Monday, August 29, 2011

IRENE

Irene NYC from Buffalo Picture House on Vimeo.

Oxford Commas, and just getting the hell on with things

I've just had my very own Vampire Weekend having put my contribution to House of Mystery #42 to bed (this means into the hands of DC Production and Vertigo Editorial) at dawn today. What I have now is a sense of completion, "Oxford Comma" as an earworm, and one side of my butt won't stop making a fist (Thank you, Dean Venture). Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges co-wrote this issue and Shelly Bond called me in to ride rough (?#) over a five-page segment, pencils and inks...and let me say it was a complete delight.
The issue has been solicited so keep an eye out for it in shops. I'm completely serious about the fun I had with this, and when I say "fun" I mean deliberate action in the mind of discovery new aspects of the creative self...not to get all fuzzy on the topic. I've spent the vast majority of my comic book lives (both of them) looking at my work through the interpretation of others. So it's a treat to get to do my own inking. Also, I've become much more attached to my trusty, vintage (20 years, maybe) Windsor Newton Series 7 Sable, or whatever the hell it is..the labeling has worn off.
How would I ever replace this as I've heard Windsor Newton is in the shitter when it comes to producing Sable brushes now (I'm glaring at you hippies and vegans; I get it, I do, but there has to be some give and take...you start saving all the animals and you wind up with shitty or digital art. Our Culture, our choice) Any ways... I can tell you my inking myself will continue, schedule allowing, and the schedule is getting full I'm happy to say. After 'Jack of Fables' ended in March, it's been a Summer of travel, idleness, nudging 'Dread: The Westchaple Horror' along, and general provocateuring (!?). Suddenly you look up and you've been so engrossed in what you're doing (or not doing) that you've wandered clear of the sidewalk you were just following. Constellations are different, the sky has deepened, it's cooler and you're in the middle of the North American Plains, surrounded by American Bison, and about to make your DCU debut ;~D (more on THAT awesome news later).
Shelly was very complimentary and happy with the deviations I took with the story. I've become adverse to exposition, drawing exactly what the writer has plainly written( "Jack went to the store" and I draw some asshole walking into a store, bleh).
So with this story segment, "The Birth of Spiders" I decided to pad out the writing with some extending panels not asked for in the script. Mind you, Willingham/Sturges scripts are ALWAYS terrific and tight, but sometimes an artist can feel a bit like a rider caught in the stirrups and dragged during a steeplechase. It's nice to take the wheel a little more deliberately.
h.e.