDON AND SAMANTHA gOUgH.

But it’s not clear that that’s her intent, so the panel shape becomes distracting and takes the reader out of the story while they ponder its purpose. The number one rule in all aspects of comic art is clarity. Don’t confuse the reader unintentionally. The odd shape doesn’t add enough dramatic effect to compensate for the distraction, so it’s better to just use a standard border. It’s good to vary your layout from a standard grid of rectangles, but give it some more thought and try to make it more effective. Look at other artists to see how they’re doing it. Too often, beginners try to re-invent the wheel rather than learn from their predecessors. The next most obvious and easily corrected things are the lettering font and word balloons. Contrary to what you might think, lettering is very important in comics. And by very important, I mean extremely important. It’s right there, integrated into the art, and therefore becomes part of the art. Hand lettering is really the way to go if you want to add a real personal, artistic touch. But what am I, a dinosaur? Even very few comic books or newspaper strips use that anymore. Computer lettering is simply much faster and easier. However, the choice of font still makes a big difference. You want to use a font that has some visual appeal, and a comic art feel to it. What you don’t want to do is what Samantha’s done here, and use the dreaded Comic Sans MS. It’s on everyone’s computer, and because it has the word “comic” in the name,

everyone thinks, “Aha, here’s a good comic font.” Well, no, it isn’t. It’s borrrrrring. There are a few other, more attractive free fonts available if you take the trouble to look. But if you’re going to go to the trouble of doing a web comic, go ahead and spend the 20 bucks and buy a real comic font from www.blambot.com. After all, you’re not drawing the strip with crayons, are you? Do you want it to look professional or not? You’re putting a lot of time and effort into the art. Don’t negate that by skimping on the lettering. Sound effect fonts can be purchased, too, or you can draw them. They really add interest, so don’t miss this chance to be artistic. People love sound effects. Have fun with them. And don’t forget to use boldface italic to emphasize certain words, instead of making every word the same, like a monotone computer voice. There’s a lot of text in this strip, so make it as interesting and fun to read as possible. And then, of course, there’s the problem of the word balloons. It’s easy enough to use the ellipse tool in Photoshop, but see how that creates a balloon that’s often either too tight around the lettering, or has too much empty space at the top and bottom? You need to spend some time creating balloons of various shapes and sizes by piecing together different ellipses. It takes some time at first, but you can then copy and paste them as needed, and manipulate them to make them just right. As my mother always said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing right.” DRAW! • FALL 2011

SPOTLIGHT

BROOKLYN’S RENAISSANCE MAN

the deAN HASPIeL interview Interview conducted via phone by danny Fingeroth on March 22, 2011 and transcribed by Steven Tice

DRAW! • FALL 2011

SPIDER-MAN ™ AND © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

mmy award-winning artist, Dean Haspiel, is a native New Yorker who created the Eisner Award-nominated Billy Dogma, the semi-autobiographical Street Code, and helped pioneer personal webcomics with the invention of ACT-I-VATE. Dino has collaborated on many great superhero and semi-autobiographical comic books published by Marvel, DC, Vertigo, Dark Horse, Image, Top Shelf, Scholastic, Toon Books, and The New York Times, including collaborations with Harvey Pekar, Jonathan Ames, and Inverna Lockpez, and draws for HBO’s Bored to Death, for which he won an Emmy for his contributions to the opening title sequence. Dean is a founding member of Hang Dai Studios in Brooklyn, NY and steeps in psychotronic movies, cosmic electronica, and Jack Kirby pulp. His website is www.deanhaspiel.com.

DANNY FINGEROTH: Let’s start with some of the basic ques-

tions, Dean. Where did you grow up, and were you a comics fan as a kid? DEAN HASPIEL: I was born in New York Hospital, so I’m a true-blue New Yorker, and my first address was around 71st Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and I believe, a year or so later, when my brother arrived, we moved to 79th Street and Broadway. There were two competing newsstands catty-corner to each other that sold comic books, and I don’t know if somebody gave me a comic book, or I saw it on the newsstand because they were so prominent and colorful, but I remember at age twelve declaring that I was going to become a cartoonist no matter what, because I loved comics so much. I think my very first memories of having loyalty for comics, or certain titles, were Fantastic Four, and what at that time was called Shazam!, because I believe that DC didn’t have the right to call it “Captain Marvel” because of the word “Marvel.” And, of course, I read Spider-Man, Iron Man, Marvel Twoin-One, maybe some Batman and Green Lantern, but I also remember becoming much more of a Marvel fan over DC. I don’t know why. Maybe I was getting my Batman from the Batman TV series, and I thought it was kind of corny.

DH: Like lunch and gym, there was a basic art class in my elementary and junior high school years, but I majored in art at Music & Art cum LaGuardia High School where the teachers always shunned comics. Comics weren’t “real” art. Real art was painting, and sculpture, and photography. And I remember, at that point, feeling a little rebellious. Like, “Really? You don’t like comic books because you have this perception that they’re only power fantasies for twelve-year-old boys?” And, y’know, to be frank, a lot of them were. DF: Of course, you were a twelve-year-old boy at the time. DH: And I was a twelve-year-old boy. But, a few years later, I

remember having another kind of milestone moment when I went down to Soho, and there was a store called Soho Zat. It was largely a clothing/hipster kind of store—jewelry and all this kind of stuff. But I remember they had comic books and records and maybe some movies. That’s where I discovered Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor and Chester Brown’s Yummy Fur.

DF: Where would you have seen the

Batman TV series? You were born after the Batman TV series. DH: If you remember, there was a deluge of reruns. Like, how could I have watched the original Star Trek series? Batman was being rerun all the time, and, ultimately, there was horror from the Chiller Theater reruns, as well, late at night. So I grew up on Hammer horror, Universal Pictures, Godzilla, Planet of the Apes, The Abbott and Costello Show—the Saturday morning cartoons. That was my “Golden Age” of pop culture. DF: Were you drawing before you saw comics, or did comics make you want to draw? DH: I was drawing before comics, and I also distinctly remember seeing ads, maybe for toy soldiers, or a battleship—painted ads of people going into battle or something like that. I would take the gauntlet that had been thrown down in these images and tell these little stories of these soldiers going off to war. I drew little mini-war comics as a kid, but I never read war comics, which is odd. I guess, again, I was kind of reaching out for the things that weren’t always in my life. So if I saw a Batman TV show, it didn’t necessarily encourage me to go read a Batman comic, because I was already getting my stories of Batman that way. But then, I’d pick up other stuff in other mediums just to kind of get a collective whole, as it were. DF: So, with that declaration at age twelve, did you take art classes

in school?

DF: So they had underground comics there. DH: I had heard of underground comics, and I was probably

aware of R. Crumb. Maybe I didn’t know his name at the time, but I remember on the Upper West Side there was a tobacco store that sold funny-looking paraphernalia in the back with these little clips with fur and these weird glass tubes and stuff, and I think they might have sold some oddball comics behind the glass case. But I never reached my hand over and asked to see them. Maybe I was just more locked into the superhero mode, at the time, as a kid. And those comics behind the glass case felt like adult comics when I looked at them, so I kind of respected that was for grownups. I mean, I came to [novelist] Charles Bukowski in my late 30s, so I was not diving into that kind of thing as a kid—although my father, who is a movie buff and film aficionado, would show me adult films. And I don’t mean porno, but stuff that maybe kids weren’t necessarily watching, like old Hollywood noirs, spaghetti westerns, Marilyn Monroe, and musicals. That’s where my love for film comes from, my father. So, going back to comics, my declaration, it kind of made me unemployable in that DRAW! • FALL 2011

Cyclops faces off against classic Captain America villains, Baron Zemo and Batroc in this panel from 2011’s Cyclops #1. ALL CHARACTERS ™ AND © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

often because my father knew a bunch of people, Hollywood actors. My godmother was Shelley Winters. My mother was the deputy director for the New York State Council of the Arts. My father knew Marilyn Monroe. My brother was going to the Actor’s Studio to study acting. So I was always around really good storytellers. DF: Didn’t you go to school with Larry O’Neil? DH: High school is where I met Larry O’Neil, who is the son of famous comics writer/editor, Denny O’Neil.

I was fixated. When you’re weighing your options of who to be and how to be—I was fixated on storytelling, on becoming a cartoonist. DF: So you went to SUNY [State University of New York] at Purchase, which is an arts-oriented school, right? DH: Yeah. I basically rejected college after high school for about two years, and I worked odd jobs like construction management. I was a takeout manager at a health food restaurant, stuff like that. And I wound up almost every weekend, or every other weekend, going to the college that my best friends went to that was close by, and that was SUNY Purchase. So, in a weird way, by proxy, I started to become the “fifth Beatle” of my friends in the university to the point where I finally broke down and said, “All right, I guess I’ll try to get into college.” But, of course, I couldn’t afford anything, because, at that point, my parents had split, and my brother went to live with my mom in Brooklyn, and I stayed with my father in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, so money was tight. But once I expressed interest in going to college, both my parents decided they would figure out a way to get me into SUNY Purchase if I could get in. And I did, and luckily, SUNY Purchase at that time was one of the more affordable colleges to get into. I obviously got in for art, but at that point, when I was about 20 years old, I loved comics and I still kind of drew comics and dabbled in the form, but my interest had transitioned to film. Again, storytelling. If it’s not static fiction, it’s moving pictures with sound. Yes, they’re completely different mediums, but a light bulb went on over my head and I decided, “Oh, I want to show stories.” So, whether comics or movies, television or theater, it was something I’d been interested in. I grew up in a household where my parents were great orators. My dad could spin a good yarn, my mom told great stories, we were surrounded by actors

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DF: Did you go to one of those specialized high schools? DH: We went to Music & Art. And then, in our senior year, Music & Art got married to Performing Arts and became LaGuardia High School. That was 1985. In 1985 Denny alerted Larry, who was also a budding cartoonist/filmmaker, that Howard Chaykin was looking for an assistant. Howard shared a studio in the Garment District of New York with Walter Simonson and Jim Sherman. Previous studio-mates were Frank Miller and Jim Starlin. DF: Bill Sienkiewicz was in that building, also? DH: Well, this is what happened. Larry got the gig as Howard’s

assistant. He started working, when he got wind that Bill Sienkiewicz had moved down the hall with Denys Cowan and Michael Davis, and Bill said he wanted an assistant. I remember walking into the office and getting the gig with Bill and thinking, gosh, my art style at that point was nothing like Bill’s, and I was wondering, “How is this going to work out?” But Bill was very kind and allowed me to do a bunch of backgrounds on New Mutants. I was honored to be working on something that I felt I really wasn’t ready for. I aired my frustrations of working with Bill, because, on the one hand, he was allowing me to do backgrounds, but he wasn’t necessarily teaching me anything, and he was often either not at his own studio, or on the phone talking to writers or whoever. So I would go hang out with Larry and Howard, especially on days when Bill wasn’t there, and I was just working on stuff. And then, eventually, Howard took pity on me. He was working on a monthly book, American Flagg!, and I think the schedule was getting tough. So he decided to hire me away from Bill. Eventually Bill split from his own studio, anyway. I think he was coming in from Connecticut all the time. He wanted to be in Manhattan and feel the vibe, as it were, get energized by the

whole tradition of making comics in New York City, but I believe that he just split back to Connecticut, and then eventually I think he moved to California. Anyway, I had become friendly with Denys Cowan and Michael Davis, and I remember Denys was working on V, the comic for the TV show, and on Vigilante, both for DC Comics.

DF: Were you doing the same kind of things for Walt? DH: I was in a room with Larry, Howard, Walter, and Jim

Sherman. Jim was a really cool, mellow dude. So, we’re working with Howard and getting friendly with Walter, who, for all intents and purposes, I dubbed the “Mr. Rogers of comics” because he’s just so giving and sweet. But I think what happened is that he had had a couple of assistants and they had left to go to college or DF: Were you aware of how groundbreaking and how different something like that, or maybe they weren’t working out or something, but once in a while I would help Walter, who is so stylized American Flagg! was when you were working on it? DH: I was. I really was. In fact, when I even look at it in today, and has a very particular way he draws. There’s this machine it’s still groundbreaking. American Flagg! is still ahead of its called an Artograph. The Artograph basically would take a time. It’s magical. It’s incredible. And, yes, I do remember thumbnail layout, let’s say, that could be a few inches tall, or it feeling honored to be working on a book that was going to prob- could even be as large as an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper, and you ably stand the test of time. And Howard actually taught me by could use it to draw the same thing at a larger size. Walt would proxy how to make comics. He’s the master of the inset panel, have me transfer his layouts to two-ply Bristol board paper. At and I remember seeing insets before, but never really employed that time, he was working on Thor. My job was to try and capthem in my own work ture the energy of what until working on he was going for in his American Flagg! for own thumbnails, which, Howard. And then there again, was really hard— was the whole art of to wrap your hand and Craftint, which was a your mind around another whole other thing. It’s artist’s sensibility and kind of a lost art, especialjust be able to transfer ly now, with Photoshop. that. So the idea was to So Larry and I were take those thumbnails, painting Craftint, doing transfer them to the boards backgrounds. And we’d so that he could then go have to get reference for to full pencils, and make the backgrounds. And, whatever tweaks he had you know, back then, we to make from there. That didn’t have Google and was about the extent of the Internet, so Howard my helping out Walter. and Walter both had these It’s possible that I did a huge file cabinets of clipbackground building or pings they would have in two or something, I don’t folders. recall now. But I remember feeling like I did a lot more heavy lifting for DF: That’s what they used to call “swipe files.” Howard on American Flagg! with the backDH: Exactly. And if you didn’t have a book that grounds versus Walter, had a lot of good referwhere he had truly created Billy Dogma receives a message from his girl, Jane Legit. ence in it, there would be a visual lexicon. It was BILLy DOgMA ™ AND © DEAN HASPIEL clippings from magahis toaster, it would be zines. Back then, they would subscribe to a bunch of magazines, his person, his Thor, his frog, his fantasy, and his reality. It was and whenever they could get a piece of good reference, it would really hard to ape that, especially as a student. be filed away under a specific title. It was a really exciting time. I remember learning perspective. You know, this was always DF: Did you help either one with writing at all, or plotting? after school, during my senior year of high school, so we’d split DH: I might have thrown an idea or a reaction or two. Nothing school around three o’clock. Larry and I would split school substantial. I mean, Howard is so specific, his characterizations together, grab a slice of pizza, hop on the subway from, like, and his ideas, his “totalitarian utopia.” [laughter] And then there’s 67th Street or whatever it was in Lincoln Center, down to the Walter doing his groundbreaking run on Thor that he’d been Garment District—I think the studio was on 29th Street—and wanting to do since high school. Walt was doing his riff on Jack work for, say, three hours, until Howard and/or Walter would split Kirby and much more. I think at the time I was aware of Jack Kirby, for the night and balance their career with their home life. but I hadn’t become as impacted and loyal to Kirby as I am now. Nowadays, geez, I wish I could leave my studio at seven o’clock So I was still reading whatever my peers were reading and digging at night. I’m usually leaving around ten or eleven, sometimes one the likes of Ron Wilson, Kerry Gammill, and Keith Pollard, the superhero artists of my youth. This British-Canadian, John Byrne, in the morning. DRAW! • FALL 2011

DF: You’re a very social person, starting with the Internet, and then in real life. How big a part is the Internet in your social interaction, and how big a part is just getting along with people important to a career in comics? DH: Well, getting along with people is important, but, then, I’ve never been a pushover, and so that can get me in trouble. I mean, my mom was the deputy director for the New York State Council of the Arts, so you’d think I would have learned a thing or two, because she knows how to be formidable yet diplomatic. Meanwhile, my dad was the opposite. He was egocentric, and he is very auteur-oriented and mono-fixated in what he knows. Very authoritative. So I had this pendulum between being diplomatic, and then also being authoritative. I think I toggle between the two, and I feel, as I get older and gain confidence, I realize that, actually, when you’re really good at something, don’t be a d*ck about it. [Danny laughs] Try to actually be confident in the work. I also realized later, as I was writing stories and was in my rebellious phase, I would probably tell dark stories, or humorless stories, or stories that had no message. I realized that what I’m trying to do nowadays when I write something, even if it’s one page long, it should have some sense of hope, or a sense of message, or delivering a testimony of life, because that’s the stuff that I’d want to read. And, also, it’s really important to entertain. As much as the truth is important, entertainment is as important. DF: And you’re even doing some editing, aren’t you?

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DH: Well, I edit people, but there are some people you don’t have to edit. At most, you just put up a goalpost. DF: But knowing that is part of being a good editor. DH: My word for what I do now is “curate.” So, sure, if I’m

working with somebody on something, and it’s just garbage, or it just derails, I have to decide, “Okay, am I going to sit here and insert my sensibility, or do I have to look at what they’re trying to achieve and talk to them about that, and make the answers come from them?” DF: What’s your role in ACT-I-VATE? DH: ACT-I-VATE is more of a curated thing. But, on the other

hand, I created this idea called “Next Door Neighbor” for Smith magazine, and I edited all those stories. But some of that “editing” was basically me saying, “Send it to me at the deadlines.” DF: Would you go over somebody’s script, in some cases? DH: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Regarding “Next-Door Neighbor,” it

started with, “Send me an idea before you draw it.” And we build it from there. Some people need more handling than others, but story and clarity thereof is what is key and it’s my job as editor to insure the success of the author’s intent. So, to answer the question of what would I do if I didn’t do comics... maybe I’d become a 21st Century Harvey Kurtzman, a cartoonist who curates and edits. My favorite process of comics is layouts. Once

we figure out the story, how’s it going to look? So the challenge for me is to figure it out in the layouts, and once I feel happy with my layouts, after that it’s just craft and execution. So, in a weird way, I hate to say this, it becomes a little boring for me after the layouts because I’ve figured out the main solutions. The challenge has been met. Now I have to go make it look good. And, I’ve got to say, there are so many better artists out there, and this is a tip of my hat to Josh Neufeld, who can execute the story once it’s been figured out much better in rendering than I can. And I’m very aware of that. It’s not a competition. Going back to the indie versus mainstream thing, do you want me to draw your franchise character? Maybe not, but I also have my own characters that nobody else should draw. That’s the balance between, “Okay, I’m going to do my own thing,” and “I’ll try my hand at other people’s things.” So, in a weird way, a trajectory of my career, if I were to be so bold, is like a Frank Miller or Paul Pope. You know, Paul Pope has his THB and upcoming Battling Boy, but when he does Batman, you’re buying a Paul Pope comic. You’re not buying a Batman comic. And the same thing with Frank Miller. He has Sin City, but then, when you buy Dark Knight Returns, you’re buying Frank Miller’s Batman. You’re not buying, necessarily, the perennial Batman, but you’re buying a great story, a great yarn, by Frank Miller.

(above) A page from “Bzzt,” Dean’s contribution to Smith magazine’s “Next Door Neighbor” webcomic series. (below) Pencils from “Bring Me the Heart of Billy Dogma,” from ACT-I-VATE Primer. BILLy DOgMA ™ AND © DEAN HASPIEL

DF: If somebody offered you a job as an editor, either at Marvel, or at Dark Horse, or wherever...? DH: I would consider it. I see myself almost as a book packager in some ways, sometimes, more than an editor, because I think an editor has to go along the lines of poking guys, “What are we doing this year with all our characters?” And you sit in a room, and you battle it out, and then you go and make it happen. DF: Well, that’s one kind of editing. At more independently-oriented publishers I’d think it’s different. DH: Sure, yeah, I would absolutely. I actually would like to do that. DF: I think you’d be good at it. DH: Thanks, Danny. I do it anyway, behind the scenes. I might as well get paid for it and

get a credit. [laughs] DF: Who or what is Billy Dogma?

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by BReT BLeVINS and MIKe MANLeY

hether it’s the curled lock of a hero’s mane, the sultry locks and tresses of a superheroine or bad girl, or the oddly spiked do of the typical anime character, hair is a big part of a character’s look, design, and appeal. So drawing hair well is very important to the cartoonist or animator. It’s especially important when drawing the female characters, as it plays a big part of their sexiness and appeal.

A lot of characters can be identified by their hair alone—or lack thereof. Lex Luthor and Homer Simpson share a lot in common. So in this Bootcamp installment, Bret and I will focus in on the curls and locks and the how-to of illustrating the hairdos of comics and animation. To start with, I think we need to really get into the historical angle on this drawing issue. The illustrating of popular hairstyles has always been a very important item for the artist to keep up with. From the days of the golden age of illustration, artists have always tried to keep up with, and in many cases set the trends of fashion. The Gibson Girl and the Arrow Collar Man are just two examples where the artist actually helped set the fashion trends of their day and were hugely influential. Both J.C. Lyendecker (the Arrow shirt ads) and Charles Dana Gibson (The Gibson Girl) were leading illustrators whose work was seen by millions of readers, as well as probably thousands of artists. Their influence was immense, and you can see their stylistic influence on the early artists who emulated their style in the comics of the ’20s, ’30s, and on. Their success in illustration came from real life observation of the models and the stylization based on that observation, and 70

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that will be a key principle we will operate with here. In order to have a true understanding of something like hair, it is not enough to simply copy the style of other artists who do hair well and to give it your own twist, you need to do some drawing from observation as well. In this case, working from photos is great, and I suggest buying the current fashion magazines. There are even magazines devoted only to hair styles. It’s essential to stay up with the current fashion in styles to keep your work looking contemporary. It’s all too clear when looking at an artist’s work if they are running on a default model of drawing hairstyles based on old comic work. We can sometimes forget that when so many of the iconic characters were created or the important work was done on a series the artists behind that work were drawing contemporary styles of fashion and hairstyles. Who knows if Siegel and Shuster would design Superman today the same way that they did in the late ’30s. However, no matter the decade, there are guiding principles that will help when illustrating hair: ■ Hair conforms to the planes of the head. ■ Hair reacts to gravity at all times, even in motion.

■ Women’s hair flows away from the head; it’s not pasted on. ■ Simplify: Break the hair down into simpler strands or bands of hair. Less is more, and it looks sleeker and sexier. (In animation, simplification of a character’s hair is essential to keep the drawing easier and consistently on model. Also, unlike comics where you can cheat things more, the hair has to work in all views for the complete character turnaround.) ■ Wavy or curly hair is like a wave in the water. There is a peak and a valley to each curl, the highlight occurring at the peak that is facing the light source. ■ Highlights in hair, dark or light, reflect the light source. Keep a consistent light source across the form. This rule applies no matter what the drawing style, be it anime or more realistic illustration. ■ Texture: The detail of a character’s hair can vary. The texture in the hair can really add spice or lushness, especially when illustrating women or monsters, witches and other strange characters. With comics and illustration, the amount of texture or middle tone rendering can show the difference between a blonde and a red head without the use of color.

Draw hair as overlapping bands or strands.

light source

Think of hair as flowing waves. light source In cartoony or anime style drawings, the highlights can be a simple band of reflection.

Highlights are at the top of the wave, or where the form/plane turns.

In visual art the appearance of hair is usually most effective if treated primarily as an arrangement of shape(s) that suggest its nature and character, rather than attempting to render it naturalistically. There is simply too much detail to cope with if one holds in mind the literal fact of so many separate, extremely fine forms; thinking of the problem as an uncountable mass of individual hairs conforming to create an overall shape is more difficult and confusing than conceiving the hair as a solid shape in which an occasional strand or lock is discernible. The second approach also has more visual appeal. It reads quickly, doesn’t draw attention to itself, and more clearly defines other important information: the shape and direction of movement (or stillness) of the head; the distinction between a breeze, wind or gale; and the character of the specific hair itself—wet, oily, dry, thin, thick,

naturally hanging or stiffened and shaped into a specific style/effect, and so on. Hair is a necessary and useful device in a purely aesthetic sense as well. The flowing shapes of long hair are useful for creating a peaceful, alluring, gentle or mysterious mood. Wildly blowing hair can suggest action, wildness, fright, instability, nervousness. Tight, rigid coiffures can suggest inhibition, lack of empathy, cruelty, severity. Loose, casual hair might suggest an easy-going nature, relaxed comfort, a friendly attitude—or perhaps a careless, slovenly, distracted, or absentminded personality. In short, the hair is another tool for storytelling, for creating and communicating character, beyond the obvious factual information of setting, time, and place via its particular style or fashion. DRAW! • FALL 2011

HELPFUL REMINDERS WHEN DRAWING HAIR: 1. The hair does not emanate uniformly from the scalp. As the sides of the head drop steeply away from the crown, the angle of the follicles change, as seen in these diagrams. This is why the hair rises up from a part along the top plane of the head, then hangs closer to the surface as the downward planes drop toward and past the ears.

2. In this chart you can see how the mass of hair lifts from the top of the head, then gravity and the turning angles of the follicles cause the hair to hang steeply downward.

3. The arrow here describes the flow of her hair—up from the scalp, then curving over, down, and curving again forward towards her face. This can be a natural tendency of an individual’s hair or shaped by conditioning. Also indicated here is the highlight, which always follows the most protruding plane (usually where a form or plane changes direction).

4. The arrows here trace the direction of the form, showing the highlight on the foremost edge of the plane, nearest the light source.

5. The diagrams here show how the fluid masses of the hair react to the force of wind. The hair is much lighter than the head, of course, but its own weight does dictate how it behaves. The undulating wave pattern and interlocking, overlapping large “grouping” of massed hair described by the arrows reveals not only its own character, but the direction the wind is blowing.

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A. Here I’ve charted the big directional changes in the hair’s mass and rhythm. Notice how the complicated sequence of braids has been simplified into large, easy to “read” shapes. Once the main shapes have been clearly established, any amount of detail can be added (though usually the simpler the better).

B. Here the complex patterns have again been simplified, but in the second drawing the hair has been reduced almost to a silhouette and still reads clearly. Always think of this contour shape first, and your work will be stronger.

C. The key here is the straight drop caused by gravity. The hair is thin, close to the scalp. It hardly rises at all from the top plane of the head, then drops down, curving only slightly as the lower part is pressed forward by the planes of the upper chest.

D. This hair style is more contrived than the others shown here. The neat shape of the central mass and bangs form an aesthetic contrast with the loosely gathered masses on top. Then carefully “plucked” strands are pulled free. The same has been done to create the strands falling from around her ears. The entire silhouette easily reads as a mass, though, because the shape has been accented by an awareness of attractive rhythm. Don’t include every stray or wild strand that would likely be there in reality. Choose each mark you make for visual clarity.

E. The large sweep of hair rising, then following the underlying shape of the scalp is simply but clearly indicated here. The hair is combed back from the face and allowed to lay down over the head. If thick enough and with the proper wave, it may behave this way naturally, otherwise it can be held by gel or hair spray.

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