#tim sale-pencil-ink

[balu8]

Superman for All Seasons #2: Summer

by Jeph Loeb: Tim Sale; Bjarne Hansen and Richard Starkings

DC

[jondoe297]

Justice League Action,Knightfall an Long Halloween Batman doodles from askin friends an people i know online an offline for random versions of Batman to draw which is somethin i like to do sometimes.

in fact i wouldn't mind if you leave suggestions here too. barring any specific or unusual reason i'll draw em whenever an tag you when i post em.

ID/image descriptions:

image 1: ink drawing of Batman as he appears in the cartoon Justice League Action. drawn from the waist up with his arms and cape spread. the arms are only drawn till about the shoulders an some lines indicate the flow of the cape. he has some moderate highlights on the right side of his face and head and on his shoulders. some motion lines are drawn above him. the pencil sketch is visible under the inks.

image 2: ink drawing of Jean-Paul Valley as Batman from the storyline Batman Knightfall. he is drawn in a classic comic book style from the waist up. he is upside down with some buildings visible under him. a moderate light source shines on his right side. the pencil sketch is visible under the ink.

image 3: ink drawing of Batman as he appears in The Long Halloween. he is drawn from the chest up in my classic comic book looking style while channeling Tim Sale's style as well. Batman is draped in his cape with his chest Batsymbol showing. he is facing the camera/viewer and he is mostly covered in shadows with highlights on both his sides but a little more on his right side. behind him are a few buildings and a cloudy sky rendered in black ink. the pencil sketch is visible under the ink. end description.

[daydreamerdrew]

Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

Captain Marvel (1968) #2-4

These issues were published across March 1968 to May 1968. All were written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Gene Colan, and inked by Vince Colletta. All were 20 pages.

In issue #2 the King of the Skrulls recognizes “Captain Mar-Vell… officer of the intergalactic Kree fleet,” saying that he “fiercely” and “valorously” “fought against us in the war for control of the satellite galaxy NGC 205,” and also refers to Mar-Vell as “a battle hero such as he.”

The Skrull empire seems slightly less formal than the Kree empire. The King tells the Super-Skrull, “Succeed in this mission… and any prize short of the crown shall be yours.” And the Super-Skrull tells him, “Rest assured, Majesty… I shall not fail! And when you hear the reward that I demand for my labors… even you will be amazed!” The reward he intends to ask for is actually the King’s daughter for his wife, as part of his plot to take the crown. Though the Skrull empire certainly isn’t a casual environment, I’ve only see the Kree interact through military hierarchy, where I’d be very surprised to see anyone expect a reward that’s not, say, a promotion within the military system, much less an ‘amazing’ reward. I also don’t get the impression that one could potentially become the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree through marriage.

Though I do assume that there exists some mechanism that Yon-Rogg could use to force Una to marry him, because he certainly can’t assume that she would actually fall in love with him if he got Mar-Vell killed.

Mar-Vell takes off his battle-helmet, saying it’s a relief do to so, but then finds that he can’t breathe because without it he needs to take a breathing potion every hour to survive in Earth’s atmosphere, and “As soon as I took off my helmet, that hour caught up to me!” This is very reminiscent to me of Iron Man’s troubles in this era, where Tony needed to wear a chest plate at all times to power his heart, and the chest plate needed to be regularly recharged; but it also connected to his Iron Man suit, which meant he could use up all of the energy while fighting and have a heart attack. It’s an interesting contrast to me that Tony’s heart problem is apparent to him in that way, whereas Mar-Vell can forget about his unique needs being on alien planet while he’s in his Kree uniform.

In issue #3 Carol says, “The man who calls himself Captain Marvel saved my life earlier tonight- and I take my heroes very seriously!”

DC Comics:

the Wonder Woman story in All-Star Comics (1940) #8

This story was published in an issue cover dated December 1941-January 1942. It was written by William Moulton Marston and drawn by Harry Peter. It was 9 pages.

This is Wonder Woman’s first appearance.

Batman: The Long Halloween - The Last Halloween (2024) #2

This issue was published in October 2024. It was written by Jeph Loeb, drawn by Klaus Janson, and colored by Dave Stewart. It was 24 pages.

I didn’t realize/had forgotten that this series wasn’t going to have one consistent artist throughout it, so I was surprised when I started reading this issue and it wasn’t in Eduardo Risso’s art style, as he drew the first issue. I generally prefer it when a series has a consistent visual identity; it can come across more like an anthology than one single-but-long story if the artist keeps changing. We’ll see if that effect happens with this book.

There is an emphasis on Bruce being brutal in this issue with the scene of him interrogating the Mad Hatter, which is incidentally interrupted by Dick. I had forgotten about that as a part of this story’s themes and as one of the potential conflicts between Bruce and Dick. There was that scene in Batman: The Long Halloween Special (2021) #1 (written by Jeph Loeb; drawn by Tim Sale; colored by Brennan Wagner) where Bruce brutally beat Calendar Man in front of Dick, and when Dick expressed some hesitance about it, Bruce thought, “The boy is young. He’ll learn.”

What compelled me in Batman: The Long Halloween Special (2021) #1 was what it set up with Gilda Dent, who I find to be an interesting character. I understood that her role was minor in the first issue of this series because it needed to set up other things, but then I was surprised and disappointed that Gilda didn’t even appear in this one.

Instead there’s the larger mystery around the new Holiday Killer, which Bruce knows isn’t the original Holiday Killer; not because, as he claims, he caught the original, but because he secretly knows it was actually Gilda. It seems from this issue that the new killer that has taken the Holiday Killer’s M.O. is someone supported by the Falcone family, as well as another still unknown person(s), in order to take out the costumed criminals of Gotham. I understand the Falcone family’s grievance to be that they once ruled Gotham’s underworld, but now that landscape has massively changed and it’s the supervillains that run it. It would be interesting to see their reaction to the revelation that Alberto Falcone, who died claiming he did all of the Holiday Killer’s murders, was lying.

[marvel-dc-art]

Batman: The Long Halloween Special (2021) pencil & ink by Tim Sale color by Brennan Wagner

[marvelman901]

Cable vol 1 23 (1995) . Family Secrets . Written by Jeph Loeb Penciled by Ian Churchill and Tim Sale Inked by Scott Hanna and Mark Buckingham Colors by Mike Thomas and Digital Chameleon Lettered by Richard Starkings and Comicraft Edited by Lisa Patrick . Cable was looking for his son, Tyler. Meanwhile, Domino tried to find Grizzly... . See more relevant content here: #marvelman901cable #marvelman901xforce #marvelman901blaquesmith #marvelman901domino #marvelman901grizzly #marvelman901professorx #marvelman901storm #marvelman901xmen . #cable #xforce #xmen #90s #professorx #storm #grizzly #domino #blaquesmith #ianchurchill #timsale https://www.instagram.com/p/CleqZdFs0P0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[adamwitt]

tim sale 1: challengers of the unknown must die (1991)

Mainstream comics were a bit of a wasteland in 1991. Howard Mackie was resurrecting Ghost Rider and starting his path of destruction at Marvel Comics; a period that would later cause them much disrepair. Over in Amazing Spider-Man, Carnage, Venom’s more homicidal and of-the-times counterpart would debut, setting the stage for a bunch of stories no one ever needed to read anyway. On the opposite side of failure, the biggest comic of all time (if you buy into that sort of declaration, or read the sales charts) shipped: X-Men #1, by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, establishing the tone and tempo that readers would see rehashed, reheated, and overcooked through the next thirty years. The previous paragraph may seem like it’s picking on Marvel. It is, to an extent, but DC wasn’t even publishing anything worth a note here. Do you need to know about the first appearance of Abbatoir? If you do, Bing it. How about Armageddon 2001? There’s probably an out-of-print omnibus you can find on eBay. On the independents, the tide was changing, and cartooning was having its day again. The debuts of Frank, Palookaville, Rubber Blanket, and Bone (Jim Woodring, Seth, David Mazzucchelli, and Jeff Smith, respectively) were coins in the wishing well of comics: “Let’s throw these in, see what happens...” Those coins would later become invaluable to the fabric of comics. One little wave in the well was Challengers of the Unknown Must Die. In 1991, the volume of comics, in the literal and figurative, was too loud and too expansive to sell a book like Challengers (hereafter referred to as CotU). The Direct Market is designed to sell Batman, the X-Men, and just about nothing else. CotU landed with little fanfare, selling on the strength of a Brian Bolland cover on the debut, and force of pure nostalgia. This is not to sell CotU as a high benchmark for comics. There are a ton of truly amazing things happening within the pages. The majority of these are executed by Tim Sale, who made his mainstream debut, and set his first collaboration with Jeph Loeb into motion. Reading CotU in 2022 is an interesting exercise. Does it hold up? Fantastically. Does it present any new ideas? Not necessarily. It finds itself firmly in the tropes of 1980s - 1990s superhero deconstruction, spurred on by the likes of, most importantly, Watchmen. Characters die in the first issue, characters debut in the first issue, and most importantly, Tim Sale does things on the page that would, today, win him incredible numbers of awards and admiration. It is a crying shame that Tim Sale’s work on CotU is overlooked in favor of his Marvel work or the Batman issues. Is it lesser from a script perspective? That could be argued. On Sale’s end, this is a stunningly mature, learned work that executes a lot of ideas in small space; it reads like a good Grant Morrison comic, in a period where Grant Morrison tended a bit darker. The upward moments, the moments of optimism, are understated in Loeb’s script, but delivered in full swing by Sale. As with any comic: this is an artist’s medium; Tim Sale does things on the page in CotU, in the first issue alone, that you will not see replicated in any superhero comic, and will leave you breathless. He executes truly stunning violence with moments of pathos; he balances, deftly, Loeb’s wordy script, with a master’s hand at how much space to leave on the page, where (and most importantly, how) to show off, and when to state business at quiet. The big moments soar, the violence lands like an axe, and we haven’t even gotten to the page layouts. If you publish CotU in 2022, it wins awards for its page layouts alone. In the first issue, we see some of the pencil-and-ink acrobatics Tim Sale would later be a comics-household name for. Pages flip without our hands on them; layouts literally shatter on the page; grids bleed with personality and shine. This is a case where, like American Flagg!, if it had a more robust print run, everyone would’ve been put under its influence. Flagg!, in its time, had the critics. CotU did not. As such, it dies a death to the ravages of age, but remains timeless on a re-read. Sale’s choice to let blood drip down panels into the bottom of the page borders, making sustained images absolutely defy the idiotic arguments that these “shots” are “lazy” (and mind you, this is 1991), and casually chipping parts off of pages, or twisting images into the likes of the aforementioned wishing well waves. CotU is a dazzling and overlooked work of comics genius. It’s easy to call that a 50/50 effort on the parts of Mssrs. Loeb and Sale, but the sharp readers know this: it’s an artist’s medium. Always has been, always will be.

Even in 1991.

[scienceninjaturtle]

SUICIDE SQUAD: KING SHARK #1

Story by Tim Seeley

Pencils and inks by Scott Kolins

Cover by Trevor Hairsine

$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | 1 of 6

Variant by RicCardo Federici

1:25 Variant by Scott Kolins

$4.99 US (Card Stock)

ON SALE 9/21/21

On leave from the Suicide Squad, King Shark and unfortunate tagalong the Defacer get swept into a mystical tournament for totemic animal spirits at the behest of King Shark's father, the god of sharks! Now King Shark must battle brutal warriors like Queen Tiger, King Roach, Prince Nematode, Princess Peregrine, and the terrifying Man King to finally attain his destiny and make his dour dad proud!

[i-r-readcomics]

Spider-Man: Blue

Volume: 1 #5

If I had you

Writers: Jeph Loeb

Pencils: Tim Sale

Inks: Tim Sale

Colours: Steve Buccellato

Covers: Tim Sale

Featuring: Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, Flash Thompson, Vulture (Adrian Toomes), Vulture (Blackie Drago)

Marvel Knights

[popsaturdaymash]

Just finished my recent commissioned tattoo design/print piece for Neato cosplay. It's a piece of Lana Del Rey as Poison Ivy. This one was my most challenging one yet especially since I haven't really drawn in realism after a while and it was extremely fun to do. I especially took a lot of influence on the inking from Tim Sale. ☆Still open for commissions, folks!! Drop me a line sometime if you're interested. -Details in the bottom: http://insaneasylum123.deviantart.com/art/My-Commission-Prices-619743658 My other galleries: -Tumblr (asylumofcosplayandart.tumblr.com) -DeviantART (insaneasylum123.deviantart.com) -Facebook (facebook.com/heartsandlostsouls) -Instagram (jay_sneed) Follow & share.

[aion-rsa]

Batman 89: Billy Dee Williams Finally Becomes Two-Face in Burtonverse Comic

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The Batman Burtonverse is coming back in a big way. Not only is Warner Bros. bringing back Michael Keaton as Batman in the upcoming Flash movie but DC Comics is set to publish a 6-issue limited series that explores what happened next after Tim Burton’s first Gotham City outing rolled credits.

Batman ’89 brings together the movie’s original screenwriter, Sam Hamm, with artist Joe Quinones, who has been tied to a revival of the Burtonverse in the comics for quite some time. Quinones previously pitched a similar miniseries to DC, at the time to be written by Kate Leth (Hellcat). While the idea was rejected, Quinones’ designs for a comic book sequel to Batman have received tons of praise from fans in the years since. It’s no surprise, then, that the idea stuck at DC, and that we’ll finally get to see Quinones’ take on the Burtonverse.

Hamm’s return to the Burtonverse is also notable. After the massive blockbuster success of Batman, Burton, Keaton, and Hamm were quickly tapped to make a sequel, with Hamm taking a first stab at the script, which would have introduced Robin as well as shown District Attorney Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face. You probably know what happened next: Burton was unhappy with Hamm’s script (the director detests the Boy Wonder, for one thing) and said he would not direct the picture unless he could make a “Tim Burton movie,” not a Batman sequel, according to Hamm. The rest is history: Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters replaced Hamm and the result was Batman Returns.

Since Batman ’89 will “pull on a number of threads left dangling by the prolific director,” the series is an opportunity for Hamm to finally deliver his vision for “Batman II.” As you’d expect, one of the storylines from his unused script that will be front and center in the miniseries is Harvey’s villainous turn, which means we’ll finally get to see Billy Dee Williams’ version of the character become Two-Face within the Burtonverse.

In fact, a variant cover drawn by the legendary Jerry Ordway, who drew the beloved comic book adaptation of Burton’s movie, gives us our first official look at William’s Dent as the villain he was destined to become:

First revealed by excellent comic book site 13th Dimension, the cover features Williams’ Two-Face looming over the Dark Knight, who’s swinging across the streets of Gotham wearing what looks like (at least in the bright lights of the city) a comics-accurate blue-ish cape and cowl. It’s a nice reimagining of what Keaton would have looked like if he’d donned the blue and gray of his comic book counterparts back in 1989 as opposed to the all-black suit that’s become the standard look of all movie Batmen since.

Back in 2016, Quinones also shared a sketch of what his Two-Face would look like, and we can only hope this design, which fuses the real-life actor with the comic book character perfectly, made it into the final version of the book:

Although he never got to play Two-Face in the Burton movies, Williams did eventually voice the character in The Lego Batman Movie, but that’s not really a continuation of his work in Batman, just a fun cameo. The new comic is the real deal for Williams’ Two-Face.

While Batman ’89 will be available digitally first on July 27, the series will hit stands as a physical book on Aug. 10. You can check out the full solicitation for the first issue below:

BATMAN ’89 #1 Story by SAM HAMM Pencils by JOE QUINONES Inks by JOE QUINONES Cover by JOE QUINONES ON SALE 8/10/21 Price: US $3.99 | 32 pages | FC | DC CARD STOCK OPEN ORDER Variant by JERRY ORDWAY. Price: US $4.99 1:25 Design Variant by JOE QUINONES. Price: US $4.99 TEAM VARIANT by KEN TAYLOR/TAURIN CLARKE. Price: US $4.99

Step back into the Gotham of Tim Burton’s seminal classic Batman movies! Batman ’89 brings in screenwriter Sam Hamm (Batman, Batman Returns) and artist Joe Quinones (Dial H for Hero) to pull on a number of threads left dangling by the prolific director. Gotham becomes torn in two as citizens dressed as Batman and The Joker duke it out in the streets. As D.A. Harvey Dent tries to keep the city together, he targets the one problem tearing it apart: BATMAN! And he’ll get Bruce Wayne’s help in taking down the Dark Knight!

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Batman 89: Billy Dee Williams Finally Becomes Two-Face in Burtonverse Comic appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3bYNCMG

[skateofministry]

How I Make Custom Painted Skateboards

I custom Paint Skateboards with Acrylic and Spray Paint.

Get 2 free months of Skillshare! https://skl.sh/tenhundred10 [Sponsored]

#customSkateboards

Get Ten Hundred Skateboards Here: https://ift.tt/3tk1wQ3

Here is a playlist of all my art videos if u wanna binge

https://goo.gl/neHk4a

Check out more of my art, apparel and merch at https://ift.tt/2EoWRpg

Support my channel on Patreon and get exclusive access to behind the scenes content, tutorials, Q&A’s, Podcasts, Access to the private discord, discounts and more! https://ift.tt/2EA5Dln

Art by Ten Hundred

https://ift.tt/2EoWRpg

https://ift.tt/2ePOmVs

Music: https://ift.tt/301aPGI

Discord: https://ift.tt/2S9bvq8

Some of My Supplies:

Sta-Wet Palette – https://amzn.to/2UOjGeJ

Golden Brand Fluid Acrylics : https://amzn.to/2NmomlP

Golden Satin Glazing Liquid : https://amzn.to/2ErdcJI

Golden Satin Polymer Varnish : https://amzn.to/2U05Cv6

Brushes: https://amzn.to/2U5AcDE

Detail / Liner Brushes: https://amzn.to/2U5egbs

Gesso: https://amzn.to/2TZ41FI

My Favorite Paper: https://amzn.to/2IHnGZs

My Favorite Pencils: https://amzn.to/2TdsZE9

My Favorite Pens: https://amzn.to/2ErVciy

My Camera: https://amzn.to/2XjD2qE

My New Main Lens: https://amzn.to/2CB3AuF

My Wide Angle Lens: https://amzn.to/2UbJI7W

Check out my shop in Seattle!

Statix

210 S Washington St

Seattle WA 98104

https://ift.tt/2EpTluI

Thank you to my Patrons!

Aaron Johnson

Aaron Lidman

Abigail Bowles

Adam Filas

Adam Nunez

Aelias L McHam

Aidan Adams

Alex Moon

Alvaro

Amanda Buisson

Amanda Jean

Ambrosia Williams

Anna Kozlova

Art of Carter

artbyacey

Ashley

Avis

aya

Bear tale

Benedict Chern

Bernice Smith

Bezel Brilliant

BJ Overbey

bleaksheepartistry

Boomy 909

Brandon Royal

Breonna Van Dam-Colvin

Cbabi Bayoc

chalex

Charles Bennis

Chris Erskine

Christina Cope

Christine Riutzel

Cindy Nguyen

Clay Patrick

Cody winko

Colin Edwards

Courtney Glassey

Daniel

daniel park

Darkxrez

david pritchard

DAWN RENEE PEDERSEN

De.EdIllustrations

Derrick Baker

Dion Flenche

DJ James

Dre schneidmiller

Drea Munoz

Dustin Eckhardt

ELLEN BROOKS

Emily Schwerzmann

Enrique Guzman

Erin_writes

Erna Kristin

Felix Schlater

Galaxara

Gerald Clum

Glenn McGregor

Goldy Janice

Gracie Taylor

Gumption

Harley Poitras

Hei Mü

Holly Hartwell

Ian Empey

J C Lennon

Jake Dahn

Jamaican Blake

Jamie Chestnut

Jared Banaga

Jcup

Jenny O’Farrell

Jessica Reeves

Jocelyn

Joe M. [Zudzen]

Jose Fuentes

Joseph James

Joseph Koch

Josh Stolen

Joshua Debner

Joshua Gallardo

Jules

JuliAria

Juliette Morris Williams

Kai

Kasey Cooper

Kayla Cabe

Kayla Cohn

Kayleigh Fonte

Keith Tazzyman (Hand Forged)

KEVIN HARDEN

Killerflamingo_6

Kirk Lenentine

Kriztix

KupaaStudios

Kyle M. Coleman

L Jamal Walton

Lauren Carter

Leo Sharp

Lex Bun

Louis

Lourdes Amaro Jasper

Luca Rosseels

Luke Tobias

Lyric garcia

M.T.G

Madison Do

Magdance

Mage King

Manu Järvinen

Marah Rajjal

Mariusz Techmański

Mason Brown

Matt Holmes

Max Deutsch

MICHELLE PARK

Mickel Yantz

Mike Koss

Mitch Varney

Monica Oldner

Monica Perry

monzter

Morgan Self

Mr Lovelyface

Nat Leonoudakis

Nataly Padilla

Nate Chavez

Neural Ink

niles rouisse

Ola Matyka

Paul Meicholas

Pestorucola

Robert

Rory Grimes

Rudy.Alexis Lopez

SafeKaiLeeHaven

Sarah-Jane Galipo

Sascha Hopstein

Sean Halloran

Sharon ODonnell

Shawn Hiser

Skye Morgan

Snarf

Spencer Marsh

Stabby Magee

Steve Brown

Steve Huynh

Stijn Grooten

Sttony Damunsta

Tameslither

Thijs [saso]

Thomas Reynolds

Thomas Shirley

Tim ONeill

Tim Wood

Tina Hanson

Tingley

TJ Metamorphosis

Tyler Empey

ultraviolente

Valentin Perez

Vertex Prizm

Will Santino

Wonder Crush

Yaco Jaimes

Zac Counts

Zayne LeMeilleur

Zee Bow

Disclaimer: This video is Sponsored by Skillshare. Also Some of the links in this description are affiliate links. At no extra cost to the customer, a portion of the sale goes to support the channel. source

from Skate World. Skateboard News, skateboard shop https://ift.tt/3acKRq2

[marvel-dc-art]

Batman: The Long Halloween Special (2021) pencil & ink by Tim Sale color by Brennan Wagner

[marvelman901]

X-Men Early Years 5 (1994) X-Men 5 (1964) . Written by Stan Lee Penciled by Jack Kirby Inked by Paul Reinman Lettered by Joe Rosen Edited by Stan Lee Cover by Tim Sale . Reprint of X-Men 5! . #marvel #comics #xmen #angel #brotherhoodofevilmutants #stanlee #90s #60s #joerosen #timsale #magneto #paulreinman #jackkirby #mastermind #iceman #beast #toad #earlyyears #jeangrey #quicksilver #avengers #scarletwitch https://www.instagram.com/p/CW38nwTsONk/?utm_medium=tumblr

[hagravenholm]

Daredevil Yellow (2002)

Written by Jeff Loeb

Pencils/inks by Tim Sale

[katewillaert]

My Secret Origin (Part 1): How To Fail At Comics

[Above: Art from 20 years ago, when I was in High School.]

What do you want to be when you grow up?

When I was four I said “mad scientist.” It was 1987 and I was a big fan of The Real Ghostbusters and Doc Brown. My mom insisted “mad scientist” wasn’t a profession. And weren’t those characters are inventors? What did I want to invent?

Clearly I hadn’t thought this through.

My mom also informed me that all those cartoons I watch were made by people. Those were drawings, and there are people whose job it was to draw those.

This blew my mind. From that point on I decided I was going to be an animator.

Discovering Art

I don’t remember when I first started drawing. It seems like something I always did growing up. As far as my memory is concerned, I came out of the womb holding a pencil and began drawing before I said my first words.

In reality, I probably started in preschool when I was four, just before I discovered what an animator was. I remember my favorite subject to draw was the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters. I must’ve drawn it something like 10 or 20 times.

My mom kept almost all of my childhood art, so in theory I could figure out when I started drawing from that...except the earliest drawings were ruined when the basement flooded.

After the flooding, my mom was condensing what was left, and I saw something surprising: a box filled with Ecto-1 drawings. I hadn’t drawn it 10 or 20 times, I’d drawn it 100 or 200 times. Repetitively, over and over, without consciously thinking about what I was doing.

It was practice without realizing I was practicing. I guess that’s how my art “leveled up” so quickly?

Later I discovered other details about my early development. There was a time around age 2 where I stopped talking. There were times when I liked to line up toys. My obsession before art was Legos, building complex shapes and stairs.

Today these might be recognized as possible indicators of autism, but this was the ‘80s.

Because I was shy and lacking in social skills, a teacher suggested to my parents that I might benefit from being held back a grade. I had a summer birthday, so holding me back would make me one of the oldest rather than the youngest.

Thankfully my parents didn’t take that advice. I would’ve been miserable. Despite being the youngest in my class, I surpassed everyone in terms of scores. A CAT test says I scored “higher than 99% of all 3rd grade student in the nation in total language.” 91% in reading. 90% in math. My reading comprehension was 98% in the nation, but was brought down by my reading vocabulary which was only 72%.

Yet this new information called into question a things about myself I’d never considered. Maybe certain things suddenly made more sense? In particular, the way I don’t have interests so much as obsessions. Any time I take an interest in a topic, it leads to an obsessive amount of research.

Discovering Comics

I think the first comic I ever saw was a Chick Tract some kid showed me in Sunday School. He was surprised I’d never seen one. It must’ve hadan impact on me, because I attempted to draw a tract-style comic starring C.O.P.S. (“Fighting Crime In A Future Time”).

I didn’t discover REAL comic books until a few years later. In 1991, Terminator 2: Judgement Day marketing was in full force and I thought it looked so cool. But it was Rated R, and I was only seven. My mom spotted a couple issues of a Marvel comic adaptation (drawn by Klaus Janson), and I guess that was the compromise until it was out on video.

I attempted to illustrate a comic imitating Janson’s cram-packed panel-per-page ratio. It was an epic crossover where Michael Keaton Batman encounters a Delorean driven by a T-1000, then the Ninja Turtles show up, and maybe the Ghostbusters? I knew how to introduce characters but not how to finish a story.

At this point I was still imagining becoming an animator, even though I barely knew anything about what it involved beyond some flip books I’d done. But all that changed when I discovered the X-Men.

X-Men and Batman: The Animated Series both debuted on FOX during the fall of 1992. I was a huge fan of the Tim Burton Batman movies and I’d seen every episode of the ‘60s show when it was revived in reruns, but I didn’t know the comics existed? I didn’t even know where to find comics.

My brother and I were both really into this new X-Men thing, and my brother was given a set of X-Men comics for his birthday. I borrowed them of course, and wanted to see how the story continued. My mom showed us a book store in the mall that had comics, and then we discovered the local comic store. That started my monthly addiction.

Now age 10, I decided I no longer wanted to be an animator. Comics were my true calling. And my dream was to break in at age 16.

Learning Comics

Age 11: I went from reading just Uncanny X-Men to buying the entire X-line, thanks to and event called Age Of Apocalypse.

Age 12: I started buying Wizard magazine. The first two issues I bought included life-changing information, like that you get hired by building a portfolio and showing it to editors. There was industry news, and art tutorials by Greg Capullo. I added the magazine to my monthly buy list. An X-Men 30th anniversary special gave me the entire history of the characters, and a run-down of the key artists and writers with examples of their work. It was like a Rosetta Stone before Wikipedia.

Age 13: I started buying most of Marvel’s output thanks to an event called Heroes Reborn. I never got into the Batbooks, I guess because the art didn’t look as cool? Comics contained ads for the Joe Kubert School, which became my backup plan if I didn’t break into comics on my own. I also discovered the internet around this time.

Age 14: My first year of high school. I spent every lunch hour in the library browsing the internet, since we didn’t have a computer at home yet. I discovered several comic art forums where pros and amateurs traded tips. During the summer I attended a week long art session taught at a local college by a professor who grew up on ‘60s Marvel. There I learned I’d been using paper that was much too thin to ink on, and I learned about the importance of Jack Kirby.

Age 15: I started buying Comic Book Artist magazine. I thought it’d be about drawing tips, but instead it was filled with fascinating comics history, which became an obsession of its own.

Age 16: A year of disappointment. I knew I wasn’t at the level I needed to be to get pro work, but wasn’t sure how to get to the next level. Nowadays there are all sorts of resources I could’ve used, but back then there was no Youtube, no social media, and few books about the craft of comics.

I was now certain the Joe Kubert School was the way to go.

Changing Plans

My family took a trip to Dover, NJ to visit the Joe Kubert School campus, and it was pretty disappointing. The town didn’t feel super friendly, and the school wasn’t accredited, which raised issues in regards to getting student aid. Plus the idea of spending so much money on a non-degree.

The guy showing me around tried to sell me by pointing out that comic companies don’t care about whether you went to college, they just want to see the portfolio.

I took this to heart and decided not to go to college. I was pretty crushed at first, because I’d had this dream plan for so long, and now I was plan-less. But eventually a new plan began to form.

It was time to start doing conventions.

A startup called CrossGen had a sample script and were taking submissions at SDCC 2000, so I went there. I still felt like my work wasn’t quite ready for prime time, but i was worth a shot.

And nothing came of it, other than a cool Crossgen rejection letter in a box somewhere. None of the other publishers could be bothered to even send that.

In hindsight, I was trying to enter at maybe the worst possible time in comics history. When I first started reading comics, they were at their peak during a boom period. When the bubble burst, the industry experienced year-over-year plummeting sales with no bottom in sight. No one was hiring.

But I kept at it, hoping for a lucky break. Top Cow was impressed that I did backgrounds (lol), and suggested I send in “background samples,” but I didn’t want to go down that route. But maybe that’s what a lucky break looks like? (On the other hand, many aspiring pencillers who start as inkers or colorists get stuck there.)

The next summer I went to Chicago with a Marvel sample script. I’d just graduated from high school, so I was really hoping. This time I got a critique from an editor who had actual advice to offer, and I learned a few things. But still no one was hiring.

I thought if I just stayed home and worked on art for a year, I’d eventually come up with pages so impressive that they’d HAVE to hire me. And if it didn’t work out after a year, I’d start looking for a college.

But now I was struggling with a new problem. I suddenly hated my art. I’d heard about a few professional artists who didn’t like looking at their own art, but I was certain this was different. After all, they’re actually good.

The year passed and I accomplished nothing. Based on things I’d heard, I was nervous that college might actually price me out of comics entirely. But I didn’t know that for sure, and I was super inexperienced when it came to money, since I’d never lived on my own before.

But I kept hearing how so many people have gone to college and they all turned out okay (this was before social media and before student debt became a crisis). I was clearly having trouble moving forward on my own, and Youtube still didn’t exist, so what choice did I have?

Choosing Schools

There were only a few colleges with comic art programs back then (maybe three total?), but one of them just happened to be over here in Minnesota. Art school appealed to me because all the classes were art-focused, so I wouldn’t have to waste my time with math and other BS.

And as I humble-bragged earlier, I’m good at math. But I hated it. At one point some kids from Math League asked if I’d join the team. “‘MATH LEAGUE?’ You mean you do math for FUN??”

I hated math so much, I took harder, accelerated math courses via a local college, just so I could finish math early and spend my last years of high school wonderfully mathless. If there’d been a similar way to graduate from high school earlier, I would’ve taken it. When I realized we were all graduating regardless of how much work we put in, I stopped caring so much about grades and let an occasional B+ slip in.

When I would see classmates busy studying for their SATs or ACTs, I was so glad I didn’t have to bother with that.

But the joke was on me. Because this art school didn’t just require a portfolio review (which I was more than ready for). It also wanted ACT test results.

I remember wondering if I should study before I take it, since everyone took it so seriously in high school. But I didn’t even know how to study. It’s not a skill I’d learned, because I never needed to. So I decided to wing it.

You’ll hate me, but without studying I scored in the top 96% for English, the top 94% for Reading, the top 96% for Science...but only top 87% for Math, because I hadn’t taken a math class in three years. That brought my total down 90%..

(Later, I had to learn to study in order to pass some horrifically-taught art history classes. That teacher made me hate art history, which is ironic given how much of my own writing is focused on history.)

So I got into the school, only to discover that even structured teaching wasn’t going to solve my new art problem. During my first year I told my mom that I don’t enjoy art anymore, and she thought it might be depression. I mean, that’s plausible, losing interest in your passions?

In hindsight, I now have enough experience with real depression that I can definitively say it wasn’t that. I mean, I was occasionally depressed back then, but hating my art was unrelated. It took me years to figure out the actual problem.

Dunning Kruger

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is named after a study which found that:

1) People who aren’t knowledgeable about a skill tend to think they’re better at it than they are, because they don’t know enough to know what they don’t know.

2) Conversely, people who ARE knowledgeable about a skill tend to think they’re worse at it than they are.

My problem went one level deeper. I’d learned a shit ton about every skill related to comic art, but I hadn’t put in as much time actually practicing. And now practicing was tough, because I was hyper-aware of how bad every line was as I laid it down.

In other words, the exact reverse of when I was four and drew repetitively on auto-pilot. Back then I was oblivious that I was practicing anything at all. Now I had the benefit and detriment of a critical mind.

But this realization came later. At the time I was just miserable and didn’t know what was wrong with me.

Halfway through art school, I realized I’d likely already priced myself out of comics, and I needed a real degree that would function back-up plan. So I switched majors. Instead of a Comics major filling my electives with design classes, I became a Design major filling my electives with comics classes.

In order to change my major, I had to explain it to the head of the school. This was awkward because it partly involved explaining how the comics industry worked, and he didn’t want to believe it. He told me I was being cynical.

I tried doing comic samples one last time after college, for a convention in 2006, but couldn’t even finish a page. Then sometime around 2008, I gave up drawing entirely.

How I got started again is another story.

You can also find me on:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/katewillaert/?hl=en

Twitter -  https://twitter.com/katewillaert

Art Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/katewillaert

History Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/acriticalhit

[oosteven-universe]

Bloodshot #1 Advance Review

Bloodshot #1 Advance Review Valiant Entertainment 2019 On Sale September 25th 2019 Written by Tim Seeley Pencilled by Brett Booth Inked by Adelso Corona Coloured by Andrew Dalhouse Lettered by Dave Sharpe     A brand-new ongoing series!     Bloodshot is a nanite-fueled supersoldier forever at war. What happens to the world when he starts picking his own battles? Will this one-man army be able to end the fighting—or just leave more destruction in his wake? Bloodshot’s missions have made waves, as now the shadowy BLACK BAR has their sights set on him—but what do they have planned for this unkillable hero?     Well one of the things that I adore about Valiant is that they aren't afraid to take risks. While I get a very Hulk vibe from this story, General has a hard-on and wants to take down the hero whom he views as a menace to society, as it's a bit on the nose that's okay too. I don't mind it really mainly because if you go back to the the relaunch we see time and again that there are shadowy organisations that always been in play wanting Bloodshot for one reason or another. So in all honesty while it feels as familiar as it does the groundwork for this was laid down when the first arc came out.     I really like the way this is being told. From the get go we start the story with something of an ominous feeling which is quite appropriate for the situation. It is a great way to get the reader intrigued and leaving them with the desire to want to know more. It's well done but then with Tim I expect no less and with this I really wanted to see more.     Next up I was a little on the uhm side of things. I say that because Tim did an amazing job here of getting into the heart of the action without giving us any information whatsoever. I adore that too because it engages the readers' mind and it makes them use their brains to try and figure out what the hell is going on here. Tim is expert when it comes to this style of writing where the story & plot development and the character development are so wound together that he draws the reader in seamlessly before they realise it's even been done. With the pacing we constantly move forward and there just isn't enough story to satisfy.     Brett's pencils are really rather nice to see. The he doesn't ink his work and spends that time really getting his linework to look like this is sensational. No longer do I feel like he's stuck in that 90's genre of artistic reference and instead he's found his own unique style and signature look that's clean, polished and an absolute joy to see. I love the attention to detail that we see and from the eyes focus to the backgrounds everything has that same level of attention. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show off a wondrous eye for storytelling. I love how backgrounds are utilised and how the manage to expand the moments and bring a size and scope to the story. Also that is some impressive inking going on too as I'm sure it's not easy to follow get it all done and make it look like this takes talent and skill. The colour work is fabulous and how we see light sources utilised in creating the shading through hues and tones to create the highlights is gorgeous. ​     Tim is such a master storyteller and the way he introduces the players in this first arc is so well done. I just can't get over how he's able to give us so little and make it feel like so much as we salivate for more. This creative team works beautifully together and it continues Bloodshot's journey through all iterations of what we've seen thus far. That respect and honour to what's come before while still keeping the character relevant, interesting and new that's what I love the most here.