Comic Book Memories (A League of Extraordinary Bloggers Post!)

It's undeniable that comics have had an influence on my work. Growing up I learned to draw by copying the comics I saw in the newspaper like Peanuts, Garfield and Foxtrot among others. My entry into actual "comic books" came about in 1999 when I entered a contest in Clubhouse Magazine to design an original superhero. I cobbled together some general sense of what I superhero was supposed to look like based on my rudimentary knowledge of pop culture at the time. Cape, Tights, Helmets and some kind of power that made him super. Thus was the origin of Maximum Max! who was declared one of the contest's two winners and featured on the front cover of the magazine the following year.

This unexpected victory led me to take an interest in learning about existing comic book superheroes. Comics weren't circulating in the public library then quite like they are today. Instead what we had was the non-fiction section dealing with humanities, which up until that time was for me just a collection of really tall shelves filled with books that didn't have covers. The contents of this section of the library were small but very fruitful at this time in my life. The influential volumes in this department included Stan Lee presents "Bring on the Bad Guys!", Jules Feiffer's "The Great Comic Book Heroes" and "Superman Through the Ages". I sight Bring on the Bad Guys as having the most lasting impact for introducing me to Marvel's vast array of costumed characters and more importantly, Stan Lee's corny carnival huckster style of narration, which provided me with a verbose vocabulary but an affable affinity for added alliterative appeal!

                     

 

Around this time when the 2000s were upon us, comics were slowly re-entering the public conscious  especially in the wake of the first X-Men movie and there was a big push to get comics by way of "graphic novels" into the hands of kids through the public library. It was something of a slow process getting the latest stuff to our neck of the woods, but I learned I could use the computer catalog to place reserves on paperback collections from other libraries that were ahead of the curve.

The volumes I consumed the most was Marvel's "Essential" line of reprints. Each book contained about twenty issues of a respective series from their very start in the 1960s. I put these on reverse in droves at the library, emptying out whole quarter rolls to pay for the fifty cent inter-library loans and rushing home to make sure I could finish each set before they would be due in a months time. I must have read every Silver Age Marvel title to ever be printed.  My favorite series was easily The Fantastic Four. Their personalities really bounced off of one another made some great banter. Then there were their adventures! It was never a case of what bad guy they were going to fight this issue or what crime they were going to solver, these people could go from scouting the surface of the moon in one issue, to a quest to bottom of the ocean to navigating a universe so small that it fit on the head of pin in the following month.

Around the time I was wrapping up middle school, I had just about drained Michigan's collection of superhero comics dry, and while scouring the computer systems for new material at other branches I discovered that I had somehow overlooked some graphic novels at my own library that were shelved with the rest of the adult fiction. I had known of Will Eisner and his classic creation "The Spirit" from Feiffer's "Great Comic Book Heroes", but his original slice of life/historical fiction graphic novels "The Contract with God" and "To the Heart of the Storm" changed my whole way of thinking about comic book storytelling, specifically what could be a subject and how it could be told. Eisner died less than a year after I discovered these books and I'm grateful to have a small taste of the impact that would be lost to the world.

Also check out these other cool contributors and their connection with comics:

* http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.ca/2013/04/league-of-extraordinary-bloggers-comic.html

* http://goodwillhunting4geeks.blogspot.ca/2013/04/league-post-comic-books.html

* http://monstercafesaltillo.blogspot.mx/2013/04/league-assignment-comic-books.html

Winter Window Redux

Now that its officially spring (even in Michigan) I thought I would re-color this winter scene.
I rescanned the original at a higher resolution, cleaned up some of the rougher parts of the trees and got rid of the frost patch from the original, as no one seemed to be able to figure out what that was supposed to be.

Greater Than

Ordinarily I'm not one to make political statements, but I felt inspired to compose this graphic in response to all the recent buzz about "equality". 

Reaching for the Stars (also Wonder Woman)

At the start of the month, Project Rooftop, a website known for redesigning classic superhero costumes, but recently has been having theme posts for various comic characters.
At the start March, they announced that they were doing a theme post for Wonder Woman. This seemed like a good opportunity not only to have some fun with an iconic character but to have some new people see my work. Not wanting to merely feature the famed heroine against a featureless background, so I began brainstorming what kind of situations I could draw.

My first idea involved Diana in a situation that was less "fish out of water" and more "big fish in a small pond, which her attending a classy museum exhibit featuring ancient Greek artifacts (perhaps an a exhibit on the Amazons themselves), with Wonder Woman in costume, standing between some bemused visitors, pointing to, or perhaps picking up an item from the display (a piece of pottery or something) and talking about it with some experience or memory.

For a time I briefly considered having her converse with some famous statues in a museum setting, as originally she was a clay figure given life and power by the Greek Pantheon. Perhaps she could try and get in on the Three Grace's circle or make a joke about how the Venus Callipyge is always talking out her ass.

This idea didn't really seem to go anywhere, so I started considering some other options. These days with movies like The Dark Knight and the New 52 Reboot, comic book heroes have been geared towards more contemporary origins that can be "related to" by the reader, so I thought I'd make a effort to feature the character's titanic strength through a comparison to some force of nature.

I started adding color in these roughs too, like this one of Wonder Woman scattering stars in the sky.

However, I thought scattering stars like seeds would be more appropriate for Superman, who grew up on a farm. Then I remembered how the Greeks believed that the sky was a velvet dome, and the stars were holes to let in light in the evenings. So I hit on the idea of Wonder Woman literally cutting holes out of the sky with a pair of scissors, with the sunset producing red rays the resembled the American flag's red stripes to match the five point stars of her patriotic roots in World War II.

Unfortunately, I think it may be an idea thats ambitious beyond my present ability, as attempting to polish up the rough has been exceptionally frustrating.

While its great to have an impetus for such ideas (especially ones that are more surreal and fantastical than my usual fare) , at this rate, I'm not going to make the deadline and may have to revisit these concepts at another time.

Party of Two - Process and Progress

Its been a while since I've posted any finished work, so I thought I'd provide an update on what I've been doing lately.

With my last piece, I tried to streamline my process, but drawing directly over my pencils in Photoshop to save steps on inking, scanning and adjusting the appearance of said inks. Also, I got a new desktop computer to replace my dying laptop so I figured it might be high time to look into using my computer as something other than an oversized clipboard for my reference photos.

Using Photoshop, I started sketching roughs, were I could add or subtract details, scale elements up or down, and get a general idea of what I was after before I "get started" and better visualize what I was after.

Heres an idea I've had in the back of my head for a while, loosely based on an experience from my own life. Set just outside an apartment building were a loud party is taking place. In contrast we see young couple sitting on the front steps, shooting the chilly evening breeze and getting to know each other better.

Sketching in Photoshop also gave me the advantage of being able to plot out  a grid for perspective. However, a problem that I came across was measuring out a set of steps that our couple could comfortably sit on. Along the same lines I had trouble figuring out the proper proportions of these kids to the rest of the building. I'm working my way though the tutorials for Google SketchUp to help me out with the architectural consistency. 

For some fun on your way out, here is my "inspiration collage" featuring a number of illustrations that I looked at for subject and staging.

I Have A Headache!

This is another entry for WeLoveFine's Power Ranger's T-Shirt contest, playing on a double entendre with Rita Repulsa's catchphrase and the implications it could have on her marriage to Lord Zedd. While I sketched this out in traditional pencils, finished linework is completely digital, a first for me.

While I thought that this entry, since it didn't involve tracing a pre-existing logo, would be the jewel in the crown of my submissions. However, much like "I Got a Frog", I received an e-mail from WeLoveFine. “We like your concept, however, since this cartoon is aimed for children, we cannot add your design into the contest.  Is it possible for you to rework it so that maybe Rita isn't lying down in a bed, but maybe sitting in her chair?  Once you rework the design, we'd be happy to enter it into the contest.”

While this sounds like a frustrating let down, after reading it I had a strange realization, “If its rejected before the contest… Then it can’t be a failure!” Yeah... just keep telling yourself that. Though it is subtly amusing to me that a gag about rejection is ultimately being rejected.

I've got a week before the deadline to submit something else, so I just have to decide if it's worth the effort to compose a new image from scratch. With that kind of time crunch though, I might just let it go and be thankful I didn't go with any gags about "Make my Monster Grow."

Let's Make A Show Of It!

Captain Marvelous' catchphrase from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger juxtaposed with the classic "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters. These pirates may not care much for "Keeping Calm", but they know all about carrying on. 

Originally this was something I just did on a lark, but it was a big hit on tumblr, so I decided to try submitting it to WeLoveFine's Power Ranger T-Shirt contest, even if it is based on a Sentai series. Well low and behold, this design was approved and is eligible for voting when the polls open on February 18th. Here is a link to the design page were you can share it on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus.

http://www.welovefine.com/vote.php?id_contest=32&m=gallery&id_submit=11203