Issuu

SCOTT WILLIAMS FRANK MILLER MILLER & KLAUS JANSON

82658 27764

BOB McLEOD

PLUS:

JAMAR NICHOLAS

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! #3 skills as layout, penciling, inking, Inking by DICK GIORDANO, interlettering, coloring, Photoshop techview with animator/director CHRIS niques, plus web guides, tips, tricks, BAILEY, “how-to” on web comics, BRET BLEVINS’ “Figures in Action,” and a handy reference source—this PAUL RIVOCHE on “Design for magazine has it all! comics and animation,” a discussion of trademarks and copyrights, NOTE: Some issues contain nudity for drawing tips, and more! purposes of figure drawing. (80-page magazine) SOLD OUT INTENDED FOR MATURE READERS. (Digital Edition) $2.95

DRAW! #7

DRAW! #8

DRAW! #9

DRAW! #4

DRAW! #5

DRAW! #6

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!

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!

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(96-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

DRAW! #10

DRAW! #11

DRAW! #12

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!

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!

(96-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95

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DRAW! #13

DRAW! #14

DRAW! #15

DRAW! #16

DRAW! #17

DRAW! #18

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!

Interview and tutorial with Scott Pilgrim’s BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY on how he creates the acclaimed series, learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS creates his series, more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

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!

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(84-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

DRAW! #19

DRAW! #20

DRAW! #21

DOUG BRAITHWAITE demo and interview, DANNY FINGEROTH begins a new regular feature on writer/artists, starting off with R. SIKORYAK, 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!

WALTER SIMONSON interview and demo, Rough Stuff’s BOB McLEOD gives a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, Write Now’s DANNY FINGEROTH spotlights writer/artist AL JAFFEE, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the best art supplies and tool technology, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS offer “Comic Art Bootcamp” lessons, plus Web links, book reviews, and more!

Urban Barbarian DAN PANOSIAN talks shop about his gritty, designinspired work with editor MIKE MANLEY, DANNY FINGEROTH interviews “Billy Dogma” writer/artist DEAN HASPIEL, plus more of MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, product and art supply reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

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THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS & CARTOONING WWW.DRAW-MAGAZINE.BLOGSPOT.COM

SPRING 2012

CONTENTS

VOL. 1, NO. 22 Editor-in-Chief • Michael Manley Designer • Eric Nolen-Weathington Publisher • John Morrow Logo Design • John Costanza Proofreader • Eric Nolen-Weathington Front Cover Illustration • Scott Williams DRAW! Spring 2012, Vol. 1, No. 22 was produced by Action Planet, Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michael Manley, Editor, John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Address: DRAW! Magazine, c/o Michael Manley, 430 Spruce Ave., Upper Darby, PA 19082. Subscription Address: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614.

SCOTT WILLIAMS Mike Manley interviews the influential inker, and Scott goes step by step through his process

COMIC ART BOOTCAMP “Illustration” by Mike Manley

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 ©2012 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.

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42 58

FRANK MILLER Danny Fingeroth interviews the industry Legend

MILLER/JANSON An art gallery featuring one of the greatest collaborations in comics’ history

PLEASE READ THIS: This is copyrighted material, NOT intended for downloading anywhere except our website. If you downloaded it from another website or torrent, go ahead and read it, and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal download, or a printed copy (which entitles you to the free Digital Edition) at our website or your local comic book shop. Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR COMPUTER and DO NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, please pay for them so we can keep producing ones like this. Our digital editions should ONLY be downloaded at

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72 75

THE CRUSTY CRITIC Jamar Nicholas reviews the tools of the trade. This month: Ink.

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

DRAWING AHEAD ’d like to thank everyone who made this issue of DRAW! one of the best ever in my opinion. Hats off to Scott Williams, who took time out of his very busy schedule to share his thoughts on inking and his awesome step-by-step demos. Big kudos for my old Darkhawk partner, Danny Fingeroth, and comics legend Frank Miller for this issue’s long-awaited interview. I’ve wanted to cover Miller in the pages of DRAW! from the very beginning, and here he is at last! A special shout out and thanks goes to Klaus Janson for opening his personal files to really illuminate his collaboration with Miller in this issue’s gallery section; it’s great to get a glimpse into their iconic run on Daredevil. They certainly were one of the great teams of comics on one of the best runs of comics in Marvel’s storied history, and their work still reaches out and influences the writers and artists working in comics today. Thanks also go out to my regular crew of Bob McLeod, Jamar Nicholas, Bret Blevins, and, of course, John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington for putting the issue together and getting it out to you. Make sure you visit our blog, draw-magazine. blogspot.com, and check in for updates and additional art, as well as some web-only interviews I have planned. As always your feedback is critical and wanted. Who are the artists you’d like to see interviewed? What are the tutorials and lessons and skills you’d like to see covered? Let me know!

Artistic Interpretation by Bret Blevins

E-mail: mike@drawmagazine.com Website: www.draw-magazine.blogspot.com Snail mail: DRAW! Magazine 430 Spruce Avenue Upper Darby, PA 19082

Now go DRAW! something,

COMING IN JULY: DRAW! #23 DRAW! #23 (80 pages with color, $7.95), the professional “how-to” magazine on comics and animation, gets webbed up with top flight penciler PATRICK OLIFFE, as he demos how he produces such comics as Spider-Girl, his recent revival of Dark Horse’s Mighty Samson, and digital comics for Marvel. Then, JORGE KHOURY presents a comprehensive look at the career of AL WILLIAMSON, as the man and his work are remembered by ANGELO TORRES, BRET BLEVINS, MARK SCHULTZ, TOM YEATES, ALEX ROSS, RICK VEITCH, and others, including an examination of Al’s working process. Plus, there’s another installment of MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, product and art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more! Edited by MIKE MANLEY. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues in the US: $30 Standard, $40 First Class, $11.80 Digital Only NEW LOWER RATES OUTSIDE THE US: Canada: $43, Elsewhere: $54 Surface, $78 Airmail

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fandom. TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Interview conducted by Mike Manley and transcribed by Steven Tice

PUNISHER ™ AND © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

n recent times there has been quite a lot of talk about the state and future of comic art and the comic book inker. Will comics still be inked in a traditional way, or will everything go digital, the penciler tweaking things in Photoshop and thus not needing an inker? A huge ground shift has happened in the craft of comics in many areas; the digital wave has hit every aspect, from production to the way pencilers and inkers work together. Now pages don’t always physically leave the penciler to be inked as they have for decades. Instead pages are often sent via email. Long gone are the days of pages sent only via FedEx or the mail. The rise of the inker in the ’60s at the Big Two, Marvel and DC, really developed and enshrined inkers who set house styles for each company, chiefly Joe Sinnott at Marvel and Murphy Anderson followed by Dick Giordano at DC. Over the next two decades the role of the inker grew even more important in the production of comic book art, the next generation of inker being trained at times by or being assistants of the previous generation. The ’80s and ’90s saw the coming of superstar inkers like Terry Austin, Joe Rubinstein, and Klaus Janson, to just name a few, and pencilers actually vied to have specific inkers on their work. The style of comic art also changed, becoming slicker and even more detailed. In the late ’80s Scott Williams began his rise to the top of the inking profession with his work teamed with penciler Jim Lee. Williams continued to gain popularity and influence to become perhaps the most important and dominant inker style-wise of the ’90s, thanks to his work on X-Men. Williams became even more influential when the top Marvel artists bolted to form Image Comics, which became the dominate publisher in terms of artistic style. DRAW! Magazine editor, Mike Manley, caught up with the always-in-demand Scott Williams to talk about the profession of inking, past, present, and future. DRAW! • SPRING 2012

(above) A double-page spread from Uncanny X-Men #267, early in Jim Lee and Scott’s collaboration as the title’s art team. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. (next page) This cover for Conan #220 marks the third published appearance of the team of Jim Lee and Scott Williams. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. X-MEN AND ALL RELATED CHARACTERS ™ AND © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC. CONAN ™ AND © CONAN PROPERTIES INTERNATIONAL, LLC.

DRAW!: So what are you working on today? SCOTT WILLIAMS: I am working on Justice League over Jim

However, I wasn’t working with Jim exclusively during all those years by any stretch.

Lee. DRAW!: Right, there were a bunch of other artists you worked DRAW!: Is that going to be an ongoing series, or are you just

with, but he is probably your longest collaboration—

doing a couple of issues? SW: Have you followed any of the news about the DC relaunch?

SW: Oh, without a doubt. And, clearly, he’s the elephant in the

DRAW!: Yeah, but I’m not up on the specifics of each title. SW: Got it. Yes, Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, and I are doing a Justice

League re-launch. It’s part of the big new push from DC in 2011. They are really trying to do some different things, and it should be cool. DRAW!: So how long have you been working with Jim, now?

About 20 years, right? SW: Yeah. We started off on a couple issues of Punisher War Journal, whenever that was; it must have been the late ’80s. And then we did a few fill-ins of Uncanny X-Men, again, probably right around 1990, and then right after that we got a regular X-Men gig. So, you’re talking over 20 years at this point.

DRAW! • SPRING 2012

room from the standpoint of, y’know, there hasn’t been anybody bigger than Jim over the course of the last 20 years, so he’s definitely the guy that I’m most known for, without a doubt. DRAW!: What would you say, if anything, is the difference

between inking Jim now and inking Jim then? SW: I think that there is definitely a difference. And I don’t

know how much of it is a function of the way he draws versus a function of the way that I ink. And, also, just the natural progression that an artist goes through, some of it calculated, some of it just organic. People go through transitions where what was important in the past changes, and what’s important now evolves. DRAW!: So what are the differences of importance now?

DRAW! • SPRING 2012

DRAW!: The other thing that’s really different now from when we started is that marker technology has gone through the roof. In the old days, only guys like Gil Kane or Toth would be using markers. SW: Sharpies. Yeah, they used Sharpies that turned purple after a few years. I used to do a little bit of Sharpie work, just to touch up some line work or spot a few blacks. Wouldn’t touch them today. DRAW!: Yeah, but now the markers are amazing. You can do all kinds of stuff with markers. SW: The problem that I have with the markers, like the Microns and the Pitt pens or whatnot, is that you have to be careful when you’re erasing the pages, because the marker work tends to come up, to lighten up. While it probably doesn’t come up enough to where it causes much of a problem from a scanning standpoint, it just looks so light to me that I have to be careful that you don’t have to adjust the scanning thresholds. That alone can create some problems if you have dark ink next to light ink. As a result, most of the marker work that I use now I just use for touch-up, and that’s after a page has been inked, and it’s already been erased, and I just want to beef up some line weights or add some detail or fix some things. Then they come in real handy. I can just go in and nothing’s going to have to be erased. I’ll go in and use the markers for that. But for primary inking work, they just don’t cover enough. It doesn’t stay on the page. And, having said that, when we were talking about the poor quality of tools, I don’t think ink is as good as it used to be. It doesn’t seem to stay on the page as well as it used to. DRAW!: No, they changed the formula. SW: The changed the formula for toxicity and/or environmental

purposes, I think, and so even erasing brushwork is now problematic. I have to be really careful about how to erase that stuff.

DRAW! • SPRING 2012

DRAW!: Yeah, I know guys like Terry Austin were very much

about making sure that blacks were really dense. Al Williamson or Frazetta would let the ink be more watery and that lent to their inking styles. I’m a hoarder, so I still have some good old ink that I bought years ago that I still use, but, yeah, it’s not as good now. So what’s your favorite ink now? SW: Well, I totally agree with you as far as the ink goes. Right now I’m actually using, right out of the bottle, Rapidograph Ultradraw 3085-F Ink for Paper and Film. And for no other reason than that’s what I’ve been using for several years. I used to use Pelican back in the day, but they kept changing their formulas, and eventually it just wasn’t dark enough. I used to be very anal about everything having to be really jet black. I’ve completely changed on that. I don’t care at all. As long as it’s black enough. This Rapidograph ink seems to flow off my brush, and that’s the biggest thing. I need ink that’s going to go down pretty dark, that’s going to flow off my brush, I won’t need to add a second coat, and right now the Ultradraw seems to work okay. There might be other things out there. I know some guys go through complex mixtures and whatnot— DRAW!: [laughs] Like alchemists! SW: Yes, to go through the trouble of making mixtures, and

adding ammonia, and all the crap that people do.... If it works for them, God bless ’em, but I’m really a little bit more about instant gratification when it comes to the tools. I have no patience for crappy tools. If I pull out a brush—it could be a 30 dollar brush—if I put two lines down and they don’t work, that brush goes into the trash. I’m not interested in babying it and using it for filling in blacks later on. It’s just not my personality. I’m not going to keep banging my head against the wall and expecting different results. It’s just not going to happen. I’ve said it before,

STEP BY STEP—JUSTICE LEAGUE: A detail shot of Scott’s initial inking (previous page) for the cover of Justice League #1 shows him starting with the foreground figures. With each stage he works farther back, spotting blacks as he goes, though he does not usually complete each figure before moving on to the next. With Batman (right) he only leaves the larger black areas of his pants and cape. ALL CHARACTERS ™ AND © DC COMICS

DRAW! • SPRING 2012

(above) N.C. Wyeth provided covers and illustrations for many classic children’s novels. (right) Norman Rockwell’s paintings graced many a cover of The Saturday Evening Post. (below) James Bama is best known for his Doc Savage book covers. DOC SAVAGE ™ AND © CONDE NAST.

his time out with “Comic Book Bootcamp” we are going to delve into the emerald realm of Sherwood Forest and the world of illustration. In the last year I have had the opportunity to illustrate two book covers featuring Robin Hood for the fine folks at Airship 27. I have always loved illustration, specifically the golden age of American Illustration. Norman Rockwell, Dean Cornwell, and N.C. Wyeth are three of my favorite artists in any field. I have always thought of illustration as a sister field for comic artists and cartoonists to work in, and in fact many of the best and most famous cartoonists moved into illustration from comics, like Frank Frazetta, Mort Künstler, and Frank Godwin (Connie, Rusty Riley) to name just a few. Hal Foster of Prince Valiant fame started as an illustrator and moved into comic strips, first with Tarzan and then with his most famous creation, Prince Valiant. Foster employed the same skills he used in doing realistic and researched illustrations for magazines like Popular Mechanics and brought them to bear in the comic strips, ushering in a sense of realism and believability and setting a level of craftsmanship to which other cartoonists and illustrators strived. In the ’50s, when the comics industry went through its first big downturn, many cartoonists left comics for the much more lucrative field of illustration. Some, like

Frazetta, never came back. Frazetta himself went on to great fame and fortune as a fantasy and paperback cover artist. As a teenager I used to haunt many local used bookstores on the search for his paperback covers, and along the way I discovered a lot of great illustrators, from John Berkey to Frank McCarthy and James Bama. I collected old Saturday Evening Post magazines for covers by Norman Rockwell and illustrations by many artists of the golden age of illustration, such as Dean Cornwell, Mead Schaeffer, Albert Dorne, and more. All throughout my career as a comic guy, I have continued my interest and passion for illustration. A little over a year ago I met Ron Fortier via Facebook after he left a nice comment on one of my fine art paintings I had posted. In short order this lead to Ron offering me an opportunity to illustrate a cover for one of Airship 27 and Cornerstone Publishing’s upcoming books, Robin Hood: King of Sherwood, by I.A. Watson, a new book telling the stories of Robin Hood. In this article I will focus mainly on the second of the two book covers I painted for the series. The first cover of the series garnered me the Pulp Factory “Best Cover” Award. When Ron emailed me about the second book in the series I was pumped to get started on it. DRAW! • SPRING 2012

Hardboiled Hero

FRANK MILLER Interview conducted via phone by Danny Fingeroth transcribed by Steven Tice and copyedited by Danny Fingeroth and Frank Miller

SPOTLIGHT

(above) Miller’s cover contribution to ’Mazing Man #12. (righ) Prelims and final art from Frank’s “Sin City” book The Big Fat Kill #2.

DRAW! • SPRING 2012

RANK MILLER changed the way comics are done, starting with Daredevil and moving on to re-envision Batman in The Dark Knight Returns. Other triumphs for the writer-artist included Martha Washington, 300, and, of course, Sin City, which was turned into a sleeper-hit movie which he co-directed. Frank also wrote and directed The Spirit, based on Will Eisner’s classic character. His recent work includes Holy Terror, and the upcoming sequel to 300, Xerxes. I spoke with Frank via phone on March 11, 2010, and he answered some follow-up questions via email in November, 2011.

DANNY FINGEROTH: Did you always want to write your own comics,

Frank? You came to Marvel drawing other people’s stuff. Was writing always your ambition? FRANK MILLER: It always was, because I always saw the two crafts as one thing. I grew up drawing my comics on a piece of typing paper folded in half, showing my mom and saying, “I’m doing this for the rest of my life!” DF: What did she say when you said that? FM: She said, and I quote, “You can do anything if you set your mind to it.” DF: Who are your influences in writing and art? Who got you excited about wanting to do comics professionally? FM: Well, the first two would be a guy by the name of Curt Swan, and then Jim Shooter. I grew up reading superheroes. Later I fell in love with the work of Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Then years and years went by, and I discovered Will Eisner and fell madly in love with his combination of words and pictures. DF: Where did you discover him, in the Warren Spirit reprints? FM: Yup! I was bicycling, as I always did, from Montpelier, Vermont, to

Barre, Vermont, two towns that are very close together, and came across this oversized, weird-looking comic book and thought, “Who is this new guy? He’s amazing!” Then, of course, I saw the copyright and it said “1942.” DF: Had you read the Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes, which introduced Eisner to a new generation? FM: I had read the Feiffer book and seen Steranko’s Eisner tribute in his History of Comics, but it wasn’t until I sat down and read the Spirit story “Sand Serif ” that I realized what Eisner really did. DF: What was it about that story that got to you? FM: It broke my heart. It showed me that comic books could break my heart.

(above) Frank’s poster art for The Spirit. (below) Frank Miller’s Daredevil via Will Eisner. THE SPIRIT ™ AND © THE WILL EISNER ESTATE. DAREDEVIL ™ AND © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

Beyond showing guys walking in shadows along waterfronts and all that wonderful imagery, it showed a hero facing a moral challenge, and addressing it. DF: A deeper moral challenge than the Marvel heroes of the day were facing? FM: I thought so, because he had that classic line, which I kept in the Spirit

movie, “I’ve got to find Sand Serif and bring her in.” Which I, of course, stole when I did Elektra. I just changed the lingo. I had Daredevil say, “I’ve got to find Elektra and bring her to justice.” But, come on, it was a cold rip-off. DF: It would be like Superman saying, “I’ve got to find Lois Lane and bring

her in.” FM: Yeah. And I think we all have a Sand Serif back there somewhere. DF: At least one. FM: Well, yeah. If we’re lucky, it’s more than one. But there’s always that one.

It’s your Bobby McGee. It’s the one you’ll never forget.

DRAW! • SPRING 2012

Some of Frank’s earliest work for Marvel included this 1980 cover for Marvel Spotlight vol.2, #5 (left) inked by Bob Wiacek and a 1980 “Captain Marvel” story in Marvel Spotlight vol. 2, #8 (right) inked by Bruce Patterson. CAPTAIN MARVEL, DRAGON LORD ™ AND © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

DF: Most people’s first memory of your work is on Daredevil. But where did you first break in? FM: There’s no way to explain this without prefacing it. I bothered Neal Adams a lot, and he kept on letting me come to his studio. And he hated my work. DF: Why did he hate it? FM: He just told me it was terrible. And I went on from him to

Joe Orlando at DC Comics, who also hated my work, and various other people who hated my work. And eventually I showed something to Neal that impressed him enough where he said, “The guy can’t draw, we all know that. But his storytelling is budding.” He gave me my first job at Gold Key Comics doing Twilight Zone. I did a few Twilight Zones, and then I got down to DC Comics, and eventually Paul Levitz offered me Claw the Unconquered. And I went to Jim Shooter and I said, “I’d rather do something for Marvel. Can you guarantee me regular work?” And he said, “I can only make you a personal promise. You will work regularly here.” So I got to draw things like “Captain Marvel” and so on. And then I had the utter audacity to request Daredevil. Gene Colan had just quit, and Frank Robbins had taken it over, but it was an issue-by-issue thing. And I applied for the job and got it.

DRAW! • SPRING 2012

DF: Did you go to art school? FM: No. I only learned by practicing at home, ripping off every-

body from Barry Smith to Neal Adams, and then learning directly from masters like Al Williamson and Neal Adams. DF: From copying their work, you mean? FM: No, I mean from invading their studios. [laughter] And hav-

ing them show me how bad my work was. DF: What made you think you could just go knock on their doors? Was it naiveté? FM: It was a combination of naiveté, and also—Danny, I got fired off every job I ever had. I couldn’t make it as a truck driver. I couldn’t make it as a bus driver. I couldn’t make it as a janitor. For me, it was do or die. DF: Did you have art teachers in high school who encouraged

you? FM: Yeah. I had one art teacher in particular, Bruce Brooks, who was a wonderful teacher, and he encouraged me. And I had a brilliant teacher, Jeff Danziger, who’s actually now a renowned cartoonist, who encouraged me to write. He said that my talents were more in the writing sector. Now he and I are good friends,

and we’re both almost the same age. But when he was in his 20s, he thought I’d make a better writer than an artist. DF: Did you write as a teenager? FM: Oh, yeah, yeah. I wrote all my own stuff. Who

else was going to do it? DF: I mean did you write prose—short stories, or detective fiction, anything like that? FM: Yes, I did. I did it very badly. DF: Has that material ever been published anywhere? FM: If it had been, I wouldn’t tell you. DF: So Shooter gives you the shot on Daredevil. I

guess technically the editor was Al Milgrom? FM: That was Al Milgrom. I worked with Al Milgrom and Jo Duffy. DF: Klaus Janson had been inking it before, and so that’s how you two first got paired up? FM: Yes. And I called up Klaus and begged him to stay on the book because I knew somebody had to soften the rough edges and make sense out of my pencils, and he did a beautiful job. I think Klaus and I had kind of a magical collaboration, because he would take my stuff and he would really take the rough edges off it, and really pull out what was inside it, meanwhile adding that snap and confidence to the ink line, so that we developed a style that was ours. It wasn’t either of ours, and I really felt that we had a rapport that was pretty amazing considering we almost never socialized. DF: Klaus brought a visual continuity from the previous Daredevil days to your first run on the book, and made it a seamless transition. FM: I thought he and Gil Kane were astonishing together on the book, and I was out to imitate that a lot at the beginning. And, of course, there was the Eisner influence. DF: As with every artist, those influences are there, but you’ve synthesized them. FM: Well, it’s all mixed in with a country kid new to New York and falling in love with it. (top and far right) The cover (inked by Joe Rubinstein) and opening splash page art (inked by Klaus Janson and courtesy of www.ha.com) of Frank’s first issue as the penciler for Daredevil. (right) Frank’s cover art for Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller, vol. 1, which collects the first issues of Frank’s run.

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WINSOR & NEWTON INK (#951)

LIQUITEX INK! CARBON BLACK

.47 fl. oz. glass bottle

5 fl. oz. plastic bottle, screw cap

The Winsor & Newton ink comes in a tiny bottle and isn’t really packaged to stretch for a big inking job, as I believe this series is set up as the base black in a line of W&N pigments—I know I have an apple green and some reds rolling around in one of my Crusty Crates. The black is pretty thin and would probably work well in an airbrush, but it’s not the best thing for a comic artist, based on the size of the bottle alone. The ink is even and fairly dark, but there are better options out there.

The Liquitex Ink! is a newer brand, as Liquitex begins to penetrate the drawing ink market. Branded as acrylic ink, from what I’ve seen it’s nothing spectacular, but I do enjoy the oversized bottle, which reminds me of some of the Japanese SUMI-E brands of ink. It dries pretty gray, but when wet it really gives a rich black. You’ll probably have to do a couple of coats before you get what you’re looking for. It gets a halfberet just for the bigger container—sometimes all you need is more ink to get the job done, and the Liquitex brand passes, but it’s not amazing.

FW ACRYLIC ARTISTS INK 1 fl. oz. glass bottle, eyedropper I have a few inker friends who swear by the FW ink, and I’ve used it on a few jobs. Actually, I recall buying the Bombay and FW inks at the same time and used them concurrently, with the FW beating out Bombay just slightly—a little thicker ink which didn’t fight you on the brush. My color swatch (left) doesn’t show a great coverage, but I’d recommend you give it a shot anyway—I know I’ve gotten better batches in the past. I hope the formula hasn’t changed, like Higgins’ did, where I have large bottles of that stuff I can’t really use unless I wanted to do some wash-work.

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In summary, out of my tests for this review, I really enjoyed the Speedball ink. I hadn’t used it before and was surprised by the richness of the product. If you’re in the Philadelphia area and you want to solicit a great art store with great service, stop by one of the Allegheny Art Company’s brick-and-mortar establishments at 318 Leedom Street, Jenkintown, PA (215-884-9242) and 22 South State Street, Newtown, PA (215-579-1060), or punch them up online at http://www.alleghenyart.com. I would love to hear what you think! Until next time, stay Crusty!

Constructive analysis and criticism of a newcomer’s work by

BOB MCLEOD

n these pages each issue, I show a sample page sent to me into it. I know I was definitely that way, and I still have to fight by a young artist struggling to break into comics and I try the urge to get to what I consider the “fun stuff,” which for me is to offer as much constructive advice as I possibly can to get him definitely not the layout. But it has to be done well, because it’s or her up to the next level and hopefully closer to getting work one of the most important steps. with the major publishers. We all need to be able to accept critiI tell my students that each minute you work on a drawing is cism if we hope to improve, and we should be our own toughest less important than the one before it, and that includes the very critic, so nothing anyone else might say will be any worse than first minute. In fact, in many cases the first few seconds will our own self-criticism. determine how well the drawing comes out in the end, even if This time, we have a page drawn by Stuart Roddy, who’s that’s many hours of effort later. That’s because if you’re drawing been studying at the Joe Kubert School, so I think they’ve in a productive way, roughing in the entire drawing, you need to already critiqued this page, and I’m following in their wake. He’s quickly establish the basic positions and proportions in those first very graciously and courageously allowed me to share this critique few seconds. If you don’t start out well, all the fancy rendering in with all of you. I can see a lot of progress comparing this most the world can’t fix bad proportions or positioning. If you do start recent page to the other samples Stuart sent me of his earlier out well, everything after that is just a matter of refining and polwork. But whatever good advice they no doubt gave him at ishing. So the thinking you do before you ever make a mark with Kubert, I can still see a lot of room for the pencil can actually be more important “If you don’t start out well, than how well you draw. You have to put even further improvement. I do think Stuart definitely shows all the fancy rendering in the that mark in the right place before you some real talent, and he’s working hard making it a pretty mark. world can’t fix bad propor- worryAllabout and doing a lot of things well. Just the fact representational art starts out as tions or positioning. If you that he’s studying at the Joe Kubert abstract design, and the stronger the School and also submitting his work to me do start out well, everything design, the better the art. So on a page of shows how serious he is about improving comic art, you first of all have several after that is just a matter of vital decisions to make: how many panels his art and getting into comics. It takes that kind of 110% commitment to make it are you going to use, what shape are they refining and polishing.” to the pro level. I like his sense of drama, going to be, where are they going to be, and his subtle details and interesting lighting. His art is fun to look and how big are they going to be? That’s a lot of very important at, which is one of the main things you want from a comic artist. thinking, but it’s just basic graphic design combined with visual But his storytelling and design have some problems. As a storytelling. Stuart’s design of the panel shapes, placement, and reader of this page, I’m confused about some things, and you size appears good at first glance, but it can be better. don’t want the reader to be confused. The primary thing in all First, he has the spaceship crashing in a nice three-panel areas of creating comics, whether it’s writing, penciling, inking, sequence, so that’s an excellent start. This crash could of course lettering, or coloring, should be clarity. As with many beginning be shown much bigger and more dramatically. A spaceship crash artists, it’s the basic fundamentals Stuart needs to work on most. landing on an alien plant and the crew setting out to investigate Before you get to all that interesting surface detail, you need to is a very dramatic situation, and it could easily take up an entire lay a solid foundation to build on. Too many beginners can’t wait page. But for the purpose of this sample page, it’s really just a to get to the rendering at the end, so they rush the underlying set-up for the subsequent scenes, so these three panels are just structure at the beginning, and don’t put enough thought or effort right for that. DRAW! • SPRING 2012

Next, mainly just for variety, but also for the page design, he has two “inset” panels (so named because they’re set into other panels). The first is a close-up introducing us to the characters, so that we care more what happens to them next, which is another smart storytelling move. It’s usually good in any case to have a mix of close-ups, long shots, etc., just for variety, whether it serves the story or not. However, these look squeezed by that thick, black panel border, as if he barely managed to get them into the picture. Which he did, because his inset panels are so small! The next panel is a long shot, which is also a good choice, showing (I think) water rushing at them from behind, but it’s way too small and cluttered. It’s a panoramic establishing shot the size

DRAW! • SPRING 2012

of a postage stamp. Remember that your page is going to get reduced in size when printed in a comic, so anything small on your original art is going to be 1/3 smaller in the comic! And the thing is, these two panels didn’t even need to be so small, because there’s plenty of room around and above them. Finally, he’s got the big money shot, with the monster rising up out of the water, so he’s wisely given that a nice, big panel... except that his inset panels are covering up a third of it, including part of the monster’s threatening claws, which are too important to mess with. Focal points like claws, heads, hands, feet, etc., need to be carefully placed so that they’re unobstructed. So those inset panels need to be enlarged and raised up away from the monster.

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

(left) Figure 1: Stuart’s layout reduced to an abstract design. Reducing the art to simple abstract design reveals that some panels aren’t very well-balanced. (right) Figure 2: In my version, the design’s weights are more evenly distributed.

Now let’s tackle what’s going on inside the panels more thoroughly. In panel 1, the spaceship, which is the center of interest, is placed way up in the corner. That would be okay, except that with the most detail in the panel on the ship and the mountainside below it, and just empty water at the bottom, the panel is too heavily weighted on the upper right. We could really cut off the entire left side of the panel and not miss anything. Any time you can crop a panel, you should. You want to pare your layout down to what best tells the story and crop everything else out, because it’s obviously not needed. When you start to draw a panel, you need to decide what the center of interest is (every panel should have one), and carefully place it for maximum effect—usually off-center vertically and horizontally, but not in a corner. Then you design other elements, figures or backgrounds, to balance against it. Each panel, as well as the overall page as a whole whenever possible, should be a well-balanced abstract design of large and small shapes and positive and negative space. Replace each major element with a simple shape as in my example (figs. 1 and 2) to check your design before you start adding details and refining the drawing. See how some of your panels aren’t as well balanced as mine when viewed as simple abstract designs? Before you worry about drawing the people and ships and monsters, it’s critical that you

first place your main focal points so that they create a wellbalanced design. A good way to do this is to do very simplistic thumbnail layouts, with the entire page maybe only a few inches tall. This makes it difficult to add any detail or do much drawing. Only when everything is in the right place is it time to really start drawing it. You also need to consider the reader’s eye movement. The spaceship is flying right to left. We read left to right, and it would lead our eyes right to the next panel if we fly it the other way instead. Whenever possible, you want to place the focal points to lead the reader’s eye toward the next panel. It’s good to use balloon placement to do this as well. In panel 2, the ship is moving directly away from us, which is not the best way to show movement. Again, movement left to right is best, and I try to avoid symmetrical design as much as possible, particularly in action scenes, because it isn’t as dynamic as asymmetry. It appears that the ship is crashing on land, but in the next panels they appear to be wading in water. Don’t confuse the reader. The lettering style of the sound effect looks amateurish. You need to look at the way other artists draw sound effects. Have you seen anyone do a sound effect like this? Lettering is an art, and amateurish sound effects can make your art look amateurish. DRAW! • SPRING 2012

Draw #22