HOWm

CHRISTDPHER HHRT

WATSeN -GUPTILL PUBLICAT leNS / NEW YeR~

This book is dedicated to anyone who has everread a comic and thought, " Man, I'd like to drawlike that"-because that 's where it alf begins .

CEBHTRIBUTIHG ARTISTS

Grant Miehm. Defee Au cion, Tom Grindberg, Andy Kuhn,Drew Johnson, Rich Faber. Gray Morrow, Christopher Hart

The names and likenesses of all Marvel-owned character sreferred t o herein are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc.Sketches featur ing Marvel characters are copyright 0 2000Marvel Characters, Inc.• and are used w it h permission.

Copyright C 2000 Christopher Hart

99'()56283

The Library of Cong ress Cata loging-in·Publicat io n DataHart , Christopher.

How to draw great-looking comic book women 1Christopher Hart.p . cm.

Includes bibliographica l references and i nde~ .

15BN 0-8230·2394·X1. Cartooning-Technique. 2. Women-<aricatures and cartoons. I. Tit le.NC1764.8.w65 H37 2000741.5--dc2 1

First published in 2000 in New York by Watson­a division of BPI Communic ations, Inc.1515 Broadwa y, New York, NY 10036

Senior Editor: Candace RaneyDesigner: Bob rune. Graphiti Design, IProduct ion Manager: Ellen Greene

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Special t hanks to Bobbie Chase. at Ma rvel Comics.and Renee Geer lings. at Top Cow, for the interv iews and useof the accompanying artw ork. Thanks also to Harr iet Piercefor helping th is book be what it was meant to be.

All r ights reserved . No part of this publication may be reproduced Of used in any form orby any meaM-graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, orinformation sto rage -and -retrieval systems-without the written permission of the publisher.

prm t ed in the United States of America

123 456 /050403020100

CEDNTENTS

InTROOUCTmn 7

THE BHSICS 8

THE BOOY 26

SUPER POlUERS. lUEHPons. Hno KILLER OUTFITS 48

lUOmEn TO OlE FOR 66

FHnmSTIC SPECIHL EFFECTS 92

OynHmlC comic BOOK LHYOUTS 104

TRICKS OF THE TRHOE 120

THE InTERVIElUS 130

InOEX 144

I NTRE9 D U CTI E9 N

ave you ever run into difficultytryin g to draw great- loo kingcomic book wo men? You're notalone. Many aspiring artists, aswell as seasoned professionals,

have st ruggled w it h this probl em. The great ­looking women of comics pose certa in uniquecha llenges. On the one hand , t hey must betough and rugg ed. On the ot her hand, theymust also be beautiful and sexy

The step-by-step approach of this bookmakes all your goals attai nable. All thosemysti fy ing draw ing concepts are f ull yexplained and accompanied by breathtakin gillustrations. For example, you' ll learn w hichare th e major muscles of the body and howto draw them. You 'll see w here to add curvesto high lig ht a female characte r's attract ive­ness. And you' ll learn how to creat e amazingsuper powers-not just super st rengt h, butcutting-edge powers li ke shape-shifti ng andflying spikes.

But of course, there's more: sections onforced perspect ive (the t echnique that letsyou draw comic boo k characte rs w ho pop offthe page and come right at you !); fabul ouscostu me design; an in-depth look at designingcomic book panels; plu s, a chapter on th e pro­fessional tricks of the trade, complete w it h alist of com ic book publishersto whom you cansubmit your stu ff; and a w ho le lot more.

I've gat hered toget her th e t op com ic bookart ists in th e fi eld t oday to create for you, ina sing le package, t he w idest range of artinstruction possible. You'll have at your dis­posal t he work of many art ists, inst ead ofbeing limited to only one art ist's personaldrawi ng style. These ill ustrat ors are amon gt he elite w ho have penciled and inked suchworld famo us characters as X·Men, Batman,Catwoman. Supe rman, Supe rgirl, Spider-Man.Venom, Avengers, Aquaman. CaptainAmerica, Daredevil, Green Lantern, andmany ot hers.

Plus, I've included two exclusive interviews:one from Bobbie Chase, editor at world­famous M arvel Comics, and the other fromRenae Geerl ings, editor at Top Cow, a presti­gious independent comics publisher. They' llt ell you exact ly how t o land your first job inthe industry, w hat t o include in a portfolio,and the common pitfalls artists shou ld avoi d.Rath er than read w hat some aut hor tells youhe th inks th e editors are looking for, wouldn'tit make more sense to hear it from th e editorsth emselves? That's w hat I thought .

So, be forewarn ed: You're not gett ing atrace-th e-action-figures type of book. This isthe real thing. These are comic book womenat their fin est. These are t he art techniquesused by the top pros. You' re riding th ecutt ing edge. Are you ready?

HEHD SHDTSStart with an egg-shaped ou tline.

dd g€'ntly curving cheekbones thatrotrude slightly past the outline of

the face. Skt:>tch in the bridge of theO.l E' and nostrils, fill in the eyes andyebrows, and complete the hairline.

Draw two gUidelines, one horizontiJldod the other vertical, d ividing theegg in half in both directions.

PlacE' the eyes on th4! horizontal guide­line. Mark some short guidelines toindicate the placement of the tldirUneon the foreheiJd. the eyebrows, thenose, the ears. and the mouth.

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Now, attack the details-but k~p c1

li gh t touch. Squaf€' ou t the jaw linesli gh t ly, and soften the cheekbones.

Start wit h two overlappingeggshapes.

As with the front view; draw ahorizontal and a vertical guideline,dividing the head in half in bothdirec tions.

Place the eye on the horizon tal guide­line and the ear on the vertical one.Don't d raw a hard angle w here theforehead meets the bridge of th enose; however. do dra w a hard anglewh ere the bottom of the nose meetsthe plane of the face.

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If you think you've hit a snag, checkthe position of the eye. That's wheremost people run into problems. Theeye should fall at the point wherethe bridge of the nose meets theforehead.

Sketch in details like the hair andan earring.

DynHmlC HEHD HnGLESYou've got to beable to dr aw yourcha racte rs fromdi fferent angles.because they'renot always going t ot hrow a punch or f lyoff a bu ildi ng in aperfect f ro ntal orprof ile shot; t hei rheads are go ing tot ilt and t urn awayf rom t he reader. So,w hen drawing t hehead f rom differentangles. work w iththe basic ova l hea dshape, bu t focus onthe p lanes of t heface , which arethe sma ll flat area s.For example, t hechin is one plane.The cheekbo ne isanot her. The pocketunder the eyebrowis yet another.Each plane fall s ata d ifferent anglefrom t he others .Planes reflect t hebone structureunderneath t heface. You need toindi cate t hem tokeep t he face look­ing solid in thesemore chal lengingangles so t hat t hehead doesn 't t urninto one big g lob.

3/4. VIEWRear left .

LOST In HER EYESIn comic books. th e eyes of a d rop­dead gorgeo us woma n are deadlierthan any weapon. A sidelong gla ncef rom a dangerous blonde can meanbet rayal. A fli rtatious glint from asmoldering bru nette can make eventhe toughest gu y go weak.

However, you've got to be ableto dra w t he shape of the eye befo reyou can inf use it wit h emotion. So,here are th e basics. The lashes shou ldalways be bigger on t he top eye lid,smaller on t he bottom. and shouldlengthen as they t rave l away fromthe nose towa rd t he ear. A shine ont he pupil is like a shine on a newcar- it just looks go od , so includeit as often as possible.

It 's not just t he shape of t he eye st hat defines th e expressions. but t hedirection, as wel l. Sometimes theeyes look stra ight at yo u, someti mest hey look off to one side. The eye­lids, including t he often-overlookedlower lids, are also used in creat ingexpre ssions. Deta ils such as thewrin kles nea r t he bridge of the nose,t he shape of t he eyebrows, and t hewrinkles above t he eyebrows alladd inten sity.

fLIRTATI6lUSShe peClks side wCl)'S throughheavy lashes. eyebrows up.

SADThe eyes look down,show ing only th e uppereyelids. The lashes areCIt their longest here,sweeping down andaway toward the ears.

SCHEmiNGDo not, rep eat, do notturn your back on thiswom an. The heavy uppereyelids hit right at thetops of the pupils. Notethat on e eyebrow li ftshigher than the other.

SURPRISEDThe eyelids are way up off the irises here,revealing lots of the wh i tes of the eyes.The eyebrows rise to their highest po int.Go heavy on the top and bottom lashes.

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fiE R YMy favorite, the fi eryexpression has thelower eyelids pu shingup on the eyes, wh ilethe eyebrows p ushdown on them.

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sligh tl y here, and theeyes, wide open, dClrfto one side,

THOSE LIPS!Full, sensuous, pouty lips-without 'em, you 'rejust wasting everybody's time. The lower lip isusuall y fuller than the upper one, and theupper lip often dips slightly in the middle.

lOWER LIP IS FUU(R THAN THE UPPER LIP

ffARSGlmfHey; if you've got to haW'someone suckyo ur blood,why not her? There are worseways to go. Baring the teethis an an imalistic way ofshowing bad in tentions.

SEXYLilceshe'salmostblowingyou a kiss.

AmUSEDUsea smile that showsonly the upper tef!th.

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Delineate the tef!th only a t the edges,no t in betwe en; drawing the outlineof each tooth looles scraggly anddraws attention away from the Ii s.

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AN G RYThe upper lip r isesfor a perfect snMI.

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pmUTYThe upper lip disappears underthepushed-out lower lip .

ANXIGlUSBiring the lower lip isacommon comic book wayto depict feminine fear.

THE FEmininE nOSE: THE PRRT THRT RLlURYS GIVES YOU TROUBLEHow man y t imes have you dra wn a pretty wo man's face. only to addthe nose and ruin the w ho le t hing? This part of the fema le face hasbeen known to drive lesser artists comple tely insa ne. Don 't end upas just anothe r stat ist ic. The secret lies in dra wing less, not more.Keep the nose subtle and light, wit h as little deta il as possible.Any attempt to etch in the nose with a heavyhand wi lt surely backfire. For an att ractivelook. keep the nose slightly upturned . '\

""-THE SEPTUM ISSOMETIMESSHOWN WITH A SLIGHTINDENTATION.

'he nose is not to tallymobile; it is capablelimited movements,

ch <IS flarin g nostrilsdcrinkling.

SfJLOn OE comic: tHHRSTYlESA woman's ha irstyle makes astatement about her atti t ude.It 's personal and unique, likeher sty le of d ress or t he wayshe wa lks. Comic book womenshou ld be stylish and, generally,severe. Pay attention to t he waythe hai r falls on t he face andshoulders or, in short cuts, t heway it sta nds up and flops over.Draw groups of ind ividualstra nds with ca re, curving the min one direction and then balanc­ing t hem off with mor e strandscurving in t he opposite direction .On jet black hair, sometimes youmay want to add a shine; a shineon slicked-back hair makes itlook wet.

IDEHlIlEO PROPORTIOns

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Comic book women, li ke thewomen depicted in fashionil lustrat ions, are mu ch ta ller t hanreal women but also have well­muscled. well-endowed frames.Avoid makin g your com ic bookwomen too skinny or too bu lky;they're nei ther bean po les norbodybuilde rs. Despit e theirobvious physical st rength, comicbook women are firs t and alwaysfe minine. with sweeping curvedfo rms, wide shoulders, t hin wa ists,wide hips. and shapely legs.

To determine t he heigh t of afigure, artis ts conside r how man yhea d lengt hs f it in th e tota l bodylength, w ith t he average personbein g approximately 61/ 2 headlengths tall. However, the ideal­ized comic book woman is 9' 12heads tall !

Hew TALL SHeULDSHE R.EALLY BE?Is t he 9 1h~heads rule written instone? No. As I said, it's t he ideal.You can go taller (see facing page)or sho rter, bu t I gua rantee t hat ifyou stick with a tota l heigh t of6'/2 head s (that of a normal pe r-son), your comic book babe willlook amazingly dum py. So keepher st retched out.

All of t hese wo men are popula rcomic book he ights. The ta ller t hewo man, th e mo re impressive andotherworldly she seems. The closer I-- - - - Jshe is to 9' 12 heads ta ll, t he mo reof a "reg ular" person she appearsto be, he r costu me notwi t h-standing. So, t he wo men on t heleft and in t he midd le here maynot be as imbued with a super-na tu ral au ra, but becau se t hey' recloser to "normal" heigh t, t hey fitinto t he role of a fr iend or confi-dante mo re eas ily th an taller char-acters. Plus, readers can relatemore to t hem as peo ple . However,when th ey fig ht evil, t hey'r e st illrough-and-tumble he llcats!

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·,1"I. HEADS 10'/' HEADS 11'1' HEADS

IDEHLlZED BomES In fULL BHTlLE GEHRHere are the same three women from theprevious page, only th is t ime in action pose sand cost umes. They're ready to ta ke on theworld and win. Quite an impressivearray of ta lent . Even a const ructio nworker on his lunch break wouldbe afraid to whist le at them.

Awoman 's skeleto n is st rikingly similar to that of aman, but there are some d iffe rences. Most importantly,the female pelvis is short an d wide . (Afte r all, shedel ivers the babies, so she needs more room in t haterea.) The male pe lvis is long and narr ow. The femalerib cage is smaller th an the ma le rib cage. And all t hebones in a woma n's li mbs have less thi ckness thanthose of a man.

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FEmHlE VS. mHlE SHELETOnDespite these things, however, both skeletons do

have some impo rta nt co mmo n aspects. The rib cage isro und and has considerable depth, as does th e pelvis.Whe rever major bones meet, t he joints they createare bulbous, whe ther they 're the shoulder, elbow, hip,knee, or ankle joints. The knees also have a sma ll bonethat covers the jo int, called a patella . And, the heelbone sticks ou t in back.

SECTIOns OF THE BOOYRarely will an arti st sketch o ut th e ent ire ske leton as aprecursor to dra wing th e bod y. It 's too intricat e, notnecessary, and besides. we don 't wa nna do it! We do,howeve r, need some sort of a foundation . so we use ananatomical shortha nd. d ividing the body up into sec­t ions that fi t togeth er like lego. We're st ill aware of

th e skeleton, but we don 't need to dra w ea ch rib andbone. We're only interested in th e major body masses,how they f it together, and th eir correct proportion s. Awooden artist's mannequin, which you ca n find at anyart supply store, provides a go od gu ide to the basicbody masses.

THE FIGURE In HCTlOnSimplifying thebody into basicmasses isn't on lyuseful as a gu idefor creat ing staticposes; it can alsohelp you createevery imaginablemotion, by break­ing down difficultaction poses intot heir most basicfo rms. Wheneveryou're havingtrouble drawing achalleng ing pose,break it do wn, orblock it out usingan artist 's manne­quin. These figu rescan be moved,t wisted, and tu rnedinto vari ous posesfo r artistic refer­ence. They make agrea t founda tionfor you r eye­popping female

t';::::;::;~~Cha racte rs .

HHnDS WITH Hn HTTITUDEVery delicate, dainty hands have no place in t he modern comicbook . The hands of qreet-lookinq comic book women should beslee k and beaut iful. but also strong, confide nt. an d d ramat ic.

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Th~ knuckleat the base - +_- ---tlfil----+_of the middlefinger is half-

..+ _ w,.ay downthe lengthof the hand

In coovc book poses.the wrist is ii/most always bent

.•~!!f~!IIg!!!!!:!lI!~W2;th the hand appearing.. CItan angle to the arm.

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- \- - -- - - the thumb :....-I-If-+-1I--~r1/2 is hdlfway

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ISOLHTInG THE DIFFEREnT mUSCLE GROUPSWomen have the same muscles as men, but women'smu scles sho uld be longer and leaner, and not bunch asmuch w hen cont racted. Here's the deal : A comic bookwo man shoul d look li ke a gymnast; a comic book manshould look like a piano mover.

The best w ay to stud y muscles is indiv idually, one ata time. A good w ay to see one muscle individually is toflex it, w hile leaving the other muscles relaxed , andt he best w ay to do th is is to lift w eig hts (an activity inw hich you can focus specif ically on each muscle group).

PRESSinG mOTIOnsPressing motions involvethe shoulder (frontdeltoid), chest (pectora l),and forea rm (extensordig itorum) mu scles. Butdon't sweat it-no comicbook artist can nameall the mu scles in Lat in.Most can't even do it inEnglish. However, theycan dra w them, and that'sthe point. Note that youshould keep a woman'sforearm musclesto a minimum,w hich is theopposit e oft he approachtaken for comicbook gu ys.

lEU mUSCLESThe leg muscles are some 01th e longest muscles of the body.Comic book artists are basicallyconcerned wit h the th ree groupshighlighted below. As you dra w.keep in mind that the co mic bookwoman's thighs and calves shou ldbe muscular, bu t not as definedand striated as those of a man .

THE mUSCLES In HClmnNow t hat you'vehad a look att he ind ividu a lmuscles on t hepreceding pages,see if you canident ify themat wo rk o n thispag e . Muscles arelike reservists inthe army: you callup th e ones youneed depend ingon th e taskat ha nd.

CURVES

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CHHRHCTER "TURnHROUnOS"

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THE PWnES OF THE BOOY

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The pla nes of t he bodylook especially awesomein ref lect ive out f its(opposite page) . Theshiny. reflecti ve look iscreated through the useof flowing , swirling linesof varying thicknesses,and jf you look closely,you'll notice that t heselines are g rou ped in speci-fic areas re lating to thevarious planes and anglesof th e body. Fo r exa mple,ligh t fa lls from above ontoth e top half of th e breastbut lea ves th e bottom half inshadow, as indicated by theaforement ion ed swirling lines.Parts of the thigh s and stomachalso provide good exam ples ofthis effect . Note tha t t he plan esof the body may ap pea r to be inone place in one pose and in ad ifferent place in another. Thisis due to changes in light andbody position, and to themovement of the costume .So, experiment.

THE PLANES lDFTHE BlDDYINR.EF LE CT I V EClDSTUmES

When ligh t shines dow n on a person f romabove (usually from indoor overheadlighting or from the sun), any pa rts of th ebody that protr ude on the figure will castshadows on other parts of the body. Sincethe surface of the body is filled with hillsand valleys of mu scles. bones. and fattyareas, these surfaces, or planes.will either be illuminated by ~.-....,....the light or fall into shadow.This effect add s a mood ier,more dramatic feeling to yourwork and also makes yourcharacters seem more realisticand three-dimensional .

THE PDInT DF BRUmCETo f ind the poin tof ba lance- theplace where thewei ght of t he bodyis in equil ib ri um, oreq ually balancedon either side ofthe body-draw astra ight l ine f romthe base of theneck to t he fl oorin yo ur d rawings.You can generallydivide the bo dy intwo along th is l ine,with ha lf t he massfa lling on one sideof the line and halfon the ot her. Ofco urse, there arealwa ys except ions,such as the pose inthe lower left- handcorner here. inwhich t he major it yof th e bod y massfalls to the left o ft he po int o f ba l­ance. Since theheroi ne is thrustingso mu ch of herenergy and weightonto her left (ourr ig ht ) hand andfoot, her bodymass is unevenlydi stri buted; as aresult , she is off­balance and wouldfall if she weren 'tsteadying herselfon the rock.

DYNAmIC STATIC DYNAmiC

KnOCKOUT POSESAfter learn ing todra w the fig ure ,the next step islearning to drawthe f igure in dra ­matic, eye-catch ingposes. You don'twant to draw agreat-lookingwoman, only tohave her standst iffly, li ke the ladywho ladles outcorn soup in thehigh school cafe ­te ria. First andforemost, a posemus t have athrust-a sense ofmotion or direc ­t ion-to it. It hasto "want to be"something. Thebody must seem tobe striving, reach ­ing, stretching, orcurving. This is trueeven if the cha rac­ter is just standingsti ll. Compare thedynam ic and staticposes in theset hree figu re pairs .

HmHZmG HClmn POSESWith comic bposes it's . oak actionnoth.' either all or

mq Whacter le~p en a cha r­k icks th s. pun ches, or

, ere can breservati e noIon whatHer entire b d soever.1no-per c 0 y must beent com .to th . rnittede action d .equally true ~;~h th is isacter on th e char­end of the e re:e iving

pun ishment.

There's no popuncher is sta~~~ to the punch shownwhole body into ~h 5tfiJi.ght up, rathert: because th eexample to see wh:r~C~?(;. Compare Wit~nt~hr,owing her

I erence body I e argl' ranguage makes.

Silhouetted woman areshrou ded in myste ry;hence, the imaginationis left to won der w hat'swit h in t he shadows,te ased by the attract iveoutline of t he bo dy.

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To indicate act io n poses in silho uette,pose the charact er with legs placedwide apart for ba lance, or withlim bs be nt and bod y co iled up ,or wi th the bod y perf orm inga specifi c act ion .

Sil houettes can be very effectivedesign and sto ryt elling elements.Art ists use t hem to create dra mat ican d moody mom ents, and as achange in visu al pacing Silhouettescan be sexy, dyna mic. and stylish .You see o nly the outl in e of t heshape and. t her efo re, notice thef igure's curves t hat much more.

The secret to d raw ing goodsilhouettes is to keep as ma ny ofth e limbs away from t he bod y aspossible. If the arms are pre ssedaga inst th e body, they w on't showand wi ll be subsumed by the bla ck­ness. This wi ll destroy the ou tl ine ofthe bod y. Of course, there can beso me overla ppi ng of fo rms, but yo usho ul d st riv e for silh ouet t es t ha tsho w clearly w here t he limbs are.In t his way. you r silho uettes wi llsuccessfully convey the emot ionsof t he pose.

SILHOUETTES

ARm PGlSITHIlNS

Thearms become especially im portant in sil­houettes. becau se t he y create a sense of sym­metry or balanc e. Positioning one ar m up andone down forms a sing le, fl ow ing line; andthiswou ld be less apparent if the figu re we rebathed in light. as we would then be distract­ed by the patterns and fo lds of the clothing .

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Sil houettes are good for creat ingsubtle moods that are based onbody gesture an d attit ude, ratherth an on fac ial expression or costume.

There's a pens ive fee ling tothese poses, as if someth ing

ausp iciou s were in the air.The charact e rs are lighton their feet-finger­

t ips outstretched andheads hel d high.

fORCED PERSPECTIVEThis is an exagg eratedapp licat io n of the pr inci­p les of foregroun d andbackgro und perspect ive,w hich tel l us t hat anobject that is closer to usappears larger than an ./../object th a t is fa rt her ,/ )away. This is true /" ~

not just fo r A~o bjects, but ({ . I-........:'-.......for the bo dy, "<,as well. To show~forced perspect ive,you need to choose apose that places so meparts of th e bod y d oserto t he reader and othersfarther away. In this w ay,you can exaggerate th eparts that are nea rer therea der. A f lat pose (onein wh ich the bod y is allon one plane) won't do,because t here 's no reasonto exaggerate any thing­no o ne part of the bodyis closer to t he rea de rthan any other.

You must have areason for usin g forcedperspective- fo r exam­pie, to ma ke a characterlook more impressive o rto brea the mor e li fe intoa static scene . Or, perhapst he scen e yo u' re draw ingrequires it, becauseyou're look ing up ordow n at a character,wh ich, by defa ult, resultsin an extreme sense ofperspective.

LEIlEilKING UP ATA CHARACTERThe lower half of the f igureis much nearer to the readerth an the upper half. Toemph asize this, p lace oneleg for w ard, br inging hereven closer to the reader.Exaggerate the near legand the lower half o f thebod y, while reducing theupper half of the body,especially the head.

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LSSIUNG OSWNAT A CHARACTeRStaging a scene in which you look dow n at a characterrequires you to use forced perspect ive- you can 'tdraw he r as a fl at figur e. So, enl arge the top half ofthe body, w hich is closer to the reader, and reduceth e lower half , w hich is fa rther away. The result ishighly effective, making her t reacherous walk alongth e tree seem th at mu ch more precar ious.

FLYIHG-fkelHT VIEW

ACTIGlN PGlSES

Figures in more act ive poses,such as f lying or reaching,requ ire t he use of fo rcedperspect ive due to t heextrem e nat ure of t heposit ions. Remember thatw hile it's always fun toexaggerate t he bod y partst hat are closer to you, it's justas important to reduce t hoseparts t hat are farther awa y.

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FLYIHG-kEAk VIEW

REACHING

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SPECIHl THlEnTS

ATGlmlC PUNCHThis goes way pa st o rd ina ry supe rstrength; it's a power so grea t t hateach blow splits atoms, creating asma ll nuclear exp losion.

SHAPE-SHIfTINGTh is is a mor e dramat ic versionof morphin g or evolving. Prov okedto respo nd wit h great fo rce, t h ischaracte r summons all her energyand vio lent ly changes form into anawesome monster. Note the motionlines around the characte r, w hichin dicate a process in action .

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SUP~R SPIK~S

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Cha ra cte rs now have wea pons as

\pa rt o f t heir bod ies. The spikes

\ gr ow out o f th is well -protected

<,bab e a nd shoot out at anyon ewho t ries to get in her w ay. Hey,

~it beats a can of pep per spray.

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HYPNtIlTISm

Don't stare at her eyes! Too late . You 'rea slave. See ho w easy that wa s? Now, goget me a pizza w it h ext ra che ese. Welt,I d id n 't say it worked every time. A llit takes to ind icat e t hese irresist ib le,me smerizing power s are diab oli calhan d gestu res, a dead pa n stare intoread ers' eyes, and a background ofswi rli ng, expan ding concent ric circles.

ULTRA-meNTALTalk about usin q your b rai nv!By t ocustuq he r hu ge ni enta lpower s into d .. ill gl t>, h ig h ­powered beam, this gal r ant erc e dnyone 10 do her b idd ing

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eARTH s u m m e x r s cWith t r<Hl~(E"lld E'n t po we rs, an earthSUrlHnQIl l"f r an create d whirl pool ofrock and scll1 d, bur ying t il t:" bad guy"alive in d swirling vortex from wlurhthere is no escape . M Wd-hd -hd ·hd l

PY R e - T E R R e ll.This character sprays powerful,hot flame. She's better than anyordinary f lamethrowers becauseshe never runs out of juice and canvary the width of t he spray bycom bining the beams fr om bothher hands int o one wide bursBring marshmallows .

BEAm BLASTINGPower beams always come inhandy when you're walking to adesolate parking garage afterwo rk. Note that a power beamemits a burst of ene rgy at its o rigin.In addition, t he area surroundingthe power beam should be filledwith a darker pattern to emphasizeand contrast with the beam.

FIIJHTlnn womEnWhy t a lk th ings out an d co me to a peaceful resol utionwhen ~ou coul d just as easily kick butt and w in? When youstage fiqht scenes for women, you have to be a litt le mo recreat ive than you might be with male charact ers w ho canjust pound each other into submi ssion . This is becausewomen generally have less g irth and physical w eigh t thanmen and must , t herefo re, be more inventive in the irmartial errs moves to have any real effect .

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THE DlDUBLE x r c xThe ru le in draw in g co mic boo k f ig hts is: Beflashy. If a sing le k ick wi ll do, then a doublekick wi ll do even better. Not e that most kicksare executed with t he heels, not wi t h the t ipso f the toes, so draw ki ck ing charact ers withtheir feet pulled back and f lexed, not pointed.

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THE PQlWER. PUNCH

Notice a ll the space between thesetwo women. You might think this woul ddefeat the purpose of a f ight scene,and beginning artists t end to draw theirfighterscloser together-but that w ouldlessen the impact . On ly a terr if ic blowcould send the victi m ree ling ba ckwardlikethis. Closing t he distance betweenthe figures would minimize the powerof the punch. By add ing space, yo u addimpact. Also. note ho w far apart t hepuncher's legs are . The ha rder thepunch, the wide r the puncher's footing .

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AND DGlN "T CALLm s "" S W ~ ~ T I ~ ! " "

Some guys ne ver learn. This ad vancedmartial arts move com bines a cho ke(leg w rap), grappl ing (hai r pu ll ), and astrike (punch). It makes fo r a dramat icpane l because it's unique. But equallyimportant is t ha t it's not so co mplexthat you can 't see w hat's go ing on .You can use mart ial arts magazine s asreferen ce materia l when drawingthese types of moves .

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KNEE STRIKE

The se t h ree mov es a re t ec hni q uesthat e ver y fe male f ig hte r shoul dhave in he r ma rt ial a rt s ar se na l.Used pr im ari ly in f ig ht ing mu lt ipleoppone nts, t he se mo ves mu st bequick; you r hero ine mu st be ab leto imm edi ately take on t he nextassailant and con tinue f ight ing .

TRHE THfn!

IUDe fLIP

ELBew PUNCH

All your weaponsshould boast lotsof fire power. Yourcha ract er coul d ca rry onemonste r wea pon.or wear seve ralof them on thighbelts and sho uldercneps. lhe fun of drawingcutti ng-edge weaponry isthat you get t o make upyou r own designs. It'snot about whether theweapo ns w ill work. it'sabout whet he r they lookgood. Most weapons arehigh-tech g uns of somesort . Some ga dgetry onthem-such as viewfinde rs,su pply packs, retractableflaps, and the like-isgood . But don't makethese gizmoStOOcomplicated; keep inmind that the weaponsti ll has to look likea gu n .

Often, when acharact e r ca rries aweapon int o battle,she a lso wearsprotect ive clothing.This, rather thanjust st icking a gun inher hands. creates a re alfighting look. She ' II usuallyhave some kind of headgear or visor and. pe rhaps.knee shields. some armbracele ts . an d boots.

OVERSIZED WEHPOnSW ith the exceptio n ofmystery and w esterngenres, com ic bookw eapo ns should alwayste nd toward theov ersized . (Note theequa lly large holst er.)The reaso n for th is issim pl e: If yo u ( arry iii

small gun , you' ref ight ing iii small vill ain;if you carry iii monstergun . .. w ell, you get theidea. Big weapons createbig moments- an d aneven bigge r st rugg le tosurvive. Your comic bookwo ma n can' t just inju reth e nefar ious creaturesrising up f ro m the mireand the n ho pe tosurvive; she has to blowthem to smit hereens!

Some beg inninga rt ists wo rry t ha t givingthe ir char act e rs bigw eapons wi ll lessen t hedrama (because iii

cha racte r w ith a bigweapon m ay appearinv incibl e) and w ill k illany suspense ab out t heoutcome of t he scene.However, thi s just isn' tt rue . In the scene here,ou r hero ine has a hugewe apon, but th is is stillan even -money fightat best.

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ROCKET PHCKSRocke t packs are a cool, high-tech w ay to travel. Of course,you don't get t he fr ee bag of peanuts, but you can't haveever ything . Rocke t packs allow the ent ire figure to rema inclea rly in view, which is an ad vantage over, say, having acharacter most ly covered in an enclo sed helicopter.

THE SPORTS eRR STEP BY STEPAlwa ys block out the f igures in the car at th e beg inn ingsketch st age. If you don 't , yo u may start to sketch a ca rwit h t he peo ple in it and real ize that. w hile t he an gl e oft he sho t makes the ca r loo k pretty, it doesn 't show thepeop le effect ively. If you' re st i ll at an early drawingstage, you (an easily scrap your in it ial sketch and beg inaga in . If you 'd f in ished t he car fir st however, be fored raw ing the people in it. yo u' d have wasted a lot oftime before real izi ng that the ang le d idn 't work . Bythe n, you mig ht be tempted to use a less effect iveimage so as not to waste w hat yo u' d d raw n.

Note the netr blowingin the wind as the cermakes a sharp turn.

GREfH-LOOKmG COSTUmESWhat a d ifference an outf it makes. Fashionis one of the most powerful weapons in thecom ic book art ist 's arsenal. A " bad-gal"expression, for example. doesn't necessarilyin d icate that you r character is evil-shecoul d jus t be having it bad day. But it

bad-gal costume on a w oman w it h a nastyd isposit ion m eans on ly one th in g" She 'stroub le. The cost ume define s the character,clarifi es her role, and, of course. h igh lightsher physical attr ibutes, of w hich thereshou ld be many. As show n here, fashionis such it pow erf ul too l that by simplychanging the cost ume, you ( an alterth e character.

5.imE' b" b l",n l!"W (Oltum..Now she's iI IUpPf

<rime fi ghtE'r. n odoubt ..bou t it.

Your besic,SE'nSdtion"lIy b uiltPE'dE'H, i.)n.

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THIGH CUffAND I V E E E9 E9 W C H!)

NA VEL RING

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CH E9'-'E R WITHHANGING E9RNAmENT

Act ion heroines just never seemto have enough closet space.Here a re some accessories thatcan add z ip to a costume's design.

POPULHR HCCESSORIES

f l A RE DSHE9UlDER

PA D S

RAD IAT IE9NGE9GGl ES

ms r s r i r cARm CUffS

WRIST GUARDS

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FORG REAT-LOOKING COMIC

book women w ill surely catch aperson's eye, but to keep readers

turning page after page, andcoming back issue after issue,you have t o develop dynamicand varied characters. In thischapter, you'll f ind just aboutevery type of beauty t o ever

grace th e pages of a comic book.

THE VHLLEY GIRL

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This is, like. a tota lly cool character!Every suburb need s a few of t hesegood-looki ng gals who never takeoff t heir sunglasses. They' re outcruisin' aro und on a Saturday nightat t he ma ll shopping for gum, or ata rock concert meet ing the roadies.Valley g irl characters a re flirts, sod ress t hem to reflect t hat, but addyouthful touches, such as bows int he hai r, oversized be lt buckles,t rendy boots, and young ha irstyles.

Sometimes. va lley girls ar egr ou ped together in comic book

stories, just as t hey ar e in horrorflic ks when a band of girls

goes camping together and"something bad" happens.

It helps t he sto ry, because agroup of girls together can scream

louder t han one girl by herself.And, you can kill off t hese char­acte rs one by one, heighteningt he suspense .

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When yo u t h ink of sorcerers, yo u th in k of w ily old guys w it hbeards in purple robes. righ t? Thin k again, my friend. Femalesorcerers, w it h t he ir allu ring beauty, are an eq uall y powerfu lpresence . The so rce ress (a n su mmo n u p ima ge s of t he past o rfuture. cast ev il spells . and genera lly mess t h ings up for anyonewho ann oys her, Th is o ne sp o rts forearm cu ffs a nd a larg e legtattoo, wh ich mak es he r d iffere nt f rom just a ga l in a ba th ingsuit. Note t he hand ge stures as she conjures up t ha t st ufffoatinq over h e r he ad-mu st be some so rt of special sorceressstuff . Special effects are important in sorcery. (You learn t hatin " Int ra . t o So rcery 101 ")

THE SEXY SORCERESS

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THE GHnG mEmBERWe all know that g irls are better behaved thanboys, right? Well, not every girl. Some girls. itseems, grow up to be bad. The gorgeous wo menof comic book street gangs would rather rob youthan date you. And compared to some dates I'vehad, that'd probably be cheaper in t he end . But Idigress. Torn jeans and well-worn stree t clothesare t he signat ure cost ume for thi s character, wit ha large wea pon that cernes in handy w hen she'strying t o make a point. A reckless or aloofattitude is also part of the statement.

ALTERNATE APPRGlACHThis isa different approach to t he gang memberrbarecter. as dr awn by a d iffer e nt a rt ist. No two ar tis t sdraw in exact ly the sa me sty le , no r shoul d t hey. Ma nytimes, comic boo k ed itors wi ll requ ire yo u to dra w.Iready established cha racte rs exactly a s t he pre viousartist did . However, when t he o pportun ity presentsi~ l f to int roduce a new character or ta ke the comicbook in a new d irect ion , seize that moment to br ingfresh vision to the work . break out of t he mold, andcreate somet hing d ifferen t. Something w it h your style .

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THE FEmHLE VHmPIRE

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Vampi re w omen are alwa ys depi ctedweari ng eer ie clothing, usuall y capes orlong tattered gowns. Their eyelashesshould be jet bla ck and lengt hy. Theirf ingernai ls are w ay too tong . Plus, they'vegot fangs. And. w hereas most peop le w holi ke animals own a dog or cat, vampirew omen have bats. It 's not t hat I don'tthink bats make cudd ly house pet s; it's therunning to the blood bank every few daysfor their food t ha t I rea lly f ind ti resome.

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HOUH BHB£

A sea -based creature must bedifferent from an ordinary person,becau se she ain't one . Scales. ea rs,and elfin eyes all indicate that th isis a strange being rath er than ahuman being. Be sure her hairfloats and flows gently up andaway from the face, so that thescene reads as be ing underwater.

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THE STHRSHIP COmmflnDER

Resourceful. un yielding, andcourageous. These are the hallmarksof a good st arship commander. Spacesuits are always formfitt ing andmin imalist in design . For reasons yetunknown, most space com manderswear cool boots. Must be a job perk .

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mORE SPReE GRLSCome here ofte n? It's amazingthe kinds of creat ures you meeton your average, methane-f illedplanetary object. looks li ke thisalien wasn't expecting anyone fo rdinner-or worse, maybe he w as!

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HUEn CREHTUREThe melding of hum an and an im al forms int o onecreature has been a te chni qu e used by artists forthousands of years. Nowadays. art ists t ake it one stepf urther, com bining hu ma n and alien features. 1also doit in my own gara ge laborato ry w it h surpr ising results,but t hat 's another book. Usin g rept i les fo r reference,you can create any number of eer ily sexy al ien babe s.

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THE mnm HSSHSSm

On a stealt hy mission, th is ladywea rs the outfit of th e ninja­karate unif orm, hood, and facemask. The boots are speciallydesig ned for added traction, w it h aseparation for t he big toe. The hairmust be in a bun or ponyta il-notlo ng and f low ing , w hich woulddraw attention to this elusivewarrior. The ninja is big on theancient art of hand-to-ha ndcombat; she doesn't carry an Uzi.Plus. she secretly stores many mo reunseen wea pons on her person.Therefore, she always has anothertr ick up he r sleeve.

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RIlDIOIlCTIVE Gill

She ca n make toast just bystanding d ose to a loaf ofbread ! She floats like aspecter. imbued wit h powersf ar beyond our own. Burstsof energy emanate from herfi sts and emit powerful f lashesof light that act like spot lights,hitting her on both sides andleaving on ly th e middle ofher bod y in shadow. This light!shadow/light combo is anextremely dramatic look .

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EXPLOSIOnsExplosions ( an really roc k you rworld . The blo wout on thepre vious page is on e of t hemost pop ular ty pes: theexplosive blast . It denote spower and energ y. It 's closeto both the reader an d thecharacte r-the heroin e's posetells us she's flying fast to getth e heck out of the re! Blastlines give the feeling that thefl aming dest ruct io n coul dcatch up to her any secon d .The image also breaks th epane l border to show thatshe's really book in'. (Noteth at the smoke cloud isre ally a spird' of smoke.)

ATGlmlC INFERNGl

This is the other pop ular exp losiontype . It decimates a lot of la nd . It'snot the urgent l-qotta-escepe-itexp losion; it' s t he l-j ust -qot -out te­t bere-and-boy -am-t-qta d type .Viewed from afar, it casts a harsh,fiery l ight on the heroi ne as shestrides away from a job well do ne,her hair blowing in the blast 's wind.Not e how the explosion serves tobackligh t her figu re, illuminatingthe edge of her form whileth rowing the front of her bodyint o deep, sin ister shadows.

IACI(GR4DUND

You can use background smoke as a toolto make a stealthy crime fighter pop outagainst a starry sky.

smOHEIn comic boo ks. where there's smoke.there's mood and tension. Here aresome popular ty pes of smoke.

f4DREGR4DUNDUsing for egr ound smo ke,

yo u can frame the import antfeatures of a character. Here,

her eyes are framed, ind icat ingsuspicion and alertness.

ASAT4D4DLYou can also use smoke(or fog) as a prop or too l. Thischa racter ;5 o bvious ly a sorceress ,with smoke welling up aro und her,caressing he r. The placement andmotion of t he smoke tell readersshe cont rols it . She's a powerfulfigure, capabl e of manipulat ingthe natural fo rces of the earthto serve her evi l pu rposes.

RHInSlick. wet streets , Windblown downpours. Overcast skies.Ahh, another perfect day in comic book land . Rain canin dic ate a number of d ifferent moods and evo ke a varietyof feelings, as these panels show. It's a g reat emotionalprop and def in it ely belongs in your repertoire ,

ImPENDING DARKNESSThis scene evo kes a stro ng mood wi th a dark storm raining down on t hecity as t he hero ine w aits for her enemy to stri ke . .. somewhere out there,

PATHEilS

You jus t knowsomething bad 'sgo ing to ha ppen,and th e rain w orksas a great meta phorf or tears and sorrow.It amplif ies t he rawemotio n comingf rom t he cha racte r.

URGENCY

In th is pane l, you can sensethe impending f ight, and thera in makes the en vironmenteven harsher. Plus, placingthe center of the fa lling ra inat the character's feet createsthe fee ling that the readeris rushing toward her, asif from the point of viewof her opponent. Her bodylanguage shows t hat she 'scoiled up and ready for amajor f ight.

LIGHTninGLightning punctuates an import ant moment in astory. It can be an omen or serve to strengthenthe climax of a scene. Here are a few types .

TRiumPHANTThis panel focuses on the glory ofa fighting heroine. The lightn ingbrightens the night sky andilluminates the character as shesoars upward. It also frames herbody and divides up the pane linto int erest ing shapes .

Pl!lRT~NTl!lUS

This is the other side of the coin:the dark, stea lthy crime f ighter.We're not going for glory here,

but it's still an import ant momentin the story. Perhaps she has just

realized that, although the creaturewho's destroying her city is also

capable of destroy ing her, shehas no choice but to f ight it.

The light ni ng not only leads thereader's eye to her but also serves

to heighten the tension of th emoment. In addition, it serves as

a lig ht source in an otherw isedark rooftop scene.

THE FULL moonEver yo ne knows that weir dthings happen dur ing a fullmoon, and comic book art ist smust know how to use thissuperstit ion to t hei r adva ntage.

fRAmiNGTH~ fAC~

You can also use t he moon tofra me your heroine 's face a ndcrea te ultr a -d ra mat ic lig hti ng.A few sim pl e crat ers o n themoon 's surface add textu re andcon t ribute to t he feeling of t hemoon looming large and br ightin th e ni ght sky. And . for extramoti on in a pa nel, yo u canthrow in some smo ke.

AS A LIGHT SeURCfAs a visual effect , t he moon is cool because you can chanqeits size, shape. t extu re, and col or. Here, it' s a powerfu l light

so u rce t ha t he lps cre ate suspe nse a nd a n eer ie mood

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AS ASPGlTLIGHTThe moon makes a greatspo t l ight. Here. it empha­sizes t he cha racter andalso creat es a fee ling ofda nger and excitement asshe leaps from the pa nel.

WfHERFountains of water an d plumes of cascadin g waves rising and fallin gcreate fa ntast ic, mystical comic book environments. Water special effectsshould be glo rious and hu ge. like t he ocean it self.

CR.ASHINGWAVES

What's t he name ofthe gam e with w ater?Motion. The pane lopposite offers astrikin g- yet still­shot of our techno­mermaid. How ever,the crashin g w avesaround heradd mo tion an dvigor to th e scene.

flllUNTAINSThe other b ig use fo r water is to create

f low. Here. th e arc of spouti ng waterand t he f igure 's pose work tog etherto create an almost rh ythmic, li quid

fe el to her movement . Her who lebody is sur roun ded by the water, and

she flows ou t toward the read erin a fount ain of beauty and act ion.

VRmSHlnG LInESVanishing lines (seen here and onpage 107) are invisible guide linesthe artist sketches light ly on adra wing to gu ide the d irect ion.perspective. a nd placement ofeveryth ing in the image. As t heselines recede int o the background.they event ually converge at a sing lepo int called t he vanishing po int.Following these vanishing lines w illhelp you posit ion your characters,props, an d scenery cor rect ly withinyour scenes.

There's also somet hing else toconsider. Just as things appea rsma ller as they recede into thed istance, t he opposit e is also t rue:Things appea r bigger as they getcloser to us. This can have a hugeimpact o n the viewer. By greatlyexaggerat ing the size of the thingsin the foreground of your dra w ing s.you can bow l over yo ur readerswit h your images.

USING DIAGElNALLINES TEl CREATEEXCITEmENT

Horizont al lines create a feel ing ofstability and serenity. This is great ifyou like to med itate and eat w heatgerm cookies. But for comi c bookfa ns, it 's a bo re. We w ant action,violence, chaos! Wh en you stage ascene along diagonal lines, ratherthan hor izonta l ones, t hings sud- ~.;11 jdenly look severe, tense, dramatic. ....-~)~Observe how the vanishing lines ofthe bui ldings in this drawing all Jrecede diag onally and <f-should eventually ~~'---;;'-<7J, '.1converge somewhere c ~~ ,f"Mii!jr~""~off the lower right ... ....

side of the page. ' ~ ~' -

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mEVHmSHlnlJ POInTYou can use a vanishing point-the place where all yourvanishing lines converge-to add focus to a scene. You decidewhere to pla ce the vanishin g po int , and t his determ ines bot hthe direct io n of the scene and the placement of t he vanishingjnes. In decidi ng w here t he vanishing poin t goes, considerthe purpose of t he scene. In t his case, two chara cte rs havebeen capt ured and are surroun ded by an angry mo b; so,you'd w ant to emphasize that the crowd is bent onthe destruction of the two vict ims. Placing thevanishing point above the victi ms makes theaowd appear to converge towa rd them.The vict ims become the focal po int ofthe crow d's attent ion , and th isheightens the pressure andmakes th e t hreat of t hemob t hat much morepalpable and imminent.

h this illu stration, th eIQnishing point is locatedoHt~ pdge.

VfJnlSHInG LInES fJnoSPEClfJL EfFECTSExplosio ns becomif e more aI you use vanish " . wesomethe blast Th I~g tines to d irect. e vanlshi .becomesthe 0 " og pomtexplosion w,.th

ng1nof the• everyt hl

t he scene emanati mg else inspot. along the 1".9 f!om thatvenishinq lines.

A HlDTETHE ABlDUTHlDRIZlDH

To understand and . L I H Ecompositi on it ' organize yourident ify the h' I ~ a go od idea toonzon I' (the sky and gr tne w herevanishing poi °t

undmeet). Then usua lly a

on the horizon Ii ppearscan place it in ot her but youcreate added d er spots to

thrama a

e previous • s onpage.

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CLHRIFYInG HCLUTTERED SCEnE - .......

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use of two ~rn above make, -. -pomt pIS when ther erspect ive Th"

o e are tw . ISpoints in a sc 0 va nishingand one on the richt .! on the leftscene . right . In thb • vanishinq I" e aboveoth vanishi n l~es co nverge to

the crisscross 9Jomts• creat inge eel on t he IIOOf.

THE RRT DF STORYTELLInGIt' s no t just what 's inside the panelsthat coun ts. It's how you get f rompanel to pane l and fr o m page to pagethat really te lls the story. Comic bookpanels don't exist in a vacuu m. They'repart of an overa ll st oryline that has toho ld the reade r with its pacing andrhythm. It 's crucial to stage the lastpane l on a pag e in such a way th at itseamlessty leads the read er's eye tothe f irst pane l o f the next page.

To do this. artists first drawthum bnai l sketches of each page­layin g out t he seque nce of panel s inminiature. ro ugh form wi th stickfi gu res- befo re actua lly draw ing anyof the scen es. The idea is to see if th esto ry flows visually fr om pane l topanel. To see how it works. let 'sco mpare two versions of t he samestory. In t his sequence, the heroine isaboa rd her space stat io n when shegets word f ro m her commander thatVi lla in X is looting a warehouse inNew Jersey. She vows to bust h im andblasts down to Earth. Sneak in g intoth e warehouse unseen, she spi esVillain X, who also spots he r. Acon f rontatio n and f ight ensue.

Vf:RSllBNOn the first p dg e, thl!' drtist shows the spdce stiltion an d then cu ts between the heroiflfdnd the commender. In thl!' Idst pdne l on tht' p Ol gf', th e heroine zooms off to th e fight,This is very impo rtdnt, b l!'CdUSI!' sht' Il!'dds the eye to the top o f tht' nt' J(tpilgf', wh ichbt'g im with iI w ide , estcJ blishing sho t cJ nd thl!'n con tinues to show tht' iletio n imidl!' thtwdrl!'houst' w ith Vill din X.

I~VERSllBN 2This sequ ence sho ws off cJ little ma rl" scpnery in sett ing up tht' 10Ciltiom, w hich ereimpor tOl nr fo r this type of story- o nt> in wh ich the mdin chcJ ril eter m ust fly from ant'locil t ,on to dnother, However. the heroint' srJII fl ies out to the ri gh t o f tht' test pdnt' lon th t' fi rst pdgt', It'dding rl!'ilders to tht' top o f the next pdge.

STHGlnG THE BIG FIGHT SCEnEAs with any secti on of a comicbook, th ere are various ways tostage a fi ght sc ene. In combatscenes, you don't in dicate as muchscenery, because you w ant thereader's eye t o fly over the fast­paced scene . This is un like thedetailed approa ch used to illust ratethe pr evious scene (o pposite). inwhich we w anted readers to slowdow n and take in the locat ion s andconversat ions. For th e f igh t scenehere, the basic story eleme nts goas follows : first, th e heroine isattacked by the vil lain; then, shepowers up and slams him across thew arehouse; when she checks to seeif he's unconscious, he lifts the crateoverhead to smash her; and fin ally,she sends a powe r burst across thefloor and takes him out .

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Til,S vt'n,on USPS nlOlf' . d v,m cpd p.npJ d,.s' gn. (N olf' You should keep yo u r thu mbnd l lj<,.tches JOOIt', yo u', t' Just JOl tm g down ddfe-,e-nl ,d t'.s dnd se- t'mg which sh Oh look th e- mostaf rl.m;c Al l h ,s st.qt', you h.vf' rhp f, pe-dom 10 cut, pd Stt', Ndlt', dnd rt'dffdnge-J

She turns, lands a blthen pICksup her rjf~ew,and finishes the Job b

,clubbmg him over th:eadwlth It.

DESIGninGHBRILLlHnTCOVERThe cover sells t hecomic book. To getreaders to pic k up th ebook, a cover muststand out a mo ngdozens of com petingtitles. It ha s to beexcit ing-but th atalon e won't d o it.It a lso must d earlyestab lish th e mai ncha ract er so t hatpeople will recog nizewhich comic book itis. Plus. it must bedr a ma t ic so t hatpeople will want toread t he book to fin dout w hat happens. Inaddi ti o n, t he ima gemust leave enoughroom fo r the ti t le­but not so muchroom that there'sdead space.

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The example here is a good COVe" " The main character;5 in dange r We can see her clearly. The bad guy;s about to pounce. BUf, sht' aim hill iJ gun. Will she fire it in time' Better buy the book to find ou t.

Bere are t he ty pical ini tial steps an artist goes throu ghbefore deciding on a cover idea. The art ist ro ughs out afewversions. and the ed itor notes his or her commentsonthem. At this stage. the art ist t hrows a bunch of

ROUGH COVER SHfTCHESideas at t he ed ito r. When t he ed itor likes on e, t he art istt hen ref ines it and sends it back for more commentsunt il he or she gets t he go-ahead t o do the f inishedversion. Here are some typical editor's comments.

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TRIEU fWD TRUE POInTERS

Llf~-DRAWING CLASS~S

Drawing from lif e won 't help yo u withtechniq ues such as layo ut, costu me design ,ideal izati on of fea tures, or some of the othercom ic book -re lated instructi on provided in th isbook. But , what it wi ll do is g ive you a solidfo undat ion in ana tomy. Ma ny art ists cont inueto hon e the ir sk ills throughout t he ir careers byta king occes ionaltite-d rewinq classes. Cha ncesare t he re 's a p lace near you that off ers classes .You do n' t have to enr oll full t ime; many coll egesand art school s offer co ntinuing educationclasses at nigh t. once a week. There arealso local ar t centers in many t owns.

S"~TCHING

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Whe t her you take your sketchpaddown to th e ma ll or enro ll in anact ual l ife-draw ing class, the mostimporta nt t hing for you to learn todraw is people . All t ypes of people.You ng, o ld, good-looking, we ird ­loo king, even scary. And drawingfrom li fe is t he best way to do t his.

Carry yo ur sketchbook wi th yo u It'sa simpl e trick used by just abou t allprofessio na l art ists at som e po int int heir careers, Take it to t he park, to arock conc ert, to a ba ll game, any placet here are crow ds you can observe. Fillup do zen s of sketch bo oks, and keept hem for reference .

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PICTGlRIALREfERENCE fiLESIt's a go od idea to keep f i lesof visual refe rence materi alson things you mi gh t need todraw but come ac ross onlyinfrequently. For example, youmight see a magazine articleabout a cool, amphib ious watervehicle, an d clip it out and file it .Then, if you e ver need to d rawsomething like t hat , you won'thave to waste half a day go ingto the libra ry for re fe rence .

A CGlmfGlRTABLEDRAWING DESI(Sounds obv ious, doesn't it? It isn't.You sit at a desk in an art store for 30seconds. It's neat looking but no t th atcomfortable . However, thesales person assu res you it's adjustable;so you buy it , confident that whenyou get home, you can get it into theperfect posit ion.

As a profess iona l comic book artist,you'll spend many hou rs a day at thatdesk . Do n't buy it before you're sure itfee ls good while you're still in thestore. Ma ke all adj ust ments r ight thenand there, and spend some t imesitting at it. Take along a list o f all thethings you want in a desk , and see ifthat mo del can hand le it . Th ings toconsider : Where w ill my electri c penc ilsharpener go? Can a lightbo x f it on it ?Does it have enough built-in spacesfo r pens, pen cils, and ru lers? Andmost importantly, does it wobb lewhen you lean on it? The wobble isthe ki ss of deat h.

IDEAS fGlRGlUTRAGEGlUSCGlSTUmES

Go to a la rge newsstand thathas an extensive se lection ofintern ati onal ma gazines. look atthe European w omen's fashio nmaga zines. The models are verycutting edge. ve ry weird, but sexyNotice w hat the runway modelsare w earing : wild designs andsignature pieces never realtyintended for t he consumer butme ant to please fashion in dustryin siders and press. These outfit scan g ive you ideas, because comicboo k women also we ar wil d, sexyclo t hes. Euro pean magazi nes canbe exp ensive, because they'reimpo rted and have a limi tedcircul ation in the United Stat es,but they' re a good buy foryou r reference f i les.

J(.EEP CURRENT

Thing s are always changi ng .Know you r market. Knowth e trends. Know t he namesof current comic bookart ists, wr iters, editors, andpub lishers. When you buy acomi c book, read th e credits.Follow other people's careersin the ind ust ry. It w ill gi veyou ideas and make yo u moreconversant wi th the pros inyour fie ld . If an ed itor islooki ng fo r a drawing sty lel ike so-and -so, you'll knoww ho so-and -so is and won 'tneed it explained to you.

DeN 'T fALL IN LeVEWITH v e u a w e s xObviously, your work will suffer ifyou' re such a pe rfect ionist th at you feelcompel led to f ine-t un e every drawingyo u beg in. Understand t hat everythingyou draw wo n't be pe rfect. no r shou ldit be . You should feel free to makemistakes, beca use in those mistakes willlie some flashes of brillian ce. And restassured t hat eve n w he n you fee l ad rawing is perfect, your editor wi ll wa ntchanges and mo re changes. And you' llhave to make t hem. So you can getjazzed about your drawings, but don 'tfa ll in love with them unti l th ey go tot he print er.

UPDATE v e u apellTfeLleAlways re place t he gooddraw ings in your portfolio w ithbetter ones. Also update yourportfolio if your style needs tobecome mo re contemporaryto fi t in with a curre nt trend,or if t he drawings no lo ngerrepr esent the type of wo rk forwh ich yo u're becoming known.Think of yo ur po rtfolio as aliving, breathing t hing t hatshould be constantly changing.

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USE eVERNIGHTmAIL SERVICEW hen you send your work to a publisheras part of a contracted job, you have t osend or ig ina ls. However, you don 't wa ntyour artw ork damaged or lost in t he ma il.So, send or igina ls via an ove rn igh t deliveryserv ice. I rea lly, really recommend aga instsend ing anythi ng by snail mail , becauseif there's an unexplain ed de lay, or ifso met hing gets lost , it has been myexper ien ce t hat it 's extremely d ifficultto t rack it down and ret rie ve it .

USE THE PHeNEWhen you publish so methingnoteworth y, make phone calls toapprise editors of what you're do ing .If you can take t hem out to lu nch, somu ch t he better. If t hey' re too busy t otake you r calls, or you sense they' re notthat app roachable. mail them co pies ofyour newest st uff w it h a brie f, fr iendlynote. Keep yourself in t heir min d bu tno t in t hei r face . Don 't be pushy. Also,remember t hat many executives switchjobs, so un less you kee p in cont act,you ' ll lose co ntact .

fILE v e u a TAXESIf you ' re work ing as an independentcont ract or " fo r hi re" as most f ree lan ce co micbook artists do, you're going to have to fileyour taxes qu art erl y rather than an nua lly.Check with an accountant so that you don'tfall behin d and have to pay penalt ies.

STICK WITH AFAVEllR.IT~ INK~R.

Some inkers make your work lookbetter th an o t he rs. You ma y havethe op po rtunit y to recommendyour favo rite in ker to yo ur ed itor,and the in ke r can reciprocate thegestu re. It 'll help yo u f ind w o rk andmake your w ork look its best.

INV~S TIGAT~ IEIlBEIlPPEllR.TUNITI~S

IN ANlmATIEIlN

There are ma ny animated te lev ision sho ws t hatfe atu re act ion -he ro cha rac te rs, and t he se showsneed an imators who (an draw in a comic boo k styl e.Never rul e out any possib i l it ies. Check t he credits att he beg in ning or end of a show to fi nd t he name ofthe stu di o. Call them up and ask t hem to dire ct youto the perso n responsib le for h iring an imato rs andstor yboa rd ar t ist s for that part icu lar show.

m~R. CHANDIS ING

Much business is done bylicensin g charact ers. Art ist s areconstantly needed to illust rateeverything fro m toy boxes tocards t o games wi th act ionf igures on them.

comic BOOK PUBLISHERSHere a re the nam es a nd addresses ofmany of the top comi c book pub l isherstoday. Wh en sending submissions,address them to the Submissions Editorand include a self -addressed stampedenvelope fo r the ret urn of yourart work . (For deta ils on exact ly what tosubm it. see the interviews start ing onpag e 130.) You can also request a copyof a company's submissions guidelinesbefore sending anything in .

ACCLAIM COMICSOne Accla im PlazaGlen Cove, NY 11542www. dcclain .nE. t1comicsisubmit .ht mlWe bsite lists submi ssions guidelines .

ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS325 Fayette AvenueMamaroneck, NY 10543(9 14) 381-51 55www.archiecormcs.com

CHANTING MONKS STUDI OS360·AW Merr ick Road. Suite 350Valley St ream, NY 11580(516) 285-55 45www.mediasi.com/chantingmonks

CHAOS COM ICS76S5 East Geld ing RoadScottsda le, AZ 85260(888) CHAOS13, ext . 556www.chaoscornics.com

DARK HORSE COMI CS10956 SE Ma in StreetM ilwa uk ie, OR 97222www.dar khorse .comWebsite lists submissions guidelines.

DC COMICS1700 Broad wa yNew York, NY 10019www. dccornics.com/gu ide.ilguides.htmWebsite lists submissions guidelines.

DISNEYCOMICS500 S. Buena Vista StreetBurbank , CA 91521(818) 567·5739www.westbra bant.netldcw

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS7563 Lake City WaySeatt le, WA 98155(206) 524-1967www.fenta qr aphics.com

GLADSTONE PUBLISHINGP.O . Box 2079Prescott, A2 86302(602) 776-1300

HA RRIS PUBLICATIONS1115 Broadway, 8t h f loorNew York, NY 10010(212) 807-7100

IMAGE COMICS1440 Nort h Harbor Road, #305Fulle rton, CA 92635(7 14) 871 -8802

MARVEL COMICS GROUP387 Park Avenue Sout hNew York, NY 10016attn: Darren A uckwww.marvelcomics.comJcommunityWebsite lists submissions guidelines.

SIRIUS ENTERTAINMENT, INC.P.O. Box 128Stanhope, NJ 07874(201) 347-66 11sir ius.edqegIobal.com

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TOP COW PRODUCTIONS, INC.1223 Wi lsh ire Bou levard #496Santa Monica, CA 9040 1(310) 286-0758WVI/W. topeowconvtopccwrtccztaqldxhtrrdWpbsite lists submissions guidelines.

ADD ITI<DNA~

ADDIlESS Il£SGlUIlC£In addition to the addresses listedhere, t he Indy Magazine Int ernetdatabase is an excellent sourceof comic book pub lishers andindustry addresses. You can find it at:

www.nexlus-hcbbles.coevtndyworldlre fe rencelindustry.shtml

Not e that industry addresseschange,so it 's best to see if a company has itsown website and t hen use theaddress listed t here.

REcommEnDED REROInG

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If you're looki ng to keep current on t hecomics business, ref ine your drawing~kills. and learn new techn iques. here'sthe master reco mmended reading list.

mAGAZINUComic Book ProfilesAs You lik e It Publicat ionsDept . WP.O. Box 20S5Poughkeepsie. NY 12601www.comicsfun.com/c bprofilesIn-dep th coverage of industryprofessionals.

The ComicsRobin Snyder2284 Yew St reet Road, #86Bell ingham, WA 98226www.comicsf un.com/ t hecomicslindex.ht mContains in fo rma tion from comicbook publishers. artists, and wri ters,and covers upcoming industry trendswhile also provid ing a history of thecomics business.

Comics Buyer's GuideKrause Publ ications700 E. State Stre etlola. WI 54990www.k ra use.comlcomicslbgForpro fessionals and fans alike,features news about comics andprofiles o f comic book artistsand w riters .

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WizardWiza rd PressPO Box 656York town Heights. NY 10598www.wiza rdworld.comAll the la test on comic book characters.publishing, industry news. artists, andwriters.

.88U

Chelsea, David. Perspective! For ComicBook Artists. New York : Watson-GuptillPubl icat ions.1997.

Haines, un ene. The Business ofComics. New York : Watson-GuptillPubncettons. tass.

Hale. Robert Beverly. Albinus onAnatomy. M ineola (New York): DoverPubl icat ions, 1989.

Hart. Christ opher. How to DrawAnimation. New York: Watson-Guptil lPublications. 1997.

Hart, Christopher. How to Draw ComicBook Bad Guys and Gals. New York:Watson-Gupti ll Pub lications.1998.

Hart, Christopher. How to Draw ComicBook Heroes and Villains. New York :Watson-Guptil l Publicat ions, 1995.

Hogarth, Burne. Dynamic FigureDrawing. New York : Watson-GuptillPub licat ions, 1996.

129

A N INTERVIEW W ITH BOBBIE CHASE,EDITOR, M ARVEL COM ICS

CH: How import ant is it for a com icbook artist to be ab le t o draw veryattract ive com ic book women ?BC: Very attract ive com ic book womenand men. There's an exaggerat ion onboth ends. The physical attr ibutes ofma le and fe ma le characters are

CH: 1loved all those characters when Iwas a kid . But someth ing wa s almostespecia lly dangerous about The Hu lkBC: Yes, we ll, Hulk has always been anincred ibly diff icu lt charact er. In fact, foryears a lo t o f peop le wou ldn 't considerw riti ng The Incredible Hulk, because itwas hard to thi nk of a major charact er- alm ost a prot agon ist-w ho w asalmost a villa in in the series. He cou ldbe very hard to play. He cou ld be veryhard to make sympathet ic. But ofcourse, he's also a lot o f fu n becau sehe's a lot of k ids' f irst power fantasy.

S T R E9 N GJlw E9 m is N

1,Chris Hart: Tell me about you rbackgroun d and how you ca me towo rk at Marvel, as we ll as about someof th e comic books you 've wor ked on .Bobbie Chase : I've been at Marvel fo r14 year s. It w as ba sica lly my first rea ljob out of college. I w as an Englishmajor w ith a theater minor . I didtheate r design, whi ch is act ua lly veryapp licable when it comes to t h is job.

I d idn't kn ow anyt hing about comicbooks. The person who hi red met hou ght that th is was a good th ing,because somet imes peop le (orne inwith pre conceived not ions a bou t thecharacters and w ith 20 yea rs of loveof comic books, and t hey want to seea spe cific t h ing or have stories go acert ain way. So, I came in he re reallyas a nov ice, not knowing who theFantastic Four we re or any of thecharacters , hav in g hea rd of Spider-Man,basically. That was it.

I've worked on j ust about eve rymajor Ma rve l char acter. Right now I' mworking on Fanta5tic Four, Iron Man,Cap tain America, and Warlock . I ed itedThe Incredible Hulk fo r 10 years.

exaqqereted and enhanced. The adviceI give a lot of enut s just vtartinq out is:Take t he elonqated form of the fashio nf igure. end add muscles on t op of th is.Some art ists start out draw ing fr ommuscle rnaqazmes. But t hat doesn 'tqui te accurately depict the W<l Ycomicbook heroes and heroi nes look,because [in comics! you get thoseeton qetec fcrros and t hey 're muchlerqer t han l ife.

CH: An d they' re so much morefem in ine . They're not masculineversions of w o men . They have t h isincredib le stren gth and incrediblefemini ni ty at the same t im e.BC: Oh yes. Of course, the charactersare most o ften w ri tten by men, soth ere is some skewing of how w omenactua lly react . but a lo t o f guys act ua llyget it very WE'll.

CH: W hen it comes to dra w ing f emalecomic book characters. what do youlook fo r in an art ist ?BC: I like to see som eone w ho w i ll treatt he female fo rm w ith a cert ain amo untof respect . I don 't like to see too much

exaggerated anatomy, too manyell.aggerated brea st shots. or poses t hatare a litt le b it too cheesy or " pin up."

Also, t here's a w ho le school of artistsnow who are leaminq to dra w fromstudying oth er com ic book art, and Ith ink thai 'S a terr ib le shortcom ing .t here are certain comic book shortcutsthat you can get f rom looking at acomic boo k, in ter ms of movingct ie recters. but li fe drawinq isabsolute ly essent ial.

CH: How have t he female characters incomics chanqed in the past 10 years?Be: There are a lot more w om en incom bat. rat her than w omen as cannonfodder. In other words. if WE' w E'rE'talking about t t wIn(fpdible Hulk. theBetty Banner character w as the womanin danger. the woman w ho w anted tobe rescued Now, however, there are alot mor e [femalE' r baracter s] who areect uanv tea m leaders, w ho are put insupervisory ro les.

CH: How important is it for som eon et rying to qet int o tbe business tonetwork at com ic book convent ions ?

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BC: It's not essential. but it helpsbecause you qet the chance to act uallyspeak to an E'ditor- yo u know. theperson w ho could possib ly be hiringyou. If I get wor k into the office. Irespond . It takes me an incredi bly longamou nt of t ime , but I do respond to allof the subm issions I get . However, it'susually a letter w ith maybe a littl e ext reno t e saying , "This would be he lpfu l foryou ." But that 's rar e. because there justisn't t he time . So, a comic bookconvention is a great p lace to mee t 10editor s, get 10 opinions on your work,and abso rb it .

CH; When someon e gets a portfoliotogether and meets you, an editor, at aconvent ion or in an intervi ew, w hatexactly do you w ant to see? Ho w manypieces should t here bE'? Should they bein col or?BC; If a penciler is coming in with aportfolio , it should only be of penciledw ork. At least f ive pages of conti nuouspanel-to-pa ne l storytelling so that WE'can see t hat he or she understands allof the aspects of putting together astory. Also. t he w ork should show

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CH: Can you offer any ti ps on design ingeye -catctun q costu mes for femalecharacters?BC: We'r e getting aWilY from spa nde xWe were rece nt ly redesigni ng a char­a cter's costume. For years, she justwo re a ba t hinq suit . This is il woma nwho . . . well, she 's a sea -base dcharacter. She 's an Atlantian. Shelives un derwater. So the bat hing suitseemed to ma ke sense. But she did a llher fig ht ing in Ma nhatta n . We ga vehe r so me thin g a little b it moreut ilitarian a nd fu nctional-c-pants.

idennfia b!e Marve l cha racters so t hatwe know th e art ist can do ou rch aracte rs to our specif ications.

An inke r sho uld co me in w ith avariety o f ink sa mples, ma ybe twooaqes each of a var iety of oeocnerswork so tha t we can see t hat th ey ca nha ndle som e bo dy e lse's style. If we'reh iring a pe ncile r, we don 't wan t t o seet he wor k inked And if we 're hiring aninke r, we don' t reall y want to se e inksover that Inke r's pen cils, un less we 'rehiring a pe nciler -inker who is go ing t obe d o ing th e wh ole jo b.

CH: How impor tant is a go od com puterco lo rist to a g reat- loo king co mic book?BC: Essential And t hat's rea lly onlybeen in t he last 10 years. When Istar t ed at Ma rvef t he col o ring wasstill done on little flat eels by theselittle o ld la die s in a wor ksho p o ut inConnecticut, pa int ing eels. Now, it'sall do ne by com pu ter. The color isce rtainly il much more integral pa rtof t he a rt sce ne t han ever be fo re .

CH: Is it d ifficu lt, in t his po lit ica llycorrect age, t o portray se xyfema le comic book cha racterswitho ut offend ing so meone,somew he re?BC: Ou r societ y is certainlycra zier a bout sex th a nvio lenc e . Eve ry o nce in a wh ilesomeone will say, "Oh , it 's te r r ib le, ~" """""bu t we also pol ice ou rselves. We have

~a co mics co de . We se nd [o ur material]to th e Com ics Code Aut ho rity t o make

CH: And ho w many peo ple d o bo t h?BC: It's no t co mmon , beca use it's sod iff icu lt to do 22 pa qes in o ne month'stim e. Redlly, t he industr y's st an da rd isfo r il pe nciler-an d- inker t ea m t o wo rktogether.

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su re that we don't go over the top withanyt h ing, but we're act ually morestringent in [t he] com pany. A nd comicbook companies who produce mater ialthat doesn't have the code on it put"For Mat ure Readers" on those comicbooks. A lso, if w e have book s t hatdon 't have the code on them,we don't d ist ribut e them to the news­stands; t hey on ly get dist rib uted tothe specialty stores.

CH: 50, if art ists w ant t o go really overthe t op, t hey can. There are publishersfo r that. But it w oul dn' t be t hemainstream.BC: Right , and w e consi der ourselves apret ty mai nstream com pany.

CH: What are some of yo ur mostsuccessful fem ale comic bo okcharact ers? A nd, how have thosecharact ers chan ged over the years?BC: Ther e are lots. Bet ty Banner [f orexampl e]. Betty Ross Banner-BruceBanner 's (The Incredi ble Hulk's) wife.Shestarted ou t as his g irlf r iend, andover the years, she has ma rried him andgone from good li ttle wife t o, qu it eoften, sidekick. She's a tough char acterand just a very strong w om an. In recenthistory, she has been depicted asworkin g for he lp hotlines and evenworking with some teams that TheHulk has been associated w it h.

Sue Storm, the orig inal Invisible Gir lin the Fant astic Four, is now Sue StormRichard s, married to Me Fantastic. [Nowshe's] The Invisib le Woman-she w asundated, from " girl" to "wom an," ove rthe years. Gon e from, " I'm going t ofaint because I've used my powers," tobeing the tough leader of t he groupwho says, "Okay, Ben you go here. AndReed, yo u go here. And John ny you gohere and w e'll meet in the mi ddle."

We also have Jen nifer Wal ters (SheHulk) who is The Incredi ble Hu lk'scousin and ano t her tough heroine.

Then there 's the x -M en team. Oneof the reasons it's ou r most popularcomic bo ok franchise is because it's justridd led with so many good, stron gfemale characters. Kit ty Pride, MarvelGirls, Storm, so many women. l ots ofnew women in the te am now. In fact, ittends to be very heavily skewed towardfemales in the group. An d t hey all havevery uni que persona lit ies and abilit ies.

CH: Is there a dan ger in chan ging a

,

character too much as it evolves, and arisk of losin g its orig ina l f an base?BC: Yes, t here certainly is. That 's wh ateditors are here for. We' re characterpolice. We make sure t hat, as thewri t ers and artists fo r t he bookschange, the characters stay t rue to theirpersona lit ies and looks. And [we alsoensure that] as other ed ito rs, writers,and artists borrow characters for othercomic book s, t hey're also consistent .Over such a lon g history as thiscom pany has had, the characte rs haveevo lved bu t w e li ke to keep t hemconsistent w it hin the t ime fr ame .

CH: Wh at are some ty pical weaknessesyou spot in the artwork of beginningcartoonists?BC: Typ ically, when artists approach mewith a por t fo l io, they'll say, "What's themost important th ing?" Quit e often Ige t that quest ion. Is it storytelling? Is itanatomy? Is it perspect ive? And I'll say,un fo rtunately, it's all of it . Quite often,t he thi ng that artists have the hardestt ime w it h is comic bo ok storyt elling.We ty pically use t he silent film analogy.In a comic book, you should be able tot ake all o f the [word ) balloons andcapt ions off [the pictures) and look at22 pages of art and see exactly what 'sgoing on and understand the story.A lot of artists have a hard timeaccomp lish ing that, because they don'tput the time in to do establishing shotsand [work on ] backgrou nds andperspecti ve, and make characters movein a linear f ashion. They concentrate ondoing mo re p in-up type w ork, which isgreat for covers and an occasionalbreak-out shot. Obviously, it needs tobe dynamic looking, bu t art ists can'tsacrifice sto rytelling.

And t hat also brings up othershortcomings, in terms of art istslearning to draw from [t he work of]other comic bo ok artists. Quite often,they'll leave out background s andest abl ishing shots simply becausethey don't understand t he perspect iveand the more com plicated issuesofdra w ing. Because they concentrated sohar d on learn ing how to draw comicbo ok f igur es.

CH: What gives Marvel characters theirspecial appeal?Be : Ma rvel Comics has always prideditself on having the best charactersin the comic book industry. [The

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characte rs] have these great powers,but they also have great limi tat ionsand comp licated lives and emot ionsand sho rtcom ings-day-to-day prob­lems t hat readers can ident ify with.

A character like Sp ider -Man has suchlimit at ions, His web f lui d runs out, andhe can't accom pl ish th ings . Or, he' ll fi ndhimself in t he mi dd le of a battle sit ua­tion, and there's no fil m in his camera ,The on ly way he makes a living is deliv­ering shots o f f ights t o The Daily Bug le,and he's under a deadline, and he doesn'thave any shots f or his edi tor, and he can' tmake any mo ney. Or, he has anot herf ight w ith Docto r Octopus and he has adate w ith h is gi rl fr iend. And of cou rse,

she's go ing to be fur ious wi th him. Youknow, these simple life problems.

CH: How does a com ic boo k ed itorint eract w ith t he artis ts) Does theedi tor wo rk with them interm ittent lydur ing the drawing process, or on lyafter the wo rk is handed in ?BC: Depends on the art ist. It 's theedito r's job to hire t he art team, puttogether peop le w ho will wor k besttogether. Sometimes, you'll wor k w it hsomeone new who needs moreat te nt ion . There's a lot less correct ionwork done on comi c books t han thereused t o be. Artists who've been in thebusiness for a long t ime say that, in t he

ol d days, they'd t urn in t he ir 22 pagesand get back 22 pages to makecorrect ions on. Art is a lo t mo recomplicated- the l ine work is a lotmore complicate d-now. It t akes a lotlonger for an art ist to draw a com icbook. We t end to go w ith t he art wege t in, alt hough t hat usually means wet end to do a lot of up -front work wit ha com ic book-working on characterdesigns and sketches and mak ing surethe characters are r ight so t hat thework comes in and is usual ly f ine. Someart ists, obviously, need more he lp,Usually, we wo rk wit h peop le who areprofess ion al enough to get it in andhave it be great.

THE ImPEDRTANCEEDf DRAWINGAN INTERVIEW WITH RENAE GEERLINGS,EDITOR, TOP COW PRODUCT IONS

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_. ,-,.

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Chr is Hart : Ho w d id you (orne to workat Top Cow?Renae Ge e rlings: I act ua lly cam e toLos Angeles to do act ing a nd singingAnd I was t emp ing. t ended up havin gto tem p 40 hou rs a wee k, because youdon't ma ke much money tempinq So Iended up tempin g all t he t ime w ithouteven be ing ab le to audit ion . I came in tot h is bu ilding one day, and it wa s TopCow Product ions, an d I rem emberlau g hin g about t he na me,

I wa lked in an d it was fu ll of bo xes,a nd a ll t his ar t work wa s han gin g offthe wa ll s. I thoug ht, "What t he heck isthis p lace ?" It wa s so d isorgan ized andj ust a littl e stud io at t he t ime. The n Ifound out th at t hey produced com icbo oks I t ho ug ht th at was cool. I wasonly t here for t wo days answeringphones, But I had so much fun t hat Iended up say ing I w anted to go backthere and work aga in .

Mea nwhi le, I calle d an o ld frien d o fm ine w ho wa s int o com ic books andsaid, "Hey, by the way, I worked at t h isp lace called Top Cow Produc t ions, "And th er e w as sile nce on t he otherend of t he phone, an d he said , " M arcSilvestri?" Tot all y awes truck , I ha d noidea who [M arc Silvestr i] w as. I'd on lyre ad com ic books throu gh either ex­boyf riends or my brother. It was rea lly aboy t h ing . But I ended up gett ing intoSandm an, Batman, Dar k Kn ight.d ifferent Batman tit les, M y brothe rli ked Iron Man and Spider-Man. Iremember my fr iend fr om hi gh schoolwas rea ll y in t o X-Men. And t hat's, ofcou rse, how he knew M arc Silvest r i,because Marc drew Wolve r ine . So, heexp laine d t o me t hat I wa s work ingw ith th is, sort of , god.

I called back t he t em p agen cy. I sai dI'd l ike to wo rk t here aga in . I ended upgett ing a two-wee k opening and got toknow everyb ody. It was so much f un .

i!;

o

They en ded up call ing me and askingme back elSthe president 's assista nt fora couple of w eeks. Then he had to goto el conventi on, so I asked, " Doesanybody else here need help?" BecauseI cou ldn 't afford mi ssing a cou ple day sof a paycheck. They said Edit or ialneeded he lp . I w orked for them fo rtwo day s, and tbat w as how I go t in .

CH: In th is com peti tive cli mate,popu lated by g iants l ike Marvel and DCComics, how is Top Cow able tocompet e so w ell?RG : Marc (Silv est ri) and Todd Mcfa rlaneand Rob Liefeld -c-th ose guys who weregiants at Mclr vel an d DC when t heymade the ir own compan ies-not onlymoved on from Marvel and DC, butthey moved on from [makin g] t hat[typ ical kin d) of [comic] book . Themarket has changed. rnst eec of a-veer­a ids t o t a. vear -c lds readin q the book s,now you'vP got anywhere fr om 12· to50-yeel r-ol ds [readinq t hem].

CH: what have bpen your most popularfema le characters. and what do youth ink makes them so pop u lar?RG: Def in it ely witchbt ade. Alt ho ugh[penciler) M ichael Turner has moved onfrom t he book, Witchb lclde put us ove rt he top. In t h is book, you get a wom anwho's a profl"ssiona l, a cop. No t onlyis she a cop, but she's also ext remelypret t y. But, sh l"'s not st upi d -pretty,she's not a sidekic k to some guy. I thinkreaoets latched on to her becauseof her w hole vu lnerabil ity. She w asmult if aceted An d on t op o f that. shew as intelligent an d st ron g And shew as on her own. Batt ling aqainst IanNott ingham. Batt ling and w inn ingaga inst t hese melle characters, theseext reme ly str ong male charact ers. Alo t of women read Witchb ldde . [Thechar acter I is perf ect . large bre aste d,smell h ipped, very thin, tall, lon g hair .Yet, fema le readers still ge t int o herbecause they don 't look at her andth ink , "Oh, she's just got big breasts.~It goes be yond that. It 's her persona lity,her strength, her intell igence.

Deep inside, all of us, all w omen,wa nt to be bea utiful. It's easy to hatebeautifu l w omen . Ho wever, thiswoma n yo u can 't hate, because she'sno t aware of her beauty nece'l-Sarily.Yeah, she w ears short skirts, but shealso w ears torn jeans and she's a cop.She hangs w ith the guys. Most o f her

fr iends are male. And she's cl littleeuenat ec from mo st o f the females inthe boo k.

CH: For people wh o ere thi nk ing, " Howcan I get my first jo b?" do you, as aned itor, and do indepen dent publi shinghouses, such as Top Cow, keep an eveout for new, self -publ ished comics thatmight hold pro mise?RG : We're alw ays looking for newtalent. The independent comic book sare so diff icult because there are somany, and it's so hard to keep up ,especially as an editor, w hen YOU'(t"not just focusin g on finding new talentbut you 've also got to get fi ve booksout t his week. So, it's har d as thesubmissions are stackm q up. Wf.> gothrough these subm issions, and we doloo k at the m. It 's hard to f ind exactlywh at w e neec because. usually, w e'reloo king for vornethin q w p neec now,At ti mes, we find som ebo dy and Scly," There's a lot of t el lent here . We can'tnecessarily USl" him now, but we canbring him in ." But that's har der to do ;th at's taking a rea! chance .

CH: So, if art ists get reje ct ion lettersfrom you Sclying that you can't use theirwork rig ht now but that yo u li ked it ,the y shoul dn 't just walk awa y, t heyshoul d keep in touch .RG: Def initely. In fact, that 's one of themost im portant things I tell peo ple .Keep trying, and try el gel in . I m elY lookat your submi ssion one week, and say Ican't use t his r ight now. It also depend son the fra me of mind, where we are.What are we looking for right now'>But, two weeks later w e've got a wholedifferent f rame of mi nd on w hat we' relook ing fo r. And perhaps t his personhas now improved sli ghtly: t hey'vestudied anatomy, studied storytelling,they've w orked on it. So the next t im e,w e may pu ll out {their work] and say,"rbis is what we're looking for no w ."But we are alw ays, always look ing .

CH: What are some of the mistake s youw oul d advise aspiring comic bookart ists to avo id making when try ing toland their first job? What submis~ions

look amate urish to you and what qetsyour seri ous attent ion ?RG : One of the fi rst things w e look atis: Are they drelw ing bodies [t hat are ]anatomically correct'> Are the th ighsth ree times longer th an the calves?

And sometimes, t hat's a stylistic cho ice,anu that can work But , if it looks lik ethey're just doing this because theydon' t know. , , . It's helrd, because ar tis so subje ct ive .

CH: Not just the art. but what abouttheir overa ll packelgf.> and how theysubmit it?RG : We ~ely, three paqes of sequ entialart. Pin-ups are f ine to send in, butwe can't rea lly tell how som eone isat te lli ng el story fr om th at . Do youalways te ll a st ory from t tie sameangle? Do yo u show the same shotin ever y scene ? How do you lely t he

pane ls out ? Is it interesti ng? Does itcatch the eye'> Does it Ieac the eyeth rough the story? I ~ it dynamic?Is it creatin g a mood?

Also, it's amazin q how many peopledraw rea lly buff bodies and reallypoorl y draw n faces, Faces are soimportan t . We get cl lot of guys whoare good at drawinq square f aces, butwhen it comes to female faces, [squaretaces! are just not p ret ty .

And el isa backqrou nds-c-t hat'susual ly one of t he im portant th ingswe look at . because w hen w e punsomeone in as a new elrtist, we're no tgoing to t hrow them on a book. Wedon't know how t hey work and whatother th ings the y can do. So, we usuallyuse them to help on backgrounds forother ert tsts.

CH: Almost like an apprenticeship.RG : Exact ly. The more detailed th ebackground s, th e more time it lookslik e t hey've scent on it, the mor e it wil lcatch ou r eye, And a lot of peop leforget about the backgrounds, Theydon 't do background s. They'll do a lotof fiq ures, or they'll do b ig fi ght scenes.but we' re no t go ing t o pu ll someone int o do d fi ght scene immed iate ly We'rego ing to pu ll them in to do abackg round , so that helps us a lot.

CH: Do co mic book artists usuenv w orkt hrough aqe nts or through word ofmouth ?RG: It depends. We 've gotten a fewmore eettsts that w ork through aqe nts .Sometimes it he lps. Somet imes it'sreally irri t at ing I end up helving to ta lkto the artist myself, and when t here'san aqent, it just means that instead ofmel k ing one phone call, I have to maketwo. An d there's the whole rumor

game of, I said t his to t he agent andthe agent said someth ing sl ight lydifferent to the art ist and t he artistcomes back t o me and I have to correctit. It gets a l itt le difficult . But on theother hand , it's also n ice to know t hatnot on ly am I on t heir case about theirdead lines , but so is t he ir agent . And ithe lps for book keeping, and the agenttakes care of things like vouchering forthem. It can he lp . It can kee p things alittle mo re organ ized .

CH: If you were in h igh school orcoll ege right now and were seriouslyconsider ing gett ing into com ic book artas a profession, what would be yo urnext move)RG: We get letters f rom really youn gkids, 11 and 14, w riting, "I really wa ntto be a comic boo k artist. " That 'sperfect, because we usuall y pu ll peop lein at a really young age . The thing is, ifyou' re 25 years o ld and can't see thingscorrect ly, you can still teach yourself,t hroug h a lo t o f ha rd work, to be ab leto see someth ing an d to recreate it . Butusually it 's t here when you're younger.That's the sort of talent t hat peopletend to have. I'm not saying that youcan't trai n yo urse lf to do that . It's j ust alot harder the old er you get. It's harderand ha rde r to t rai n yourself to do that.It takes a l itt le more time.

We get a lot of young kids saying wew ant to be comic book artists and I j usttell them to keep draw ing. Submit,submit, submit. Send you r stuff.Sendin g you r stuff through the mail isthe hardest way t o get in, because I'mnot lookin g at you face to face , I'mmost likely going to send you a formletter because I have 80 submissions togo through, and I don' t have t ime to sitdow n and w rite a critique of everysingle one. Whe reas, if they br ing [t heirdraw ings] to a convention . And alot of it is know ing som ebody. Say youhave a friend who know s somebody atTop Cow and t hey can bring you in,people wi ll t ake a look at it and te llyou wh at they think . You just reallyneed to be a go-getter. And you reall yneed to go t o a convent ion and pu l lsomebody aside and say, "What do Ineed to do?"

CH: Are there any part icu lar art sc hoolsthat impressyou ?RG: The name of the school doesn'timpress me at all. In fact, most of thepeo ple we hire in, we hire stra ight ou tof high school. Or straight out ofcollege. (t doesn' t matter w here yo uwent to school. What matters is w hatyou did with it. What you can do Youcould be 17 years old and in h ighschool, and if you're drawing mind -

blow ing things, I'm going to do my bestto get you in here .

CH: If I were to talk to you five yearsf rom now, where would you env isionTop Cow t o be as fa r as story lines andfemale characters are concerned?RG: Righ t now, for exam ple, Spirit ofthe Tao has a very young character. Shewas an eng ineering student and foundout all of t hese th ings about herse lf .And her best is friend Lance, so it's aqirl.quy, yin -yang th ing All thecharacters are very we ll written. Youcan't side w ith any of them-there's noclear- cut good and bad . She's not the" evil " charact er; she's not the " goodli tt le gir l" character. [Characters ] aretendi ng t o go t hat way in com ic books,instead of being so stereotyped . She's ano rmal human being

Fathom, anothe r book that is hugeri ght now, is simil ar. She was just thisno rmal young woman who f inds outshe has t hese amazing powers, andshe's st ill not sur e where they're go ing

I th ink the key to th is type ofstorytell ing is that everybody feels thatthere's something ahead for the m.Everybody fee ls that somewhere insidet here's something reall y specia l. Andthese char acters f ind that t h ing ou t.The reader goes, " Yeah, I could havethat. I just do n' t know about it yet. "

INDEXabdominal mu scles, 29action pose . Stoe poseagents, 141, 143al iens, 88-89amused expression, 15androids, 87angles, 12-13, 34-35angry expression, 15animat ion jobs. 127an xious expression. 15armor,77atomic inferno, 94atomic punch. SO

backgrounds. 141back muscles, 29bea m blasting powers, 53body

angl es. 34-35curves. 26-27, 33idealized,20muscles, 28-32planes of, 36-37point of balance. 38proportions, 18-19sections of, 22-23silhouettes, 42-43skeleto n, 21see afso head; pose

(alvei, 31cars, 62-63Chase , Bobbie, 7. 132-37cnese seqoence.uta-tzcomputer colorist. 134costumes

accessories, 65and characterization. &4android, 87Egypt ian queen, 76functional. 134gang member, 70-71gloves. 24goddess, 7Sideas for, 124ninja. 90pr imeval, 74ref lect ive, 36-37sorceress, 69space/p lanetary cha racters, 78, 83-86underwate r charact e rs, 79-81un iforms, 82yalley g irl. 68vampire, 72-73warriors, 20, 58, 77weapo ns, 59-61

cover des ign, 118-19

de lto id muscles, 28, 29, 30diagonal lines. 106drawing, 122-23, 133

Ea rth summoning powers , 52editor s, co ntacting, 126, 133Egypt ian q ueen, 76eq uilibrium, perfect, 38

explosion special effects, 94expressions. facial. 14-15eyes. 14

fearsome express ion. 15fiery expressi on. 14figh ting

pose, S4-57staging, 113wa rrior costumes, 20, 58, 77

f1ameth rowing powers. 53flirtatious expression, 14flying pose, 46-47focus, 110fo rced pers pective, 7, 44-47

ga ng member, 70-7 1Geerli ngs, Renee, 7, 138-43gloves, 24goddess, 75

hairstyles, 17ha nds, 24-25head

angles, 12- 13feat ures , 14-16front, 10ha irstyles, 17side, 11

he ight, 18-19horiz on line. 108hypnotic powers. 51

information sou rces, 129inkers, 127, 134

job search, 127. 133-3 4, 141, 143

kick, 54knee strike, 57

layeri ng, 109layo uts, 104-1 9leg muscles, 31light ning specia l effect s, 98-99lips, 15

mai ling artwork, 126ma nnequin, art ist 's, 22, 23martial arts, 56-57. 90Marvel characters, 132- 37mental powers, 52mer chandising jobs. 127mood, 14-1 5. 43moon special effects, 100-101mouth. 15muscles. 28-32

na ils, 25ninja assassin. 90nose, 16

pencilers, 133-34perspective

fo rced , 7. 44-47two -point , 111

vanishing lines/ poi nt. 106-11pilot. fighter, 82planes

body, 36-37face, 12

portfolio, 125, 133-134IX""

basic masses, 23dynam ic vs. static, 39fight ing, S4-57flying , 46-47muscles in. 321co-pe-cent co mmit me nt in. 40-41radioactive. 91super power, 48-53

pouty expression, 15pre his10r ic woman , 74princess, planeta ry, 78profile, 1" 12proportion s, 18-19publishe rs, 128pun ches, 40-41 , SO, 55. 57

quadriceps , 31

rad ioact ivity, 91rain specia l effects, 96-97refere nce files. 123reflective costumes, 36-37rocket packs, 61

sad expression. 14scheming expression, 14scuba girl. 79sea creature, 80-81sexy characte rs, 134-35sexy expression, 15shape-shifting power. SOsilhouettes, 42-43ske leton, 21smoke, 95sorcer ess, 69space/planet ary cha racters, 78, 83-86spiked body,S1sports ca rs, 62-63storyline, 112-1 7super powers, 48-53surprised exp ression . 14

taxes, 126teeth . 15314 view, 12. 13thumbna il sketc hes, 112-13Top Cow Prod uct ions, 138-43trape zius mu scles. 29

underwater characters, 79, 80-81

valley g irl. 68va mpire, 72-73van ishing lines/point. 106-11

wa rrio r cha ract ers. 20, 58, 77, 133water spec ial effects, 102-3weapons, 59-61worried expression , 14

$19 .95 USA

Cover design by Bob Fillie.Graphit; Design. Inc.

Front cover art by Grant Miehm

W ATSON -GUPTlLL PUBLICATION S

151 5 BroadwayNew York,. NY 10036

Manufactured in the United States of America

144 pages . 81/2 x 11 · (21.5 x 28 em).310 illustrati ons, 200 in full colo r. Index.

rom classic superhero ines to t oday ' 5 modernwom en and everyt hing in between, femalecharacters provide a st rong and cons istentpresence in comic books and are anintegral part of many story lines. Thislat est offering from we ll-known authorChristopher Hart is t rul y t he ultimatebook on how to draw sexy heroines,beautiful bad gals, powerful techno­

babes. appealing aliens, and much more. Filledw ith art from top contemporary comic bookartists, interviews with current comic bookeditors (including one at Marvel Comics).and featuring instructions on anatomy, f1;action poses, costumes, character types, };~perspective, storytelling. comic book (flayout, and cover design. How to {,Draw Great-Looking Comic BookWomen is an invaluable resourceand the only book you needon this popular topic.

Christopher Hart isth e best-selling author

of watson -Guptill's mostpopular how-to-drawbooks. cover ingeveryt hing f ro mcartooning toanimation to comicbooks . His books havebeen translated intoten languages. and

he is a gu est w riterfor Cartoonist Profiles.

a trade magazine. Heattended the Disney

animation program at TheCaliforn ia Institute of the Arts and earn ed a B.A.from New York University's film school. A formerstaff member of the worl d-fa mous Blondie comicstri p. Hart has been a reg ular cont ri butor to MadMagazine and has written comed ies for many topfilm and 1V st udios, includi ng MGM, Paramou nt,Fox. NBC. and Showtime . He lives in Connecticutwith his wi fe and two daughters.