Book Festival video

Enjoy this jumpy video of my visit to the UCLA Book Festival!

Jersey Boys Book

I found out this week that the Jersey Boys Broadway show will have a book published. It's a chronicle of it's journey from idea to TONY Award-Winning hit! I am happy to see that I am featured in the book and my contributions are shown. I'm not sure when it will hit the stands, but as soon as I know, I'll let you know!

Words of Encouragement

I remember visiting a friends house a few years ago. She was going through some emotional problems and she was taking the right to get better. Anyway, while hanging out in her kitchen, I saw an Insipational message written on a blackboard. I don't remember what it was. I know it was something to keep her focused. Something that was important.

Well now I have something I've written on a bulletin board on my wall. It's something I need to remember when I draw.

Heebink Comments

Back in the early 1990s, I started inking a number of comics for MARVEL. One of my first monthly jobs was Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and it was after doing background inking and One-shot issues. I was already on the book by the time J. Heebink started as regular Penciller. His art was good when he started and he inproved with every issue!

His figures were strong and his lines were fun to ink. He was a professional, and we got along well, so I guess by the third issue he wanted to give his opinion on the inking! I read his comments and made the adjustments I felt were needed. I have to admit that the best thing about the note was the paper he sent it on! I looks like he did layouts and blew them up to 11by17. Then I guess he recycled the paper. It was great to see the process!

Welcome to LA

It's been about 3 years since I did the first drawings for 'Jersey Boys'. Now it's come to Los Angeles! I hope to see the show in July. You should see it too!

The Ego has landed!

I had a post on April 15th that talked about computer coloring. I wondered if using a particular color palette could improve the black and white artwork and if a night scene would look better in reds and amber. I think I gave too much responsibility to the colorist and none to the black and white artists. I've gotten some responses from some professionals that I respect, and I think I should revisit the panel. This time, I'll focus on what's really wrong with it.

If you were to read the early posts on this blog, you would see some examples of me analyzing some poor stiffs comic art. I would also post my own art with comments. If I dish it, I should take it. I made a resolution to stop more than a year ago, but when I saw this page, I couldn't ignore what was wrong with it! Unfortunately, I thought it would look better with different color.

I took the time to sketch a version of the unnamed panel and suggest what could have been done differently.

In the original (top), the perspective is screwy and proportions are wrong. The car on the right is too small and is drawn badly. The white van in the BG looks like a toy. The inking over all is scratchy and scrawly. The page needed a lot more black ink and I tried to show that in my sketch below.

In my drawing, I added some dramatic lighting to the foreground figure on the left. Also, some solid black behind him and in the night sky. I decided on a perspective vanishing point and built the city around it. I did not leave the windows open for bright spots of light. It can distract from the focus of action and people usually close the drapes at night.

I guess I should have considered the uncolored art before questioning the colorist. My mistake!

I am adding a sepia photo that Steve refers to in a comment. Would this make a great night scene?

Kubert/Kubert cover

This is a cover by Andy kubert and Joe Kubert. Really nice cover, great compostition. You rarely see Joe Kubert draw Marvel characters, I guess he wanted to ink his son. As I recall, J. Kubert worked on an EPIC Comics project at the time. A stone-age character he created called 'TOR'.

More Dollar Comics

I picked up some more Dollar comics at my local comic shop the other day. I surprised myself by buying 2 issues of 'Mighty Samson' published by Gold Key comics in 1973. These were books drawn by real old school artists. Maybe the type that smoked cigars and drew any kind genre book out there. The book did not have any credits, but I'm sure I might recognize the artists' style if I looked at a few DC books of that era. Another treat was a bunch of KA-ZAR comics from Marvel. It had some of the sweetest art by Buscema and Alcala, but in color! The line work held up and Alcala did his own lettering. I especially enjoyed Issue 12 with a Kirby cover and Russ Heath art. I never knew the old KA-Zar books were so much fun. All that for a dollar each!

Comicbook color

I don't know how to color my own work on the computer. I have to surrender my art to someone else if It has to be colored. That's fine. When you draw for a living, you have to accept an Editorial process and evaluations and changes and blah, blah, blah. The problem is that there are a million ways to color a scene, and there are not many colorists that can be trusted.

I do not want to offend the colorists out there. Some of my best friends know how to rock Photoshop. It's just that I came across two examples of a night scene, and I wanted to talk about. The top drawing is a comicbook panel, and the bottom is a still frame from a movie. I love the movie frame and I think the warm hues add a creepy feeling to the scene. The cold blues of the top panel suggest fog and cold, but I think the art could be helped if the color person went with the warmer palette. I will not comment on the black and white line art.

Am I out of line with these comments? Are night-scenes better in Blue/grey as opposed to Red/amber? Gosh. I think I should take a class and color my own work.

Buscema Sketches

I think Jonh Buscema did a lot of sketches. On the back of art pages especially. I am posting two sketches he did that I really like! One is of character studies for a comicbook adaptaion of a movie. The other is from a Silver Surfer Graphic Novel.

Memories creep up on me!

I used to love to go to clubs and listen to music. I found this ticket stub while downloading my 'AMPS' CD onto iTunes. Is it really 11 years since that ROSELAND show in NYC? It must have been. I have a problem with nostalgia... I find myself retracing my steps, wondering where I could be if I would taken an alternate route. When I look at this stub I don't regret going. It was the first time seeing 'that dog'!

B is for Busy!

I wish I had more time to blog on the various site I blog on! I cannot because I am working on a few neat projects. Until I find more time, I will leave you with a sample of a job I'm pitching for.