Thanks to Letterers; Spanish Edition of Customer

Recently, the letterer who helped me tell the story of The Customer Is Always Right, Haas Kage (FairPlayLettering.net), really did me a solid; one that allowed me to go international and bilingual. How you ask? I’ll save that for later. But in backing me up, he reminded me of the collaborative nature of comics and about one the key roles that often goes unheralded: the comics letterer.

I recently had the priveledge of spending a little time learning the art (and it is an art!) from master letterer Dave Sharpe via the auspices of Comics Experience and the Introduction to Lettering and Production Class. A Kubert school alum and a former Marvel Comics full-timer now freelancer, Dave started his career at Marvel lettering comic books just before the digital age. Today, he now works on dozens of books from a variety of publishers. Recently, he's lettered everything from Iron Man: Legacy to Batman: The Return.

Dave is a true craftsman. He was a great teacher. Funny, patient, and passionate about comics, he opened up a whole new world of comics understanding for me. He taught me all about layered essence of comic book production. Literally.

You see, using Adobe Illustrator to letter your comics, you work with an art layer, a balloon layer, a tails layer, etc. I learned about balloon shape and page composition and the thickness of stroke for emotion--and how do do special effects.

I don't know that I'm ready to step out there and do lettering and production all on my own. That's my goal, but I took the class to get a better understanding of the comics-making process. I learned a great deal, but in some ways the intangible aspects of the class were the most rewarding.

Taking the class was a lot like visting the soundstages on the Warner Bros. lot during filming (which is a much more intimate and real experience, as compared to Universal Studios). You get to see how the magic really happens. Dave showed my class how much work is involved in just lettering a comic. There are all kinds of decisions a letterer makes--making him or her a true artisan. Their work has a huge impact on the final product. In fact, many letterers also act as the production department for a publisher. So the letterer may also be merging the colored final pages with their balloon work and performing the pre-press functions for the publisher.

Anyway, the next time you enjoy reading a comic. Stop and turn to the credits. Look up who the letterer was. They literally made reading the book possible.

So how did Haas do me a solid? Well, my collaborator, Tomás, recently contacted me about doing a Spanish version of our story for a book he and some pals are putitng together. I thought this was a great idea--and it's going to happen--but here's where I got stuck. To save time and money, Tomás needed the art from our story with the balloon layer. You see, they could then just put Spanish words in maintaining the same balloons as the English version. Instant story. Except . . .

Prior to taking the lettering class, I had no idea about this kind of thing. I was so green, I only asked Haas for the final art files needed for printing. And he obliged. But now, months later, I contacted him again and he had the files we needed. What a pro! Then, bim, baam, boom, they cross the Atlantic via the Internet and my story is international.

So the lesson here--besides getting your files in a variety of formats from your collaborators--is that your collaborators are important. They can save your butt. Besides, of course, making your story possible in the first place.

Haas, when my copies come in, I'll be sending you a few.

Interview with Artist Tomás Morón, Part 1

It's my pleasure to present to you the first part of a two-part interview with my Customer partner in crime, Tomás Morón, who provided the spectacular art that goes with my words. You can check out his work here:
http://eldibujantesinpoderes.blogspot.com/


In this first part of our conversation, we discuss his influences, his technique, and his tools of the trade. BTW,if you haven't read our story yet, check it out to the right.

Let’s talk about your early influences: How did you get interested in drawing comics?

Well, I don’t remember exactly but I wanted to draw comics since I was a child. I always had a pencil in my hands and drawing all day. But the first time I remember wanting to do comics was when I first reading the Bruguera and Vertice comics (these were Spanish publishers with characters like Mortadelo, Superlopez; and Vertice did the Marvel Spanish editions) and the Mazinguer anime.

What are some of your favorite comics of all time?

There are so many, but some of I never tire of reading are Conan the Barbarian, from Barry Windsor-Smith and the early John Buscema issues; Mutant World, and all of Richard Corben's stuff; all of Alan Moore's Superman stories and some of the John Byrne issues. And some more current ones, such as Ultimates (the Millar issues), Ultimate Spider-Man, and Preacher. Garth Ennis rules!

Who are some of your biggest artistic influences from art, comics, film, etc.?

I think one of my big influences is John Buscema, but some of the others are Corben, Mike Wieringo, Carlos Pacheco, and, one of my friends, Juan Santacruz.

What comic books are you reading now or have recently read?

I’m waiting for every new issue of Invincible, The Walking Dead, Scalped, and Ultimate Spider-Man.

Now I’d like to know a little about how you draw. How do you begin working on a story? For example, do you highlight the script, take notes, then maybe sketch?

First, I read the script and began doing some little sketches for some of panels. And then I looked for some pictures for references for the guns, cars, of some real places, etc. I do the first layout of the pages, and then I do an scan of it and print in a big size to use like sketch for the final pencils. I use a light box for that, and when all is approved by the writer or publisher, I do the inks with brush and pens.

What kind of tools do you use? Do you work on paper or on a computer tablet?  What kind of pens, paper, etc., do you use?

I use paper for the drawing but the fx or the greys tones I do with the computer and my tablet, a Wacom. My pencil is a 2H, and if I have time, I like to ink with brush, “ Da Vinci “ number 2. If I have less time, I ink with pens of different sizes of Unipin line. The paper is Geler Mate.

How long does it normally take you to do a page?

With the first layout through the inks, maybe 1 or 2 days.

Your grayscale coloring is fantastic: it provides the story with a rich, deep luster.

Well, I like the Corben grayscales, and I try to do the same sense of volume and ambience.

...

Next time we'll talk about the story itself and get into the grisly guts of storytelling.

Here It Is: My First Story

Through the ingenuity of Alexander Graham Bell and his mad scientist step-children and their wonderful invention, the Internet, I'm able to present to you, just in time for Halloween, the bone-chilling suspense tale: The Customer Is Always Right.

A mysterious client. Veiled motives. A grizzled mob hit man. Blood and lots of it. The Customer Is Always Right is a dark tale about a young man who goes to hire a hit man—and it doesn’t work out for anyone. With a touch of wry humor, this tense story builds to an unexpectedly bloody conclusion.

If everything is working correctly, off to the right you should see a nifty little gadget that will allow you to read a version of this thrilling tale.

Many thanks to my collaborator Tomás Morón and to Andy Schmidt and my fellow creators at Comics Experience for all the feedback.

In the coming days, I'll have an interview with Tomás as well as many more items--not to mention more stories. Enjoy! And be sure to tell me what you think!

Jason Howard Sketch from Project Comic Con

Looking at all the great "sketches" I got at Project Comic Con, I was thinking about how it's kind of funny how con sketches have really become commissions at this point with everyone from the big names to the young unknowns doing insanely thorough work at cons. I remember being happy with some quick pencil roughs back in the day and now these guys spend nearly an hour or more on these babies.

Here's a wonderful pen and ink piece from Jason Howard, artist of The Astounding Wolf-Man and Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark. Jason was a great guy. We talked about his workload and technique as well as Robert Kirkman's little AMC TV gig and the finale of A-W with the big number 25 coming up.