Tun-Der-Bolts

I'm a bit behind, both with this blog and with my contribution to the Periscope Sketch Tumblr but I think this turned out to be one of my best pieces. I was trying to measure up to all the great already done by my amazing friends. For some reason I can't just do part of a team. I want to draw all of them and I want to do it in a single image. I've been building up to more and more elaborate team shots and this time I was able to fit all nine members of the Thunderbolts into my drawing:

The series is written by Jeff Parker and if you don't know his work then you should check it out. There is more to good comics writing than Alan Moore and Brian Michael Bendis. Those guys are great, at what they each do, but I like comics that err on the lighter side without being aimless. Jeff Parker is great at infusing his work with a great mix of humor, mystery, grit and spectacle. Check out his current runs on Thunderbolts and The Hulk (with the great Gabe Hardman!")

Plateaus and Launchpads.

I suppose there is a point in every creative endeavor where you look back, at all the work you've done, and you just want to quit and start from scratch because you've learned some new precept or series of clarifying ideas that suddenly color everything a grayer shade. Add watching the final two seasons of "The Wire" (the most brilliantly written show I've ever seen) to the mix and you have a recipe for a good portion of self doubt.


I had such a revelation/doubtfest recently and I can attribute the information influx to a couple of unrelated but mutually relevant (although disparate) sources:

The flawed (any scene featuring the weird misogynistic serial killer subplot) but brilliant (any of the clever academic analyzing) reviews of the catastrophically terrible 'Star Wars' Prequels:

The Phantom Menace

Attack Of the Clones

Revenge Of The Sith

Steve Lieber showed me this memo written by David Mamet to his staff of writers on "The Unit" about the difference between drama and information:

Mamet Makes It Clear

The good news is that after a bit of time away from the initial mind expansion and a few conversations with Nathan about the current state and future of our webcomic we now have an informed way forward. Many of my colleagues at Periscope Studio want me to scrap the project but I've always felt that it was better to admit to a lack of clear communication and see if you can redeem a situation rather than just walk away. It can be a good thing to recognize flaws in your own work/approach and turn that stagnant stage into a springboard.


I am somewhat intimidated but genuinely excited by the challenge ahead. Nathan and I both want to be the best storytellers we can be; that is an ongoing process with ups downs and uneasy middles. Stick with us and we'll do our best to reward that investment.

Spider Girl Meets Medusa

This image will go up on the Periscope Tumblr as of January 3rd but I thought I might preview it here to whet your appetites. As a studio we have decide to pick a subject every few weeks or so and each draw a version of it to post. In Celebration of Studio member Paul Tobin's work on Spider Girl for Marvel we elected her to be the inaugural subject of our drawings!


Steve Lieber suggested that I do a piece that was more 'design' than 'narrative' so I used her hair in a fashion that mimics the flowing locks of Medusa as a graphic solution (if not being literally part of the character.) let me know what you think when it goes live! Check out the tumblr and the works of Paul Tobin and I'll see you on Saturday.

If you think 'Jorge Zaffino' sounds like the name of a wizard; you'd be right

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.

Wally Wood and If I Knew Then

I've been sick and busy so I haven't yet posted this week but I am enjoying working on this blog and it doesn't feel like a distraction-the way other attempts to blog have historically. I learned a lot this week and much of it came from Steve Lieber who is the closest thing to a mentor in comics that I am likely to have. He is very generous with his time, resources and knowledge. The other day Steve asked me if I had ever heard of Wally Wood and, like Alex Toth, I had heard the name in interviews and peripherally through other comics culture contexts. I had never seen the art and once I did it was like finding that puzzle piece that you needed to complete the frame of that bigger picture-let's say a puppy and a kitten in a basket of fall flowers.

Wally Wood is the direct link between my favorite contemporary artists ad the larger illustrative ethos of the past. The tradition of great illustration that started to unravel in the mid 20th century was still a palpable influence on Wood and his contemporaries. This guy knew about form, function and storytelling in all the important ways. Steve said he would be like a holy grail of artists for me an he is right. Wood does all the kind of line making that I like, exciting design and pulpy subject matter that could give just about anyone a campy thrill. His work can be found in old anthologies of EC comics and in snippets here an there on the internet. His sci-fi stuff is unbeatable; you can see Mingola and Nowlan reflecting it in their work.

I have posted is 22 panels that always work-a guide that Steve and other studio members showed me to help my design sense and eye for page layout:



The funny thing about going to the studio is that everyone who is there with regularity is working professionally in some capacity or another and it makes me feel like a kid in a room full of adults talking about things I can't understand. I am reminded of being in college and my thoughts on computer-based work during that period. At the time it seemed like something that was specialized and had too many hurdles for me to jump. Expense and frustration with the interface were a few factors that kept me from investigating it but those things seem like cop-outs now because of how helpful it could have been. I was also young and pulled in many directions. I wanted to make comics but I didn't come back to that until after I had been through 4 years of school and by then I had fallen in with indie comics makers who were very DIY/low tech and computers didn't factor in much. After meeting a bunch of people recently who use them regularly it has confirmed my suspicion that traditional drawing skills are (commercially) secondary to good design, web savvy and the ability to improve your imagery with computer based tools. I've seen people who couldn't render very well take a goofy sketch and manipulate it digitally into an impressive piece of work.

I am chasing the techno-train down the tracks as it has already left the station. My hope is that I can continue to learn some of this new information and combine it with my solid understanding of form and analog techniques.

I don't think it's too late to get good but it does seem like I didn't have much foresight. I've got a bunch of catching up to do.

Internship!

I got an internship with Periscope studios that starts Monday. I'm excited and a little nervous about it because I want to do well and get the most out of it. There are a lot of guys I admire who make up the roster there and I am curious to see what their working style is like. I'm also hoping to get crits on things that will advance my understanding. The last good crit I got was from Steve Lieber at last year's Stumptown comics fest and it was through the conversations I've had with him that my work has improved and that I'm lucky enough to get in with these fine professionals.

I'll give an account of my work with them if everything goes according to plan. I'm crossing my fingers and trying not to take anything for granted.

Nathan has set up this Blog for us and as we go along I'll be posting artwork and such to accompany my posts. We have talked a lot about what kind of stuff will accompany the blog, though we've got a few concrete ideas, there is sure o be some random stuff that pops up here and there too.

Welcome to the blog everyone and please tell your friends if you like what you see or read. We love comics and we will continue working hard to make things worth reading and looking at-it would be nice if there were people to look at and read them.