MattBrady
08-02-2006, 06:10 PM
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/Jonah_Hex_Cv10.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/t_Jonah_Hex_Cv10.jpg" border="0" align="right"></a>With this week’s issue of <b>Jonah Hex</b>, artist Phil Noto joined the club made up of artists who’ve breathed life back into DC’s Western icon, along with writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.
Known for his stylized work on projects such as <b>Beautiful Killer</b> and <b>The New West</b> (both of which with Palmiotti) as well as dozens of covers, Noto has attracted quite a following. And as for landing this gig?
“I just lucked into it after having already done a cover for #3 and Jimmy and I work together well,” Noto said. “This experience was nice in the sense that both Jimmy and I were forced to get stuff done deadline-wise where the Black Bull stuff was little more open ended and free, but I usually do better work under a certain amount of pressure. Adding Justin to the mix this time was great because it was another creative mind <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/JONH10_1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/t_JONH10_1.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a>in the mix and he had a lot of good notes. Jimmy and Justin just know the character really well, and I also think the stand alone stories have a lot to do with the popularity the book has found. Westerns such as <i>Deadwood</i> and <i>Unforgiven</i> have shown that you can do any kind of story just set in the western genre without it being something about cattle rustlers and Indians. Also, working with Michael [Siglain, edtior] is great too. His notes make sense, which isn’t always the case with editors and he also picks up his phone when you call.”
Par for the course for that Palmiotti and Gray have charted for the series to date, issue #10 was…pretty rough in terms of content, what with the people being fed to gators, women raped, men stabbed and an accidental shotgun blast that blew a mentally-challenged man’s head clean off. For Noto, the extreme content wasn’t a problem.
“It’s actually not as bad as the first version that had gators raped, babies stabbed and the mentally challenged guy being fed to women. Just kidding. One of the things about Hex is that his whole world is violent. The Wild West was just that, wild. It’s more fun to draw a comic that’s like a Peckinpah movie rather than something out of an episode of <i>Big Valley</i>.
For those who notice such things, the original cover (below) isn’t the version which made the final cut (above). “Originally, I had envisioned a larger scale cover, kind of like <i>Jaws</i>,” Noto said. “It was later decided that Hex’s pretty face needed to be a little larger so it would say Jonah Hex and not Steve Irwin.”
<center><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/Hex10.jpg" border="0"></center>
The cover, and the above mentioned content, Noto said, were a pleasant change from what he’s usually asked to draw. “Beautiful spy girls are fun to draw, and it’s certainly not the worst thing to be typecast as a good girl artist but I’m glad I had the opportunity to try to break out of that role a bit. It truly does get a little boring drawing flowing hair and big boobs all the time.”
<center><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/JONH10_2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/t_JONH10_2.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/JONH10_3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/t_JONH10_3.jpg" hspace="3" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/JONH10_4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/t_JONH10_4.jpg" border="0"></a></center>
And finally – though he’s ready at the drop of a ten gallon hat to come back to <b>Jonah Hex</b>, when asked, he’s still working with Palmiotti…well, has been for a while, actually. “We’ve actually been working on a book called <b>Triggergirl 6</b> which will eventually see the light of day.”
Known for his stylized work on projects such as <b>Beautiful Killer</b> and <b>The New West</b> (both of which with Palmiotti) as well as dozens of covers, Noto has attracted quite a following. And as for landing this gig?
“I just lucked into it after having already done a cover for #3 and Jimmy and I work together well,” Noto said. “This experience was nice in the sense that both Jimmy and I were forced to get stuff done deadline-wise where the Black Bull stuff was little more open ended and free, but I usually do better work under a certain amount of pressure. Adding Justin to the mix this time was great because it was another creative mind <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/JONH10_1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/t_JONH10_1.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a>in the mix and he had a lot of good notes. Jimmy and Justin just know the character really well, and I also think the stand alone stories have a lot to do with the popularity the book has found. Westerns such as <i>Deadwood</i> and <i>Unforgiven</i> have shown that you can do any kind of story just set in the western genre without it being something about cattle rustlers and Indians. Also, working with Michael [Siglain, edtior] is great too. His notes make sense, which isn’t always the case with editors and he also picks up his phone when you call.”
Par for the course for that Palmiotti and Gray have charted for the series to date, issue #10 was…pretty rough in terms of content, what with the people being fed to gators, women raped, men stabbed and an accidental shotgun blast that blew a mentally-challenged man’s head clean off. For Noto, the extreme content wasn’t a problem.
“It’s actually not as bad as the first version that had gators raped, babies stabbed and the mentally challenged guy being fed to women. Just kidding. One of the things about Hex is that his whole world is violent. The Wild West was just that, wild. It’s more fun to draw a comic that’s like a Peckinpah movie rather than something out of an episode of <i>Big Valley</i>.
For those who notice such things, the original cover (below) isn’t the version which made the final cut (above). “Originally, I had envisioned a larger scale cover, kind of like <i>Jaws</i>,” Noto said. “It was later decided that Hex’s pretty face needed to be a little larger so it would say Jonah Hex and not Steve Irwin.”
<center><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/Hex10.jpg" border="0"></center>
The cover, and the above mentioned content, Noto said, were a pleasant change from what he’s usually asked to draw. “Beautiful spy girls are fun to draw, and it’s certainly not the worst thing to be typecast as a good girl artist but I’m glad I had the opportunity to try to break out of that role a bit. It truly does get a little boring drawing flowing hair and big boobs all the time.”
<center><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/JONH10_2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/t_JONH10_2.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/JONH10_3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/t_JONH10_3.jpg" hspace="3" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/JONH10_4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/jonahhex/10/t_JONH10_4.jpg" border="0"></a></center>
And finally – though he’s ready at the drop of a ten gallon hat to come back to <b>Jonah Hex</b>, when asked, he’s still working with Palmiotti…well, has been for a while, actually. “We’ve actually been working on a book called <b>Triggergirl 6</b> which will eventually see the light of day.”