Cover to Rob Hanes Adventures #12

UPDATED 12/11/08: Since posting the image below of the cover to the next issue of Rob Hanes Adventures, I've since learned that the guest artist who drew the cover, Benton Jew, has recently had an 8-page story published in a Hulk Family one-shot, and has another story in the pipeline scheduled for Marvel's new wave of online comics! For details, visit Benton's Blog! And, of course, click on the image below to see his cover in detail!


To mix things up a bit, for the first time ever I have invited a guest artist to provide the cover to the next issue (#12) of Rob Hanes Adventures! (Click on the image to see it full size.)

The cover above is by professional illustrator/storyboard artist/comic-book artist Benton Jew. More examples of this outstanding artist's work can be found at his blog.

Benton is a professional acquaintance from way back, dating back to when he worked at George Lucas' visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic before going freelance. He is one of the finest artists I know.

As noted in an earlier blog entry, in issue 12, Rob is stranded on a desert isle with a beautiful female felon he has been hired to extradite back to the United States from Japan after his plane goes down in the Pacific. Preview pages from the story may be found here.

God Bless America

A LOOK BACK: Sgt. Rock

In addition to comics and playing outside, one of my big interests when I was growing up was World War II. I loved playing guns in the woods where I grew up (when it snowed, it evoked for me being in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge). Each week I dutifully checked the television schedule to note any World War II film that might be playing. (My childhood and adolescent years took place during the late 1960s through the ‘70s). Favorite films in the genre were the Longest Day, To Hell and Back, the Dirty Dozen and Go for Broke.

So, of course, Our Army at War featuring Sgt. Rock was a natural for me, combining my love for both comics and World War II. In addition to Detective Comics which featured Batman, Our Army at War was the first comic-book series I collected regularly. In fact, after I realized the significance of issue numbers, I began going back to fill in holes in my collection. Like most kids of my era, I purchased my comics at a local drugstore with a spinner rack. I was fortunate that the local drugstore, despite its limited selection, carried Rock nearly every month. I discovered the series with issue 267. (One of my most memorable and fondest scores was finding issue 269—a “100-page giant”—at the terminal of the Staten Island Ferry.)

I started reading the series after the artist most associated with the series, Joe Kubert, had stopped drawing the series regularly. Fortunately, the series continued to feature some of the best artists of the era, including John Severin (who drew the first issue I purchased), Russ Heath, and George Evans. Artist Frank Redondo—one of the many highly skilled Filipino artists who began working for DC during this period—shortly became the series’ regular artist, successfully channeling Kubert in his work. Despite the variety of artists, however, Rock’s distinctive look and character design remained consistent regardless of the artist, helped in large part, of course, by the fact that legendary editor/writer Robert Kanigher remained the series’ writer.

Through it all, however, Kubert continued to furnish the cover art (and at one point became its editor). As one can see in the samples provided with this blog, Kubert’s gritty style perfectly complemented the subject matter. Each cover usually captured perfectly the essence of the issue’s story or a compelling dramatic moment, and always succeeded in grabbing one’s attention from among all the comics on the spinner rack. Incredibly, years later, Kubert admitted in an interview that he didn’t particularly have any real affinity for war comics—as a typical journeyman artist of his generation, it simply was a paying gig.

Though Kanigher was one of the most prolific writers of comic-books for the five decades he worked in the industry, little is known about him personally. Professionally, Kanigher churned out stories at an astonishing pace. Unlike many of today’s writers, Kanigher had little use for continuity outside of what was required in the occasional multi-part stories. Nearly all stories were self-contained. In retrospect, one can see the formulaic approach of Kanigher’s work, which was a reflection of his background as a short story writer. This formula involved finding some hook for the story and running it into the ground until some ironic or revelatory ending was reached—but Kanigher nearly always pulled it off skillfully. (Kanigher was also known to be a bit of a hard-ass, who apparently delighted in tormenting artists who gave him an opening—tellingly, Kubert reported never having any trouble with him, and artist Neal Adams talked about once standing up to him and never again being bothered by him). Regardless, the man was a writing machine.

Sgt. Rock tended to swing clear of any sense of jingoism, and instead focused on the joes in the trenches and the futility of war without being preachy—which was a perfect fit, no doubt, by the time the Vietnam War and the peace movement was in full swing. During the time I was reading it, most stories ended with the small aphorism, “Make War No More.” It was telling that many of the letters of comment came from servicemen.

An extra treat of Our Army at War were the back up stories, featuring outstanding work from people like Alex Toth, Ric Estrada, and Sam Glanzman, who drew extensively on his personal experiences as a navyman who served in the Pacific during World War II.

I often have mentioned that Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates was one of the comics that most inspired me. However, Sgt. Rock has had a similarly immense impact on me—and though I may not go back to those comics for inspiration like I do some of my other favorites, the influence of Rock is still alive in my work….

When I was in junior high school, I began my own home-made comic-book, “War Comics starring Sgt. Hanes and Hell Platoon.” The series ran for 23 issues from 1973 to 1976, which was shared with friends and classmates. “Sgt. Jim Hanes” eventually morphed into a proposed daily adventure strip set in World War II, and when I decided to instead create a modern day adventure series, I created a new character, ostensibly Sgt. Hanes’ nephew in my continuity: Rob Hanes. (One of my future goals in Rob Hanes Adventures is to bring in Sgt. Hanes and do a throwback World War II story.)

By the way, the name of my imprint for the series was the “War Comics Group”—or WCG for short.

Note: Above is issue 10 of my own War Comics, inspired by Sgt. Rock, from 1974.

Also, a new Sgt. Rock limited series, "The Lost Battalion," is scheduled to be released beginning in November 2008.

A new biography of Joe Kubert, Man of Rock, from Fantagraphics Books is due this month. A fine interview with its author, Bill Schelly (an acquaintance of mine who's also a fan of Rob Hanes Adventures!) is available here.

First Preview of Rob Hanes Adventures #12

Good progress has been made on the next issue of Rob Hanes Adventures and I've just posted the first few pages from the upcoming story to give fans a taste of what's coming. For the advance preview, click on the image above or here.

In the issue, Rob becomes stranded on a desert island with a beautiful female prisoner he has been hired to extradite back to the U.S.

(Note: As always, these images are subject to change prior to publication.)

Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles

It’s a tribute to the artist’s enormous influence and talent that Noel Sickles, who worked exclusively as a cartoonist only from about 1933 to 1936, continues to be remembered and honored in the comics industry. Along with cartoonist Milton Caniff, creator of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon, Sickles in his brief time in the industry is credited with creating and subsequently inspiring a whole new style of cartooning—often referred to as the “chiaroscuro school”—which used heavy blacks to create a sense of dramatic mood and atmosphere, as well as a documentary effect, on the comics page.

Further cementing his legacy is a hefty, comprehensive, and beautifully designed oversized artbook devoted to the artist, Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles, by Dean Mullaney. Reportedly begun as vehicle to reprint the artist’s full run on Scorchy Smith—an aviation/soldier of fortune daily adventure comic strip inspired by Charles Lindbergh—the labor of love soon evolved into a serious retrospective into the artist’s life and career.

While Sickles would regardless always have been remembered for his pioneering work, his place in comics history was partly ensured by Caniff (who I’ve blogged and written about extensively: see here and here). Both from Ohio, the two young men met at the start of their careers at the Ohio Dispatch newspaper art bullpen (both attended Ohio State simultaneously for a time) and soon became close personal friends as well as studio mates. Caniff was a skilled networker and self-promoter, but generous as well. Indeed, in the midst of the Depression, it was Caniff who found Sickles a job at the Associated Press shortly after he had been hired there, which eventually led to Sickles’ assignment on Scorchy Smith. But Caniff never hesitated to credit Sickles for inventing the style that Caniff subsequently picked up, developed further and turned into his signature style.

Sickles partly developed the style to speed up production on Scorchy Smith since it allowed him to slap down blacks very quickly. But he also did so out of boredom and experimentation. Like another Sickles/Caniff disciple, Alex Toth, Sickles was notoriously restless, as well as incredibly versatile. (Like Toth, Sickles was an "artist's artist.") Storywriting Smith never really held much interest for him; Caniff often scripted the strip in advance for him while Sickles occasionally lent a hand on his studio partner’s strips. But even in his short time on his strip, you can see Sickles using a whole range of styles, from the chiaroscuro look to one with heavy cross hatching.

Given this restlessness, it seemed inevitable that Sickles would move on. And indeed he did, becoming a successful and respected commercial illustrator, which Mullaney’s book covers comprehensively. Sickles’ cartooning background, however, clearly continued to serve him well. A review of his work in the new biography shows that his art never looked artificial or labored, but rather incredibly spontaneous and naturalistic. And each piece always told a story—indeed, most of his work seemed to be for fiction pieces or were presented as reportage, rather than classic commercial illustration.

Credits: Many of the images featured here from Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles are from commercial artist Leif Peng’s “Today’s Inspiration” blog. Leif has posted extensive samples of Sickles’s work featured in the book here.

Je m'appelle Bonisseur de La Bath—Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath

I’ve always been a sucker for classic Bond films, as well as films and music that capture the spirit of the early Space Age '60s era.

Tipped off by a capsule review in Entertainment Weekly, last May I had the pleasure to discover such a film, from France no less, entitled, OSS 117: Le Caire Nid d’Espion (Cairo, Nest of Spies) at a local upscale arthouse movie theater (the Landmark in Los Angeles). The official site for the film can be found here. The film is scheduled for release at the end of this month—above is the films' trailer.

As one can see from the teaser, OSS 117 is essentially a Bond parody film—in French of course— set in 1955, that authentically captures the genre and era very convincingly down to the credit sequence, the music, the cinematography, art direction, costuming, and primitive special effects, such as rear projection during driving sequences. Apparently, OSS 117 is based on a series of novels, that were made into actual spy films in France during the 1950s and ‘60s (predating Ian Fleming's Bond books!), but here it’s been updated as a comedic parody of the genre.

While the film isn’t quite as polished as your standard Hollywood fare, I enjoyed OSS 117 quite a bit, and found it very funny. I sometimes found myself on the verge of tears laughing. It helps, of course, that I watched the film with a receptive audience at an art house movie theater that provided a laugh track for much of the film.

The title character, whose codename is OSS 117 (the character's given name is Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath), is not quite as clueless as Maxwell Smart or Inspector Clouseau (though he's close), and the movie is played just slightly straighter and less-over-the top than those films. The film is definitely more authentic-looking than the Austin Powers movie, and less self-conscious or self-referential.

Some of the humor in the movie stems from the lead character being ignorant of Middle East culture and religion, so he keeps inadvertantly insulting Arabs throughout the film. As this suggests, the archaic views of Western colonialism from the era are played up for laughs. As an example, at the end of the movie when the case ends, OSS 117 predicts that the Middle East will now enjoy peace for centuries. But there also is plenty of lowbrow and double entendre humor.

The film is helped by a terrific cast, particularly lead actor Jean Dujardin, who apparently is a well known comedian in France. Dujardin manages to capture much of Sean Connery’s early 007 look and signature moves very well.

While I'm not sure everyone will get the joke, if you're comfortable with foreign films and enjoy the "space age" design of the '60s (as seen in TV shows like Mad Men and films like Catch Me If You Can), you may get a kick out of this.

SHOP TALK: Google SketchUp

Like a lot of cartoonists, I’ve gradually embraced the digital revolution in varying degrees. Being the lazy bum I am, I’m always interested in making my work easier. However, I’ve also always made a point to only adopt methods that don’t detract from the overall quality of the work, or call attention to itself by clearly looking like it was done on a computer. The best examples are my transition to using Photoshop to emulate classic halftone screens, and CorelDraw for my lettering and balloons (which I blogged about here). Again, the priority for me was to ensure that readers didn’t notice any change in the work, and to add other effects gradually and subtly.

At the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, a well-known industry pro who has been an acquaintance for many years turned me on to Google SketchUp, a 3D modeling program available as a free download. Only recently, however, did I begin to take baby steps with it, and I must admit I can anticipate it becoming a more regular part of my artist's toolbox.

The program allows users to build and edit 3D models that can then be rotated and viewed at any angle. The model can then be combined with other models, and saved, downloaded and printed in a variety of usable formats. (There are also plenty of filters and features to turn it into a wireframe drawing, or to make it look as photorealistic as possible.) Even better, thanks to the generosity of the online community, there already exists an extensive database archive of objects available for download and customization. As any artist who has struggled with getting the angle just right of a gun, a chair, a staircase, an automobile, an airplane, or even a building or cityscape knows, the applications of such a program is mind-boggling.

I’ve never used a 3D program before, so have no point of comparison for it. But the program is fairly intuitive, though of course once you begin getting more ambitious, you’ll no doubt need to delve into the manual.

I first used the program for a shot of an airplane in an upcoming story. I found a generic plane in SketchUp's online library, rotated it to the right angle, saved it as a TIFF, then used a lightboard to bring it into the finished art.

My next project was a bit more ambitious. A fictitious building in New York City, the Drakorp Building, which is the headquarters for the title character of my comic-book series, Rob Hanes Adventures, occasionally appears in the book. Initially, I had found a generic skyscraper model in SketchUp's library. However, given the distinctive look of the Drakorp building, I thought it might be worth it to take the time to build a 3D model of the building that I could then always have on file to use whenever I needed it.

Though it required some fiddling and more learning about the program, I actually built the model from scratch in just a few hours. You can see the model in its entirety in the image at the top of this post. It's actually a fairly simple, straightforward model, especially since each side is identical. The only part that turned out to be a challenge was cutting and pasting each side of the building with the window slat features down the structure's full length intact. Cutting and pasting in a 3D space turned out initially to be a bit tricky to figure out, but I finally got it to work.

In addition, I decided it might also be a good idea to place the model within a larger city environment to create atmosphere for the structure whenever I used it. After finding a generic cityscape and integrating my Drakorp building model into it, I also imported into the space a completed model I found online of the Empire State Building. (See below for a shot of the final model at a dramatic angle, with the Empire State Building in the background.)

One thing I know for sure is that the next time I need to integrate a stairwell into a story, I will be using SketchUp!