Todd Klein's Blog, page 329
October 21, 2011
And Then I Read: KIRBY GENESIS 2 & 3
Images © Roslyn Kirby Family Trust.
In these issues even more Jack Kirby characters are added to the large numbers introduced earlier, though the impact is somewhat less chaotic because we now have several groups gathering together in different places, each with a common goal. Of course one of them is the villains, whose leader has emerged, and unfortunately for her, the female warrior character that has taken over the body of young Bobbi, one of our viewpoint characters, is on that team. Meanwhile, her father and friend Kirby are still trying to find out where she is and getting mixed up in another group of metahumans, including an impressive "bigfoot" character, as seen on this cover. There's also a primitive jungle world with dinosaurs, godlike types with egos as large as their powers, characters full of glowing Kirby energy, massive space ships, and lots more Kirby coolness, all rendered well by artists Alex Ross and Jack Herbert.
In fact, they somehow manage to make Kirby's women sexy, something he was rarely able to achieve.
Writer Kurt Busiek is still in there slugging, but again the huge cast is working against much character development, and at times even much action, which has to fit in between new character intros and bombastic speeches. It's there, but the balance still seems off, and the many storylines and motivations hard to keep track of. I'm liking the art enough to overlook much of that, though, and will keep reading.
Recommended.
October 20, 2011
And Then I Read: BOILERPLATE
Images © Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett.
While there are lots of comics connections in this book, it's not comics, it's a coffee-table art book of the highest quality, as you would expect from publisher Abrams. Guinan's creation, the 19th-century robot "Boilerplate" has previously appeared in at least one comic drawn by Guinan, but this is instead an extremely clever "history-pictorial" of the kind that Time-Life books was long known for: an equal balance of informative text and pictures of all kinds, from photos to drawings, to paintings, to maps and diagrams, to reproductions of ephemera like postcards and posters. Anina Bennett, Paul's life partner, contributed much of the text I believe, while Paul did all the art, which in this case required lots of Photoshop work on existing images from about 100 years ago. In fact, I'd say Photoshop might also deserve a credit somewhere, it would not have been possible to create this kind of book without it!
You see, though the book would have you believe differently, Boilerplate did not exist in the late 19th century, but after reading this book and examining dozens, maybe hundreds of photos that place the robot in historical context perfectly, it might almost convince you he did. At first I was studying the photos intently, trying to see some evidence of the robot having been inserted, like Woody Allen's Zelig, into all kinds of scenes and historical events, but after a while I gave it up as impossible. There is absolutely nothing to give away the work that's been done there. Really impressive!
Here's a sample page, can you find the robot in the photo? There are much more impressive examples in the book.
As a documentary book about a certain time in history, this is excellent, taking readers through the times in various ways: scientific advances, history, politics, social life, wars, travel to all parts of the globe. Wise commentary on the social condition is often implied or even stated clearly.
The one area that disappointed me about this book, and perhaps it was expecting something outside its parameters: we never get very close to the robot, or his creator. We always see them through the eyes of others, in still photos, and we remain closed off from the inner circle except in occasional letters from Archibald Campion to his wife. We are told of Boilerplate's abilities and even that he can talk, but learn almost nothing about how he interacted with Archie, or what he might have said, much less any insight into his mechanical brain and how it worked. We hear little of any trouble the robot might have had in his many tasks, he always seems perfectly capable of anything asked of him. Only at the end of his story, when he disappears during World War One is there a bit of a window allowing us a chance to at least wonder what might have happened, how he might have finally failed in his last assignment.
Perhaps we'll get closer to the subject in future works by Guinan and Bennett. I hope so. Meanwhile, this book is way cool and highly recommended!
October 19, 2011
And Then I Read: KIRBY GENESIS #0 & 1
Images © Roslyn Kirby Family Trust.
It's an exciting idea that Dynamite had: license a bunch of Jack Kirby creations that have either languished for years or have never seen print, then get top talents Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross to launch them in a new series (with lots of help from artist Jack Herbert on the inside art). Ross has been working with Dynamite for a while now on a number of projects, Ross and Busiek famously worked on MARVELS together. An exciting idea, and Busiek's story gets off to a fine start in issue 0.
The premise is based on a real event: Jack Kirby once drew idealized, heroic male and female figures and offered them to NASA to put on an engraved plaque on an interstellar probe. In real life, NASA didn't follow through with that idea, in the comic they did, and somehow that probe ends up in a fantastic universe full of Kirby creations. Before long they're all headed to Earth. Issue 0 also does a good job of establishing our viewpoint characters, a boy and girl, and the girl's policeman father.
As the real story begins in issue 1, Earth is being bombarded by super characters, they're turning up everywhere, perhaps triggered by the giant male and female figures (the ones drawn by Kirby) that appear in the sky just before the meta-invasion commences in earnest. Our viewpoint characters Kirby and Bobbi are older here, teenagers, and are soon in the thick of things. But Bobbi gets drawn in a bit too far and taken over by one of the entities, becoming a new meta herself. Kirby and Bobbi's father are determined to save her.
Much of the issue is short bits of story throwing new characters into the mix, and that's my only real problem with this series: there's so many characters we hardly have time to get to know any of them. Think about the DC and Marvel heroes, how they developed over years before teaming up in the JLA and Avengers (okay, not so many years in the latter, but still…). Readers had time to get to know and love them individually before seeing them in teams. Dynamite is apparently trying to do it the other way round, throwing dozens of characters into this book, then spinning off individuals in their own series. Busiek does his best, but many of the characters get short shrift. I'm reminded of what happens if you give a kid a boxful of new toys. What does he do? Dumps it out on the floor in a chaotic jumble. If you give him one toy at a time, over days, he has a lot more fun getting to know each one.
The art on the series looks great. Some pages, or parts of pages, are full Ross watercolors, others are a mix of Ross and Herbert, some seem to be all Herbert, but perhaps over Ross layouts. Even though I've just read these, I can't say any of the metas really stand out in my mind. Like that toybox, it's kind of a jumble. I like the series well enough to read the rest, though, and it's recommended.
October 18, 2011
Creating GO FREELANCE!
All images © Shawn McManus and Todd Klein, all rights reserved. (Todd and Shawn at the San Diego Comicon, 2007.)
In 2010, after producing a number of signed prints, I began thinking of other ways to fill an 11 by 17-inch piece of paper, and came to the idea of a game board. I'd worked on one for THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN with Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, and it was a fun project, especially since I love games. After some thought I came up with the idea of leading players through the life of a comics artist, along the lines of The Game of Life, one I'd often played as a child. I worked on the script for a few weeks in August 2010 until I had what I thought would work. Next I needed to find an artist!
The problem with this idea was that, instead of one large picture, I had to convince an artist to draw lots of little ones; a great deal more work than one big picture. I approached my first choice, and he agreed to do it, but after reading over the script for few weeks, decided it wasn't for him. Too much work! I certainly had to admit that it was.
I thought further, and came to Shawn McManus, an artist I've enjoyed working with since our collaboration on DC Comics' THE OMEGA MEN in 1985. Shawn's style is versatile, but always has an undercurrent of cartoony humor that I thought might be perfect for this project. I called Shawn, and he agreed, but I warned him that it would be time-consuming. I sent him the script and this rough layout of the game board as I envisioned it, and waited anxiously.
Sure enough, a few days later Shawn called with lots of complaints about the amount of work he'd have to do for this print, but he also said he loved the script, and told me he had the perfect style for it. That sounded good to me, and Shawn sent along some samples:
When I got them, I couldn't believe how perfect the style was for this project! Shawn was going for a 1950's Advertising Art style with big-headed characters, clean lines and lots of humor. I loved it, and told him so! Shawn promised to get started on the drawings as soon as he could. We were both scheduled to be working on Vertigo's second CINDERELLA mini-series soon, so I was hoping Shawn might get to this project first.
A few weeks later Shawn sent me some rough sketches for about half the pictures needed to fill the squares of the game board, and he also talked me into cutting back on the number of game spaces so he'd have more room for the pictures. I agreed to this, removing one square from each section of the game (I think the layout above was scanned AFTER that editing). With that agreed upon, I began laying out the game board and lettering in pencil.
When this was done, I emailed it to Shawn at the drawn size (also the printed size) in small sections so he would have the exact dimensions for each image. At that point Shawn was beginning to draw CINDERELLA, and told me he'd try to work in one or two finished drawings a week as he went along. It sounded like a good idea, but as I was waiting for finished art pages of the comic to arrive for lettering, I could see Shawn wasn't going to have time for much else. And, in fact, he ended up doing most of the work for the print after the entire mini-series was finished, earlier this year. About once a month Shawn would squeeze in one or two inked pictures for the print, but with fifty-eight to do, I knew it would take a while.
Meanwhile, I drew the board paths and did all the lettering, then spent a few weeks in my usual painstaking retouch process to get everything looking just as I wanted it. Since I was lettering at printed size I knew I'd need some work to make the lettering look good. For example, here's a section of the untouched original lettering:
And here's the same section after cleanup and conversion to a clean bitmap format:
Letters that were too uneven or too close together were adjusted, lines were made more even, and so on, until it all looked good to me. When I was finished I sent a scan of this to Shawn so he could place his pictures right into the game board as he went along. Later, Shawn would add gray tones for additional detail and depth.
Finally the mini-series was complete and Shawn got to work on the print art in earnest, finishing it up in late July. Here's the final product, after a bit of tweaking on the gray tones by me and added copyright/printer information along the bottom:
(Sorry it's so small here, but the landscape format is tough to get into this blog!) Shawn and I were both very happy with this, so I printed it on my large-format printer on Wausau Exact Vellum Bristol cardstock, choosing the Ivory color I'd used before on my C and E prints. I thought it gave the game board a slightly aged look that went well with the art, and it warmed up the gray tones, too.
My next job was to paint the spot colors on each of the 500 prints, another time-consuming process, but one I enjoy. I'd chosen a bright green to go in the open G and the six narrow "Paycheck" spaces. Here's a closer look:
Between the warm gray tones and the green, the print gained a lot of life from the added color. I emailed a scan to Shawn, and he approved. But getting all the prints painted took much longer than usual.
First, it was August. I had to compete with warm summer weather, including occasional cat tail hazards, as above. Then we had our usual summer visitors, coming to enjoy the beach, and that took away much of my extra time. Finally, in late August we had a little hurricane you might have heard of, forcing us to evacuate our home for a few days; more time lost. Once all the prints were painted, I signed each one and packed them all up and sent them to Shawn for his signatures. By then it was mid-September, and Ellen's and my long-planned two-week vacation was looming. I told Shawn to keep the prints and sign them while we were gone, and send them back in October when we returned. He did that, and now they're finally ready!
Personally I'm extremely happy with the way they came out, and I hope you'll enjoy them, too. If you'd like to read about the creation of my other prints, you can do that on my SIGNED PRINTS page. Ordering information is there, or on my BUY STUFF page. Shawn and I thank you for your interest and support!
October 17, 2011
It's a Print! It's a Game! It's GO FREELANCE!
Images © Shawn McManus and Todd Klein, all rights reserved.
Forgive me if I talk about myself in the third person for a moment.
Todd Klein is proud to announce his latest signed print, in collaboration with artist Shawn McManus. Not only an elaborate piece of art and lettering, GO FREELANCE! is a board game that outlines the lives of two budding comics artists. It's written, designed and lettered by Todd with over fifty wonderful spot illustrations by Shawn in a 1950s-advertising art style that's sure to bring a smile.
Here you'll meet Artie and Scribbler as they make their way from childhood to retirement through the challenges, pitfalls, rewards and catastrophes of a creative livelihood…
…their original creations, terrific T-Man and the mysterious Master of None…
…plus other characters like the Old Pro, and a special guest appearance by a certain Top Writer!
As with the previous seven prints in this alphabetical series (representing letters A to F and H), G for GO FREELANCE! is printed in black (with gray tones) on 11 by 17-inch cardstock-thickness Exacta Bristol Vellum, this time in Ivory color, and each one is hand-painted with green spot-colors by Todd and signed by both McManus and Klein in a limited edition of 500 copies. Shawn and Todd have been working together since their 1985 collaboration on DC Comics' THE OMEGA MEN, and had a great time putting together this light-hearted look at the world behind the comics we all love.
Each print sells for $20 plus shipping on the BUY STUFF page of Todd's website, along with all the other prints in the series and further intriguing items. Prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube by First Class mail and usually arrive in a few days (inside the U.S.) or a week or two (elsewhere). (Note that if you've looked at my BUY STUFF page recently, you may need to refresh the page view to see the new item.)
Why not get two, one to frame and one to play? And be sure to tell your comics-fan friends, they'll want them, too! If you've ever dreamed of becoming a comics professional you'll enjoy following in the footsteps of Artie and Scribbler in GO FREELANCE!
Todd and Shawn thank you for your support and hope to hear from you soon. You can also read more about my prints on the SIGNED PRINTS page of this blog.
October 16, 2011
New Cat Contraption and Walking the Boardwalk
Ellen went to the big box pet store to buy cat food Saturday, and she came home with this, so Tigger and Leo did get a birthday present after all.
They like it. Tigger is particularly interested in the dangly plaything at the bottom…
…while Leo is more into climbing on top.
We moved it over against the wall below the stairway, where it seemed to fit best. Tigger is still after that dangler, and Leo is after that tail!
Late Saturday afternoon we went for a nice long walk on the Ocean City Boardwalk. The winds were strong, but warm, so the only problem was walking against them going south. When we turned around and went north, it was a breeze, so to speak.
While many of the places selling food were open, most of the other shops were closed for the season. New Jersey boardwalks seem to all have one or more psychics, as immortalized in that Springsteen song "4th of July, Asbury Park," but I don't know that I'd put much faith in one that doesn't know how to spell 'spiritual."
Visited this bookstore probably for the last time, as the chain is closing down. They once had a store in every beach town around here, but like most bookstores, can't seem to compete with Amazon and e-readers. We went in and each found a book we wanted at a bargain price.
As we were leaving the boardwalk to have dinner, I was startled by this shop sign. Could it be true, I wondered? Could this be the one shop we've all been looking for all our lives? Sadly, there was no telling as it's closed for the season. Will it be here next summer, or will it quietly disappear one winter night, and no one will ever remember it was there…?
October 15, 2011
And Then I Read: MOOMIN Volume Six
While I grew up with the 'Moomin" series of childrens' novels by Tove Jansson, I never learned of the comic strip of the characters that ran for many years in British newspapers (and probably elsewhere) until just a few years ago. Drawn & Quarterly has reprinted those strips by Tove in the first five volumes of MOOMIN, and is now continuing the the strip as written as drawn after her by her brother Lars, who actually had a much longer run on the strip: 15 years.
Lars Jansson sounds like quite a remarkable person. In the afterword about him, Juhani Tolvanen says, "Tove Jansson's kid brother—twelve years her junior—was a writer, translator, gold-miner, aerial photographer, model for Snufkin, and, finally and most famously, a cartoonist." The article goes on to say that Lars was involved in the strip from the beginning as translator. When Tove tired of writing the strip, he began writing them for her, and when she wanted to give up the drawing as well, Lars, who had never been an artist, gave himself a crash course in drawing Moomins, and in a few months was able to take over the strip entirely!
And I think he did quite well with it. I have to give Tove the edge in more imaginative whimsy and moments of poetic beauty, but Lars' stories are often funny and his take on the characters is very true to his sister's vision. There are four strips reprinted here, all in dailies, and they tend to focus on two of the Moomin clan mostly, which made for easier drawing I'd bet. Two stories focus on young Moomin with a magic lamp, and trying to stop a railway from being built in their valley. Two others feature Moominpappa mixed up with a society of spies, and as an honorary chairman of a society to prevent cruelty to animals. The latter has him freeing all the animals from a circus, with predictably funny results.
These are gentle stories; no one gets hurt, everyone is polite, even the policemen, and the Moomin clan bumbles through all kinds of trouble often without even realizing what they've done wrong. I find it appealing, though not as good as the "Moomin" novels. Still well worth a read and recommended.
October 14, 2011
Now We Are Two
Tigger and Leo are two years old today. All the previous cats we had we didn't know their actual birthday, as they were found or adopted, but in this case we do. Of course it's just another day to them. Plenty of time to relax out on the porch…
…wrestle in the laundry room…
…and do the dinner time happy song and dance. No special treats in their dishes, just the usual food they like. A little more attention and love than usual today, though.
October 13, 2011
Incoming: Three new DC hardcovers
Images © DC Comics and the respective copyright holders.
Just arrived at my door today are three projects I've lettered, looking great in hardcover. First is BATMAN NOËL, written and drawn by Lee Bermejo, a great retelling of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" with Batman as Scrooge. This is original material, not previously printed.
A FLIGHT OF ANGELS is another original with an unusual development path. Painter Rebecca Guay came up with the idea of a series of stories about Angels and found a group of writers to bring her concept to life. The framing story concerns an Angel that has crash-landed in Faery, and a group of that land's inhabitants who must decide what to do about it. Each tells a story concerning an Angel, and each one is painted in a different style by Guay. Really fine work.
Last we have the collected mini-series JOE THE BARBARIAN. I thought the story by Grant Morrison was charming and exciting, and the art by Sean Murphy is excellent. Okay, I may be prejudiced about all these books because I worked on them, but I suggest you check them out. And all three required a variety of different lettering styles, too, so you can look for that as well.
October 12, 2011
And Then I Read: THE SEARCH FOR SWAMP THING 1-3
Images © DC Comics, Inc.
I wasn't expecting a lot from this mini-series, but decided to read it for two reasons. First, I was intrigued by the reappearance of Swamp Thing in the final pages of BRIGHTEST DAY (his return to the DC Universe from the Vertigo one), and second, I knew there would be a relaunch of SWAMP THING as part of the new DC 52, so I wanted to see how this led into that. Writer Jonathan Vankin was clearly handed a very plot driven story: get from A to B in three issues, and he did okay with it. The focus is on John Constantine, who is apparently being pursued by Swampy, but senses something not right in this more menacing aspect of Earth's biosphere. He flies to America to enlist the help of Batman and Superman, trying to track down Alec Holland, who we saw being reborn at the end of BRIGHTEST DAY, but no longer as Swamp Thing. In other words, they're separate now. The story is okay, with enough twists and turns to keep me reading, though I have to say I didn't completely buy Constantine's Britspeak. Sure, some of the words and phrases are in there, but it didn't seem quite real, like an American trying to imitate a Brit. Sorry, Jon! There isn't much of a payoff either, since it merely sets up the situation for the first issue of the new series.
The art by Castiello and Acunzo on issues 1 and 3 is pretty good, with a sketchy quality to the figures that works fine most of the time. The art on issue 2 by Arlem is not as good, and the transition is a bit jarring. At times the look of Constantine and Holland were so close it was hard at first to tell who was who, for instance.
Mildly recommended. Not sure it's really necessary to read this before trying the new series.
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