Todd Klein's Blog, page 138

And Then I Read: BATMAN/ELMER FUDD SPECIAL #1

Image © DC Comics. Written by Tom King, art by Lee Weeks, colors by Lovern Kindzierski, letters by Deron Bennett. Backup story art by Byron Vaughns, colors by Carrie Strachan.

After attending the ‘Ringo Awards in Baltimore last weekend and seeing all the love given to this comic, I had to read it. Previously I thought, “nah” to the entire idea of DC and Looney Tunes team-ups, but I had to find out why this one won awards for Tom King and Lee Weeks.

Batman began as a grim and serious character, a menacing figure to criminals, an avenging force for justice. He mellowed some from the late 1940s through mid 1960s, but as far as I know was only really played for laughs in the 1960s Batman TV show. As a kid I was SO disappointed in that! Ever since, DC has stuck to serious, grim and gritty Batman. This comic bucks the trend by actually being funny, though most of the laughs are at the Looney Tunes characters. If you’d never seen any Warner Bros. cartoons, you might not even get that, as everything is played straight in the main story. There are no cartoony drawings, all the characters would fit into any modern Batman comic visually. It’s in their dialogue and actions that they reveal their Looneyness, and though they are funny to the reader, they all take themselves very seriously. That’s the best way to do comedy in my opinion. On the first page, even the title made me laugh: “Pway for Me.” Elmer’s dialogue captions are sad and serious in meaning, but conveyed with his classic speech impediment, it’s quite funny. The rest of the cartoon cast are mainly revealed through their speech patterns. So, if Elmer Fudd were a “real” person, at least as real as the rest of Gotham City’s citizens, what would he be like? This book tells us, and the results are quite entertaining.

The backup story was not as successful because it goes the other route, making Batman as cartoony as a WB character. It’s not terrible, but it’s not very funny. It does present a nice contrast to the main story, I suppose. This is a book I would never have read normally. I’m glad I did.

Recommended.

Baltimore Comic-Con 2018

Images © Todd Klein except as noted.

Another great Baltimore Con has come and gone, and here’s my report. Baltimore is about a three hour drive from my home in southern New Jersey. I left the house at 8:30, and was at the hotel about 11:30. My room wasn’t ready, so I checked my suitcase and walked over to the convention center with my stuff to set up. Last year I had a cart to wheel it in, this year I brought less, so I decided I could carry it all without the cart. I could, but it sure got heavy by the time I reached my table! If I do this next year, I’m going back to the cart.

I met my booth assistant Andrea Bergner in the convention center, and we picked up our pro badges. Last year I advertised for help at my booth on Facebook, and Andrea was one of two people who volunteered. She did such a good job that, when she offered to help again this year, I jumped at the chance, and she was with me all three days. Andrea is an excellent salesperson, and good company. Our booth was not on a corner this year, so my prints were a little crowded, but we did fine with the space we had. My banner made its second appearance. As happened last year, John and Cathy Workman were in the booth directly behind me, and on either side of me were legendary inkers Bob Wiacek and Tom Palmer, who were good neighbors.

In addition to selling prints and such, I take commissions at the booth for sketchbook title pages like this one. The owner plans to fill it with comics characters who wear trench coats. You wouldn’t think there would be that many, but he has a list of about sixty! The title comes from Neil Gaiman’s original BOOKS OF MAGIC miniseries. The sketchbook owner wanted me to draw a man in a trench coat, but I don’t draw people, so we settled on this idea, and he was quite happy with it.

I try to remember to take photos of the people I talk to at shows, but I’m getting worse at that. I did get one of inker John Beatty, who I worked with for some years on Batman comics. I hadn’t seen him in a long time, and it was good to catch up. Others I talked to Friday were Mike Manley, Richard Case, Jerry Ordway, and more I’m probably forgetting. The Friday hours are 1 PM to 7 PM, and as usual it was the least crowded day. Many people brought comics and books for me to sign, which I’m happy to do as long as it’s one issue of each. The theme I heard was, they wanted to get their signings out of the way first, then put them away and enjoy the con. I’ve never been a fan of comics with signatures on the covers, but I do like the idea of hardcover and trade paperback collections being signed, and I have a few of those myself.

Friday evening Andrea and I had dinner with John and Cathy Workman and their friend John, who lives in Baltimore. We had a good time talking about comics, old movies, and other things at Johnny Rockets, near the Hyatt.

Saturday morning I had breakfast with artist/writer Mark Buckingham and inker Andrew Pepoy along with Andrew’s friend Jen, a sort of mini FABLES reunion. It was a chance to talk over upcoming projects like MIRACLEMAN, which Bucky is now co-writing and drawing, and which I should start working on again in a few months.

Saturday was the busiest and longest day in the Exhibition Hall. I was happy to see my friend Henrik Andreasen at my table with plenty of things to sign. Henrik lives in Denmark, and has been attending U.S. cons since at least 1993, where we first met at the San Diego Comic-Con. He must have a massive collection of signed comics and books by now. It’s always good to see him and chat with him.

Another kind of commission I do at my table is adding dialogue balloons to sketches. This one gave me a chance to collaborate with SANDMAN artist Marc Hempel again for the first time in a while, though there were four years between his sketch and my addition. The words are, of course, by Neil Gaiman.

Here’s another one of those, a fun mash-up of Marvel’s Rocket Raccoon and Lying Cat from SAGA by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. I’m afraid I don’t know who did the art, but I like it.

This was a first, a double sketchbook title commission that I enjoyed doing. I don’t do this sort of thing at home, I’m too busy with other work, but as I’m sitting at my table for hours at a con, it’s fun there and passes the time.

Writer/artist Carla Speed McNeil of FINDER fame stopped by at my booth and gave me an amazing gift: a page of her original art from EMPOWERED, a comic she’s doing for Dark Horse with Adam Warren, as well as her original layout and her lettering layout (not shown). I was appreciative and delighted, as it will make a good blog post about her lettering and art process, one I hope to get to soon, and the art is terrific! Thanks again, Carla!

One last commission for a FABLES portfolio title page, and perhaps my favorite of the con. I actually did it twice. On the back of this paper is another version, but the marker I used turned out to be very smeary, and before long it was a mess, so I redid it with a waterproof Sharpie.

Image © Ahoy Comics.

Saturday afternoon I was on a panel for new company Ahoy Comics along with editor-in-chief Tom Peyer, writer Stuart Moore, and artists Jamal Igle, June Brigman and Roy Richardson. My involvement is doing the cover logos and the company symbol. The panel was entertaining, I thought, and the books that are out so far, the first two above, look good!

Saturday evening was the ‘Ringo Awards at the Hyatt. I only have this one photo, of Lifetime Achievement Award winner Dennis O’Neil, a friend and co-worker from my time on staff at DC, and my editor on Batman books for many years. The awards were fun, though long, but preceded by a fine dinner, and they gave me a chance to say hi to more old friends.

I won the award for Best Letterer for the second year in a row (this is the second year of the awards), even though I was hoping it would go to fellow nominee and friend John Workman. John is the person who got me started with lettering at DC when we were both on staff there in 1977, and is highly deserving of an award. Let’s try and get him on the podium in the near future! John has been given a few Harvey Awards, which this new award replaced at the Baltimore Comic-Con  last year. The Harveys are now at the New York Comic-Con.

Sunday I was at my booth from 10 AM to 2 PM. It was somewhat less busy, and I did get out to talk to other friends, including Mike W. Barr, above, who I worked with as a Batman writer and as an editor at DC.

The other person I remembered to take a photo of is Mark Schultz of XENOZOIC TALES fame, who told me he’s working on a new one of those. I look forward to it. I also talked to Don Rosa, P. Craig Russell, Howard Chaykin, Steve Conley, Todd DeZago, Mike Gold, Mark Wheatley, Bob McLeod, Thom Zahler, Joe and Hilary Staton, and probably others I’m forgetting. It was a good time, and as happened last year, I did quite well with print sales, making it a win all around. Not sure yet if I’ll be there next year, but if so, perhaps I’ll see some of you there!

Rereading: DOCTOR DOLITTLE AND THE SECRET LAKE by Hugh Lofting

This book follows directly from “Doctor Dolittle’s Return,” with the Doctor growing discouraged with his attempt to grow plants from seeds he gathered on his trip to the moon in an effort to recreate their long-life properties. His assistant Tommy Stubbins and his animal family want to cheer him up, and they think a sea voyage would be just the thing. They hit on the subject of Mudface, the ancient turtle who was aboard Noah’s Ark that the doctor met in Africa, but when Tommy decides to get the Doctor’s notes on him from storage, it turns out they’ve all been chewed up by rats making nests. Meanwhile, Cheapside the London sparrow and his wife Becky have been sent to Africa to find out what’s going on with Mudface, and learn an earthquake has buried him under rubble and mud in his secret lake in the swamps. All this precipitates the Doctor returning there on a voyage to help Mudface and to get him to retell his story about the biblical flood he witnessed.

One interesting thing about this book is that it was begun right after “Dr. Dolittle’s Post Office,” where we first met Mudface, or perhaps was originally meant to be part of that book but cut for length or subject matter. The beginning of the book certainly seems to be written later, as it involves things that happened later. About half the book is Mudface’s tale of the ark and the flood, which is mostly different from the biblical version, makes the turtles heroes of the story, and does not paint Noah and his family in a very good light. I quite enjoyed reading it again. One aspect of the story resonates in an interesting way: some of the animals want to kill the few remaining people so that they will be rid of man’s domination of them, and constant warfare. Prescient of Orwell’s “Animal Farm”?

Recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERNS #53

Image © DC Comics. Written by Dan Jurgens, art by Marco Santucci, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Dave Sharpe.

While most of the top Green Lanterns are fighting the Ravagers and Eon on distant water-world Penelo, Simon Baz has been directed to Earth on a mission his ring insists is vital to the larger battle. But can the ring be trusted? As we’ve seen in recent issues, perhaps not. Above Penelo, Kyle Rayner comes up with the best idea in their fight, to target communications, while Guy Gardner takes on Eon. When Simon gets to Earth and to the place directed, he finds himself doing a very unexpected bit of breaking and entering, and confronting an unlikely crossover character.

I am thoroughly enjoying Dan Jurgens’ writing on this book, and the art, colors and letters are excellent as well. Nothing ground-breaking, but fine entertainment.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE FLASH #51

Image © DC Comics. Written by Joshua Williamson, art by Scott Kolins, colors by Luis Guerrero, letters by Steve Wands.

After a chaotic issue like #50, it’s good to have a more reflective one this time. The focus is on Wally West who is still out there running, searching for his lost children. The problem is, he doesn’t know if they’re even on his Earth, or in some other dimension or time, and he can’t get to those places now. Iris West, his aunt, is sitting in Central Park typing Wally’s life story as the issue opens. How close it is to the Wally West background story I’ve seen before I can’t tell, but it works well enough on both storytelling and emotional levels. When Wally finally stops running, two other powerful beings show up to take him out of this story and into another comic and a place called Sanctuary. If this is the first step in simplifying THE FLASH, I’m all for it. Another costumed character makes an appearance a the end, and the construction of an unusual museum is begun.

Recommended.

Pulled From My Files #93: ACTION COMICS #484 Cover Proof

This and all images © DC Comics.

When I began working in the DC Production Department in 1977, this is what cover proofs from the separators in Connecticut looked like. Proofs of each of the four color plates (Black, Cyan or Blue, Magenta and Yellow) were printed on clear acetate, and lined up correctly over a sheet of white paper, then stapled either at the top or bottom. These proofs came in the regular deliveries from Chemical Color to the DC offices in Manhattan where they were checked for errors by Anthony Tollin, the Cover Coordinator, and shown for approval to the editor of the book. Tony would call Chemical and ask for any changes wanted. Printing was approved, and the separations would go to the printing plant in Sparta, Illinois. DC would receive one final proof, uncut make-readies from the press before the book was stapled, trimmed, and shipped to distributors, but by that time it was too late to change anything, and the only option in the case of a major problem was to scrap the print run and start over. I never saw that happen when I was there. Once the book was printed, these acetate proofs were generally thrown away. I saved sixteen of them from covers dated 1978-79 because I liked the art and I thought they were cool. This one has gorgeous art by José Luis Garcia-López and Dick Giordano, which is why I saved it. They sat in a drawer under my desk at DC, and when I went freelance full time, they came home with me and sat in a drawer in my storage room. I pulled them out this week to bring to the Baltimore Comic-Con to sell.

The maximum size I can show them in this blog doesn’t do justice to the details, so I’m also showing a smaller cropped area that I don’t have to reduce in size for the blog. Garcia-López and Giordano were a great art team, each adding to the other’s strengths, or that’s how I feel. The coloring here is fairly simple, not much modeling except a bit on the faces, and lighter edges along the top  of Superman’s costume.

Here’s a full view of just the color plates with the black acetate lifted off, or as much of it as I can scan without creasing the acetate. Covers were separated by an elite group of the best separation artists at Chemical Color, and handled differently from the regular interior pages. Each color plate was painted or airbrushed in gray tones, with black for solid colors, allowing for a full range of color effects such as gradients from light to dark, and brush-stroked areas like the edge of the yellow in the background here.

On the detail you can see the actual color dots in the flesh tones. The screen used on covers at the time was 85 lines (or dots) per inch. Interior separations were even coarser, about 60 lines per inch. I’m not sure what the current screen is on comics covers, but I would guess at least 150 lines per inch.

Folding back the blue plate shows just the reds and yellows. Solid red, as on Superman’s boots, trunks and cape, was a combination of 100% Magenta and 100% Yellow.

In the detail you can now better appreciate the subtle brushwork in the faces on the red plate, just adding hints of shading to add roundness to the shapes, and a dab of red for Lois’ lipstick.

The yellow plate by itself is hard to see, with not much visual difference between solid yellow and lesser amounts, but it does make a huge difference in the finished product. The gray marks are dirt on the acetate.

In the detail, the individual dots are too subtle for my scanner. It look a lot of experience and skill to get all these shades right, even though there was a color guide from the colorist to follow.

Finally, here’s just the black plate. You can see that even though the acetate is “clear,” there is a slight gray to it. Gray tones are added to the black line art by the separator on the road, buildings and car. This was not an option on interior coloring at the time, only on covers.

The detail shows the black line art better, and also shows a dirty fingerprint on Superman’s face, probably mine. These outdated relics of the comics creation process are fun to look at. If you’re coming to the Baltimore Comic-Con next week, stop by at my booth for a look, and perhaps you might want to buy one.

Baltimore Comic-Con Update

The Exhibit Hall map has just been put up on the Con’s website, and I will be at booth #1223. It’s the same general area I was in last year, straight back from the Exhibit Hall entrance and a little toward the left, but facing the other direction. John and Cathy Workman will again be in the booth behind me, so we have merely a curtain between us. On either side of me are legendary inkers Tom Palmer and Bob Wiacek, which should make for some interesting conversations!  Jerry Ordway will be next to John Workman on one side, I can’t identify who will be on the other side.

I will be on one panel at the Con, The Ahoy Comics panel from 4 to 5 PM in Room 343-344, and I will be at the ‘Ringo Awards Saturday evening. I plan to be at my table most of the time otherwise, hope to see you there if you’re going!

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERNS #52

Image © DC Comics. Written by Dan Jurgens, art by Marco Santucci, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Dave Sharpe.

As the third part of “Evil’s Might” opens, we see the menacing smile and read the sinister words of the most dangerous threat facing the Corps, and it’s coming from within Simon Baz’s power ring. Meanwhile, all the key GLs are battling an armada of Ravagers led by an unknown energy being calling itself The One. Even Hal Jordan joins the fray, but the Ravagers seem to be winning. Back on Oa, things are going from bad to worse. Communications are down among all the Corps and Guardians, Mogo’s weather is out of control and the planet is not communicating either. The Guardians seem at a loss. And that inside menace is working stealthily, craftily, to turn Corps members and friends on each other. Excellent writing by Dan Jurgens, and the art, colors and lettering all rise to the challenge. I’m thoroughly enjoying this storyline!

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE FLASH #50

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Joshua Williamson, art by Howard Porter, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Steve Wands.

The Flash War wraps up in this issue amid a blur of similar costumes and constant running. The villain is Zoom, who looks almost the same as The Flash except for his evil grin. He’s been messing with everyone to get the Speed Force disabled so he could enter Hypertime and choose the reality that works best for him. Barry is, of course, trying to stop him. Wally West wants to retrieve his lost children, wiped out by previous time changes, but here has joined Barry to try to stop Zoom. Wally looks almost the same as the other two except for his open-topped hood showing his red hair. This blends into the red of his costume, though, so in many places I found it hard to tell the leads apart. In addition to the Speed Force, other Forces have been unleashed. Then there’s Hypertime, the 25th Century, Iris and the other Wally, the disabled Justice League, and more. It’s the conclusion of a complex story, and I’ve read the other parts, but I still had a hard time following all the nuances and plot elements. As it often does, it comes down to who can run faster, and whether right will triumph over wrong, so that part’s clear enough. I have to say that this title, and Flash books in general over the last ten years, seem top-heavy with concepts, changing realities and plot devices, and could use a purge to get things back to a simpler plan, in my opinion.

Mildly recommended.

Pulled From My Files #92: DC COMICS PRESENTS ANNUAL #1 COVER COLORS

Images © DC Entertainment.

Here’s a rarity from my files, the only one of its kind, and the story behind it. While on staff at DC from 1977 to 1987 I also did freelance work, but that was mainly lettering and logo design. In the early years, though, I did whatever work was offered, including coloring, and I had my own Dr. Martin dyes coloring set, as seen in THIS blog article. By early 1982 I wasn’t doing much coloring (I never did that much anyway) when this cover art pencilled by Rich Buckler and inked by Dick Giordano came into the production department. It must have been very late, there wasn’t even time to have a color guide made and send it to Chemical Color in Connecticut for the usual color separation process. They wanted someone to do painted color, and probably overnight. I volunteered, and they must have been desperate because they gave me the assignment, despite the fact that I had never colored a cover for DC, nor had I ever done painted color for the company. I had done some on my own, but not for comics. A large photostat was made of the art, 11 by 16 inches with extra space at the top in case the proportions weren’t right and they needed extra room for the trade dress. This photostat was dry-mounted on a piece of illustration board, and I took it home to work on.

I already knew from experience that getting smooth colors on photostat paper was quite difficult with some of the Dr. Martin dyes, but fortunately the sky-blue one did go on smoothly, so I was able to use that at the top and bottom. On the large Luthor heads, I at first struggled to get smoothly blended tones, then hit on the idea of using thin brush strokes, which worked much better. The costumes of the two Supermen were small enough that the uneven color variations didn’t show very much.

The background was the biggest challenge. There were no stars on the original art to paint around, and even if there had been, going around little white areas with dyes was too time consuming. I filled the space with purposely mottled purples, several shades, to give it depth and used the uneven color application as a feature. I then tried to paint the stars over the color with Pro-White paint, but the colors were hard to cover, and the stars were lavender rather than white. The only choice left was to cut them out, and that’s what I did. With an exacto knife, I cut the top layer of photostat paper on each pointed star and the larger round ones, and then peeled it off with the knife. I was an expert with an exacto knife at the time, since I used it every day for art and lettering corrections in my day job.

I brought in the result, editor Julie Schwartz approved it, it was photographed for reproduction (not sure where, either at DC or at the separator) and here it is in print:

The ANNUAL trade dress frame was something I designed for all of that year’s annuals, and overall I think it worked pretty well. The colors came out different than I expected, particularly in the Luthor heads, the blue costumes and the stars, and some copies printed darker than this one, so it was far from a huge success, but as Sol Harrison used to say, it was “good enough for comics.” I wonder now if those blues in the costumes were lightened at the separator, I can’t imagine how else they’d print that light. No one was much impressed with my work, but they thanked me for getting it done quickly so it would print on time, and I was paid well. I wasn’t ever asked to do it again, though!