Below: Tarzan gets the drop on his alien adversary. Tarzan vs. Predator #3, page 6. Right and Next Page: Rough sketch and finished inks for the cover of Hawkman #0.
Hawkman ⢠and Š2008 DC Comics. Tarzan ⢠and Š2008 ERB, Inc. Predator ⢠and Š2008 20th Century Fox Film Corp.
LEE: I enjoyed it very much. There are some real fun moments. Thereâs a close-up panel where Tarzan, really up against it, says, âMy knife wonât be enough this time, but a grenade might kill us all.â Itâs a real Kubert-esque kind of close-up. I have a giant blow-up of that panel hanging in my studio. And I did a lot of delicate brushwork. A project like that is great for exploring the human figure, for gaining understanding you canât really get drawing guys in costumes, because even with skintight costumes, there are things you can get away with you canât so much with a Tarzan-like character.
The way John Byrne would draw the X-Men figures in his heyday, which I loved, wouldnât really work for Tarzan. It has to be more naturalistic, more real-world anatomy and stuff. Something I love about being a comic book artist in general is youâre always learning something about something, as long as thereâs a variety of jobsâanother reason I like jumping around. With Tarzan, I drew my first DC-3 transport plane. I think it had the longest commercial use of any plane, ever. Itâs the one you always think of when you think of old Tarzan movies, with the two props on the wings and a half dozen windows down the side. I also drew my first Ford tri-motor plane in Tarzan. Again, one of the fun things about jumping around. Years earlier, I had to draw a helicopter chase scene in an issue of Justice, and I had so much fun investigating and learning about helicopters, military helicopters. And I made sure that these Russian-made Hind helicopters I chose to be the pursuers, the enemy, I made sure the helicopter carrying all our characters was a transport that technically made senseâthat it was big enough for everyone to fit and fast enough to elude the Hind. And then a third helicopter came to the transportâs rescue, and that was an Apache AH64. That was the first 64