Issuu

No. 1 Summer 2006

$6.95

P R E S E N T S

GARC

UR ADA H T R

WALT

IMON ER S SO

NOWLAN

Featuring

KEVIN

GE PÉRE R O E

N DAVIS

ALA

RNE Y B N

OPÉZ ÍA-L

JOH

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

Volume 1, Number 1 July 2006

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics! EDITOR

Bob McLeod PUBLISHER

John Morrow DESIGNER

Michael Kronenberg

FEATURED ARTISTS PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington COVER ARTIST

Bruce Timm

Alan Davis

Arthur Adams

Walter Simonson

John Byrne

George Pérez

José Luis García-López

Bruce Timm COVER COLORIST

Bruce Timm SPECIAL THANKS

Alan Davis George Pérez Bruce Timm Kevin Nowlan José Luis García-López Arthur Adams John Byrne Walter Simonson Eric Nolen-Weathington David Hamilton Ken Steacy Michael Eury

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW 62

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE 16

Tight Pencils: The Answer or The Problem? Bob McLeod

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS 2

ROUGH STUFF™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Bob McLeod, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: ROUGH STUFF, c/o Bob McLeod, Editor, P.O. Box 63, Emmaus, PA 18049, e-mail: mcleod.bob@gmail.com. Four-issue subscriptions: $24 Standard US, $36 First Class US, $44 Canada, $48 Surface International, $64 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Central cover art by Bruce Timm. Batgirl, Mark Moonrider, Superman, Batman, Starfire, Orion TM & ©2006 DC Comics. Jonni Future, Jack B. QuickTM & ©2006 America’s Best Comics, LLC. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2006 Bob McLeod and TwoMorrows Publishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Kevin Nowlan

Scribblings From The Editor Bob McLeod

Pre-Pro A look at the art of the pros, before they were pros.

Cover Stories Walter Simonson and Kevin Nowlan reveal the process they go through when creating a cover.

102

Rough Critique Editor Bob McLeod critiques a would be artist’s sample page.

JULY 2006 • ROUGH STUFF

SCRIBBLINGS FROM THE EDITOR:

elcome to the first exciting issue of Rough Stuff! Many of you may know that TwoMorrows’ magazine Back Issue had a regular feature called “Rough Stuff,” featuring pencil art by your favorite comic artists, and this magazine will be an expansion of that idea. We’ll have pencil pages, sketches, thumbnails,

cover roughs, art before and after inking, and everything else to do with the pencil art of comic books, by many of the hottest artists working today, as well as all of your favorites from the past. We’ll also have interviews and some unique features you’ll only find here, like “Pre-Pro,” previously unpublished early art by top professionals done before they broke into comic books! Haven’t you always wondered how their amateur art compared to yours? Take a look at the early art of Alan Davis and Kevin Nowlan in this issue! Another unique feature is “Cover Story,” where we show you some covers before and after inks, this time with covers by Walter Simonson and Kevin Nowlan. There’s also my “Rough Critique,” where I offer a constructive critique of a sample page sent in by an unpublished hopeful. Send in your sample, and maybe I’ll pick your work to publish and critique next issue! In addition, we’ll have articles about various aspects of pencil art, beginning this issue with my take on how penciling has gotten so doggone tight in recent years that it’s changed the job of the inker and affected the look of the finished art in what I feel is not a beneficial way. Thanks to the artists featured in this issue for contributing their insightful comments about their art, and special thanks to Kevin Nowlan, John Byrne, and Alan Davis for contributing extra scans. Thanks also to Michael Kronenberg for his fantastic layout design of this magazine, and of course to John Morrow and Michael Eury for bringing me on board and showing me the editorial ropes. We’re seeking high resolution scans of pencil and preliminary art and sketches by top artists. If you have something in your collection you’d like to share with our readers, please send me a scan at mcleod.bob@gmail.com. Pencil scans should be full size 300dpi jpegs, and ink scans should be full size 600dpi bitmap tiff files. Your letters and e-mails of feedback are welcome and encouraged. I’d like to have a regular letters page with your comments. I look forward to showing you some great art and to seeing some great art by you, as well! See you next issue in October (shown at left), which features more “rough stuff” from Matt Wagner, Jerry Ordway, Brian Apthorp, Frank Brunner, and others, a special tribute to the late Alex Toth, plus a new “Hex” cover by, and featured interview with, Paul Gulacy!

Bob McLeod, Editor mcleod.bob@gmail.com • www.bobmcleod.com

ROUGH STUFF • JULY 2006

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

BRUCE TIMM

to gs a lot of style in br m im T ce Bru uence . The Kirby infl es do e h er ev what nique he gives it a u is obvious, but ctions. s it in new dire n to the twist, and take gets right dow e h y, it ev br d design an ose With amazing e could draw th h ew kn e W g. cartoonin essence of good he can do! t look what else bu s, be ba xy cute se

BRUCE TIMM: These I remember well—my first batch of joker designs for the animated Batman. I was still trying to nail down an overall design look for the show, and these are too extreme and cartoony, didn’t really care for any of ‘em. Ultimately, I had Kevin Nowlan take a shot at him, and ended up basing the final design on one of his. Joker TM & ©2006 DC Comics

JULY 2006 • ROUGH STUFF

TIGHT PENCILS The Answer or the Problem? By Bob McLeod

n the 1990s, comic book pencil art made somewhat of a dramatic change that perhaps many fans are unaware of, and

that change has had some very serious repercussions. There have always been many different styles of penciling; everything from the bare bones openness of, for example, a Gil Kane Conan page to the densely rendered Conan pages of

Barry Smith’s “Red Nails.” Some pencilers have always been sketchy and rough, like Bill Sienkiewicz, and some very

clean, like Jack Kirby. But prior to the ’90s, even the tightest pencils usually gave the inker some room to interpret and

put in their own style. Many of today’s pencils are printed without even being inked, and many jobs that are inked are virtually traced (sorry, inkers, I know how grating the dreaded ‘T’ word is...). This is not because the inker is necessarily less skilled, because many inkers working today are extremely talented. But in many cases, the pencils are so “tight” there is nothing much left for the inker to do except trace.

HOBGOBLIN #3, PAGE 1 Looser pencils allow the inker to be spontaneous with linework and contribute more of his own style to the art, creating art that combines the best skills of both artists. Art by Ron Frenz.

ROUGH STUFF • JULY 2006

n a page of comic art, there

was, exactly, they assumed that the inkers were just fol-

are several things which need

lowing the pencils, and they started incorporating render-

to be done to make the art

ing details into their pencils which had previously been

convincing and complete. First,

primarily the domain of the inker. Suddenly, inkers are now

the panel shapes need to be

expected to copy each little dash and dot and scribble

designed, and arranged on the

effect in the pencils, rather than applying their own set of

page. Then, the figures and backgrounds within the pan-

rendering techniques. Each long, wavy curl of hair is now

els need to be drawn in a dramatic composition. Next,

drawn to perfection in the pencils, and the inker often has

details, blacks, and lighting are added; and lastly, a ren-

to get out his french curve to laboriously trace those long,

dering style is applied. Before computer coloring, the

sweeping lines, rather than create his own hair patterns

lighting and blacks and rendering had to be done in either

with quick, natural strokes.

ALFREDO ALCALA

the pencils or the inks, to keep the art from looking too

This causes many problems. Artistically, it’s much easier

flat. Today, with the gradated color tones possible, some

to do flashy rendering techniques with a crowquill point or a

styles leave all of that up to the colorist, and that can be

brush than a pencil. Very often, the finished art now looks

fine... or not.

overly controlled and stilted. There’s no longer much art that

Before, a job could be weakened or strengthened by

looks “loose” and spontaneous. In the past, there were sev-

This was a simple outline in Buscema’s pencil breakdown. All the linework was done in the inking by Alcala.

the quality of the inking and coloring. Today, because the pencils are so tight, the inking seems to be much less relevant, and jobs depend much more on the ability of the colorist. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, except that as pencilers are adapting to this new situation, the overall look of the art has changed in a way that I personally feel is not at all a move in the right direction. The inker’s job on many current books has radically changed from a dramatic artistic collaboration to simply covering pencils with skillfully clean ink lines. Breaking the art chores up among several people has always been a tricky proposition. Due to the monthly deadline, it’s just not possible for one person to pencil, ink, and color a 22-page comic. So the system of having a different artist handle each of these steps began. But inkers and colorists have their own styles and opinions, and the art can mutate quite a bit after it leaves the penciler’s hands. This can lead to wonderful collaborations like Kirby and Sinnott, Colan and Palmer, Miller and Janson, and Byrne and Austin, just to name a few. But it can also lead to disasters, like the inker erasing backgrounds, or making silhouettes out of detailed backgrounds, in order to meet the deadline. The colorist can put a dark purple over an area the inker spent an hour delicately rendering. As a result, some pencilers try to ink their own work, usually causing them to be unable to maintain a monthly schedule. Some inkers have tried to color their own work as well. But other pencilers decided the answer was to “bulletproof” their pencils, and started making their pencils tighter and tighter, so that in case they got an incompetent inker, all he would have to do is “trace” what was there. At the same time, a generation of pencilers grew up admiring the detailed rendering of the inkers of the ’70s and ’80s. Not really understanding what the inker’s job JULY 2006 • ROUGH STUFF

INTERVIEW

KEVIN NOWLAN By Bob McLeod

evin Nowlan is one of my favorite comic book artists, and he’s been a fan favorite since he first got published. His style has also been very influential on many of the artists working in comics today. I’ve unfortunately never had the pleasure of meeting Kevin in person, but I dis-

covered in this interview that he and I have a lot in common in how we regard our comic book art. This interview was conducted via e-mail. I’ve never interviewed anyone before, and I’m hoping I’ll sound a bit more coherent this way. I asked Kevin to give me a brief bio so I could introduce him, and he did it so succinctly I’ll let him tell it: KEVIN NOWLAN: Born in Nebraska, 1958. Youngest of

BOB MCLEOD: Kevin, thank you so much for this

six. Started drawing comics in 1982. My first professional

interview. No one in my family seems to know

job was penciling a Dr. Strange fill-in for Al Milgrom.

where my art talent came from. Are you the first

The Jack B. Quick stories that I did with Alan

artist in your family, and were your early artistic

Moore are the highlight of my career so far. They’re funny, very original and I was allowed to pencil, ink, letter and

a great uncle who was a landscape painter and print maker. He was very talented and by

[Now how many of you would

sheer coincidence, I was named after him.

have guessed that? -Bob]

Most of my siblings drew and painted but

Other highlights would

KEVIN NOWLAN: I don’t remember if I

Origin story and the

ever inked this or not

Outsiders Annual.

more shadows on the figure to give it some additional drama. That’s one of the nice

KEVIN NOWLAN: No, I’m not the first. I had

sometimes color them myself.

be the Man-Bat Secret

but I think it needs

efforts encouraged?

I’m working on a

I’m the only one who made a career out of it. I was always encouraged. My parents were very supportive. MCLEOD: It’s always fascinating to

couple of covers

me when the last kid in a family

right now and I’m

makes a bigger splash than all the

drawing a short

others before him. Do you think

Goon story for Dark

your birth order had anything to

Horse. I’m also drawing

do with your art?

things about drawing

short origin stories for

NOWLAN: I didn’t make a bigger

Batman; it’s hard to

Elongated Man and Adam

splash than all the others before

overwork the shad-

Strange that will appear in

me. My brother is very talented in

ows. As Wally Wood

DC’s 52 series.

many areas, including art. He just

said, “When in doubt,

didn’t focus on one specific skill like

black it out.”

I did. I have very talented siblings.

ROUGH STUFF • JULY 2006

KEVIN NOWLAN: Batgirl pin-up pencils: I was trying to put a little more depth into this figure by twisting the pose and lowering the point of view. I left a few details for the inking stage but most of the information is there.

Batgirl pin-up inks: The doublelit shadows are easier than they look, even if you’re drawing something without photo reference like I did here. You just need to deal with one light source at a time and keep them far enough apart so that you get some interesting black shadows in the middle of the object. They’re handy when you want to define the edge of a dark object against a dark background. Batman and Batgirl TM & ©2006 DC Comics

JULY 2006 • ROUGH STUFF

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ROUGH STUFF • JULY 2006

PRE-PRO

ave you ever wondered how your favorite pro’s art looked back before he turned pro? Back when he was just sitting at home dreaming about becoming a comic book artist? How would his early efforts compare with yours? Well, each issue we’re going to show you some examples of just that! The following art was contributed by some of our featured artists. It was done by them before they started working in comics professionally. But it’s easy to see they’d soon be ready for the big time! Starting out this issue is a fantastic coloring book page done by this issue’s interview guest Kevin Nowlan, way back in 1978 when he was about 20 years old. Next up are these comic strips drawn by none other than Alan Davis. I think the characters in the strip are speechless at how well he was drawing even back then! Alan comments: “This a comic strip I drew in my late teens and in a style that was obviously inspired by the fantastic work of Frank Bellamy on Garth. It was drawn purely for fun; I never planned to get into comics. The original is drawn on a sheet of A4 paper (at print size, I didn’t know about working for reduction) with Rotring pens and felt tips— although the term original may not be accurate since I drew and redrew the strips countless times tracing each draft from a mix of previous versions— which was fairly easy since I drew/inked on typing paper.” And just to show that I wouldn’t ask our guests to do anything I wouldn’t do, here’s a vintage zipatone feast by me circa 1973, when I was working in the production dept. at Marvel. — Bob McLeod JULY 2006 • ROUGH STUFF

D U R E F E A T

´ P E GEORG EREZ

I S T A R T

te. nnial fan favori re pe a is z re George Pé , Pérez did d for Superman di e n yr B at h W ans, an and the Tit for Wonder Wom ose gy and life to th er en ew n g ng artists n bringi e hardest worki th of e on en be ays nging series. He’s alw the most challe g in pt ce ac in revels in comics, and assignments.

´ GEORGE PÉREZ: Donna Troy rough: I usually dislike doing cover sketches since I usually do a lot of changes as I go along. This one was pretty straightforward, but I added one more Donna Troy figure (when she was a Darkstar) and eliminated the question-mark borders. Wonder Girl TM & ©2006 DC Comics

ROUGH STUFF • JULY 2006

´ GEORGE PEREZ: Avengers, Vol. 3, Issue 1, page 13: This return to The Avengers was an important thing for me as I was working to revitalize my career. I penciled this issue extremely tight, although I didn’t fill in all the blacks, as I’m oft prone to, even when I know it’s unnecessary. The Avengers TM & ©2006 Marvel

´ GEORGE PEREZ

Characters, Inc.

JULY 2006 • ROUGH STUFF

COVER STORIES

hat happens between the initial layout

of a cover, and the finished, printed piece? Usually a lot of changes— some brought about by the pencil artist, some by the inker (assuming they’re not the same person as the penciler), and some at the request of an editor or publisher. We asked a couple of this issue’s pros to give us a little insight into these classic covers.

ROUGH STUFF • JULY 2006

WALT SIMONSON: Cyberforce: Cover for Cyberforce #0 for Top Cow. I wrote and drew the issue based on ideas from Mark Silverstri and David Wohl. The whole issue was my version of an Image comic of the time, full of overwhelmingly large images on each page and a few small inset panels to carry the story. And a lot of rendering. The cover shows the large image and rendering approach fairly well.

JULY 2006 • ROUGH STUFF

Rough Stuff #1