Resuming regularly scheduled programming…..

OK– I didn’t want to use up all my “stashes” too quickly, so I thought I’d give things a bit of a break over the weekend. I might start doing that regularly, or not. I’m still playing it by ear, but I’ll let you know in advance if I’m NOT going to be posting over the weekend on Fridays if I decide to go that route.

Over the weekend, I saw a wonderful program on the African mountain Gorilla on the DISCOVERY CHANNEL. It documented the daily life of a particular family of Gorillas– and it was amazing to watch them go about their routines of… well, mostly eating, resting and playing. They are very gentle creatures, despite their reputation built up by years of mis-representation in Hollywood as being fierce killers. Of course, the huge males– or Silverbacks, as they’re called– will valiently defend their families and “tribes” with great force if threatened, but barring that, he’s just as laid back as the rest of the troop. In fact, the Gorilla’s only natural predators are Leopards—- and of course, MAN. They’re being slowly wiped out by poachers looking to steal the babies to sell to zoos– and to take the heads and hands to sell as trophies. Like most of the natural wonders of wildlife in this world, human encroachment and greed has dwindled the Mountain Gorillas numbers to a dangerous level. It’s very sad to think of these gentle creatures in such dire peril. So, having said all that– what do I do…? I got inspired to do a sketch of a Gorilla, but I made him a gladiator. So sue me. And I think his head’s too big.

And here’s another layout from that SHE-HULK/THING one-shot. This one doesn’t even have a corresponding finished pencil page. There’s a couple like that–so I got more done on the project before it was cancelled the first time than I even remembered.

Tim O’Neil over at THE HURTING has what he calls “AN OPEN LETTER TO KYLE BAKER”. It doesn’t exactly address Baker personally, but it’s a great post. He laments the precipitous decline in sales of Baker’s PLASTIC MAN at DC. This is my favorite part of the letter:

“I feel bad for Kyle Baker. He gets nothing but praise for his graphic novels, which are perrenial “real world” successes. His latest, Birth Of A Nation, written by The Boondocks’ Aaron McGruder, will almost undoubtedly be a success as well, perhaps his biggest to date. But whenever he comes back to the ghetto of mainstream comics, he gets a proverbiual heap of shit for his efforts. Never mind that The Truth was a beautifully produced, thought-provoking and intelligent examination of racism and war – there are hundreds of retailers across the country who are using unsold copies of the book for insulation. The reason for this can probably be placed on Baker’s artwork. Only in comics could an instantly accessable, easy-to-read and blatantly commercial art style like Kyle Baker’s be so radically unpopular. The man is one of the most gifted natural cartoonists of his generation, and in the superhero direct market he can’t even get arrested. No wonder he’s so fucking cynical.”

This highlights what I see as an ever-growing (as much as something can GROW in the stunted and inbred community that the comic book crowd is these days) trend among comic book fans– in specific, the fan of the super-hero. More and more these days, I read on message boards the phrase (or variations of) “Ehh– that artists work is just too cartoony…!” The negativity over Baker’s work on THE TRUTH was so overwhelming, that the fact that the story was an incredibly innovative addition to the CAPTAIN AMERICA saga (and despite the annoying braying of the many nay-sayers to the contrary– WONDERFULLY illustrated) got lost in the mix. In a time when comic book writers are desperate to tack on their own little “addendum” to the history of a character, THE TRUTH was the greatest, most logical addition to CAP’s “myth”. But, by gosh, Baker’s work was just SOOOO CARTOONY…! Marvel has stated a new policy of moving away from more “cartoony” and “manga” styles (something so many fans seem to get confused about– many consider cartoony=manga– writing them both off as “trash”)– and more and more of the new books and new artists I see coming into the industry seem to be in the “realistic” vein. More and more young artists seem to be using photographic reference for their work– Alex Ross is still KING.

On the massage boards over at FANBOY RADIO, Kyle Baker was raked over the coals after a recent interview for the show, for stating that he would like to see stories that were more whimsical and full of wonder in superhero comics if he were going to read them instead of the boring rehashes of episodes of LAW AND ORDER or THE WEST WING (my examples, not his– see any issue of DAREDEVIL) they have become. ALL of this noise has led me to believe that another facet of the debates that have raged recently over kids comics vs. NO kids comics, “realistic” styles vs. “cartoony” styles is this: many comic book fans have lost their ability to use their imagination. In a society with instant gratification as its primary product– these fans don’t want to have to think about their comics anymore. They want to be spoon-fed every detail in the artwork– and they want their stories to be mundane to mirror what’s going on in the real world. Heaven forbid they should have to use any imagination to actually fill in some of the details themselves– or to have to stretch to lose themselves in the wonders of epic battles of good versus evil. No– it’s much easier to read stories where DOCTOR LIGHT is a rapist, or Hank Pym is a wife beater. The only stipulation they have is that these folks have to be wearing superhero tights when they’re doing their raping and wife beating.

So– to my mind, it comes down to this: these fans are so embarrassed to be reading superhero comics that they need to be able to point out to people that they’re “no longer for kids, by God…!”– and they don’t want to have to actually use their IMAGINATIONS when they read them. If these kinds of people were the majority of the fan base when Cole, Kirby, Infantino, C.C. Beck, Ditko and so many others (who gave us the fanciful characters that are still being published today) were working, the comics world would be so much poorer because these folks would have booed those creators off the stage.

That’s a world I don’t want to try to imagine.

Mike

…ME!!!

I’m the subject of one of Alan David Doane’s 5 QUESTIONS interviews over at NEWSARAMA. Alan is a tireless proponent of good comics, and you can see his very personal, opinionated (and sometimes combative) views on comic books and the industry as a whole over at Alan’s COMIC BOOK GALAXY website. He has a terrific array of articles, opinions and interviews as well as his own blog. Thank you for the exposure, Alan…!

Today features another layout from the pages I worked on for the SHE-HULK/THING one-shot. This is another page that I actually have a photocopy of the pencils for, but I’ve decided not to post a scan of the pencils, because looking at the one from yesterday, no matter how many times I tried to make the scan as clear as possible, it still ended up looking no sharper than the layout. So just layouts for the rest of the pages– they’re pretty tight anyway.

That’s it from me for now.

Mike

In recent years, MARVEL has been pushing their trade paperback program like crazy– maybe finally after seeing how much money it was making for DC for so long. I suspect that it was another of the many things that Bill Jemas pushed to have implemented at MARVEL. He was reviled while he was in charge by the majority of fans– but he had a lot of positive impact on the company (believe me– I’ve had my own issues with the man… can you say “The Mark Waid Debacle”, anyone…?). What’s interesting and kind of humorous is seeing so many of the same fans that constantly blasted the man on various message boards now express a growing feeling of nostalgia for his presence now that they see MARVEL seemingly taking a more conservative stance with their output due to their success in Hollywood. It never ceases to amaze me how some folks are NEVER satisfied or happy no matter what’s going on in the industry.

BECAUSE MARVEL has been so diligent in the reprinting of recent material, I find myself with a virtual “mini-library” of FANTASTIC FOUR trades collecting my work from the beginning of my artistic run on the book all the way up to my most recent issue (and of course, ALL of Mark’s writing [including the AUTHORATATIVE ACTION storyline, which I did no work on], since he’s there month in and month out, even when I’m forced to skip to the next story arc because I’m no speed demon drawing-wise). It’s the first time that I’ve ever had that happen. There’s a lot of debate as to whether it’s a good thing or not for sales of the monthlies when people know that the material is more than likely going to be collected shortly after it’s initial publication. The refrain “I’m going to wait for the trade…” has become increasingly common. But– for me, it’s thrilling to see it all in one place at one time.

“The Mike Wieringo FANTASTIC FOUR mini-library”

Under the catagory “Never seen print– never WILL see print”– I’ve come across some pages that I worked on for a SHE-HULK/THING one-shot that had quite an odd journey before it ever saw the light of day. I was on contract with MARVEL back when they first entered into their bankruptcy proceedings many years back– and it was a very odd time. They had cancelled SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN because they felt the market was too glutted with SPIDER-MAN books (my, how things change, hmmm?)– so I was kind of adrift at the company. They would have me start on one project, then the editor of said project would call me to tell me that he had been “downsized”. This happened many times during those dark days. ONE such project was the afformentioned SHE-HULK/THING one shot. It was written by my buddy Todd Dezago, and Brian Hitch had drawn half of it, but then bailed for some reason on the remainder of the book. I was asked to step in and finish it, but after finishing some 5 or so pages, that familiar call of “Uh…. Mike– please stop work on the book. It’s being cancelled and I’m being fired…” came. So I stopped. Years later, the project was resurrected and Ivan Reis (I believe) was brought in to finish it. But I still have the layouts as well as photocopies of the finished pencils that I produced. I think I sold the actual pencil pages long ago– so you’ll have to forgive the bad quality of the scans of the photocopies. So– here are the first couple. I’ll post more in the days to come.

LAYOUT

PENCILS

See you tomorrow.

Mike

I’ll start off today with a small selection of heads that I did yesterday as warmups. I was inspired by seeing some of the same kinds of things that I’ve been seeing from Alex Toth on his site and elsewhere. They’re a series of wonderful profile sketches of interesting characters– and as with ANYTHING from Toth, they’re brilliant. I can’t hope to compare with my own feeble attempts– but one thing I DID learn is that drawing old people (and in this case, men) are MUCH MORE fun to draw than young folks. They have such interesting points of character, like larger noses, ears– and you can add fun facial hair. The one younger face I drew just serves to highlight that– it’s rather boring.

And I’ll follow up with another layout vs printed page selection– this time from TELLOS #7. Unfortunately, at the time, I wasn’t scanning my pencil pages in to document them digitally (I don’t even remember if we had a computer in the studio at the time– but if we did, it never occurred to me to actually save the pencils as files). I’ve probably got xerox copies of the page around somewhere in the house, but I don’t really have time to scramble through my rat’s nest to try to find them. I tried to choose a page that had a nice variety of the characters on it.

THE LAYOUT

THE FINISHED, COLORED PAGE

And finally– I just got this email forwarded to me by my art dealer Scott Cates– literally as I’m putting this post together. It’s always so incredibly gratifying to get an email from someone who has been inspired by my work.

“Dear Mike

This is just a letter to thank you and to let you know that your work on the

Fantastic Four inspired me to pick up a pencil again. For years I tried to

get into comics, but never got my artwork right and due to the fact that I

was slow and never worked hard enough. Now after seeing your fantastic work

I got back into it and is busy writing and designing my own 24 issue

mini-series that I’ll start to submit next year. Some people suggested

because I live in South Africa that that will count against me, but I don’t

believe that. I hope you work on Fantastic Four for a long time. So thank

you again for being such an inspiration.

Keep well

Tim”

I’ve said this several times before in various forums– but it bears repeating: Getting emails like this one from Timothy Le Roux in South Africa is not even remotely one of the reasons I got into drawing comic books for a living– but it is a wonderful “fringe benefit” that helps me to ride out the periods when drawing for a living gets, at times, difficult and trying. So for that, Tim– THANK YOU. And for those that tell you that living in South Africa will hold you back– don’t believe them. That’s the beauty of modern internet technology– you can live ANYWHERE and still get your work seen… whether it’s as a web strip, on message boards, or whatever. And there are folks from all over the globe working for Marvel and DC.

OK– that’s it for today.

Mike

It seems as though there’s plenty of folks who think that getting a look at the various stages of the creation of a comic page or cover/pinup would be an interesting thing, so I’m going to start incorporating that into the blog periodically. Deadlines are pretty tight for me right now– so I’m going to start out with something that’s kind of close at hand in my files here on this computer. It’s also something that many of you might not have seen– depending on how diligent you are in following anything and everything having to do with Paul Smith’s and James Robinson’s LEAVE IT TO CHANCE comic. Those of you who DO follow it, know it’s a wonderful book that can be read and enjoyed by kids and adults alike. And Paul Smith is one of the comics industry’s most incredible talents– who unfortunately doesn’t produce as much work as his many fans would like to see from him. CHANCE has had a rather spotty publishing history– but IMAGE COMICS has begun in recent months to collect the original series (published by WILDSTORM’S HOMAGE imprint) into oversized hardcovers (beautiful!)– and a 13th issue came out some months ago in a prestige format. I was thrilled to be asked by Paul Smith himself to produce a pinup for the new issue– and I thought I’d present the sketches, inks as well as Paul’s colors here to show the process– as well as to present it for those of you who might not have seen it. So– sketches, inks and colors, in that order….

SKETCH 1 (not used )

SKETCH 2 (used as pinup)

INKS

AND PINUP COLORS

For those of you who have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for the always incredibly funny and detailed CON REPORTS that Steve Leiber and Jeff Parker create after every show they attend, Parker has at last posted the report of their experiences at COMICON INTERNATIONAL in San Diego for all to see. I suggest that everone who is into reading these reports (and they’re always great!) go read THIS one– because it just may be Parker’s last. He has experienced immense frustration at the amount of time that they entail to put together, and as he stated on his blog, “That don’t feed the cat!” I really couldn’t blame him for not doing them anymore (as a freelancer myself, I understand exactly where he’s coming from)– but I sure would miss ’em.

I’d also like to direct your attention to the wonderful PVP online comic strip created by Scott Kurtz. As you’ll notice in my links section, it’s my favorite strip on the web– and Scott put out a call for guest strips to run while he was away at COMICON out in sunny San Diego (see how these two link items tie so neatly together…?)– and I couldn’t resist throwing my hat into the ring to take him up on it. The strip that I did is running today. I would like to take this opportunity to point out someone whom Scott forgot to credit for the colors and letters on the strip, and that’s my good buddy JAMAR NICHOLAS. Without Jamar’s colors and letters, the strip would have looked like a rushed, amateurishly lettered pile of junk– so to you, Jamar– I give my deepest thanks and respect. You are the MAN. Be sure and check out Jamar’s site– he’s one hell of an artist (and writer to boot)– and he does the super cool DETECTIVE BOOGALOO strip over at MOVIEPOOPSHOOT.COM. As Jamar is fond of saying, head on over and “holla at your boy”…!

Thanks again, buddy.

OK– that’s enough for today– the FANTASTIC FOUR are calling me to get my butt to work.

Mike