Issuu

No. 6 Fall 2007

$6.95

H GUICE C T U

DAVE COC M KRU

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

Featuring

BRIAN STELFREEZE BUTCH GUICE C

RCHILL U H C

EN DO E L L O

RAN

IAN

Interviews and Galleries

73 1

82658 27766

Volume 1, Number 6 Fall 2007

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics! EDITOR

Bob McLeod PUBLISHER

John Morrow DESIGNER

FEATURED ARTISTS

Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

Ian Churchill

Dave Cockrum

Colleen Doran

COVER ARTIST

Brian Stelfreeze

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE

SPECIAL THANKS Ian Churchill

Butch Guice Len Gould

Paty Cockrum

Independent Comics Showcase Mike Gagnon

Colleen Doran Butch Guice Len Gould Mike Gagnon

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW 70

Brian Stelfreeze

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS

Benno Rothschild Chris Hanchey

Ruben Espinosa

Scribblings From The Editor Bob McLeod

Geoff Willmetts Glen Cadigan

Cover Stories Butch Guice and Dave Cockrum reveal the process of creating a cover.

PrePro Art by Colleen Doran, done before she turned pro.

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

Rough Talk Comments and opinions from our readers.

FREE PREVIEW of Alter Ego #73

Brandon Graham Andrew Barr Asaf Hanuka

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: $26 Standard US, $36 First Class US, $44 Canada, $60 Surface International, $72 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Central cover art by Brian Stelfreeze. 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

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

SCRIBBLINGS FROM THE EDITOR:

diting each new issue of Rough Stuff brings its own challenges and delights, I’ve discovered. We open this autumn’s issue with some really interesting X-Men character designs by British artist Ian Churchill, who’s currently drawing Supergirl. Then we have a feature on comics giant Dave Cockrum, who passed away this year,

far too young. I so wish we could have done the feature last year when he was still around. As with any artist who’s had a long career, there’s simply too much art to show and too little space to show it, so this is just a small sampling of Dave’s talent. His wife Paty graciously sent some of Dave’s previously unpublished drawings to me just for this feature. We’ve got a couple Cover Stories for you, a Spider-Woman cover by Dave that I inked years ago, and an Aquaman cover penciled and inked by Butch Guice. Then I’m very pleased to welcome our first female comic artist to these pages, the very talented Colleen Doran. She’s followed by Len Gould’s article and conversation with Butch Guice, an artist I met at a convention and induced to work with me twenty-six years ago, before anyone else in comics had ever seen his art. Then Mike Gagnon searches beyond the Big Three and introduces us to Andrew Barr, Asaf Hanuka, and Brandon Graham, some great young artists working with independent or small press publishers. Comic art enthusiast Benno Rothschild brings out some pieces from his own original art collection by Brian Stelfreeze, who goes piece by piece with him and explains in-depth his very thoughtful and intelligent approach to comic art. Then we go from Brian, a current master of comic art, to an ambitious beginner as Chris Hanchey offers up a Superman sample page for my Rough Critique. We then finish up with another batch of very interesting letters from some of our readers. Big News Dept.: Beginning with our previous issue, TwoMorrows is now offering Rough Stuff and many of its other magazines as full-color hi-res digital downloads in PDF form for the reduced price of only $2.95 (free for subscribers!), so be sure to check that out and let us know what you think. I think they’re great, because I inevitably have some images I want to show you in color: This issue in particular features a lot of color images by Ian Churchill and Dave Cockrum that are printed in grey half-tones in the print edition but are in full color in the online pdf. And as always, check the Rough Stuff pages of my own web site for art and comments that we just couldn’t squeeze into the magazine. I’ve also added some of my own prelim art there on the Editor’s Corner page. And while you’re on the web, why not visit the web sites of our featured artists, some of whom accept commissions. See you next time! Ian Churchill: http://www.theartistschoice.com/churchill.htm Colleen Doran: http://www.colleendoran.com Brian Stelfreeze: http://www.gaijinstudios.com/index.php?pg=about&sub=brian Andrew Barr: http://www.somethingagogo.com Brandon Graham: http://www.indyworld.com/graham

Bob McLeod Editor mcleod.bob@gmail.com

Asaf Hanuka: http://www.asafhanuka.com

www.bobmcleod.com

Chris Hanchey: http://www.hancheyart.com

PO Box 63 Emmaus, PA 18049

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

L L I H C R U H C N IA

came n Churchill be Ia st ti ar sh ti Bri on the gular penciler known as a re for EN and CABLE -M X Y N N CA N U act with signing a contr Marvel before g a banglately been doin s e’ h e er h w , C D g SUPERGIRL. up job pencilin

IAN CHURCHILL This was my first and only commissioned piece to date. I had been traveling for a couple of years and this was the first thing I did prior to hooking up with DC. It’s a scan of a bad photocopy , at the time I couldn’t find a scanner that would pick up the pencil line work. But you get the idea... it’s clobberin’ time! Hulk and Thing TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

DAVE COCKRUM

an assisn his career as ga be m u kr oc C Dave t Murphy ng-time DC artis tant inker to lo lar became the regu on so d an , on rs Ande OES in OF SUPER HER N IO G LE e th artist on es and ting new costum ea cr , to Marvel, he 0s ‘7 y rl ea the is own. Moving h it g in ak m ly eral ing Storm, designs and gen X-MEN, co-creat e th d pe am -v the first then totally re fortunate to ink as w I s. su os ol dC classic cils in the now Nightcrawler, an n pe s e’ av D er team ov issue of the new X-MEN #94.

BOB MCLEOD Dave did dozens, if not hundreds, of cover roughs for Marvel. Many of them he finished himself, and many went to other artists. This one went to Keith Pollard and Joe Sinnott. I think I prefer Dave’s more exaggerated foreshortening, and I like the way Torch’s blast is just bouncing off in the rough. Fantastic Four TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Courtesy Ruben Espinosa

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

BOB MCLEOD While many of his cover scenes seem to

a better angle, but her pose is too awkward

have come fairly easily to Dave, these

and he’s lost the depth of the first image.

roughs take us through the development of a

Next, he shows her from the front and

cover Dave was obviously struggling with.

regains the depth but still isn’t satisfied. He

Going clockwise from the upper left, he

starts over and finds a new pose for the vil-

begins with the idea for an aerial battle, but

lainess, bringing her closer. Happy at last, he

Ms. Marvel’s too horizontal and she’s shown

sketches in the drawing, inexplicably chang-

mainly from behind. He then brings her up to

ing Ms. Marvel to Supergirl (!?) and signs off.

DAVE COCKRUM

Courtesy Geoff Willmetts

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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.

BUTCH GUICE Aquaman Here’s a very recent Aquaman cover from beginning to end—sketch (one of five presented to the editor), the pencils—loose and roughed in since I was inking it myself, and the finished inks—which clearly show how much I leave to last minute intuitive decision making. Aquaman TM & ©2007 DC Comics

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

BOB MCLEOD I’m impressed by how little this image changed from the rough to the finished inks. Most artists make a lot of changes as they move toward the inking, as the many examples of Dave Cockrum’s cover sketches showed. But Butch clearly had this image firmly worked out in his head right from the start, and all he had to do was transfer it from his head to the paper.

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

FEATURE

BUTCH GUICE By Len Gould

any comic book artists use roughs to help layout and design interior pages. Many others do not. With covers however, it is a different story. Almost all covers have gone through a number of iterations to get to their final, finished form.

Most artists sketch out a few “roughs” based upon the

requested by the editor before starting on the finished

story. These preliminary drawings are then narrowed

illustration. If production time is very short, as happens

down, and refined in a second stage for the book’s edi-

more than anyone is

tor. The editor, sometimes in concert with the creative

comfortable with, the

team, and sometimes without, will make suggestions

drawing might be

leading to the end result. This may involve the taking of

nothing more

BUTCH GUICE

elements from several roughs to combine into a new

than an

“This Untitled one is

piece, or it may be the refinement and movement of the

enlarged ver-

a simple character

images on a single prelim. Of course it is also possible

sion of a two

doodle I was playing

that the editor may simply approve the submitted layout

minute

around with years

as well!

thumbnail

ago for a possible teen-oriented

Jackson “Butch” Guice is a veteran artist who is very familiar with this process. He broke in with Marvel’s

mystery comic. The

Micronauts back in 1982. Since then he has penciled

drawing is obviously

and inked a number of comicdom’s most

based upon a real

eclectic titles: X-Factor, Dr.

person—though

Strange, Birds of Prey and

who exactly, I can’t

Ruse. Earlier this year,

recall anymore. As

Butch penciled and inked

you can see, this

the Humanoids graphic

was just a simple ten

novel Olympus and he was

minute sketch all

recently producing exceptional

about capturing an

work on DC’s Aquaman.

impression to hold in

Butch told me that he usually

my head for future

draws prelims for his cover work.

refinement—fun but

“Almost always. As a general rule,

long forgotten.”

some sort of preliminary sketch is

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

sketch—a very

BUTCH GUICE Birds of Prey #24 This is a fairly busy cover with many overlapping elements, but in general the central visual focus seems to remain strong. If I were to change anything, in looking back on it now, I’d probably remove the Lady Vic character—she’s the one element that seems distractingly out of place with everything else in the design.

BOB MCLEOD I hope we can all agree Butch is being pretty tough on himself in many of these comments. It’s very refreshing to see a pro who’s willing to be so publicly self-critical. You won’t meet many comic artists like that, so I have to hand it to Butch. Black Canary TM & ©2007 DC Comics

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

Independent Co By Mike Gagnon

really enjoy reading and viewing comics of many different styles and genres, and I’m sure many of you do, too. For readers with offbeat tastes, some of the most interesting and innovative comics can be found in the small press and independent comics scene. In many cases the star artists of today’s mainstream comics got their start doing

work with independent or small press publishers. Recently, on behalf of Rough Stuff and the interests of you, the reader, I spoke with several rising stars on the independent comic scene. Remember these guys; one of them may just be a future favorite artist.

Brandon Graham RS: Can you tell us a little bit about your work and inspirations? BRANDON: I try to make comics about serious $#!t that people have to deal with in their lives, but I like jokes and science fiction too much, so I make comics that are about things like barbarians in space dealing with the loss of a loved one. I always end up writing from my life but I layer it under as much fun stuff as I can come up with. I’m really into the idea that you can draw whatever you feel like. I’m working on 2 books right now: King City (Tokyopop) is about a guy that returns to the

city he grew up in with this cat he has that can do anything. His ex that he’s still in love with is now with a guy who’s all messed up from fighting zombies in Korea and his best friend is running from an alien prostitution deal that went bad. The other is Multiple Warheadz (Oni Press) it’s a road trip story about a girl and her werewolf boyfriend. The story is set in a fictional future Russia and they’re traveling in a car named Lenin (‘cause it’s not stalin’). As the story goes on the car keeps breaking down and every time it breaks they fix it with different animal parts eventually making the car become a living thing. I’m inspired by guys like Moebius or Matt Howarth’s old stuff. My friends that draw are a big deal to me; the Meathaus guys and my pals in Seattle.

RS: What drawing supplies do you use? BRANDON: I like mechanical pencils and Micron Pigma pens #3s and 5s (5s to letter), then an ink and brush to fill in blacks. I use a thin 2-ply bristol board that sells for like 30 bucks for 200 sheets. It’s good stuff. I have a big metal ruler, too. RS: Do you use any approaches or techniques that are unique and may not be known by other artists? BRANDON: I rule a lot of things out by how parts of the body relate to each other, like how your foot is about as long as from your wrist to your elbow or how many heads tall a piece of the background is. It’s important to me to convince the reader that a made up person or place could be real. There’s some Hemingway quote that talks about “first start with something real,” I like to think of that in terms of illustration. If you draw a coffee cup that people can believe, it makes it easier to accept the spaceship it’s in.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

mics Showcase RS: How do you approach a comic page or illustration from script to inks? BRANDON: My layouts are really rough and I don’t really like to script a book before hand. I write down chunks of dialogue and figure out all the scenes in a story real rough then do lots of coming up with ideas as I go. It takes me like 6 hours to do a page. That’s 6 hours that I think of what I’m going to draw next. For my King City book Tokyopop asked me to do small thumbnails so they could see what I was planning. I didn’t follow most of the layouts by the time I got to the actual pages. I also do a lot of the drawing in the ink and writing in the lettering. RS: What helps keep you motivated to do comics in a world that sometimes seems to revolve around the mainstream publishers and their product? BRANDON: I don’t think of what anyone else puts out as the same thing as what I do. It’s real important to me that my work never feels tied to the industry. I think Kirby was right when he said “comics will break your heart.” The industry will break a man, but your own work should be there for you. RS: When it comes to your finished artwork what do you

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

INTERVIEW

BRIAN STELFREEZE By Benno Rothschild

member of Atlanta-based Gaijin Studios, Brian Stelfreeze has long been a prolific cover artist for DC, and he’s also done interior art for comics such as Domino for Marvel and Matador for WildStorm. He’s now art director for 12-Gauge Comics and is doing the art for The Ride and Gun Candy. This interview was con-

ducted in November 2006 by Benno Rothschild, a comic art collector who has a special interest in preliminary art, which is of course our main focus here at Rough Stuff. The images shown and discussed here are all from Benno’s personal collection. Parts of this interview were previously excerpted by him in The Comic and Fantasy Art Amateur Press Association #70.

This lovely prelim was for a watercolor painting owned by Jim Clancy. The even more lovely finished painting can be seen on Jim’s comicartfans.com gallery.

ROUGH STUFF • FALL 2007

BENNO: These Batman splash pages were for an issue

BRIAN STELFREEZE

of Detective, correct?

I just liked the idea of

BRIAN: Yeah. It was actually a really great issue to work on. In

Batman coming down

everything that I do, and especially when I’m doing interior work, I

out of the sky on a

try to really concentrate on storytelling. Chuck Dixon turned in this

motorcycle. I thought

story that I though was amazing. It was a story in which every

that was a really

other page was a splash page or a six-panel grid, and it was really neat how it was two stories told kind of concurrently, and on

every splash page I had to try to really do a dynamic image.

BENNO: So, from here you’re transitioning into panel pages. How do you approach the panel page and the images on there? BRIAN: Well, that was the neat thing about this story, all the splash pages could be read completely separately as a story told in splash pages, and all the panel pages could be read as a story completely told as panel pages. So, with every two-page spread, you were looking at the story, and then you’d turn the page and you’d get a splash. So it was like one story—turn the page, next story—turn the page, you know, back and forth.

BENNO: Okay, and the main story is the Joker is in

FALL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

Rough Stuff #6