rough stuff #2

FRA

NK BRUNNERJERR

Y ORDWAY

BRIAN APTHORP

MATT WAGNER

P R E S E N T S

N o . 2F a l l 2 0 0 6

$ 6 . 9 5

C e l e b r a t i n gt h e A R T

o f C r e a t i n gC o m i c s !

Jonah Hex, Sandman, Superman, Atom, Superman, Supergirl, Batman TM & ©2006 DC Comics.

FeaturingFeaturing

PAUL GULACY!PAUL GULACY!Interview &Art Gallery

ALEX TOTH

1 82658 27766 6

63

OCTOBER 2006 • ROUGH STUFF 1

Volume 1, Number 2October 2006

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

EDITORBob McLeod

PUBLISHERJohn Morrow

DESIGNERMichael Kronenberg

PROOFREADERSJohn Morrow and Christopher Irving

COVER ARTISTPaul Gulacy

COVER COLORISTLaurie Kronenberg

CIRCULATION DIRECTORBob Brodsky, Seastone Marketing Group

SPECIAL THANKSBrian ApthorpFrank BrunnerPaul GulacyJerry OrdwayAlex TothMatt WagnerRay WongEric Nolen-WeathingtonRoger ClarkDavid HamiltonKen SteacyMichael Eury

ROUGH STUFF™ is published quarterly byTwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive,Raleigh, NC 27614. Bob McLeod, Editor. JohnMorrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: ROUGH STUFF,c/o Bob McLeod, Editor, P.O. Box 63, Emmaus, PA10849-2203. E-mail: [email protected]. Four-issue subscriptions: $24 Standard US, $36 FirstClass US, $44 Canada, $48 Surface International,$64 Airmail International. Please send subscriptionorders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the edi-torial office. Central cover art by Paul Gulacy.Jonah Hex TM & ©2006 DC Comics. All charactersare © their respective companies. All material ©their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorialmatter © 2006 Bob McLeod and TwoMorrowsPublishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM of TwoMorrowsPublishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

FEATURED ARTISTS3 Brian Apthorp

14 Frank Brunner

50 Jerry Ordway

61 Alex Toth

73 Matt Wagner

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW30 Paul Gulacy

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE46 A Special Memento

Ray Wong

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS2 Scribblings From The Editor

Bob McLeod

26 Cover StoriesPaul Gulacy and Frank Brunner reveal the process they go throughwhen creating a cover.

48 PreProA look at the art of the pros, before they were pros.

84 Rough CritiqueEditor Bob McLeod critiques an artist’s sample page.

86 Rough TalkComments and opinions from our readers.

For more art by our featured artists, visit www.bobmcleod.com/roughstuff.htm

ISSN 1931-9231


BRIAN APTHORPBrian Apthorp is part of the new van-

guard working in comic books today, but

he’s very well rooted in the fundamentals

of good comic art. His compositions are

dynamic, his figures are graceful and powerful and sexy,

and his dramatic lighting is first-rate, delighting the inker

in me. His pencils would be a ball to ink!

F E A T U R E D A R T I S T

BRIAN APTHORP:

Ghost #11, cover

The pencils for the cover of Ghost #11. I did

four covers, for numbers 9, 11, 13 and 17, and

this is one of the better ones, I think, though

she’s considerably sexier in the other three.

But it was really cool, working on each,

because I didn’t have to adhere to any story

situation; they were simply compositions of

my own devising, portraits of her and her

peculiar situation, trying to be evocative.

ABOVE: The cover for Ghost #11, inked by

Gary Martin.

GHOST TM & ©2006 Dark Horse Comics.

4 ROUGH STUFF • OCTOBER 2006

BRIAN

APTH

ORP

BRIAN APTHORP:

Dreaming Special:

Trial and Error, pg. 28

This is from The

Dreaming Special:

Trial and Error, writ-

ten by Len Wein, for

Vertigo from some-

time in the late ‘90s.

It was inked by Scott

Hampton, one of my

favorite artists and

persons, and I am

proud of it, basically.

Another of those

‘phantasmagoria’

pages, looking like

Victorian wallpaper,

I suppose—but it

was depicting the

magic world of the

Dreaming, and

again, the ol’

reliance on the

colorist to separate

a bit, down the line.

DREAMING TM &

©2006 DC Comics/

Vertigo


BRIAN APTHORP:

Dreaming Special:

Trial and Error, pg. 18

The background was

filled in on computer

just to give a sense

of how the thing was

designed-for. The

light amount of

blacks on the figures,

relatively, deemed it

necessary to pull

them out of the black

emptiness of the

courtroom back-

ground. But I sent

Scott Hampton some

marker studies,

saying how it was

difficult for me to

push the blacks as

far as I wished, to

encourage him to

help “get me there”

in his masterful inks.

And what a drafts-

man! Nobody ever

inked my stuff with

such sensitive

drawing fidelity, and

of course, he

improved a lot of

things in the bargain.

I loved working in

this dark environ-

ment, of my own

choosing, actually.

It was just hard to let

go of reflected light

and all that. It’s a

struggle for me.

DREAMING TM &

©2006 DC Comics/

Vertigo

FRANK BRUNNERFrank Brunner has always been one of

my favorite artists. His work is very

sensual, and his imagination knows no

bounds. He’s probably best known for

his definitive efforts on DR. STRANGE and HOWARD THE

DUCK. In recent years, he’s been doing a lot of amazing

commission work.



FRANK BRUNNER:

Supergirl pin-up:

Just a bit naughty,

but still mostly

nice!

SUPERGIRL TM &

©2006 DC Comics

DR. STRANGE TM & ©2006 MarvelCharacters, Inc.


FRAN

KBRU

NNER

FRANK BRUNNER:

Howard the Duck

(in Baghdad).

Like “Hope and

Crosby”, Howard

and Beverly do a

“road trip” movie

in Ole Baghdad.

HOWARD THE

DUCK TM &

©2006 Marvel

Characters, Inc.


FRANK BRUNNER:

Howard The Duck #1,

page 6

Howard executes a

very difficult rescue.

HOWARD THE DUCK

TM & ©2006 Marvel

Characters, Inc.

FRAN

KBRU

NNER


COVER STORIES

W hat happens between the initial layout of a cover, and the finished, printed piece? Usually a lot ofchanges—some brought about by the pencil artist, some by the inker (assuming they’re not thesame person as the penciler), and some at the request of an editor or publisher. We asked acouple of this issue’s pros to give us a little insight into these classic covers.

PAUL GULACY:

Catwoman #25 cover

rough: When Dan

Didio asked me on

board as the new

penciler on

Catwoman, I decided

to pick an important

scene from Ed

Brubaker’s script,

which had her

crashing through the

boarded-up window

of a crack house in

that first issue that I

drew. It just

screamed grand

entrance. I decided

on an upshot of her,

but I needed a photo

reference in this

particular case,

which meant I

needed a model.

CATWOMAN TM &

©2006 DC Comics


PAUL GULACY:

I nixed the opaque projector and

rendered the scene freehand in

pencil while holding a photo still.

Jimmy Palmiotti then did his usual

inking magic (below). In a situation

of a monthly book with tight dead-

lines, I felt he and I as a team

worked great together. The only

thing I didn’t like about this was the

goggles. I was adhering to the

design the former team used which,

according to Ed, was based largely

on the same worn by Joe Kubert’s

Enemy Ace character. If it were up

to me, I’d nix them altogether. If she

can run, jump, leap and do every-

thing as a cat, why can’t she see at

night like one? I’m for seeing Selina

Kyle’s gorgeous eyes.

CATWOMAN TM & ©2006 DC

Comics


INTERVIEW

PAUL GULACYBy Michael Kronenberg

F or over thirty years Paul Gulacy has continued to be a creative force in the comic book industry. He

has worked for every major publisher and has been associated with some of comics’ most memo-

rable characters and titles. To thrive as long as he has in an industry as grueling and sometimes

cruel as comics has been not only his ability as an artist and storyteller, but tantamount to his skills as a survivor.

Numerous times over the years a Gulacy art job would hang on the balance of which inker was selected for his

pencils. There have been some outstanding embellishers he has been partnered with—Dan Adkins, Terry Austin, and

Jimmy Palmiotti to name a few—but too many times he has been mismatched and his idiosyncratic style has been lost.

With the release this month of Jonah Hex #12, Gulacy embarks on a new venture with his art: inking his pencils.

“…you never saw me doing my owncovers when I was on Master of Kung Fu,because I just got under the wire on thedeadline and there was no time to let medo the cover. Knowing that, I decided tomake the slash page the cover.”

“I never get tired of it. It’s what I do. It’smy outlet for self-expression. MarlonBrando once said in an interview, ‘Nevergive 100 percent, and hold back somereserve.’ You can’t come in with the bigguns every time. You pace it.”

“…I almost completely go straight on theboard with pens and brushes over pencillines that only I can decipher. I can finish abook in four to five weeks, pencils and inks.My deal with the editors is that I’ll be happyto patch in any mistakes if need be.”

SH

AN

G-C

HITM

&©2006

Marvel

Ch

aracters,In

c.,

BATM

AN

,H

EX

TM

&©2006

DC

Com

ics.


Icaught up with Paul while in the middle of his Hex assignment. Among other

things we discussed why he can now meet his deadlines penciling and ink-

ing, Master of Kung Fu’s legacy, Daniel Craig as the new James Bond, a

Gulacy top ten movie list, and his upcoming projects.

MICHAEL KRONENBERG: What has changed most inthe comic book industry since you started?PAUL GULACY: The immense amount of talent nowworking in this business is overwhelming; there must bethousands of people and hundreds oftitles to choose from; the entireworld knows who the X-Men are;creators own their properties;Hollywood now banks on hugebox office hits and profitsbased on comic book charac-ters. It’s all moving very quicklyand don’t ask me what thefuture holds, because Idon’t have a clue.

KRONENBERG:

Starting with the newissue of Jonah Hex, youwill begin inking your-self. How did this comeabout and why?GULACY: Itstarted

when Jimmy Palmiotti was buried in work and couldn’t fin-ish the last seven pages of JSA: Classified #13. So,Mike Carlin asked me if I could wrap it up. I hadn’t inkedmyself for a long time, probably years outside of covers,so this was a good opportunity to hone my skills.

It was a blessing, because it wasn’t so much some-thing I wanted to do as something I needed to do—notonly a good career move, but personally, very spirituallyuplifting, and Jimmy totally understands that. In fact,Jimmy encouraged me to ink Hex. He said, “Go ahead,show ’em what you got, dude.”

KRONENBERG: How has inking impacted your schedule?GULACY: It’s not a problem because I almost completelygo straight on the board with pens and brushes over pencillines that only I can decipher. I can finish a book in four tofive weeks, pencils and inks. My deal with the editors is thatI’ll be happy to patch in any mistakes if need be.

PAUL GULACYCraftint rendered

pin-up of Marvel’s

Shanna The She-Devil.

SHANNA TM &

©2006 Marvel

Characters, Inc.


PAUL GULACY

Jonah Hex #12, pg. 3

JONAH HEX TM &

©2006 DC Comics


Wandering the floor on the secondday of the 2005 Comic-ConInternational in San Diego, Istopped at a booth to watch anartist in action. The man, slight-

statured and sporting an earring, used a fine-tippeddrawing pencil to shade the bare, upper torso of ShangChi, the Master Of Kung Fu (MOKF), and I stood andobserved in quiet fascination. I had been a huge MOKFfan in the ’70s and ’80s and especially admired theintricate detail of Paul Gulacy’s artwork in the comic.

Though I had collected comics and original art in theearly ’80s, I had never met Paul Gulacy, and I didn’t knowthe man transforming a piece of paper into a work of artin front of my eyes. I could only gape when a fan lugginga black portfolio came up and greeted the artist by name.

The fan and Gulacy proceeded into a dialogue aboutMOKF and the conversation eventually veered into a discus-sion of the artist’s depiction of female characters. To me,nobody drew women like Paul Gulacy. In my collecting days,one of my most prized possessions was an original platefrom Gulacy’s Black Widow portfolio. Never had I seen such

truly exquisite renderings of Natasha Romanoff. Gulacybrought the Black Widow to life in that portfolio, infusing adark and sensual vulnerability into the character that captureda sense of intrigue, passion, and danger.

Over the years, I sold all of my original art, includingthe Black Widow plate, and abandoned the world ofcomic books altogether. I only came to the comic conven-tion to pick up a few toys for my four-year-old son, butseeing Gulacy in person triggered a wave of nostalgia. Itbrought to mind a simpler time in my life before theresponsibilities of wife, children, career, and monthly utilitybills—a time when reading a new issue of WaltSimonson’s Thor or purchasing an original page fromPaul Gulacy’s MOKF meant the world to me.

To serve as a memento of a more innocent time in my life,I commissioned Gulacy for a sketch of the Black Widow. Hetold me it would be ready by Sunday afternoon, the last dayof the convention. Though I hadn’t planned on attending thatday, I said I would come pick it up from him.

When I returned late Sunday, Gulacy took one look at meand immediately broke into profuse apologies for not havingmy art ready. He must’ve seen the disappointment on myface because he offered to do the piece after the conventionand mail it to me. He wrote his e-mail address on a card andasked me to send him my address. I did so the next day, andtwo weeks later, a UPS package arrived at my door.

My heart ran a two-minute mile inside my chest as Itore open the package. When I saw the pen and inkdrawing of the Black Widow, I probably jumped higherthan Shang Chi executing a flying roundhouse kick. Icouldn’t have been more pleased.

I held in my hands a piece of art that I wouldn’t havetraded for a John Byrne X-Men cover. No, not because ofits monetary value, but because of what it represented—apersonal rendering of an awe-inspiring character doneespecially for me by one of my all-time favorite artists.Thanks, Paul, from the bottom of my heart.

Ray Wong is a freelance writer who has contributed toBACK ISSUE magazine, and his opinion editorials haveappeared in the San Diego Union and the LA Daily News. Hecan be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

A SPECIAL MEMENTOBy Ray Wong

PAUL GULACY

A plate fromGulacy’s 1982 BlackWidow portfolio.

BLACK WIDOW TM &©2006 MarvelCharacters, Inc..


PRE-PRO

H ave you ever wondered how your favorite pro’s art looked back before he turned pro—back whenhe was just sitting at home dreaming about becoming a comic book artist? How would his earlyefforts compare with yours? Well, each issue we’re going to show you some examples of just that!The following art was contributed by some of our featured artists. It was done by them before they

started working in comics professionally—but it’s easy to see they’d soon be ready for the big time!

BRIAN APTHORP:

Okay, here’s a page I did as a portfolio piece,

long before my first published comics work in

1990. I took it and a package of other pages to

the 1983 San Diego Con— the first I ever attended,

I believe—and showed them to actual editors at

Marvel and DC. I believe it was Larry Hama who

told me, “When you get your speed up to 3 pages

a day, call me,” or something to that effect. I

walked away knowing I’d never be making that

call; and I still haven’t, I’m afraid!

My wife Lori read a current issue of the F.F. and

wrote down the plot, so I had a “script” to work

from of a professional story which I had not yet

read. The F.F. was my sentimental favorite of all

the titles I used to read as a pure fan. This is the

least embarrassing of the pages that were in that

package, actually.

Characters TM & ©2006Marvel Characters, Inc..


JERRY ORDWAYJerry Ordway can do everything. He

writes, he draws, he inks, he paints, and

he’s incredibly prolific as well. With all

that talent, you’d think his ego would be

too large to fit into a room, but he’s actually incredibly

humble, and a very nice guy. He’s my favorite Superman

artist, and it was an honor for me to work on ACTION

COMICS while he was doing the Superman title.


JERRY ORDWAY:

All-Star Squadron #23, pg. 23

This page of rough layouts is

pretty finished, and as I recall in

this period, I didn’t have the luxury

of reducing them on a photo-

copier. I was able to reposition

elements, but could have used

more dead space for balloons on

the finished page. I often inked

the layout in marker, and tried to

work out details as best I could to

make the tracing go faster.Art courtesy of Steve Lipsky

Characters TM & ©2006 DC

Comics


JERRY

ORDW

AY

JERRY ORDWAY

All-Star Squadron

#23, pg. 2.

Characters TM &

©2006 DC Comics

Art courtesy ofSteve Lipsky


JERRY ORDWAY:

All-Star Squadron

#23, pg. 3

Here, I was clearly

more rushed, and

left more work to

the light-boxing

stage. Again, I wish

I could have

reduced the layout

by 25 percent, so I

could have drawn

more of the Liberty

Belle backshot in

panel 3. I never was

able to stay within

the page size when

working on tracing

paper, as it was

larger than the 10" x

15" size of the final

art board, and I

invariably drew

beyond the borders.Art courtesy ofSteve Lipsky

Characters TM &

©2006 DC Comics

JERRY

ORDW

AY


The legendary Alex Toth, who unfortu-

nately passed away earlier this year, was

admired by every artist I know. His

expert sense of design and composition

were unparalleled. His art is difficult

for some fans to appreciate, because he

didn’t use a lot of rendering. He pared his art down to just

what was necessary and nothing more; not out of laziness,

but for maximum effect.


ALEX TOTH

ALEX TOTH

These were

character

designs

of the

Fantastic Four in

costume for the

1960s animated TV

show. Notice the use of

heavy black shadowing

on the Thing. Toth was

known for his good use

of blacks, but here I

suspect he was also

looking to avoid drawing

all of those bother-

some bricks.

Alex Toth was an artist’s artist. He was highly

respected for the simplicity of his designs.

Diagonal shapes make a drawing more interest-

ing than verticals and horizontals, and he was a

master at using diagonals. He also was expert

at placing blacks to create well-balanced

designs. He had a uniquely playful style of visual story-

telling that was always fun to see, but his forté was not

superheroes. While his work could be very dynamic, he

was more interested in black-and-white design and story-

telling than in Kirbyesque superheroes. But even as he

struggled with the long underwear guys, his brilliance

shines through in these pages. He worked in animation as

well as comic books, and we have a sampling of both.

Alex Toth art comments by Bob McLeod

Fantastic Four TM & ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.


ALEX TOTH

Super Skrull model

sheet for the animated

FF show. Again, a

strong use of blacks,

unusual for anima-

tion. He managed a

Kirbyesque feel, but

still his own distinctive

style came through.

Super Skrull TM &

©2006 Marvel

Characters, Inc.

ALEX TOTH

Galactus model sheet

for the animated FF

show. Nice stream-

lined design of his

costume. I guess

they needed him

smaller for the

show, because he’s

more like 100' tall in

the comics.

Galactus TM &

©2006 Marvel

Characters, Inc.


ALEX

TOTH

ALEX TOTH

This is a page from

DC Comics Presents

#84 (Aug. 1985). I’m

not sure if the partial

inking here is by

Toth, or by Greg

Theakston. Kirby

originally drew a 17-

page story, and

when DC expanded

their page count to

24 per issue, Jack

wasn’t available to

add pages, so they

pieced in a 7-page

sequence from Alex

to fill the page count

(the Toth stuff was

on pages 3-9 of the

issue, with Kirby

everywhere else).

CHALLENGERS TM

& ©2006 DC Comics.


MATT WAGNERI’m sorry to say I wasn’t very familiar

with Matt Wagner’s art up to now (so

many artists, so little time!), but I gained

a tremendous amount of respect for him

while gathering examples of his art for this feature. He’s very

versatile, and every drawing I found was more interesting

than the one before. He’s known for his fantastic color work,

but his pencil art is a fascinating peek behind the curtain.


MATT WAGNER:

This was done several years ago for a collector I met at a

con in Ohio. He had several “themed” sketchbooks going

and when he mentioned his Elric gallery, I perked right up.

I’d long been a fan of Michael Moorcock’s most famous

incarnation of his “Eternal Champion” cycle of novels and

had even recently turned my son on to the books as well. In

fact, I had even done a huge painting of Elric back in my

high school days, which a college friend later bought from

me, making it one of, if not the, first professional piece I ever

produced!

My take on this piece was to counteract many of the other

interpretations I saw in this collection—most of which were

fairly bombastic, depicting Elric in ornate, fantasy armor or

enshrouded in a swirl of eldritch energies and spells. Much of

the Elric novels begin with Elric traveling incognito in his

journeys through the “Young Kingdoms.” As a not-quite-

human albino Melnibonean, he really stands out in a crowd,

and so often has to travel enshrouded in a cloak. I’ve also

often been disappointed with how many people portray Elric’s

mystic sword, Stormbringer (which is as much the main char-

acter of these tales as Elric himself). Either the artist throws

the sword in as an afterthought or they make the weapon so

immense and unwieldy that its appearance is all but ludicrous.

I drew the blade to look powerful and a bit too heavy for such

a thin character to use, yet still be functional in a battle.Art courtesy of Rob Ledford

ELRIC TM & ©2006 Michael Moorcock.


MATT WAGNER:These two pieces were done as

turnaround designs for the

Grendel set of PVC figures

released through Dark Horse.

For those unfamiliar with the

title or concept, Grendel is a

multi-generational character

that finds itself incarnated in a

variety of different personas

and time periods. As a result, I

tried to have each of the six

featured variations of the char-

acter express his or her persona

through both its posture and

also the smaller details. For

instance, the first sketch shows

the Brian Li Sung version of

Grendel. Brian’s story is a short

and tragic affair and, in one

sense, he is one of the least

successful Grendels—he’s not a

very capable fighter and, in fact,

isn’t at first even consciously

aware that he’s being “pos-

sessed” by the Grendel force.

Thus, his posture is almost too

alert—twitchy, in fact. His over-

size and out-of-place athletic

shoes only serve to heighten his

ineptitude. By contrast, the

second sketch shows the Eppy

Thatcher version of Grendel—a

harlequinesque character who

lives several centuries in the

future and who serves the story

as a frenetic wild-card that

disrupts and, eventually, destroys

the various power-players that

drive the main narrative. As a

result, Eppy is shown as a

swirling ball of energy, spritely

and active. The round discs on

which his feet are perched are

magnetic-field, levitation devices.Art courtesy of Michael Farineau

GRENDEL TM & ©2006

Matt Wagner.


MATT WAGNER

MATT WAGNER:

Grendel

This is the original

incarnation of the

Grendel character,

Hunter Rose, facing

off to do battle with

his arch-nemesis,

Argent the Wolf. It’s

funny, my son and I

just watched Leon:

The Professional last

night and, similar to

when I first saw it

years ago, I was

struck with its amaz-

ingly coincidental(?)

similarities to the

story of Hunter Rose:

an unstoppable,

ninja-like assassin (in

the former, an idiot-

savant, in the latter, a

genius) who has an

ever-deepening, neo-

sexual relationship

with a prepubescent

girl and whose main

opponent is a rage-

driven “good guy”

who is actually more

of a beast than a

man. This sketch was

done when I had just

begun to experiment

with drawing on

toned paper and then

using both black ink

and colored pencils

to render the draw-

ing—a technique I

have since made a

hallmark of my

convention work.Art courtesy ofElizabeth Bouras

GRENDEL TM & ©2006 Matt Wagner.


ROUGH CRITIQUEBy Bob McLeod

I f you’re serious about improving your penciling, sendus a sample page and I’ll publish and critique onepage per issue sent in by our readers. Many begin-ners struggle with the same problems, and I think

it’s helpful to see a critique of another artist’s work. Thisissue’s sample page was sent in by one of my formercorrespondence students, Gibson Quarter.

Gibson, you’ve made a lot of progress since the lesson Igave you a couple years ago. This is a professional level pagein many respects, but most pages can still be improved upona bit. There are many things you’re doing well, but I see a fewthings you could do to make this a better page, and improveyour work in general. I’ll start with what I like about the page.

Your composition is very well balanced for the most part.You’re using a lot of diagonals, and your blacks are balancedover the page as a whole. You’ve got a good mix of large

shapes and small shapes, long shots, medium shots, andclose-ups. You’re varying the camera angles well, creatinga page with a lot of visual interest. Your figure drawing,while somewhat weak, is good enough, and yourcharacters are interesting and fun to watch. You’ve got agood amount of backgrounds, giving a good sense ofplace to the action. But I’m assuming you know all of this.Now let me point out some things you’re probably not soaware of.

While your composition is good, as I said, I think itcould be better. In panel one, the head, hand, and camelare all isolated elements. It would be better to unify thoseelements as I have done. A shadow on the ground helpsconnect the hand to the figure, and by tilting the knife theopposite way, it connects the camel to the other elements.Overlapping the blade on top of the camel adds neededdepth. Your blade looks as if it could be lying on theground next to the camel.

I also enlarged the guy’s head a bit, to eliminate his leftshoulder, which doesn’t need to be in the panel. This alsogets the edge of his head away from the panel border. Partof good composition is focusing exclusively on what needsto be in the panel, and cropping off or leaving out every-thing else.

In panel three, I think it was a poor decision to makethe flag protrude out of the panel. Things like this are toocutesy for the rest of your style, and there’s really nopoint to it. The flag can easily be made to fit in the panelby lowering the whole building. This also gets theWashington monument away from the panel border (it’snever good composition to have the edges of objectstouching, or almost touching, the panel border). I addedthe shadows in this panel for depth. Your background istotally flat.

In panel four, the guy’s face is what’s important. Sowhy do we need to see his shoulder? Why not zoom inon that face? Close-ups and long shots usually look more

rough stuff #2

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f c r e

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