Tuesday, June 28, 2011

More Lobo Layouts


Here are two more pages from the Lobo job I laid out and you can see Jerry Ordway's awesome finished inks over them. Its always interesting for me to see what the final blend of our collaboration looks like. Jerry is one of the greatest finishers and inkers ever!
One of the harder things for me is where to stop the drawing, in other words to not go so far as to do full pencils. Artists like Gil Kane and especially John Buscema really had that down to a science. It took me a while to figure out what I was comfortable with, but doing storyboards for years did help that a bit. By doing the heavy lifting on the storytelling it gave Jerry a heads up and pick up on the deadline. No two artists think alike or always agree but Jerry never really change a ton of what I did, and if he did since his name was going on the book I didn't mind, anything he changed would still be to the good and the work looks great to my eye.

7 comments:

Uncle Ernie said...

I notice you used the Canson paper. How do you like it compared to regular bristol board?

JB said...

Mike,

Would love to see Jerry ink a Sunday or week of dailies on Judge Parker over your pencils, if you ever get in a pinch. Both of you elevate your talent big time. And, the page just smokes. Jerry's finishes/inks are top shelf. Not that yours are not. ;)

CCG Coordinator said...

Mike,
Cool layouts - you seem to be able to morph your style to match Jerry's?!
What is this for? I recently finished Weird Worlds with Jerry and Kevin Van Hook's six issue Lobo story arc.
Could you share the plot or script for these pages?
Kindly,
Jonathan

Mike Manley said...

Uncle E, the C
anson paper is ok, not fantastic, but since I was penciling layouts and scanning them for Jerry it didn't matter. I have done a bunch of the Judge Parker on it and it varies in quality, 150 is really student grade, I prefer the Strathmore 300-400 series, which I use for the Sunday strips.

Mike Manley said...

Thanks JB, maybe someday I'll have Jerry in a Sunday, but the readers of JP are really sensitive to the look of the strip, only now am I winning some readers over after going on 2 years, some will never like what I do, but that's the funny papers!

Mike Manley said...

Jonathan, Thanks, the deadlines were so tight that's why Jerry asked for the help. It was for the Weird Worlds thing but now I guess all that's gone away as DC reset the whole thing so maybe Lobo doesn't even exist anymore. I don't feel comfortable sharing teh script as it wasn't officially my book.

Z said...

Such great job! I really like your inking :)
Do you do it on computer or use traditional media (ink? inkpens?)