Saturday, October 17, 2009

Plastic Man #2, page 1, 1988

I did one and two page "reality checks" for this 4-issue mini-series. The rest of the art was by Hilary Barta and John Nyberg.  The editor had another artist in mind and I think Hil had to do some lobbying to get me hired, but in the end, they even let me do my own lettering and color guides and they didn't fire me when my drawings started getting a bit too cartoony and less "real".




Posted by Kevin Nowlan at 9:52 AM
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8 comments:

  1. HiroshiOctober 17, 2009 at 11:48 AM

    Man, that sure was a great series! You (and Barta/Nyberg) looked like you were all having fun. I also like your effective use--or non-use--of color in spots, the white areas really adding to the overall scheme. One question: Did someone in editorial really suggest that "crud bucket" would be more PC than "scum bucket"?

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  2. Kevin NowlanOctober 17, 2009 at 1:24 PM

    As always, your eyes are sharper than mine. I didn't even noticed that alteration. Someone did a good job matching my lettering style. But you're right, changing "scum" to "crud" seems like a lateral move.

    The old, crude, newsprint color was good for soft focus effects like the highlights you mentioned and the un-inked foliage in the background of panel four.

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  3. arnieOctober 17, 2009 at 5:20 PM

    Mr. Nowlan, i'm afraid the inks are more enjoyable to look at, than the colors. i know digital wasn't invented yet, which just goes to show, you were ahead of your time. if these were collected and re-colored, that would be awesome.

    peace out

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  4. Kevin NowlanOctober 18, 2009 at 7:25 AM

    It's mostly nostalgia, but I still like seeing the old, flat, letterpress colors, in spite of its shortcomings. Digital color and offset printing is slicker but sometimes it just doesn't look like a comic to me. I'm too old fashioned.

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  5. surly hackOctober 20, 2009 at 2:05 PM

    Kevin, I did indeed lobby for you. And one of the saddest tasks of my life was asking you to tone down the cartoony details to heighten the "reality". I felt like a heel asking you to remove such touches as the puffs of smoke that trail a running character.

    I prefer non-glossy, unreflective paper--if not newsprint--to the shiny stock that is commonly used today.

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  6. Kevin NowlanOctober 21, 2009 at 6:22 AM

    I just remember being so inspired by your "cartoony" work that I was having trouble drawing more "realistically". I was really happy to be a part of this project so a few smoke puffs were a small price to pay.

    Have you been checking out the "Cole's Comics" blog?

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  7. Paul C.TumeyNovember 2, 2009 at 8:40 PM

    Thanks for the mention of my Coles Comics blog, Kevin. I've long been a fan of your work and am enjoying your blog. And Barta's, too! Does anyone recall High School Comics and Bob Pfeffer and Randy Paske? I still have a shoebox stuffed full of their diminutive gems, which includes a bunch of Barta's cool comix(and a few of my one, too!) - Paul Tumey

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  8. David Lee IngersollJanuary 1, 2012 at 2:18 PM

    Paul -

    I remember High School Comics. I contributed a few pieces to them myself.

    ReplyDelete

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