Occupation: Highly respected assistant manager of a very, very popular comic store.
Group Affilliation: I have chosen to grace the SBC with my wisdom.
Base of Operations: Florida
First Appearance: Nearly 40 years ago.
History: For more than seven years I have been an invaluable asset to the comic industry as a knowledgeable and talented assistant manager.
Powers and Weapons: Unlike so many other columnists and "professionals," I know the truth about comics. I will not waste your time with opinions, dear reader, I will give you only the facts.
Being the assistant manager of a financially successful comic book store I have seen a great deal of comic art and artists. Having read comics for more than thirty years, I have seen the work of the very best artists. From my unique position, I have familiarized myself with the techniques and tricks that the very best artists in the business use. My expertise in the area of comic book art should not be questioned.
Any idiot can become a famous comic artist. This is the truth.
All anyone needs to become one of the industry’s greatest artists is to understand sequential art. Very few people truly understand the language of sequential art. Someone who does is Arturo, the artist who has rendered the new awesome illustration of me that can be seen above this column. This illustration of me is one of two great new drawings you will have the pleasure of viewing this week.
Arturo is an incredible man; not only is he a disabled Vietnam veteran, he is one of the greatest artists I have ever had the pleasure of tutoring. With my DADD method Arturo, despite his disabilities will, no doubt, soon be the toast of the comic industry. Though lacking all major limbs, Arturo has made the best of his situation and with my DADD method is quickly becoming a talent to be reckoned with.
“Why won’t Hal help me too?” is what most of you frustrated artists are thinking right now. Don’t worry, reader, this column is about the truth and the truth, though often difficult, always helps. Below is my 4-step DADD approach to deciphering and mastering sequential art. What Scott McCloud did in hundreds of pages, I do in a few hundred words.
Design: A sense of design may be innate in many, but it can also be learned. Amateur artists may be intimidated by the design of the characters they are drawing. Do not be afraid to alter or redesign a character’s appearance; fear is the little death. It is a fact that the greatest artists have all tinkered with the designs of characters, why shouldn’t you?
For those who need help in this area, here are some key items on characters that are ripe for redesigning. Always make the character’s emblem bigger; the bigger the better. Capes can always be made longer and thereby more dramatic. Masks are a favorite redesign element. Lastly, color schemes can be altered to make characters more appealing.
Anatomy: The human form is old hat to most, but there are areas that even the most seasoned pros continue to have problems with, here are my solutions to those problems.
Always draw hands as fists! A fist implies power and reads better than an opened hand.
Never draw teeth! Countless pages of original art have been ruined by artists trying to draw each tooth. It is better to have the character’s mouth sealed tight in an expressive way, rather than bothering with teeth.
Feet should almost always be left off panel! Do you look at a person’s feet when you are talking to them? Then why should the viewer of your artwork see feet?
Detail: The real secret to making your artwork come to life and seem more realistic is detail. Every extra line you add to your work adds to the amount of detail and makes the image more photo-real. Skimp on the detail and you will find yourself with a flat, boring Mazzucchelli-like drawing; and no one likes that!
Dynamics: This is the single most important piece of advice I can give any artist. You cannot sell a piece of comic art to your own mother if it is not dynamic. Everything must be dynamic; musculature, poses, storytelling, backgrounds…everything! The only way to catch the eye of an editor or reader is to ram the dynamics of your artwork down their throat. Your artwork must hit them between the eyes with every panel and every page of sequential art.
There you have it, an easy to follow guideline that reveals what all the other comic art self-helps and pro-tips have only been hinting at. Why even my pathetic jr. high school stock-boy Jimmy could become a great talent if he used this method; but he’s too busy with the store’s latrine duties to read this column.
Now, as a special treat, I have enclosed a piece of my own original sequential art below. You may use the artwork as a roadmap when reviewing the DADD method I have detailed above. Feel free to set use my original art as computer wallpaper. Enjoy!
The opinions expressed above are entirely the author's and do not represent those of Silver Bullet Comics, or any of its staff, or contributors.
