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SPARK's Comic Galleries
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SPARK's Comments
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[ Posted by markalester on Aug 7th, 2008 5:28 PM ]...
Hey Spark. Great looking work. Very cool. Thanks for the add and best of luck! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on Apr 21st, 2008 7:00 PM ]...
WoW! I can't believe it's APRIL 21st 2008 already. I haven't been checking my page to much. Mainly because I don't hear from ANYBODY! No notes/comments, pm's or ANYTHING! It's kind of a bummer. I had such high hopes for this site.
Of course I could be having hundreds of hits a day/week...what ever, and I wouldn't know about it, since the promised hits counters never came back. It's seems so silly. It's just such an important feature. But what can you do?
Anyway, I have been working. Bunches of storyboards. Also I just did a couple of handfulls of comps for a game, LISURE SUIT LARRY! It's funny, because not being a gamer myself, I didn't really know the character, but I mentioned the name to a friend of mine, and he knew it right away. I guess JOE CHIDO is doing the final art. I saw some of his previous work on the project, and it looked great.
Right now I'm working on two films, both indie projects. On one of them, I'm also doing a 5 page comic presentaion for the company. If they let me, I'll post it. It's a good project I think. I'll keep you posted.
Well, if anybody is reading this, I wish you'd let me know! Drop me a line, make a comment...something. And if anybody knows how to put a HIT's COUNTER in to my GALLERIES here on COMICSPACE, please let me know, I'd appreciate it.
That's all for now. PEACE!!! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on Jan 4th, 2008 6:04 PM ]...
Well it's 2008, so here we go on the MERRY GO ROUND again! I'm going to be posting some new stuff here shortly. I've kind of stayed away from the site hoping it would return some of the features it stopped when it migrated to it's new servers. But that hasn't happened yet, and that kind of threw a MONKEY WRENCH into MY plans.
I was going to post a NEW DAILY COMIC BOOK, but since I can't track the traffic, it didn't really make much sense. I can sit in my house and pretend people are looking at it and I would have as much knowledge of if they really were, as I would have posting it.
But some stuff doesn't matter as much. So I'll throw up some more of the storyboard work I've been doing, for anybody out there who's interested. I really have no idea if anybody is stopping by or not, SINCE NOBODY LEAVES ANY COMMENTS. Hint hint!
Anyway, to all who do stop by, Happy New Year to you! And who knows, if they get the Hit's counters up soon, you may see that New day per page comic I promised. Until then, best wishes to you all.
PEACE! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on Sep 14th, 2007 4:17 PM ]...
Wow I can't believe how long it's be between post now, by me or someone else. Time flys. I've been wanting to post some new things but I just haven't been able to get excited about it. I have no way of knowing is anybody stopping by other than when I send a client here to review my work. It's a bummer really. I was so high on this site as a great idea.
Since there isn't a counter anymore, and Josh doesn't respond at all as to when if ever it might return, the only way I know if people are stopping by is if you leave a comment. So I hope you guys start doing that.
I use this space as kind of a blog, to keep you updated on what I'm doing. It's easy doing it like this because you don't have to click any thing to see what I'm thinking, doing, ect. The whole groovyness of this site is anything I'm into I can show/share easily without have to lead you to someother site, which is what I like. But again, if I hear from no one it's kind of hard to get excited about putting the time into the site in the first place.
Well, I hope everyone is having fun. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Peace! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on Aug 21st, 2007 7:36 PM ]...
Hello, HELLOOOOO, to anyone out there that might be visiting this page. I haven't posted anything in quite a while. Part of that is due to Josh making his change over to his new server, and part of it is because I've been busy with day to day projects that have been taking my time
I was going to start posting a NEW PAGE A DAY COMICBOOK, but I've put that on hold since I can't track it's success since Josh has eliminate the counters on the site.
For me this is a very big thing. I had some IDEAS about monitizing this site. Josh had set up a premium section that allows you to sell on this site for $4.95 a month. That's huge on one hand, but if you can't track your traffic, it's kind of like buying a scratchter lotto ticket, you never know what to expect. So to some degree I've lost a little interest in this site as far as it's usefulness to me other than letting people see my work.
Josh has said he's going to bring that stuff back, but I've heard no word from him when, so I guess it's back to looking into creating my own site again. It's a shame really.
Anyway, if anyone is stopping by, leave me a shout out. I'll post some of the things I've been working on shortly. I still may do the new page a day comic book post, we'll see.
In any case I hope you're all doing well. Thanks to all who supported HELIX, I really appreciated it. I'll keep you posted on what's going on here. Peace! |
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[ Posted by Sir_Crapalot on May 31st, 2007 4:48 PM ]...
Helix is awsome.  1 Reply [ Latest posted on June 20th, 2007 7:55 PM ]
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 [ Posted by SPARK on Jun 20th, 2007 7:55 PM ]...
Hey Sir,
Sorry I haven't gotten back with you quicker, the real world has been keeping me hoppin'. But thanks for the kind words about HELIX, it's much appreciated. Thanks again for the support. |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 28th, 2007 6:11 PM ]...
Hello! I'm back! Comicspace is back!!! Yaaa!!! Okay now with that over, I wanted to comment on a let you know about a few things.
First I should be posting another book here shortly, in the page a day format. I have a few kinks to work out, but it's just about set.
Second, a friend of mine sent me something about a comic book contest that a major company is doing. I just got through reading the contest rules, and I must say, they're not fair in any shape or form.
I don't mention the company here, because in a way that's not relevant. What is relevant, is, here again is a major company trying to take advantage of the small guy. They want something, essentially for nothing.
I saw nothing that they offered that you're not getting at comic space for free. You own it here, lock, stock and barrel. You can monetize it or not. You can make print copies for sale. It's up to you. But nobody here is trying to take what THEY THINK is a good idea from you and saying NOW WE OWN IT, you just produce it! It's sick really.
If they were offering a deal where they at least were giving you a living decent pro page rate to produce the product as part of the deal, that might be one thing. If it was a partnership where you owned the product but they took a cut, hmmmm, maybe not so bad. But if that's offered here, I sure didn't see it in the official rules. All I read was, we're protected, and if it's any good we own it.
To my mind, it's a bad, bad deal. The truth is, if you have a good idea, you already have a forum here. It's only up to you to produce it and make it good. The only thing stopping you is the time and skill you have to put into it. If it's good they will come. That's just the way the comic book audience is. So...make it so!
You don't need a company like this any more trying to steal from you under the guise it's helping you. Their idea of a grand prize is they're going to publish your work? How about at least $500 per page to produce the work with a 5 issue guarantee?
That's at least some what of a prize and a commitment to the winner, with the winner actually being able to work on their project and put food on the table. What they're offering is silly at best, and dubious at worst. And I'm being kind when I say that.
In any event, that's my thoughts on the subject. I'm looking forward to getting this page going again. Thanks for stopping by. Peace! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 12th, 2007 6:45 PM ]...
Helix day 31. The FINAL PAGE? Hmmmm..? When I came to this page, when this project first happened, it was a relief and exciting at the same time. I didn't know what was going to happen form there.
The creator and I were a bit at odds with each other mainly over him agreeing to a certain fee for the job then saying he didn't have it when it came time for me to ink it and do the color guides.
This would later be exacerbated by me finding out, inadvertently that he had hired the same big name guy to paint covers for issues two and three. I knew what this guy got for painting issue one, let's just say it was several thousand dollars, so I was not happy at all at that point.
He was also supposed to return the original art, within 90 days. We meet with my lawyer and he agreed to this. He then just took off with the artwork, and I never heard from him again. In a way I wasn't so mad at him, it was his baby, so I could kind of understand it, but still, in on the whole it was messed up.
Later, I also came across what was suppose to be some art for issue two, buy some other artist. The person that hip me to this said it was sad seeing it, since I'd done such a nice job for issue one. When I saw it, all I can say about it is, it was FAN art.
When he came to me originally, I had told him, this is what he needs to avoid if he wants to have any chance to sell his property. I promised him a pro looking job that would at least give him a chance with whom ever he was showing it to. I think I delivered.
Personally, I didn't care for the cover of issue one. I would show it to you since I have it, but it's not my art, so I don't think I can do that. The same goes for the few pages of issue two I saw.
Would I have continued? Happily if the deal hadn't went sour. I wasn't crazy about Helix, but it was interesting enough. I had put together a team. The letter was great. If the book had been picked up by IMAGE, I think it would have had a chance. In the end, what happened to HELIX? Your guess is as good as mine.
So, this is kind of like one of the T.V. shows you get into. You're diggin' it, and suddenly, for reasons you can't figure, it's canceled. In the end, I hope you don't feel cheated. I felt this project should have a chance, and I wanted to give it the one it never had, as far as I know.
I did everything I could to give this baby life. I've worked on several projects like this, indie books with big ideas about breaking into the comics world. Most of the time, people don't take your advice in these situations. They spend money where they shouldn't, and where it's needed they try to skate by. The project goes off the tracks and there's nothing you can do about it.
So what's coming? For those that are interested, another book maybe of UNSEEN SPARK. Maybe some follow up stuff to Helix I might be able to dig out. I'll look around in the next few days. I'm going to take a few days off I think to prepare for the next round of daily posts.
I have a bunch of original properties to work on, and now I have a place to get them to you, the viewing public, without having to ask anyone permission. No power hungry editors. Nobody lording over you because they can. No gate keeper assistants, who know nothing but how to say no. Nobody saying you should draw like this or that. To many lines. Not enough lines, whatever. And no writers who's scripts you wonder, how did this get sold. It's just you and me. I'll take my chances with you people. If I'm doing something good, I think you'll let me know.
The intention of my site is going to be one where you can come here everyday and see something new. Helix was kind of a test, to see if enough people would stop by daily, if I put something up of a certain quality level, would you come? You did. I thank you sincerely.
Now we get ready for the next level of BETA TESTING of this bad boy.
Before doing that, I want to thank "JOSH" again, for what he's done with this site. To my mind it's the biggest and best thing in comics since the IMAGE explosion.
Compared to THAT bang, it's hardly a lady finger firecracker...at the moment. But in my mind the potential is off the charts..and I'm here to tell you, I'm seldom wrong about these things. It's just up to someone to do something with it.
So for now, so long. Again my thanks to all of you for stopping by. Check back in a few days to see the start of the next round of daily post. Until next time...Sincerely, Spark. |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 12th, 2007 3:16 AM ]...
Helix day 30. This page, much like the previous is one of my favorites. The rumbling tumble weed. The way the group surveys the situation. In some ways this page defines the whole book so far. A lot of talking, and finding a good way to stage it. The art interesting enough to look at, but no calling all the attention to it self.
I've written a lot about comics, my thoughts on story telling with the medium, and how I approached this project. In most of the things I draw for a living, I'm asked to fulfill another persons vision, mainly because they can't do it themselves. I'm asked to find it. See the unseen. It can be fun and maddening at the same time, depending on who you're working with and how much money is involved.
Some of you may ask, " what the heck does he know? " " I mean how many comics has he drawn?" The answer is not many. But for the short time I was in comics I worked for one of the best there ever was. He was a great thinker about the medium. Most of what I know I learned from him. In his studio there were many of the all time greats that either worked there or passed through. I got to see a lot of great art up close, and get some good advice, feed back as well as compliments.
When I left comics it wasn't for the movies right away. I had it in mind, more as a director than a storyboard artist, but I went sideways into music. The art became something I did, but more as a fall back then a way of getting what I wanted out of life. Comics didn't pay very well compared to the other things, and if I was going to work hard I figured I might as well do it at something that's final outcome might be able to bring me things my folks could never have provided.
When I finally had a movie deal, I decided to also see about doing some comics again as a side project in between writing my next script.
I knew people, I thought they'd let me back in. These were my friends.
Well it didn't quite work out like that. In some ways I'm glad it didn't, but in most ways it hurt a lot. I could be bitter, but in truth I've always had a love hate thing with the comic book business.
When other guys were locked up in the studio, I was down in the east village or upper west side playing basketball. I was going to concerts or doing something else with my time other than just drawing comics. I like, maybe even love to draw, but I also love to play guitar, basketball, write, or hang out with the gals, amongst other things. But make no mistake, when I came looking for work, it's what I wanted to do, the gate keepers just didn't want to let me. Well they can keep their little club.
Drawing storyboards is great fun. Usually the jobs are get in get out, and the pay is great as far as I'm concerned. At one time I would have killed to draw Spiderman, or Dr.Strange. Or just about any other superhero title. It was what I wanted to do. But life takes many twist and turns. I wouldn't change hardly a thing except for a few bone head things I've done in my personal life.
Helix I think shows I could have more than done the job. It just wasn't meant to be. I'm glad you got to see it, those of you who have followed it for the last 30 days. Tomorrow..is day 31...after that.. who knows. Peace. |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 10th, 2007 5:28 PM ]...
Helix day 29. Page 29 had a few interesting things on it. One, it showed where the villains hideout was, and what it looked like. The only thing with that was, again with there being so much writing, I was only able to give a small glimpse of it.
A little more was able to be done with their flying ship. Are these super cool designs? Hmmmm, probably not. I tried to do something with them, but considering this as a job again, and one that went south no less, I'm glad I didn't go into endless designs of something that on my part was never going to be seen.
I do think the story telling on this page is very nice though. Given that it was talking heads inside a ship. Kind of like the Avengers, where you have to manage a lot of characters, give them all face time and make it seem like they're together, without showing them all in every shot.
This in some ways is one of my favorite pages. Interiors. Exteriors. The whole cast being used. The story now in full swing. Think back to the first appearance of Spiderman, the FF, Thor, The Avengers, Iron-man and so on. In light of those mentioned, Helix doesn't look to bad.
If you take the IMAGE titles, Spawn, Wildcats, Shadowhawk, Cyberforce, Wetworks, Youngbloods, Savage Dragon, I think Helix still holds up quite nicely, and those guys were at the height of there ability and popularity at that time. I wonder what the art would have looked like 30 or so issues later. How would it have changed? How much would I have improved? Or would I have gotten worse? Who knows?
Comic books is hard work, make no mistake about it. With most of the greats there is a up curve for some time, and then a leveling off. Finally there is the eventual down curve in the quality level of their work.
I think there are several reasons for this. One, it's just plain hard work, a grind. It can beat the life out of you. Two, most of the time you don't own the property, so after your child like verve for drawing that is gone and you realize it's just a job like anyone else, you start to treat it like that. Who could blame you? There's generally NO real reward attached to doing great work, except for and to the company.
The third reason may be, just getting bored. John Buscema hated drawing superheroes. Who would have thought. I worked with a guy once who's whole missions was he had to ink between 13-17 panels a day. It really didn't matter who he was inking or what. I think you could have put down almost anything in pencil in front of him, and it would have got the same approach. There wasn't much art to it for him. It was pen to paper.
What does this have to do with Helix and my art? Well, I'd like to think that wouldn't happen to me. I've known several artist who seem to just get better and better over time. Some times their skill level is so high, it may be hard to see, the improvements. But if you have a decerning eye, they're there. It's a heck of a legacy. One to shoot for. Peace. |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 9th, 2007 11:48 AM ]...
Helix day 28. I had a few nice notes from people the last several days about Helix. I'm glad people have liked it. I haven't said much about the writing, mainly because it wasn't my part of the job.
I do write my own stuff. I do have opinions about the Helix script. But in the end they don't matter really. Only your opinion of it counts. If you like it, it's a good script. If not, depending on how much you feelings you have about it in the other direction, well again I'll leave it up to you.
Suffice to say for my part a number of people have told me they thought that my art made the story. That's nice, I've told them. Whether it's true, again is subjective.
I know I've always felt comic books, for me, were an art first medium. What I mean by this is, if I'm not grabbed by the art, I most likely pass on the book.
When I was 8 until I was about 15 or so, it didn't matter so much. I picked up everything. I read everything. I knew who all the artist were. I had my favorites, but other than being bummed when someone I liked changed books, it really didn't keep me from getting the next issue of what ever Marvel titles I was reading and collecting.
But by the time I was 18 that all began to change, dramatically. If I didn't like the art, I was much less interested in the title. I may have still collected for a while, but that too soon tapered off. In the end, it stopped me from buying a title altogether.
These days it's even more pronounced. I have to now really like both art and story. THAT is a tough call!
One of the reasons I haven't been interested in most indie stuff is, I can't get past the art. There have been a few, the Templesmith titles come to mind, along with Powers, which I've latched on to some. But for the most part, if the art doesn't grab me, the writing has almost no chance. That's how important the art is to me.
Now it may not be same for the rest of you out there. I know that the creator of Helix thought that SPIDERMAN was a success due to Stan Lee's writing. I personally do not think with out Steve Ditko art on Spider-man I would have fallen in love with the character. The other guys who drew Spiderman, for me never really did anything for me. But when I found the old reprints of the early Spiderman's, I was like, WoW, this is da bomb!
So, it's all subjective in the end. But I have noticed, almost ALL the biggest selling books have the best art in them. What does that say? What do I know? For me though, in comic books, the art always comes first, that's how you grab them. Then once they start to read, one can only hope the writing lives up to the art. Peace! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 8th, 2007 3:17 AM ]...
Helix day 27. Well...no one heeded my plea from yesterday for feed back, or to tell me how great I am. That was a joke, if you didn't know. But a bunch of you stopped by, so what could be better than that, right?
I've also noticed a lot of traffic on my storyboards gallery. I'm going to be adding more things to that shortly. I have a ton, but it takes time to scan. I recently came across some nice stuff that I'll fly up here.
As for today's page. On knock I'd heard on this job a while back was a certain lack of backgrounds on some of the pages. I was just looking at the page I just posted, and I was thinking about that. Could I have done more? Would it have helped? Would anyone have cared, but me? The answer is yes and no to all of those questions.
To my mind, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to draw in backgrounds that are going to be covered 60% or more by lettering. There was a LOT of copy in this script, and to see it just destroy something that I'd had to work real hard to create didn't seem logical to me.
I know in the old days of Marvel there were plenty of pages that there were little or no backgrounds in. Some of the greats like Buscema and Kirby as well a Kane did more than their fare share of this. And sometimes it even was the best decision!
Backgrounds are like supporting actors. They are there to help tell the story. BUT, they are not the story, nor should the get in the way of it by confusing it, or stealing the scene. It's a judgment call really to some degree. Some folk just don't like to draw them. One of my current faves is a fellow who use to do almost whole books without any. To a much lesser degree he does it still. But he's such a great designer, he can get away with it, for the most part. All that said, everything in the pictures of comics should help to tell the story, CLEARLY! If it doesn't, what is the point.
So would it have helped these pages? Maybe some, but not enough to really have any positive effect on the story. At least not with the shots I picked.
Would anyone have care? Not general readers, I don't think. In the case of this secret hideout, so little of it is shown, nobody would know what they are looking at. It would have taken some of the focus off the main players and what they were talking about. In the end, if I hadn't brought it up, I'm sure it wouldn't have been on the minds of all but a few. So, do I wish I'd done more? Yes and No! It's all hind sight. But when you're doing the job, you do the best you can in the given situation. That's what I tried to do.
Well day 27, thanks for sticking around. Best wishes to all. Have a great day. |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 7th, 2007 2:25 AM ]...
Helix day 26. I don't really use this comments section the way most of the other user do. I use it more like a daily blog. That said, I do wish there was a little more give and take on my page.
A few people have made me their fave. That's nice. Considering Helix is an unknown property, as I am for the most part in comics, I think the resposnce has been pretty good. But it doesn't hurt to hear it.
It seems like the readership is in the 40 - 50 a day neighborhood as far as regulars. Are these good numbers or bad I can't really say. Comicspace, from what they say has about 16,000 members. So in light of that, nobody would be thinking Helix is in danger of displacing the X-MEN at the top of the charts. But again, there are a lot more than 16,000 comic readers out there, so one might infer that there is some chance of the book catching on, if given the chance. In any case, it is what it is.
But getting back to my original point, if you stop by and say something I might get a better idea of who's checking out not only Helix but my other stuff. Any hoo, it's your call...Thanks for stopping by. PEACE! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 7th, 2007 12:25 AM ]...
Helix day 25. The art on this page was part of a slow reveal of the situation Helix was in. What I wanted to do originally was a slow fade up which you would have seen as white blury circles in panel one of page 24 and then a slow fade up of color and more colored circles in the 2nd panel of that page cripper colors in panel 3 and then finally on page 25 the full monty of the circumstance as it was. As is you're getting only about 50% of the effect intended. Also in book form you would have seen this page as you turned from the previous page, so it would have been, or was supposed to be, more of a surprise. I guess it works to some extent with the format it is now being seen in, but not so much by design as luck. Anyway just more directors babble. Who cares, huh. Chow. |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 5th, 2007 1:24 AM ]...
Helix day 24. Hail hail the gang's all here. The RAF is in da house! What a motly crew this is huh? Well...until next time...tah tah! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 4th, 2007 4:21 PM ]...
Helix day 23. Well I again lost what I was writing last night. My error of course. When will I ever learn. I always try to spellcheck this thing, and since there is no way to do it on this site I import it into my yahoo mail and do it there. But if I've for some reason FORGOT to copy it to paste into my mail program, when I go back to this site, it's gone.
Any hoo, what I was writing about was the costume designs and their short comings. While on the surface they looked pretty cool, they were just flat lifeless sketchs. How they would work in pratical terms was left to be worked out by me.
Some may look at this as fun, but when you're drawing for a living, any extra work, that makes the job longer and you're not being paid for, is not a good thing. The landlord doesn't want to hear you haven't been paid yet because you're doing extra work and the job is taking longer.
So when a character that looks cool but has a funny looking mouth, and you have to figure out how it works, from every angle, that's not usually a two minute job. When they have crazy teeth and you need to figure out how the close their choppers, not as much fun as you'd think. It slows everything down. When you have a character designed where you've got to tell the creator " it looks cool but the guy can't even walk if his legs operate the way you have them now." well let's just say that's pretty much how the whole thing went. All that said, it worked out.
As for the art on this page, the first panel was the punch line, no pun intended, to the previous page. The action was fast and furious, so all the little quick cut panels added to that. I would have liked to spread this action over a few pages, but the creator had so much dialog going on in this script, it would have added another three pages over the target number of pages on which I was trying to end issue one. Thus the problem was solved this way.
Anyway, Helix day 23 in the books, on the net, in your life, face, whahoooo! CHOW! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 3rd, 2007 3:59 AM ]...
Helix day 22. Well it's all superheroing from here on out.
I don't know if I'm all out of things to say, or just tired from one of those days.
One of the things about this business of doing art for a living is, doing the art is only half the problem. Dealing with clients or possible clients is the other half, and sometime the most draining.
It's like that in most businesses, with one exception. In most other fields you are not asked to create something from thin air, all day long. Oh and one other part to that, it should be great, if at all possible. Oh yeah, can I get it yesterday, for almost nothing too? If I don't have to pay better still.
It can take the life out of you. That said, this is what I do. I enjoy being my own boss. Anyway for the 823 hits for Helix so far...thanks.
In the coming months I hope to be posting a lot of new orignal material. Some comics. Some not. For sure though, something new every day. For now it Helix. Thanks again. PEACE! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 2nd, 2007 3:36 AM ]...
Helix day 21. Well it's been three weeks now of Helix. It's really flown by fast. I'm not big on the thanks for the add stuff, but I am truly grateful for those who have stopped by to check this stuff out.
What it means, I'm not sure, but I guess Helix has been good enough to generate a little bit of an audience. This will sound silly, but, I'm happy for him.
He could have been just a something waiting to happen but never was, but NOW he's had his day, his say. He's in cyber space and in some way he may now, live forever. Funny.
Last night I touched on some of the artist I like in comics today. After I'd went to bed, I thought of a few more that I wanted to mention. These people, IMO, are the best in AMERICAN comics today.
Why I say that is, there are a lot of folk working around the world who are doing great work, but I seldom get to see unless some collection is published over here. But what this is really about is just acknowledging these people who I think are as far as the genre they're working in, the best in the world today.
Artist like, Lark, Land, Cassidy, Maleev, Omeing, Cooke, Hitch, Quitely, Rivera, S. Phillips, Fregredo, Garney, J.Lee, Mignola, Immonen, Templesmith, Risso, the guy from 100 BULLET'S, have all been doing just GREAT WORK.
A few guys like Guice, A.Davis, Epting, A.Ross, Dodson, Weeks, T.Sale are old school, but still seem on the up tick. Now don't think I don't think the Kubert brothers are not great, nor the same for Jim Lee, Frank Miller, Cho, Romita Jr. or a few others of the SUPER FAN FAVORITES. I always look at their stuff, but they're work is so stylized, it's like there is nothing more to be said. They do what they do, it works, end of story.
These other guys though, for me at least, are little more hard to define. They all can REALLY draw, but they're all doing it in a different way. They have different IDEAS about story telling with pictures, and to my mind they're at the fore front of an advanced way of conveying ideas in comics with pictures.
Again, don't get me wrong, I think Lee and the other guys I mentioned are doing great work also, but what they are doing, again in my mind, isn't advancing the medium as much any more. Okay, now I'll burn in hell.
Anyway, I just wanted to give some credit where I thought it was due. I'm sure I've forgotten a few I wanted to mention, but I've at least touched on a few more than the day before.
Now Helix. Someone said the other day the art had a very 80's feel. I know they meant it in a good way, but art wasn't intended to look like that really, if it indeed does. When you hear it, it really does make you feel the work is dated. That said, again what I was trying for was to make each page exciting to look at, but to STILL clearly tell the story. I felt I owed it to the creator of the book, since he was trying to sell it to the various companies.
A lot of comics I look at today, even by some fan faves, whom I didn't mention today, I've found their work hard to look at. What I mean by that is, I can't clearly see what's going on, on the page. I'm not in to some old fogy notion that you shouldn't go for something wild and clever on the page. But just as in music, when everything is loud all the time, it ceases to sound loud. But the moment everything gets quite, then loud again..KaPOW! It's a blast in the face.
Today, a lot of comic book artist seem to think every panel / page should be KAPOOOWWWW! All the time. Well to my mind, and eye, it doesn't work. But these people are working and some of them are fan favorites, so what do I know.
On this page, it's all really about the acting, the feeling of what's going on. Telling the story. At the time I did the little digital read out on the decoding device, I hadn't really seen that done in comic, though in film it was old hat. I remember being proud of that at the time. Who knows, I'm probably not even right about my assumption.
Anyway, when I first started drawing comics I use to hear all the time, it's all about telling the story. But all us young turks, we all wanted to do something wowie! Well guess what, I still do. I just know there is a time and a place for everything. Chow. |
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[ Posted by SPARK on May 1st, 2007 2:02 AM ]...
Helix day 20. Well dis is da stuff everybody's been waiting for. Our boy doin' some super heroing stuff. Full costume, da whole wazooo! ZIP ZAM WOW!
You know, when most books are being created, there's a whole bible of things. Costumes. Back story on characters. Maybe sketches of where they frequent most and so on. Here there was really nothing but a few costume designs. They themselves were real flat and had no life. Life had to be breathed into them. Everything was done on the fly really. In light of that, I think the job came out quite nicely.
Here Helix is flying around. I wanted to give a sense of excitement. Not just to the panels and what they contained, but for him also. He was really just getting to test this new hot roded gear out. He was doing it solo. Back in his own element, so to speak, and I tried to make the pictures reflect some of that.
After all the taking heads stuff for pages on end we now got to see some of what makes superhero comic so exciting. The idea that a guy, not to much different maybe from you and me, might be able to do these things with reckless abandon!
When I was a kid, I remember my first SPIDERMAN comic. It was so great. It made me laugh! Spiderman was so cool. I had to tell my dad all about it. In retrospect, I really can't imagine what he was thinking when his 8-9 year old was trying to relate all this nonsense to him. But MAN, I loved those books.
There was a time I would have died to draw him. Or most any other main stream title. I loved comics. Superhero comics! I never really cared for the underground type stuff. Whether it way Pekar, the Freak Brothers or most of the other indie stuff, outside of Richard Corben's work. It just bored me. And in most cases, it holds true for today.
I don't really read much comics anymore, but the first EARTH-X killed me! John Paul Leon's art was killer, off the charts really, and the writer, whom I'd never heard of did a wonderful job with Alex Ross's plot. Sans that, not much has caught my fancy, though Mr. Bendis's POWERS Conan send up I loved, as well as the Ben Templesmiths detective monster piece.
So you can see, I'm all over the map with what I like these days. Guys like Tommy Lee Edwards and John Paul are my faves, but Ashley Woods, and the guy who does ROCKETO I love also. The fella doing the New Spirit comic I'm also wild about.
What does this have to do with Helix. Well not much, other than, there was a time when this might have been my whole life, and I'd been happy doing it. It really is an endless play ground. But for what ever reason, nobody really wanted to let me do it. So it, and I, kind of drifted away. I can only wonder what might have been. Helix is a glimpse, but only that. Well...until tomorrow..PEACE! |
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[ Posted by SPARK on Apr 30th, 2007 12:50 AM ]...
Helix day 19. Well we're coming up on three weeks of the Helix story. For me the real story is yesterday we had over 100 peeks. I was quite surprised, in a very good way.
One friend of mine, a composer was quite taken how good the art was when he looked at it yesterday. He usually only sees me and my work when we're out at the cafe. Then I'm usually drawing on napkins. And even though the drawings are quite nice most of the time, this was still a little more than what he was expecting. That was nice to hear also.
Not much really to say about this page. It's meant to be the punchline to the previous page. This type of shot has been done in comics before, but I didn't swipe it. It simply was the best shot for the situation.
Well from here on out, it's on! Let the " SUPERHEROING " begin! Thanks for all those who've come on board to check this out. It was and still is a on going experiment. Tomorrow we hit the gas a bit. For now... Chow! |
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