Lovern Kindzierski Looks Back at P. Craig Russell 2002 Spectre Colored Covers

You cannot be more understated than what colorist Lovern Kindzierski said the other day.

And then there were the Craig Russell Spectre covers I coloured.

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One of my favourite Craig Russell covers! I love playing my colours off of a stark white.

 

 

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Craig Russell, orange and me!

 

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Craig Russell and me-self muddling about with that Spectre fellow.

 

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I hope this Craig Russell / Lovern Kindzierski piece doesn’t bug you.

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SmashPages Q&A: Tim O’Shea on Interviewing Comics Creators

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I first got to know Tim O’Shea in 2008, when he interviewed me about a new blog I had started, Good Comics for Kids. Later on, when I joined the Robot 6 team, he welcomed me warmly and was always quick with a kind word.

Tim blogs here at SmashPages now, but you can find his older comics interviews, as well as his music and other pop-culture writing, at his blog Talking with Tim. When he was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier this year, he asked me if I would be interested in interviewing him, and we spent a lot of time on the phone talking about comics and other matters, including his struggle with depression. This Q&A is edited from those transcripts.

I came to know you as a comics blogger. When did you start reading comics?

The first comic I read was in 1975. It was a Fred Flintstone comic. It was a piece of shit. I hated that I read it and I didn’t read another till 1977. I have read comics ever since on a daily basis.

When did you start writing about comics, and what made you make that transition?

Jennifer M. Contino [the writer for the early comics site The Pulse] had no time to interview Geoff Johns about Stars and Stripes so she said “Could you?” I had never done it, but she said “Give it a try!” David LeBlanc of CBEM [Comic Book Electronic Magazine, a now-defunct website] ran it.

When I realized I was good at writing I started doing it.

Did you ever aspire to make your own comics?

No, because I enjoy comics and I enjoy helping people succeed in comics and I enjoy reading comics. I don’t aspire to do my own comic book, I aspire to help promote people and for people to succeed. All I want is for Jeff Parker to write two titles that can make sure he pays his bills and has time to spend time with his family. I want every single person who wants to be active in comics to be active in comics. I don’t want to be the guy who Tom DeFalco can’t get a job because I am competing with him.

You are particularly known for your interviews. How do you approach an interview? How do you prepare for it? Is there a particular balance of questions you are looking for?

I always go back to past interviews I have done, and I look at Tweets where they have talked about aspects of things. I prepare by doing 10 questions. I say “Once I get you the questions, ignore or revise them to satisfy your needs, because if I am asking you about shit that doesn’t matter to you you are going to talk shit and we are both going to be pissed off.”

The way I do an interview that is balanced is I engage the person in a way that gets them to consider something they hadn’t been thinking of before I told them that. I had an interview with Scott Allie about a Dark Horse issue where Kevin Nowlan was drawing 20 different Murder She Wrote-type characters in this book because that was amusing the hell out of Scott, the writer. All of a sudden I said, “Take out Jerry Orbach, who were the best guest stars on Murder She Wrote?” And Scott said “Well, fuck! Thanks for taking out Jerry. Now we can talk about the others.” The number of people in Murder She Wrote who got blacklisted and couldn’t work for years was astounding.

The way I do an interview that is balanced is I engage the person in a way that gets them to consider something they hadn’t been thinking of before I told them that.

What’s the hardest part?

I didn’t do phone interviews until the past year because my depression made it that I thought I was always going to get facts wrong. When I first started doing email interviews, so many people wouldn’t do them. Then there were a lot of years when nobody wanted to do a phone interview. I have gone through waves of never being able to interview anybody, then everybody wanting to interview me, and now I have a balance. If I can figure out a way to auto-transcribe stuff I will probably go to phone interviews by 2016.

The hardest part is people who will not do an interview with me. Gail Simone. [Tom] Spurgeon has been reluctant to be interviewed by me. Kurt Busiek I would interview every week if I could, but he will interview with me once every blue moon.

Is there an interview, or maybe more than one, that you are particularly proud of?

There are numerous ones, but for now the one that will stand out is the one with Joshua Cotter several years ago where he point blank discussed in detail his depression, because of the number of people that recognize themselves in Josh and because of the number of people that reached out to him. The fact that he took that risk, he changed people’s lives—how can you not be proud of that interview?

Sales of Value: TwoMorrows Publishing

Happy Holidays! Now through December 1, get 40% off books and magazines at www.twomorrows.com! 

It’s our Annual TwoMorrows Holiday Sale, and we’re getting it started well before Black Friday, to make sure everyone gets their orders in time for the holidays. Save at least 40% on:

Alter Ego
Back Issue
Draw
Comic Book Creator
Jack Kirby Collector
Modern Masters
How-to Draw Comics publications
Artist Biographies
American Comic Book Chronicles volumes
Companion Books
even BrickJournal and LEGO publications!

For easy ordering, you can download an interactive PDF file of our full catalog by clicking this link:

http://www.twomorrows.com/media/2015CatalogOnline.pdf

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Smash Pages Q&A: Jim Gibbons and Ryan Yount on Stela


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You need to understand one thing about a guy as talented as Jim Gibbons. There are some people that are born to be leaders — born to be damn good editors. I firmly believe Jim came out of the womb that way. There are few comics editors that I put on par with Tom Brevoort. Jim is on that par. He has never steered me wrong when it came time to praise a note. To learn he is one of the leaders of the new Stela venture does not surprise me and it makes me want to think that this thing will succeed out of the gates. To say I was eager to talk to him about this goes without saying and I can’t wait to see what is store for Stela in 2016. Please enjoy the interview as much as
I did.

Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Jim Gibbons and Ryan Yount on Stela”

The Moment: Huck 1

huckIn this week’s edition of The Moment, I detail how in some ways Huck reminds me of Mark Millar’s 1998 Superman Adventures run.

Superman Adventures remains the high point so far 0f Millar’s work, serving return to that form dating as far back as 1998. Huck is an incredibly likeable character in the way he is characterized in these first two issues there’s an unseen optimism to him I don’t know if it will last but all I know is it’s really a refreshing change from a lot of comics currently on the market. The moment that hooked me was from issue 2 when he could have quit but he chose to presevere and help people as he always does.

Rafael Albuquerque on art is merely icing on the cake. 

 

 

 

Must Read: Chris Mautner Chats with Bill Griffith

Chris Mautner interviewed Bill Griffith ostensibly to discuss Griffith’s new graphic memoir, Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Secret Love Affair With a Famous Cartoonist. During the SPX Q&A it became clear that he had many topics he wanted to cover.

Well, luckily Zippy just rolls out of me every day. I get up about 9:30 a.m. and I go for a walk – about a mile-and-a-half walk. Inevitably, when I come home I have at least one if not three strip ideas. A walk literally jogs them out of my head. I write them down while I’m walking and I come home and I do either one or two Zippy strips. It’s a little bit like writing in my diary.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Fred Van Lente on Valiant’s ‘Ivar, Timewalker’

ivarIt astounded me to learn that Fred Van Lente‘s Ivar, Timewalker (published by Valiant) was initially slated to be a four-issue project. One part love story three times the adventure the story stars two versions of Neela Sethi (thanks to time travel) the tale deserves and has 12 issues to tell its story. For my money that is a hell of a compliment that Valiant gave Van Lente and Sethi that much freedom. Fortunately she has Ivar, Timewalker, in her corner. Now it’s down to history’s most jaded, most tempestuous time traveler to stop the worst of everything that is, was, and will be…before time runs out!

Tim O’Shea: Who is to blame –I mean credit –with issue titles like let’s not kill Hitler seriously those titles are absolutely hilarious.

Fred Van Lente: Thanks. Originally, the title was Let’s Kill Hitler but then Clayton posted some inks of the story on Facebook and somebody told him that was already the title of a Dr. Who episode. I have seen exactly two — well, now three — episodes of Dr. Who in my entire lifetime and I went and watched that one on Netflix as soon as I saw the Facebook post. The two stories don’t have much to do with each other beyond that killing-Hitler part, but since the whole point was you can’t kill Hitler I thought I should change the title to differentiate ourselves from the episode.

Am I right in thinking the time travel aspect is the most logistically complicated element of the story?

Sort of. Making sure the time-tossed characters are all consistent — like older Neela still sounds like Neela and younger Ivar still sounds like Ivar, that’s sort of the complicated part, depicting these two people at such different parts of their own lives, which, thanks to time travel, are so consistently at odds with each other.

How early in the planning of the story did you realize Armstrong needed to be part of the plot?

I went a couple rounds with the editors as to who exactly would go with Ivar on his suicide mission to rescue Ivar from the end of time. After a couple discussions I just realized his immortal brothers were the most fun choice, as well as the most logical, as who else could survive a trip to the end of eternity but some immortals?

Are there members of the cast that ended up with expanded roles because you grew to like them?

Definitely the Lurker, who was just a one-off bit in #2 that the editors loved and begged for me to bring him back. I think people just liked his truncated text message-speak, kind of like an extreme version of newspeak from 1984. Also the fact he’s basically 4chan come to life, which is a terrifying thing to even type…

How much of the success of the series can be credited to the art team.

All of it. Clayton is such a great designer, and Francis kills the far-future bits with his design, and Pere is so good at the acting and action. I’d be nothing without them.

The 5 Guys bit was an instant classic. How did it come about.

I really like 5 Guys!

OK the Juggalo Clowns of issue 9 how did you pull that gem off?

Well, I already knew that I was going to do the Roman dinosaurs — seemed like a natural fit, what with their Latin names. And I needed another historical mash-up to kind of introduce the idea that the multiverse is made up of infinite numbers of recombinations of matter. I wish I could even remember what the other candidates were. The first thing I thought of may have just been Clown Vikings, and I was like, “Full stop. That’s it!”

How critical is Tom Brennan to the success of the series?

Very. He’s been a tireless advocate for the book and great sounding board for making it better, exactly what I want from an editor.

Was it always set to be a 12 issue series.

No, it was originally four, but Valiant was very cool about letting me extend the story and flesh out the characters to tell the tale I wanted to tell. It was very generous and not something every publisher would do.

Anything we neglected to discuss?

The ending is coming soon. The team is pretty happy with it, I’m not sure. I hope people dig it. There’s a moment that pretty much sums up the idea of the whole series. I hope it lands. Time will tell!

Ha ha, that was totally unintentional humor, I swear…

1990s Era Color Guide by Walt Simonson

As part of a larger piece on the comics coloring process by Glenn Whitmore Smash Pages uncovered a 1990s era color guide by Walt Simonson, along with this supplemental contextual data.

The separator, which for much of comics history was Chemical Color Plate in Connecticut, would make nine acetate prints of the original art, one for each percentage of each color.

The black and white artwork – originally drawn at twice the printed size, then 1½ times, and currently slightly less than that — was photographed, reduced and printed on sheets of clear acetate. Nine copies were made of each page – one for each of the three percentages of the three colors – and these were turned over to a separator.

Using the colored artwork as a guide, areas on the acetates would be filled in with an opaque paint (Rubylith) to correspond to the color(s) necessary.

Once the color guides were fully “translated” and the acetates were finished, they would be photographed with appropriate screens to create a single version which included the percentage dots and the solid of one color. These three new pieces of film, along with a fourth clean version of the art which was used to make the black, were used to make the printing plates.

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Enjoy This Karl Kesel Treat from 1991

Today on Karl Kesel’s Facebook page he treated fans to a 1991 Throwback Thursday flashback:

“FEMALE FURIES, “NEW.” I’ve always loved Kirby’s “bad girl” characters, the Female Furies, with the original five each clearly reflecting a different stereotype/archetype of woman— Barda = Amazon, Lashina = Dominatrix, Stompa = Butch Dyke (this was the late 60s, after all), Mad Harriet = Hag, Bernadeth = Spinster. But the Furies are an entire battalion— there are a LOT more where those came from! So in 1991’s Hawk & Dove #21, I came up with a few more. Again, I tried to make each represent a type of woman— Gilotina = Girl Next Door, Speed Queen = Rebellious Teen, Bloody Mary = Seductress, Malice Vundabarr = Brat. (Gilotina first appeared and was named in a few Kirby Mister Miracle panels— but I gave her her personality and outlook.) Bloody Mary never quite jelled as a character (odd, because she seems to be the strongest, high-concept-wise) but I’ve always really liked the others. I actually stranded Gilotina in Project Cadmus for a while, and started a romance between her and Tommy (the typical boy-next-door). Of course, I’d revisit the Furies again when Tom Grummett and I introduced Superboy to a lady named Knockout a few years later. Side Note: Malice’s pet “Cheshire” was renamed “Chessure” in the printed comic, combining “cheshire” with “pressure.” It seemed more “Kirby” to me.”

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Michel Fiffe in Praise of Jerry Ordway

Today Michel Fiffe took to his Facebook page to admire Jerry Ordway’s work–his Superman covers in particular.

Today’s inspiration: one of my favorite Jerry Ordway covers.

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Adventures of Superman 439: Today’s inspiration

When I asked Fiffe what makes Ordway so strong for him this was his answer. “The composition, the draftsmanship, the linework, the duo shade tones, the characters and the suspense portrayed, the color, the paper, the subjective nostalgia, the objective technical skill, the context of both the story and artist in relation to the title and its placement in the art form.”

I then contacted Fiffe offline to see if he could name for more covers of note, within minutes he did.

Adventures of Superman 424
Adventures of Superman 424

Back in 2013 Ordway revealed a cover that ended up not working, as well as the selected uncolored version.

Aborted Adventures of Superman 441
Aborted Adventures of Superman 441

 

Uncolored Final Version of Adventures of Superman 441
Uncolored Final Version of Adventures of Superman 441

 

Colored Final Version of Adventures of Superman 441
Colored Final Version of Adventures of Superman 441

 

Adventures of Superman 444
Adventures of Superman 444

 

Superman 44
Superman 44

Tony Harris’ Special Moment with A Fan at NC Comicon

Tony Harris is a creator who has always fostered great relationships with his fanbase. This weekend he is at NC Comicon. I was impressed by a comment Harris made on Facebook.

This young lady stole the show- really an amazing moment for me.

To get the full context you need to visit genderthief’s (the fan) Instagram account.

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Recent Wilfredo Torres Process Pieces for ‘Jupiter’s Circle’

In recent days Wilfredo Torres has taken to Instagram to post a few process pieces for Jupiter’s Circle and Smash Pages thought it would be great to rerun a few of them here.
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