Categories
Retrospectives - Master Post

Remembering Eduardo Barreto

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I received my first comics when I was a little kid, a 5 year old transplant in Madrid, Spain. My grandma bought a handful of them for me from the newsstand. They were translated Marvel and DC comics, some were black & white, some in color. They were the size of magazines, too. Huge, colorful, sometimes many stories per issue. I was mesmerized, as even the ads for other titles seemed incredibly epic to me. Eduardo Barreto had something to do with all that.

That there is the first Superman comic I ever read. I had seen the 3 movies and had the toys, but a comic? This was it, and seeing Superman cry for help in an alleyway with stubble, of all things, was weird and interesting and compelling. The actual story was a pretty good Bates/Swan/Oksner production, but nothing beat that cover.

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Even many years later, when I would first start going to comic book stores once in a while, I would always gravitate toward the Barreto covers in the back issue bins. The ones I thought looked cool were never drawn by him on the inside. Again, nothing beat those covers.

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I’m getting ahead of myself. Back in Spain, I did have a comic drawn by Barreto. It wasn’t a popular icon of a comic, but I happened to own it, and it seemed complex to me. It was heavy and tragic and I felt the weight of the conflict in every panel. I had never even seen these characters before.

It was Atari Force issue thirteen.

What an odd collection of characters. They all seemed to be friends but enemeies but lovers but related but… but… I loved trying to decipher the story over and over again. Turns out that the issue at hand featured a couple of reveals. People were betrayed, identities explained, the end of the world was inevitable. I loved it. How could I not? Look at this page and its chaotic design, and yet it flows clearly, masterfully.

As for the page below, that was my favorite page out of the entire thing. A pretty simple, brutal fight. The entire issue was a great build up to this moment and this was the perfect release.

I recall thinking that the guy’s face didn’t have enough blood on it. Those faint pink spots weren’t good enough for me. I needed to see more blood, so I just added more blood with a red pen. I wish I still had those Spanish reprints, if only to see what kind of graffiti or subplots I used to scribble in any open space on the page I saw.

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Eduardo Barreto passed away today. He was 57.

Our condolences go out to his family and friends.

Tributes and other remembrances can be found written by Andy Khouri, Heidi MacDonald, and Ty Templeton.

*****

Those Spanish reprints, I’ve only found a couple here and there. I haven’t come across the Atari Force one, but I know that those bloody pages will not need me to scribble on them when I do.

That scene, that comic, Eduardo Barreto’s work, they’re perfect the way they are.

–Fiffe

Categories
Dear Friends Sometimes I Like Stuff

Let Me Hold You – Comics ’11 / BCGF Recap

There’s nothing like having a stack of comics that you really enjoy. Even visually, a handful of comics has unbeatable appeal to me. Not a stack of hardcovers or a window of bookmarked webcomics, but a bunch of physical issues varying in shape, size, and pedigree.

Since it’s the season for lists, here’s a rundown of my modest stack of off-the-beaten-path comics I’ve liked throughout 2011 (and some that were acquired mere days ago). All of them can easily be purchased from the artists themselves.

Note: First half of the list are the ones I’ve gotten throughout the year. Second half is from this past weekend’s BCGF.

Calamity of Challenge #127

Matthew Allison had me as a fan since his work on Covered. This comic mostly features material from his webcomic, but its solid presentation here makes it worth seeking out a copy. He’s recently been selling original art at beyond reasonable prices.

You Are Always On My Mind #1

Kat Roberts, who has also made her stamp on popular characters, handmade this comic with its cover treatment and sewn binding. I don’t want to give away the goodness of the main feature, but you can see a little bit more here.

Rubber Necker # 5

One of the best, Nick Bertozzi continues to serialize Drop Ceiling in the last one-man anthology standing. He’s been holding down that fort for a while, and I want to live to see it reach issue 100.

Space & Gravity

Sarah Crowe drew this great but too short of a comic. She told me she’s working on a longer collection of pieces (while working on other things), so that’s one more to look for in the next year.

Open Country #1

You can follow the million things that Michael DeForge is doing on his blog, and you won’t be let down by any of it. It’s difficult to pick a favorite, but I was really into Open Country. I’m glad I found the follow up at this past weekend’s BCGF!

Kid Mafia #1

I got OC #2 from DeForge. He also had Kid Mafia, which is amazing for its own set of reasons. Nice to finally meet him, too.

[Everything by] Traditional Comics

If you’re not convinced about Benjamin Marra and what he does, go here. Actually skip it. There’s no hope for you if convincing is needed. Sometimes I treat his Night Business series as a light at the end of a tunnel. Don’t you?

I got tons of stuff at Marra’s table, including this new comic by Madeleine Bliss (read it here).

Scepter Gem Magic Universe Part 1

Brother Sasquatch Book One

Tim Hamilton has taken a select few passages from his online strip which is somewhat serialized at Cut Bleed. The guy can draw anything, and does. I can’t believe he makes one of these every morning in a dream state.

Regarding BCGF itself, I’m glad that I was able to stay a little longer than I anticipated (I’ve missed out before due to work). I was happy to finally have met Josh Simmons, Tom Spurgeon, and Adam McIlwee. Also got the latest Smoke Signal which is always welcome. Make sure to get your hands on a copy somehow (contact Desert Island) as it’s one of the finest collection of cartoonists around.

The next day I spent part of the afternoon going to a “place” where comics were unearthed, dusted off, and gleefully purchased. I went with the few people that never fail to reaffirm my hope in humanity and yeah, I got some more amazing things there.

Since the feeling of dancing between the bright/upcoming/homegrown and the obscure/processed/forgotten is a thrilling and pretty hilarious thing, I suspect that the experience will be well documented by the gentlemen I experienced it with. Look for it.

–Fiffe

Categories
All About Process Art & Illustration

Madman Party Pin-Up

I recently got the chance to collaborate with one of my childhood comics heroes, Mike Allred, creator of Madman. I did a pencil drawing, Mike inked it and his wife Laura colored it! As if that wasn’t cool enough, the piece was slated to go into the Madman 20th Anniversary Monster (in stores mid-December).

The pin up was to depict a large cast of creator owned characters, all in celebration of the medium’s independent spirit. The idea originally sprung from Allred and Dean Haspiel (who vouched for me and my masochistic streak love of drawing crowd scenes). The piece would have an accompanying essay written by Adam McGovern, so all four of us began thinking up a master list of potential characters to feature. It started at 20 or so, then easily over 40. I held off on drawing anything until a definitive list was hammered out.

First, though, a rough sketch to give me an idea…

I had started with the basic information: a big ass party. It wasn’t to be a group action shot, but a bunch of folks hanging out instead. I made sure to draw the room in proportion to the space needed for the growing list of characters (70 at that point). I wanted to channel Yves Chaland in a way, but my main source of inspiration was Joost Swarte…

…and Fred Hembeck.

The ultimate list of characters still had to be finalized. Between the four of us, a lot of characters were added, cut, suggested, added again, and dug up until that master list was actually completed. It ended up being a head count of over a hundred. All I had to do was make them coexist on a single page.

I wanted to convey every character’s personality at least in the smallest way. I had to reduce each one to a single, tiny movement. A bunch of little stories going on at once. I penciled as cleanly as possible and sent it off to Mike and Laura to complete it.

I still couldn’t believe Mike Allred was gonna ink this.

Working with Mike is a big deal to me.

I was really into Madman Comics back in the day, so I was naturally interested in the debut of its sister title, the Atomics. This was back in 2000. I liked the characters, the stories, and especially Mike’s positive attitude in making comics fun. He started his own company (AAA Pop Comics) and delivered a fun comic month in, month out. It was inspirational.

So much so that I was inspired to actually draw the Atomics. I had only drawn other people’s characters for company submissions, but this was different. I just wanted to draw something for the hell of it. So I did. I photocopied the drawing and mailed it to AAA Pop.

I didn’t give it much thought. I figured Mike might dig it and that was that. A few months later at the local comic book store, I was flipping through the latest issue of the Atomics and discovered that my fan art had been printed in the letters page!

Just like that, I was in print! For the first time! I received a very cool postcard from Mike himself months later. He was very supportive.

Skip to a year or so later. Remember when Mike teamed up with Peter Milligan to re-imagine Marvel’s X-Force franchise (later as X-Statix)? I was a total fanboy for this when it first hit, to the point where I even entered a contest – contest! – that involved drawing your own character. Readers were asked to create a mutant superhero for possible X-Force membership. What, you think I cared about creator ownership and licensing? Nah… I wasn’t submitting my life’s work, but just a goofy concept for the sake of involvement with a title I liked a whole bunch. All I wanted was Mike Allred to draw the mutant I created.

I called him Bastador, a teen Mexican wrestler who had a powerful living baby inside of him, constantly struggling to escape his masked mortal coil. Or something like that.

No, it didn’t win, thank you very much. I don’t even remember who did.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand.

Present day.

Imagine my surprise when this came in.

I was floored when I saw it. Leave it to Mike to take my cluttered mess and make it sing. He even added a few heads here and there. Given the sheer amount of creator owned characters, this single snapshot feels like we barely touched the tip of the iceberg. There are so many other great characters that weren’t squeezed in that I’m compelled to draw the other half of the room. Hmmm…

Thanks to Laura, Dean and Adam for being a part of this. Big thanks to Michael Dalton Allred for making it all happen and for being there with words of encouragement from the get go.

That’s my contribution to this awesome project. Be sure to get the Madman 20th Anniversary Monster this December 14th (some sources say the 21st). Don’t take my word for it; look at that roster. It’s got all of my favorite cartoonists and yours. Support your local comic shop while you’re at it, and have a happy holiday!

–Fiffe

Categories
Art & Illustration Sometimes I Like Stuff

Summit Street Maps: Reeyobigs Edition

INDUSTRY TODAY

I was asked by a peer to draw up John Carter, even though the only thing I knew about the character was that Gil Kane drew him once. I liked the challenge of working on something unfamiliar, especially if it has swords. I never get to draw swords.

FORM TOMORROW

Death To the Universe has a great piece about the unique visual demands that only comics can carry (that’s putting it as broadly as possible). A Treatise on Optics nails one of the many aspects that make comics an important and beautiful art form.

On a loosely related note, another one of my favorite blogs, Heavy Discussion, recently posted a bunch of pictures and commentary of old zines. I think having tactile proof of one’s interests may be archaic, but it still has a lot more intimate power than we give it credit for. Having said that, don’t rule out the notion that HD may have inspired this post.

A FEW OTHER THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

It’s not weird for me to look up and find that Slave to the Rhythm has been on repeat all afternoon. That, and a bunch of podcasts. Baseball on the radio might as well come next. Perhaps the hum of an electric fan may do the trick.

Brett Gelman has a new podcast up: Gelmania. That’s right, the guy behind the immortal iBrain teamed up with Tim Heidecker for this one. I hope it’s a recurring thing. It’s all good, but the 17:12 mark is where you want to be.

I wonder if that bit was the reason Marc Maron sounded bummed while talking to Neil Hamburger recently. Neil, who sings for one of the most important figures in Metal, usually leaves me in tears. I can see how awkward and out of place it is to have him come out in this intimate way that Maron’s cultivated.

BACK ON COMICS

Nick Abadzis wrote a piece about the Russian Cartoon Music concert played by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, an event we recently attended in Brighton Beach. Nick’s got some exceptional drawings accompanying the article. Good to see Blaise Larmee and J-Shasta leave comments.

Did I mention that Tony Salmons has a blog? Yeah, and he’s posting tons of original and unseen art over there. I have to pry myself away from the screen whenever he posts something.

In an unprecedented move, I discovered that I was basically wrong in my hateful assessment of the Legion of Superheroes: Five Years Later. I’ll write about the experience at length sometime soon but in a nutshell: I love the Giffbaum era of the title and have become obsessed with its place in comics. I recently came across Tom Bierbaum’s livejournal, where he describes what went on with each story he wrote issue by issue! I know… thank me later.

SWORDS

Oh, wait, look. I have drawn swords before. This Tellos piece was done a couple of years ago for a proposed Mike Wieringo tribute book, put together by Todd Dezago. I liked Mike’s art a whole lot but I never got around to reading Tellos when it was coming out. I was unfamiliar with the story, but the characters were fun to draw.

That should do it. Back to inking.

–Fiffe

Categories
Interviews I've Conducted

SECOND CITY: the Paul Duncan & Phil Elliott Interview

I had the pleasure of interviewing Paul Duncan and Phil Elliott, the creative team behind Second City, over at The Factual Opinion. They’re responsible for creating one of my recent favorite comics (back in ’86) for UK’s Harrier Comics. In the interview, they talk about their collaborative steps, thematic nuances, and the things that influenced this underrated, brilliant mini series.

Categories
All About Process Art & Illustration

Comic Book Jazz Hands: BETA RAY BILL

George O’Connor and I have used BETA RAY BILL as an excuse to collaborate once again! This time I pencilled, he inked, then I hand colored this here horse faced warrior (take a quick peek at our previous attempt, which reversed our tasks). We slapped a logo on top of it in order to fit the “What If” Blog format (formerly known as the DC Fifty TOO blog which features a lot of my favorite cartoonists, I’m not joking.)

Big thanks to Jonathan Morris for putting this together and for the invite. I dare not forget the amazing Sarah Crowe, who helped George and I out on the technical (and spiritual) side of things.

Beta Ray Bill was created and designed by Walter Simonson (Thor #337, Nov. 1983) and is property of Marvel Comics Group Entertainment Disney.

Check out the step by step…

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Categories
"ZEGAS" Los Press

ZEGAS #1: More Links, Pics, and Reviews

More reviews coming in! L. Nichols over at the Comix Cube gave Zegas #1 a great aesthetic breakdown, as did Beth Scorzato over at the new criticism hub Spandexless. They both approached the comic from their own personal and refreshing standpoints but came to the same conclusion: they liked Zegas. As did comix champ Jeff Newelt, who highly ranked our first issue in Heeb’s Best of 5771. I’m in good company in that there list.

Speaking of good company, Seth Hurley has a nice stack of comics going on here.

Brian Warmoth decided to take it out in public, which is just as flattering.

Being in the middle of creating the next issue right now is pretty darn exciting, I have to admit.

Goal’s to release Zegas #2 early ’12 so I better get back to work, but not before sharing this.

Annalemma gave a nod to Cousin Corrine’s Reminder #3. Amongst the cartoonists featured in its Comix Block section is I, my contribution, shown above.

Okay, now back to work for real.

–Fiffe

Categories
Sometimes I Like Stuff

NYCC ’11 Report

NYCC was this weekend.

Yeah, it was busy, it was packed. I met some folks, caught up with others, good time overall.

This, however, is what I got out of it…

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Categories
"ZEGAS" All About Process Los Press

Zegas #1: Process and Props

The response to Zegas #1 has been remarkably positive from all sorts of pockets of the comics world! A reminder: this self-published effort contains all-new material that cannot and will not be seen online in its entirety. I can hardly promise that it will be collected into trade form, either. This comic is specifically designed to be read page to page as a physical object, ideally on an issue-by-issue basis. Izzat cool witchu?

At the moment, it can be purchased from me through Etsy (many thanks to those of you who have done so) or support your local comic book shop by purchasing it through them, most notably Bergen Street Comics, Desert Island, Jim Hanley’s Universe, Big Planet Comics, Time Warp, Floating World, and Quimby’s. You can also find it in book stores such as BookCourt, P.S. Bookstore, and St. Mark’s Bookshop.

P R O P S

Zegas #1 was recently reviewed by Matthew J. Brady for his Warren Peace Sings the Blues blog. It’s always a pleasure to read his comics reviews and a thrill to carry a combative dialogue through message threads with him. Keep in mind that this is not the same Matt from Newsarama; this one likes cats.

Another review was by Matt Seneca for The Comics Journal. I’ve followed Matt’s comic, “Affected”, for a while and have enjoyed its formal boldness. Plus, it’s fun as fuck. Whether it be through Death to the Universe, Your Wednesday Sequence, or his Deathcast, Matt’s critical observations always cut straight to the bone and are worth your time.

Pop Dose just put up this review of Zegas #1 in Johnny Bacardi’s column, Confessions of a Comics Shop Junkie. Mr. Bacardi and I go way back, in that this interview of mine with Trevor Von Eeden wouldn’t have been possible without his help. It was through his Thriller website that I met Johnny, and I’ve been following his blog since. Do the same.

P R O C E S S

Since I’m a fan of the comics-making process, I thought I’d share a few brief examples of how I worked on certain aspects of Zegas #1. The way I make a comic page changes all the time, but below are the most typical steps I take.

This issue contained a larger cast than I’m used to handling. I’ve gotten used to drawing the main characters, Emily & Boston, but I wasn’t sure how these other folks were gonna look. Thankfully, it didn’t take a slew of study sheets to nail them down.

One panel, three samples: pencil, ink, and color. All by hand.

Another character sketch.

I knew I had to carefully stage this following splash page. Lots going on here, but the main concern was clearly portraying a sense of movement through a specific space. I liked the rough layout and tried to remain faithful to its foundation.

Writing comics has got to be one of the most difficult things I do throughout this entire process. Takes me forever, too. I write and re-write and edit the results while trying not to kill any initial spark they may have had. I’d hate to snuff out the spontaneity of any given scene, so I try not to overwork it.

As far as a “script” goes, I find that scribbling on any ol’ sheet of paper yields better results than typing. I can barely get a sense of how a comic will read any time I read a comic script, by anyone. This is how I’m most comfortable.

Here are a couple of layouts.

“Plum” is the only story that has portions of digital coloring. See those dot patterns down there? No, not the black dots, those are actual sticker sheets of Zip-A-Tone (running low, should scan). I mean the red and orange parts. Those are digital. It was fun to do, but I’d hate to color an entire comic like that. You start getting really hateful towards the end and you wish all color would disappear from the world. Maybe that’s just me.

That’s the word on the first issue. The second issue is coming along and looking great. I’m not even that distracted by the sudden rush of accomplishment and adoration. Actually, I can’t work fast enough to get more Zegas issues out there, and I have all of you to thank.

–Fiffe

Categories
Art & Illustration Sometimes I Like Stuff

I Still Believe (Daredevil #260)

I recently did this drawing for Bergen Street Comics, my very own Daredevil cover on one of the blank “sketch” covers. I noticed that the back portion was available, so I designed it vertically, knowing that what I wanted to draw wouldn’t necessarily work if the comic was one/half displayed.

You may ask, “Well, how come you didn’t have him striking a pose mid-jump through a couple of water towers or fighting a cluster of ninjas?”, and you may very well have a point. Although I’ve seen those classic scenarios done to death, I still like them just as much as you do. However, no version of Daredevil is as close to my heart as Ann Nocenti’s version.

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