For the very minute modicum of notoriety that I possess (even that might be overstating things), I’m generally known as a comics critic, a journalist and a writer, or some combination of those three.
Most of my adult life has been spent pursuing one type of writing or another, with much of the past four years spent covering the comics industry and writing my first graphic novel, The Leg. What very few people know about me is that I actually first became interested in comics because of the art.
My mom’s a painter, and so I grew up with art supplies thrust in my hands. When I was 4 or 5, in a famous family story, I drew a political cartoon about John Sununu (Google him). Once I started into comics, I decided I was going to be a great comic book artist. I spent most of my free time replicating Jim Lee and his contemporaries. Then, for more than a decade, I quit drawing and started writing. Until now.
I’ve been doodling again, trying to pick up the feel of things again. It’s not riding a bike, but it’s coming to me. Slowly.
I was watching The Good, The Bad and The Ugly the other night, and during a lull I picked up a pen and pad and scrabbled together this gunslinger (above). My ink technique is nonexistent, but I did like the body structure and flow to it.
You may have noticed a new banner, which is another piece I did recently. It’s from a photo of Fox Fallon, a military guy featured in Esquire. I did a quick outline drawing lightly in pen, then for shading I grabbed what I had at hand (this is the extent of my art “supplies”) and filled in the shading with a blue marker. Again, it’s really rough, but I was happy with it.
I don’t know what it is about art, but it was only once I started drawing again that I realized how much I missed it. As much as I enjoy writing, it doesn’t quite match the primal level of communication in art.
I’m still very much a beginner, but I’m hoping to eventually illustrate my own book. It would be a fun challenge, and then at least I could only blame myself if the art was late.
More than anything, in writing about comics, it definitely helps me to draw now and then, if only to better appreciate the amazing artwork that so many talented people are putting out.
