THE INKER DID IT

One of the more thankless tasks that a veteran artist can have is inking a young artist's work. If the final product  looks great, it was due the penciller's brilliant drawings. If there are weaknesses, they were certainly created by the last person who touched the work: the inker. I know this from personal experience because as a fledgling cartoonist my friends had to put up with my continual diatribe every time an issue of my work appeared about how disappointed I was in the finishes the inker had produced on my work. It wasn't until I had  learned a good bit more about drawing and draftsmanship that I was forced to acknowledge just what a youthful idiot I was. Thank god for the efforts of the professionals who brought a bit of life to my inept scratchings.

Pencilled cover for one of the Starfire issues

In retrospect, I was very lucky to have the opportunity to work with and learn from so many talented folks in the business; and if I didn't thank them personally at the time, here is a belated thank you to the entire group.

My first job in professional comics was a four pager for Western Publishing in Boris Karloff Presents. Needless to say, just getting work was a thrill, but working on a title with Karloff's name in it was an added bonus. I do remember the editor who gave me the job admitting, "I don't know much about comics, but you seem like a nice young man."  Talent apparently was overrated.

Mike Peppe wound up inking the story. I never met Mike and know very little about him other than that he inked a lot of Alex Toth's work in the 50's. Alex was always very complimentary about Mike's inking; I'd go so far as to say he almost raved about the stuff. I don't know how much he helped Alex's work, but he certainly brought a lot to mine. (When I worked for Western, I was always getting comments about how I was drawing head's too small; when I was doing work for Marvel they complained I was doing heads too large. )

The first regular series I worked on was Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, featuring the son of Dr. Fu Manchu, Shang Chi. I remember that Dan Adkins did a very nice job on one of the stories, and I inked at least one. The artist who did most of the stories and really made my work shine was Jack Abel. He was a very sweet man, and a favorite of a lot of the young artists who hung out at Neal Adam's Continuity Studio. Jack always had time to swap stories and give you pointers both on the work and the importance of professionalism. Since the work was reproduced in black and white, there was a subtlety in the tones he added to the inking that really brought a sense of depth and realism to the pages.

If you were going to start a comicbook company in those days, Vinnie Colletta was probably the first person you should hire. He could take a entire book home on the weekend, and bring it back on Monday with a very professional finish to it. Vinnie could take the most mundane work and bring a solid  polish to it. He was one of the first art directors I met and he always had good advice for me about getting work. And when I did start getting work at DC, Vinnie liked the stuff I was producing and inked the majority of it, and did a very fine job of it I might add. He always seemed to put a bit extra into my pages.

(I inked the Yorgs on the bottom before I sent it to Vinnie...he admonished me not to do it in the future.)

Unfortunately, the better your work became, as is the case with so many inkers, the less Vinnie could really bring to the table. He produced the work quickly and with a very solid look to it. but if you wanted to take the work to the next level, that was not his forte. Consequently, as my pencilling skills progressed, I wasn't seeing the finished product looking any better. I felt it was time to move on and left DC for Marvel.

(The backs of my pages were always filled with drawings like this. Now I just do them in sketchbooks.)

My first job back at Marvel was on a book called Team America. My new boss, Jim Shooter,  greeted me enthusiastically by asking who I'd like to ink the book.  I'm afraid that I answered somewhat ungraciously, "Anyone but Vinnie", and was immediately hit with Instant Karma. Jim's face fell, and he announced he had already brought Vinnie over from DC and had promised the book to him. Of course, once he told Vinnie my comment, that ended our relationship.

When I brought in the pencils for the first issue and showed them to Jim, he was very happy and didn't suggest or ask for any changes. However, once the book was inked, the weekend before the final print deadline, Shooter suddenly decided he hated what I had done, and a major part of the story was redone. I suddenly became a persona non grata in the Shooter regime, and while I continued to pick up work for another couple of years, my days at Marvel, and in comics, were pretty much over. Fortunately, I had just moved to sunny LA and was starting to work in the animation and film business and a whole new world opened up to me. To paraphrase Julie Andrews when she won the Golden Globe for Mary Poppins after being passed over by the studio head for the lead in My Fair Lady: "My thanks to Jack Warner, who made this all possible.":  My thanks to Jim Shooter.

(These were all versions I Starfire I ended up inked. The top one was a poster I used to hawk at cons, and the bottom two are recreations I've done in the past couple of years.)

Next week at look at some of my favorite jobs inked by Giordano, Alcala, and Springer.

THE REBEL JESUS

I've always loved this song by Jackson Browne...so much so that I made it into my Christmas card a few years back. But because of the political disruptions (it was the year of 9/11) I only sent it out to a few friends that I thought wouldn't be offended. In retrospect, I'm sorry I pulled my punches.

But I think of all of you with fondness at Christmas time. Thanks you for all your bits and pieces of generosity and kindness through the year, and I hope you can put up with one last spate of my cantankerousness.

And here's a link to Jackson Browne singing the song;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7K1waSlzgc

Merry Christmas to All!!

MOMMA, DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE STORYBOARD ARTISTS

One of the many great things that came out of the Sunday morning drawing workshops that Bill Stout hosts was that I met Josh Sheppard, one of the more talented storyboard artists in the business. And a very sweet man, although with a very healthy dose of the cynicism that comes from working in Hollywood; he once related to me the story that when he told his wife about talking to young perspective artists, she dubbed him The Dreamsquasher.

Despite this  pejorative salutation, Josh has always been of the greatest help in steering other board artists toward work that crops up…including your truly. One of the accomplishments of the current crop of board artists has been to organize and  create a list of all the artists working in entertainment and with what type of restrictions they require on the job (union, non union, TV or film only,etc.) as well the pay scale they demand. There has been a couple of these groups and its has been very helpful questionnaire both for artists and their perspective clients. Even  Josh was a little skeptical when he saw my entry on one of these groups. I added on to the category, What Jobs Will You Accept or Not Accept, I stated that I would would be glad to work for Ang Lee or John Sayles, but all other directors would have to explain to me why I should want to work on their films. When you read Josh's short comic story below that comment might make more sense.

 Josh is also very knowledgeable about film in general and a great conversationalist. We've shared many a lunch together talking over both the state of the business, art in general and comics specifically. For all his great success working on any number of big budget feature films, boards for hundreds of commercials and all types of CGI special effects Josh remains at heart a fanboy geek and frustrated comicbook artist.

When he talks about his true love, Josh  will pull out the very personal and exceptionally humorous graphic stories he produces in his spare time. What I've posted today is one of the classic examples of Josh's offbeat and cynical humor that he has done in this form. And after you're done splitting your sides with laughter, the scary part is just how spot on is Josh's portrayal of working in Tinseltown.

(And now a few words by Josh himself: I was lucky to discover the good stuff at a very young age: All the 50's-70's Mad Magazine artists, all the 60's Marvel guys: Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colan. And thankfully R. Crumb.

(Noel Sickles)

(Mentor Heubner)

(Noel Sickles)

(Wallace Morgan)

Later influences as a pro: Alex Toth, Mentor Heubner, Noel Sickles, Edgar Degas, my friend Gerald Forton, Noel Sickles, Robert Fawcett, Raymond Poivet, Attilio Micheluzzi, Wallace Morgan, Joe Kubert, all the great U.S. newspaper strip artists, all the great U.S. print illustrators. And watching 70's cop shows like the Streets of San Francisco!

(Raymond Poivet)

(Attilio Micheluzzi)

(Attilio Micheluzzi)

(Gerald Forton)

(Gerald Forton)

(Raymond Poivet)

 

Josh Sheppard contact info:
http://www.thestoryboardartist.com/Site/Home.html
http://joshsheppard.blogspot.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1376426/

GUILTY PLEASURES

There's a great moment at the end of the  film The Time Machine where Filby discovers his friend has returned to the future and taken three books with him…"But which three?" he wonders. Like Filby, if given the chance to grab a few of my favorite films, which ones would I choose. Now the obvious choice is to stick with the classics, grabbing Casablanca, The Third Man and Lawrence of Arabia….but I'm afraid I probably skip what I feel are the BEST films I've ever seen and just grab a few of my "entertainments". Don't get me wrong, the aforementioned films are certainly among the most entertaining I've ever watched, as well as the most of the work of Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Ernst Lubisch, John Sayles and so many other of the truly great ones.But when it's just you and you'll bowl of popcorn and you want a relaxing evening, what do you watch just for fun. (Sorry, no superhero films in either my BEST of FAVORITE lists.Certainly not in my top 100, and probably not in my top 1000.)
(After adding in all the art to have some visuals I realized you really have to have some images from the films themselves. Don't cheat your viewers...)

Since this conversation started with The Time Machine, the 1960 George Pal film has to certainly be included. I watched it last on the eve of the millennium, a hundred years to the day when the story takes place. The cast headed by Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimeaux is superb. I was so disappointed when I saw Alex Toth's adaptation of the movie that he didn't draw a likeness to the latter. Really great special effects for the time and the Morlocks scared the crap out of me.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054387/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Laughs from beginning to end with a really wonderful cast headed by Matthew Broderick, but with great bits by Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey and Jeffrey Jones. While I was amused by the recent Super Bowl commercial featuring Broderick, I've always wondered why there wasn't a follow up film of Ferris taking a day off in his adult life.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091042/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Charlie Chan. Any of the  earliest films of this series with Warner Oland are the best, and the Sidney Toler versions are still excellent. Absolutely great scripts with amazing lighting and cinematography. It's hard to believe that these are just "B" movies. It's easy to see the influence of these films on Will Eisner and many of the early cartoonists. While it's unfortunate that the character was portrayed by non asians, it is important to remember that Earl Derr Biggers created Charlie after real life Honolulu Chinese detective and the books were written as an alternative to Fu Manchu and the "yellow peril".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026198/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Raiders of the Lost Ark. While I've never thought of Spielberg as a great director, he has certainly done some fun stuff. You can't get much better than the chemistry between Harrison Ford and Karen Allen (something that was missing in the sequels.) Romance, action, great villains and lots of very creepy sets.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082971/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The Usual Suspects.  Twists and turns galore with a truly "didn't see that one coming" ending. Kevin Spacey and Gabriel Byrne at their best. Perhaps at bit of a homage to Eric Ambler's A Coffin for Dimitrios (which was made as The Mask of Dimitrios with Peter Lorre and Zackary Scott.)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Nero Wolfe. When this A&E series came out with Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin as Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe I was very skeptical. Archie should be Cary Grant of James Garner! But after watching a few of the episodes, which were very faithful adaptations of the Rex Stout stories, I was hooked, and can't imagine anyone else as these characters. A great ensemble cast who would continually change roles as supporting characters. Kari Matchett as Lily Rowan (and several other femme fatales)…perfect!!

www.imdb.com/title/tt0283205/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The Falcon. When you're watching Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent and George Sanders shows up as the  British Agent, your immediate reaction is why isn't he the star of the movie? Sanders does appear in another Hitchcock film, Rebecca,  where he plays the smarmy cousin who's had an affair with the dead lady in the title, but he was best when he played the suave and sophisticated leading man. He did this both in the Falcon series and later in several films in which he played Simon Templar, also known as the Saint, written by Leslie Chartiris.  The Falcon Takes Over is the first screen adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel (Farewell My Lovely) adapted with the Falcon in the Philip Marlowe role. In both series, George's real life brother, Tom Conway, shows up to play his brother on screen.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034716/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The Road to Utopia. Watch any of the Road films with Bob Hope and Big Crosby and you can't go wrong. Their ad libs and their asides to the audience are priceless. As Bing maneuvers a romantic moment with the ever present Dorothy Lamour , Bob turns to us:"Go out and get your popcorn,folks. He's gonna sing." Robert Benchley "narrates" the film since as he explains, the studio didn't think we could understand it otherwise.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038032/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

As a kid, comics were great, but movies were truly the doorway to another world. You've got the list, start checking them out. Would I steer you wrong. Wait a minute….I didn't have time to mention Fred and Ginger, Preston Sturgess, Woody, Karloff, Cooper, Nicole, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marlene…..