silver age worship (infantino)

so i decided that just kirby lifts wouldn’t do me any favours. instead, i’m going to see what i can learn by remaking panels from a bunch of the greats of the silver age. i have a roster that i’d like to get through, as a form of research and development, but i won’t dare jinx it. to start things off, carmine infantino! great skill as an illustrator, responsible for one of my favourite silver age covers (link here). this panel is from the brave and the bold #67 (fall 1966), a flash and batman team-up.. don’t know the inker.

kirby worship

i spent way too much time on this. one of my favourite comic panels ever, from avengers #4.

further experimentation

i’ve been tracing a lot of stuff lately, both over a lightbox, and now with this tablet, trying to learn from other artists, and also becoming acclimated to this new tool. i’m trying to learn by physically going through the motions of the work. i’ve copied master drawings, like donatello’s, etc., but i feel like i’ve learned more from kurtzberg.

this space phantom is a direct lift out of avengers (vol. 1) #2, drawn by jack kirby with inks by paul reinman.

comics rule my life

i really can’t deny how important comic books are for me. two comics that i picked up this week made me more determined than i’ve been for a long time to work on my illustration and sequential storytelling, and MAKE SOME COMICS. the first was an old copy of mister miracle, a first printing from the early seventies. i think issue #7. jack kirby pencils and script, i think mike royer inks.. i’d only seen kirby’s silver-age stuff in reprints. this was the first time i could see the benday dots.. notice colouring or registration errors. read the charles atlas type ads, which are a lost art in themselves. the other one was jim rugg’s afrodisiac (adhouse books, out now), which is kind of a faux-silver-age blaxploitation collage which fetishizes the same period, and reproduces it in the contemporary context (small publisher, excellent printing, made in pre-press to look vintage).

i’ve been messing around, trying to master colouring my illustrations, and decided to pick up a wacom tablet almost on a whim. after a couple of hours messing around, here’s a little swipe i did of my brother.

drawing for august 18, 2008

drawing for august 12, 2008

drawing for august 11, 2008

drawing for august 10, 2008

drawing for august 9, 2008

drawing for august 8, 2008

going on vacation has caused me to realize that any break in structure and schedule can very easily derail an endeavor like this.. a valuable lesson has been learned about the circumstances of the ongoing project. in future, i’ll be planning around vacations so as to not put an unreasonable strain on my nerves. drawing in an unfamiliar city or in transit from one place to another is more difficult than i’d thought.