Wind Downs

In the evenings after toiling a long day at the drawing board on the comic strips I will ease up or wind down sometimes by--more drawing. I know, for some relaxing might be taking a long walk (which I also do) but I find doing these "Wind Down" drawings like un-clenching a fist, letting my imagination run free unshackled by any continuity demands. I never know what I will draw as I doodle away, sometimes I keep what I put down, sometimes I don't. If I like it, I ink it up. I post these on my Facebook and Instagram and people really seem to love them. I do to and plan on publishing a book of these drawing in 2017. I love the great pen and ink artists of the past century, Booth, Gibson, Joseph Clement Coll, Kley and Stoops to name just a few.

Why Mermaids and Astronauts? Why not!

A Death In The Family

ArtistaCon This Weekend

I'll be participating at the Artistacon this weekend in the Lyceum in Burlington NJ along with many, many other top pros. Artistacon will be held Saturday, September 17 (10 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and Sunday, September 18 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) I'll be there both days and doing a demo with the Phantom as well as doing portfolio reviews and critiques. 

Drawing & Inking The Phantom Demonstration
Mike Manley

• Saturday, September 17, 2016
• 1:30pm-3:00pm
• Location: Seminar Room

You can see the full guest list here.

Life follows Art

Today while driving out to Media, the county seat to pay my real estate taxes I came across Sam Driver's yellow Corvette parked in front of his lawyers office. I wonder if the real life lawyer here is a Judge Parker Fan?

Baltimore and More

Last weekend I attended the annual Baltimore Comic Con and had a blast! First I got to see my best buddy Bret Blevins for the first time in the flesh since 2010! Last year he was going to come but broke his collar bone-but luckily no bones were broken to stop this meeting.

                                               Bret, Jamar and myself at a power breakfast

I also just like this show because Marc Nathan and crew do it right, there are plenty of pros and just a few TV/Movie types so the focus is on comics and so we get lots of people who are readers and not like the Wizard shows which is mostly a bunch of people looking for prints, autographs, etc., and who are not readers. I also love this show because I get to see many pros I like and admire like Tom Palmer, Garcia Lopez, The Simnsons and more. Up early for breakfast and you can talk to guys like Neal Adams or Howard Chaykin and dinners are great too. Its so great to talk to Tom and hear about the good old days at Marvel and his experiences there and in advertising as well.

                                                   The amazing and gracious Tom Plamer

I checked into the hotel on Thursday but worked till about 3PM on Friday as I had to deliver my week's worth of strips, which I had inked but had to letter and color. I knew Friday would be the slower day and deadlines are deadlines. I saw plenty of regulars at the show, fans and pros I see every year and did some nice sketches. I was so glad to get to meet and spend time with fellow Strip artist June Brigman and got to meet the great Joe Giella who retired from comics after 70 years! June and her hubby Roy have taken over Mary Worth from Giella and now belong to the trifecta of Marty Worth, Rex Morgan and Judge Parker.

 

Bret, June Brigman and me

The great Joe Giella and me

Unlike some cons, NYCC or Sandy Egoes this con you can stop and chat with people. I met a nice family from Belgium I did sketches for and another artist from France as well as Phantom and Judge Parker fans. I even brought along strips to show to a few who sat behind the table as we talked for a while. I rubbed Skull Rings with Alex Saviuk and long time pals Thom Zhaler and Steve Conely and hung with my other best bud Jamar Nicholas. My friends Will and Alina came down to share my room two nights so the could do the show.

I didn't attend any bar-nights or the Harvey Awards, but instead either had a nice dinner with friends or caught up on some sleep. I am not into awards at all but I heard Dean Haspiel gave a nice speech. I did reflect back on seeing the late Darwyn Cooke at the show last year and he came up and gave me a big hug--then a few months later he was gone--it does make you think about how precious time is as it flies along.

                              Man, what do I spy with my little eye looking up from a sketch...


I have to say I saw more female butt cheeks those 3 days than at any other show due to all the Harley's walking about---though seeing the little girls dressed up like that with their hiney exposed as well was actually disturbing. I'm no prude, but seeing girls under the tween age like that is kinda' wrong, if I had a daughter she'd have to dress as the regular Harley till she's of age---sorry!

I didn't shop for anything as I still have way too much crap here but I did score a fantastic pencil page by Garcia-Lopez---my hero!

Then it was all over except for a nice breakfast--then it was back up the road to Philly and back in the drawing chair to get the next week's Phantom in and onto more Judge P which I am finishing now,

I did try and do a digital plien air painting from my hotel window after the con as the sun set before we had dinner.

                   A Swamp Thing sketch that the buyer requested be in my "wind down style"

Francesco's first month on the strip and the ongoing "death of Sophie" story line continues to spin out with great response from readers--even some snarkers. It seems killing characters off gets peoples attention on a often sleepy strip like the Judge. But sleepy time is no more!! But all outstanding story lines are going to be wrapped up and by November we will be in a new age on the strip.

                                                                 A Ninjack Sketch

                                                                            Venom

                                     One fan even had a 23 year old Azbats sketch I did--Yikes!

One thing that always seems to remain consistent is many readers impatience for things to happen in the strip and they don't get the difference between comic strips and other media like movies, TV etc. Comics moves at a different pace, the one of your own CPU and its not a "push media" like TV. Its true the strip was slow, often too slow for my own tastes but a week can be only ten minutes in strip time, or a month depending on how it's written.

A Phantom week and Judge Parker week in production

Abbey and Sam drive to the accident scene which I imagine was maybe 60-90 minutes away, say from Philly to north Jersey. Thus it could be raining at my house and not across the Ben Franklin Bridge or even downtown Philly. I have seen it rain across the street out west, while my side was dry. I think when fans take things too literally they kind of ruin their own enjoyment and the fantasy.

We've never ever seen anyone go to the bathroom, nor hardly ever shower--but we assume they do. Wilson had a pace he inherited from LeDoux and Ces and I will work our own pace out as we go along, but I definitely want some characters to die off, some literally and fade out for a long while to give the strip more fire and drama. By my count there were 26 separate plots or sub plots that Wilson had laid out, most were dropped and moved  from or never resolved, so we are wrapping all of them up in a nice body bag. Its been great to get such nice private feedback from fans about the current story that I think I'll pitch another to Ces next year. Alien abduction perhaps...

I was even thinking of having some kind of contest for real JP fans where I'd give away a few originals as prizes. I'll have to put my thinking cap on in the next few weeks to work that out.

Grind On Con ON

This weekend I'll be attending the annual Baltimore Comicon and be set up in booth right next to my buddy Bret Blevins who missed last year due to his broken collar bone. I love the BCC as its just the right size and full of comic books fans who are the real fans, the readers, though you still have plenty of Cosplay and a few Celebrities. I look forward a a few days away from the board at home to sit at another board in the con drawing away, doing sketches. I also enjoy seeing a few fellow pros as I exit my art cave for a brief stint in the sun.

The current story line of the Judge has been a bit hit-literally. Seems the fans have really gotten into the whole "Death of Sophie" story line that came out of the plot I pitched to the previous writer,Woody Wilson. The story has taken a turn of the dramatic in the last week with what might be a fatal car crash for Sophie and the band. I just turned in my 9-19 week and the story continues to turn in what I hope is an unexpected and entertaining direction for the readers. Some long answered questions about the characters and locations will be revealed. So far feeling are mixed, some want Sophie DEAD, or paralyzed, some have written to say please let her live. Some say some pretty disgusting things too. However I agree with Hitchcock-

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible."

I think he also said he thought realism was boring. Some readers really go through hoops trying to figure out things, which of course are wrong--but that means they are interested--and that's what its all about.

 

When Francesco took over I wrote out an A-Z outline that laid out the past nearly 7 years of plots and sub-plots Wilson weaved on the strip. This way Ces would have an idea of where things are, are not and could be. It was sort of shocked myself at all of the things that had happened--or not. One of the things I really wanted to return to is the change of seasons in the strip, holidays, etc. Otherwise things just go on in a very weird "other world" where time does not ever really pass. This current story line with the factory and Rocky and Godiva will wrap I think by November and then we can reset for the future, maybe with the regular cast of characters, or maybe not, some things for sure will never be the same.Then Ces and I can start our run fresh from the previous story lines.

Here is the final inked strip--sans word balloons of course.

There is also an adjustment on my working with Ces' rhythm and flow as a writer and I know its hard trying to come in and tie up all the straggling plot lines. About you can see my rough layout for the coming Sunday and it was really packed too tight with copy so I sent my rough to Ces and he rewrote it to knock down the amount of copy. The Sunday strip is also very restrictive as far as format with the top two tiers fixed, only the bottom do I have freedom of panel size. I still had to drop the type a font size to make it all fit and not seem cramped.

Here is a whole week of the Phantom which was just run, sans balloons so you can see the art. I loved doing this week as I got to do some action. This story line has been great for e a honestly a break from the Judge as its adventure and I can stretch my legs. It is a lot of research on China and Tibet, old military uniforms, monks, Tibetan people, animals, temples, etc. Fantasy has to work by being based on enough reality so you can stretch it. I think some fans can be too literal minded and then anything like the Phantom falls apart right away. You want to suspend your beliefs without suspending all logic, but also you don't want to look behind the curtain.

In other news I will be a guest of honor at the Artisacon next month in New Jersey. Its a weekend show in Burlington Lyceum where many to pros and local artists like myself will conduct demos, do portfolios reviews and more. A great opportunity for those looking to get one-on-one tips from industry pros like myself. I'll have more of an update soon about my appearance.

A Death In The Family

Summer Heat

Summer has pretty much cooked off here in the studio, literally so in the past few days with temperatures with a heat index of 108-112 degrees. It has been so hot I was forced to put in my second air conditioner up stairs to try and make it workable for me. Having my arm stick to the paper and the paper act like a damp cloth is something that makes deadlines even less bearable and inking suck. As a result I have been taking the afternoons off in the peak of the heat and working later in the night when the temps drop. I look forward to the crispness of fall, but honestly dread the idea of winter and snow. I can't see myself living in snow the older I get, and the idea of a sunnier climate appeals to me more and more. Another hottest year on record they say and I can believe it!

Working away and feeling a bit of strain these weeks to be honest I came to realize it has been six years since my last real vacation, and that I won't have one this year--again. I'm certain many cartoonist, or strip cartoonists feel this pain. Trying to build more time into doing the strips is a constant battle. I remember hearing a quote from the late, great Leonard Starr that one day he looked up from his drawing table and 35 years had passed. Well I am close to that very number now myself as a pro cartoonist but almost 40 since I started working in art at 15.

There are days you feel the Burn, the energy is not quick to come and those are the hard days to be sure where its habit and practice that server as much as anything else to get the job done---though I have to say this Phantom story is fun, and a lot of research.

                                                      Two more pages from the DC job



Things will be very different this fall for the first time in 15 years as I will not be teaching any classes. I some ways I will miss it and in someways I will not, it was sometimes a big deadline crunch for me on teaching days, but mainly I am just so busy now with two strips. Things have certainly changed a lot school wise and price wise in that time, some places literally doubling in price, or more. I feel for any kid with a dream, but I am less and less about the colleges and art schools and more about the ateliers these days where you can get the skills without the BS and expense. I just interviewed Jeff Watts about his Watt Atelier near San Diego for the next issue of Draw!

                                            Pencils from an upcoming Judge Parker Sunday


 Jeff has a great school and one I did consider before PAFA, but at the time I didn't want to move and like Nelson Shanks school, Incamminati, didn't offer a degree ( Incamminati does now through a local college)-- at the time I wanted the degree as I was teaching, and something you need to teach on a college level now. But I wonder sometimes how different things could have been if I did go to either of those other places or move to California 10 years ago.

So, I will be putting my energies more into focusing on new projects like getting a collection of Comic Art Bootcamp from Draw! ready to print for 2017 and another book or two including a new version of From Script to Print with Danny Fingeroth, the first version is now out of print and going for over a hundred bucks I have been told. I also will be focusing more on some personal painting or art projects I have been too busy to do. Teaching is just one spinning plate I have to let drop for now.

                                                Another week of the Phantom in progress

I have painted the least this summer and this year of any since I started school and graduated, though I am thinking about painting all of the time and want to get back to it in a big way by next year. My mind has been changing about maybe what I had originally intended to do as a painter and the fact that I am not/and will not be a full time painter and that its a real probability I will never be one.

I would have to sell an awful lot of paintings to equal my commercial income and I don't see that as a current possibility. When I was in school I thought that maybe I'd transition over, but the the financial collapse happened and the debt from school piled up too. But Art is long, so I hope I can paint into  my 70-even 80's if I live that long, and my eyes stay good, so I took that pressure off the table. I will also need to market my art maybe in a different way and the traditional galleries seem to be suffering, at least in Philly. So many things to think over and study while working away on the guy in the purple underwear.

The Phantom The Bat and Supes

Here are a few more pages from the Tomb job for DD Digital. Here are my layouts and my pencils. I drew my layouts at print size, scanned them in, blew them up and worked over them on my lightbox for speed.

                                      And here is the last week's worth of the Phantom.

The Phantom, The Bat, The Kryptonian And The Minivan

This was one of the heaviest lifting weeks in the studio for a long time. On top of the two strips which keep me plenty busy, I also got a rush 10 page penciling job for DC Digital books, written by old buddy Phil Hester and inked by Comics god, Tom Palmer. I think it will show up on Comixology.

Tom and I last worked together over 20 years ago on Spirits of Vengeance.

you can see more of Tom's great work on his website tomplamerillustration.com

Its Supes and Bats vs Darkseid and DeSaad. It was a fun romp, better for an annual than a 10 pager as it was very dense and I had to get used to the DC Digital format which breaks things into two tiers for the cellphones and tablets.

The rough for page 1 on the left and the finished pencils on the right.













Still I was happy old Marvel buddy Steve Buccellato asked me to do it.  I got to draw the new costumes on Supes and Bats which made me miss the old ones--well at least on Superman.

This weeks was also a hard drawing week on The Phantom as week get Kit to his new school hidden away in the far off Himalayas. Great vistas and people, new character and street scenes, so it was a fun lush week written by Tony that called on all my drawing muscles!

 And here is last week's worth of The Phantom strips.

The band's trip back from Morrisville/Morristown continues in the Judge. This is from a plot I pitched to Woody back at the beginning of the year. Woody is scripting and adding his own flair of course. The band is on the way back and there looks to be some back seat hijinks. Oh, Oh, drama!

It was also a cleaning out week, out with more old and unwanted  comics and books into the recycle--I have acquired so much of everything it seems---so my rule is if I haven't looked at it in 5 years--it goes in the "out pile". Some stuff I will keep, but frankly its so easy to keep things you think you will look at again--then never do!! I brought crap home from my studio in school that I thought I'd want or would go through two years ago that I am just going through now--and most of the stuff I am tossing.

I think all mid career artists have to do this, out with as much as you can so what you have is good and easily found. One of the museum conservators at PAFA told me that when they get in an artist studio, all their material, sometimes after they pass, it's so daunting the family goes ,"Here you guys can have this stuff".

Then they have to go through a huge amount of junk that is basically mostly just junk to sort out the envelope with a doodle  that was some link in the artists work or process that is important, from the real junk mail. She told me to toss away as much stuff as I can along the way to avoid the huge pile of art debris she was going through. It was sound advice I should have listened too!

Catching the Digital Wave

 This week was the first all digital Sunday strip I produced for Judge Parker and the direction I plan to head with that strip, though I will continue to produce The Phantom "old school" with traditional tools. Nothing beats pencil, pens, brush and ink! I never loose anything, paper doesn't crash or have to be migrated to another format, tech, but I can't keep putting it off either. I'm hopping on the digital wave.

It was a bit tricky to draw this as I was using my Wacom tablet and have yet to purchase my Cintiq, which will probably happen this week. That means I was not drawing on the screen but looking at the screen as I drew which made it a bit slower and having to redo things a few times to get the line right. Here is where the 30 Plus years of muscle memory come in. I know how to make the strokes from memory, practice, its just a bit of finagling to get them in the right spot using the Wacom, the Cintiq will solve that.

After nearly 7 years on the Judge I have a huge stack of art and I need to save space as I go forward doing two strips, essentially doubling my output, and there is not much of a market for the art on the soap strips, though there is a big demand for the Phantom art, I have already been getting inquiries for dailies.

I also hope to be able to speed the art up by going digital--or that is the theory that all my fellow artists who have gone digital say will happen. Terry Beatty produces both his Phantom and Rex Morgan strips digital and he says its faster. I think doing backgrounds with programs like Manga Studio is faster as I can go over my swipe without having to draw it out then ink it. I used to do this in a way back when I used my projector and I could project the swipe/photo and ink it directly under the projector. Its also the way things are going commercially and I have to adapt to the needs of the jobs.

A year back I had to produce a Star Wars kids book and they need the art all inked digital so Disney could re-purpose any of the art later. I also want to produce some digital paintings and concept work for myself. If I continue to teach in the future, something I am sort of on the fence with at the moment, I will want to be proficient with the digital tools--besides I think it will be fun!

                                              The most recent week of the strip in process

I just turned in my 12th week on the Phantom and I think its my best week so far and Tony DePaul's scripts are a joy to draw, especially when he gives me room to stretch out like this week. The Phantom is a fun job but a hard one as any long running legacy strip is full reference issues. So far I have received love and also a bit of hate from the Phans. I knew coming on some folks are not gonna like it, they hate change just like when I came on The Judge, but it's mostly love, and some are great folks, welcoming me in and following my work over the years and some are whack jobs, going over every single line and are quite insulting. To those types well, they can take a long walk off a short pier. They are the type you can never appease and I know from many Parker Snarkers they are the type to just always say negative things no matter what.

I have a lot more Phantom reference now and that helps a lot, and its still a job I feel I'm growing into and will for a long time. I haven't even draw The Phantom himself more than a few times in the purple costume, I've drawn him in his civilian guise the most. Studying Sy Barry's work on the strip I can see his evolution on it as he grew with each story, and the different pencilers he had draw the strip also evolved and change his style. He started the strip the year I was born, funny to think 54 years later I'm doing the strip.
                              Below is the most recent week of the strips which ran in the paper.

Here is another Judge Parker week drawn by me and guest inked digitally by my best buddy Bret Blevins. Bret has been doing a lot of digital work for several years now and I think he really knows how to use the programs and give it that "old School" juice!

I have also been on a bit of a buying binge with all the great books coming out now on comics and strips. This is the haul from the last few weeks, the IDW Artists Editions are really fantastic! So great to see the Adams one and the Wrightson as well. I think Thrill Kill might be Adams best drawn story and the Muck Monster leads us right to Wrightson's never topped Frankenstein adaption. These guys were huge heroes to me as a teen and still are a big influence on my work today as well as Toth and the great DC War Gods of Kubert and Russ Heath. For up and coming artists we live in a golden age of great repro of great work to study, love and learn from.

 I have also had a chance to get out and do some painting which you can read about over on my Philadelphia Plein Air Painters Blog!

I have also been really going through a huge cleaning and purge of the studio which will go on for a while. I recently got rid of my stereo in the studio as I listen to all my music over my computer now, and which loading the equipment out I came across this old tape of the voice track from working as a storyboard artist on the Batman cartoon. I have many of these tapes and eventually the switched to CD's and then MP3's. I'm sure in another 20 years I'll have a similar pic of some old and no longer used platform or tech.