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No. 11 WINTER 2009

$6.95 Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

Volume 1, Number 11 Winter 2009

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics! EDITOR

Bob McLeod PUBLISHER

John Morrow DESIGNER

Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

FEATURED ARTISTS COVER ARTIST

Greg Horn CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Productions SPECIAL THANKS Rich Cirillo Mike Finn Shawn Fritschy Brian Galatis Kasra Ghanbari Gene Ha Greg Horn George Khoury Dave Morris Walt Parrish Mike Perkins Doug Resnick Edgar Tadeo Thomas Yeates

ROUGH STUFF™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Bob McLeod, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: ROUGH STUFF, c/o Bob McLeod, Editor, P.O. Box 63, Emmaus, PA 10849-2203. E-mail: mcleod.bob@gmail.com. Fourissue subscriptions: $30 Standard US, $40 First Class US, $47 Canada, $70 First Class International, $77 Priority International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Greg Horn. X-Men copyright Marvel Comics. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2009 Bob McLeod and TwoMorrows Publishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

ISSN 1931-9231

Gene Ha

Greg Horn

Mike Perkins

Edgar Tadeo

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE 34

Convention-al Wisdom Rich Cirillo

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEWS 3 64

Gene Ha Thomas Yeates

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS 2

Scribblings From The Editor Bob McLeod

Cover Stories Gene Ha and Greg Horn reveal the process of creating a cover.

Rough Critique Editor Bob McLeod critiques an aspiring penciler’s sample page.

Rough Talk Comments and opinions from our readers.

WINTER 2009 • ROUGH STUFF

SCRIBBLINGS FROM THE EDITOR:

fter what at least I consider ten strong issues of Rough Stuff, you might think we’ve exhausted the list of top talents in comics. Well, far from it! There are some very heavy hitters this issue. First up is the amazing Gene Ha. Bryan Galatis serves up an interesting article on Gene developing a single page of JLA, and I was so impressed I asked

Gene to show us some more of his work. In addition to all of his other skills, I just love an artist who understands linear perspective. That’s much more rare in comics than you would think. Gene also takes us through the process of developing a cover in our “Cover Stories” feature. Rich Cirillo is a well known art collector, and he’s written a fun article for us about the hobby of collecting sketches and commissions built around a common theme, with images and comments contributed by several of the most visible collectors. I’ve done commissions for most of them myself, and I included a couple here. Then the incredible Mike Perkins shows us his stuff. Mike does pencils and inks, and works in a very realistic style that’s simply stunning. I met this British artist at a convention, and was later surprised to learn he now lives in Lutz, Florida, very near my hometown, Tampa. I met artist Edgar Tadeo (yet another talented Filipino artist!) at Heroes Con last year, and asked him to send me some scans. His work is very impressive, and he’s sure to win some new fans with his feature. When Rough Stuff was first getting off the ground a couple of years ago, George Khoury gave me an interview he’d done with Thomas Yeates, and I intended to use it right away, but new material kept pouring in and I’m embarrassed to admit I forgot about it for awhile. Then I had already advertised other interviews and had to wait for the right issue to get it scheduled. It’s here at last, and I updated it with some new questions on his more current, always beautiful work. He’s incredibly prolific and always impressive. We finish the issue with my “Rough Critique” of the mysteriously single-named Wattana. In a refreshing departure for me, his sample page features a jungle girl’s violent encounter with a hungry lion, rather than the usual ever-present superheroes. But I think this critique should be helpful to all artists struggling to learn how to draw comics. And lastly, we also have some very interesting letters from our readers this issue. As always, remember we offer a full-color version of Rough Stuff in a downloadable PDF form at www.twomorrows.com for just $2.95, and be sure to check out the “Rough Stuff” section of my own web site to see art that didn’t fit into the magazine. And while you’re on the web, visit the sites of our featured artists: Gene Ha: http://www.geneha.com Greg Horn: http://www.greghornjudge.com Mike Perkins: http://www.mikeperkinsart.com Edgar Tadeo: http://www.edgartadeo.com Thomas Yeates: http://www.thomasyeates.com

ROUGH STUFF • WINTER 2009

Bob McLeod Editor mcleod.bob@gmail.com www.bobmcleod.com PO Box 63 Emmaus, PA 18049

INTERVIEW A

PAG E

I N

TH E

L I F E:

GENE HA By BRYAN GALATIS

very artist working in comics has their own individual approach to telling a story on the page. Their

methods evolve over time and are often adapted to a particular collaborator or project. Gene Ha has been

working in the medium since the early 1990s. Fans admire him both for his draftmanship, for the detail

Justice League of America #11, pg. 4

he brings to his backgrounds and environment, and for the emotional resonance he provides his characters. It is the latter for which writer Brad Meltzer begged to have Gene hired as the artist for Justice League of America #11. “I knew we needed him for issue #11. Emotion — true emotion — is the hardest thing to draw. [The

script page with page layout and panel thumbnails in margins.

story] only works if the emotion is right.” In the story, entitled “Walls,” the characters Red Arrow and Vixen are trapped under the rubble of a building (it is an homage to the classic stories “The Final Chapter” in Amazing Spider-Man #33 and “Situation: Hopeless” in Secret Wars #4). Throughout the issue, the panels decrease in size as the tension increases, and Gene’s focus on character is placed firmly in the spotlight. This is Gene’s approach to page four of Justice League of America #11. BRYAN GALATIS: I’ve heard you say that working with

I started reading

great writers is of primary importance for you. Was Brad

Brad’s JLA run after I

Meltzer a writer with whom you’d been interested in

got the assignment. He

working?

was building up his story

GENE HA: Honestly, I haven’t read a lot of novels or

like a novel over several

superhero comics for the last few years. So I knew of

issues. There’s a strong

Brad, but I hadn’t read much of his stuff. I did have Eddie

parallel with the story-

Berganza’s assurance he was brilliant, and Eddie has

telling on my favorite TV

excellent judgment.

show, The Wire. You get WINTER 2009 • ROUGH STUFF

HA: My initial thumbnails are done in the margins of the script. The script sketches are all under 2" tall. I make sketches of individual panels and of the blank panels on the page. I used to go directly from the script margin thumbnails to the 10"x15" Bristol page. I began to change my process after talking to Barry Kitson about how he works. He made tiny pencil roughs with all the blacks spotted. His roughs are as tight as most artists’ finished pencils. I created my current process after I got hold of scanners and color printers that can handle 11"x17" paper. Theoretically, I can make a 2" tall sketch, scan it at 2250 dpi, and then print it out 15" tall at 300 dpi in nonphoto blue. GALATIS: Your pencils always look kind of rough to me. You seem to save the fine-tuning for your inks. Is this to save time or to keep from locking you in too much for the inks? I have read that some artists feel like tight pencils take the fun and creativity out of inking. HA: [Top 10 collaborator] Zander Cannon describes my pencils as 3-D computer wireframe models. They’re not supposed to look like the finished artwork. They’re indications of where the planes and edges of objects are. Like a 3-D rendering program, I figure out the lighting and modeling after that stage. Red Arrow ©2009 DC Comics

You’re right that I don’t like having too much detail in my pencils. I know I’ll come up with better ideas later so detail is both an annoyance and a waste of time. GALATIS: Does the amount of detail you put in depend on the project? HA: If the setting is important to the story (such as in Top 10) I usually throw in more

Justice League of

a huge payoff if you pay attention. Also, he had some fun

America #11, pg. 4

showing the less glamorous side of the job. I wish he had

full-page pencils.

even more room to tell the story. He’s got an amazing storytelling mind. He thinks visually. He writes like somebody who’s been drawing his own stories for years, like Dave Sim or Darwyn Cooke. I can’t think of another non-drawing writer who can think like that.

detail in the background. I didn’t throw much detail into The Authority because the settings weren’t as important and because my editor Scott Dunbier really wanted to meet the print deadlines. Sorry, Scott! The rough pencils are done with two 6.8" tall pages on a single 8.5"x11" sheet. I scan these at 882 dpi and print these as 600 dpi 10" tall bluelines for tight pencils. I scan the tight pencils at 680 dpi and print that as 400 dpi 17"

GALATIS: Do you start off with thumbnails or rough sketches? What size are these usually? 4

ROUGH STUFF • WINTER 2009

tall finished inks and markers.

Justice League of America #11, pg. 4, full inked page.

GALATIS: In Brad [Meltzer’s] notes for page four, he asked for “lots of smoke and darkness.” In a guest spot on Brad’s blog (bradmeltzer.com, 18 July ’07), you said that you “mostly used Copic paper on this issue for grainy, dusty effect.” Have you used the combination of that type of paper with “graphite pencil, gray Copic markers, white charcoal pencil and white paint” on previous projects? HA: It’s the only time I’ve used the Copic brand marker paper. I am using Copic markers, pencil, Pitt brush pens and white media for my new Top 10 project. When I initially started using the Copic paper I was disappointed by how the marker ink pooled on the surface after it dried. If you placed another stroke on top it smeared the previous ink. It was oversaturated with ink, like rain drops on a windshield. Generally I wouldn’t want that effect, but it happened to match the setting (trapped in a dusty collapsed building). For scenes outside the building I worked on plain old inkjet paper. It absorbs the marker without bleeding. It‘s a trick I learned in my art school days. Marker paper is fine, but I noticed that when I worked on photocopies that the colors were more vivid. GALATIS: Does subject matter often dictate you choice of materials and/or style (such as your use of ink wash on The Forty-Niners)? HA: Various elements of the comic affect my choice of technique. For The Authority I wanted it to look slick and I needed to work fast. I went with standard Bristol Red Arrow ©2009 DC Comics

paper and India ink. The Forty-Niners was a period story so I used a muted palette, hinting at Saving Private Ryan and also b&w movies. In modern or futuristic stories I like a smoother and more colorful look. GALATIS: I recently read an interview WINTER 2009 • ROUGH STUFF

COVER STORIES

hat goes into the creation of a great cover? Some artists just do a rough sketch or two, then go right to the finish. Gene Ha did a sketch, then worked out the anatomy and perspective, inked it, explored the values in a marker rough, and only then digitally painted it, using muted complimentary colors.

GENE HA Captain America #19 cover This cover was made after I moved to Chicagoland. It seems that the bigger the city I live in, the harder it is to find models. My friends in the Chicago area are mostly a 45-minute drive away, and it’s weirder going up to complete strangers in a big city than a small town. So my wife Lisa and I modeled for all the characters. This is my Photoshop “painted” style. The technique is strongly influenced by the oil painting technique I picked up in art school. Back then, I had a fantasy of daubing my brush in the light and spreading it on my canvas. Now I really can do that. To get the colors, I took digital photographs of all the colors I needed under consistent lighting, then used the Eyedropper tool in Photoshop to snatch the color. I drew the shield in Photoshop because I wanted it

to be perfectly smooth.

ROUGH STUFF • WINTER 2009

make, such as the dark shadow behind Cap's face, and the shading on Cap's chest star.

WINTER 2009 • ROUGH STUFF

Convention-al

WISDOM

By Rich Cirillo started reading comics at an early age, but didn’t see my first piece of original art until many years later at a local comic book convention. They had very large conventions in Manhattan, which I went to occasionally, accompanied by an adult. Local, smaller shows on Long Island were right on my back doorstep, and they would attract a big-name artist every so often. In the mid-’80s artists such as Bob Layton, Dave Cockrum and a newcomer

named Bill Willingham paid us a visit. Back in the day, a convention sketch could run you $5 - $20 for either full pencils or inks, depending on the artist. Most convention sketches back then were more quickly rendered and looser in style, very different from a lot of the tightly rendered sketches of today. It had never occurred to me to buy original comic book art back then. I was a teenager with a meager part-time

Sketch by Mark Texiera

keep them interested with my unusual requests. For instance, in the mid-to-late ’80s, there was a smaller

job, and most of my money was going toward either the

comic company called Comico, which was putting out

latest issues of my favorite comics or the elusive back

some interesting titles. One of their better sellers was a

issues we all tried to find in near-mint condition. I can

book called the Elementals, a reinventing of the Fantastic

vaguely remember seeing original art for published pages

Four, if you will, had they come back from the dead. Bill

back then, but they would have been way too expensive

Willingham was the creator of that book and he was the

for me at the time, with their $100 price tags. Con

guest of honor at our local con that day in October of

sketches were more affordable, and they had one thing a

1986. Others asked for sketches of the main characters

printed page could not offer; they were more personal. I

from the book: Morningstar, Vortex, Monolith or Fathom.

could ask for whatever character I wanted, within reason,

But not me, I had to ask for the most obscure character

and I would then own a piece of art that no one else had

from the book I could think of. I could ask for none other

ever seen. Before the days of the Internet, an unpublished

than the villainous vermin... Ratman!!!

con sketch would occasionally appear in a fanzine, but

My con visits were few and far between through the

otherwise most would go years, decades perhaps, with-

’80s, but I also got sketches of the future Red Wolf by

out being seen by more than a few.

Bob Layton, Wolverine by Mike Zeck, and I happened to

I was on the shy side back in my teens, and approach-

meet an up-and-coming artist by the name of Adam

ing a comic book artist to me was like approaching a god

Hughes, who drew for me his first Captain America con

stepped down from Olympus. I wanted to stand out from

sketch, and like any true fan boy, I asked him to inscribe it

the crowd of sketch seekers, so I usually asked for

as such. I had only acquired a few original sketches back

obscure character sketches. I also felt the artists would

in those days, but the foundation for my future avid col-

tire of sketching the same characters, so I would try to

lecting had been laid.

ROUGH STUFF • WINTER 2009

Doug Resnick I was looking at all my Spider-Man vs. a villain commissions and thought “wouldn’t it be great to be able to display all of my favorite pencilers at one time.” That started the idea of a poster jam. I also only wanted the artist to draw in pencil so an inker can ink it later to give it a better finish. Before starting the poster jam, I needed a way to carry it around at shows. After thinking up a way, I started with Pat Olliffe right in the bottom center. For the big body jam, I got to to play editor and showed the pencilers where to pencil. The second one had boxes laid out and I just had to ask the penciler what character they’d like to draw. I had a lot of fun watching the artists draw the villains. I remember sitting on a couch with Mike Wieringo outside of the Baltimore convention hall while he drew the vulture. We talked and he drew. The real trick was co-ordinating the pencilers and the inkers. All pencils were done at shows and most of the inking, too. A lot of prep work went into these poster jams. All characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

WINTER 2009 • ROUGH STUFF

state show that someone could not attend. People are now arranging commissions for

find life on a collector’s page. An artist that has an exclu-

their friend’s birthday, anniversary or wed-

sive contract with one publisher can now show their inter-

ding. Sketches are now sometimes includ-

pretation of another company’s heroes. Collectors now

ing likenesses of friends, family or pets.

come armed with binders full of reference for their favorite

Conventions have now become social gath-

characters.

erings for collectors who have met online through their love of a particular artist’s work. People from all walks of life, who would

Sketch by Travis Charest

books filled with my personal favorite characters, Captain America, The Avengers, or G-Force from the Battle of the

Planets cartoon, I can reflect upon the tale behind each

occupation are now getting together through

illustration. It is not only a collection of drawings, but a

their mutual admiration of art. Some of the

recollection of shows attended, new friends made, and

closest friendships I have made through

meetings with both current artists and those that have

conventions were forged by waiting on long

passed. I recall the conversations I had with each artist

lines, at insanely early hours of the morning,

about the industry and about life. Each line of those pages

braving the elements and sharing our war sto-

is a diary of both the collector and the artist who poured

ries of art won and lost. Tales are shared of

their creativity onto that page.

the pieces that almost were and the ones we dream will be someday. The major difference between con sketches requested drawing. It gives the collector that feeling of being sort of an art director or editor. Imagined battles

ROUGH STUFF • WINTER 2009

As I now glance through my own collected sketch-

have never met before due to location or

and published art is the personalized value of each

between Superman and the Hulk, for example, can now

With every journey, there is a cost involved. In a collection of sketches that spans years, there is a cost of time, a cost of hundreds or thousands of dollars paid, and a price of endurance to brave the crowds and long lines. Yet with every mark that was placed upon a collector’s sketch page, the true cost of that experience becomes priceless.

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

S N I K R E P E K I M

tist now is a British ar Mike Perkins came da. He first be living in Flori ker for States as an in known in the . He’s and CrossGen se or H nt work k ar D , DC l and his rece ve ar M r fo g ses and inkin me away. He u now penciling ew bl st ju D N A ing’s THE ST d it really on Stephen K lor comics an co is h r fo en ash ev a lot of ink w erly. en colored prop h w ok lo t ea creates a gr

MIKE PERKINS The Stand promo This was one of those images that, pretty much, appeared fully formed in my head. I submitted various roughs for approval—some playing on similar poses and themes—and Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada suggested bringing one of the skulls right into the foreground to give added depth and to play on the primeval image of the skull in general. It worked. I really wanted to play with the gray-tones on this one using conte-crayon, black pencil and ink wash.

WINTER 2009 • ROUGH STUFF

INTERVIEW

THOMAS YEATES T

By GEORGE KHOURY and BOB McLEOD

homas Yeates was born on January 19, 1955 in Sacramento, California. He was a

member of the first class at Joe Kubert’s School. Strongly influenced in his craft by old-guard illustrators like Hal Foster, N. C. Wyeth, Al Williamson and Wallace Wood,

Yeates’ favorite settings to draw are the outdoors and exotic locales.

He worked for DC Comics on numerous series, including Warlord, Mystery in Space and Swamp Thing. From 1984 to 1985, Thomas Yeates was the artist for Timespirits from Marvel/Epic. He worked for Eclipse Comics on titles such as Airboy, Scout, Lugar, the political documentary Brought to Light, and Aztec Ace. For Pacific Comics, Yeates did Alien Worlds and Vanguard, and for T.S.R., he illustrated the Dragonlance Saga based on the Dungeons & Dragons game. In the early 1990s, Thomas Yeates drew one of his child-

novel. During the same period, Yeates also illustrated Dracula

hood heroes, Tarzan of the Apes, for two and a half years, co-

vs. Zorro for Topps comics. This cult favorite was his first team-

authoring and drawing Tarzan, The Beckoning (for

ing with writer Don McGregor.

Semic/Malibu). He went on to illustrate a total of 15 Tarzan

Thomas then returned to DC and illustrated a comic

comics, many for Dark Horse. The Return of Tarzan featured his

book authored by Rachel Pollack titled Tomahawk. In the

adaptation into comics Edgar Rice Burroughs’ second Tarzan

late 1990s McGregor and Yeates created a highly regarded Zorro newspaper strip. In 2001, Yeates illustrated two Universe X specials for Marvel in collaboration with Alex Ross and John Totleben. Most recently he has illustrated seven graphic novels in the Graphic Myths series for Lerner publishing including King Arthur, Odysseus, Atalanta, King Arthur and Lancelot, and Robin Hood. [This interview was originally conducted in 2002 by George Khoury and transcribed by Steven Tice. I recently posed some additional questions to Thomas to update it with what he’s been doing more recently. -Bob McLeod] Swamp Thing TM & ©2009 DC Comics

ROUGH STUFF • WINTER 2009

GEORGE KHOURY: What kind of comics

of pictures. And it wasn’t until many

were you into growing up in California?

years later that I got interested in comic

THOMAS YEATES: I was into drawing pic-

books. I was aware of comic books and

tures based on movies that I saw on TV: Davy

had a few. But I wasn’t—I liked

Crockett, Zorro, monster movies and Tarzan, I

Tomahawk and Turok, Son of Stone

got inspired by that subject matter and histori-

when I was young. We had a few

cal adventure. I just liked to draw those kinds

Archies because they were funny. A few

THOMAS YEATES Flash Gordon is a favorite character of mine. I get to draw him every once in a while on covers for Comics Revue. It’s great to try and combine the elegant art styles of Alex Raymond and Williamson with wonderful lowbrow pulp elements. I still can’t figure out how Flash got his pilot’s license, he crashes almost every

rocket ship he flies.

WINTER 2009 • ROUGH STUFF

Rough Stuff #11