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

To What Extent Has Digital Art Changed the Comic Book 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, superhero 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 Jack Kirby 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 Timely Comics in 1941. Jack Kirby then went on to work with Stan Lee to create many iconic characters of Marvel Comics during the 1960’s which saved the company from bankruptcy. As well as working for Marvel Comics, Kirby also worked with DC Comics (Detective Comics) in the 70’s to produce the ‘New Gods’ (1971) and ‘Kamandi’ (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 ‘Kirby Krackle’ 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 ray 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 ‘Blue Bolt’ (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 ‘Batman’ as well as her work on ‘The New Teen Titans’ (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).

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