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Home , Adrienne Roy, Blue Bolt, Kirby Krackle

To What Extent Has Digital Art Changed the Industry? Jack Taylor

Over time, artists have used a wide variety of techniques and styles to create comic books, they convey and explore the narrative they are illustrating. Traditional Art refers to artwork created using conventional resources and materials. This could include the use of paints, inks or coloured markers which can be found in Killing Girl (Image Comics, Toby Cypress, 2009). This style of comic book making strongly contrasts the style of Digital Art which allows the artist more freedom to create their work. Digital Art directly refers to artwork created using technology such as a tablet or computer, this style of digital art can be found in Justice League (DC Comics, Jorge Jimenez, 2018).

Comic books were originally designed by the Japanese during the 18th century in the form of woodblock prints that were aimed at less-literate readers due to the illustrated narrative. These books focused on shorter narratives based around Japanese folk law and historical accounts, the books were created in the Kibyōshi genre which is well known for its influences on modern manga.

The creator of the Kibyōshi genre was Koikawa Harumachi who developed ideas about Japanese picture books into a format aimed at everyone rather than just less-literate readers. Harumachi’s thoughts on illustrated narrative became “Master Flashgold's Splendiferous Dream” (Harumachi,

1775) which is regarded as one of the first true comic books. Despite creating this new art form,

Harumachi received negative attention from the authorities and later died in 1789 to illness however many believe that Harumachi was ordered to commit suicide.

Pages taken from “Master Flashgold's

Splendiferous Dream” (Koikawa Harumachi,

1775)

The first ideas of western comic books appeared in 1842 with the first printing of “The Adventures of

Obadiah Oldbuck” which is widely regarded as the first American prototype comic. These prototype comics appeared more frequently heading into the 19th century, this began the Platinum Age of comic books (1897-1938). This era was mainly formed through full stories, towards the end of the

Platinum Age, the comic book format changed once again to focus on individual issues. In 1938

Action Comics #1 was released and became the first comic made by DC Comics and started the

Golden Age (1938-1956).

Page from ‘Action Comics #1’

Artwork by Joe Shuster (1938)

After World War 2, comics began to lose popularity and eventually the industry began to

drop. However, with the introduction of the Comic Code Authority, comic book producers continued

to make comic books that applied to these terms which led to the Silver Age of comic books (1956-

1972). Towards the 1970’s, comic books became much more complex this changed the initial

formula of the Silver Age. This style of comic books became the Bronze Age (1973-1985). These comics were typically longer due to the more advanced storylines and a more detailed structure which became a very common format. At the end of the Bronze Age, computer-based art initially appeared with the release of Shatter (Peter B. Gillis, 1985) that was purely created on a computer using a mouse to create pixelated line art. The industry evolved once more into the Steel Age (1986-

2015), this age was used by creators to redesign and refine their best-selling characters for a new target audience. During the early 1990s digital art continued to grow using 3D models and early photoshop editing, one of the comics produced by this formula was Digital Justice (Pepe Moreno,

1990). The most recent advancement in comics is known as the Diamond Age (2016+) which has opened the industry to new artists and their ideas on comic book creation. There has also been a drastic rise in independent comic book producers with the increased use of digital art in the creative industry.

(Left) Cover from ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’

#7 (George Perez, 1985)

(Right) Cover from ‘Flashpoint’ #1 (Andy Kubert, 2011) When thinking about this essay, one of the main artists I wanted to study was who played

a major part in comic book industry from the early 1940’s to the 1990’s. Kirby is often referred to as the ‘king’ of comic books due to his diverse artwork and heavily creative stories. Many comic book artists are known for creating famous characters but Kirby created atmospheric worlds for the reader. Kirby first rose to fame during the Golden Age of comic books when he created Captain

America for in 1941. Jack Kirby then went on to work with to create many iconic characters of during the 1960’s which saved the company from bankruptcy. As well as working for Marvel Comics, Kirby also worked with DC Comics () in the 70’s to produce the ‘’ (1971) and ‘’ (1972), it is rumoured that Kirby left Marvel Comics during the 60’s due to the lack of credit that was given for his artwork. Jack Kirby has appeared in the news recently after his grandson released the first ever sketch Kirby did of Black Panther, one of the characters that he created during the 1960s.

Picture of Jack Kirby’s first artwork of Black Panther

When Jack Kirby was working on comic books during the 1960’s and 1980’s digital artwork was only just emerging in the comic book industry, Kirby didn’t live to see this new technology and died in

1994. Jack Kirby worked purely using traditional methods and followed the standard of creating comic books during the 1960’s to 1980’s which used a range of papers and four main inks to produce

the different colours. These inks were cyan, magenta, yellow and black and could be found in older comic books. Before printing, Kirby would work with a writer to produce initial sketch pages and layout ideas; these ideas would then be finalised into a refined issue and inked by hand. With the inked copy produced, a colour sheet was produced which was annotated with colour codes to be used when printing.

Unlike other comic book artists at the time, Jack Kirby had a defined style and used a famous technique called the ‘’ when creating his work. This ‘Krackle’ used in many superhero and science-fiction comics to produce artwork that uses extensive dots to create an interstellar background that revolves around the specific story or book. The ‘Kirby Krackle’ also features explosions, blasts from guns and unspecified energy, this style of dot work could be compared to the work of Roy Lichtenstein whose work feature similar dots and use of bold colour. This became one of Kirby’s defining features as an artist with the majority of his pieces using this fractal imagery, the technique has been used by Kirby frequently and has been traced back to his work on ‘’

(Jack Kirby, 1945) which features early ideas Kirby had about the ‘Krackle’. The ‘Kirby Krackle’ is also referred to as the ‘Kirby Dot’.

The Kirby Krackle in Action – Piece Taken from Jack Kirby’s 1971 Portfolio

Jack Kirby might have had a unique style of work through the use of the ‘Kirby Krackle’ but his work didn’t truly shine until the colourists came in to make the artwork dramatic and have heavy influence on the story. One of the most famous comic book colourists was Adrienne Roy who coloured hundreds of DC Comics publications during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Roy is well known for her 189 issue run of ‘’ as well as her work on ‘The New ’ (Perez, 1985); she always worked on many other projects and became one of the most iconic colourists of the Bronze Age of comic books. Adrienne Roy uses bold colours when colouring her work, this colour creates the environment for the story and really amerces the reader into the story by conveying it through the artwork. A prime example of this is in ‘Batman #495’ (1993) where we see a barrage of vibrant yellows and reds to indicate to the reader that the panel is taking place in a burning building. The idea to also show the main hero in these tones is executed perfectly and used to show the audience that he is in danger. The typography on the page is also shown in a similar yellow but contrasts the black text making it easy for the audience to read. Roy also uses pure black shadows in her work as a method to create mystery and to outline specific characters. Unfortunately for Adrienne Roy, as computer colouring systems became more popular in comic books she couldn’t match or compare with the quality of colour, this lead towards the end of her career. I decided to look into Adrienne

Roy due to her involvement with Bronze Age comic books and her inevitable downfall with the rise of digital colouring in the comic book industry.

The First Page of Batman #493 (1993) Coloured by Adrienne Roy

Another artist who made his debut through the use of traditional art is Jim Lee who started his

career during the 1990’s producing traditional comic based art. Lee is well known for his work on X-

Men (1971-1992) which was the work that introduced him into the comic book industry. Jim Lee is currently Chief Creative Officer at DC Comics and mainly produces cover art rather than creating and writing his own books, a notable example of Lee’s work is with the ‘Wildstorm’ (1992) series which

Lee founded himself before working with DC Comics to create ‘Batman Hush’ (2002-2003) and much later ‘Batman Europa’ (2016). Jim Lee has stood the test of time and survived the transfer to digital comics and even produced various digital pieces himself for publishers. Lee also has a very unique style that could arguably rival the likes of Jack Kirby, Jim Lee’s work is constructed using precise line work which adds detail and precision to his work.

As well as creating unique line art which shows clear expression and has a distinct focus on detail,

Lee also incorporates paint work into his artwork with some panels or pieces being created using watercolour paint rather than using the standard inking or digital colouring techniques of the comic book industry. These water coloured panels often used one or two colours with an emphasis on emotion. When researching the work of Jim Lee, I discovered that this technique is present in

‘Batman Hush’ (2002-2003) and appears more than once but showcases different emotions through the use of colour. The most defined panel that shows this idea can be found in ‘Batman #618’ (2003) in the form of a flashback that consists purely of shades of red with a contrasting black paint being used to clearly outline the character’s expression to the reader. This panel is deliberately coloured to show the pain and trauma that the character had gone through and to remind the reader that it had already happened, the shades of red are also used to separate the current events on the page from the flashback. The other panels on the page return to Jim Lee’s defined style to bring the reader back to reality and the climax of the story, these panels use strong solid colours with deep shading to define them for the reader.

Page taken from Batman #618 – Jim Lee’s use of contrasting techniques: Paint and Inks.

Jim Lee isn’t the only artist to use paint to create his work, one of the most well-known artists for

working in this style is Alex Ross who creates his artwork using gouache paints. Alex Ross first

worked on the 1994 miniseries ‘Marvels’ where he collaborated with writer Kurt Busiek from Marvel

Comics. Later in his career he produced another miniseries in 1996 called ‘Kingdom Come’ for DC

Comics which is described as a ‘dystopian epic’ (Holub, 2016) and is regarded to be one of the best painted comics ever written. As well as producing comic books, Ross spent 13 years publishing his own book, ‘The Art of Painted Comics’ (Ross, 2016) which shared his artwork and thoughts of painting in comic books. This book highlights the evolution of painted covers and shows early examples of painted comics and pulps, which are short stories with an illustrated cover that had inspired Alex Ross as an artist. One of pieces that appealed to me was the cover for ‘Double

Detective’ (Foster, 1940) which contains elements of the comic book formulae present in the modern age due to its use of bright colours and use of various typography.

Painted Cover from Double Detective (1940) with art by C. Calvert.

It is clear to see the inspiration that Alex Ross took from early Pulp covers and painted imagery in

advertising. His style reflects these ideas adding further realism to his work, Ross accomplishes this through his use of colour and tone when painting. The tones not only add realism but add shading to the work which helps define each character on the painting, Ross’ also uses minimal amounts of line art in his pieces which is made up for through darker shades creating the edges of each character which transforms his pieces from fictional character into portraits of everyone’s favourite superheroes. Alex Ross uses a variety of colours to create his work and focuses heavily on image over text with the majority of his work only containing small text boxes when compared to the average comic book. Similar to Jim Lee, Alex Ross has stood the test of time and has continued to create traditional based comic art in the modern age, this is likely due to his unique style and perspective on comic books when compared to the standard line art based comic artists.

Alex Ross Painted cover for Justice

Society of America #26 (2009)

With the rise of digital art, more artists have risen purely creating their work digitally with minimal amounts of traditional work. Jorge Jimenez is one of the most outgoing and inspiring digital comic book artists of the modern age due to his unique use of line and style. Little is known about

Jimenez’s personal life but he is currently working at DC Comics working on the current Justice

League run alongside iconic writer Scott Synder. Jimenez made his debut in 2016 for DC Comics with his updated designs for characters featured in the ‘Earth 2’ (2014) series of books, he is also well known for his work ‘Super Sons’ (2016) which he contributed both artwork and story.

Superboy designs by Jorge Jimenez for ‘Super Sons’ (2016) Jimenez has an excellent use of layout which complements his artwork on a page, an example of this is in ‘DC Nation #0’ (Jimenez, 2018) which features three short stories with the last one being drawn by Jimenez. The example have I chosen spans two pages and shows Jimenez’ ideas about layout and the importance of colour in his artwork. The layout of the page breaks the stereotypical mould of comic book structure and then some, this layout showcases Jimenez’ artwork through the use of bold colours which help define the dark outfits and colours used by the characters on the page. Black lines are used to separate the page spread into various sized shapes which progress the story in an easy to read format for the reader whilst maintaining a standard amount of text. Jimenez’ artwork has a strong use of texture which is shown thoroughly on the page and can be seen on the characters, shadows and backgrounds. To transition to the next page Jimenez cleverly uses a new coloured outline to indicate the change to the reader, this panel also features slightly brighter colours when introducing the new characters for the next page.

A double page taken from ‘DC Nation #0’

(2018) Inked and drawn by Jorge Jimenez using only digital art.

To conclude, digital art has drastically changed the comic book industry for the better. Digital art has

allowed many new artists to express themselves in a different media as well as letting the traditional

artists experiment with new ideas that could revolutionise their work. Digital art has also broadened

the definition of a comic book with unique artists creating and writing their own comics for

publishers or for freelance. Digital art is responsible for making comic books open to everyone rather

than just professional comic artists, this is due to the constant rise of digital art software such as

Procreate which is allowing more and more users to experiment and try digital art. Many artists such

as Jorge Jimenez, used digital art to start their career in comics and have overtime developed a

visibly identifiable style.

Despite the impact of digital art on modern comics, digital art and design has also heavily impacted

the creative industry with examples being in architecture with CAD software and in graphic design

with new editing software for creating advertising work. The impact of digital art spans across many

artforms and has developed the way many artists create their work beyond painting and sketching.

In my opinion, digital art has revived some elements of the comic book industry due to the range of

stories and art styles created through digital art. As a user of digital art myself, I can say it has developed my style as an artist an had a major impact on how I work and think as an artist.