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74-501: Kyle John Baker (born 1965) is an American cartoonist , comic book writer-artist, and animator known for his graphic novels and for a 2000s revival of the series Plastic Man . Baker has won numerous Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards for his work in the comics field. Kyle Baker was born in the Queens , New York City , the son of art director John M. Baker and high-school audiovisual-department manager Eleanor L. Baker. He has

148-464: A kneaded eraser before rendering greater detail. For more detailed erasures, he uses a pencil-shaped white eraser , and to erase large areas, he uses a larger, hand-held white eraser, the Staedtler Mars plastic, which he calls a "thermonuclear eraser", because it "takes care of everything". Artist and former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada begins with sketches much smaller than

222-472: A "sketchy" feel, with a minimal amount of powdery lead smearing. He uses this lead because it strikes a balance between too hard, and therefore not dark enough on the page, and too soft, and therefore prone to smearing and crumbling. Campbell avoids its closest competitor because he finds it too waxy. Campbell has also used HB lead and F lead. He maintains sharpness of the lead with a Berol Turquoise sharpener, changing them every four to six months, which he finds

296-461: A 2H pencil, and after inking his pencils with a Micron pen , he edits his line work on a graphics tablet. Artist Marcio Takara begins his pages with 7 in × 5 in (180 mm × 130 mm) ink thumbnail sketches with which he shows his overall ideas to his editor. When he begins the actual pencils, he keeps them "loose", because he will eventually ink over them himself, and does not require greater specificity. The penciling stage

370-501: A Vanish eraser and a kneaded eraser . Artist Chris Samnee uses 300 series two-ply Strathmore Bristol board. He does not use non-photo blue pencils or any other equipment purchased at specialty stores for preliminary sketching, but uses .9 mm mechanical pencils that he purchases from Target . He describes his pencils as "just awful", and inks them himself, as he cannot envision giving them to someone else to ink. Writer/artist Chuck Austen did his work on Elektra entirely on

444-642: A book I'd been trying years to sell, I decided to write it like a sitcom and send it to Hollywood. ... However, I don't have anything to do with the [then-proposed] Why I Hate Saturn movie. DC controls those rights. I don't own those characters, so it is of no interest to me. Baker's cartoons and caricatures began appearing in BusinessWeek , Details , Entertainment Weekly , ESPN , Esquire , Guitar World , Mad , National Lampoon , New York , The New York Times , Rolling Stone , Spin , Us , Vibe , and The Village Voice . He spent three years illustrating

518-509: A brother and a sister. Their parents had both attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn , New York , and their father, who, Baker said, "worked in advertising [and] made junk mail", would "draw pictures for us and entertain us." Aside from this exposure to art, Baker has said, his early artistic influences included comic book artist Jack Kirby , caricaturist Jack Davis , and painter and magazine illustrator Norman Rockwell . He noted: When I

592-457: A computer. He prefers uses mostly Macintoshes, but also uses PCs . When using a Mac, he uses Ray Dream Studio , and when using a PC, usings 3D Studio Max . These allow him to take three-dimensional models and break them down into simplified two-tone line forms. He purchases the models from catalogues, or uses ones that he built for Strips using in Hash or Animation:Master . After importing

666-596: A custom 8 in × 12 in (200 mm × 300 mm) stock because she sometimes finds those dimensions more comfortable and easier to work on more quickly. She also finds the Strathmore 300 series "pretty good" likes its nice texture and greater affordability, but says that must occasionally content with getting a "bleedy batch". Conner uses mechanical pencils with .03 lead because she found it easier to use than regular pencils that require her to stop and sharpen them frequently. Once artist Gene Ha obtains

740-665: A given day, he prefers to use a 500W incandescent photo lamp, though he believes a 500W halogen lamp is also adequate. He prefers to use a lead holder with H lead for sketching, and 2B lead for shading, which he sharpens with a rotary lead pointer, believing that such leads can be sharpened better than a traditional pencil. He blows up a scan of each page layout to 8.5 in × 11 in (220 mm × 280 mm), and draws "tight" pencils on top of these, which are then scanned and printed on 11 in × 17 in (280 mm × 430 mm) inkjet paper in faint blue line . He prefers Xerox paper because he feels that

814-528: A light box to pencil it, sometimes altering elements in the design such as lighting or other details. Bryan Hitch begins with multiple rough sketches employing different camera angles on paper with a blue pencil, which traditionally does not photocopy or scan, and then selects the desired elements from the rough sketch with a graphite pencil. After picking the initial shapes, he will further emphasize his selections with colored pens, continuing to attempt different variations. He will then, depending on how late in

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888-416: A professional drawing board, he emphasizes that any inexpensive board large enough to hold the paper is sufficient, as he mostly uses a piece of roughly cut chip-board leaning on the edge of his desk. He uses an Apple iMac desktop computer, flatbed scanner and Photoshop to modify his artwork digitally. In contrast to Hitch's work environment, artist Simone Bianchi says that he cannot work unless he

962-402: A script, a penciller may feel when drawing the scene that there is a different way of composing the scene, and may disregard the script, usually following consultation with the editor and/or writer. Some artists use a loose pencilling approach like Agnes Sedem and Andy, in which the penciller does not take much care to reduce the vagaries of the pencil art, leaving it to the inker to interpret

1036-502: A script, he makes "tiny" thumbnail sketches of each page, and then makes layout sketches on shrunked copies of comic art board, two per page. It is at this stage that he works out the light/dark balance of the page. Though he says about 90% of his artwork are done without photo reference, he will sometimes photograph his friends pose as the central characters, or use a full length mirror to draw himself. He renders minor characters from his imagination. Irrespective of how much sunlight he has on

1110-400: A slightly softer lead (like a HB ) for finishing phases of the drawing. Still other artists do their initial layouts using a light-blue colored pencil because that color tends to disappear during photocopying . Most US comic book pages are drawn oversized on large sheets of paper, usually Bristol board . The customary size of comic book pages in the mainstream American comics industry

1184-442: A standard Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencil with HB lead, explaining, "It's mushy as all hell but it doesn't slow me down like a harder pencil would." While reading each page of a script, artist Amanda Conner does tiny thumbnail sketches with stick figures corresponding to the story indicated on each page, in order to help her design the page's layout. She then does tighter, more elaborate sketches, though still fairly small compared with

1258-502: A teen-soldier military satire that criticizes the exhortation of felons and disabled Americans into military service. The New York Times reviewed the 2009 trade-paperback collection of the first four issues, calling it "the harshest, most serrated satire of the Iraq War yet published." In 2008, Watson-Guptill published How to Draw Stupid and Other Essentials of Cartooning , Baker's art instruction book. That same year, Baker hosted

1332-425: A ten-foot-wide basement studio dubbed "The Dungeon" by his family. When starting with a clean piece of Bristol board, he would first draw his panel lines with a T-square . Arthur Adams begins drawing thumbnail layouts from the script he is given, either at home or in a public place. The thumbnails range in size from 2 inches x 3 inches to half the size of the printed comic book. He or an assistant will then enlarge

1406-468: Is Marc Silvestri , who says that he listens to down-tempo chill music while working, in contrast to the alternative rock he listens to at other times. On the Biography & Bibliography page of his website, Erik Larsen explains that he uses a Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100 2H pencil, and a Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser. However, on the site's Frequently Asked Questions page, he states that he uses

1480-508: Is 11 by 17 inches. The inker usually works directly over the penciller's pencil marks, though occasionally pages are inked on translucent paper, such as drafting vellum , preserving the original pencils. The artwork is later photographically reduced in size during the printing process. With the advent of digital illustration programs such as Photoshop , more and more artwork is produced digitally, either in part or entirely (see below). From 1949 until his retirement, Jack Kirby worked out of

1554-419: Is a traditional pencil cut with a craft knife , which he says can produce a variety of marks, and be used for detail, shading and general sketching. Hitch believes the best results combine both the mechanical and the knife-sharpened traditional pencil. Hitch is particular about his studio workspace, which does not contain a TV or sofa, stating that such things belong in the lounge for relaxation. Despite using

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1628-422: Is different from previous ones, for which she characterizes it as "one intense, ongoing experiment." She begins with thumbnails, roughly drawn on printed paper templates. During this stage Staples does not use reference, but does so later in the inking stage. During the thumbnail stage, she gives copious thought to the layouts and staging, making it, in her words, the most important part of the process. After scanning

1702-404: Is listening to music, which he does via stereo speakers placed above his drawing board, and an extensive music collection in his studio. Bianchi uses extensive photo reference and a lightbox to give his artwork a realistic look. He uses a wooden drawing board that he used to draw on flat, but angled it due to back pain that he began having in 2006. Another artist who listens to music while working

1776-402: Is not accustomed to. Because a significant portion of his income is derived from selling his original artwork, he is reluctant to learn how to produce his work digitally. Jim Lee is known to use F lead for his pencil work. J. Scott Campbell does his pencil with a lead holder , and Sanford Turquoise H lead , which he uses for its softness and darkness, and for its ability to provide

1850-452: Is the duration of their grinding ability. Campbell uses a combination of Magic Rub erasers, eraser sticks, and since he began to ink his work digitally, a Sakura electric eraser . He often sharpens the eraser to a cornered edge in order to render fine detailed work. Travis Charest uses mainly 2H lead to avoid smearing, and sometimes HB lead . He previously illustrated on regular illustration board provided by publishers, though he disliked

1924-415: Is the fastest stage for Takara, who does all of his pencil work with an HB 0.5 mechanical pencil, completing two or three penciled pages a day, sometimes even inking all three by the end of the day. Frank Cho produces his artwork on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Pad, which has a vellum surface. To pencil his artwork, Cho uses a Pentel mechanical pencil with 0.7mm HB lead . For erasure, he uses both

1998-932: The Golden Age of Comic Books superhero created by Jack Cole for Quality Comics . Baker contributed to the Dark Horse Comics series The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist , a spin-off of Michael Chabon 's novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay . In 2006, his company, Kyle Baker Publishing, serialized a four-part comic book series about Nat Turner , and published the series The Bakers , based on his family life, in two anthologies, Cartoonist and Cartoonist Vol. 2: Now with More Bakers . He has also continued to provide comics material sporadically to Marvel, DC and Image Comics through at least 2010. In 2007 and 2008, Image Comics published Baker's six-issue Image Comics miniseries Special Forces ,

2072-461: The Marvel Method . Sometimes a writer or another artist (such as an art director ) will include basic layouts, called " breakdowns ," to assist the penciller in scene composition. If no breakdowns are included, then it falls to the penciller to determine the layout of each page, including the number of panels, their shapes and their positions. Even when these visual details are indicated by

2146-654: The Republican elephant . Comic strips received widespread distribution to mainstream newspapers by syndicates . Calum MacKenzie, in his preface to the exhibition catalog, The Scottish Cartoonists (Glasgow Print Studio Gallery, 1979) defined the selection criteria: Many strips were the work of two people although only one signature was displayed. Shortly after Frank Willard began Moon Mullins in 1923, he hired Ferd Johnson as his assistant. For decades, Johnson received no credit. Willard and Johnson traveled about Florida , Maine, Los Angeles , and Mexico, drawing

2220-587: The School of Visual Arts , in Manhattan , studying graphic design and printmaking , but dropped out after two years. Through that connection, however, he began freelancing with famed graphic designer Milton Glaser , an SVA instructor, assisting him on a set of children's books . Baker's first credited work at Marvel is penciling the half-page entry "Kid Commandos" in The Official Handbook of

2294-662: The X-Men ", titled "It's Genetic" and appearing in the Marvel-produced fan magazine Marvel Age . At the recommendation of freelance artist Ron Fontes , an editor at the Dolphin imprint of the publishing house Doubleday expressed interest in Baker's sample strips of the character Cowboy Wally, "and asked if I had any more. I lied and said I did." This led to the 128-page graphic novel Cowboy Wally . "The character of Noel

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2368-599: The hip hop singer KRS-One , called "Break The Chain". Marvel Comics had published Break the Chain as a comic book packaged with a read-along hip-hop audiocassette . That same year and next, he contributed to the four-issue Dark Horse Comics humor anthology Instant Piano (December 1994 - June 1995), including drawing the cover of the premiere. For another anthology, DC's Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1999), Baker drew, colored , lettered and with his wife, teacher Elizabeth Glass, whom he married July 18, 1998, wrote

2442-420: The non-photo blue lines printed on them. By 2000, he switched to Crescent board for all his work, because it does not warp when wet, produces sharper illustrations, and are more suitable for framing because they lack the non-photo blue lines. Charest usually prefers not to employ preliminary sketching practices, such as layouts, thumbnails or lightboxing , in part due to impatience, and in part because he enjoys

2516-535: The "Phineas and Ferb" television episodes "Candace Loses Her Head" and "Are You My Mummy?". Baker drew writer Robert Morales ' Marvel Comics miniseries Truth #1-7 (January–July 2003), a Captain America storyline with parallels to the Tuskegee experiment . He also wrote and drew all but two issues (#7 and #12) of the 20-issue comedic adventure series Plastic Man vol. 4 (February 2004 - March 2006), starring

2590-528: The 10-page parallel universe story " Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter ". It would win a "Best Short Story" Eisner Award despite DC destroying all copies intended for the North American market after deeming some of the content unsuitable, though copies were still distributed in Europe . Baker said in 1999 he was writing a Christmas movie for Paramount Pictures , titled U Betta Watch Out , and

2664-500: The 18th century, poked fun at contemporary politics and customs; illustrations in such style are often referred to as "Hogarthian". Following the work of Hogarth, editorial/political cartoons began to develop in England in the latter part of the 18th century under the direction of its great exponents, James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson , both from London. Gillray explored the use of the medium for lampooning and caricature , calling

2738-558: The Looking Glass and Cyrano de Bergerac . While Peter David scripted the latter, Baker himself wrote the adaptation of the Lewis Carroll work. "I'd never planned to become a writer," Baker said in 1999. "I wrote short gags, like the kind you see in the newspapers and Cowboy Wally, but not stories. I only learned to write stories because people kept paying me to write them. In the years 1991-1994, 90 percent of my income

2812-585: The Marvel Universe #13 (February1984). After a handful of inking assignments on issues of Transformers , The Avengers Annual #14 (1985) and elsewhere, Baker made his professional story-illustration debut as penciler and inker of the publisher Lodestone Comics' Codename: Danger #2 (October 1985), with a 23-page story written by Brian Marshall , Mike Harris , and Robert Loren Fleming . Cover penciling and more interior inking for Marvel and occasionally DC followed. His first story penciling for one of

2886-451: The Wolf in 2000. The penciling process that artist Adam Hughes employs for his cover work is the same he uses when doing sketches for fans at conventions, with the main difference being that he does cover work in his sketchbook, before transferring the drawing to virgin art board with a lightbox, whereas he does convention drawings on 11 x 14 Strathmore bristol, as he prefers penciling on

2960-1030: The Xeroxes for five cents each. I think I made fifteen cents. Other influences included the Charlton Comics artwork of Jim Aparo and Steve Ditko . In his senior year of high school , Baker became an intern at Marvel Comics , making photocopies and filing fan mail. "I sort of fell into Marvel because I happened to know somebody there," he said. "But I always thought I was going to do funny stuff" rather than superhero comics. He became background assistant to Marvel inker Josef Rubinstein , and later also assisted Vince Colletta and Andy Mushynski . He cited Marvel artists Walt Simonson , Al Milgrom and Larry Hama and writer and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter as providing him art and storytelling advice. Part of his duties involved photocopying , and he would take copies of John Buscema penciling home on which to practice inking . While working for Marvel, Baker attended

3034-423: The actual size at which he will render the final drawing. He employs a Cintiq drawing tablet when he desires to do a "tighter" digital layout of an illustration. When sketching figures, he will sometimes use photographic reference, and incorporate the photos directly into his sketches during the process of finalizing a layout. Once he makes a final decision on a layout, he will then print it out at full size, and use

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3108-401: The artwork rendered. Conner has created her own paper stock and blue line format on her drawing paper, because, she explains, she likes having those configurations pre-printed on the page, and feels that "sometimes the rough is too toothy and the smooth is too slick." The stock she uses is the 10 in × 15 in (250 mm × 380 mm) Strathmore 500 series, but she also orders

3182-463: The comic book's editor , who commissions a script from the writer and sends it to the penciller. Comic book scripts can take a variety of forms. Some writers, such as Alan Moore , produce complete, elaborate, and lengthy outlines of each page. Others send the artist only a plot outline consisting of no more than a short overview of key scenes with little or no dialogue. Stan Lee was known to prefer this latter form, and thus it came to be known as

3256-447: The comics industry's Harvey Awards . In 2010, he became regular artist on Marvel Comics ' mature-audience MAX - imprint series, Deadpool Max . Dark Horse : Image : Cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators / artists in that they produce both

3330-430: The day it is, either redraw the illustration on a sheet of layout paper or use his lightbox to tighten and clean up the drawing, emphasizing that the lightbox should not be a mere exercise in tracing, but an opportunity to refine or change elements in the drawing to make it "clean" enough to be inked. When Hitch transfers the drawing to the final art board, he does initial layouts with a 2H pencil, which he feels provides

3404-547: The details with a Number 2 pencil . He drew the first three chapters of " Jonni Future " at twice the printed comic size, and also drew the fifth chapter, "The Garden of the Sklin", at a size larger than standard, in order to render more detail than usual in those stories. For a large poster image with a multitude of characters, he will go over the figure outlines with a marker in order to emphasize them. He will use photographic reference when appropriate, as when he draws things that he

3478-439: The files to Photoshop, where he fully renders the art at a resolution of 1,200 dpi , creating between five and fifty layers of finished art before flattening it into a single black and white bitmap , plus a greyscale page, if needed. Another artist who does her work almost entirely digitally is Fiona Staples , who switched to that process several years prior to beginning her work on Saga , though her process for that series

3552-493: The finished artwork, approximately 4 in × 6 in (100 mm × 150 mm), and then blows those up on a photocopier to the proper original comic art size, which is 10 inches x 15 inches. She then uses "very tight pencils" to light-box it onto Bristol board , if she intends to have it inked by her husband and collaborator, Jimmy Palmiotti, but will do the pencils "lighter and looser" if she intends to ink it herself, as she already knows how she wants

3626-411: The humid weather tends to dampen the paper, he sometimes uses a B lead or 2B lead , which acts like a 4B in that environment. However, his website explains that he uses 6B lead, with some variation. For pieces rendered entirely in pencil, he employs a variety of pencil leads of varying degrees of hardness. After darkening in the construction lines that he wishes to keep, he erases the lighter ones with

3700-775: The king ( George III ), prime ministers and generals to account, and has been referred to as the father of the political cartoon. While never a professional cartoonist, Benjamin Franklin is credited with the first cartoon published in The Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754: Join, or Die , depicting the American colonies as segments of a snake. In the 19th century, professional cartoonists such as Thomas Nast , whose work appeared in Harper's Weekly , introduced other familiar American political symbols, such as

3774-585: The literary and graphic components of the work as part of their practice. Cartoonists may work in a variety of formats, including booklets , comic strips , comic books , editorial cartoons , graphic novels , manuals , gag cartoons , storyboards , posters , shirts , books , advertisements , greeting cards , magazines , newspapers , webcomics , and video game packaging . A cartoonist's discipline encompasses both authorial and drafting disciplines (see interdisciplinary arts ). The terms "comics illustrator", "comics artist", or "comic book artist" refer to

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3848-504: The modeling programs cannot perfect, such as facial expressions, hair, filling in blacks, rendering clothes and wrinkles, etc. To finish the art, he will either print out the "pencils" directly onto Bristol board and finalize them with an HB Tombow pencil and ink them with a #2 nib, or will apply the finishes in Photoshop. Scott McCloud also does his work almost entirely on a computer tablet . Although he sketches his layouts in pencil,

3922-401: The models into Studio or Max , he arranges the angles and other aspects of the scene before rendering them, such as placement of background objects or modifying gestures, while the computer corrects elements such as perspective , foreshortening , proportions, etc. After the files are rendered to Austen's satisfaction, he assembles them into page form using Photoshop , completing details that

3996-569: The monthly series from issue #7 to the final issue, #19 (February 1988 - January 1989). He did assorted other DC work including Justice, Inc. In 1990, Baker and writer Len Wein produced three issues of Dick Tracy for The Walt Disney Company 's Hollywood Comics , the first two issues containing original stories, the third an adaption the 1990 Dick Tracy film. He began scripting comics around this time: Baker penciled and inked First Comics ' Classics Illustrated #3 & 21 (February 1990 & March 1991), adapting, respectively, Through

4070-418: The movies and practice drawing the characters. I drew little animated flip books on index cards . When I was 11, I had a Super-8 movie camera and I made animated cartoons. I remember making a ' King Kong ' out of clay, and a drawing of a New York skyline, and I made a stop-motion film of King-Kong fighting model airplanes. In junior high school, I drew comic books and Xeroxed them at my dad's office. I sold

4144-535: The necessary accuracy and detail, and uses an erasable blue pencil to mark panel frames and vanishing points , which he introduces after the rough stage. He chooses not to put too much time or polish into this stage, preferring to work quickly, lightly and instinctively. He uses a mechanical pencil with 0.9mm 2H lead at this stage for fine outlines and detail work, and a traditional pencil for more organic work, including softer lines, shading large areas and creating more fluid motion. The "best tool of all", according to him,

4218-428: The penciller's intent. Fun fact, they created this technique in the 1900s in order to find criminals. In those cases, the penciller is usually credited with " breakdowns " or " layouts " and the inker is credited as the "embellisher" or "finisher". According to former Marvel editor Gregory Wright , John Buscema was a noted penciler whose breakdowns included all the structural essentials that enabled inkers to complete

4292-475: The picture-making portion of the discipline of cartooning (see illustrator ). While every "cartoonist" might be considered a "comics illustrator", "comics artist", or a "comic book artist", not every "comics illustrator", "comics artist", or a "comic book artist" is a "cartoonist". Ambiguity might arise when illustrators and writers share each other's duties in authoring a work. The English satirist and editorial cartoonist William Hogarth , who emerged in

4366-409: The plot. A penciller works in pencil . Beyond this basic description, however, different artists choose to use a wide variety of different tools. While many artists use traditional wood pencils, others prefer mechanical pencils or drafting leads. Pencillers may use any lead hardness they wish, although many artists use a harder lead (like a 2H ) to make light lines for initial sketches, then turn to

4440-488: The remainder of his work is done digitally, explaining in his 2006 book Making Comics that he had not used traditional materials like Bristol board, pens or brushes in years. After sketching layouts, which he says are "pretty tight", and include the full script, he scans them into an 18-inch tablet/monitor to use them as a guide for lettering them in Adobe Illustrator . After completing the lettering, he exports

4514-480: The rougher, vellum surface rather than smooth paper, preferring smoother paper only for brush inking. He does preliminary undersketches with a lead holder , because he feels regular pencils get worn down to the nub too quickly. As he explained during a sketch demonstration at a comic book convention, during this process he uses a Sanford Turquoise 4B lead , a soft lead, though when working at home in Atlanta, where

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4588-401: The serendipitous nature in which artwork develops when produced with greater spontaneity. He also prefers to use reference only when rendering objects that require a degree of real-life accuracy, such as guns, vehicles, or characters of licensed properties that must resemble actors with whom they are closely identified, as when he illustrated the cover to Star Trek: The Next Generation: Embrace

4662-478: The strip while living in hotels, apartments and farmhouses. At its peak of popularity during the 1940s and 1950s, the strip ran in 350 newspapers. According to Johnson, he had been doing the strip solo for at least a decade before Willard's death in 1958: "They put my name on it then. I had been doing it about 10 years before that because Willard had heart attacks and strokes and all that stuff. The minute my name went on that thing and his name went off, 25 papers dropped

4736-500: The strip. That shows you that, although I had been doing it ten years, the name means a lot." Societies and organizations Societies and organizations Penciler In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form, and may require several steps of feedback with the writer. These artists are concerned with layout (positions and vantages on scenes) to showcase steps in

4810-449: The surface of marker paper tends to get smudgy or oily. When importing art to modify in his computer, he uses Photoshop . Artist Jason Shiga penciled his 2011 graphic novel Empire State: A Love Story (Or Not) with a yellow No. 2 pencil on copy paper, before transferring it with brushed ink via a lightbox. Artist Jonathan Luna uses 14 x 17 Strathmore Bristol board, which he cuts into 11 x 17 pieces on which to draw. He draws using

4884-454: The thumbnails and trace them onto illustration board with a non-photo blue pencil , sometimes using a Prismacolor light-blue pencil, because it is not too waxy, and erases easily. When working on the final illustration board, he does so on a large drawing board when in his basement studio, and a lapboard when sitting on his living room couch. After tracing the thumbnails, he will then clarify details with another light-blue pencil, and finalize

4958-512: The thumbnails, she enlarges them and uses them as rudimentary pencils, and "inks" over them in Manga Studio , and later colors the art in Photoshop. One of the advantages Staples sees in working digitally is the ability to dispense with tight pencils in favor of making corrections in an ad hoc manner, as she finds penciling in great detail and drawing such art a second time in ink to be boring. A comic book penciller usually works closely with

5032-475: The two major comics companies was the three-issue Howard the Duck : The Movie (December 1986 - February 1987), adapting the 1986 film Howard the Duck , and which he self-inked. During this time, Baker also attempted to sell humor spot illustrations, but was rejected by the major newspaper syndicates . Jim Salicrup , a Marvel editor, did commission him "to write a few one-panel gags about [the superhero team]

5106-508: The weekly strip "Bad Publicity" for New York magazine. Baker's animation has appeared on BET and MTV , and in animated Looney Tunes projects, including the animated feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action . Baker was "guest art director" for Cartoon Network's Class of 3000 , and storyboarded the Class of 3000 Christmas special. in 1994, Baker directed an animated video featuring

5180-533: Was a little boy I loved the funny papers . ... I used to read Pogo , Li'l Abner , Peanuts , Blondie and B.C. among others. I loved to draw Johnny Hart 's B.C. characters and the Muppets . I made up my own cartoon characters and drew stories about them. I loved Mad magazine. I had paperback reprints of the early [Harvey] Kurtzman stories, illustrated by Wally Wood , Will Elder , and Jack Davis. I loved Disney movies . ... I would come home from

5254-400: Was animating a TV-movie title Corey Q. Jeeters, I'm Telling on You . At this point in his career, Baker stated in an interview, "Nobody tells me what to write or how to draw. Only an idiot would dare tell Kyle Baker how to make a good cartoon. Hollywood and the magazine world are full of idiots. They water my stuff down and make it unfunny." He is credited with writing and storyboarding on

5328-501: Was from writing, and I received very few offers to draw. I figured I should learn to write." Baker achieved recognition and won an Eisner Award for his 1990 graphic novel Why I Hate Saturn , published by the DC Comics imprint Piranha Press . Baker said in 1999 of his breakthrough work: I wrote Why I Hate Saturn at a time when comic books had stopped being fun for me. I was tired of being told how to draw and what to draw. And I

5402-457: Was pretty much based on me," Baker said in 1999. "I lie all the time. The first part of the books is the collected strips, and the other three chapters were written for the book. "It didn't sell many copies," Baker said, "but at least it convinced DC [Comics] I should be allowed to draw, not just ink." Baker went on to draw DC's 1980s comics revival of the pulp fiction hero The Shadow , beginning with The Shadow Annual #2 (1988), followed by

5476-476: Was sick of begging people to let me work the way I wanted. Editors told me my stuff was 'underground' and 'alternative'. I decided that if I were going to work in a creatively oppressive atmosphere and not even be allowed to own my work, I might as well go to Hollywood and be oppressed for big money. Back in the eighties, DC and Marvel wouldn't let you own your characters, and Fantagraphics had no money. So when I finally got permission to do Why I Hate Saturn ,

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