One of the first teachers I had when I attended the Joe Kubert School was Jose Delbo.
One of the exercises he would have us do every week was draw horses. The following are a few examples I kept (circa 1987). Jose’s corrections are in pen over my pencils.
“This horse is drawn so stiff it belongs on a carousel.”
“This horse is drawn so stiff it looks like a robot .”
“No one could ride a horse drawn like this.”
Jose Delbo was a great teacher because he wouldn’t let an inferior drawing slide. When you got a compliment or a good grade from him you knew it was well deserved.
I got the chance to catch up with Jose Delbo at SpringCon 2012 in Minneapolis and I had him sign the drawings shown above. I showed him some of my more recent work and he made a point of telling me I was really doing some good work – so good in fact that he would pass on a script he had just received.
A cowboy strip – lots of horses…
Jose Delbo and his wife Maybelle at SpringCon 2012.
A quick remembrance of a cartooning class taught by Jose.
A student was getting critiqued – during the critique Jose stated that the student needed to spend more time on his work. The student responded that he had already worked on the page for two weeks. Jose replied, “How much of that time was actually pen to paper.”
I never forgot that insight. It doesn’t matter how much time you have to work on something if you’re not putting pen to paper.
Jose Delbo – 2011
Pic by Andrew Satterfield – Cincinnati Comic Expo
Here’s a quick overview of an illustration I just did of the High Kings.
I used the following photo for reference. It was a pic the High Kings had posted that wasn’t a posed shot and also included instruments, which appealed to me.
For the purpose of my drawing, I didn’t want the foreground figure to be so much larger that it would dominant the picture, so I moved the band members around a little for a tighter layout. I did that by moving the figure on the left over, but also moving the characters in the foreground and background closer to each other so they’re also closer in size than they are in the photo.
First run at inks after layout and pencils are done.
After my first run at inks I erase the pencils and see where I’m at, which involves getting better picture reference for aspects of the photo that were on the periphery and slightly out of focus. Then it’s a matter of tightening up the drawing and finishing up the inks.
Finished inks.
Here’s the art after being scanned. Digital is where I have another pass at tightening up anything that still bothers me. In this case it was the hand holding the neck of the guitar in the foreground and the strings on said guitar.
Inks are scanned at 800 dpi bitmap.
For coloring I wanted to try something a little different. Recently I’ve really been taken by the art of cartoonists like Rosemary Valero-O’Connell.
Illustration from “What Is Left” by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell.
Her strong and effective use of a monochromatic color palette was something I definitely thought would work well for the High Kings pic.
So first off was changing the black line to a dark green. After that I kept it simple with just a mid-tone and a lighter tone.
When coloring I’ll give each tone a different layer in Photoshop.
Last but not least I needed something to frame the image. As the High Kings are one of the most popular Irish folk bands around I went with the Irish flag. The High King’s logo thrown in for good measure and it’s all finished!
Hope you enjoyed this little window into the thought process that goes behind a drawing. Have to wrap this up as I’m heading off tonight to see the High Kings here in the Twin Cities at the Cedar Cultural Center (sold out of course) – so that’s all for now. Sláinte!
AUTOPTIC 2018
Minneapolis’s Premier Comic and Independent Print Festival
Sunday, August 19th, 2018
Aria Event Center – Minneapolis, MN
Aria Event Center
Aria Event Center
Aria Event Center
Jim Keefe and Amaya Goldsmith with their Spider-Man action figures.
Robin Sheldon & Nick Peters
Rachel Topka
JBROE and M.S. Harkness
Ben Tye and Alex Araiza
Melissa Mariko Kieselburg and Marissa Luna
Kyle Harabedian
Ashby Utting
Lindsay Nohl and Calvin
John Bivens
Zander Cannon
Will Dinski
Jack Kotz and Ben Tye
Spencer Amundson and Jack Kotz
Zak Sally with unauthorized Sammy the Mouse™ plushy.
Tom Kaczynski
Mason Sklar
Kevin Huizenga
Mandie Brasington and Alexis Cooke
Alex Mitchell
Ari Mulch
Craig Thompson signing and sketching for fans.
Paul Fricke with daughter, Emily
Scotty Gillmer, Carl Thompson and Bart King
Tyler Page
Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
And last but not least…
Seen driving by the Aria. I take it this is the standard vehicle for all artists in attendance.
So that wraps another fantastic Autoptic Arts Festival.
This is a great show in that it is artist centric and really highlights the talent of the comic art community here in the Twin Cities.
Many thanks to all the hard working organizers who put on a great show.
All I can say in closing is that I’m already looking forward to the next one!
COMICS’ HIGH-FLYING AVIATION ARTIST by Steve Stiles
In the course of an impressive career spanning half a century, George Evans has established himself as one of the comics field’s finest illustrative talents. During that time span, Evans has worked for almost every major publisher in the industry, which includes an impressive tenure at E.C. Comics. Many feel that Evans, an airplane buff, created the best aviation stories in comics, a claim amply proven by the stories and covers he provided for the last of the great aviation titles, Aces High.
George Evans was born in Harwood, Pennsylvania, on February 5, 1920. His lifelong interest in aviation began when he was nine years old and had stumbled across an issue of a pulp called Sky Birds. The magazine belonged to a friend’s uncle, who struck a bargain with the young Evans: all he had to do to get the magazine was to go out on the streets and scrounge around for discarded cigarette butts. When he had collected enough to fill a can and had stripped them for the tobacco, Sky Birds would be his (this was during the Depression). While his friend’s uncle was hooked on nicotine, Evans was now hooked on aviation pulps. When he was 15 he had his first drawing (and poem) published in another pulp, Daredevil Aces, and went on to sell more art to other pulps as well.
When World War II broke out, Evans tried to join the Air Force but was turned down due to less than 20-20 vision. He wound up as an aircraft mechanic at Shaw Field in South Carolina, where he was often able fly in those planes he had worked on (which must’ve been a terrific incentive for good work!).
After studying art at the Scranton Art School, Evans entered the Army. After the war, and with the pulp magazine field withering on the vine, Evans sought work in the comics field, landing a staff artist position at Fiction House, publisher of pulps and a comic line that included Wings Comics, Jungle Comics, Fight Comics, and -most popular of all with collectors-Planet Comics (the first issue is valued at $9,000 in the 1999 Overstreet Price Guide). Evans drew several minor features in Air Heroes, as well as writing text for filler articles. In 1949 the Fiction House job abruptly evaporated -the in-house staff had a reputation of being a zany, fun-loving bunch and evidently management felt they were too fun loving. The staff was laid off and the company then relied solely on free-lance talent.
Evans had met the teenage Frank Frazetta while at Fiction House and had become friends with another young artist, Al (Star Wars) Williamson, who advised him to look for employment at Fawcett (Captain Marvel Adventures, Whiz Comics). Evans busied himself drawing various features, including two science fiction titles, the adaptations of the film When Worlds Collide and TV’s Captain Video (the latter now worth $800.). Evans liked working at Fawcett and might’ve settled in for a long stay but was undone by external circumstances: Fawcett, dismayed by low sales and high paper costs, as well as a wearing legal battle with National over supposed copyright infringement, decided to drop its comics line and concentrate on magazines and paperbacks. By 1953 Evans was again looking for new work.
Thanks to another tip from Williamson, Evans sought work at Entertaining Comics (“They had, I guess, the best people on staff because they were paying a few dollars more per page than other companies and they had good stories to work on.”) As E.C.’s Al Feldstein liked to work for his artists’ strengths, Evans’ first assigned story, “Roped In,” (Tales from the Crypt #32) was an aviation tale of sorts: three unscrupulous businessmen, having trapped an innocent associate in a frame-up, are themselves trapped when their four-seater airplane is caught in a gigantic spider’s web.
Evans enjoyed the family atmosphere and friendly competition at E.C. and turned in outstanding work for almost all their titles, rendering his realistic art with finely detailed, crisp brushwork. Feldstein tended to give the artist stories with urban settings, tales about typical middle-class folk who happen to lapse into spousal homicide, serial killing and various ingenious and lethal double-crosses. Evans worked well in that genre, providing striking and powerful covers for Crime SuspenStories and Shock SuspenStories, covers that truly demonstrated the theme of “Jolting Tales of Tension.”
Evans also turned in some fine stories for Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales, all aviation yarns, but was unhappy with editor Harvey Kurtzman’s practice of laying out each and every panel to an exacting degree, a policy Evans found restrictive.
After the televised Kefauver hearings and Fredric Wertham’s comics-bashing book Seduction of the Innocent, horror comics continued to be under fire. E.C. publisher Bill Gaines decided to fold all of E.C.’s “New Trend” titles, with the exception of Mad, explaining at a staff meeting that “They say we’re hurting kids and I don’t want to hurt kids.”(Whether or not the demise of the horror comics affected juvenile delinquency rates in the United States is highly debatable.)
Gaines’ next move was a new line, his “New Direction” comics. One of them, Aces High, featured stories of aerial combat in the days when men still fought in fabric and wood craft like Fokkers and Spads. Although the stories were more fiction than fact, Evans was in his element and, as might be expected, was the real star of the title that included fine work by Jack Davis, Bernie Krigstein and Wally Wood, doing the lead story and cover (which he colored himself) for each issue. The comic seemed made for a man of George Evans’ talents and interests but, unfortunately, the New Direction for Aces High and such titles as Impact, M.D., Piracy, Extra and Valor, seemed to be down, and none of them would last beyond 1956.
With E.C. gone, Evans began drawing for Classics Illustrated, which was a haven of sorts for some E.C. artists like Joe Orlando, Graham Ingels and Reed Crandall (and rather a bonus for Classics Illustrated, which usually featured pedestrian artwork). Evans illustrated comic book adaptations of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers and other major literary works until 1962 (Classics Illustrated itself would only last until April 1971).
During the early 60s Evans found work at Gold Key Comics and later illustrated stories for Jim Warren’s magazines, Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat. He had attempted to find work at DC Comics but evidently editor Bob Kanigher had little love for former E.C. cartoonists; “He looked at my portfolio and said, ‘Oh, you’re one of those [expletive deleted] from E.C. who ruined the whole industry and now you think you’re going to move in here and we’re going to pay you?’ So I picked up my stuff and walked out.”
Some time later Evans got a better reception from another DC editor, Murray Boltinoff, and turned out a steady stream of stories for DC’s war and supernatural titles. In the late 60s he made his first excursion into the syndicated comics world by working as the artist for George Wundar’s Terry and the Pirates dailies (another aviation strip!). Wunder would pencil in the heads and indicate with notes as to whatever else was happening (“office,” “airport,” “riot scene”) in each panel. Eventually Evans took on the inking chores as well, working on the job until 1972. During the 70s Evans would continue working for DC, supplementing his freelancing with jobs at the high-paying National Lampoon (“and other accounts galore”). In 1980 Al Williamson had tired of working on his Secret Agent Corrigan (originally Secret Agent X-9) and asked George to step in. Evans first daily hit newspapers on February 4, 1980 and he carried on with Corrigan until choosing to retire from the strip in 1996.
George Evans’ final Secret Agent Corrigan strip – February 10, 1996
George Evans still continued to work on occasional jobs in a shrinking field now dominated by the super hero genre; despite the high caliber of his work, there seemed little call for his style – which was ultimately the comics field’s loss. In his last years Evans relaxed with his hobby, participating in The Pulp Era Amateur Press Society with “A Pulp Addict’s Ramblings”, which was devoted to (what else?) aviation pulp magazines!
After a brief illness, the artist died asleep in his home on June 22, 2001. He was 81.
The preceding article originally appeared online at ChannelSpace, a site devoted to collecting, in their Comics “MicroChannel.”
As a fan of George Evans’ work I was eventually able to send him the piece and Mr. Evans was kind enough to supply me with the corrections to some howling bloopers while mercifully refraining from cutting me off at the knees! I’m glad to have the opportunity to present the amended biography here on Jim Keefe’s site.
Added bonus: Here’s a news segment from 1990 covering a comic book convention in Greensboro, North Carolina featuring legendary artists George Evans, Al Williamson and Dave Stevens.
And last but not least, I’m not the only one blogging about George Evans. Here’s just a sampling – enjoy!
Time for the Wayback Machine, Mr. Peabody, to a chilly winter’s day 34 years ago…
Back in 1978 – waaaaaaay before I had the inkling that I’d eventually have a comic strip of my own in the newspaper – the Minneapolis Tribune ran the following Spider-Man cartoon of mine.
Minneapolis Tribune – December 3, 1978
This being my first experience with newspaper reproduction, I was amazed at how the lines I had carefully rendered on Spider-Man’s costume came out as just one big black blob. Bleaahhhh…
Some backstory…
I had been clipping the Spider-Man newspaper religiously for two years – artwork by none other than the incredible John Romita!
Spider-Man newspaper strip by John Romita – 12/12/1977
Then suddenly – out of NOWHERE – the Tribune decides to drop it and replace it with… (Wait for it.)
Encyclopedia Brown.
(I repeat) ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN!!!
From Dick Cunningham’s editorial:
Wright (managing editor) and Wallace Allen, associate editor of the Tribune, think they have found a suitable replacement in “Encyclopedia Brown,” who appears for the first time in the Tribune today.
Brown is a boy detective confronted with a new crime each Sunday. He solves it by Saturday. Readers are given the same clues that Brown has and are invited to see if they reach the same solution.
“It’s kind of fun,” says Wright.
It’ll have to be to satisfy Keefe. “Woe be it to you,” he wrote. “May Dr. Doom trample your upholstery, may the Rattler bite your dog and may Mysterio make mincemeat of your hamburger.”
I must say, I was quite the master of hyperbole at age 13 – but to no avail. They ended up dropping Encyclopedia Brown years later as well, but Spider-Man was never to return.
The story does have a happy ending though. My Aunt Pat who lived in Boston got wind of this and sent me the Spider-Man strip out of her newspaper for the next two years (pretty much the rest of Romita’s run). My Aunt Pat was pretty great that way.
An added bonus was that the Boston paper printed their comic strips much bigger than the Tribune – so take THAT Mr. Wright and Allen!!!
And I still have those scrapbooks. 4 years of stellar Romita art and lots of fond memories.
My three scrapbooks – the first one signed years ago by John Romita himself!
For those of you who DIDN’T psychotically and laboriously collect the strip as a kid, and still would like to have a collection of them, check out IDW’s Spider-Man Comic Strip collections.
They did a beautiful job on them and I can’t recommend them highly enough.
Last but not least, I later paid homage to my Aunt Pat by giving her a cameo in Flash Gordon (she’s the one next to the pumpkin in the third panel).
Proving once again that no good deed goes unpunished. For more backstory on my Aunt Pat’s page, go to Uncle Whit and Aunt Pat.
