Steve Lieber has an uncanny ability to look at someone's work and recommend at least 3 artists that will blow that person's mind and make them wish they'd known of them earlier. This has, atleast, been my personal experience via Periscope studios and the revelation that Steve hipped me to this time is the Argentine master of Menace: Jorge Zaffino
Now if you haven't seen his stuff it isn't surprising. I had only inadvertantly seen some and, even then, not known it was this guy. He did a little piece with Chuck Dixon for the first 'batman black and white' anthology and it is great. I remember seeing it and thinking it was solid but I wasn't paying attention to the right parts. I was also totally distracted by Kevin Nowlan's pages, being some of the finest work I've ever seen. Jorge's stuff is like coffee: strong, acidic and dark. Also one might say a somewhat acquired taste common amongst adults. He doesn't mess around with the sort of filagree that appeals strongly to youthful untrained eyes. His success as a storyteller is an accumulation of subtle devices and seasoned, hard earned, draftsmanship.
Breathtaking. I get charged up to draw just thinking about it!
I also wanted to mention Jeff Parker's 'Agents of Atlas' which was a blast to read and has great pulpy elements all throughout. Issue number one is out now and it is like one of those movies that uses special effects really well-always to enhance and never distract from the story. When I say 'special effects' in this case, I mean a robot, a talking ape, a kung fu master, a goddess, a mermaid and a psyonic spaceman who pilots a flying saucer. Jeff writes all kinds of stuff and offers up tibits of insight all the time-he is a busy guy which is good for those of us who like to read well written comics.
And on that subject Writer Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover have returned from NY comic con and it is nice to have them back. I like their wit and combined presence especially when it gets Steve and Jeff Parker going on some current event or comics related gossip. Sometimes they talk about other pros and funny situations and it all seems like it will be a lot of fun some day to be in on these inside jokes/conversations once I've been in the business long enough to obtain stories of my own.
Steve also showed me Joe Kubert's Tarzan as a good example of wide shots used to enhance the variety in panels. Really really wide shots help establish scale and give some nice negative space to let the eye rest. Paul Tobin actually mentioned something about that regarding what sort of artistic styles one might use in setting the pace of a story. Busy art can help slow a reader down and sparse art helps a story that relies on a quick pace to allow otherwise salient details to fall by the wayside. Cool idea to keep in mind for my future attempts
Some guy sent Steve some goofy art and at a huge file size that doesn't mean much aside from the fact that it prompted studio appreciation for my not being a goon. It helps that I'm old. It's nice to know I'm liked
They also keep buying me lunch which is exceedingly nice. If you're already giving people tremendous gifts every day it is a fulsome but welcome thing to recieve free food on top of that. I'll never be able to repay these fantastic people. I sould be buying them lunch and giving free guitar lessons or something they'd want. The problem is that they are all bad ass at things I want to kow how to do and I can't offer them much in return except thanks and well deserved praise.
I am working on scanning and cleaning up 90 some pages of the Pander Brothers' latest graphic novel. It doesn't have any words in it as of now and as a result I can only intuit that it is a combination between a spy movie and a soda commercial. Some panels have really cool things happening in them. The drawings are semi-manga style which isn't my taste but I have still found little things to crib from the aesthetic. There is value in everything.
Alright... I am going to draw out some more of the white pony pages I coreographed a battle for before I have to go to bed.
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