rough stuff #4

JOH

N TOTLEBEN

HOWARD CHAYKINAND

REW ROBINSON

GENE COLAN

STEVEN BISSETTE

JOH

N TOTLEBEN GENE COLAN

STEVEN BISSETTEAND

REW ROBINSON

N o . 4S p r i n g 2 0 0 7

$ 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 !

FeaturingFeaturingMICHAEL KALUTAMICHAEL KALUTA

HOWARD CHAYKIN

Batman, Starman, Adam Strange and Swamp Thing TM & ©2007 DC Comics.Batman, Starman, Adam Strange and Swamp Thing TM & ©2007 DC Comics.

18265827766

6

71

APRIL 2007 • ROUGH STUFF 1

Volume 1, Number 4April 2007

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

EDITORBob McLeod

PUBLISHERJohn Morrow

DESIGNERMichael Kronenberg

PROOFREADERSJohn Morrow and Christopher Irving

COVER ARTISTMichael Kaluta

CIRCULATION DIRECTORBob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical

Distribution, LLC

SPECIAL THANKSStephen BissetteHoward ChaykinJeff ClemensGene ColanMichael DunneMichael EuryDave GutierrezDavid HamiltonMichael KalutaGeorge KhouryAndy MangelsTom PalmerAndrew RobinsonJohn TotlebenRay WongEric Nolen-Weathington

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 Michael Kaluta.BatmanTM & ©2007 DC Comics. All characters are© their respective companies. All material © theircreators unless otherwise noted. All editorial mat-ter © 2007 Bob McLeod and TwoMorrowsPublishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM of TwoMorrowsPublishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

FEATURED ARTISTS3 Steven Bissette

13 Howard Chaykin

48 Gene Colan

67 Michael Kaluta

76 Andrew Robinson

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW24 John Totleben

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE60 Wonder Woman Day Art Auction Helps

Domestic Violence SheltersRay Wong

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS2 Scribblings From The Editor

Bob McLeod

44 Cover StoriesHoward Chaykin and Michael Kaluta reveal the process of creating a cover.

66 PreProArt by featured artist Michael Kaluta, done before he turned pro.

85 Rough TalkComments and opinions from our readers.

86 Rough CritiqueEditor Bob McLeod critiques an aspiring penciler’s sample page.

88 Free WRITE NOW! #15 PreviewA sample of our mag about writing for comics, animation, and sci-fi—FREE!

ISSN 1931-9231


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, unfet-

tered 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 lack-

ing 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

STEPHEN BISSETTEStephen Bissette was one of the first and

most illustrious graduates of the Joe

Kubert School, and he’s probably best

known for his work on DC’s SWAMP

THING in the 1980s, which won a boatload

of Kirby awards. I first enjoyed his work on some stuff he self-

published called TYRANT, about a T-Rex. I hear he’s now teach-

ing comic art at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont.

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

4 ROUGH STUFF • APRIL 2007

STEV

ENBIS

SETT

E

STEVEN BISSETTEThe Un-Men drones (September 1983) — These predate John’s and my tenure beginning with Alan Moore; these were, in fact, donefor our final issue or so with writer Marty Pasko, who launched The Saga of the Swamp Thing series with his friend, editor & ST co-creator Len Wein. From our first issue working with Marty (SOTST #16), John and I had stretched the boundaries of creature designas best we could within the parameters we were working with. With Marty and Len’s decision to resurrect the key villain Arcane andhis Un-Men, John and I pushed for a fusion of insect, humanoid and mammalian forms markedly unlike those Len and Bernie hadintroduced in the original Swamp Thing #10. With their blessings, we really went to town, exchanging a huge number of sketches anddesign concepts, fusing invertebrate and vertebrate structures, which is what you see at play here with these two. It’s too bad in oneway so little of this work was visible in the final product, but this gives you some idea how seriously — and playfully — John and Iengaged with every aspect of the Swamp Thing gig.

Building around a basic facial design which John cooked up — very Wrightsonesque, quite on purpose: that’s Bernie’s classic “Jennifer”,in essence, with the sorrowful pure black eyes and exaggerated upper lip — I was toying with a head/body configuration subverting thereal-world insect six-leg form into four legs and two arms, distinctively oriented as such. As you can see, these two sketches evoke a hive-like or ant-colony-like physiological and social structure within the new breeds of Un-Men — something that is completely lost, invisible inthe issue itself (SOTST #19). As with everything I do, form follows function: the warrior “Pie-Faced Un-Man” has a formidable set of jaws,tough exoskeleton, armored cereatopsian-like head, dorsal spikes (similar to some species of ants), and mole-cricket-like shortened, thick-ened forelimbs and clawed ‘hands,’ for digging and/or building and fighting. Everything is softened for the drone, the same basic anatomicaldetails, including human-like fingers and toes, and the linework reflects that softer, more pliable nature of its skin; note the harsher, tighterlinework on the warrior. Again, form follows function, line expresses purpose as well as texture, weight, volume, emotion.

An aside: I’ve only seen one live mole cricket in my life, in Virginia back in the mid-1970s, but I never forgot it: it’s a very mammal-likeinsect in appearance and movement, which is unsettling on a pretty primal level, though they’re harmless and actually very cool littlecreatures. All monsters are based on nature, however inventive, imaginative or divorced from day-to-day reality they may seem, andthese were no exception. We’re all just mixing-and-matching, having fun with the forms!

Cour

tesy

ofDa

vid

Ham

ilto

n


STEVEN BISSETTEA rare example of SOTST pencilsby yours truly (pg. 13 from SOTST#19) completed without full scriptor the complete text (balloons,captions, lettering) carefullyblocked into place. Unlike everyother issue of SOTST we drewfrom Marty’s writing, this issue —which turned out to be Marty’sfinal issue, as his TV and animat-ed series scripting jobs pulledhim away from the comic series— was completely penciled“Marvel style,” with Martyphoning me script pages, piece-meal, and my penciling them fromhis verbal descriptions. It’s not amethod I prefer: one can onlycompose pages as single units,instead of orchestrating thecomplete story and imagery withnarrative and emotional clarity ofpurpose and intent. Nonetheless,we did what was necessary. Onthe plus side, this penciled pageclearly shows my design, compo-sitional and story-telling sense ofthe period (over 23 years ago!) ,as well as the ongoing influenceand borrowing from Bernie’s orig-inal ST art at this early point in mywork with the character: all threeof those first three panels arecopped from Bernie’s work in theoriginal series. John’s inks werestill pretty reserved at the time,too — we didn’t really get intodrawing Swampy as we saw himuntil Alan’s tenure began with#20, and his reinvention of thecharacter in #21, “The AnatomyLesson,” gave us the licensewe’d long ached for to really cutloose! The outsized dragonfly-ship in the fourth panel is moretypically “Bissettian”, especiallyfor this period in my creative life.

Swamp Thing TM &©2007 DC ComicsCo

urte

syof

Davi

dHa

mil

ton


HOWA

RDCH

AYKIN

HOWARD CHAYKINHoward Chaykin is one of the smartest

comic artists I know, with enough talent

for three people. He writes and draws,

and does both with a lot of panache. He's

known for creating intelligent, sexy,

exciting comic books, and has created several popular

series, including his groundbreaking AMERICAN FLAGG.


HOWARD CHAYKIN

The Flagg heads

date back to 1982,

before I actually

began the finished

artwork on

American Flagg! I

was playing with a

look that combined

elements of James

Garner, William

Holden, and

Stephen Collins.©2007 HowardChaykin


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


HOWA

RDCH

AYKIN

HOWARD CHAYKIN

As you can see, the

idea was all there in

the concept, devel-

oped 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.©2007 HowardChaykin


INTERVIEW

JOHN TOTLEBENConducted by George Khoury

John 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 aDC 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 been24 issues or something like that, and I bought them all… even the ones thatsucked. I thought that while Redondo was a great artist, better than Wrightson asfar as drawing figures and women and such, but somehow he still was not quitea match for Bernie’s obviously definitive version of Swampy. While Redondo hadsome fairly obvious technical advantages, he lacked the sheer vision and feel forthe 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’treal crazy about, say, anything he did before 1971. I liked what Wrightsondid on Swamp Thing, quite a bit. I was, at the time 13 years old, more of aNeal Adams fan basically, and I had more of a taste for that “realistic” typeart. By the time Swamp Thing came along I had expanded my tastes beyondjust Adams work and was able to dig a lot of other artists, including Bernie’swork. What Wrightson was doing seemed more caricaturish to me, like JackDavis’s art, but I quickly became a huge fan of Bernie’s work on SwampThing. It was pretty amazing stuff, there’s no question about it. He had reallyset some new standards, at that time.

Swamp Thing TM & ©2007 DC Comics


KHOURY: When you began helping [artist] Tom Yeateson [the art chores on] Saga of the Swamp Thing, was itbecause it was a character you always wanted to depict?Or was it that Tom just needed your help?TOTLEBEN: Well, both. I had always wanted to do thecharacter in some way or another, as it just seemed to me, ifI were going to do comics – if I had to pick any character —it would have been Swamp Thing. It just so happened thatTom had gotten the art assignment on the second seriesand was working on it, so when he needed an art assist,which was inevitable really, it was a natural thing for me orSteve or Rick to pitch in. We would always jump in and helpeach other out in any way, on whatever jobs we wererespectively working on when the deadline loomed.

KHOURY: You were already helping Tom out as early as#2? What kind of things were you doing?TOTLEBEN: Jeez, I don’t remember what issue it was. Imay have penciled a couple of pages or some panels. Idon’t think I did any inking on those early ones; just somepenciling.

KHOURY: Was Tom falling behind or was it becauseyou were the “monster” guy?TOTLEBEN: I think he was just starting to fall a littlebehind, although I was an obvious choice to drag in whenthe situation arose.

KHOURY: Was he behind right from the beginning?TOTLEBEN: Well, it is kinda hard for one person to do amonthly book. At some point, you always end up slippingbehind a little, because it’s a lot of work for one person.It’s a lot of work for two people, y’know!

KHOURY: What did you think of the stories that Paskoand Yeates did together?TOTLEBEN: I remember thinking the writing was getting a lit-tle stuffy as issues went on. There was some good stuff inthere… but I remember some sort of anti-Christ storyline goingon, with some girl or something, and it seemed to me that itwas getting a little convoluted… boring, actually. The drag forTom was that, after the first issue, Swamp Thing was taken outof the swamps and put in a more urban environment. Tomexcels at drawing the natural world — jungles, swamps, wood-lands, etc. — so for him to have to draw these boring urbanbackgrounds was a waste of his abilities.

KHOURY: Stephen Bissette was also there lending ahand to those issues, right?TOTLEBEN: Steve did the layouts to #8, and I think hemight have done the cover layout, too. I remember himhaving done a considerable amount of work on the book.

KHOURY: Was Tom becoming disenchanted with theassignment?

JOHN TOTLEBENFrankenstein

I don’t remember

what this was for,

but it appears to be a

fairly typical quick,

rough, brush-inked

drawing that was

possibly done in a

sketchbook.

Courtesy of DavidHamilton


TOTLEBEN: I think Tom was just probably getting tired ofit, the monthly deadline grind, because he had beenworking on it for over a year at that point and I imaginehe felt like he wanted to go on to other things.

KHOURY: Before getting the assignment from Tom, whatwere you doing in terms of work?TOTLEBEN: Before we got on that book, I was jumpingaround doing freelance stuff, only real sporadically.

KHOURY: Was the period between leaving the KubertSchool and getting the Swamp Thing assignment a toughperiod for you?TOTLEBEN: After I got out of Kubert School, I was work-ing with [Golden-Age comic book publisher] Harry “A”Chesler for a couple of years on The Rubaiyat of OmarKhayyam illustrations, so that kept me busy for awhile,and after I finished that, I had moved back to Erie fromNew Jersey. I picked up a few art jobs here and there,but mostly I was doing regular jobs. I had worked as ajanitor, at one point, for some outfit. I ended up workingat a plastic factory for a couple of months – you know,the kind of crap we all have to do before we end upescaping and doing what we want. [laughs]

KHOURY: Were you having doubts that you weren’tgoing to make it as a professional artist?TOTLEBEN: No, I never really thought that I’d fail. I justwas convinced that sometimes you just have to wait untilthe right moment, I guess, and that moment came, ofcourse, when Swamp Thing came up for grabs.

KHOURY: How did that happen? Did Tom let you knowthat he was leaving?TOTLEBEN: Tom did mention to both Bissette and I thathe was going to be quitting the book, and that we shouldsend some samples to [then-editor] Len Wein.

KHOURY: Was it Tom’s idea that Bissette and you worktogether?TOTLEBEN: I don’t remember if it was his idea, or what,but it might have been. I don’t really remember too clear-ly, other than I do recall that Tom had recommended us.

KHOURY: This was around the time of [Bissette &Totleben’s collaboration] the Dracula story [BizarreAdventures #33]?TOTLEBEN: Yes, that was the thing where Bissette hadfallen behind on a job and he had to get it done prettyquick. So I went up to Vermont, stayed there for a weekor two, and we just sat down and completed this job. Idid a lot of work on it, though I don’t know how much hehad done on that by the time I got there, but it was apretty big book. Steve may have finished 10 pages into it,or something, but there was still a lot left to be done, sowe just sat down and did it.

KHOURY: Were you two the only artists to try out for thatbook? Did you know if Len was thinking of anybody else?TOTLEBEN: Nah, we weren’t the only ones considered. I

JOHN TOTLEBEN Strange Adventures

In 1998 sometime, I got a call from Axel Alonso asking if I might be interested in doing something for

the Strange Adventures mini-series he was editing. I told him I’d think about it. A few days later, I

met Mark Schultz at a convention in Cleveland, and asked him if he might like to write up something

we could work on together for the book. He came up with “Metal Fatigue”, and I finally got a

chance to draw a cool robot story! Strange Adventures TM & ©2007 DC Comics


COVER STORIES

W hat happensbetween theinitial layoutof a cover,

and the finished, printedpiece? Usually a lot ofchanges—some broughtabout by the pencil artist,some by the inker (assum-ing they're not the sameperson as the penciler), andsome at the request of aneditor or publisher.

HOWARD CHAYKINJonah 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 paper-

back by an illustrator named Roy

Andersen—who did a beautiful

series of covers for Warner books

back in the seventies or eight-

ies—imagery that was apparently

too damned sophisticated for the

western buying public.

Somewhere between the con-

cept 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.


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


GENE COLANGene Colan has always been one of the

best artists in comics. His Tomb of Dracula

series was my favorite comic series ever,

and he was paired (as he often was) with

my favorite inker, Tom Palmer. Although I’ve always enjoyed ink-

ing his work, many other inkers were flustered by all the grey

tones he uses. But he shows us here that his art is superb even

uninked! He’s still doing amazing commissions after recently

celebrating his 80th birthday!


GENE

COLA

N

Courtesy of David Gutierrez

BOB MCLEOD

These two fairly

recent commis-

sions are proof that

Gene Colan is

doing some of the

best work of his

very distinguished

career at the age of

80! Staggering

depth and form,

dramatic lighting

and camera angles,

subtle rendering

and dynamic poses.

There's simply no

one like him.Shadow TM &

©2007 Conde Nast


Courtesy of David GutierrezDaredevil TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

GENE COLAN

This Daredevil drawing came to me as I went along. Once I

established the positioning of the two figures, I had enough

of the background in my files to complete it.


GENE

COLA

NBOB MCLEOD

Gene was one of

the first to break

away from the stan-

dard grid and use

angled panels,

which allow more

dramatic shots and

add visual excite-

ment. Imagine this

page with horizontal

panel borders and

see how much qui-

eter it would be.

And he always finds

the most dramatic

camera angle. His

panels have so

much depth from his

constant use of

foreshortening. This

page and the next

were never inked or

published, as far as

I know. When the

decision was made

to end the series,

the script was

rewritten and new

pages were drawn.

©2007 Marvel

Characters, Inc.

Courtesy of Tom Palmer


DAY Art Auction HelpsBy Ray Wong

Art by TerryDodson

Wonder Woman TM &©2007 DC ComicsCourtesy of Andy Mangels

How do you take a hobby like collecting comic books, memorabil-

ia, 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

Portland. Dodson, Timmons, and Clark appeared at the event to do signings.

Excalibur Comics displayed the auction art, and proxybidding by e-mail for a short period before the eventallowed non-attendees to participate in the fun. All artdepicted Wonder Woman — a fitting symbol to combatviolence against women and children. Highlights for theauction included an Alex Ross painting that sold for$4000. Adam Hughes’ marker piece with backgroundfetched $777. A flowing Terry Dodson pencil drawingbrought $500. Ryan Sook’s exquisite pencil rendering ofa sword-wielding Wonder Woman went for $400.

According to a press release, Jessica Elkin, Directorof Development for Raphael House, cited that the event“made a critical difference in the lives of thousands ofwomen and children in this community fleeing domesticviolence.”

Kristan Knapp, Development Director of Bradley-Angle House, proclaimed “Andy Mangels’ creative‘Wonder Woman Day’ celebration offered WonderWoman fans and comic book readers in general anopportunity to do something locally to stop abusebetween intimate partners.”

The idea for the event started out as a suggestion toAndy Mangels to include Wonder Woman in a charitycause. Though he had organized many charity events, fewrelated to comic books. An avid Wonder Woman collector,Mangels decided the heroine would be most appropriate to

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

their interest. Raphael House was thrilled aboutthe marriage of a comic book characterto the issue of domestic violenceawareness and thought the themewould make for a great event.Mangels had worked previouslywith Bradley-Angle House, andthey signed on shortly after.

According to Mangels, “Iput my heart and soul intocontacting artists aboutdonating for the event. Istarted with ones Iknew, thencast a widernet.” Theresponsewas mind-boggling.He endedup withover 100pieces oforiginal

Domestic Violence Shelters

Art by Alex Chung

Wonder Woman TM &©2007 DC ComicsCourtesy of Andy Mangels


Continued on page 65


Art by GeofIsherwood

WonderWoman TM &©2007 DCComicsCourtesy ofAndy Mangels


PRE-PRO

W hat did your art look like when you were 16? Did you ever wonder what a pro's artlooked like back when he was in high school? Here's what Michael Kaluta was doingat 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.


MICHAEL KALUTAMichael Kaluta is so individual. His

influences are apparent, but his style is

totally unique and always has been.

From his early comics work on Edgar

Rice Burrough’s VENUS, to THE SHADOW, to STARSTRUCK,

to his many book illustrations and commissions, he’s contin-

ued to dazzle us with his fantastic detail and imagination.

He’s also one of my favorite people in comics.


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.


MICHAEL KALUTA

Batman #242, sketch

In 1969 or ’70 I opted

out of a DC Comics-

promoted bus trip to

the Sparta Plant (pos-

sibly in Connecticut)

where comic books

got their color separa-

tions hand made in a

room full of special-

ized Rubylith cutters

(a technique made

obsolete by today’s

computer coloring of

comic books). Instead

I hung out at the

nearly abandoned DC

Comics offices, doing

little scribbles in a

small office off the

main hallway.

Carmine Infantino,

then Big Boss of DC

Comics, leaned into

the room and asked if

I’d ever considered

doing covers for DC.

Whatever my answer

was, he asked that I

dope out some

Batman cover ideas.

This sketch is my first

ever cover idea, done

then and there... I

believe it was

Carmine’s idea for me

to pull in closer and

make it more of a

punchy image, the

Kaluta composition

that eventually ended

up on the comic book

[shown above].Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics


MICH

AELK

ALUT

AMICHAEL KALUTA Batman Sketch

On Placemat.

The City Diner on Broadway, NYC,

has a stack of these placemats,

used for the breakfast set-up.

However, the waiters generally

bring me a small sheaf to draw on

when I come in late night while

waiting for my burger and fries. The

“unimportance” of the paper keeps

my ideas from getting “precious”

and allows them to drive my hand.

Not all the scribbles are kept, but

now and then the germ of a finished

piece is developed during this

process. Other ideas, like these on

this page, are held off to the side

for some future use.Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics

MICHAEL KALUTA

Another group of drawings done on a placemat

or some similar “scrap” paper: letting the mind

drive the hand: there’s a fairy at the top left, then,

to the right, what appears to be a sphinx or lion,

but is actually Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN holding

a string of keys. Just below that is The Batman in

a pretty nice pose: it might even be the pose I

used on my Batman pin-up where I have

Catwoman sculpting him. Left of that is what I

was tempted to call a Shadow Sketch, until I saw

the high heels... it was an Idea for a Game

Magazine illustration of a woman detecting her

way into a basement with flashlight and legs...


Andrew Robinson was a new name to me,

but I really love his work! He’s a fantas-

tic painter, as well as a fine penciler and

inker. I was very impressed by his pencil

work shown here, and I know you will be,

too! And I hear he’s a Mort Drucker fan,

which gives him a gold star in my book!


ANDREW ROBINSON

ANDREW ROBINSONHere is my layout for a He-Man front and back cover. I completed the final which included pencils, inks and colors. Sadly it never saw print due to my principles.The art director loved everything except for the coloring. He insisted on some over the top crazy coloring, which just didn’t jive with my style. I tried convincinghim that I was right. Sometimes sticking to your guns means you might have to miss out on a paycheck. And I did but it was worth it- every penny.

He-Man TM & ©2007 Hasbro


ANDREW ROBINSON

Here’s a breakdown

for a sample page

for some Vertigo

book. I really like the

cartooning. And

tracing off my rough

helps me to keep

that initial energy

from my sketch. It

also helps steer me

away from adding

too many superflu-

ous details.

Unfortunately it was

too cartoony for

Vertigo and I didn’t

get the job. Oh well, I

probably would have

been late anyway.


ANDR

EWRO

BINSO

NANDREW ROBINSON

Trying to fit the

Sinister Six into this

square must have

taken me three

days or more, draw-

ing and erasing

until the paper

turned a shade of

gray. And it was

just for one card

from the game VS

by Upper Deck. Doc

Ock straining in the

background makes

the piece for me.

And then there is

Kingpin, a very

simple design

which makes it one

of my favorite VS

cards.Mysterio,Sandman, Vulture,Electro, Kraven,Kingpin, and Dr.Octopus TM &©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc.


ROUGH CRITIQUEBy Bob McLeod

I f you’re serious about improving your penciling, send us a samplepage and I’ll publish and critique one page per issue sent in byour readers. Many beginners struggle with the same problems,and I think it’s helpful to see a critique of another artist’s work.

This action-packed sample page was submitted by Jeff Clemens. He saysthe lead roles are played by the Kubert brothers, so I’m assuming Jeff isa student at the Joe Kubert School. Let’s see if we canbump him up to the head of the class!

First, let’s begin with what I think Jeff’s doing right. Jeffobviously draws very well and with some study will soon beworking as a comics pro. His composition is very good. He’susing the panel space well, focusing on what needs to beshown and nothing else. He’s using a lot of diagonals andvariety in the size of the main shapes, and he’s moving theviewpoint around well. He’s also doing what Joe Kubertdoes so well, which is a good mix of really close close-upsand really long long shots. There’s a lot of drama, emotion,and action. The forms have weight and the panels havedepth. His storytelling is very clear without needing words.

As with most beginners, though, he still needs to studyfigure drawing a lot more. His anatomy is weak and awkward,and his foreshortening is off. He hasn’t put much thought intodeveloping a rendering style yet, either, but that will comeeasily enough with a bit more study. The other thing that reallyjumps out at me is his lack of correct perspective in the back-grounds, which by the way, are pretty sparse. You can get bywith that on an average action page, but a good samplepage really needs more (and better) backgrounds.

Panel 1: Jeff, I’m guessing you don’t wear glasses. Alleyeglasses have nose pads, and your bridge has depth andis shown from below, yet your lens frames are flat and shownstraight on. A little research and reference on stuff like thisgoes a long way. The eyebrows look like they’re on fire. Studyyour own in the mirror. But this is a great close-up otherwise.

Panel 2: I generally dislike profile shots, which tend tolook flat. Since the Adam figure on the right is closer to us, itwould have been much better if we were looking over hisshoulder. It’s unclear whether he’s just holding the sword orif he’s hitting Andy in the hand or clavicle with it. I’m guess-ing that you’re attempting to show him just threatening Andywith the sword, but you’re forcing me to guess by using thisawkward angle. And is he losing his grip on the sword, orwhat? You’re also having some difficulties with anatomyhere. Andy’s left thumb is dislocated (ouch!), and Adam’s leftring finger is broken (double ouch!). Adam’s right arm is

coming directly out of his pectoral (chest muscle) rather than his shoulder(that’s gotta hurt!). If you feel your own jawbone, you’ll notice it’s in front ofyour ear, not behind it like you drew Adam’s.

Panel 3: This reminds me of my advice in the critique I did for issue #1,where I said think of Charlie Brown flipping upside down from a baseball hitright at him when you show someone getting hit by a punch. So you have theright idea in exaggerating the action with Adam, but the other part of myadvice was about the guy throwing the punch. You need to show him putting

Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH (former MarvelComics editor and Spider-Man writer), WRITE NOW!,the magazine for writers of comics, animation, andsci-fi, puts you in the minds of today’s top writers andeditors. Each issue features WRITING TIPS from pros onboth sides of the desk, INTERVIEWS, SAMPLE SCRIPTS,REVIEWS, exclusive NUTS & BOLTS TUTORIALS, andmore! Issue #15 features an in-depth interview withJ.M. DeMATTEIS, discussing his work on Disney’sAbadazad with MIKE PLOOG (who provides a sidebarinterview, and our all-new cover)! We also have aNUTS & BOLTS section on DC’s 52 series, featuringscript by the MARK WAID/GREG RUCKA/GEOFFJOHNS/GRANT MORRISON team, breakdowns byKEITH GIFFEN, and pencil art by JOE BENNETT andCHRIS BATISTA! Then: JIM OTTAVIANI—writer ofTWO-FISTED SCIENCE—tells you about the worldof nonfiction comics writing and publishing!GRIMJACK’s JOHN OSTRANDER discusses thedifference between writing a character you ownand a “franchise” property! STAR TREK novelistBiLL McCAY tells how to deal with editors andrewrites, and more!

(80-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues in the US:$24 Standard, $36 First Class

(Canada: $44, Elsewhere: $48 Surface, $64 Airmail).

WRITE NOW #4HOWARD CHAYKIN, PAUL DINI,KURT BUSIEK, DENNY O’NEIL

WRITE NOW #14BRIAN BENDIS, STAN LEE,

PETER DAVID, JIM STARLIN

WRITE NOW #16SILVER SURFER WRITERS, TODDMcFARLANE, STAR TREK WRITERS

WRITE NOW #13X-MEN SCREENWRITER, AGENTS,WRITING MANGA, BREAKING IN

We hope you enjoy this FREEWRITE NOW #15 PREVIEW!

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

52 NUTS & BOLTS | 89

Feast your eyes on J.G. Jones’ sketch for thecover to the issue, then his finished inks,and, finally, the fully rendered cover as itappeared in your pull-file!

Here it is! A special Nuts & Boltssection featuring script, layouts,and pencil art from issue #24 ofDC’s red-hot 52 series!

[©20

07D

CC

omic

s.]

90 | WRITE NOW #15 PREVIEW

52 #24 FINAL

PAGE ONE

PANEL ONE: EXTERIOR ESTABLISHING, THE OLIVER QUEEN

MAYORAL CAMPAIGN OFFICE.

1 DATESTAMPS: Week 24, Day 1.

Star City

2 SIGNAGE: QUEEN FOR MAYOR

Campaign Headquarters

3 FROM IN/burst: MAGGIN!

PANEL TWO: INTERIOR. OLLIE QUEEN (VERY CASUALLY

DRESSED) IS IN HIS MODEST OFFICE, GIVING A PRESS

CONFERENCE TO REPORTERS WITH AT LEAST TWO CAMERAS. AT

FAR LEFT, A YOUNG ELLIOT MAGGIN POPS HIS HEAD IN THE

DOOR. (SEE ELLIOT PHOTO REFERENCE, ATTACHED.)

4 ELLIOT: You rang, Ollie?

5 REPORTER: Mr. Queen, with the election less than

three weeks away, voters still see you as

a political UNKNOWN. Can you nutshell

your platform once more for--

6 OLLIE: Elliot, come talk to these nice REPORTERS!

PANEL THREE: OLLIE PATS CONFUSED ELLIOT ON THE BACK,

SHOVES HIM IN FRONT OF THE CAMERAS.

7 OLLIE: Ladies and gentlemen, this is my CAMPAIGN

MANAGER, and he’ll be DELIGHTED to take

any further QUESTIONS!

8 ELLIOT/whisper: Ollie, what are you DOING? They

wanna talk to YOU!

9 OLLIE/whisper: Gotta take an important CALL. You

can do this. You know what I’d say.

Use the word “FATCATS” a lot.

((more))

PANEL FOUR: ELLIOT, NERVOUS, WAVES TO THE REPORTERS AS

OLLIE SCURRIES OFF.

10 ELLIOT/whisper: I SCREEN your calls! I didn’t hear

one come IN...!

11 OLLIE/whisper: This one, you WOULDN’T.

PANEL FIVE: TIGHT ON OLLIE’S HAND DISCREETLY PULLING A

SHIELD-SHAPED, OLD-SCHOOL JUSTICE LEAGUE COMMUNICATOR

FROM HIS POCKET. IT’S ABOUT THE SIZE OF A CREDIT CARD.

12 OLLIE/whisper/off: PRIVATE LINE.

13 SHIELD: JLA COMMUNICATOR

PANEL SIX (THIN) DC COMICS 52

Keith Giffen then breaksthe scripts down into roughlayouts (in which we seecopy placement, where eachnumber corresponds to apiece of copy in the script),which are then developed intopencil art, in this case by PhilJimenez (which was theninked by Andy Lanning).

[©20

07D

CC

omic

s.]

The creative process for 52 isvery much a collaborative one.In a nutshell, the team ofwriters (Greg Rucka, Mark Waid,Grant Morrison, and GeoffJohns) works out the storieswith the editor—for this issue,it was Steve Wacker.

52 NUTS & BOLTS | 91

PAGE TWO

PANEL ONE-A WRITER CREDITS

PANEL ONE: EXTERIOR, REAR ALLEYWAY. GLANCING AROUND TOMAKE SURE NO ONE’S LISTENING IN, OLLIE SPEAKS INTO THECOMMUNICATOR LIKE A CELLPHONE, IS EXITING THROUGH A REARDOOR.

1 OLLIE: GREEN ARROW here.

2 OLLIE: Who’s this? Supes, is that you? Bats?WHOEVER it is, am I glad to hear from Y--

PANEL TWO-A ART CREDITS

PANEL TWO: CUT TO FIRESTORM, ELSEWHERE, LIKEWISE USING ABADGE AS A CELLPHONE.

3 FIRESTORM: It’s FIRESTORM, Mr...Arrow, sir.I...umm...

4 FIRESTORM: How...ARE you...?

5 ELECTRIC: PEEVED. That ain’t Firestorm’s VOICE,kiddo. Who is this and how’d you get thisFREQUENCY?

PANEL THREE-A COVER AND EDITOR CREDITS

PANEL THREE: BACK TO OLLIE.

6 ELECTRIC: I’m Firestorm’s...SUCCESSOR, sir. I gotthe communicator through HIM.

7 ELECTRIC: You don’t really KNOW me, but I’m a bigFAN and...well...I wanted to INVITE youto...to...

8 OLLIE: To WHAT? A TAYLOR HICKS concert? WHAT?

9 ELECTRIC: N-NO, sir. To...to...

[© 2007 DC Comics.]

Current 52 editor MikeSiglain explains thingsfrom here on:

“I talk to the writersnumerous times within theweek, and they certainly talkto each other, but we makesure that we all get on thephone at least once a weekto revise and tweak thescripts, and to make surethat the story is still headingin the right direction.

rough stuff #4

Documents