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Spider-Man TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

FeaturingFeaturing

TIM TOWNSENDTIM TOWNSEND

Interviews & Art Galleries

Dan JurgensDan JurgensSandy PlunkettSandy Plunkett

Chris SamneeChris Samnee

ALSO IN THIS ISSUEALSO IN THIS ISSUETHE ART OF GRAPHIC NOVELSTHE ART OF GRAPHIC NOVELS

MARTIN BALCERMARTIN BALCERROUGH CRITIQUEROUGH CRITIQUE

by MIKE GAGNONby MIKE GAGNON

MARIE SEVERINMARIE SEVERIN1 82658 27766 6

74

WINTER 2008 • ROUGH STUFF 1

Volume 1, Number 7Winter 2008

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

EDITORBob McLeod

PUBLISHERJohn Morrow

DESIGNERMichael Kronenberg

PROOFREADERSJohn Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

COVER ARTISTTim Townsend

CIRCULATION DIRECTORBob Brodsky, CookieSoup Periodical

Distribution, LLC

SPECIAL THANKSMartin Balcer Dawn Brown Dewey Cassell Mike Gagnon Scott Hampton Tomer Hanuka Dan Jurgens Sandy Plunkett Chris Samnee Marie Severin Ben Templesmith Lance Tooks Tim Townsend

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: $26 Standard US, $36 FirstClass US, $44 Canada, $60 Surface International,$72 Airmail International. Please send subscriptionorders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the edi-torial office. Central cover art by Tim Townsend. Allcharacters are © their respective companies. Allmaterial © their creators unless otherwise noted.All editorial matter © 2008 Bob McLeod andTwoMorrows Publishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM ofTwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRSTPRINTING.

FEATURED ARTISTS3 Dan Jurgens

24 Sandy Plunkett

38 Chris Samnee

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE18 Graphic Novelties

Mike Gagnon

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEWS54 Marie Severin

64 Tim Townsend

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS2 Scribblings From The Editor

Bob McLeod

34 Cover StoriesTim Townsend and Sandy Plunkett reveal the process of creating a cover.

62 PreProArt by Tim Townsend, done before he turned pro.

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

86 Rough TalkComments and opinions from our readers.

ISSN 1931-9231


DAN JURGENSDan Jurgens has been a comic book stal-

wart for decades and has drawn a

stack of covers in addition to his regular

monthly runs writing and drawing titles

like SUPERMAN, JLA and many other series. He also

created Booster Gold for DC. He’s one of the few comic artists

who can easily pencil a monthly comic and still have plenty of

spare time on his hands. When he does a cover, he doesn’t

just do one sketch, he does three. He sent me several very

interesting examples of his work.

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

DAN JURGENS

For this Action Comics cover, the basic concept was a fight

between Superman and Black Adam. Since Black Adam

wears such a stark, black costume, I wanted to go for some-

thing that would allow for some lighting effects. Both

approaches, the first with pouring lava and the second with

lightning, provided that. We went with the lightning because

more of the focus would be on the main characters.Superman, Black Adam TM & ©2008 DC Comics

DAN JURGENSFor this Action Comics cover, editor EddieBerganza wanted something with a mag-ical feel to it, first describing aWoodsman as a foe for Superman.Neither of the first two approaches (A& B) wowed him, though I liked thereflection in the ax. We spoke againand decided to go with a dragon soI generated sketches C & D. Wewent with C, though Eddie askedto have Superman holding openthe jaws of the dragon, whichdefinitely works a little better.

4 ROUGH STUFF • WINTER 2008

Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics


DAN JURGENS

The concept behind this Action Comics #834 cover was simple: Superman with multiple versions of a mag-

ical “bad self” somehow reflected. We all liked approach “B” better and went for it. One note: When I

submit sketches I don’t consistently rate my favorite approach as “Cover A.” I like to vary that designation

without telling the editors so there are no preconceived ideas in play when things are being looked at.

Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics


One of the fastest growing trends in the comicsand pop culture industry is the graphic novel.

Previously only enjoyed by children’s libraries, cus-tomers of comic and hobby shops and a very limited num-ber of book store patrons, graphic novels have explodedin the last half decade.

In book stores where it was once strange to see morethan a couple of well-known classic graphic novels, nowit is strange not to find an entire section devoted to illus-trated or graphic novels. Libraries can’t grow their graph-ic novel collections fast enough and universities areadopting many of these illustrated narratives as officialtext books. Comic shops have many more options when itcomes to their graphic novel purchases now.

Graphic Novelties Graphic Novelties Mike Gagnon

The enthusiasm from the education system has fed thegrowth of the graphic novel industry, as has the interestof Hollywood film studios. Movie producers haveembraced the graphic novel adaptation as it provides notonly a recognizable property with a built in fan base, butalso an instant script and storyboard ready to be filmed oradapted as the producer sees fit.

Leading this trend of growth are not only large pub-lishers specializing in mainstream super-hero fare, butalso smaller publishers specializing in new and uniquestories and methods of illustrated storytelling, which con-tinues to lend artistic credibility and interest in graphicnovels as an entertainment medium.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with several wellknown graphic novelists and discuss their work, theirapproach to creating and their take on the current popu-larity of graphic novels.

Tomer HanukaRS: Why do you think graphic novels have become sopopular over the last five years?TOMER: I think it comes in cycles. The culture wouldopen up to comics and then shut it out again. Maybe ithas to do with Hollywood putting it under the spotlight, interms of identified brands, but also as source material.

RS: Do you personally prefer graphic novel or comicbook format?TOMER: Graphic novels, as I think they go deeper usually.24 pages is such a quick read, you’re mostly left with justa taste.

RS: How do you approach a page from scripts to finishedart and what art supplies do you use?TOMER: I usually write the script as I draw the thumbnails,so I really write it with drawings more than words, thenafter I edit the thumbs and feel it works as a narrative, I’llredraw it on a big Bristol paper and ink and letter. I use

Tomer Hanuka

“Richard” and

“investigation”

(opposite page) are

drawings exploring

ideas/scenes/

characters from

the book Life of Pi

which I am a big

fan of and I was

inspired by the

visuals it describes.


Speedball ink and a 000 brush, W&N series 7.

RS: Is Bipolar the only comic project you havehad published?TOMER: I’ve published regularly in Meathaus,an anthology of artists who came out of SVAand we graduated together. Eight books havecome out so far from the series. I’ve publisheda short story in New Thing: Identity, an indieanthology with a literary bent. Also, I have cre-ated covers for DC Comics/Vertigo Midnight,Mass and then the second volume that ran asa mini-series. I’ve created cover work for DCComics’ Focus series which included fourbooks a month. I’m currently doing covers for aVertigo project that has not been solicited yet.

RS: What has been your favorite comic/ graphic novel project to work on?TOMER: The Placebo Man, a collection ofshort stories I’ve published recently withAlternative Comics.

RS: What other types of art or illustration haveyou done?TOMER: Everything from editorial to book

covers to advertising to television to apparel to snow-boards to packaging. To name a few of the clients, I’veworked with Rolling Stone Magazine, The New YorkTimes Book Review, The New Yorker, GQ magazine, andmany more.

RS: How would you describe your artistic style?TOMER: Narrative visuals. I like drama. I want to tell astory in one scene, but compose it so that you get manypoints of view and the situation is boiling toward somesort of climax. I try using the color for atmosphere, and tomanipulate the eye a little, control the way you interpretwhat’s important here, what is the driving force.

Ben TemplesmithRS: Do you think fans have embraced the graphic novelformat of comics?BEN: Nope. Well, not fans. Fan is short for fanatic. Bytheir very definition, they’ll probably be addicted to themonthly floppies until they die. But readers both casualand regular — meaning normal people that buy thingsbased on content, rather than say, what publisher puts it

Tomer Hanuka

“Iraqis” is an edito-

rial illustration for

Mother Jones about

the problem of the

Iraqi refugees (now

numbered at about

half a million).


out (who goes to see movies based on what studiomakes it?) — seem to be favoring the format more andmore. In some ways it hurts floppy sales, but I guess thefans, being fans will no doubt often buy them as well asthe collection/GN/TPB, whereas readers may simply waitfor the collections. Larger format books with real endingsto them (or at least to story arcs) I can see having muchmore appeal to the mainstream, too. If floppies diethough, they’ll need to figure out a new financial dynamic,since their sales keep things running and people eatinglong before there’s enough to put in a trade.

RS: Which format do you personally prefer to read andwhy?BEN: I much prefer TPBs or GNs. Though as I’m a fussybugger, I don’t collect much, and what I do collect tendsto come out once or twice a year at best, so rather than

wait for the collected editions, I figure I may as well sup-port their floppies... but not out of love for the format.

RS: How do you approach a page of artwork from scriptto finished art?BEN: It varies greatly, depending on if I’m writing it or ifsomeone else is. If someone else is, I just get straightinto it and follow as best I can. If it’s me doing it, I simplydo layouts over conversational script, and then start workon the finals from there.

RS: What art supplies/techniques do you use?BEN: Lots. Mostly I meld traditional greyscale drawingswith photographic elements and textures in Photoshop.Coloring it, like all comics are these days, in computer.For the actual drawings, it’s basically pen and ink, someacrylic and white pens. Sometimes some copic markerand watercolor washes, too.

RS: How would you describe your artistic style?BEN: Haphazard abstractness with a touch of angryyoung man.


SANDY PLUNKETTSandy Plunkett started his career the

same time I did. In fact, we were room-

mates for awhile. He was always too

much of a perfectionist to grind out a

monthly series, so he’s bounced around quite a bit,

doing some writing for Marvel and illustrating several proj-

ects outside of comics. He’s one of those artists you just see

occasionally and he always leaves you wanting more.

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

I ’ve always been a little self conscious about the way I work. When I

began teaching myself inking, the process scared the willies out of me.

I’d pour all this time and effort into the pencils of a page and face the

possibility that I might destroy it by flubbing the inks. In particular I was

skittish about putting in blacks and so approached black-and-white spotting

very cautiously. Which was frustrating because the artists I most admired at

the time were Wrightson and Jones, both of whom were exuberant in their

use of deep, lush, black shadows. I ended up by adopting the working method

of another artist I greatly admired, Al Williamson. He used reams of tracing

paper to work out his drawing problems. In his EC days he might generate a

half dozen overlays of a single panel or figure position, working out subtle

changes in lighting or positioning. Tracing paper! Seemed like the right solu-

tion for me.

Actually, it was (and still, to a certain extent, is) a

doubled-edged sword. Though it can save you

from making some serious blunders, it can

also rob you of the spontaneity that gives a

drawing its life. You can find yourself simply

trying to copy the success of the tracing, an

approached guaranteed to result in tedium and

a lifeless finish.

I’ve always tried to ink as loosely and as fast

as possible on the overlays, using a blunt

marker or a brush pen or a Winsor & Newton

on its very last legs. Even today, if I do a trac-

ing, I’m working over pencils that are barely

comprehensible to any eye other than my own.

This helps diminish the sense that I’m simply

“going over lines” and, hopefully, maximizes

inventiveness. There always seems to be this

pull between correctness of drawing and

expressiveness. I tend towards being more

expressive these days.

SANDY PLUNKETT

Conan

A preliminary ink rough. I believe this

Conan drawing was meant for a frontice

for the Savage Sword of Conan. I

attempted to finish the pencils but before

getting very far realized that, to my sensi-

bilities, the rough was the finished piece,

whether it was clean enough to meet

“professional” standards or not.Conan TM & ©2008 Conan Properties Intl., LLC


SANDY PLUNKETT

Conan cover

The only variation in working method here is that I did the thumbnail in marker

instead of leaving it in pencil. I’m not sure, but I think it was to clarify the image

for the editor. Craig Russel did his usual great job inking this, but if you compare

it to the inked rough, you can see that the piece lost some of its vigor in the fin-

ish. This almost always happens, at least to some extent.


SANDY PLUNKETT

SANDY PLUNKETT

Scarlet Witch pin-up

This was for an all pin-up issue of

Marvel Fanfare, and one of the clearer

examples of how much can be lost if

you do an initial tracing. The finished

inks are very polished, and there’s some

improvements in the drawing, but I

much prefer the rough. There’s a primi-

tive quality to it that matches more

closely the nature of the subject matter.

Clean, controlled rendering is always

popular with fans but sometimes it

comes at the cost...

Scarlet Witch TM & ©2008 MarvelCharacters, Inc.


COVER STORIES

W What happens between the initial layout of a cover and the published ver-sion? Usually a lot of changes as it goes from penciler to editor to inker, butsometimes it may not change at all!

TIM TOWNSENDAmazing Spider-Man #500 cover Pencils by Jeff CampbellInks by Tim TownsendWhat can you possibly sayabout Jeff? He’s force of nature.He’s one of the true superstarsof our generation. He’s one ofthe nicest people you could everhope to know. He’s the wholepackage. Oh... he draws prettypictures, too. When Jeff askedme to ink his famous run of coverson the Amazing Spider-Man Iwas incredibly flattered. Jeff andI had worked together a numberof times over the years and hewas always very kind to me.



Inking Jeff, whileincredibly fun, canalso be challenging.His pencils are sim-ply pristine. It’s allthere, every line.This takes away theneed to do anyembellishing but itbrings to the table adifferent set ofchallenges. Youhave to not onlymatch his beautifulline work, you needto find a way toaccentuate it, complement it, andelevate it withoutaltering it funda-mentally.



CHRIS SAMNEEChris Samnee started his career at Oni

Press, illustrating CAPOTE IN KANSAS.

Since then he’s also worked on Harvey

Pekar’s AMERICAN SPLENDOR,

EXTERMINATORS for Vertigo, and CHECKMATE for DC, and

is currently working on an unannounced graphic novel for

Vertigo. In 2006 he was nominated for the Russ Manning

Most Promising Newcomer award. He lives in St. Louis.

F E A T U R E D A R T I S TCHRIS SAMNEEAmericanSplendor #2thumbnails This just goesto show whata difference agreat editorcan make.Here are myoriginal thumb-nails and firstdraft of a fewpages fromAmericanSplendor #2.


CHRIS

SAMN

EE

CHRIS SAMNEEAfter changing a few angles and zooming in or out a bit andkeeping the camera moving on the characters, it reallyhelped to spice up what could have been a really uninter-esting layout.American Splendor © Harvey Pekar

BOB McLEOD

Amazing professionalism from such a young, relatively

unknown artist. It ain’t Spider-Man, so most fans couldn’t care

less, but this is solid comic art and a good storytelling textbook.


CHRIS SAMNEE

I ended up changing the angle on

Harvey in panel 4 so as not to have

two similar panels next to one another.American Splendor © Harvey Pekar

BOB McLEOD

Good comic art is 50% thinking and

50% drawing. There’s an old maxim

“Think before you ink.” It applies just

as well to penciling.


INTERVIEW

MARIE SEVERINBy Dewey Cassell

“Mirthful” Marie Severin worked at Marvel Comics for many years, serving in a variety of

roles, including penciler, inker, production, colorist, and art director. Fans fondly remember

her dynamic rendering of classic superheroes like the Hulk, Doctor Strange, and the Sub-

Mariner, as well as literary characters like Kull the Conqueror, and her wonderful sense of humor, brought to life in the pages

of Not Brand Echh and Spoof. But in some respects, her greatest contribution to the Marvel Age of Comics was behind the

scenes. For several years, from the late Sixties to early

Seventies, Marie Severin designed virtually every cover that

appeared on a Marvel comic book. The following is an excerpt

from an interview with Marie that took place last year.

DEWEY CASSELL: There was apoint in time in which Stan Lee hadyou doing mock-ups of the coversthat Marvel Comics was puttingout. Why was that?MARIE SEVERIN: Well, if Sgt.Fury was going to be on a coverwith a helicopter sequence orsomebody jumping out of a heli-copter, and unbeknownst to theeditor or Stan, somebody elsewas writing a story aboutDaredevil or Spider-Man hang-ing off a helicopter, you couldhave two covers in the worksand only discover it when they both came back and twoof them might be about helicopters. They wanted to have

Sgt. Fury TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

All charactersand covers inthis intervieware TM & ©2008MarvelCharacters, Inc.


a little more control on the design of the covers, so youwouldn’t have subject duplication.

CASSELL: How did you get involved in designing thecovers?SEVERIN: I was very fast with design and sketches andthe individual artists didn’t have time to come in and do indi-vidual sketches. It was faster for Stan to say “no” to adesign with somebody in the office doing them, rather thanhave the artist, say JohnBuscema, do a cover andStan wouldn’t like the layout orhe thought the layout was tooclose to something else or hewanted a different expression(which, of course, John wasn’tthat annoying.) But I wouldhave a variety because I knewwhat the rest of them lookedlike. CASSELL: How did youkeep track of all of the dif-ferent covers?

SEVERIN: I started hanging upthe cover sketches over the pre-vious covers. I had a whole sixmonths of covers hanging onthe wall, of all the books, and Iwould look at what was comingout this month. “Okay, let’s havea variety of that. Let’s changethat.”

The Fantastic Four TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.


CASSELL: When youwere doing the coversketches, did you haveanything to work from?Did you have the plotsynopsis or artwork?SEVERIN: Yeah, youdid. Sometimes I gotthe script, sometimes Igot Xerox pages of thepencils half done or thewhole story, but usuallythey wanted to get thecover in the worksbefore the thing wasinked and lettered. Ireally tried — Stan wanted it that way — that you wouldbasically have the same thing on the cover that wasgoing on inside. I used to hate it as a kid when some-times the cover had nothing to

do with the story inside. We tried to be basically accurate.

CASSELL: DC used to do that a lot. Their covers oftenhad nothing to do with the story.SEVERIN: Well, remember that they were bigger thanwe were. A lot of times, the stuff wasn’t even in produc-tion and you had to put a cover on, so you can’t blamethem. They were trying to attract the readers to buy thebook. Sometimes the story wasn’t even written and theyhad the cover done.

CASSELL: The cover sketches were done on 8 1⁄2 x 11-inch paper, frequently on the back of a piece of Marvelstationery. Why was that?SEVERIN: Probably it was a good size to send out to theguys and it had the address on it and everything so theguys would know where it came from.

CASSELL: Some of the cover sketches were done inpen or marker, but others were done in ink and wash.SEVERIN: As I recall, depending if you wanted to showa graveyard or nighttime scene, you would use the wash

The HulkTM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Dr. Strange TM &©2008 MarvelCharacters, Inc.


PRE-PRO D id you ever wonder whatthe pros’ artwork lookedlike before they turned

pro? Some are already lookinggood in college, some even inhigh school. Tim Townsendcouldn’t wait that long; he wasalready well on his way in 6thgrade!

TIM TOWNSEND

Here are a few old drawings I did when I was about

11 circa 1981-82. John Byrne fan? Who, me?!

Angel & Galactus TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

BOB McLEOD

Angel and Galactus, both

obviously thinking “Make my

day, punk!” I don’t know

about you, but Tim’s got me

wondering what John

Byrne’s own drawings looked

like when he was 11! Could

they have been any better

than this?

INTERVIEW

TIM TOWNSENDBy Bob McLeod

W hen we first started on Rough Stuff, Twomorrow’s publisher John Morrow and I thought it would

probably turn into the “inker’s” mag, but instead we’ve usually been predominantly focused on the

pencil side of comic art. This issue I’m excited to welcome the amazing Tim Townsend to our

pages as our first featured artist who’s mostly known for his inking skills. Tim is a great inker and a great guy. I first got

acquainted with him on a Yahoo inkers forum, then met him in person at MegaCon, in Orlando. He began working in comics

in 1993, starting out at Image and moving over to Marvel in late 1994. He says he worked on Uncanny X-Men for about 7

years and then bounced back and forth a bit between Uncanny and the adjective-less X-Men ever since, with some special

projects here and there in between. He’s worked on most of Marvel’s

main titles at one time or another, as well as most of the main books at

DC and Image but to a much more limited amount. He’s had good runs

with pencilers like Joe Madureira, Adam Kubert, Frank Quitely, and

Chris Bachalo, none of whom I’ve inked, so I’m a bit envious. This

interview was conducted via e-mail near the end of April 2006.

Tim’s incredibly shy, but I somehow managed to pull

him out of his shell. No, actually, as anyone who’s

met him can tell you, Tim’s effervescent personality is

perfectly suited to the comic book world, and as you’ll

see, he has quite

a lot to say:


TIM TOWNSENDThis was a gift for a good buddyof mine. I’ve always been abig fan of the Frankenstein-looking Hulk with hisprominent brow andvacant stare. I wastrying to turn thetables and do avery simpleapproach on thefigure, the focalpoint, and gonuts with thedetail on theextraneous area. Itmade for a nicecontrast.

Hulk TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.


BOB MCLEOD: I think it’s important to get some basicsfirst. Where and when were you born? Are you the firstartist of note in your family, or do you come from anartistic family? Was your art encouraged or discouragedas a child?TIM TOWNSEND: I was born January 19th, 1970 inPeoria, Illinois. I was adopted at birth and my familymoved to South Florida only days later. Since I don’tshare any genetics with anyone in my family (or anyoneI’ve ever known until my new son) I can’t really claim anypredispositions to latent talents. My aunt was, however, acommercial artist so I was exposed to a creative environment

at an early age. More importantly though, my mother wasalways hyper-alert to any interests I showed and quick tonurture them and allow me to explore. At age four or fiveI was given my first comic book, a Charlton E-Man, with

TIM TOWNSENDThis page is from a Savage Dragon story that I inked over

Erik in issue #100. I’m one of the privileged few to get to

actually ink Erik on anything Dragon! I’ve always been

such a huge fan of Erik and the unique, energetic approach

to his art that I was completely floored when he contacted

me about inking this story. I’d inked him on a couple of

Spidey covers and, quite literally, had some of the most fun

I’ve ever had as an inker. I know it’s P.C. to say that about

artists you admire but I’m serious. I find inking Erik to be

nothing but pure fun and exploration. The pencils, while

loose, are all there, but they give you such latitude as an inker because there is still quite a lot left

to interpret. Initially, I expected my work with Erik to fall flat since his style is so far outside of what

I’m used to working with. Who could have guessed that we would gel so well together?! At least

we thought so. There’s not a lot of explanation that goes along with this page. Basically, I was just

trying to find a balance between the anal retentive, slick tendencies that my inks tend to have and

the high energy, shoot-from-the-hip vibrancy of Erik’s pencils. I don’t pat myself on the back very

often, almost never, but I’m exceptionally proud of the work we did on this story.

Savage Dragon TM & ©2008 Erik Larsen.


TIM TOWNSENDI don’t quite know what to say about this. It started

out as a drawing I did for the sole purpose of playing

around with color. It was just some random, nonsen-

sical scenario that popped into my head, a hot girl

with a devious teddy bear. It got a great reaction from

the people I showed it to so I did another (Bedtime

Bare) which was just as silly but slightly more dis-

turbing. I’m eventually planning on doing a series of

them for some sort of publication.


EDITOR’S CORNER

W ell, I find myself with an extra page this issue, so I’m

grabbing it to show you one of my recent projects.

Last year I wrote and illustrated my first children’s

book, and I was fortunate enough to have it published by

HarperCollins. It’s an alphabet book of original superheroes

called (what else?) SuperHero ABC, and it’s available in all the

bookstores and on amazon.com. I had a great time doing it

because it’s the first time I’ve colored my own comic art in

years, and it’s the first project I’ve written. You can see a lot of

the finished pages and characters on my web site, but for

Rough Stuff, I thought I’d show you my pencil roughs for two of

the pages. I drew them on paper, but colored them on the com-

puter, to give them a real comic book look. I hope to do more

children’s books soon.

BOB McLEOD

This is my rough for the letter

A. I originally drew it as a verti-

cal single page, with just one

flying saucer and the phrase,

Astro-Man is Always in Action

Above the Atmosphere. When

the designer suggested doing

some double page spreads, I

redid it like this and wrote a

new phrase to reflect all the

flying saucers.

BOB McLEOD

This is one of my favorite characters from the book, Goo Girl.

Some pages came to me very easily, like this one. Other pages

were more difficult and required a few revisions. You can see

where I indicated the colors I was planning.


ROUGH CRITIQUEBy Bob McLeod

M artin Balcer submitted this fineGhost sample page for my cri-tique this issue. There are severalthings Martin is doing well here.

His characters have a lot of personality. Ghost looks sexy andthreatening, and his bad guys look wild and crazy and overdue

for punishment. His storytelling is clear with no dialogue, hispanel layout is very well designed, and the backgrounds estab-lish where this sequence unfolds, outside on a city street. Hiscamera angles are varied and dramatic, and the composition iswell-balanced. And I know he’s a serious contender becausehe sent me several sample pages, so he’s not lazy. But thereare some problems here that are keeping this from being astrong sample page on a pro level.

Martin also provided the script, by Randy Strandley, so let’s takeit panel by panel, although I’ll edit it a bit for brevity:

Script: Panel 1. A dramatic up view of Ghost floating in mid-air a few feet below the top of the nearest building. Lit frombelow, her stark face shows just the beginnings of rage...

I like this panel, but she’s not lit from below, or even shownfrom below. Just putting her up in the air doesn’t do it. The build-ing is tilting away from us, and she should, too. Her legs shouldlook closer to us than her torso. Lie down on the floor and lookat someone standing above you to see how the figure shouldlook. Her foreshortened angle should be even more extremethan I’ve shown if you want to match the building, but if you gettoo extreme she becomes unattractive. So the thing to do (asalways) is draw a cool figure and then put in a background tomatch it. When you have a shape like those rounded windows,try to place it carefully to read clearly. The inside arch of yours istouching her cape, creating a tangent that flattens the depth. It’salso not attractive to attach the breast to the armpit. And thereneeds to be a bone inside her thigh, and her knee needs to beat the end of it, not below it. And it’s always better to pose thelegs on a diagonal rather than a vertical. Also, her right arm andleft thigh are a bit too hefty, and her left thumb is dislocated.And finally, why is the sky black above her cape but white belowit? I’ve added gutters around the inset panels to separate theblacks in them from the black which should be in panel one.

Script: Panel 2. Looking through the windshield, into theJeep.... Both wear expressions that indicate that they can’timagine having more fun than this.

See how much art has to be covered when the text is addedto this panel? You need to consider how much text is in each

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