CONGEEKY!!!

Kidzeus — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:49:41 GMT

Yep. I was a total GEEKANDILOVEDEVERYMINUTEOFITSOTHERE!!!!! I got to watch Kevin Smith talk about his new movie and laughed my ASS off!! I could honestly listen to that tubby bitch for days. He's just so goddamned entertaining. Bryan Singer, the gentleman who directed X-men, X-men 2, Gods and Monsters, Apt Pupil and the Usual Suspects was there talking about his latest movie; Superman. He and the young star (whose name I forget) who plays Supes gave a rather bland talk about the movie. Both men seemed genuinly unprepared for the questions by the con-goers. Now, one could argue that the Con is NOT thier typical venue. That's fine. They did, however, show an extended clip of the new film which looks fucking amazing. Karen Berger, the head of DC comics played a preview of; "V for VENDETTA" and then passed out masks that I was fortunate enough to get and bring home in one piece. Pretty fan-boyish but fuck it. That's me! :P I got to meet a few X-Kubert School folks like Steve Lieber who was very kind and asked me about my co-conspiritor, Mike Sellers (Mike inked a bunch of my work you can see in my pics section on this browser), whom Steve also went to school with. Steve did such great comics as; "White Out" and "White Out-Melt". I got a number of good leads for where to send work; Bongo Comics for one-they publish all the Simpsons and Futurama books. Slave Labor Graphics liked my horror stuff so they want me to send 'em shtuff. Image seemed pretty interested in having me send some work and there were a few companies that are just starting up that want to take on more creator owned projects so I'll be sending shiz-nit out to them as well. One of the highlights (other than hearing Kevin Smith say to all the Gay San Fran populace; "I'm only one cock in the mouth shy of being gay too!!") was to meet Rafael Navarro who publishes; "SONAMBULO". He lurks here on Myspace too and you should check out his page and see his work. It's really fucking good. but not only is he a very talented individual, Raf is genuinly one of the nicest guys I've ever met. Raf; I hope the con was great to you! I wish you all the luck in the Sonambulo-verse!! E :D

for comic book hopefuls. Or; "Those like me".

Kidzeus — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:18:19 GMT

For those seeking guidance in the drawing and illustration and creation of comic books but can't afford a full time school. A few simple suggestions that don't require tons of money but DOES require a lot of time. 1) DRAW DAILY. Scribble, sketch, doodle; just draw. Do it for ten minutes a day. AT LEAST. Make time for this. Let it grow into more. Comic book artists draw one to two pages a day. A DAY. They have deadlines of a month for (typically) 22 pages. Sometimes the deadlines are longer due to the needs of the inkers, colorists and letterers and editors who have to clean up your mistakes...BUT NOT ALWAYS!!! If a deadline is missed you dont get a poor grade or a slap on the wrist; you eventually get NO MORE WORK. 2) DRAW FROM LIFE. Whenever you can. Sign up for a life drawing course. Most cities have a once a week life drawing class that will cost you no more than 5 bucks for 3 hours of figure drawing. If you can take a community college course with an instructor; DO IT. It's so invaluable. It'll teach you WORLDS. If you can't take a course, drag your ass outside, sit on a bench with your sketch book, pencils and will-to-do and draw people passing by. Don't stress on the details. Get the action down first. Draw the details later. 3) CHECK OUT: "HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY". This is a great book that I highly recommend. It'll get your creative juices flowing. It has great art by master artist John Buscema who makes drawing comics look easy. The bastard!!! It has everything you need to know to jump into the field of comics; action poses, drawing real people, acting, perspective, backgrounds, panel layouts, and the tools every comic artist needs to draw a comic page. If you can't find it at Borders or your local bookstore, try the library. Make copies of it there. Take the copies home. Pin 'em to your wall and sleep with 'em under your pillow. ABSORB, ABSORB, ABSORB!!! Also, if you can get your hands on some copies of Mike Manleys; "DRAW" magazine, you'll be a VERY happy camper. Industry greats litter the pages with knowledge of the field about how they do it and sometimes, how you can do it too. DC comics has put out a number of great books that tackle writing comics, drawing comics, inking comics and coloring and lettering comics. They run about 20 bucks each. Great reads all of them. 4) STUDY THE MASTERS. look at Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane and many other great comic artists to see how they set up a shot. Break a comic page down to it's bare essentials. Take page 5 of your favorite comic and write out what happens in each panel. The action, the setting, the characters and what they are saying and HOW they are saying it. Think of comics as acting. Players on a 2-dimensional stage that YOU control. Take that written piece of paper, put the comic AWAY, and draw the page from what you have written (Reference the characters costumes if you need to but do it by looking at a different page they are on. Not the one you just wrote about-this is to excercise YOUR imagination. NOT to COPY what the other guy did). What shot would work best? What would move the story along? What is the best possible way for me to illustrate all this information to the reader in a clear and quick way? Ask yourself these questions while you are drawing. Give yourself a deadline while you are drawing the page also. Be reasonable. Give yourself a full day. You're doing this cuz it's fun, remember? But keep in mind that if you want to draw comics for a living, you're going to have to draw the comic within a given deadline. If you can't work within the deadline, your career is going to be very short indeed. Some artists also ink that same pencilled page in the same day. Think you're up to it? Go for it. Have fun! FINALLY: These are some thoughts from one of my teachers at the Joe Kubert School of Illustration and Design that have proven most useful to me. "Making art is a life. It's NOT a job.""Make Art. Not just pictures.""Think about images and the making of Art all the time." "DON'T follow a strict formula. Remain open to chance happenings that work. Trust your instincts and abilities but don't let that be an excuse for lousy Art."-(see; "Make Art, not just pictures.") "Hammer on it but think about what you are doing. Aimless hammering is fruitless. It's your brain more than your hands that do it."

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CONGEEKY!!!

for comic book hopefuls. Or; "Those like me".