SPECTATORS - Part 97
And a new Artopsy from Niko Henrichon!
Did you get your tickets for Dune: Part Two yet?
Brian here, and I didn’t have anything to do with this literally breathtaking movie, but my friends at Legendary were kind enough to invite me to an advance screening, and I’m happy to report that everything you’ve heard is true. It’s one of the most loving adaptations ever brought to film, a cinematic achievement that demands to be experienced on the big screen.
Seriously, roadtrip to a theater with IMAX if you have to.
In this week’s installment of Spectators from artist/co-creator Niko Henrichon and letterer Fonografiks (get caught up on our story here), dearly departed cineastes Val and Sam discuss a different science-fiction masterpiece…
This next segment of our tale obviously takes place in Val’s full-color past, so huge thanks to Niko for the extra labor on these vibrant pages.
Last week, Niko once again offered to give away a page of his original Spectators art to one of you generous paid subscribers in The Tower…
…and our overworked intern Genesis the Exploded Giraffe (who just took a big stack of signed Saga #1 issues to the post office) has randomly selected reader Thom Wong.
Congrats, Thom! Niko himself will be reaching out for your mailing address soon. And he’ll be giving away more pages to The Tower later this year, so it’s not too late to join us:
Thanks to those of you who purchased several of Niko’s finest pages over at Essential Sequential, which recently lowered the prices on a few remaining Spectators pieces, like this early gem:
And you Tower members get an additional 15% off any purchase of Henrichon art with the secret code we shared at the end of last week’s dispatch, so happy consuming, consumers!
Speaking of original art, my dear pal and Y the Last Man co-creator Pia Guerra just announced that she’s now repped by Splash Page Comic Art, and for a limited time, you can commission her for original illustrations like these past wonders:
I have such talented friends.
Which reminds me, I totally forgot to wish a happy birthday last week to Paper Girls co-creator Cliff Chiang, who has some of his splendors for sale over at Felix Comic Art, including this page from Doctor 13, his fantastic DC series with writer Brian Azzarello:
Buying art directly from your favorite artists (and their trusted reps) is one of the best ways to support creators you love, and there’s no cooler conversation piece you can hang on your wall than a 1-of-1 original piece of comic-book history, so why not start your collection today?
In last week’s private chat threat with The Tower, we were cattily discussing least-favorite talking animals from fiction (as opposed to those from real life, Brian?), and I probably should have anticipated the number of shots fried at poor Scrappy-Doo.
Writer Pornsak Pichetshote graciously offered to send a couple of rare “ashcans” of his new Boom! series Man’s Best (in stores March 24th, and the last day to preorder with your local retailer is TODAY) to a few random commenters…
Joey O. wrote:
Localized answer, but here in PA, our Lottery commercials often star a creepy talking groundhog named Gus, “The Second Most Famous Groundhog in Pennsylvania.” Used to be animatronic but is now CGI. His catchphrase is “Keep on scratchin’!” (as in lottery tickets), and his stilted banter is always delivered in a pinched, whiny voice.
While Jonathan P. selected:
Cera the triCERAtops from The Land Before Time. I have vivid childhood memories of yelling at the tv because she was so stubborn and not a team player. And then 8 sequels were released.
Meow!
While you magnificent Saga readers wait oh so patiently for new chapters (sorry to taunt, but this next arc that Fiona Staples and I have been hard at work on is pretty damn wonderful), here’s a cool-sounding event for those of you in the Vegas area:
THE WRITER'S BLOCK IS A BOOKSHOP, COFFEE SHOP, YOUNG WRITERS' WORKSHOP, & ARTIFICIAL BIRD SANCTUARY IN DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS
EPIGRAPHIC BOOK CLUB - Thursday, February 29th, 2024 @ 6:00PM - 7:30 PM
A GRAPHIC NOVEL BOOK CLUB
THIS FEBRUARY, SAGA VOL. 1 BY BRIAN K VAUGHAN & FIONA STAPLES
The Epigraphic Book Club is a discussion group in which graphic novels (in a variety of genres including fantasy, sci-fi, realist, horror, superhero, nonfiction and biography) are considered and discussed. The group welcomes anyone with an interest in learning more about graphic novels; no prior knowledge or experience with comics required.Attendees are encouraged to read the book (or most of it) in advance. Register here for a reminder email several days before the club.
I’m not familiar with this establishment (just learned about it from my Google Narcissism Alerts), but a bookshop/artificial bird sanctuary sure sounds like my kind of joint.
Let us know if you end up attending!
And now for the best part of Exploding Giraffe, this month’s Artopsy from creative coroner Niko Henrichon.
Enjoy, have a lovely rest of your week, and I’ll see you back here next Monday evening for more free Spectators.
Peace - BKV
Hi Everyone, it’s me again, for your favorite monthly artistic backstage visit.
While digging deep for images to use in my previous Doctor Strange-related installments, I found a few things that I thought might be interesting to show. I especially enjoy finding old alternative cover layouts because I tend to forget these things as soon as I know they weren’t the chosen ones. Whenever I find them, I have this strange feeling, almost as if someone else did them.
So you saw this cover on the previous Artopsy entry. I’ll show you another layout for it as well as the different steps of the work.
Here’s the other layout, with a similar mood but a different angle. Those who are familiar with the comics solicitations process know that the covers are revealed many months in advance, in the Previews magazine. Sometimes the comics are not even written yet. In this case, I don’t precisely remember, but we had at least an idea of the story before doing the cover. We already knew that Doctor Strange had recovered his old classic cape at the moment of the Casino scene but the comics (by Donny Cates and Gabriel Walta) that were published at the moment of the solicitation, didn’t reveal it yet. So we intentionally put the wrong old cape on this cover, to not spoil the readers.
This, obviously, is the layout chosen by the editor who had an idea to add to the cover: Since we’re imagining Strange and Mephisto are playing Black Jack, we could add the two cards that are forming a winning Black Jack hand on Mephisto’s side.
Of course, they couldn’t be regular old cards, that would be too easy! We’re inside a hellish casino after all, so I designed these morbid versions of classic cards for the occasion. We don’t see them much in the final version of the cover, but it’s the small details that make things interesting, right?
If you remember the previous Artopsy, the cards being displayed in the comics are even more crazy.
Next, the pencil version of the cover.
Up to this point, everything has been done in a digital way, with computer and tablet. In this elaborated layout, all the details are drawn to get this image up and ready for inking, on real paper, through a lightbox, as I’ve shown in previous installments.
In this case, I chose to ink it and then added Sepia color tones.
Then, I scanned the piece and went forward with the digital coloring for the final product.
Now this next cover process is very interesting.
It’s from an earlier issue, written by Dennis Hopeless…