New Elsje and Havank!

Before posting the final part of the Gottfredson article, here are some goodies that was sent to me from Holland last week. I just wanted to show them here since most of you who reads this are not living in Holland and might not have heard about/seen these publications. (Sorry about the bad quality of the photos. The camera doesn't like me. Either that or I'm a bad photograper who can't stand still while shooting... )

Gerben Valkema, the artist behind Elsje sent me this package that included the latest Elsje album and a nice print. (Limited to only 200 copies.) Even if you can't read dutch (I can't.) you should pick this up just because of the artwork and the coloring. I've mentioned what kind of coloring I don't like on this blog before but here's how it should be done. Colorists: buy this book and let it inspire you. :)



He also sent me the Havank teaser published earlier this year and a smaller book with sketches and layouts etc for the first Havank album.
The teaser is large, btw! I've included my iPod in the picture so that you can get an idea about the format. It's a pleasure to see Daniers artwork in this size.
Needless to say I'm looking forward to see the new Havank album! Aw, I'm looking forward to any new Danier/Jippes artwork. But I guess you all know that by now. :)

A pelicat :)

Got this drawing from Hedvig on my birthday earlier this year. :)
But I had to bring it to the studio today because I noticed the screen tones were beginning to curl and fall off. Better scan it while they are still intact and in the right places...


Gotta get back to the drawingboard now. It's raining outside and I have magazine cover to ink. Ho and hum, off to work I go...

the Illustrator Fall76 Part II

Here's the second part of the Gottfredson piece from the Illustrator. The third and final, where he talks about his working methods will appear soon.

The Illustrator Fall76 Part I

E & S #192

Two sneak peaks from Emma & Sara #192, featuring Sara.
Pencils by Hedvig.
As you can see we like to fool around with the character degsigns. Here Hedvig was inspired by the animation designs for the Asterix and the Vikings movie.

For more Emma & Sara just click here. :)

Gottfredson 1976

Back in 1976 Floyd Gottfredson wrote an article about himself in "The Illustrator". And a few weeks ago the original cover was up for auction. The reserve was unfortunately too high for my budget.
A beautiful piece as you can see below. But $5000...

Browsing the net I also found this photo on Luca Boschis site.
(If I remember right.) This must be Gottfredsons reference photo for the painting. :)



I have the article from the Illustrator in my collection and will post it here as soon as I can find it. (I had it here two weeks ago, but now it's lost. Buried under a stack of paper I guess.)

Some Jippes covers

For those of you living outside scandinavia here are a few covers by Daan Jippes published here in 2007 - 2008. In the 80's I had my Jippes fix from the covers of Gladstones comic books, so I'm happy to see new covers by him on the Swedish weekly.
(And as you probably know, now that the Barks scripts are all finished he is producing all new stories and interior artwork for Egmont too.)

As you can see I tried to "clean up" two of them. The covers are generally cluttered with copy wich distracts from the cover image. But I guess you can tell for yourselves on the first two. Enjoy!






Notice how different the styles are if you compare the first two with the second pair. My personal favourite is the third one. Gotta love the composition and the inking.

PS. Henrieke pointed out that the Dutch version of one of the covers was available on the inducks. So here it is if you want to compare.

Happy birthday!

Guess who's turning 80 today!
A clue: It's not Joe Plumber...

A soft drink

Anyone fancy some lemonade from an elephant trunk?
(Yes, I know. It makes my stomach turn too...)

Unpublished Barks

Here's an unpublished script by Carl Barks featuring Scrooge and Donald.
Unfortunately I don't own it and I don't have copies of it.
But I hope it will see the light of day in a not too distant future.
(A "nudge, nudge, hint, hint" to the owner. :) )

Taliaferro panel

This Mickey Mouse panel by Al Taliaferro was sold a few days ago. Anyone who knows which MM sunday this was cut from?
I'd guess it's from the late 30's.

And this beauty was also sold. A Mickey daily by Gottfredson inscribed to Don Ault. How I wish I could have afforded that one. Sigh...

As a follow up to the do's and dont's, here's something for an editor to think about:
One of the worst thing you can do as an editor is to lie to your freelancers. Especially when it comes to contracts and payments.
I know of one editor (no names) who kept saying to his/her stable of freelancers that they all got the same payment. And so it happened that he/she gathered all of the freelancers to a conference. During that conference the freelancers naturally began to talk to each other. And surprise, surprise, they found out that they didn't have the same contracts or the same page rate.
Were the freelancers the same happy crowd as before? I don't have to answer that, do I?

That was in the days before everyone had internet. Nowdays it's pretty easy to send away an email to your colleauges and ask them about royalties, agreements, etc. And by all means do that! You got nothing to loose. If someone says "This is a standard contract. Everyone else has signed" you bet there something fishy. (Bill Watterson did some wonderful cartoons on the subject in the early 80's för the Comics Journal. Try to find that issue if you can. It has lots of interesting stuff.)
If you are an artist living in sweden you can always get in touch with Svenska Tecknare. I think they will be happy to give advice.

It's a pleasure to work with talented freelancers. One way to keep them is to treat them right. No, you don't have to lick their boots but you get the idea. Play it straight with them and they will play it straight with you.
To gain trust from a freelancer that feels he or she has been mistreated or fooled will be hard. And most likely he or she will not be as loyal as he/she would have been otherwise.

Any artists/writers or editors with thoughts on the subject or that has horror stories from the biz? Please post a comment. :)

E&S #190

In case anyone wonders: My comic "Emma & Sara" are now in the very capable hands of Emma & Hedvig.
And below is a teaser from #190 that will appear in January 2009. Enjoy! :)


And I noticed someone had added both me and Hedvig to the lambiek page. Thanks, whoever you are.:)
(The artwork shown on my entry was made waaay back in 2003, but I still like panel 5. Lotsa action in that one.)

Update

Bought myself a new mac book yesterday! :)
I've been thinking about it for a long time but finally decided that my old machine from 1997 (!!!) was ready for the graveyard.

And for no reason at all here's a recent drawing.


I have a stack of swedish Disney comics from the past two years next to me, with some excellent covers by Jippes that I thought I should show those of you unable to get them. But that will have to wait a day or two. Hedvig is here for the weekend and we are going out for a walk in the rain now. :)

/J.

Do's and don'ts

I've been working as an editor for quite a few years by now. Began as an assistant in the late 90's, so I'd say almost ten years.
During these years I've encountered lots of people who wanted to break into the comic book biz. Either as artists or writers. And from that experience I thought I sholuld share some Do's and don'ts for those of you who are serious about getting a freelance job, working with characters someone else has created.

Don't ...
If you are rejected don't tell the editor you know the characters better than he or she. There's most likely a reason why you got rejected. Instead of telling the editor that he/she is a jerk, please ask why your stuff was rejected. But if you sent in a serious submission you most likely got a serious reply with a reason for the rejection.


If you submit new samples after having been rejected once, please make sure that there's a noticeable difference between the first stuff you submitted and the stuff you are sending this time. Trust me that there are too many beeing rejected who says "I'll get back with some better stuff soon." And then they get back within a few days with the same crappy stuff.


Don't become the negative freelancer who always tells the editor how bad the comic book is, how bad the colors are and how poorly written the scripts are. Unless you can say something relevant. The editor is always happy to get feedback. But ... if you only say bad things about the book you are working for the editor might get tired of you. Don't hesitate to tell the editor if something is wrong but at the same time give positive feedback if something is good.
(This naturally goes for the editor too not only the freelancer.)


Do's ...

Turn in your work on time and don't miss a deadline. If you do you might cause a lot of trouble. (Think of all the people who is depending on you, layout staff, printers, distributors etc. ) If you know that you can't make a deadline don't take the assignment. If you are working on an assignment and suddenly discover that you're not gonna make it: Let the editor know ASAP. There's usually one way or another to solve it. Maybe he/she can switch contents with another issue or ask the printer for a week extra. The worst thing you can do is knowing you're gonna be late and not telling the editor.


If an editor calls you with something that needs to be done in a hurry and you take the job and deliver on time, you will not only saving the editors day but he/she will most likely remember that. Anything you can do to make the life of a stressed editor easier will be more apprecciated that you might think at first. If there's an easy job coming up he/she might give it to you just because saved his/her neck that time. That goes for when times get rough also. If you are someone that the editor can trust and rely on, you're more likely to get a new assignment when the budget is tight.


Gotta go for now but I'll try to continue on this list soon.

/Joakim.

Update

It's quiet here. Isn't it?
One reason is that the internet in the studio is down, and probably will be for a few more days. And even if I should be able to upload pics from the portable mac I'm using now it would be too much trouble. Or maybe I'm just lazy. I dunno...
When the mac with a scanner is connected to the net I'll begin posting some stuff again. Promise.

I'm currently in Gottfredson mode, and I've begun re-reading Gladstones Mickey Mouse reprints from the 80's. (Remember the oldfashioned paper and the beautiful Jippes covers on those? Having a sheet of paper next to me when I'm reading I try to draw and to understand Gottfredsons way of posing his characters and how he was thinking. ("Analyzing, analyzing ..." as my girlfriend would say.) Both regarding his and Merrill de Maris plots and his artwork. They were really good! And let's not forget Ted Thwaites, a great inker!

I wonder if anyone knows more about the artists and writers around Gottfredson? Who were Merrill de Maris, Ted Osborne and Ted Thwaites? I mean who WERE they as persons. What did they do before and after Disney? I'd love to see some of de Maris writing that's not Mickey Mouse strips.
And what about photos from the Comic Strip Dept at the studio 1930-1975? Anyone that wants to share on this blog is welcome to mail me a photo or two at sekvenskonst at telia dot com

I'm currently working on this and that. Hope to be able to show you some stuff soon.

Cheers!

/Joakim.