Issuu

#26

82658 27764

FALL 2013 $8.95 IN THE US

DIGITAL

NS DRAW! (edited by MIKE MANLEY) is the professional EDITIO BLE A “HOW-TO” magazine on comics, cartooning, and IL AVA NLY animation. Each issue features in-depth INTERVIEWS FOR O 5 and DEMOS from top pros on all aspects of graphic $3.9 storytelling, as well as such DRAW! #4 skills as layout, penciling, inking, Interview with ERIK LARSEN, KEVIN lettering, coloring, Photoshop techNOWLAN on drawing and inking niques, plus web guides, tips, tricks, techniques, DAVE COOPER’s coloring techniques in Photoshop, BRET and a handy reference source—this BLEVINS tutorial on Figure magazine has it all! Composition, PAUL RIVOCHE on the Design Process, reviews of NOTE: Some issues contain nudity for comics drawing papers, and more! purposes of figure drawing. (88-page magazine) $5.95 INTENDED FOR MATURE READERS. (Digital Edition) $3.95

DRAW! #8

DRAW! #9

DRAW! #10

DRAW! #5

DRAW! #6

DRAW! #7

MIKE WIERINGO interview, BENDIS and OEMING on how they create “Powers”, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw great hands”, “The illusion of depth in design” by PAUL RIVOCHE, art books reviewed by TERRY BEATTY, plus reviews of the best art supplies, and more!

Interview & demo with BILL WRAY, STEPHEN DeSTEFANO interview, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw the human figure in light and shadow,” Photoshop tutorial by CELIA CALLE, inking tips by MIKE MANLEY, reviews of the best art supplies, links, and more!

Interview/demo by DAN BRERETON, ZACH TRENHOLM on caricaturing, “Drawing In Adobe Illustrator” demo by ALBERTO RUIZ, “The Power of Sketching” by BRET BLEVINS, “Designing with light and shadow” by PAUL RIVOCHE, reviews of art supplies, links, and more!

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DRAW! #11

DRAW! #12

DRAW! #13

Interview & demo by MATT HALEY, TOM BANCROFT & ROB CORLEY on character design, “Drawing In Adobe Illustrator” by ALBERTO RUIZ, “Draping The Human Figure” by BRET BLEVINS, a new COMICS SECTION, International Spotlight on JOSÉ LOUIS AGREDA, and more!

WRITE NOW #8 crossover! MIKE MANLEY & DANNY FINGEROTH create a comic from script to print, BANCROFT & CORLEY on bringing characters to life, Adobe Illustrator with ALBERTO RUIZ, Noel Sickles’ work examined, PvP’s SCOTT KURTZ, art supply reviews, and more!

RON GARNEY interview & demo, GRAHAM NOLAN on creating newspaper strips, TODD KLEIN and others discuss lettering, “Draping The Human Figure, Part Two” by BRET BLEVINS, ALBERTO RUIZ on Adobe Illustrator, interview with MARK McKENNA, links, and more!

STEVE RUDE on comics & drawing, ROQUE BALLESTEROS on Flash animation, JIM BORGMAN on his daily comic strip Zits, BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY on “Drawing On Life”, Adobe Illustrator tips with ALBERTO RUIZ, links, a color section and more! New RUDE cover!

KYLE BAKER on merging traditional and digital art, MIKE HAWTHORNE on his work, “Making Perspective Work For You” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, Photoshop techniques with ALBERTO RUIZ, THE VENTURE BROTHERS, links, and more! New BAKER cover!

Demo of painting methods by ALEX HORLEY, interview and demo by COLLEEN COOVER, a look behindthe-scenes on Adult Swim’s MINORITEAM, regular features on drawing by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, links, color section and more!

(96-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

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DRAW! #14

DRAW! #15

DRAW! #16

DRAW! #17

DRAW! #18

DRAW! #19

In-depth interviews and demos with DOUG MAHNKE, OVI NEDELCU (Pigtale, WB Animation), STEVE PURCELL (Sam and Max), MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP on “Using Black to Power up Your Pages”, product reviews, and more!

Covers major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/interview with BILL REINHOLD, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, and more!

In-depth interview with HOWARD CHAYKIN, behind the drawing board and animation desk with JAY STEPHENS, COMIC ART BOOTCAMP on HOW TO USE REFERENCE and WORKING FROM PHOTOS (by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY), and more!

Interview and tutorial with Scott Pilgrim’s BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY on how he creates the acclaimed series, learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS creates his series, more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

Interview & demo by R.M. GUERA, Cartoon Network’s JAMES TUCKER on the hit show “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” plus product reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and Comic Book Boot Camp’s “Anatomy: Part 2” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY!

DOUG BRAITHWAITE demo and interview, DANNY FINGEROTH’s new feature on writer/artists with R. SIKORYAK, BOB McLEOD critiques a newcomer’s work, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies and tool tech, COMIC ART BOOTCAMP on penciling & more!

(84-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

DRAW! #20

DRAW! #21

DRAW! #22

WALTER SIMONSON interview and demo, Rough Stuff’s BOB McLEOD gives a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, Write Now’s DANNY FINGEROTH spotlights writer/artist AL JAFFEE, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the best art supplies and tool technology, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS offer “Comic Art Bootcamp” lessons, plus Web links, book reviews, and more!

Urban Barbarian DAN PANOSIAN talks shop about his gritty, designinspired work with editor MIKE MANLEY, DANNY FINGEROTH interviews “Billy Dogma” writer/artist DEAN HASPIEL, plus more of MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, product and art supply reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

Interview with inker SCOTT WILLIAMS from his days at Marvel and Image to his work with JIM LEE, FRANK MILLER interview, plus MILLER and KLAUS JANSON show their working processes. Also, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • (Digital edition) $3.95

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS & CARTOONING WWW.DRAW-MAGAZINE.BLOGSPOT.COM FALL 2013 VOL. 1, No. 26 Editor-in-Chief • Michael Manley Managing Editor and Designer • Eric Nolen-Weathington Publisher • John Morrow Logo Design • John Costanza Front Cover • Joe Jusko DRAW! Fall 2013, Vol. 1, No. 26 was produced by Action Planet, Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michael Manley, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial address: DRAW! Magazine, c/o Michael Manley, 430 Spruce Ave., Upper Darby, PA 19082. Subscription Address: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

JOE JUSKO

Mike Manley interviews the painter and cover artist about his long and successful career

RIGHT WAY, WRONG WAY—ORDWAY!

Jim rugg

comic art bootcamp

The crusty Critic

Jerry goes step-by-step with a commission

DRAW! and its logo are trademarks of Action Planet, Inc. All contributions herein are copyright 2013 by their respective contributors. Action Planet, Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing accept no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. All artwork herein is copyright the year of production, its creator (if work-for-hire, the entity which contracted said artwork); the characters featured in said artwork are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners; and said artwork or other trademarked material is printed in these pages with the consent of the copyright holder and/or for journalistic, educational, or historical purposes with no infringement intended or implied. This entire issue is ©2013 Action Planet, Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing and may not be reprinted or retransmitted without written permission of the copyright holders. ISSN 1932-6882. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication,

Jamar Nicholas chats with the indie creator about crafting comics

This month’s installment: Drawing Dynamic Figures

PLEASE READ THIS: This is copyrighted material, NOT intended for downloading anywhere except our website. If you downloaded it from another website or torrent, go ahead and read it, and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal download, or a printed copy (which entitles you to the free Digital Edition) at our website or your local comic book shop. Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR COMPUTER and DO NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, please pay for them so we can keep producing ones like this. Our digital editions should ONLY be downloaded at

Jamar Nicholas reviews the tools of the trade. This month: Correction fluid

www.twomorrows.com DRAW! FALL 2013

-ING AHEAD

elcome back! DRAW! now sails on into its next decade and its next 25 issues, a little older, bolder, a little more digital, and hopefully still as wise and vital and chock full of information as it was from issue #1. Many, many changes are facing the modern cartoonist and illustrator, and even fine artist. Daily it seems some new Tumblr comes along or some new program like Manga Studio. One thing for sure is that these programs and Internet sites all come and go—remember MySpace? Well, we are all on Facebook now, but in five years it could be on the digital dustheap along with AOL, etc. One constant through all of this is change, and the artists that do the best with change are the ones who have the most skills—yes, traditional or old world skills. Anyone can learn a new program, but can anyone draw well enough, “think” well enough with a pencil, digital or otherwise, to create work that grabs people, tells a story, creates a world of fantasy that is convincing enough to draw in a viewer? Tra-digital skills might be the way it goes for the future, but the digital is always the impersonation of the traditional, so the better your traditional skills are, the better off you are. It was great talking with Joe Jusko and getting to dig down into his process, as well as find out how much of a big John Buscema fan he is. Big John has always been one of my favorite artists in comics. There are certain artists like Buscema who are what I call Big Bring artists. They string backward and forward influencing so many artists for many generations. It was also good to talk to Joe about the changing face of illustration and comics. The world of the working artist has probably never offered as many challenges to the working cartoonist and illustrator as today. A big “welcome aboard” to Jerry Ordway and his debut as a new regular columnist for DRAW! A big Philly “yo!” and ups to my fellow Philly cartoonist and best bud Jamar for knocking it out of the park with his interview with Jim Rugg in this issue. Both Jamar and I have been big fans of Jim’s works since his Street Angel days. It was heavy lifting, but Bret chipped in and helped raise this issue’s “Bootcamp” to a higher level. As always big thanks to my main man Eric for putting the whole thing together and making it look great, and to the Main Man John Morrow for running the steady ship of TwoMorrows. I love to hear from you readers, so drop me a line at mike@actionplanet.com, and in the meantime, go draw something!

NEXT ISSUE IN JANUARY 2014! DRAW! #27 (80 pages, now in its new full-color format, $8.95 print/$3.95 digital), the professional “how-to” magazine on comics and animation, covers the cover guy—DAVE JOHNSON! From 100 Bullets to Deadpool, Punisher Max, and more, Johnson gives us a intensive blow-by-blow on the creative process that keeps him in demand as a cover artist for Marvel, DC, Image, and others. ALSO: Even if you don’t know his name, you've seen Stephen Silver's work as one of today's most in-demand character designers, for shows such as Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, and Kevin Smith’s animated Clerks series. Silver even has his own Character Design App, and will walk you through his approach to creating the look for some of the most recognizable creations in Hollywood. PLUS: “The Right Way, the Wrong Way, and the ORDWAY!” with new columnist Jerry Ordway, “The Crusty Critic” by Jamar Nicholas, and “Comic Art Bootcamp” by Mike Manley and Bret Blevins! Edited by Mike Manley. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues US: $30 Standard, $40 First Class, $11.80 Digital Only Outside the US: Canada: $43, Elsewhere: $54 Surface, $78 Airmail SUBSCRIBE NOW At: www.twomorrows.com

DRAW! FALL 2013

A Journey through time and space

Joe Jusko with

interview conducted by

Mike Manley

and transcribed by

Eric Nolen-Weathington

rom the moons of Barsoom to the jungles of Lord Greystoke, DRAW! tracks down Joe Jusko for an in-depth interview with one of today’s most in-demand comic book cover artists. DRAW! FALL 2013

DRAW!: One of the things I’m trying to cover more in the magazine is artists who straddle more than one medium, or more than one genre. Because almost everybody I know in comics, especially guys like you and Glen Orbik, you have to jump around a lot more. In the old days, you would have one or two clients and that would carry you. You could just do western paperbacks or whatever. But you’re doing a lot of different things it seems. JOE JUSKO: That was always completely intentional on my part, because my attention span is incredibly short, and I get bored really quickly doing the same thing over and over again. So I kind of like being able to bounce back and forth and be versatile with the kind of things I work on. Mark Texiera once said to me, “You’re really hard to pin down. It’s really hard to track your work when you bounce around all over the place. People know me as the Ghost Rider guy or the Punisher guy, and you’re everywhere.” I’m a cover guy, so it’s kind of hard to stay on one thing for a long period of time. The two runs I did have were Warlord of Mars and Conan. But I kind of like bouncing around. I like doing different things. I find it challenging, and I always feel like I’m coasting if I do the same thing Joe’s rough pencils for the cover to Vampirella: Revelations #3. over and over. Vampirella © DFI That’s one reason I decided not to draw comics. I admire guys who can do it, but I don’t know DRAW!: That’s interesting. I’ll often mention in classes I how you draw the same thing month after month after month teach that some people have what I call the comics brain, and some people have the illustration brain. There are a lot of peoand not lose your mind. ple who love to do comics, but it’s an element of their artistic personality that it’s better to do one image, and they find a lot DRAW!: So you’ve never drawn continuity stuff? JJ: Yeah, I have, but it’s always been short bursts of things. I more satisfaction pouring everything into that one image. And did a Vampirella mini-series for Harris. I did that Tomb Raider then there are other people who really love being able to tell graphic novel for Top Cow. I did three issues of Black Pan- stories through continuity. I think people today are able, in some respects, to specialize ther for Marvel Knights because Tex left and they needed in a way. You mentioned John Buscema. In that era you never someone who could work in tone to sort of follow his style. I like storytelling, and I wanted to draw comics when I was knew exactly what your next job might be. You might do a a kid. John Buscema was my god. I learned to draw by copy- western, your might do a romance, or you might do a war story. ing his stuff. But I realized when I was in high school that I A lot of those guys had to take whatever came down the pike. wasn’t going to be fast enough to do comics, and I also got JJ: Right. That’s why I think those guys that worked in the bored with it quickly, so I thought painting would be a better ’40s and ’50s were so versatile. They really had to know how outlet for me, where I could do a single image and then move to draw anything. That’s not the case today. A lot of guys aren’t incredibly versatile. Those guys could draw anything. If they on to something else I could approach with a fresh mindset.

DRAW! FALL 2013

Painting over a tightened, streamlined pencil transfer, Joe tackles the foreground figure of Vampirella, working from light to dark. Vampirella © DFI

had to do a western, they would do a knock-out job, then they’d do a gangster book. I think it made them more well-rounded. Not to say there aren’t guys today who could do that. I just don’t think it’s as much of a requirement, anymore.

reference back where it belongs and straighten stuff out so I can find it when I need it again. I tend to clean up in bursts, and the place is restored again. It’s a creative chaos thing that goes on.

DRAW!: There are guys today who have never drawn anyone wearing a suit. [laughs] JJ: Exactly. Every one of those old guys could draw clothing.

DRAW!: Do you tend to work on more than one piece at a time, or do you tend to work on one piece until you finish it? JJ: I’ve developed a decent amount of speed, and I find that if I work on more than one piece at a time it gets a little bit confused. If I have to break off from working on something, I have to take time to recalibrate myself when I go back to it. So I like to work straight through and get things done. I’m a bit of a compulsive personality that way, where if I start something I keep at it until it’s finished, and if I get distracted, I get 100% distracted. Not that ideas don’t pop into my head while I’m working on something and I need to take a second to jot down some notes. I’m always figuring things out in my head. I’m figuring out other jobs while I’m working on the one I’m working on, but I don’t specifically go and work on those things.

DRAW!:There are probably guys today who have never even owned a suit. [laughter] The level of dress people wore back in those days, they had a suit, they had a pair of dress shoes. There was a little bit more formality back then. So, today you’re cleaning up the studio. What’s your process like as far as that goes? Do you tend to work for a while, then clean up, work for a while, clean for a while? JJ: No. My basement is my studio, and I’ve never fully finished it. I’ve been meaning to finish the place off, but I haven’t done it. I’ve got my file cabinets and bookshelves up, but my reference is thrown all around the place, and my working drawings and paints are everywhere. And I’ll go through three or four paintings before I realize I’m surrounded by clutter that just has to be cleaned up. I just finished up three pieces I’ve been working on, and I’ve realized it’s time to put

DRAW!: Is your process usually the same as far as how you break down a job? Are you doing any of the work digitally? I’ve talked to several fantasy artists, and a lot of them start traditionally and then will finish some of the work in Photoshop.

DRAW! FALL 2013

A shot of Joe’s studio set-up, with his computer, scanner, and printer on his flat files to the left, and his drawing board to the right. photo © Joe Jusko

There was a period right after the industry went digital—I’d say the late ’90s—where I didn’t have a whole lot of work. There were four of five years where I was barely getting by. There wasn’t a whole lot of painted work going around. Luckily I’d been around long enough where I had a decent fan base, and I was living off private commissions. I still do a lot of private commissions, which I find to be a lot of fun to do simply because of the freedom and the time I have to work on it to make a decent painting. I’m not rushing through them in a day or three days, or whatever I have to do a cover these days. DRAW!: How long it takes to do an illustration depends on how complex it is, but how long does it take for you to complete the average comic book cover? JJ: Three to four days, depending on how big and how complex it is. If they last more than four days, I start getting antsy. And because I work in acrylics and I work really quickly, four days is maybe the maximum for a full piece. I can turn stuff out overnight if I have to. I’ve done a few of the Mars covers over the past couple of years where I’ve done them in one 17- to 24-hour sitting.

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DRAW!: Does that happen because the deadline is just so tight? JJ: Most of the time it’s my fault because I have other stuff in house and suddenly I realize a painting is due. I haven’t been asked to turn anything around overnight in a long time. I remember years ago when Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada were running Marvel Knights. They asked me to do the painted covers over Bernie Wrightson’s pencils for a Punisher series. I got the call at four in the afternoon, and they needed the first one the next day. [Mike laughs] But that’s not the norm. They usually give you more than enough time to work on stuff. If it gets to a point where I have to turn it around overnight, it’s my fault because I’m working on other stuff. DRAW!: What do you do for fun to recharge the art batteries? Do you do life drawing or landscape painting? JJ: I took life drawing for years. I haven’t done it in a long time. When I’m not working, I tend not to work. I spend time with my wife. I used to play darts competitively, but I haven’t done that in years because there’s no place nearby. Anything to get out of the house. I spend so much time in my studio that any time I can get out of the house, I will get out of the

house. There are people who hate driving. I love driving. Just put me in a car and get me going somewhere, because I spend so much time cloistered by myself. DRAW!: You do a lot of conventions too, don’t you? You were just in South America recently. JJ: It’s one of the perks of the job that you get invited to go different places. It’s not going to last forever, so if somebody wants to invite me someplace we haven’t been before, I’m going to go. I cancelled my entire appearance schedule through 2014 simply because I have this giant job I’ve been working on that’s going to need my undivided attention. One of the benefits of being around as long as I have is the ability to travel because of my work. I look forward to the trips. They’re also a break from work, and I consider them bonuses. DRAW!: Do you have a Cintiq? Do you see yourself slowly incorporating any digital aspect to your work? JJ: I don’t think so. It would probably be fun to play with to get certain effects, but with the way rates are in the industry today, the majority of my income comes from the sale of my originals. To work digitally would significantly affect my income. It just doesn’t work for me. I like painting. I like the idea of having a physical piece of artwork when I’m done. I like being able to achieve effects by hand that a lot of people get digitally. I post a lot on DeviantArt, and I’m amazed at how many people comment that they can’t believe that something I did was done traditionally. I’m like, “Well, it’s painting.” [laughter]

More shots of Joe’s studio, including his supply of paints and his reference library.

DRAW!: People coming up now, they’re getting the traditional training, but they’re also learning the digital stuff. There are some people who are not learning any traditional stuff. You’re scanning your work yourself, right? You’re not having to send anything out? JJ: No, I invested in an Epson 10000XL scanner about ten years ago. I used to shoot transparencies for everything. I had a couple of places that shot for me, but once I realized I could scan it myself—and it’s close to impossible to find anyone to shoot transparencies anymore. DRAW!: It’s all digital now. JJ: When I did that big Tarzan anniversary painting—a 30" x 40" piece—my scanner is only 13" x 18", so I was looking for

photo © Joe Jusko

a place that shot digitally. There’s a place near me that can do full-size digital scans up to five feet or something. “Oh, that’s great. I can get it shot there.” Then I said, “Well, let me see if I can do it here.” It took me about 17 separate scans, but I was able to scan it in sections and then slowly piece them together into one full-size image. It took the better part of the day, but I was able to do it. It’s laborious sometimes, and it becomes an issue when you have a large painting and you have a light area and a dark area, because the exposure will adjust as you scan, and sometimes you’ll end up with a seam because the exposure was different. Then you have to do intermediate scans to get the transition from light to dark. That’s why I had to do 17 scans to get that full-size piece. But it saves me a lot of money.

DRAW! FALL 2013

The Right Way, The Wrong Way, and The

OrdWay ! "The justice society will now come to order" by Jerry Ordway

hen my old pal Mike Manley asked me to do a feature in DRAW! magazine, I immediately zeroed in on taking the readers through the process of creating a cover image. In the meantime, I got a commission assignment that I felt would work just as well as a demo. I am going to show how I created a custom drawing featuring numerous costumed characters from DC Comics’ Justice Society, Infinity Inc., and All-Star Squadron. The person who commissioned this drawing is, in effect, the editor of the piece, and as such communicated his idea, along with a character list and links to costume reference. As I was familiar with all of the costumed heroes he requested, my job was to tell a story, just as I would do on a cover assignment. Some artists are better than others in drawing iconic action shots of heroes, either alone or interacting with other heroes. I have never felt like the generic action pose was my strong suit, as I always want to know what the “story” is in a scene. For example, Superman isn’t just flying at us, but rather he is returning to Metropolis after defeating a supervillain. That’s how I try to approach any scene—to either find or create a story, so that the image makes sense to me. Your “story” can inform elements in the piece, such as the mood of the character, the background setting, or even the “acting.” I started this piece by reading the character list, and using that information to create a mental picture of it. The centerpiece was to be a classic image from an old issue of All-Star Comics, featuring the Justice Society sitting at their meeting table. That informed the whole piece. The groups of heroes not at that table would spread out from there, in mini-groups with small interactions. Again, this was about telling a story. Some of the characters

DRAW! FALL 2013

were either romantically linked or friends within the original comic stories. For example, Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle were a couple, Batman and Superman were friends, Plastic Man was always a bit unpredictable, etc. After mentally envisioning the scene, I sketched out a very rough layout which would serve as my template. I then used my photocopy machine to enlarge this sketch up to approximately 18" wide by 23" tall, the size of the three-ply Strathmore Bristol board I was drawing on. This is larger than what I usually work with, so it was a bit unwieldy to move around on my lightbox, and I had to be careful not to crease or bend the paper. This is one way a commissioned drawing differs from a cover done for Marvel or DC Comics—a custom drawing needs to be perfectly presentable, with no white-out or corrections if possible, since your client will be framing and displaying it. A drawing for a comic cover can look like a train wreck, so long as it reproduces well enough in the printed comic.

A note on my tools for this stage of the job: I prefer using a lead holder instead of a regular wooden pencil, mainly because it is always the same size, whereas a pencil gets shorter as you sharpen and use it. After 30-plus years, I find comfort in the feel of my drawing tools. Depending on temperature and humidity levels in my studio, I find it easier to have lead holders with a range of pencil leads from 2H to 3B available, switching back and forth as necessary. I also prefer using a kneaded eraser for most erasing over a drafting type eraser. Of course sometimes only that drafting eraser can clean up pencil lines. My preferred kneaded eraser, made by Faber-Castell, leaves no detectable grit, and can be rolled or pressed over scribbled lines to lighten them up for more finished pencil drawing.

about being finished and then having to find room for characters I forgot to draw in. That’s also a good reason to have a list of characters that I could cross off as I completed them. I left space towards the bottom of the paper, with the idea of having the Thunderbolt zooming across the bottom, interrupting a moment between Starman and Black Canary. That was penciled and inked as a unit after the table scene was done, though I didn’t ink the legs of the table or fill in any shadows until the whole bottom half was finished.

I lightbox-traced the shapes from the rough onto the finished paper, and started right in on finishing the characters seated at the table. When I am doing the complete job, pencils and inks, I rarely pencil the whole piece before inking. As long as my layout is solid for positioning, and I know how characters might overlap, I like to go in and roughly pencil and then ink in stages. With something large like this, I knew I had room to fit all the required heroes in, with no worries

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Heart Craft

an interview with

Jim Rugg conducted by Jamar Nicholas

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JAMAR NICHOLAS: I don’t know if you remember this, but we met eight years ago at SPX 2005. JIM RUGG: I think I remember corresponding with you after that show a little bit. It was that email that everybody does after a show when you reach out to someone. “I don’t know if you remember, but we traded books.” And I think we traded emails a couple of times. JN: There’s nothing worse than coming home from those shows and you have a bunch of cards floating around in the bottom of your bag. [laughs] “I don’t remember any of these people.” JR: My memory is not the best to begin with, and that’s the worst place for me to try to remember something that happens. JN: So there will be no games of Concentration at your table? [laughter] JR: Definitely not. JN: It was the last SPX I’ve been to, and I decided to come down with Mike Manley; we split a table. I think he had talked to you before I got to you. I was trying to get a list together of people I was really fond of to interview for the magazine. “Oh, Jim Rugg’s here?” and I found you in a closet somewhere. [laughter] I think I tried to buy a Street Angel graphic trade off of you, and you said, “Oh, I’m saving this for Mike Manley. It’s my last one.” [laughter] JR: Yeah, I remember meeting him. JN: I tried not to feel hurt, but it’s all good. We’re speaking now, so it all adds up. JR: I’m sure I have more to say now than I would have back then anyway. [laughter]

The opening page of the Street Angel short story, “A Ring before Dying.”

JN: Have you been doing a lot of indie cons as opposed to mainstream shows, or do you do both? How do you keep your calendar together? JR: I do both, and I try to do areas I haven’t been to—I’m doing Phoenix this year. I do Heroes Con in Charlotte every year, and that’s one of those shows that’s more mainstream certainly than SPX, but it does have pretty good support for indie comics. Dustin Harbin used to book that show. I don’t know if you know him, but he’s an indie cartoonist. He booked that show for 15 years, and he started aggressively trying to book indie comic book people, because that’s what he liked. But the nice thing is, the first year or two that he did it, the indie people would complain that they weren’t doing any business, but now it’s a really nice show. It’s a cross-section of mainstream all the way to very independent mini-comics and web cartoonists. And I see a lot of shows that way, and it’s harder

to classify what’s a mainstream show, or what’s a superhero show, or what’s an indie show. So, I do kind of a variety, but a lot of the shows that I do have some kind of indie component, it seems like. But it’s broad now. I don’t know too many people that only read Marvel or DC at this point. JN: That’s true. I know a lot of people who read Image or who are into mini-comics. It’s not just Captain America anymore. Do you have a calendar for every year, or do you only go when you have something new out? Do you make things for the show you’re going to? What’s your strategy for shows? JR: My strategy for shows is not good. That’s an area I need to improve. I used to complain that shows were kind of like flea markets, and that that was bad for comics. Everything has gotten much more sophisticated in the industry, but I still

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For this Street Angel print, Jim started with preliminary sketches, working out the corner box art, as well as some ninja hands. His pencils for the piece are fairly loose, leaving room to draw with the inks. Jim’s trademark rough hand-drawn lettering adds a “homemade” quality to the piece. Street Angel © Jim Rugg

sort of treat them like flea markets. You’ll see people with beautiful tables. I think some of the more professional cartoonists approach these shows almost as if you have a retail space. I know people who, whatever size table they have, they will set up a space in their house of that size and then basically lay out their table a week before the show. They’ll try out different combinations and figure out what they should take and if they need stands for different things. I need to upgrade the way I do shows, because I tend to do shows that I always do, like SPX and Heroes Con, and it’s a little bit of a social event for me. I do those with some of my friends. We go in on travel costs and stuff, so whether I have something new or not, there are certain shows I tend to do every year. This year I have a new book coming out, so I’m doing more shows. Definitely when I have a new book, I try to do more shows. It’s just a good way to promote the work. It’s part of what I like about comics, so it’s an excuse to actually go to some of these shows. At this point, I’ve been doing this for over ten years, so a lot of the people I’m friends with in the industry, that’s where I see them. And even some of my readers at this point have been reading my work for ten years or so, and I

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see many of the same people at shows like Heroes Con, and we’ve become friends over time. JN: It’s like your comics family reunion. You can’t not go. JR: It’s almost a work party. Very bizarre though. JN: I like that. JR: SPX was kind of how I would mark my calendar year. I would always try to have something new—mini-comics and things—probably for the first five or six years I did the show. And I still kind of do that. I guess the majority of the time, I have something new—a new mini-comic, new ’zine. JN: Do you ever find yourself thinking about cutting back or maybe even stopping doing cons? Have you reached a point where you felt like, “This isn’t worth it. I would have better used my time if I had just stayed in the studio”? JR: Too many shows. Sometimes I’ll have a bad show, and, “I’m done doing shows,” or, “I’m done doing this show.” And maybe I will take a year off from it, but for the most part shows have been a really good experience for me over the years, and I do think of it as part of my practice. If I have a new book out, shows probably account for 20 percent of my income, so it’s part of the business too.

But in terms of reaching audience, I talk to a lot of people who phrase things as either/or. I don’t see why. Any way that I can bring my work to a reader, I’m interested in doing within reason. If somebody wants to read it in print, I hope I can provide a print hard copy. If somebody wants to read it on their iPad, I want them to be able to read it on their iPad. I have a lot of respect for comic book readers. I think they’re very intelligent, and I think they’re definitely capable of picking the format and the delivery platform that suits them. I want to accommodate that. JN: It would be foolish not to. I know a lot of comic book guys who are really stubborn about mixing up how they do things. “I make floppies. That’s it. I won’t go to the web.” Some people are just afraid of “the other,” and they kind of get stymied by that.

JN: Do you feel like the Internet at this point could sustain you without doing shows, or do you have readers who only will seek you out at a con and won’t buy your stuff in another fashion? JR: I think the Internet could sustain me. I do think there are people who find my work at shows who wouldn’t find my work otherwise. There are people who only find my work if it’s in comic book stores. The weird thing with the Internet is that we have access to so many people now, but there’s no one strategy that’s going to encompass all of them. I personally like that. I started freelancing full-time about five years ago. JN: Congratulations. JR: [laughs] Thank you. I was very excited to leave my day job. It wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to draw all day. So when I left my day job, I thought, “This is great. No more wasting time at work. No more commuting. This is going to be awesome.” I very quickly realized that sitting home alone, you have to figure out ways to get out of the house or you’ll go crazy. Shows break up my schedule. That’s probably part of why I enjoy them. It’s a break from the routine. It’s a chance to actually see people.

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DRAWING

c i m a n y d

figures

Mike Manley and

Bret Blevins

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rawing dynamic figures requires a lot of knowledge and skills. These are skills that the professional artist is always working on. You never really get enough info or practice on drawing the human figure. It’s vital to know and understand the anatomy of the human machine in order to be able to express it in a drawing or illustration that will have a vitality and life to it—a convincingness to the reader. The young artist who is serious about his or her craft spends many hours diligently working at learning the anatomy and learning to ape the skills and styles of their favorite artists. Right now, reading this article there are young artists doing just this—learning to do rendering and detail and draw in the style of their favorite artist or the style of the day. We have all done it; I did it, as well as Bret. But the student or young artist often misses the forest for the trees at some point along the way. They might render figures well, but their figures might suffer from stiffness or proportion issues. Or they might be weak at drapery or perspective. There are a lot of skills to work on—all at the same time. Because comics is mostly drawing from imagination, we are always running on the knowledge we have stored in our memory banks, and the only way to get that knowledge in there is to draw it in there. It’s like having a good workout routine in the gym. You might rotate between arm days, leg days, and back days, maybe with some cardio days thrown in. But in every gym you see the guys

with the “big guns” and bird legs. It’s the same with comics. You see figure drawings in comics all of the time on covers or pages featuring heroes who can lift mountains and defy gravity. It’s all very “kewl”—packed with a lot of effort, and lots of highly rendered figures covered with slick, stylish, “in the hot style” detail. But they look like they weigh two ounces! They have no weight, and without weight they have no power! There is no Gravity! The original group of Disney animators collectively known as the Nine Old Men probably drew as well as anyone in the history of drawing. They drew incredibly; they were able to give the impression of weight and volume without rendering or much indication of shadows. How so? The key is volumetric or sculptural drawing. All of the artists in this article, no matter their style, have this one key, great ability and approach. This is essential! One of the artists that stood out to me from a young age was John Buscema, Marvel’s main man after Kirby departed. For me he was a key learning artist, and an artist that drew stressing a great sense of the principles of mass and weight, torque and twist, and gravity in his figures. Even in his roughest drawings you can see the same sense of mass that is in the drawings of Michelangelo, the same sense of sculpting the mass of the figure, searching for it with a pencil like a sculptor with his clay or stone.

A Captain America sketch by John Buscema done on the back of a page of original art—which is typically where Big John did studies of this nature. Buscema studied the Old Masters like Michelangelo—a study by whom is shown here for comparison. Captain America © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Another Michelangelo study.

Walt Disney discovered that by having his animators work this way, they were able for the first time to create figures that had a sense of realism. This drawing in a sculptural way is something that had already been around for a few hundred years in the works by the Old Masters, like Michelangelo, Raphael, and Tiepolo.

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Glen Keane—another of Disney’s great animators, and one who was taught by some of the original Nine Old Men—also shows the same principles at work that Buscema and the Old Masters showed. Drawing with a strong sense of volume and gesture, he excelled at drawing big and heavy characters like the Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

What we are talking about here is what we can call a “form concept.” Now, nobody really looks like a sculpture or drawing by Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci. Their depiction or rendering of form was an intellectual concept, a way of drawing to express light falling across the form to create a sense of mass. Rendering alone stylistically has nothing to do with giving a comic book character any sense of weight. This is the false step the young artist too often makes. The detail of a nose on a face does not give the head a sense of weight. To create a convincing sense of having the character’s feet planted, it’s especially important to give heroic figures a sense of weight. The Max Fleisher Superman cartoons do a great job of showing Superman struggle and push against gravity to lift heavy weights or push off to fly. Luckily for you they are all available to watch for free on YouTube! If you are a young animator or cartoonist, you should devour these great little gems of animation.

(right) This daring New Gods page by Jack Kirby has an amazing sense of weight in the figures with little or no rendering. (below) A still from a Fleisher Studios Superman short. The artists, working in a limited animation style, were still able to convey a great sense of weight and torque through the poses and volume of the figures. New Gods, Superman © DC Comics

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