Issuu

No. 4 Spring 2007

$6.95

GENE COL AN

TLEBE O T N

JOH

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

Featuring

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EVEN BISS

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D CHAY R A W

KIN

EW RO R D N

SON BIN

MICHAEL KALUTA

Volume 1, Number 4 April 2007

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics! EDITOR

Bob McLeod PUBLISHER

John Morrow DESIGNER

Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Christopher Irving COVER ARTIST

Michael Kaluta

FEATURED ARTISTS 3

Steven Bissette

Howard Chaykin

Gene Colan

Michael Kaluta

Andrew Robinson

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW 24

SPECIAL THANKS Stephen Bissette Howard Chaykin Jeff Clemens Gene Colan Michael Dunne Michael Eury Dave Gutierrez David Hamilton Michael Kaluta George Khoury Andy Mangels Tom Palmer Andrew Robinson John Totleben Ray Wong Eric Nolen-Weathington

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: $24 Standard US, $36 First Class US, $44 Canada, $48 Surface International, $64 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Central cover art by Michael Kaluta. Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2007 Bob McLeod and TwoMorrows Publishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

ISSN 1931-9231

John Totleben

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE 60

Wonder Woman Day Art Auction Helps Domestic Violence Shelters Ray Wong

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS 2

Scribblings From The Editor Bob McLeod

Cover Stories Howard Chaykin and Michael Kaluta reveal the process of creating a cover.

PrePro Art by featured artist Michael Kaluta, done before he turned pro.

Rough Talk Comments and opinions from our readers.

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

Free WRITE NOW! #15 Preview A sample of our mag about writing for comics, animation, and sci-fi—FREE! APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

SCRIBBLINGS FROM THE EDITOR:

elcome! While we’re just beginning a new year on the calendar, this issue ends our first year of Rough Stuff! What a wonderful year it’s been. I’ve learned a lot about putting the magazine together, and it’s definitely a much different business being on this side of the editorial desk! I’ve reconnected with many great artists I’ve known during my career and been introduced to many wonderful new artists I was unfamiliar with. I’ve listened to our readers’ many helpful suggestions, and I believe Rough Stuff will keep improving issue by issue. I haven't really done much with “themes” up till now, but this issue has a definite non-superhero flavor to it, in that all of our featured artists are best known for their comics of other genres. There was an amazing variety of genres in the ’70s and early ’80s mainstream comics that I've sorely missed in the last couple decades. There is still variety, but in the ’70s the top selling comics were often non-superhero (anyone remember Howard the Duck?) Superheroes are great, but there's a much bigger world of comic art out there, and I hope to bring you the best artists of all genres in upcoming issues. First up is Stephen Bissette, who’s probably best known for his award-winning work on Swamp Thing, a monster comic. Howard Chaykin first caught my eye in the ’70s on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, a sword and sorcery comic. Gene Colan, already well-known and loved for his work on Dr. Strange and Daredevil, began his 70-issue run on Tomb of Dracula, a horror comic. Michael Kaluta, our cover artist, started his career in the ’70s working on The Shadow, a mystery comic. John Totleben, our interview subject, worked on Swamp Thing with Stephen Bissette. This issue’s lone “newcomer” is Andrew Robinson, who’s done a lot of RPG fantasy art, among other things. In addition, we bring you an article about the recent Wonder Woman Day charity art auction, with many great examples of the art contributions. Then we once again show you the evolution of a couple covers, this time by Howard Chaykin and Michael Kaluta. We also have never-before-seen art by Kaluta, done before he turned pro! And then I critique a fun pencil sample page starring the Kubert brothers! All that plus your insightful letters and comments. Be sure to visit the Rough Stuff page of my web site to see even more great art and comments that we didn’t have room for in this issue. And visit the web sites of our featured artists, many of whom accept commissions: Steven Bissette: www.srbissette.com Gene Colan: www.genecolan.com Michael Kaluta: www.kaluta.com John Totleben: www.comicon.com/totleben/totleben.htm Andrew Robinson: www.theartistschoice.com/arobinson.htm

ROUGH STUFF celebrates the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVERBEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history, before-and-after comparisons, critiques, early work, and more from top comics pros!

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

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D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

E T T E S S I B N E H P E T S

e first and e was one of th Stephen Bissett e Joe graduates of th most illustrious best d he’s probably an l, oo h Sc rt be Ku AMP ork on DC’s SW known for his w load hich won a boat w s, e self80 19 e th on some stuff h THING in k or w is h d ye . I first enjo now teachof Kirby awards ex. I hear he’s R Ta t ou ab T, d T YRAN Vermont. published calle toon Studies in ar C r fo r te en C the ing comic art at

STEVEN BISSETTE Swamp Thing, reborn! (from Saga of the Swamp Thing #23, pg. 16) Not much to say — this page was a pure shot, you can still see the barely-harnessed energy of my pencil strokes. I felt as liberated, unfettered and born-again as Swamp Thing by this point in the series! John and I had been craving this juncture since the day we went after the job. I was still getting my sea-legs drawing Abby, which is apparent to me looking back on this (and other pages prior to SOTST #25): my penciling of the character was still tentative and lacking confidence. Luckily, John drew and draws female characters as second nature; his inks rescued many an Abby face and figure in my first few issues with the character. Swamp Thing TM & ©2007 DC Comics

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

HOWARD CHAYKIN The American Century #3 cover is a pretty solid demonstration of my process. I wanted the covers to have an echo of the boy/girl illustrations of the mass market women’s magazines of the ‘50s—the work of Coby Whitmore, Jon Whitcomb and the astonishing Al Parker.

BOB MCLEOD Art students should take note of the subtle but very important shift of the man's figure from a flat straight-on pose to more of a 3/4 view, making it not only a sexier pose with the cocked hip but adding more 3-D depth as well. ©2007 Howard Chaykin

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

HOWARD CHAYKIN As you can see, the idea was all there in the concept, developed in the rough, done on layout bond, then traced onto bristol board for a tight pencil— all done repro size—then traced up onto illustration board to twice up. Note the horizontal line behind his head—this both anchors the piece, and carries the eye to his expression.

HOWARD CHAYKIN

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

INTERVIEW

JOHN TOTLEBEN Conducted by George Khoury

ohn Totleben, another former Joe Kubert School student, is best known for his beautifully intri-

cate, award-winning linework on DC’s Swamp Thing, which is all the more incredible when you learn that he’s legally blind! It’s now extremely difficult for him to do the precise type of

linework that made him famous (not that it was easy before!). John sent me so much great art

to choose from that it was very difficult for me to choose what to print, so be sure to check the Rough Stuff page of my web site to see some more! This interview was originally conducted in 2003, but recently updated for this issue by John himself. GEORGE KHOURY: How did you discover Swamp Thing for the first time? JOHN TOTLEBEN: It would have been the very first issue. I remember seeing a DC house ad for it, and just picked up the book when it came out. KHOURY: Did you follow the entire series, even the Nestor Redondo ones? TOTLEBEN: Oh yes. I had them all, right to the very end. There might have been 24 issues or something like that, and I bought them all… even the ones that sucked. I thought that while Redondo was a great artist, better than Wrightson as far as drawing figures and women and such, but somehow he still was not quite a match for Bernie’s obviously definitive version of Swampy. While Redondo had some fairly obvious technical advantages, he lacked the sheer vision and feel for the macabre that seemed to come so naturally to Bernie. KHOURY: I thought you weren’t a big fan of the Wrightson work on the series? TOTLEBEN: That’s not true. It was his earlier pre-Swamp Thing stuff I wasn’t real crazy about, say, anything he did before 1971. I liked what Wrightson did on Swamp Thing, quite a bit. I was, at the time 13 years old, more of a Neal Adams fan basically, and I had more of a taste for that “realistic” type art. By the time Swamp Thing came along I had expanded my tastes beyond just Adams work and was able to dig a lot of other artists, including Bernie’s work. What Wrightson was doing seemed more caricaturish to me, like Jack Davis’s art, but I quickly became a huge fan of Bernie’s work on Swamp Thing. It was pretty amazing stuff, there’s no question about it. He had really set some new standards, at that time. Swamp Thing TM & ©2007 DC Comics

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

JOHN TOTLEBEN Swamp Thing #91 During this time, my approach to doing painted covers was to work out the composition and drawing on either sketch paper or bristol board at the standard 11” x 17” page size or even smaller. I would then enlarge the sketches in sections on a copy machine to get an overall image size of about 20” x 30”, then transfer the image to the canvas or panels using graphite paper. Most of the paintings I did for the Swamp Thing covers were done this size, though some are smaller. Swamp Thing TM & ©2007 DC Comics

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

COVER STORIES

hat happens between the initial layout of a cover, and the finished, printed piece? Usually a lot of changes—some brought about by the pencil artist, some by the inker (assuming they're not the same person as the penciler), and some at the request of an editor or publisher. HOWARD CHAYKIN Jonah Hex My inspiration for the image— and this is based on memory, as opposed to actually looking at the artwork in question—was a cover for a MAX BRAND paperback by an illustrator named Roy Andersen—who did a beautiful series of covers for Warner books back in the seventies or eighties—imagery that was apparently too damned sophisticated for the western buying public. Somewhere between the concept and the finish, my rough pencil seems to have lost a bit of horse that Steve saw on the comp, so when I delivered the finish, he asked me to add a bit more horse—which the finish here demonstrates. 44

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

HOWARD CHAYKIN For a single image, I tend to work out the pattern of darks and lights more specifically than on a comics page—and as you can see, the finish is a pretty solid reflection of what was there in the rough. I was delighted to get an opportunity to do a JONAH HEX cover for Jimmy and Justin’s take on the character. According to Steve Wacker, the then-editor, he opted for the specific comp he chose because no one had done a horse on the cover—pretty odd for a western, huh? Jonah Hex TM & ©2007 DC Comics

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

DAY Art Auction Helps By Ray Wong

Courtesy of Andy Mangels

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

Domestic Violence Shelters

ow do you take a hobby like collecting comic books, memorabilia, and original art and turn it into an event that raises $15,405.33 for two domestic violence shelters? That’s exactly what Andy Mangels did on Wonder Woman Day, October 29th, 2006 at Excalibur Comics in Portland, Oregon.

The art auction, featuring donated works from comic book, animation, and comic strip

artists such as Alex Ross, Adam Hughes, John Romita Sr., Dick Giordano, Bob McLeod, Bill Morrison, Terry Dodson, Anne Timmons, and Matt Clark, benefited Raphael House and Bradley-Angle House – domestic violence shelters for women and children in Art by Alex Chung

Portland. Dodson, Timmons, and Clark appeared at the event to do signings. Excalibur Comics displayed the auction art, and proxy bidding by e-mail for a short period before the event allowed non-attendees to participate in the fun. All art

help women and children of domestic violence. He contacted two local shelters in Portland to gauge

depicted Wonder Woman — a fitting symbol to combat

the marriage of a comic book character to the issue of domestic violence

auction included an Alex Ross painting that sold for

awareness and thought the theme

$4000. Adam Hughes’ marker piece with background

would make for a great event.

fetched $777. A flowing Terry Dodson pencil drawing

Mangels had worked previously

brought $500. Ryan Sook’s exquisite pencil rendering of

with Bradley-Angle House, and

a sword-wielding Wonder Woman went for $400.

they signed on shortly after. According to Mangels, “I

of Development for Raphael House, cited that the event

put my heart and soul into

“made a critical difference in the lives of thousands of

contacting artists about

women and children in this community fleeing domestic

donating for the event. I

violence.”

started with ones I

Kristan Knapp, Development Director of Bradley-

knew, then

Angle House, proclaimed “Andy Mangels’ creative

cast a wider

‘Wonder Woman Day’ celebration offered Wonder

net.” The

Woman fans and comic book readers in general an

response

opportunity to do something locally to stop abuse

was mind-

between intimate partners.”

boggling.

The idea for the event started out as a suggestion to

Courtesy of Andy Mangels

their interest. Raphael House was thrilled about

violence against women and children. Highlights for the

According to a press release, Jessica Elkin, Director

He ended

Andy Mangels to include Wonder Woman in a charity

up with

cause. Though he had organized many charity events, few

over 100

related to comic books. An avid Wonder Woman collector,

pieces of

Mangels decided the heroine would be most appropriate to

original

Continued on page 65

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

PRE-PRO

hat did your art look like when you were 16? Did you ever wonder what a pro's art looked like back when he was in high school? Here's what Michael Kaluta was doing at that age. He even knew what a crow-quill point was! A genius in the rough!

MICHAEL KALUTA Originally drawn in a Grumbacher spiral-bound sketch book using a crow quill pen point, this drawing of the Heliumetic Navy from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom Books shows my 16-year old mind and hand at work: the mind was lucid, but check out that figure: woooo: pretty squirrely! The flyer designs owe a large debt to the airships in the Abbott art for Ballantine Books paperback covers from the ‘60s.

ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

MICHAEL KALUTA

. His is so individual Michael Kaluta yle is rent, but his st pa ap e ar s ce influen been. and always has totally unique Edgar comics work on y rl ea RUCK, is h om Fr DOW, to STARST A SH E TH to ’s VENUS, continRice Burrough missions, he’s m co d an s on ok illustrati imagination. to his many bo stic detail and ta n fa is h h it sw ued to dazzle u mics. rite people in co vo fa y m of e He’s also on MICHAEL KALUTA Doorway To Nightmare #2, sketch One of the refining steps in creating the cover for Doorway to Nightmare #2... after some very rough sketching, tracing paper is put over the rougher drawing and a cleaner image is developed. This would, in its turn, be light-boxed onto the DC Comics cover stock for final rendering and inking.

MICHAEL KALUTA Shadow #10, sketch This is one of the layers done for DC Comics’ Shadow #10 cover in the 1970s... like the boat sketch with “I, Vampire” on it [see page 75], this would be flopped for use on the finished cover, then the two killers added and, lastly, the large Shadow Face looming over all. APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

Rough Stuff #4