MattBrady
08-04-2003, 07:32 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Epic2.jpg" width="200" height="304" border="0" hspace="2" align="right"><I>by Mike San Giacomo </I>
Thinking about inking.
Let me be honest.
If this whole Epic experience has taught me something, it’s that I never really gave enough credit to inkers or colorists in more than 10 years of reviewing comics.
It was nothing personal, but always came down to space allotted for reviews. There is only a certain number of inches available and by necessity; I chose to concentrate on the two main people, the writer and the artist.
That will change.
I spent a great deal of time deciding the person who would bring <b>Phantom Jack</b> to life. He had to be capable of drawing realistically, but not to the point of stiffness. Some artists are slaves to realism and the work, while technically good, suffers.
As I said before in this space, finding good artists was amazingly easy. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of good artists willing to take a chance and work with a virgin comic writer. Picking the right one was tough.
Would-be artists should take a cue from the guy I chose, Mitch Breitweiser. He made himself indispensable from the start. First he drew what would become a dead-on reckoning of Jack Baxter, the “Nowhere Man” who would soon be called Phantom Jack. He pulled the image from the description in my script.
After meeting Mitch I realized he pulled some of the inspiration for the character’s look from the mirror, which is very cool. The second great thing he did was to come up with a logo for the series. I knew it was the one I wanted from the first time I saw it.
Going from there to bringing Mitch on board was a quick walk.
Now that we had an artist, we needed an inker.
Since it was Mitch’s work that the inker would be messing with, his opinion was crucial from the start. He had to be as comfortable with the inker as I was.
I was a bit surprised when Mitch said he had someone already in mind - himself.
I was hesitant for several reasons.
Someone once told me that given a choice of having a great inker over a weak penciller, or a weak penciller over a great inker, he would always choose the former.
A great inker will make weak work look good an a weak inker can bring down a good penciller.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/FlyerSample.JPG" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/FlyerSample_t.JPG" width="195" height="268" border="0" hspace="2" align="left"></a>It was not that I didn’t think that Mitch could do a good job, I was just a bit nervous that doing double-duty might be a lot of pressure. If someone else was inking Mitch’s the work, he could goose it up if necessary. If Mitch was doing his own inking, he would just reinforce any problem areas, if there were any.
It’s always good to have another set of eyes on a project.
So we looked at other inkers. The one I really liked was shot down by Stephanie. This came as a shock to me, because I thought his work was very strong. He was an early favorite for artist. I talked to her about it and she pointed out some problems that she and others saw in the work.
To this day, I don’t see them. But Mitch felt the same way and since it was Mitch’s name on the work, that was that. Stephanie seemed more reluctant than me to have Mitch ink his own work, for the same reasons I had earlier.
Mitch, in his quiet voice, said he really wanted to do his own inking because he knows the effects that he wants.
He explained that if he were to send his work off to an inker he would be spending all his time writing lengthy explanations of what he wanted done, then reviewing the work and he knew that he would have to send it back for revisions as the clock ticked by.
Good point.
Whereas, if he did it himself he could toss his pencils onto an expanding light table and do the work right there and then. “It would actually be a lot faster,” he said. Then he added the kicker. “All I ask is that you let me ink five pages and compare the work to the other inkers sending in samples,” he said. “Pick the best.”
There’s no way to argue with that.
The inked samples came in. Stephanie looked at them and passed on her comments.
They looked okay, but none really grabbed me. Mitch sent in his first inked work and I saw what he meant. I liked his detail, it was solid and daring. He brought out things in his pencils that were barely there before. He demonstrated that the best man for the job was the guy standing right in front of us,
Stephanie still wanted to see more inkers.
One was particularly troubling. She really liked the guy’s work and I had a hard time seeing what he did. There was so little difference from the pencils that it seemed like he barely touched it. This whole process took almost a month, way too long in my mind since I was anxious to get a publication date firmed up. We missed July and August, and September was coming up fast.
I e-mailed Stephanie that unless she had any other magic inkers tucked away that Mitch was the right man for the job. He readily agreed that would do the work of two people, but if he faltered a back-up would be brought in.
She agreed. There was much rejoicing and the fatted calf was killed.
Next: Now, who’s gonna color this thing?
<b>PHANTOM JACK "SIGHTING"</b>
Half of the Phantom Jack crew will be signing autographs and kissing babies at the the Chicago WizardWorld comic convention. If you're in the area, say hello to artist Mitch Breitweiser, letterer and go-to graphics guy from Golden Goat Studios Ray Dillon. Writer Mike San Giacomo is stuck in Cleveland, but with them in spirit.
<I>Mike Sangiacomo, a freelance writer for Newsarama and other sources, was invited to share his experiences with pitching to Epic by Newsarama's editor, Matt Brady, in the interest of keeping readers well informed. Brady advises Newsarama readers that he is aware of the inherent conflict of interest presented by journalists working for a publisher they cover. Sangiacomo's regular column Journey Into Comics has and will continue to be found in the Opinion/Editorial section of Newsarama. Brady has not, nor does he plan to pitch to Epic himself. </I>
Thinking about inking.
Let me be honest.
If this whole Epic experience has taught me something, it’s that I never really gave enough credit to inkers or colorists in more than 10 years of reviewing comics.
It was nothing personal, but always came down to space allotted for reviews. There is only a certain number of inches available and by necessity; I chose to concentrate on the two main people, the writer and the artist.
That will change.
I spent a great deal of time deciding the person who would bring <b>Phantom Jack</b> to life. He had to be capable of drawing realistically, but not to the point of stiffness. Some artists are slaves to realism and the work, while technically good, suffers.
As I said before in this space, finding good artists was amazingly easy. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of good artists willing to take a chance and work with a virgin comic writer. Picking the right one was tough.
Would-be artists should take a cue from the guy I chose, Mitch Breitweiser. He made himself indispensable from the start. First he drew what would become a dead-on reckoning of Jack Baxter, the “Nowhere Man” who would soon be called Phantom Jack. He pulled the image from the description in my script.
After meeting Mitch I realized he pulled some of the inspiration for the character’s look from the mirror, which is very cool. The second great thing he did was to come up with a logo for the series. I knew it was the one I wanted from the first time I saw it.
Going from there to bringing Mitch on board was a quick walk.
Now that we had an artist, we needed an inker.
Since it was Mitch’s work that the inker would be messing with, his opinion was crucial from the start. He had to be as comfortable with the inker as I was.
I was a bit surprised when Mitch said he had someone already in mind - himself.
I was hesitant for several reasons.
Someone once told me that given a choice of having a great inker over a weak penciller, or a weak penciller over a great inker, he would always choose the former.
A great inker will make weak work look good an a weak inker can bring down a good penciller.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/FlyerSample.JPG" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/FlyerSample_t.JPG" width="195" height="268" border="0" hspace="2" align="left"></a>It was not that I didn’t think that Mitch could do a good job, I was just a bit nervous that doing double-duty might be a lot of pressure. If someone else was inking Mitch’s the work, he could goose it up if necessary. If Mitch was doing his own inking, he would just reinforce any problem areas, if there were any.
It’s always good to have another set of eyes on a project.
So we looked at other inkers. The one I really liked was shot down by Stephanie. This came as a shock to me, because I thought his work was very strong. He was an early favorite for artist. I talked to her about it and she pointed out some problems that she and others saw in the work.
To this day, I don’t see them. But Mitch felt the same way and since it was Mitch’s name on the work, that was that. Stephanie seemed more reluctant than me to have Mitch ink his own work, for the same reasons I had earlier.
Mitch, in his quiet voice, said he really wanted to do his own inking because he knows the effects that he wants.
He explained that if he were to send his work off to an inker he would be spending all his time writing lengthy explanations of what he wanted done, then reviewing the work and he knew that he would have to send it back for revisions as the clock ticked by.
Good point.
Whereas, if he did it himself he could toss his pencils onto an expanding light table and do the work right there and then. “It would actually be a lot faster,” he said. Then he added the kicker. “All I ask is that you let me ink five pages and compare the work to the other inkers sending in samples,” he said. “Pick the best.”
There’s no way to argue with that.
The inked samples came in. Stephanie looked at them and passed on her comments.
They looked okay, but none really grabbed me. Mitch sent in his first inked work and I saw what he meant. I liked his detail, it was solid and daring. He brought out things in his pencils that were barely there before. He demonstrated that the best man for the job was the guy standing right in front of us,
Stephanie still wanted to see more inkers.
One was particularly troubling. She really liked the guy’s work and I had a hard time seeing what he did. There was so little difference from the pencils that it seemed like he barely touched it. This whole process took almost a month, way too long in my mind since I was anxious to get a publication date firmed up. We missed July and August, and September was coming up fast.
I e-mailed Stephanie that unless she had any other magic inkers tucked away that Mitch was the right man for the job. He readily agreed that would do the work of two people, but if he faltered a back-up would be brought in.
She agreed. There was much rejoicing and the fatted calf was killed.
Next: Now, who’s gonna color this thing?
<b>PHANTOM JACK "SIGHTING"</b>
Half of the Phantom Jack crew will be signing autographs and kissing babies at the the Chicago WizardWorld comic convention. If you're in the area, say hello to artist Mitch Breitweiser, letterer and go-to graphics guy from Golden Goat Studios Ray Dillon. Writer Mike San Giacomo is stuck in Cleveland, but with them in spirit.
<I>Mike Sangiacomo, a freelance writer for Newsarama and other sources, was invited to share his experiences with pitching to Epic by Newsarama's editor, Matt Brady, in the interest of keeping readers well informed. Brady advises Newsarama readers that he is aware of the inherent conflict of interest presented by journalists working for a publisher they cover. Sangiacomo's regular column Journey Into Comics has and will continue to be found in the Opinion/Editorial section of Newsarama. Brady has not, nor does he plan to pitch to Epic himself. </I>