DISARM LAYOUT

Here's the rough layout with the suggestions for Musashi balloon placement and content.

SNOWIEST MONTH SINCE 1869

Central Park slowly thawing out.
The great lawn was taken over by snowmen of all shapes and sizes.
Every steep hill had kids on snowboards and sleds,
even behind the Metropolitan Museum.

A guy tried to board down the frozen steps of the Bethesda fountain and was shooed away by the park keep.
"Some people are not too bright" he sighed, as he chipped the black ice away from the steps.

Took the photo above of a tree located nearby the tragic accident where a limb snapped, striking and killing a man a few days ago.

DISARM

Page from recent What If prior to color. Focus was on elements directly involved in the action.
Objects. Technique. Pulling back on the detail so that it suggests movement, but maintaining semblance of the
real life objects being referred to.

Frames box in the setup moments. Then open up and move along with the direction of the disarm.
I wanted Stick to display combative skill sets. Use of weapon of opportunity with grace and leverage.
I suggested using a Musashi quote to break up the time in small beats, which writer Karl Bollers graciously added in print version.

Background is sparse, in contrast to prior pages which were purposefully claustrophobic, full of heavy details and shadows creeping at the edges. Textures of gloss and grit.

Once the action happens, time is emptied. The backgrounds fade. Represented by subtle faux zipatone; a custom brush created from a Salinas strip. Salinas, one of the masters of pen and ink.
Nod to bold Japanese brush work on immaculate paper.

As action ends, zip texture ebb back from below the page.
The emptiness is left in Stick's unseeing eyes.

The lines are all vector based, the greys are also digital.
No physical art exists.
The irony of nothingness does not escape me.

ALTER EGO 92

March 2010 Issue of ALTER EGO, # 92 is on sale at the TwoMorrows Publishing site. You can order a Hard Copy and also get a PDF download of the magazine.


Here's More from TwoMorrows:
ALTER EGO #92 presents Sword-and-Sorcery in the Comics, Part 3! Behind a fantastic painted cover by Conan the Adventurer artist RAFAEL KAYANAN, we shine the spotlight on DC’s Sword of Sorcery by O’NEIL, CHAYKIN, & SIMONSON and Claw the Unconquered by MICHELINIE & CHAN—Charlton’s Hercules by GLANZMAN—Gold Key’s Dagar the Invincible by GLUT & SANTOS—plus Marvel S&S art by BUSCEMA, KAYANAN, WRIGHTSON, et al.—and JACK KATZ on his S&S classic First Kingdom (interviewed by JIM AMASH)! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, STEVE GERBER’s fan-creations (part 3)—and more! Edited by Roy Thomas.

SARASOTA FILM FEST BLOG

Sam Rockwell—the Transformation!

Written by "The Insider" for the SFF 2010 covering my stint as co- trainer for Clooney's "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"