Redartz: In the course of our comics fan careers, many of us have tried our hands at writing/drawing some comics ourselves. Perhaps it was tracing the figures on a favorite cover. Maybe we were covering our schoolwork with sketches of favorite characters. Some may have actually tried to create actual stories featuring some notable heroes and villains. And some may have created stories and characters all their own. All are satisfying creative outlets for the inspiration provided by our four color hobby.
And in recent years, the growing popularity of "adult coloring books" adds a whole new opportunity to participate in comic creativity. Check these out:
Today we will look at some examples of just such 'fan art'. To begin with, here is a clever story courtesy of our friend Pfgavigan. Enjoy!
Redartz: I've designed many comic-related cards for my wife, for Valentine's Day and other occasions. Also, every year I try to design a greeting card for the holidays. Sometimes they are serious in tone, other times lighter. Here are two which reflected a bit of my comics affection (some might call obsession).
How about the rest of you? Have you made some drawings, done a few sketches, made a comic? If not, given the chance, what kind of character would you most like to work with? What kind of story would you tell? Unleash your inner Englehart, your buried Byrne; tell us all about it.
12 comments:
I used to draw my own comics. I'm sure they're still at my childhood home in a drawer somewhere. I did a couple of Aquaman stories, an Avengers story, and maybe a Conan story. I also did some short stories with illustrations. Sometimes when I'm idle, or in a meeting (like now ;)), or when I'll used to entertain my kids, I would doodle with various Marvel and DC characters. I'm not particularly good at it, but you can at least recognize who I'm drawing. :)
Great work again pfgavigan. Very entertaining. Cheers.
I'm a writer, not a drawer ... uh, I mean, artist :)
When I was a kid my favorite thing to do was to write and draw my own comics, and all I wanted to be when I grew up was a comic book artist. So, eventually I went to art school and even attended the "Will Eisner Comic and Sequential Art Workshop" (taught by the man himself). But alas I never did achieve my dream of comic art stardom.
I seemed to have more aptitude for computers than I did for traditional drawing and painting and such. So, I ended up getting into graphic design instead of comic art. But I never did lose my love for making comics.
My wife (who I met at art school) told me that she noticed that I actually enjoy writing comics stories more than drawing them, and I decided she was right. So, I started experimenting with highly articulated Marvel Legends action figures, and putting them into different poses, backgrounds and environments, and I was very happy with the results.
So I started using them to make my own comics. To date I have produced well over 100 full-length comics using mostly Marvel Legends and DC Universe Classics figures (among others). It's a lot of fun, and I base almost all of my stories in the classic Bronze (and sometimes Silver) age.
To create a comic I first write and draw rough storyboards, then I photograph all the panels, and then I take the photos into Photoshop and clean them up, add special effects (like flying, web-shooting, energy blasts, explosions, etc.). Then I do the page layout by creating panel grids and importing the photos into the panels. Next step is adding word balloons with the dialog, and captions and sound effects. Once I'm happy with the final results, I export the comic to HTML and upload to my website.
If you like you can check out my work at:
http://www.billscomics.com/
It's not exactly "drawing", but it is sequential storytelling, and the way I figure it, art is art and comics are comics. :D
William that is pretty darn cool. I have visited your site before but did not know it was you.
Great! Cheers!
Everybody should check it out. How long does a single comic take?
Yeah William, that is pretty cool. Reminds me of Robot Chicken ... or maybe David Morgan-Mar's "Irregular Webcomic", although he uses Legos.
I like the JLI one; the Animal Man joke at the end is great.
Thanks for the 'comics and stories', all!
Graham- sounds like you were quite the youthful artist! And your kids doubtlessly got a kick out of your pencilwork...
William- your stories of your time at Eisner's school are wonderful. And I love your site; just visited it for the first time. Now I'm set for the rest of the evening, reading your comics. Well done, sir...
Hey William,
Just bookmarked your page so I can peruse your work at leisure, but definitely found it entertaining.
I cannot begin to tell you how much I wish I had had the chance to study under Eisner and can only hope that you have shared your recollections at your site or would be willing to do so here.
By the By, would we recognize any names of your fellow students? Anything that you could feel that you might be able to share?
Thanks again for your labors, they are much appreciated.
pfgavigan
Martinex 1: Thanks man, much appreciated. To answer your question, it usually takes me about a week or so to complete a single comic (give or take). It used to take me about 2 weeks but I've gotten a lot faster over the years.
Mike Wilson: Thanks so much. That JLI comic you mentioned was one of my earliest efforts. The second JLI comic I did called "Moonlighting" is one of my personal favorites. Also, I'll have to check out that David Morgan-Mar's "Irregular Webcomic". Sounds interesting.
Redartz: Wow! Thanks so much. Glad you're liking my comics.
pfgavigan: Thanks so much man. I'm a big fan of your work as well. You're a seriously talented artist and writer.
I once did a guest post for Doug and Karen over at their late great "Bronze Age Babies" site chronicling some stories from my time as a student of Will Eisner. He was a very nice man, and in his day he forgot more about making comics than any of us will probably ever know.
As for fellow students in that class, there was most notably Tony Diterlizzi (http://diterlizzi.com/), who is a very accomplished illustrator and writer. Probably best known for co-creating the "Spiderwick Chronicles". He also has his own book series called "Wondla". We actually met at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale in the early 90's and became pretty good friends. He used to carpool with my future wife and he was at our wedding. That was all well before we took Will Eisner's class together. (In fact I think he's the one who turned me onto it). He's a really really good guy. We were all pretty close back in the day, but he moved up to Boston years ago with his wife, so we don't really hang out anymore, but I talk to him once in a while on FB.
Thanks once again for all kind words everybody. Means a lot. :)
Sorry for the belated comments, but I had to chime in just to say great stuff, as usual, PFG.
And also William. I've been familiar with your site for quite some time now, although I admit I have visited it recently - something I'll have to remedy. Great work all around.
Hey William, I'm not sure if you'll see this or not, but if you want to check out David Morgan-Mar's stuff here's the link.
He's actually on kind of a hiatus now and he's been running old strips with new commentary, so I'd recommend going back to the beginning in the archives. He did different storylines (James Bond, Indiana Jones, Steve Irwin (who wrestles C'thulhu!), a D&D theme, a space theme, etc.) He's also a physicist, so the early strips have monographs on various scientific topics; like many webcomics, it's pretty addictive :)
So glad to see PFG's work here again!
And checking out William's comics is something I've surely procrastinated long enough on. . .
HB
Post a Comment