This is a drawing I did for my buddy Mark Schultz way back in 1987-88 when he was just first starting to do his Xenizoic Tales comic. In those days I was sharing Al Williamson's studio with Bret Blevins, and Mark used to stop up to hand out and work sometimes. I always loved what he was doing and one of the things we artists often do is to trade each other drawings or give drawings as gifts. I'd rather have a drawing than just about any other present. At that time I had also tried to have a go with my first self-published comic doing Wally Wood's Ani-man character along with Bill Pearson, the executor of Wood's estate. That never happened and so since Mark was a big Woody fan like myself, I did this drawing for him. Unfortunately this copy I found is slightly cropped.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
ANI-MAN
This is a drawing I did for my buddy Mark Schultz way back in 1987-88 when he was just first starting to do his Xenizoic Tales comic. In those days I was sharing Al Williamson's studio with Bret Blevins, and Mark used to stop up to hand out and work sometimes. I always loved what he was doing and one of the things we artists often do is to trade each other drawings or give drawings as gifts. I'd rather have a drawing than just about any other present. At that time I had also tried to have a go with my first self-published comic doing Wally Wood's Ani-man character along with Bill Pearson, the executor of Wood's estate. That never happened and so since Mark was a big Woody fan like myself, I did this drawing for him. Unfortunately this copy I found is slightly cropped.
Nice. The hatching in the inks has that classic Frazetta/Williamson/Krenkel feel, as does the pose of the woman, whose back is especially nicely rendered. Maybe the male pose is a tad less graceful than those guys would've achieved. But your versatility was apparent even back then, evidently - comoparing it with Quasar for example.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alan, I was really into that classic stuff at the time, I was looking at it and studying it every day, and heck, Mr. Classic, Al was sitting a few feet away from me.
ReplyDeleteThe figure of Ani-man is kinda stiff, I think I was trying to get that more realistic Foster Feel too it.
Yeah, and maybe a little Hogarth in the torso. Though I often think I see Buscema (who better) influence in your anatomy.
ReplyDeleteAwesome to be sharing a studio with Williamson. Did you ever take any of the photos of him posing for photref I keep seeing, I wonder.
God I Hate Hogarth, he is a terrible artist.1 always discourage anyone from buying his BS art books. :-)
ReplyDeleteI was far more influenced by Buscema, Adams, Kane, Al, Raymond and Kirby.
The sad thing Alan is that by the time I shared Al's studio he had pretty much given up drawing and did mostly inking. He did do little things but it was a hard fight for him. he made so much more money inking than he did doing the strips and it was so easy for him.
I did look through the piles of photos he snapped though for the work over the years. Sometimes they were really funny.
Thanks for sharing this pic, Mike. I've been on a huge Mark Schultz kick lately, tracking down all the "Various Drawings" books from Flesk. I wish more books were drawn today with this level of artistry.
ReplyDeletewhat exactly is wrong with hogarth? judging by the animan pic, he was a far better artist than you. in terms of constructive anatomy, its hard to find better books than dynamic antomy and dynamic figure drawing. buscema's book says more or less the same thing but on a much simpler level.
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