My Favourite Cartoonists Part 3: Jack Kirby

Today is February 6th, 2009 -- the 15th anniversary of the passing of Jack Kirby. Most people who know me well know how much I love his work, and how much respect I have for his accomplishments.

Unlike the other cartoonist-influences I've blogged about in the past (see here, and here), I don't think Jack Kirby needs much of a write-up or introduction. There's plenty of other great sources of information on Kirby and his art, so all I'll say here is that he was one of the greatest comic creators ever, and certainly the very best super-hero cartoonist of all time. His work was infused with compassion, innovation and heroism, and he left a legacy that will span the ages. Every cartoonist I admire also admires Kirby, and in the centuries to come they'll talk about him the way we talk about Giotto or Picasso. He was that good -- that's why they called him King.

A few notes about Inking

Late last year, my buddy Ramon Perez invited me to fill in for him at a class he teaches on inking comics. Specifically, he asked me to come in and give a talk to the students about how I approach lighting and "spotting blacks" (a comic term for figuring out where to put the large areas of black ink on a panel or page). Ramon's an excellent artist and inker himself, with a lot more experience in comics than me, so I really didn't know what else I could add to what he was teaching, but I agreed to give a short demonstration.

Anyway, since it was a first-year/beginner's class, I thought it would be best if I covered some fundamentals. So I prepared a 3 page hand-out for the students, with some notes regarding basic concepts in inking.

Now, I don't presume to try and teach anyone reading this blog, and there are far better inkers out there than me, but I thought it might be fun to share and post those notes here. Hopefully, some of you might enjoy reading it.

Toronto Back Alleys Pt. 18

Its been freezing cold here in Toronto, so here's another winter-time alleyway sketch. A nice thing about this one was that it needed no pshop cleanup. Done in gouache and ink.

More Marvey Superheroes

Here's a couple of quick test sketches of the Hulk & Peter Parker (aka. the amazing Spider-man) that I did while breaking in some fancy new brush-pens. Done in ink and gouache, with a little photoshop cleanup for good measure.

Digital Test Part 2

Here's another image from my week of test-driving the cintiq 12wx. As I mentioned in a previous post, I found the cintiq very handy for doing digital corrections and patches to existing artwork. In this case, I had an old drawing that I had created years ago which I wanted to revise a bit before it was published in print. I never liked the copy I had written for the original, since I had pretty much swiped it from an existing ad. So, in this case, I re-wrote and lettered some snappy new copy by hand (not on the cintiq) and inserted it into the drawing.

However, I also wanted to do some quick paste-ups to the artwork, swapping out 3 or 4 of the smaller images in the fake ad, which I was never very satisfied with. Normally, I'd draw the paste-ups by hand and then composite it in photoshop, but in this case, I drew the new images in a separate layer in pshop and then merged it in. The process was pretty seamless, and in the final product, I think it's hard to differentiate what was drawn by hand and what was patched on the cintiq.

For those who want to compare this piece to the original I posted years ago on my blog, you can check out this link.

I also have to thank Paul Conrad here for his advice on creating the paper-texture on this piece, though in the end I did the bare minimum of work in that department. Thanks for the help, Paul: I wish I had more time to follow your tips!

Digital Test

As you might know, I'm an old-school guy when it comes to art and illustrations. I prefer to work on paper, using brushes and inks, and don't really dig the slick-photoshop look of some of the art being produced today. That doesn't mean I hate computers, of course, despite what I may have posted in the past. I still like to experiment with how to incorporate digital techniques into my process, trying to find ways to save time and enhance creativity. Essentially, I view computers as just another tool in my toolbox, not as a replacement for anything.

With that in mind, I was test-driving a cintiq 12wx digital tablet over the holidays. For those who don't know, the cintiq is kinda like a souped-up touchscreen for artists. Because you can draw right on the display surface, it more closely mimics the feel of drawing on paper than a mouse or a regular drawing tablet. I was curious to see how my style would translate to working digitally, as I've seen friends of mine work exclusively with the cintiq with excellent results. However, their drawing styles were obviously different from mine, and I wondered if I could get that same fluidity of line I like while working on the cintiq.

My results, I have to say, were a bit mixed. The cintiq does an adequate job of imitating a brushline, but some of the dry-brush and thick-to-thin feathering I do were quite difficult to replicate while using it. For example, drawing foliage the way I do is much faster and more precise using real brushes. However, the cintiq is great for doing patch-ups or corrections to existing artwork. And it's about as close to drawing on paper as you can get with the current generation of digital hardware. The best moment for me was when I was able to slap a ruler on top of the surface and drag the stylus across it for a nice-hand drawn thick-and-thin ruler-line. That was cool. The other cool part of the design was that the cintiq can be laid flat on my drawing table, so I can rotate it around like I would a piece of paper while drawing on it. That clearly showed that it was designed with artists in mind.

One great drawback to the cintiq though is all the cables and cords that it needs. You'd think that having a touchscreen to draw on would mean you could just lay back on your couch and doodle away, but the amount of cables attached to it limits its portability. Also, you really need a keyboard nearby, since all software is going to require you to hit keys or type in filenames at some point. Maybe in a couple of generations, they'll make this thing wireless and then it'll really take off.

In the meantime, I still haven't decided whether I'd want to purchase one for my own use. I doubt it would ever replace drawing on paper for me. The cintiq offers some nice advantages, but it also comes with some limitations -- just like any other tool in my toolbox.

To give you an idea of some of the drawings I did while testing out the cintiq, check out the quick portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer above. I drew it completely in software, in about 15 minutes. I think it would have taken about 30 minutes using ink and guoache.

Edit: Because I am a bit obsessive, I thought the original sketch was a bit 'flat' looking. So I did some additional work on it and added some textures, which I think make it look a bit more complete. You can see the results below. Which do you prefer?

Toronto Back Alleys pt. 17

A break from the night time drawings of alleyways I've posted lately.  This one's a winter one, which I did as a card for the holiday season.  Like many of the others, this one was also done in ink markers, with a little drybrush thrown in for texture.

U Go Girl

Here's two drawings of U Go Girl -- a superheroine I drew for a commission.  I had actually never heard of this character before, so the client even had to send me some reference, since I knew nothing about the comics she appeared in (even though they were created by the fabulously talented Mike Allred).

Anyway, because of my lack of any connection to the character, I had a bit of a tough time coming up with a drawing.  I tried to think up an action pose but not knowing much about her made that difficult.  I knew her super-power was teleportation, but what was that like? Did she just pop in and out of space?  Did she disappear in a blue cloud and a "bamf!" sound effect?  After a bit of thinking, I settled on trying to create a quiet drawing of her, in a contemplative mode (as had been shown in a couple of the reference samples).   For what its worth, I'll outline a bit of my process in coming up with the final drawings below.

First, I did a quick colour thumbnail in marker, which I thought was alright, but pretty dull: 

But the thumbnail did get me thinking about one of my favourite paintings, "the Voice" by Edvard Munch:

  I've loved that painting since I was a teen -- the quiet serenity of that piece is so evocative to me.   So, inspired by that memory, I sat down and did these two pencil sketches:

I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so I decided to ink and tone-up both of them and let the client pick which one he preferred.  The client eventually went with the blue one on the left, so I still have the other one, and I'll probably keep it to sell at a convention or show some time in the future.

Incidentally, this isn't the first time I've been inspired by Edvard Munch's paintings.  I often do subtle riffs on his work, as you can see in this previous post.

Everybody Dies: an Interactive Fiction Game

Nerd Confession Time: ever since I was a teen, I've been a huge fan of text-adventure games, or interactive fiction (to use the high-brow term).  Those who were computer geeks like me in the 80's will know what I'm talking about and might even remember games like Zork, Planetfall or the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy (all made by that classic interactive fiction company, Infocom).  

Anyway, I still play those kinds of games today and when my buddy Jim Munroe asked me to draw some illustrations as part of his new text-adventure game, Everybody Dies, I was thrilled.  My schedule at the time was jam packed, but there was no way I was going to miss out on the opportunity to get my name in the credits of something like that!

Originally, I was asked to draw 3 small illustrations, but that quickly morphed into 16 full drawings, which is a pretty sizable amount.  But after I played through a rough beta version of the game, I was totally stoked and wanted to deliver the best job possible.  Jim is a professional writer of some repute, and he crafted a game that was refreshingly original and hilarious.  

After the game was completed, it was entered in the annual Interactive Fiction Competition (a cool nerdy event all on its own) and we were delighted to find out that it won 3rd place.  The credit really goes to Jim, since he had the hard task of writing and programming it, but I was very happy to contribute.

So all this is preamble to me explaining where the illustrations at the top of this post are from, since they are 2 of the 16 drawings I created for the game.  These two feature two of the characters from the game, Graham and Lisa.   You can check below to see the pencil roughs for those illos.

The best part though is that if you want to play Everybody Dies and check it out for yourself, its completely free.  You can play it online at this link (using Javascript), or  download various Mac or Windows versions to play offline.  Give it a try, if you've got the time -- Jim's writing is a real treat.

P.S. for the record, my favourite Interactive Fiction games of all time are Sorcerer, The Lurking Horror and Infidel, all by Infocom.   I even played them again just a couple of years ago.  There -- taste my nerdiness.

Toronto Back Alleys pt. 16

Another night time sketch of an back alley in my neighbourhood.  I'm still experimenting, but getting a bit closer to the look I'm aiming for.  Like the last one, this was also done small, in ink and thinned-out gouache.

Toronto Back Alleys pt. 15

This one's more of a quick test sketch, trying to capture that summer night, orange streetlamp glow. It was drawn smaller than the others, in ink and thinned gouache.

I'm Voting for...

My wife and I came up with this bumper sticker idea, combining our two ideal candidates for the upcoming US elections.  It's just a bit of fun, really, but I get a real kick out of imagining what a Conan/Swamp Thing administration would be like.  I figure national security wouldn't be a problem (who'd wanna mess with an axe wielding barbarian?) and environmental issues would definitely take center stage.  Hell, even the current financial mess in the US would probably benefit -- you could imagine President Conan meeting with Wall Street heads and scowling, "Crom!  You're all thieves!  You should all be strung up by your fat necks!".

If you like these candidates, I suggest you download the image and print it up on your own sticker paper to paste on a car nearest you. It beats supporting the Nader/Thulsa Doom ticket!

Special thanks to my wife, Claudia, for her great type treatment on this one.  

Now in all seriousness, I won't insult your intelligence by asking you not to write these fictional characters in on your ballot.  I will suggest though, that if you don't want another 4 years of divisive politics, pointless wars or hateful muslim-bating and fear mongering --  then go out and vote for Obama/Biden on November 4th.   

This is why I don't do caricatures

I admit it -- I'm lousy at drawing caricatures.  Like, epic fail lousy.  In the old days, when I'd get illustration assignments to draw someone famous, I'd immediately break into a sweat.  Especially if it was someone who wasn't that easy to draw in the first place.  Most conventionally good-looking hollywood types fit that category -- they're so bland they're impossible for someone like me to draw.    I remember a terrible likeness of Britney Spears I drew once, where she looked more like Madonna than Britney.  God forbid that someone should ever ask me to draw Charlize Theron, you know?

Anyway, these days, I usually turn down assignments where I'm asked to caricaturize someone.  I leave that for the pros.  But to give you an idea how bad I am, take a look at a couple of old illustrations I did for Canadian Business Magazine.  These two were drawn several years ago, but I still cringe when I see them.

First up is Bill Gates as a tupperware saleslady (don't ask, just buy it). Honestly, this one's so bad I had to put a frikkin nametag on him just to sell the likeness!

Next is that lovable cutie-pie, Alan Greenspan -- the big financial muckity-muck.  I think this one's a bit better, but its still pretty stiff.

Age of the Sentry Issue #2

I posted earlier about a 10 page story I drew for Marvel's Age of the Sentry comic, and now that it's on the stands, I thought I'd post a couple pages of artwork from it. So here it is in good old black and white, free of word balloons or colour! If you're stopping by your local comic shop this week (they still have comic shops, right?) go check it out on the racks for yourself. It features a ton of guest stars from the glorious silver age of Marvel Comics, including many of my all-time favourite superheroes. And if you buy it, I recommend reading it while munching on some vintage hostess cupcakes...er...actually, maybe not. Those cakes are probably like, really moldy by now.

X-men First Class!

Sorry for the long delay in posting, folks. I've just been very tied up with work and family lately and my poor blog is getting neglected (geez, I say that so often its getting to be a broken record). Anyway, one of my recent fun assignments was a 5 page story I drew for Marvel's X-men First Class comic. It's for their upcoming Halloween Special, which should come out in (duh) October. The writer of XFC, jazzy Jeff Parker, was gracious enough to let me draw something for his book and even let me draw it in my regular two-tone style, which was a real treat. Aside from being a fun sci-fi-homage-based script, the story was also special to me as it was an opportunity to draw Cyclops -- my all time favourite X-man (I'm not kidding, as you can see here).

I've drawn the original X-men before, as a poster, but you can check out page 1 of this story above and let me know what you think.

Fan Expo 2008...is over

Yep, Fan Expo 2008 is over...and now I'm both buzzed and exhausted. As I mentioned, it was my first time at this event, and it was a great time. I arrived at my table at artists alley on Friday afternoon, and was really surprised at how many people immediately hit me up for sketches. I didn't even have time to set up properly before I had a half-dozen sketch requests. By end of Friday, my list was way too long, and I had to stop taking any more requests -- or else I'd have to get some kind of cybernetic drawing arm (hmm...bet I could have found one at the con). Needless to say, I spent the rest of the weekend getting through them all, so I didn't really get a chance to walk the floor or check out the con much until late Sunday afternoon! For most of the con, all I saw was my table, the washroom, and the coffee stall. Luckily, the coffee was good and strong.

As well, it was great seeing and meeting some other artists who's work I know, but have never met, or with whom I've shared emails, but never had a chance to hang out with face to face. Like Eric Talbot, who is one supremely talented guy, and who was really great to chat with for the few minutes that we both got a chance to leave our tables. Same for Michael Choi -- who was really sweet to meet. We often get mistaken for each other at these things (or Frank Cho, or Brandon Choi), so I think it'd be great if one day all of us Korean comic artists could share a table together -- and cause some kind of matter/anti-matter explosion! And as is usual at these local cons, my tablemates like Scott Hepburn, Ramon Perez and Ray Fawkes made the experience as enjoyable as possible.

Anyway, my thanks to everyone who stopped by to buy a print, or some artwork or just to chat. Meeting and shooting the breeze with comic fans is always a highlight of any con I attend, and this one was no different. Comic fans come diverse, and there's a huge range of interests, which I enjoy hearing about. For the folks who drove in for hours from out of town -- I'm really flattered you stopped by the table for a bit. And of course, my apologies to anyone who's sketch requests I had to turn away -- honestly, I just can't draw any faster! I hope you'll look me up at a smaller event around town so I can make it up to you.

And luckily this time around, I had an opportunity to scan a few sketches before I gave them to the owners, so here's a small sampling of the 20 or so drawings did over the weekend:




I drew this Captain America one for a fellow who never picked it up. Even though those "secret invasion" covers are murder to draw on (they're glossy so they make my markers streak and take a while to dry), I kinda like the sketch, so maybe I'll keep it or sell it at another con in the future:



Same for this Wonder Woman one -- though the person who wanted this one paid me in advance. If you're the person who asked for this one, please email me and we'll work out some kind of delivery:

Fan Expo 2008

I'll be appearing this weekend (August 22 - 24th) at Fan Expo, here in sunny Toronto. It's actually my first time at this convention, so I'm really not sure what to expect. I keep hearing though that its the biggest comic-con in Canada, so in my mind I'm picturing a smaller, kinder and gentler version of the San Diego comic-con . I'll be seated with the rest of the Transmission-x gang, selling prints and doing sketches for any attendees who want to purchase one.

When I first started attending cons like this a couple of years ago, I used to be petrified of doing sketches on the spot. After all, I'm used to working in the privacy and comfort of my studio, listening to my itunes or a with a TV playing in the background. I thought sketching at cons would be a horrible experience, but I quickly found out the reverse was true. I enjoy talking and goofing around with comic fans, and I quickly realized I had an innate ability to carry on a conversation while drawing a picture of Wolverine fighting Iron Man (trust me, its a totally necessary skill). I've also found it really pleasant to see some fans over and over again, and catch up with what they're doing in their lives. All in all, my con sketching experience has been pretty positive and I'm very thankful about that.

Now, if you're wondering what kind of sketches I do at events, you can check below for a sampling of drawings I've done for people over the last year or two. Bear in mind though that there's one cardinal rule about con sketches: the very best ones never make it online, and the worst ones always get the most exposure. So the cool Joker or Creeper drawing I did that I was really proud of will probably never be seen, while the horrible Captain America I busted out for free at the end of the night will get viewed by everyone. That's just the way it rolls in sketchland!

Special thanks to everyone who's sketches are posted here. Sorry I didn't contact you first for permission -- I really really hope you won't mind.

The Sentry

Here's a few sketches from a fun comic project I'm working on that I'm pretty excited about. Its for a new mini-series featuring the Marvel Super-hero, the Sentry! I was asked to ink the cover to issue #1, which was drawn by dashing Dave Bullock, and that lead to me drawing a 10 page story for issue #2. When I got the script by the talented Paul Tobin, I almost flipped out, as it featured pretty much everything and everyone I'd ever wanted to draw in a super-hero story! I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say that I'm drawing it right now, and I'm really jazzed about working on it.

Above are a few of my warm-up sketches of the Sentry, and below is the inked cover to issue #1, penciled by Dave Bullock and inked by yours truely.

T.S. Eliot

This one's a commission request I did last weekend during the Paradise Comic Con. The owner of this piece is Steven Gettis, who has amassed an amazing collection of drawings of literary figures by illustrators. He also owns another piece by me, from my very very early years so its hilarious to see the evolution of my artwork.

His collection really is incredible, and you can see why being given the freedom to draw whatever author or character the illustrator wanted inspired the very best work from the artists. I know it was a pleasure for me to draw my piece.

Papercut: "Waiting." (part 5)

Wow...long time between posts! Sorry about the delays in updating my blog, folks. All I can say is the usual -- deadlines, deadlines, deadlines, blah blah blah. I know its summer, but dang if I ain't retardedly busy lately. Its kinda sad, really -- every summer I tell myself "this is the year I'm finally gonna try and work less in the summer and get out more", and every summer I end up parked behind my drawing table, working feverishly away and watching the beautiful weather pass by in front of my window.

Since my last post, I've been busy with a lot of illustration assignments and events. I attended the 2008 National Magazine Awards, where my short comic "Stars" won the silver medal in the "words and pictures" category. The event was held at the swanky Carlu in Toronto, and was a swell time for me and my wife. I also made an appearance at the Paradise Toronto Comiccon last weekend, where I got to meet up with a lot of great comic fans and did a bunch of sketches too.

Apart from that, I've also finished up the conclusion of my latest comic story for my webcomic, Papercut. It's a 29 pager in total, and you can read it online from the beginning here. The page at the top of this post is from the conclusion of the story.

Now I've got to get back to the drawing board, but I'll be back soon to post more stuff on here -- honest!

Doctor Fate meets Doctor Strange

Ok, I drew this for a commission that was really, really late. I was asked to draw Doctor Fate, and threw in Doctor Strange as well, 'cause I thought they'd make a cool combo. I grew up reading those Ditko Dr Strange comics (and need I say I loved them?), but I never really read anything with Doctor Fate until about a year ago when my buddy, Steve Manale, pointed out the original golden age stories featuring the bell-headed guy. Steve is rarely wrong about his comic recommendations and he was certainly on the money in this case. The original Doctor Fate stories from the 1940's by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman are pure gold.

Fox was apparently just a teen when he wrote them, and hadn't yet descended into the lower circles of demented hackery he'd hit by the time he got to the silver age DC heroes in the 1960's (I swear, that man's later work is unreadable). He filled those early stories with a kind of schoolboy-meets-lovecraft vibe that's really charming in its primitivism. And Howard Sherman's art was my kind of crazy -- bizarre and yet possessing a strange logic and accidental beauty all its own. The stuff just crackles with the raw energy found in the best golden-age comics.

Anyway, for those interested, you can check out the Doctor Fate Archives hardcover collection from DC and see for yourself. And if you want to check out my rough pencil sketch for this drawing, you can do so by pointing your eyes just a little lower.

The Last Son of Krypton

Here's another superhero themed drawing, this one of the first (and most famous) superhero: Superman!

I drew this one up as my contribution to the upcoming "Visions of an Icon" art exhibition, which will feature tons of drawings of Kal-El (that's his Kryptonian name -- I know this because I'm geeky) by canadian illustrators and comic artists. All the drawings in the show, including mine, will be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the Shuster Awards -- the canadian comic creator awards named after Superman co-creator Joe Shuster.

I have to admit this one was pretty quick and fun to draw -- I drew the thumbnail sketch shown below really quickly, like in 20 minutes or so, and did only the most minor tweaks to it on the way to the final art. The biggest change was that I went with green as my tone-colour -- mainly because my wife noted that green fit the krypton/kryptonite connection.

Mind you, I do have a tendency to go with green anyway...

Incidentally, I got the inspiration for the composition of this drawing from a non-superman related source. There's a very famous Will Eisner Spirit story called, I think, "the Visitor" or something like that, with a great splash page featuring a portrait of the Spirit framed inside a planet. I remember seeing that page when I was about 14 or 15 years old and staring at it for a long time, just absorbed in the beauty and mood of that piece. I was thinking again of that splash page and the kind of atmosphere it evoked when I came up with the thumbnail.

Papercut: "Waiting." (part 3)

Part 3 of my story "waiting" is now online at my webcomic Papercut. As frequent visitors to my blog might know, Papercut is part of the Transmission-X group of webcomics, all created and owned by a talented group of Toronto based cartoonists. Well, except Karl Kershl's Abominable Charles Christopher -- Karl moved away to Montreal a few months back, and we sorely miss him.

Anyway, I hope you'll check out the site and read the story for yourselves. For those interested, and in keeping with my regular posting trend, you can examine the process from thumbnail to finished art for the page below:

The Incredible Hulk (and Rick Jones)

I drew this up for a toronto comic-con, and the assigned theme was (duh!) the Incredible Hulk.  A few of us Toronto comic artists were doing Hulk images for it, kinda like a "Hulk thru the years" thing, and I chose to draw original Jack Kirby designed Hulk.  The final artwork is meant to fit on a badge, so it'll be printed really really small, like 2" x 2" or so.  And of course, my usual green-toned drawing style was a natural fit for the subject.

Now, for something that's so small, I actually went through a bit of a process coming up with the final art.  A failed thumbnail, a couple of revisions and a helpful critique from fellow artist Ron Salas were all part of the journey to the finished piece.  But even though it might look like it was labour intensive, the whole thing took probably about 3 or 4 hours in total.  If you're interested in the process, you can check out my various sketches below:

Taddle Creek magazine cover

Taddle Creek is a local literary magazine which was kind enough to run one of my comics years ago as their very first comic feature.  Since then, I've drawn a few other comics for them, and have always enjoyed the experience.  A couple of months ago the editor, Conan Tobias, approached me with the idea of having me do a cover for them which was very flattering.  I always like the freedom Conan gives me to do whatever I want, and this case was no different.  So, of course, I had a great time working on this image.  

The concept was easy enough, and came to me in an inspired moment, and I knocked out a sketch and colour rough over the course of a couple hours.  The final itself also came together nicely, without any real problems.   I usually prefer to work on drawings with this kind of vibe really late at night, while listening to music on my headphones.  I like it when my whole downtown neighbourhood is quiet and I can just lose track of time while drawing. 

For those who are interested, you can check out some steps of my process toward the final below.  I actually did a really quick marker drawing before the thumbnail pencil, but it was so dodgy I decided to not even scan it.  The colour rough was what made the whole thing work for me.  Once I drew that one, I knew the final piece would work out fine.