Jim Keefe – Page 22

Coloring Spider-Man

Post author By Jim Keefe
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Back in 1992, when I was the colorist on staff at King Features Syndicate, I got the chance to color the Spider-Man newspaper strip. Usually this would be handled by someone Marvel hired, but if it was a reprint or Marvel hadn’t hired anyone yet, I would fill in.

Ron Frenz was approached to draw the strip at that time and recently posted the pencils for this Sunday page on his Facebook page.

Click on image to see larger.

The inks were done by none other than the legendary Joe Sinnott.

Here’s my color guide followed by the old color chart that the numbers correspond to.

And last but not least, how it appeared in the paper.

As I grew up with Romita’s Spider-Man newspaper strip, any chance to work on Spider-Man I deemed as quite the honor.

Speaking of John Romita – here’s a quick color guide I did when they reprinted his origin story back in March of 1992.

The numbers on this one were on a tracing paper overlay (for clarity).
And here’s how it appeared in the newspapers.

And just for fun, here’s how the strip originally was colored back in 1977.
(Pardon the rubber cement – it’s from my old scrapbook)

And here’s the cleaned up version from the highly recommended IDW Spider-Man newspaper strip collection.

Side note: Despite the fact that I love the limited palette of the original, I thought it would be fun to put my own spin on it.

For more check out Coloring the Sunday Comics.

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Jose Delbo

Wizard World Minneapolis 2017

Post author By Jim Keefe
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A few pics from Wizard World 2017 here in Minneapolis.

Danny Fingeroth, Bob Camp, Guy Gilchrist and Phil Ortiz.

One of the best parts of Wizard World this year was getting to see Jose Delbo again.
He was one of my teachers at the Joe Kubert School back in the 1980s.

The last time he was in town I had him sign some old assignments I had saved.
More on that at the following link – Jose Delbo at SpringCon 2012

We talked about Philippine comic book artists, European comics compared to America, Hugo Pratt, and of course Joe Kubert.

For more on Jose, check out JoseDelbo.com

Tags Colleen Doran, Guy Gilchrist, Jose Delbo, Wizard World

Al Baruch Artist Spotlight

Artist Spotlight: Al Baruch (1928-2015)

Post author By Jim Keefe
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3 Comments on Artist Spotlight: Al Baruch (1928-2015)

I first met Al Baruch back in 2003. He was head of the Cartooning department at Hofstra University’s UCCE Youth Programs at the time and hired me as one of the teachers.

A Navy veteran, Al had studied at the Art Students League of New York, SVA (at that time the Cartoonists and Illustrators School of NY) and Pratt Institute (1949 – 1952). In the 1950s he worked for Disney as an inbetweener on films like Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp. In the 1980’s he turned to teaching and never looked back.

Al was in his seventies when I met him, but had the energy and enthusiasm of a man in his twenties. He mentored a multitude of students through the years, passing on his love and enthusiasm of cartooning to a whole new generation of artists.

He’ll be sorely missed.

The following are just a few articles, pics and video from around the web on Al. I hope you enjoy…

Al was an amazing man, artist and teacher. To the kids at HAAS, he was one of their magical Art Masters who would visit them and work along side of them at their Art Master Workshop. To me, he was a good friend and mentor. He also taught kids with special needs and was an advocate for the Holocaust Memorial and the Florida Youth Orchestra. You are loved by so many and you are in our hearts forever. Much love to you and your family.
-Hilary Fine

Al Baruch, Mike Stern, Mort Drucker
©Mike Stern – Animator at Pixar Animation Studios

1996 Al Baruch Interview
by Matthew Kalamidas

Ex-disney Animator Draws On Expertise
by Jerry Libonati for the Florida Sun Sentinal – 2005

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Artist Spotlight Hy Eisman

Hy Eisman’s 90th!

Post author By Jim Keefe
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1 Comment on Hy Eisman’s 90th!

It’s Hy Eisman’s 90th Birthday! (Born March 27, 1927)

I had Hy as a teacher for my first year of the Joe Kubert School (circa 1986-87). Hy taught lettering; which in those days meant Ames guide, a B6 lettering nib and india ink.

Hy was the kind of teacher you’d bring assignments to you’d been working on from other classes. His critiques had straightforward advice, with a little bit of biting wit thrown in for good measure. And if you paid attention and followed his advice, it made you a better artist. The class was INVALUABLE and had a real world payoff years later when I was doing the Flash Gordon comic strip.

Hand lettered Flash Gordon Sunday page from November 23, 1997.

A National Cartoonists Society Award winning cartoonist, Hy has worked for many different publishers over the years (Charlton, Marvel and Harvey to name a few) and has also worked on such classic comic strip characters as the Katzenjammer Kids and Popeye.

I point out his Syndicate work as I coincidentally get to work on Hy’s artwork as colorist.
It’s been a privilege to be able to work on Hy’s comic strip work for all these years (Hy started on the Katzenjammer kids in 1986 – I’ve been colorist since 1989).

Color guide for September 4, 2016 Popeye strip.

To wrap up, here’s some links from around the web spotlighting Hy.
Hope you enjoy!

Spotlight on Hy Eisman – by Mark Squirek for Hogan’s Alley

Hy Eisman: A Life in Comics – teaser

Behind the Tracing Paper: Interview with Hy Eisman and Fernando Ruiz
Filmed at the Kubert School in 2016.

What’s more to be said than…

The preceding pic is for a wall of birthday greetings to be displayed at the Kubert School. It was hand lettered to show Hy I’m not slacking off after all these years.

Update: Pictures from the Kubert School Facebook page.
Hy being shown the display of birthday wishes…