Lowlife The Deal Part Eight: My Hand Nearly Dropped Off

Lowlife: The Deal part eight pages three and four. A flashback scene rendered with lots of hatching as a tribute to the works of Carlos Ezquerra and Henry Flint.

Lowlife and associated characters © 2011 Rebellion Developments/2000AD

Lowlife created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint.

Pages three and four of the current Lowlife episode gave me a new appreciation for my fellow 2000AD art droids. Although I like to pack loads of detail into my pages, I've always used a relatively simplified art style that made drawing all those details fairly quick and easy (even the seemingly-elaborate faux "paint 'n collage" technique of Stickleback is a kind of sleight-of-hand in terms of effort put in for detail on the page.) 

But for this particular flashback sequence, I thought it would be nice to borrow a trick from 2000AD titan Carlos Ezquerra, who used to drop out the solid blacks in favour of blocks of hatching to indicate a flashback sequence:

A flashback scene by Carlos Ezquerra from Judge Dredd: The Apocalypse War.
Note the use of hatching to replace solid blacks.
Judge Dredd © 2011 Rebellion Developments/2000AD.
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. 

I'd not really been intending it, but with some of the darker areas (such as Frank's coat on page three panel four) I ended up using a sort of denser scribble that is closer to what Henry Flint was doing in his early Lowlife work:

Henry Flint draws Big Frank's first appearance in Lowlife: Paranoia.

Lowlife  © 2011 Rebellion Developments/2000AD

Lowlife created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint.

I've got to say, it's the first time I've ever done a page, looked at the result, been really pleased , and straightaway said, "Never again!" Why? Because my bloody hand nearly dropped off doing all that hatching, that's why. It took ages. Full kudos to Messrs. Ezquerra and Flint; guys, you are hardcore and I but a mere lightweight. I don't know how you did it, you must have wrist muscles like a bull's neck.

Respect due.

Stickleback: London's Burning Part Eight References

Page Two: Breeches Buoy

Potts's emergency device is based on an old piece of marine rescue kit called a breeches buoy. The device was essentially a pair of trousers stitched into a lifesaver, with ropes running up to a pulley. It was used to extract personnel from ships wrecked near shore by allowing them to be hauled over the water using a line fired from a short-barrelled cannon called a Lyle Gun.

Page Three: The Mimsie Ascends

When I drew this I had in mind the magnificent night-time above-the-clouds scenes from Hiyao Myazaki's 1986 animated film Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta (Laputa the Flying Island/Castle in the Clouds).

Page Four: Black Bob's Arms

I case you've forgotten, Black Bob's arms were both severed in combat with the false Buffalo Bill during the last episode of Stickleback: England's Glory, and we saw Miss Scarlet stitching them back on in the final page of that episode.

Lowlife: Creation Part Eight Cover: It's The Little Things That Count

Cover for 2000AD Prog 1631 by me, with design work by Simon Parr
Lowlife characters and 2000AD logo © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Lowlife created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint

I'm running late anyway, but I want to wait a bit before writing about the last episode of Lowlife: Creation to avoid spoilers; besides, I have something else I want to talk about this time.

I'd like to pay tribute to designer Simon Parr, whose work (credited to editorial droid "Pye-01") has been gracing 2000AD for some years now. For an artist, 2000AD is a bit of a dream job as far as covers go anyway - they have a policy of fitting cover text to the drawing, meaning that they'll leave out text if the cover design fills the space (so you're not having to leave blocks of random space in the drawing for cover text), and the logo's quite small and neatly tucked away, too - but a good designer still makes all the difference to the finished product.

Take the above cover - a stained-glass window motif suggested by Tharg-in-residence matt Smith. Simon requested a sample of the stained-glass background pattern I'd used in the illustration, applying it not only to the main 2000AD logo, but also dropping it into the red areas of the small 2000AD badge (top left) and behind the text on the issue number box (top right). Neat little touches like that really help to pull the design together; the smart use of the stained glass texture helps the whole cover to feel like a stained glass window without affecting the legibility of the small text.

So next time you look at any comic cover, take a moment to appreciate the effort that's gone into it, not only by the artist but also editor and the designer. The editor usually supplies the basic cover idea, and the designer's job includes choice of fonts, positioning of text, colour schemes that match or contrast with the illustration, and careful use of masking (effectively "cutting out" bits of text or logo so that parts of the illustration seem to fall in front of them). All these things take time and thought, and can have a big effect on the impact of the finished product.

Myself, I never find cover designs easy, so I find it incredibly helpful to have positive guidance from my editor and the support of a good designer. I've been very lucky to find that at several times in my career (I've previously thanked editor Dave Land and designer Amy Arendts for their sterling work on the graphic novels Ian Edginton and I produce for Dark Horse), and I'm glad to have it at 2000AD. Thanks for making me look good, guys.

Cover to the final part of The Vort (2000AD Prog 1596)
The Vort © Rebellion Developments/2000AD
www.2000ADonline.com
The Vort created by G. Powell & Me

The final episode of The Vort is out, and we have the big reveal as to Crispy's identity. If you've read it, you'll either love it or hate it. I'm saving my comments till the end of the week, so everyone will have had a chance to read the thing before I talk about the big spoiler.

Stickleback: England's Glory Part 8 & 9 References

Part 8

Page 5: The Other Dimension

It was our old friend H.P. Lovecraft who first came up with the notion of combining the ideas of alternate dimensions (from quantum physics) and underworlds/domains of evil (from folklore & mythology).

The appearance of our underworld owes a lot to the paradigms established by Swiss artist Hans Rudi (H.R.) Giger, whose "biomechanical" airbrush paintings led him to becoming a leading concept artist for Hollywood films, most notably with his seminal design for the creature in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979).



Part 9

There are no new references in part 9.

Stickleback Part 8 References

Busy one, this week....


Page One - Sir William Ashbless

Yes, that's the future owner of the R.M.S. Leviathan, all right. If Len Chipps had taken that eye-symbol amulet around Ashbless' neck as well as his City Fathers membership chain, the events in Leviathan would never have happened...






Page Two - Bey's Costume & Aleister Crowley

Bey's party costume refers to Roger Corman's 1964 film Masque Of The Red Death. The guy taking his cloak on the right of the panel is meant to be a young Aleister Crowley (hence his dialogue, "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.")






Page Two - The Wicker Man

Inspired by the giant sacrificial figure from Anthony Schaffer's 1973 film The Wicker Man, the centrepiece for the City Fathers' big shindig is in fact a giant cage-dancing assembly, topped by the twin faces of Gog and Magog, much in the style of the Roman god Janus.






Page Two - The Hermaphrodite

A regular character from old pagan ceremonies - Christopher Lee's character takes the part in the final ceremony in The Wicker Man, The Victorians purged the figure of the Hermaphrodite from many surviving Pagan celebrations.






Page Three - Harlequin and Hobby-Horse
Harlequin is a mischievous trickster and precursor to Mister Punch, an obvious symbol for Stickleback himself.

The Hobby-horse is another character from pagan celebrations, and also 18th century slang for a harlot.






Page Three - The Gargoyle

Inspired by Bok the Gargoyle from the 1971 Dr. Who story, The Dæmons.








Page Three - Lyme's Mask

Inspired by Azal the Dæmon from the 1971 Dr. Who story, The Dæmons.








Page Four - The Oak

The Oak was the central symbol of the Druid faith. The image of a giant tree, however, comes from Norse mythology. Yggdrasil the World Tree connected the three worlds of Norse cosmogony, and sheltered the last men though Ragnarok, the last battle that ends the world.






Page Five - Stickleback's gang in Salvation Army uniform

Sorry, just as baffled by this as you are :-)