The secret of comics revealed yet again
Here's a perennial of comics lore that gets posted every once in a while. Chris Sims looks at Carson Van Osten's 'Comic Strip Artist's Kit' , a brief 8-page guide to solving the most common problems of comics prepared by Creative Services' Van Osten. The above two-panel spread will give a sampling of its exceedingly basic yet hard to follow advice. Yep. Don't be wooden, alright. Easy peazy! Entire life dreams have exploded over that little gem.
Continue ReadingMust read: Publish or perish
Last year Dean Haspiel kick-started the creative juices of the new year with an essay called "Dear Content Maker" that confronted some of the excitement and uncertainties of the new horizons. Since then he's launched a new website -- Trip City -- and kept juggling all the balls a creator needs to. This year, he has a similar call to arms that surveys the current landscape called "Publish or Perish", named after a tweet by Jimmy Palmiotti:
Continue ReadingDave Johnson picks the cover of the year
Remember when Dave Johnson started that blog devoted to cover design -- with actual criticism for covers that don't work? Well, he's still at it with both picks and pans. You'll have to go to the blog to find out of which cover Johnson wrote this:
Continue ReadingNeed a font?
In case you haven't noticed their fantastically stylish ads running in the sidebar. Comicraft is wrapping up their New Year's Day font sale right about now -- hurry over and pick up some serifs to keep your comics looking classy.
Continue ReadingNice art: Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis
We were unaware that Titan Books has reprinted the highly sought after anatomy books by Andrew Loomis that have assumed a legendary status among classically minded cartoonists and illustrators. The Lines and Colors blog has a good write-up of the reissues and just why they are so prized:
Continue ReadingDave Johnson has more cover coverage
We're not going to plagiarize ALL of Dave Johnson's cover comments...only several of them. He's at it again this time with some cover PICKS:
Continue ReadingMust read: Cover design with Dave Johnson
How would you like to sit in while Anthony Bourdain critiques food or Albert Pujols talks hitting or Herman Cain talks how to look credible in a big sinister fedora? That's the kind of master class Dave Johnson has been delivering on cover design via Twitter and now...a blog. That would be the Dave Johnson who created some of the most iconic covers of the last decade or so. While he may not be making a lot of friends, he's calling 'em as he sees 'em. Here's a sampling:
Continue ReadingMust read: How to Beat The Haters by Rob Liefeld
Not too long ago, Rob Liefeld hada long blog post about how to deal with the ups and downs of the business. When you think about it, he's the perfect person to write that piece -- his ups have been high and his downs have been low. And despite his very name being one of those push-butten codewords for bad art among many comics observers, Liefeld hasn't let that stop him. He does more public appearances than ever and every time we see him, he appears to be having a good time. Say what you will about his art, in that way Liefeld has exhibited a professionalism that a lot of people could learn from. And one of the message of his piece is that you just can't listen to the haters:
Continue ReadingMust read: How to stay in the biz, by Chris Eliopoulos
Recently, letterer/artist Chris Eliopoulos posted some guidelines for how to stay in the business once you've broken in. There are a few comics-specific details, but mostly, this is how you stay in any field. A sampling:
Continue ReadingRaising the bar for comics
Darryl Ayo is at it again with another in his ongoing series of rabble-rousing blog posts. This time he suggests that we need to take a look in the mirror in order to get comics more visibility.
Continue ReadingPaolo Rivera makes it into Google Street View
Artist Paolo Rivera recounts an amusing story of how he found himself on Google's Street Viewstanding in front of Jim Hanley's Universe. He adds some interesting tips on how he uses the service as an art reference:
Continue ReadingPiskor’s Color Chart of Yore points out how awful most comics coloring is
Ed "Wizzywig" Piskor has crated a Photoshop version of the famous 64-color chart used to color comics up until the advent of computer coloring and scanning in the 80s. It is, as he points out, rather than a crippling limitation, an invitation to actually think about color:
Continue ReadingThe Passion of the Clean Reinstall
WARNING: EXTREMELY NERDY MAC CONTENT -- proceed at your own risk. As you know, I've been complaining about computer problems for a few months now, with tedious frequency -- but not as tedious as seeing a spinning beach ball is to me. Basically, every morning when I started up my iMac to get to work on The Beat it would take anywhere from 5 minutes to half an hour for the beachball to stop spinning and all the programs to start responding. Unbearable, right? You bet!
Continue ReadingQuesada, Simonson and Steranko talk about the artist’s life
It's a busy week for cartooning events here in NYC, with so many you can't even get to them all. One we didn't want to miss took place last night, DRAWING THE LINE at the Society of Illustrators, a group chat about the cartooning craft by Joe Quesada, Walt Simonson and Jim Steranko. The panel was organized and moderated by artist Dennis Calero (X-MEN NOIR) as part of a move for the SI to get more involved in covering the graphic literature world. In the regard it was a total success, allowing three important artists talk about their work and approaches devoid of the promotional efforts that color most convention and bookstore appearances. Calero did a great job moderating as well, keeping the talk circling various aspects of the cartoonist's life, including dealing with "shortcuts", deadlines and the rewards of artwork, and showing a great knowledge of the trio's careers.
Continue ReadingHow to: Cartoonists Hillary Allison and JP Kim learn about social media
A bit of an interesting experiment going on over at the Drawing Words Writing Pictures blog, as two young cartoonists are learning how to make their way in the world -- without even drawing cartoons:
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