NUMBER 4 THE “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS AND CARTOONING $5. 95 SUMMER IN THE U.S.A. 2002 THE SAVAGE PENCIL OF ERIK LARSEN A STEP-BY-STEP COLOR DEMO BY DAVE COOPER AN INTERVIEW AND TECHNIQUES WITH KEVIN NOWLAN PRODUCT REVIEWS BY ANDE PARKS C L L , S C I M FIGURE COMPOSITION O C T E BY BRET BLEVINS B S ’ A C I R E M A 2 THE DESIGN PROCESS 0 0 2 © BY PAUL RIVOCHE & M T K C I U Q . B K C A J THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS & CARTOONING SUMMER 2002 • VOL. 1, NO. 4 Editor & Designer • Michael Manley Publisher • John Morrow Logo Design • John Costanza Front Cover Illustration • Kevin Nowlan Proofreaders • John Morrow & Eric Nolen-Weathington FEATURES PENCILING A DISCUSSION AND DEMO WITH ERIK LARSEN . 3 DESIGN DESIGNING FOR COMICS AND ANIMATION PART 2: THE DESIGN PROCESS BY PAUL RIVOCHE . 26 DIGITAL COLORING A STEP-BY-STEP DEMO BY DAVE COOPER . 45 TECHNIQUE AN INTERVIEW AND DEMO WITH KEVIN NOWLAN . 50 THE CRUSTY CRITIC REVIEWS OF COMMERCIAL DRAWING PAPER WITH ANDE PARKS . 68 FIGURE DRAWING COMPOSING FIGURES BY BRET BLEVINS . 73 LETTERS COMMENTS FROM READERS ON OUR SECOND ISSUE . 90 SUBSCRIBE TO DRAW! Four quarterly issues for $20 US Standard Mail, $32 US First Class Mail ($40 Canada, Elsewhere: $44 Surface, $60 Airmail). 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All artwork herein is copyright the year of production, its creator (if work-for-hire, the entity which contracted said artwork); the characters featured in said artwork are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners; and said artwork or other trademarked material is printed in these pages with the consent of the copyright holder and/or for journalistic, educational and historical purposes with no infringement intended or implied. Batman, Superman, Batgirl, Man-Bat, Lobo,The Joker, Brainiac, Super Girl, are TM and © 2001 DC COMICS • Captain America, The New Mutants, The Human Torch, Wolverine,Nova, Colossus, Iceman, Katie Pride,Storm, Iron man, The Thing, Sub-mariner, Absorbing-man, Dr. Doom, Captain Marvell, Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, Sleepwalker, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Angel are TM and © 2001 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Dalgoda © 2002 Strnad and Fujitaki •The Savage Dragon and all characters © and TM 2002 Erik Larsen • The Phantom TM and © 2002 King Features Syndicate • Aliens Havoc © 2002 Dark Horse Comics, Aliens TM and © 2002 20th Century Fox. Vampirella TM and © 2002 Harris Comics • Tom Strong and Jack B. Quick TM and © 2002 America’s Best Comics, LLC This entire issue is © 2001 Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing and may not be reprinted or retransmitted without written permission of the copyright holders. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. FROM THE EDITOR Convention season is in full swing and I had a great time in Pittsburgh (despite the wrath of God rainstorm and tornado which shut down the show early Sunday afternoon). I also had a blast at the Wizard World East show, the best con in my own home town of Philly since Comicfest in the early ’90s. We need a good east coast show in a main event hall and this first year success will have me returning next year. I got to meet and hang out with many luminaries such as Darwyn Cooke, Mike Oeming, Jeff Amano, Neil Vokes, folks from Marvel and DC. By the time you read this I will be attending the annual San Diego con (mayhaps you are reading this while attending). This annual 5-day hazing event is a great place for me to see old friends and line up new artists to contribute to upcoming issues of DRAW! If you are attending the various cons like the Small Press Expo in Bethesda or the Baltimore Con s n i (www.comicon.com/baltimore ) I plan to be there so stop on by. v e l Speaking of traveling and being out and about, this is a great excuse to drag along a sketch - B t e book. That's right, don’t let the summer pass without recording some of the world that passes r B before your eyes down on paper. Oh it doesn't have to be formal—a small sketchbook, legal pad y b and a marker, mechanical pencil or ball point pen will do. See that sexy gal on the beach or n w standing in line to get some ice cream, or buff dudes strutting, tourists, kids at play, street scenes a r d and fare. There are thousands of opportunities to sketch down some doodles in your sketchbook. t l u s There’s thousands of characters out there waiting to be drawn, faces and body types you couldn't n I think up on your own. “See, observe, remember,” was the old Famous Artist School motto, and summer is a great time to put this to use. These doodles and drawings, while not formal, will I’m ready for my costume contest! inform your artistic eye long after summer’s warm days have given away to winter’s chill. So draw, draw, draw. You will find that this will make you a better and more observant artist. So if you see a big, sweaty man staring at you, smile—he's got a pencil in his hand. Best, Mike Manley , Editor The DRAW! message board is up and running, so please post feedback and ask questions at: http://66.36.6.76/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.actionplanet.com Snail mail: PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082 ADVERTISE with TWOMORROWS FULL PAGE : 7.5” wide x 10” tall — $300 Rates at left are for black-&-white ads, supplied on disk HALF PAGE : 7.5” wide x 4.875” tall — $175 (TIFF, EPS, or QuarkXPress files acceptable) or as camera-ready QUARTER PAGE : 3.75” wide x 4.875” tall — $100 art. Typesetting service available at 20% markup. Due to our INSIDE COVER OR BACK COVER : Please Inquire already low ad rates, no agency discounts apply. GET THE TWOMORROWS TWO-FER! Send ad copy and check or money order in US funds to: Prepay for two same-size ads in DRAW!, Comic Book Artist, TwoMorrows We also accept Visa Alter Ego, Comicology, or any combination, and save! (Display 1812 Park Drive and MasterCard! Please ads are not available for The Jack Kirby Collector .) Raleigh NC 27605 include card number and expiration date. FULL PAGE : 7.5” wide x 10” tall — $500 ($100 savings) Questions? HALF PAGE : 7.5” wide x 4.875” tall — $300 ($50 savings) Phone: (919) 833-8092 QUARTER PAGE : 3.75” wide x 4.875” tall — $175 ($25 savings) Fax: (919) 833-8023 INSIDE COVER OR COLOR BACK COVER : Please Inquire E-Mail: [email protected] 2 DRAW! • SUMMER 2002 ERIK LARSEN PENCILING THE SAVAGE PENCIL OF ERIK LARSEN One the cusp of the 10th anniversary of The Savage Dragon, (issue #100, approach - ing Jack Kirby’s his - toric numbers on the ’60s Fantastic Four) Draw! Magazine Editor Mike Manley catches up with Erik Larsen. N E S The only Image creator R A L still drawing his title K I R E since the first issue 2 0 0 2 (without a fill-in), © N Larsen gives forth on O G A technique, drive, com - R D E mitment and Jack G A V A S Kirby in this funny and E H T frank interview with one of the most dynamic creators work - ing in comics today. for a while and switch. I’ll talk to somebody and they’ll tell me how they work and then I’ll try it out to see how it works for me. These days I’m going right to the boards. It keeps changing. One of the things I like about going directly to the boards is the mistakes that result. If you plan things out too much in advance, if you figure everything out and DRAW!: I’d like to start off and ask how you go about adjust things there aren’t those wonderful “happy accidents” that approaching your work. Since you both write and ink the Savage you get when you just dive right into it. Your work can get very Dragon , how do you start? Do you work up roughs or layouts stiff and restrained when you’re doing too much preliminary from your script or plot and then transfer the art to the final drawing, I find. board? DRAW!: When you said you were blowing them up, what were ERIK LARSEN : At this point I’m going right to the boards and you doing? Were you blowing them up and then tracing them on start drawing but I tend to reinvent the wheel every so often. an art-o-graph, or tracing them on a light box? There was a long period where I was drawing out the comics on 1 8 ⁄ 2" x 11" paper folded in half and blowing them up. I’ve done EL: A light box. I’ve got a photocopy machine in the room with thumbnails at various other sizes as well.