Indestructible Hiulk 17 -- When artists run out of scripts

There might be some missing samples chronologically.  The Hulk that I posted last month was drawn six months before this current Hulk sample.

The Indescribable Hulk.

Hulk as a Shield agent.

Sort of fun, but I felt there was more Hulk material available to explore his character, some hard science questions about the Hulk and some such.

 Anyway, I went old school and found a recently published book Hulk 17 and drew pages in my style.  I did some things I was happy with and some things I am not so proud of.  The balance between a dynamic artist and  story artist was fought on these pages.  The nonsequitur pages were alright, but the question of whether to make Hulk in Attilan a  focus panel on page three was a struggle in dynamism.  I look at it now and know I would have gone in the dynamic direction if I did it again.  I've been readings some new books on comic book storytelling and they recommended redrawing a script multiple times until you get it right -- which I find rather intriguing.   Perfecting a script after multiple tries does not guarantee when you get a new script you will be able to perfect it on one try -- which is what a comic book assignment will be, but I am wiling to do it to learn new techniques.

Marvel Adventures

Last San Diego Comic Con -- I had some character designs and some pages and I made the rounds of companies that were reviewing portfolios.  While there an editor from one of the small comic book companies starts going over over my pages.  He sees that I have done a try out script from Darkhorse -- he's giggling about all the mistakes in the script that the artist is supposed to correct.

I was blown away by the attitude -- that artists are supposed to pass some sort of test.  Knowing how to draw and tell a story is not enough now you have to overcome the approved mistakes of the writer.  If the writer wants fifty things to happen in panels the size of postage stamps, it's the artist's job to make it happen.  Forget the quality of the art.

Which I guess leads to the devaluation of artist in the creation of comic books.  I've heard about this, but since I am now an occasional reader of comic books (including blogs about, online 'zines about or other related electronic media about)  I haven't heard or noticed.  Funny thing is, it is entirely understandable.  I didn't say reasonable I said understandable.  If you are looking to mine an art form to use in another art form -- namely comic books to movies, then you need the material that translates -- which is the writing.

Which further leads to people who do not understand or respect the medium to working in the medium.  Because they do not understand the medium, they write unreasonable scripts. For instance this portion of this scripts asks for multiple things happening in each panel which don't really work in this medium.  Because they do not respect the medium -- "it's like a movie, but with an unlimited budget" they devalue the work that the artist puts into crafting the material. Camera zooms -- moving from a long view to a close view, with multiple things happening, that in a movie would be throw away scenes, but because it is a comic book the scenes are vested with weight, because the reader pauses and can return to  images.  So the scene SHOULD have weight.  There should be nothing in the artwork that should be a throw away -- each panel and page should have portent and weight.  Each panel treated as Checkov's Gun. In this script the fight takes place in a parking lot filled with expensive cars.  With so much going on it is hard enough drawing all the actions, or show all the characters, then to show the types of cars -- when there is no payoff from the VALUE of the cars or TYPE of cars.  "Faugh, how dare you throw an inexpensive domestic car at me!" 

Amazing Spiderman 531

 As is my wont, I would pick up a current issue of  a book and do pages I picked up Amazing Spiderman 531.  The pages I decided to draw had several interesting features -- although I didn't know it at the time this was the beginning of Marvel's Civil War.  The Titanium Man played sniper, which I thought was silly considering the array of weapons at his disposal, also I couldn't imagine how he would use a standard rifle.  Spiderman had a new costume. And the pages I chose took place on the steps of Congress.  Lots of interesting stuff to draw and I overworked it, too much research, too many photo references, by the time I finished my sample it was too old (in my mind) to send to editors.  So some pages have more layout details than other pages.  I redesigned The Titanium Man's armor, created a shooting gadget for his sniper moment, and went nuts on Congress -- number of steps in front....