Sisters With Transistors

I haven't really done a lot of drawing since college, so you know how long that's been... I don't know if I would be comfortable involving a pad, I'm pretty traditional and lament the death of the time tested ways of doing things

I haven't really done a lot of drawing since college, so you know how long that's been... I don't know if I would be comfortable involving a pad, I'm pretty traditional and lament the death of the time tested ways of doing things

I hear you, and I certainly didn't think a pad was something you were open to right now... but also, I remember working at a great game studio like 15 years ago, and one of the lead concept artist was absolutely incredible on Wacom... that badass totally changed my outlook. Also, the last documentary I saw on making a comic @ Marvel, the lead artist did their work from a camper van, while sitting on the beach in SoCal, using an iPad Pro... how many decades and how many undeniably talented practitioners does it take for something to becomes time-tested?

the guys who do this stuff on pads are undeniably talented, probably more talented than me or anyone I know.... the results are incredibly slick and professional and that style of comics is now over 2 decades old.... if you include the image computer color separations in that? longer. For me though, a lot of that stuff just doesn't look like the comics I grew up reading so there's an element of nostalgia to doing it the way Byrne, Miller et al did it. I like the end result to look like the old stuff and not so much like the early 00s marvel stuff and I feel like the technology seems to push people that way although there's been a return to more ink driven stuff that leans less on the colorist which is nice... its like, I love Manga, but I almost never do all those scratchy lines like they do (and I have school and school G tips, I just don't like them for my drawing style)... the old fashioned way just fits into my style and my end of the old fashioned way is very, very americana...

plus the professional Wacom is expensive as heck, you can buy a lot of cool studio outboard for that money. I briefly experimented with my iPad a bit for graphic art at the beginning of the pandemic ago and its just too general purpose for an oldster like me to use effectively. I struggle with touch screens. I need the scanning and stylus of the Wacom to even stand a chance of keeping up with some 25 year old kid who grew up using mom's iPad for art... for me the iPad was an epic fail and I ruled it out... plus it required me to get a bigger scanner to do comic pages, those flatbeds are pricey. Right now scanning is not my problem. I just crank out pages and turn them in to the other guys. Everyone oohs and ahs and then they deal with everything else.

but in answer to your query about how long? with sequential art being incredibly ancient and the comic strip/book being a solid century old now? well' we're just getting there to judge the longevity of this most;y digital method of creating a comic from conception to printer

I like the end result to look like the old stuff and not so much like the early 00s marvel stuff and I feel like the technology seems to push people that way although there's been a return to more ink driven stuff that leans less on the colorist which is nice...

Yeah, I'm no fan of the early digital color stuff. Gratuitous gradients and blooming highlights... barf. I hear you re: the aesthetic you're after. As a person of a certain age, I share those preferences: flat with a side of flat, easy on the color saturation... but a good artist is a good artist, the work will be good regardless of the tools... I mentioned only because newer tools might have eventually provided a real speed advantage, but it sounds like you've already explored those avenues for now.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Right now scanning is not my problem. I just crank out pages and turn them in to the other guys. Everyone oohs and ahs and then they deal with everything else.

I'm glad you're working with ppl that appreciate your talents. :)

I'm glad you're working with ppl that appreciate your talents. :)

I'm not exactly Jack Kirby, but I'm not dealing with a bunch of Kirbies

I'm glad you're working with ppl that appreciate your talents. :)

I'm not exactly Jack Kirby, but I'm not dealing with a bunch of Kirbies

There was an art exhibition that came to town in the '00s that featured a lifetime of original pencil & inks from Kirby, Will Eisner, Chris Ware, and the titans in between. Seeing that work at it's original (larger) scale, and getting to see the actual hand-marks and detail. OMG, I was a Kirby fan before, but this was a whole new level of appreciation. His work is that much more perfect and detailed before the degradations of mass market color printing. Ditto for Chris Ware, in his own way... just devastatingly intricate and masterful in-the-flesh. Really kicked every other Art In America-type exhibition I saw that decade squarely in the teeth... and I'm so NOT the person to champion handcraft over ideas, especially back then... there was just something so objectively undeniable about the mastery that was on display.

...but yeah, I don't imagine working with Jack Kirby was wine and roses all day. :)

my wife and I went to see that exhibit or something similar that was travelling... it was mind blowing, and its not like I haven't seen a lot of original pages at 100%, but those guys had such amazing body language and backgrounds.

went hard steranko:

I saw this and started googling "Marvel Shield 60s psychedelic" to remember the name of the artist this reminded me of... then I noticed you beat me to it. This is a fun one.

It's approaching Dave McKean's work in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth in some aspects.

McKean's always an influence on me, I can't relly draw in that McKean/Jae Lee style too well, but I do what I can with the bug to get near it, I think I get about as far as Sam Keith but I'm just so rooted in the Kirby/Eisner style that I can't go all the way...

Mike and I are are probably about the biggest fans of the whole history of comics you'll meet so we hang out into the wee hours mining our collections for stuff to homage (no Jim Lee pun intended), even if its subtley

I saw this and started googling "Marvel Shield 60s psychedelic" to remember the name of the artist this reminded me of... then I noticed you beat me to it.

hahaha, I think Steranko is one of those toweringly influential guys who was the irst guy to bring pop art and op art into comicbooks and expand the Kirby style without going completely un-marvel... he laid a blueprint that the best guys at Marvel in the 80s started following and a lot of them took it to DC where in like the first Crisis that style is there.... but his comics career was really short, he laid down the road map and then went off to do other things so I wouldn't be surprised if some younger artists don't even know where they're copying from.... Steranko was a seriously weird dude. He was a musician and a stage magician (no really, he was like an escape artist) before becoming a pro artist. I feel like he may have left Fury to go pursue work as a secret agent or something...

anyway, I just started peliminary sketches for a large Steranko influenced 60s/70s movie poster in full color, I'm kinda working out sections today... its got a shelby cobra and Sid in the game of death and kill bill outfit. And an explosion and scnatily clad bond girl.... I think the top of the explosion will be a mushroom cloud with richie's face in the sky and a psychadelic circle logo with weird pattern art all around like the ebatles revolver maybe.... but slicker.... and of course there's nunchucks and a walther witha silencer, right? I don't usually share my prelims but the 2nd one is really entertaining, click through

pencils going on the faux movie poster

I really like what you did with SID on this one. The look & especially the pose are great. Best version of this character I've seen yet.

The elongated facial features on this one remind me of Peter Chung's work, and the marking/hatching of Mark Teixeira (yes all my reference points are from the '90s... I didn't even know Jae Lee was still in comics until recently, he was still just the guy awesome enough to make me buy Namor in the early '90s)

I always really liked how Mark drew Iceman in Uncanny... he was really angular versus how some of the other future Image guys did him.

https://imgur.com/a/ODD4hv4

I didn't see the Bruce Lee outfit coming. Hit me outta nowhere.

This is great, Jim. Do you get to publish this one in color?

I'm not sure what we're doing with this one.... I just ran with it after we were talking about a retro movie poster.... got back from vacation yesterday and finished off the bottom.... but how was I not doing the game of death jumpsuit when he had nunchucks?

shot a bit off kilter so its not crooked in real live but here is the latest SID promo....

https://imgur.com/a/L1Rz74B