Sunday, September 21, 2008

Back to X-9


I know it seemed like I was doing lots of drawing and painting here, but no comics for a while. But that's not true, I have been doing lots of commercial work and I'm finally back on the horse to finish up my second X-9 story for Egmont's X-9 Magazine, the publisher in Finland I did the first story for last year, through King Features, who owns the strip. X-9 or Secret Agent Corrigan was the strip that my mentor and friend Al Williamson used to do along with the late Archie Goodwin. Al gave the strip up to do the Star Wars strip and then eventually gave strips up all together to spend the bulk of the rest of his career inking comics, first for DC and then for Marvel.
Since the story is in black and white, I'm adding in the zip-a-tone, or screen pattern on a layer in Photoshop. I scanned in an old sheet I had and bring it in as a layer and then cut or erase away what I don't want. I hadn't worked on this story in a while and it was fun to get back to it.

5 comments:

Josh Howell said...

Everytime I think Im getting better at inking, I look at your stuff and weep. Damn you Mike. lol

Alan said...

Always great to see some classic comics pages like this from you.

Mike Manley said...

Josh, Hahah, Just keep at it man, that's what gives you the skill, just like I said in class.

Mike Manley said...

Thanks Alan, It is fun to jump back on this stuff after a long break.

WCG Comics said...

Hey, Mike, whatever works for you is great, but I thought I'd mention that there is a way to create a classic Zipatone look in Photoshop without having to resort to scanning a Zip screen pattern. Let me know if you'd like details.

Wondering if you got my packet of comics? (Rob Hanes Adventures)