Jimmy Comics

Rough and finished pencil pages and one inked page (by Shane Glines), from "The Bug Collector" comic, a Spumco product from 1994.

RIPPING FRIENDS STORYBOARDS

Top two pages are from the Stinky Butt episode and bottom page is from Pooper Man - a loving parody of Superman. Pooper Man's shorts turn evil and force him to commit crimes. Such vile, despicable evil.

Bernard Krigstein

Some fine examples of composition for comics. Bernie is a hell of a painter as well.
Check out the color work by Marie Severin on the top images.

More Art from the potfolio

Color images are frames from Episode 1 of the new Beany & Cecil. The big guy with Dishonest John are John K. layouts as well as the thumb close-up. The title card is by Bruce Timm I think.
B & W drawings are story sketches from "Pontiac online presents George Liquor"
And don't forget to order the color prints below, support your local artist.

Why I like Frank Frazetta

Frazetta's art has had a huge influence on myself and many others. His paintings have a classic look as if done by Leonardo Da Vinci, but with a cartoony aspect. His mastery of anatomy is unmatched. The skin colors, and textures are natural and Frank always created a strong, eye-catching composition. There are bluish-green accents in the skin colors which do appear in real skin, and the figures always look as if they had been in the sun. Also note the subtle bit of cottage cheese on the hindquarters of the girl riding the centaur. Very convincing, and erotic. After first becoming aware of Frazetta's cover art for the Conan paperback books around 1973-74, (they originally appeared in the mid-sixties), I spent countless hours slavishly copying and studying every fold of skin, even trying to duplicate the colors with prismacolor pencils. I never aspired to paint but the drawing skill in Frank's work gave me a foundation for life-drawing, which brings up a related point: when drawing a live model, concentrate on drawing exactly what you see and resist the urge to get creative and caricature. The time you have with the model is limited so use it to study and draw what you see - later when there is no model, you can go hog wild, taking whatever liberties using the information implanted during the drawing of the real thing.
Recommended reading: Frank's work on Lil' Abner during the 1950s. They are available in hardcover compilations from Kitchen Sink. Frank was Al Capp's assistant for about nine years, and though Capp would redraw some of the faces to conform to his own style, the rest of the work was pure Frazetta.

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Prints are for sale

$10 per print plus a free Jim Smith original cartoon drawing included if you buy both.

Lee and Kirby or Kirby and Lee

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are like the Beatles of comics, and there's only two of them!
This mighty Marvel team had a magic chemistry that is still unsurpassed. Lee's talent for melodrama and comedy was the perfect counterpoint to Kirby 's dynamic, heavy artwork. On his own, Kirby wrote stories loaded with excitement yet with little humor if any. Maybe he was trying to distance himself from the Marvel style, but there was a noticable lack of the humor and irreverence that Stan gave as relief to Jack's monumental seriousness and intensity of his solo work.
The top image is from Marvel's answer to Mad magazine, "Not Brand Echh!" (a shot at DC comics, Marvels archenemy in the golden years) where the zaniness was full tilt.
The years from 1966 to 1968 were, in my view the peak years, with Fantastic Four, Thor, Captain America, and my personal favorite - Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos. Notice Fury talking smack to the Nazis as he beats the crap out of them.
The grey tone panels are from the super serious New Gods series, stories devoid of humor, perhaps for the better, as the subject matter is heavy, almost religious.
Especially enjoyable are the zany asides and editorial comments from Stan, sometimes right in the middle of some cataclysmic, earth-shattering Kirby action.They never seemed to distract, mainly because the art is so powerful and mesmerizing. I still love the way Stan wrote credits, giving wacky nicknames to the other writers and artists - as well as to himself - usually billed as Smilin' Stan, or Stan "The Man" Lee, with "Jolly" Jack or Jack "King" Kirby, Gil "Sugar Lips" Kane, and the rest. This fun-poking still gives me pleasure deep in the lonely nights, "'Nuff said!" Excelsior!

Samurai Jack storyboards

From Samurai Jack, storyboards done in 2001. Sorry to repeat I am still learning to post in the proper order.

Samurai Jack storyboards