Monday, August 17, 2009

Jack B. Quick original art

This page really cracks me up. Poor Teddy.

Since he had to be recognizable from ages 8 to about 48, I gave him a distinct haircut and very recognizable facial features.

I tried to make the scan large enough so that you can see the notes and corrections. I haven't been able to find any copies of the pencils but if they turn up later I'll be sure to post them as well.

I remember struggling with the layout on that last panel. It wasn't an easy action for me to work out but I think it gets the idea across. On the other hand, if I had it to do over, I might not show Jack smiling as he delivers the line. His standard scowl probably would have worked better.



10 comments:

  1. Very funny. It works really well with the muted colors.

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  2. I think we should start campaigning for an Absolute Jack B. Quick.

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  3. Ahh Jack and his poor buddies. I always loved how he justified using others (people, cats, animals, etc.) in his quest for knowledge and rationalized everything. Of course it would make sense for him to observe for science. LOL. Given more panel room and space, I'm sure Jack would have been able to go into some complex reasoning as to why he should not cross the line. That was one of my favorite issues.

    I'm all for an Abosolute version! Then again, I'm all for seeing Jack again.... :(

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  4. I'd love to see the Jack stuff collected together as well. Any chance of Jack returning? I see that Tom Strong is returning without Alan Moore, any chance of a similar treatment with Jack?
    The thing that really struck me on this page is how great the lettering is LOL! I really miss hand lettered comic pages. What kind of pen did you use on the lettering?

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  5. SHOOOOEEEEEE SECRETS!!!!!!!

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  6. That is a great Jack story. About that last panel: I agree with you that the action might be better conveyed from a different angle, with different poses--as it is now Jack looks a bit like he's sitting down. I'm picturing a Toth like take on it: A lower angled shot with the figures standing silhouetted against an open sky above a now black road with open dotted lines and borderline.

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  7. Michael, the lettering is done with a filed-down Speedball 5B. Glad you like it. I still enjoy doing my own lettering on the boards once in a while. It's against Marvel and DC's policies now but they occasionally bend the rules.

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  8. No hand lettering is allowed? Seriously? Because of reproduction or what? Very interesting.

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  9. With everything being digitally colored, it's easier for the letterer to get a lo-rez jpg or tiff, drop it into Illustrator, letter the page, create picture perfect word balloons, make some tasty sound effects and ship the file off to the color house as an .eps. I used to output the lettering and paste it onto my pages and hand draw the balloons and sound FX when we were working for Caliber and Crusade.

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