comicfoundry.com » 2006» June

Klaus Janson’s True Colors

BEING AN INKER IS A THANKLESS JOBS. Just ask living legend Klaus Janson, who’s worked on The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller’s Daredevil run (and subsequently penciled the series later) and the original Punisher series. Between these works and the rest of his storied career, Klaus has literally written the book on inking and has seen and done it all. I met with him in his New York apartment to talk about the past and his illustrious career and what he sees in the future of comics.

This is part one of Comic Foundry’s interview with Klaus. Part two will run this Friday, Aug. 19.

What do you think most people think inkers do?
I was having this conversation yesterday with an editor from Marvel, and I think most people think inkers are tracers. Neal Adams in an interview once said that inkers prepare the pencils for reproduction. Couldn’t really be much more derogatory. To a large degree, he was right in the sense that the reproduction and printing process were so archaic, even as short as 25 or 30 years ago, and I think that’s probably when he said it. Nowadays, you could actually reproduce pencils and have them shot and printed. But people still think that inkers are tracers and are somehow less than artists. And that’s the point I want to make: A good inker is as legitimate an artist as a good penciler, and a bad pencilers is as uncredible as a bad inker is, and it’s a question of individual talent.

What makes an inked page effective?
[pullquote]That’s an interesting question, and the correct term, effective, that I would use and is the proper terminology. Good, effective [/pullquote]storytelling is storytelling that succeeds. Effective inking has the ability to overcome, for instance, the intrinsic problem of comic books, which is that it is a two-dimensional art form. And pencilers and inkers and colorists, their goal, in a wide definition, is to create the illusion of three-dimensionality. Otherwise it looks flat. So all three of those people, the colorist, the inker, the penciler, all have to work in tandem toward that common goal. That’s a very wide, broad definition of what those three do. But let’s start with that. Effective inking is able to communicate volume, shape and form depth between foreground and background. Again, that’s a very broad definition.

Could non-effective inking make for non-effective storytelling?
Absolutely. You know, effective storytelling is the point. The point of a comic book, the point of inker, penciler and colorist is to be able to communicate information, and whether the information is a plot point of a story point — Julie Schwartz, an editor at DC who’s passed away, would always have a little scientific bit of information in the story — Flash could run fast because… but whatever the information is, effective storytelling is being able to communicate that information. After that comes entertainment. So effective storytelling in, all three categories — colorist, penciler or inker - have to be effective communicators and entertainer communicators. The ability to communicate and the ability to do it in an entertaining way are the two columns or foundation of effective storytelling.

Why?
People are always amazed that I would include entertainment in the definition of effective storytelling, and my point is that if you’re boring, you’re going to lose the reader. The reader is going to start thinking about homework or something else. You have to be interesting and you have to be entertaining to fulfill the communication. If you are so boring that the reader stops before the story is done, you’ve failed as a communicator and a storyteller, clearly.

How do you attain that level of entertainment?
Entertaining and storytelling can be several different things, and a lot of artists accomplish that through different means. For instance, you could be an entertaining storyteller — entertaining meaning compelling, interesting — by being very detailed and noodly with your art. Kids love that, and that maintains the connection between the storyteller and the reader. You can do it by being bold and bodacious in your compositions and designs. And that in and of itself makes the art vibrant, strong, masculine, like Kirby. You can do it with panel borders; there’s a trend in comics right now, a lot of artists are doing photo-realism. And that just makes me absolutely vomit.

Why is that?
I don’t think that comics are about photo-realism, and I tell you that if I had one wish it would be to eliminate that, partly above world peace. It’s the thing that’s going to kill comics. And it goes through phases; in some ways Neal Adams was a photo-realist. But he combined the photo-realism of his drawing; he is an extraordinary drawer, with a very interesting and compelling, nonrealistic page design. There’s a lot of people right now, and a lot of them — I’m working with them, in the sense that they’re in the same business as I am. Even my early work was a lot of photo-realism, and there’s nothing wrong with that except that it’s boring. If that’s the only thing you’ve got, it’s really, really boring. An artist, and I won’t mention any names, will take a script, go home and invite their friends over and their friends will pose for a scene, so all of a sudden you’ve got Fantastic Four, and you can see that somebody posed for these pictures.

If you’re going to use photos for the basis of your drawing, you’ve got to find a way to make it more lively than a bunch of people standing around in a room, looking realistic. It’s a snoozefest. If we continue down this path, comics are going to become really boring. Comics are not about reality, it’s about reality plus. And if we do comics just based on reality with models and friends posing as Reed Richards or whatever, we’re just going to become a travelogue. And I use photos in my work, without a doubt, but I don’t use it as a basis for the work.

Do you think that’s a sweeping thing across the board? I can see that for superhero books, but what about more realistic, grounded books?
You have a valid point, and I understand what you’re saying, a book like “Gotham Central” or “The Pulse,” which are non-superhero books. The point that I would want to make is there’s nothing wrong with using photos as a reference, but you have to be able to generate and create some kind of excitement on the page, and I don’t care how you do it.

I think there are some artists who are relying too much on that and not bringing any of their own particular vision to it. It really doesn’t take that much talent to have your friends pose for pictures and then trace them off. That lacks a point of view, the artists’ point of view, and that’s what I want to see. What is the artist thinking about? I can’t get beyond the photo-realism. I want to see how the artist, the storyteller tells the story, whatever it is, in his own vibrant, opinionated point of view. And I think the photo-realism stuff really stands in the way of that. But like you said, not always. Believe me, I use photos, absolutely, for all different jobs, whether it’s backgrounds or faces, but there is a way of incorporating it in your work and not letting it get in the way of the artists point of view.

The quality of the drawings seems much more realistic these days. Do you think that’s bad?
I don’t think it’s bad. When I think of photo-realism, I think a lot of guys 30, 40, 50 years ago: Al Williamson photographed everything that he drew, Gene Colan was obviously very heavily influence by photography and did a lot of his own photos, and Neal Adams and people like that certainly existed even 30, 40, 50 years ago and I don’t see that as a problem.

The problem I see is the greater reliance on the camera for mechanics rather than relying on imagination. A great reliance on photo-realism as opposed to the artists’ point of view. When I buy a book, I almost never buy the book for the character; I buy it for the people who are doing the project. And I also reject the book based on the people that are drawing or writing it. I want to see somebody’s opinion. I want to see their point of view. A lot of people might point to someone like Steve Ditko or Carmine Infantino as being very quirky and having a very unusual non-realistic style. But after looking at some of the books these days I find it refreshing. I see it as a breath of fresh air and I can appreciate their quirkiness. The problem with photo-realism is that if everybody does it, it’s all going to look the same eventually, and I don’t know if that’s going to be possible but I think that’s a legitimate concern.

How do today’s comics’ quality compare?
I don’t think there’s any doubt that the comics these days are better. What do you think?

I like them better. I don’t have as much to reference as you do; I haven’t seen as many.

There’s something about having actually lived during the period, rather than going back and even doing research. But I think comics are better than they have even been, and I also think that the alternative press is extremely healthy, very wide but very thin. A great deal of variety and a great deal of art and story and subject variety, but business-wise still very, very thin and fragile. But healthier than it has ever been, with Top Shelf and all those other publishers, I think they are doing amazing work. And very enjoyably and legitimate and I think of Craig Thompson’s “Blankets,” a very, very good piece of work on a lot of different levels. But even mainstream comics, the printing is better, the coloring is better. I don’t really think the art is better, it’s about the same. You can’t go back too far, but 50 years ago, think of the EC comics, Harvey Kurtzman, Will Eisner, there were a lot of good artists even at that point. So I don’t think the art is better, but the overall presentation is better, the printing is better, coloring is better. I think it’s better.

You also teach at SVA — what are lessons that you try to hammer into your students?
The first thing I try to focus upon is the theory, rather than the mechanics of it. The thing I try to emphasize right away in the first couple classes is a point of view. Things like this, for instance, that the artist is totally responsible for anything that happens on the page, and the notion of responsibility sometimes scares people away, especially younger artists. I’m generalizing, but they think that drawing comics is about, say, anatomy. But it’s not about anatomy at all. That’s part of it, but it’s not the focus and what I try to do at SVA or any classes I teach is a broaden the definition of what storytelling and comic art is about and introduce them like theories and responsibilities and obligations that artists have.

One of the biggest mistakes that young artists make at a convention is they show a portfolio to editors and say, “I didn’t get to finish this page last night because…” And you can’t do that, and if you approach your work and your job as an art with an excuse, you’re doomed — you’re doomed from the get-go. There are no excuses, and you have to accept full responsibility for your work and what happens on the page. You cannot ever say, “Well, the writer gave me a bad script, or the writer designed this and I couldn’t figure it out.” There’s always a way to figure things out. The example that I often use is somebody was asking Michelangelo because he had this block of marble and it was flawed and had nicks in it, and it was very hard to work with marble that has flaws in it. So the guy says, “How are you going to sculpt with this flawed piece of marble?” and Michelangelo apparently responded, “I’m not going to sculpt; I’m just going to release what’s in there,” and he proceeded to create David. And my feeling is, the answer is already on the page; you just have to find it. And the artist has to accept responsibility for those answers.

A lot of what I teach — at least initially before getting into the mechanics, how to lay out a story or what makes a good composition, what’s a good design — is theory, the theory of art, storytelling and good communication. And the artist’s responsibility for embracing his obligation. The first couple classes I try to scare the kids as much as I possibly can. Comic book storytelling is one of the hardest things anybody will ever do. And if you want to do it well, it’s really, really difficult. You can count on two hands the number of people who have been able to do it well, effectively and “correctly.” A lot of people do it really badly, and they’re working, and that’s fine. But if you really want to do it well it’s very, very difficult. The cliché is that in film, everyone has their department. The director directs, the cinematographer does the cinematography, the set designer does that, the costume designer does that, the editor does that. In comic books it isn’t divided like that; the artist does it all. And if you want to do it well, you have to know all those different disciplines, and it’s really hard. And if you’re not prepared to really make those sacrifices that are necessary then I urge people in my class to get out.

How many people do you have leave?
About four or five out of 25. So we narrow it down to 15-20. And then by the second semester they’re really cooking. Because they’re really committed.

How well do they understand the lessons?
I have to take what I hear from the students on face value. And they have good things to say about it. I don’t have a sense of what they’re getting, but what they’re telling me is that they do get it. At least the ones who remain have that level of commitment, which is required, really, to “get it.” So if I go by what they say, I would say that scaring the flotsam out really works!

And here’s another generality, but what do you think is biggest problem with students’ work?
I think that probably falls into two categories. That’s an interesting question. One category that comes up a lot is just underdeveloped talent. I don’t know how else to phrase it. Right now I’m teaching sophomores, and it’s very hard to be adept or facile or effective; they’re just too young. That’s why they’re in school. It’s their inability to handle the mechanics of it, the drawing of it, the perspectives of it — a lot of them come into class and don’t know perspective, which I think is criminal. Just the fact that they are at a very fragile and vulnerable age, they just don’t have the chops yet. It’s funny, you can usually tell which ones are going to make it. The average has been one out of ten, so far throughout the years.

The second category, which I’m fascinated by, is the psychological and emotional problems. Sometimes I’ll get students who are obviously able to draw well and obviously able to understand the mechanics of storytelling but they don’t have the psychological and emotional stability to get further. And they undercut themselves; it’s amazing and tragic in some ways to watch. I would rather have a so-so average student with emotional and psychological grounding than a genius artist who has emotional or psychological block. The former will succeed; the latter will not.

Does that hold true inside the industry as well?
Yes. Yes, it does. It does not necessarily prevent the person who has issues — and we’re talking abstract — can still find a place within the industry to work, but it will be a problem for the editors. And there are many people in the industry who display that with problems, meeting deadlines, or being responsible. There are a whole slew of artists who disappear, take on jobs and disappear, and that’s just on the surface. We’re not even getting deeper into the psychological and emotional issues students or people may have.

One of the best things I ever did was go into analysis. I think I spent too much time there! It’s one of the best things I ever did because it made me understand that you can often be your own worst enemy, and whatever type of upbringing you had or what situation you currently are in, the ability to sabotage yourself manifests in many, many different ways, including not making deadlines, for instance. And there’s no real reason to not make deadline; it’s almost always something you create for yourself. And being in analysis, I was able to understand what I did that was counterproductive. And I worked at that, and eliminated that so I could focus just on the work. I just wanted to work, to draw, to be an artist. I didn’t want to have drama.

Do you think you’ve become a better artist as a result of your teaching?
Without a doubt. I shudder to think where I would be without teaching. I think I often learn much more than the students do. I find it invaluable. I don’t think I could give it up.

What are you learning?
At the very least, I learn what people are thinking. And what’s in the air at the moment, which is critical for anyone who wants to stay current. You don’t want to become outdated. But on the other end, at the very least, I learn what’s going on, what’s current. The fact that photo-realism, for instance, is a trend that appears to be popular. Certainly I learned that from SVA and applied that to the comics that I read. At the other extreme, if you’re going to teach, you have to verbalize and understand and bring to the surface all of the things that you might do by instinct. And in order to do that you have to educate yourself, apply yourself and learn about it yourself. And at this point I’m fairly verbal about the medium, the problems and the advantages. I was not that verbal about it before I started teaching. And what it has done is made me come up with theories, I’ve tested those theories every day and eliminated those that don’t work and tried to nurture the theories that do work. And that’s made me a much better artist. In a fundamental way I think I understand the medium better as a result of teaching. No doubt. Absolutely.

This is part one of Comic Foundry’s interview with Klaus. Part two will run this Friday, Aug. 19.

—Interview by Tim Leong

Posted by Tim Leong on July 1st, 2006 filed in Story Archive | Comment now »
Alex Maleev in Men’s Health Magazine

In the latest issue of Men’s Health (July/August issue) there are two interesting things of note.

1) My picture is on page 39. Twice.

2) In my continuing effort to get comics artists some editorial illustrations, I was able to convince the upper brass to assign an illustration to Alex Maleev. After showing them his previous work, it wasn’t a hard sell. Featured on page 110, here’s his sketches and final illo. Pick up an issue and check it out. Lose your gut in just 9 days while you’re at it.

Posted by Tim Leong on June 29th, 2006 filed in Magazines, Blog | Comment now »
Please Excuse Our Absence

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. It’ been crazy, as this is the last week of my current job (I’m moving to Complex Magazine) and also I just moved apartments yesterday. AND I’ll be burning the midnight oil this week to finish the fourth issue of Comic Foundry Magazine before the end of the month. I just got a couple stories in yesterday, and they look pretty damn good. There’s going to be some really solid content — as always, hopefully.
Posted by Tim Leong on June 28th, 2006 filed in Blog | Comment now »
Comics in the NY Times…

BEHIND THE SCENES ON SUPERHERO SUBWAY GRAFFITI:
That insult to his work and his artistic background spurred Mr. Matos to create “A-U-T-O-matic,” a work featuring the cogs of an art-making machine he knew he wasn’t, as well as the Superman he could never be.
Read the full text here.

ALISON BECHDEL’S FUN HOME REVIEWED:
Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” is an engrossing memoir that does the graphic novel format proud. The tale — about Ms. Bechdel’s childhood, her father’s death and their shared homosexuality — is painfully honest and richly detailed in words and images.
Read the full text here.
Posted by Tim Leong on June 26th, 2006 filed in Blog | Comment now »
Typos are Eternal

When the solicitations for The Eternals first came out, I was quite happy. Neil Gaiman, John Romita, Todd Klein - they’re calling in all the big guns. I hadn’t read the original Kirby run so I came in fresh with an open mind. Everything was going great - good writing, good art…until all the typos starting popping up.

The first one I noticed was in a tv screen about 10 pages in. It was from the TV show “It’s just so Sprite,” or whatever it’s called. It’s surrouned by a bunch of people who are even saying, “It’s just so Sprite.” BUT on the actual TV screen the title says: ITS just so Sprite, instead of IT’S just so Sprite. Very obvious.

The second I spotted was less obvious, but wrong nonetheless. It also had to do with the Sprite show - on that same page it says the show is on the Tweeny network, but later in the book it’s called the Tweenie network.

Now, I know these are just tiny little errors that hardly anyone noticed. And even if people did notice them it wouldn’t change the story. But for such a high profile book, why isn’t it being edited more closely? Who is (or isn’t) looking at this book before it goes to press?
Posted by Tim Leong on June 22nd, 2006 filed in Blog | 1 Comment »
SUPERMAN RE-ENACTED BY BUNNIES IN 30 SECONDS

Click for video.

Voiced by Bryan Singer, Mike Dougherty (Superman Returns writer) and others.
Posted by Tim Leong on June 15th, 2006 filed in Blog | Comment now »
MARVEL PR

AGENTS OF ATLAS INTERACTIVE SCAVENGER HUNT

Reintroducing the Atlas characters from the 1950’s in grand manner, Marvel is hosting an interactive scavenger hunt on the internet and in comic stores that allows fans to unlock parts of an exclusive online story leading up the six-issue limited-series Agents of Atlas.

And now, let the game begin…

Hello.

I speak for an organization known as The Atlas Foundation. We at Atlas feel that your “comic books” make an excellent recruiting venue for our global organization, and that Timely Comics (do not correct me- I do not acknowledge the recent name change) will serve a valuable role to that end.

I propose to honor our new arrangement by giving your readership a free story to read online– a serial adventure, if you will. Except ours is quite special as it details actual events from the year 1958. We shall meet on the inter-net to review this episodic narrative at a hidden location.

There is a common element relative to certain words in the list below. Once you know the three words that are connected, remove them. Unscramble the remaining anagram to guide you to your beginning inter-net destination.

HELPMATE MENACE FALSETTO VENUS ASTONISHING BOWLEG

I shall await your arrival…

It is believed this mysterious message has something to do with the fact that Marvel is publishing AGENTS OF ATLAS, a 6-issue limited series reuniting Marvel heroes from the late 1950s featuring Jimmy Woo, Venus, The Human Robot, Marvel Boy and Gorilla Man.

A game hint: Marvel.com is the fist stop on the hunt.
Posted by Tim Leong on June 14th, 2006 filed in Blog, Press Release | Comment now »
New York Post reveals Civil War #2 shocker!

I guess this is a spoiler, so, be warned.

Wow, even though Marvel tipped their hand last week with releasing Thunderbolts too early, they flat out REVEAL the surprise shocker of Civil War #2. Why dance around it? I guess if they were afraid that if no one heard about it from reading the comic with a 20,000 circ, they might as well try again to blab the ending to a Top-10 circ newspaper in the country. I don’t really understand the strategy behind that one.

COMIC HERO REVEALS ID
By DAREH GREGORIAN

June 14, 2006 — Spider-Man’s identity is about to become not-so-secret.
“My name is Peter Parker and I’ve been Spider-Man since I was 15 years old. Any questions?” the web wonder proclaims at a Times Square press conference in the comic “Civil War” No. 2, on sale today.

The announcement is the biggest change in the comic-book icon’s status quo since he got hitched to Mary Jane Watson in 1987.
Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada called it “one of the biggest revelations in comic-book history.” What Spider-Man does is “a comic-book taboo,” he said.

The character comes out to support the Super-Hero Registration Act. The law, enacted after hundreds were killed in a superhero-supervillain fight, requires all superheroes to reveal their identities and register as “living weapons of mass destruction.”

GAWKER JOINS IN THE FUN:
A breaking story from The Post’s national news desk: Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Yes, that’s right, Dareh Gregorian apparently attended the “Times Square press conference” where the web-slinger appeared “to support the Super-Hero Registration Act. The law, enacted after hundreds were killed in a superhero-supervillain fight, requires all superheroes to reveal their identities and register as ‘living weapons of mass destruction.’” Lest some of you hard-core reality addicts out there object to straight reporting about a work of fiction, remember: It’s The Post. Also, you must have missed last week’s exclusive interview with Iron Man, where he admitted that he’d been sodomized by members of the Duke lacrosse team.
Posted by Tim Leong on June 14th, 2006 filed in Blog | Comment now »
MoCCA Art Fest Photo Parade

(Photo courtesy of Heidi MacDonald, PW - Me and my smug smile on the right)

Comic Foundry was in full effect for the MoCCA Art Fest this weekend. We were selling limited print edition issues of Comic Foundry Magazine. Sales were good and great times were had by all. I also took a metric ton of photos that can be seen here.
Posted by Tim Leong on June 12th, 2006 filed in Conventions, Blog | Comment now »
Let’s Get Nerdy

While I’m always one to delve into the realities of sci-fi and comics, this site takes the proverbial cake. They break down through reasoning, math and science How much power it would take to fuel the Death Star.
Posted by Tim Leong on June 9th, 2006 filed in Blog | Comment now »
Feed your inner fanboy

To do today: Midtown Comics (45th and Lex) is having a 52 signing this afternoon from 4 to 6. The whole creative team will be there: Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, JG Jones - everyone save Keith Giffen and Grant Morrison, who both backed out. Curiously enough, Morrison will at Forbidden Planet tomorrow.
Posted by Tim Leong on June 8th, 2006 filed in Blog | Comment now »
Why? Because it’s beautiful

Here is the process from James Jean’s work for a card he did for Upper Deck a little while ago. I know they look great, but stop drooling all over your keyboard. Go check out his real site and see all the other amazing illos he’s done (my fav is the dogman eating the sushi…) >> Go Here.
Posted by Tim Leong on June 7th, 2006 filed in Blog | Comment now »