Trick or treat! I recently went to a comicbook convention in Boston, and I was talking about my work with Jim Steranko, ( yeah..."THE" Jim Steranko ) oKAY.....so I'm a shameless name dropper, so what else is new? ~ Anyway... Mr. Steranko was there to sign autographs, and I was fortunate enough to get to shake his hand, and hear some feedback about my portfolio. I must say the man was extremely kind to me. With a line of fanboys a good 15 feet long waiting to get his signature, he took the time to go through each and every page with me, and offer very helpful and constructive comments.
One thing he said I should do was to emulate some other comicbook artists for practice, and also that I need to "punch-up" my blacks...this is not the first time a top dog in the field has told me this, so I know it's a portion I still need to work on. Also while at the show, I bought a short stack of coverless comics for 50 cents a pop, Among them was an old INCREDIBLE HULK, with art by Marrie Severin who was not, to my knowledge, a regular artist on the Hulk run. Marrie was sort of the "Gal Friday" of comics, and much beloved by nearly every comic creator of the gold, and silver age. She got her start at the offices of EC comics in the 1950's as a secretary, and before long was being asked to do touch-up's, coloring, and corrections. It was interesting to see someone who did not have a buttload of experiance working their way through the monumental task of a 52 pager, and doing an okay job of it. It was actually very educational, and inspiring.
I looked at that comic and thought..." Alright, I'll give it a whirl. " So I chose some scenes I thought had enough action and drama in them. I mixed up the players, and changed a pose or two, re-wrote the dialouge to fit my new arrangement, and ...wha-la, my trick or treat HULK practice page was born. There are things I like about this page, overall it was a very good artistic workout, and though it is no prize winner I sure did learn a heck of alot.
Yaknow what else? When I was talking to Jim, ( Jim Steranko ya moron, haven't you been paying attention...sheeSH! ) He flipped through my pages, then came to a dead stop...flipped back one or two pages, stopped again and studdied the page with his hand cupped over his chin. Then he waved his finger at the page and said " This page I REALLY like... I like this one alot!" Then he went back to his place in succession. Now.... do you think this giddy fanboy thought to pay attention to which page he liked so well? .....Hell no, and it's been driving me cuck-koo ever since!
Enjoy your comics everyone!
1 comment:
Jim Steranko, that's amazing. To have one page that he REALLY liked is an accomplishment. That would thrill me to no end. It's too bad you didn't remember which page it was. I've been near Jim Steranko, but I've never talked to him.
The page you did from Marie Severin's art is a good exercise.
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