PJ Interactivity Thread

[Bruce Lee]

Just to do something a little different than the "Dr. Stupid Jr" thread, I thought I'd start a thread where I talk about myself a little, then ask you guys questions about YOUR experiences and feelings on certain matters. I'm hoping to promote some interaction so that I can get to know you guys a little better. Let me start off by throwing out a little personal history:


I began drawing and reading comics about the same time. I was 4 years old, and my father handed me a copy of BATMAN featuring Batman taking on the Penguin. I had no idea who BATMAN was, but I instantly knew that I liked him. He was so cool! The mask with the pointed ears, the fringed cape, the pointed books, and scalloped gloves, and the most awesome belt in history! And he had a bat on his chest, just to top it all off. I was hooked. I began to draw the character on the backs of envelopes and on notebook paper. My parents noticed that I was very enthusiastic about the character, and my dad continued to supply me with comic books for many years. Back in those days (the 1970s) you most likely got comics from a spinner rack at a grocery store or pharmacy drugstore, and you got whatever comics were currently available. If Batman was sold out, my dad would bring me something else--INCREDIBLE HULK, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, SUPERMAN, BUGS BUNNY, CASPER, ARCHIE--you name it. I had all sorts of comics growing up. I read a diverse lot of comics. Everything from SAD SACK to CONAN THE BARBARIAN found their way into my hands. And I learned to draw all sorts of characters at the same time. For me, collecting comics and drawing has always been connected. I always knew I wanted to draw comics for a living, and BATMAN in particular. The diversity of subject matter that I read in comics played into my artwork today. I can draw all sorts of different styles and methods today, and I think that has a lot to do with having a broad interest in different comics as a kid. For 36 years I've been a fan of comics, and I've been drawing just as long. Comics were only 25 cent when I got into the game. You could get four comics for $1.03 back then. Heh. I miss those days! Things sure have changed.

My questions to you guys:

-How long have you been drawing?

-Did comic books play a large role in your love for drawing?

-Have you always wanted to draw comic book characters?

-Did comics have a major impact on the way you draw now?

-What was your favorite comic title (and tell me why, please)?

Please feel free to ask me similar questions right back!The goal of this thread is for me to get to know you guys a little better, and vice versa.

[Ugga Bugga]

I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. Only beginning to improve recently, by going outside of my comfort zone (to an extent).

Mad Magazine probably had more of an influence with respect to my love of drawing.

I haven't always wanted to draw comic characters. I've always wanted to do cartooning.

Probably Don Martin, Picasso, and Basil Wolverton have had more of an impact on the way that I draw now than comics do.

Bone, is a fantastic story, and very solid art. I particularly enjoyed the Peter David and Larry Stroman run of X-Factor back in the 90s. I loved how they took off-shoots and also rans, and made them into characters that I deeply cared about, in a humorous way that did not in any way take itself seriously.

It was such a nice change of pace from the X-men angst.

[The P.R. Man]

I've been drawing since I was at least 3, Mom dug out some old stuff last time I was home and there in giant scribbles it's got my name and age, My Parents traveled all year by truck, so it was either sit and stare, or draw (seriously, only home for 2 months a year. MADDENING!)

not at first, but once I turned 10 or so I started making my own superhero charecters, usually they were cunning photocopies of wolverine. now though I enjoy drawing fictitional charecters far more than real life ones.

not always, but since I was 12 they definitly did. Adventures of Superman 501 was the first comic I really looked at and had the "Holy Crap" moment. as much shit as people talk about 90's era superboy, when I first saw it I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen, (which says so much about my style choices therealfter) I had read archie and Disney comics before them, and thought x men were cool before then, but that got me really wound up about how freaking cool these charecters and stories were "ohmygod, superman just DIED! but now he's back and he's young like me and he listens to headphones and has an awesome jacket!"


oh yeah. from 12 to 15 I was trying to ape Tom Grummet as much as possible, then I started to get into Manga, and became a real fan of Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the shell) and lOcke from http://damaged.anime.net/ alfter I moved out of my parents I really started to like Steve Dillon I guess I'm trying to mash all those styles together.

Preacher, I loved the western aspect of it, and when I first read it I was starting to really question my views on religion and life in general. I loved the Buddy Dynamic between Jesse and Cassidy, and his relationship with Tulip. plus, that you never had any freaking clue what would happen next. Tulip may have her head blown off, or you might find a midget screwing a giant pile of beef. also, Garth Ennis and I seem to have the same sense of humor.

[oqnet]

I started drawing before I started reading comic books. I had a friend who was obsessed with drawing comic book characters all the time. We were best friends so he would sit me down with a piece of paper and a pencil and we would draw. Never collaberated he was always that much better than me. Then when I was about 6 I started reading archie comics. I read those for awhile then I started reading spider-man and x-men. I loved x-men a lot back in those days, the stories seemed a little simpler no house of M or civil war scale stuff. At least it seemed like it. Then my friend who sat me down to draw(who had been collecting comics from as far back as I can remember), got hooked on this series called Gen-13. The I was in love with the art, and possibly the boobs on the female characters. From then on I started picking up drawing on my own not just at my buddies. I started trying to emulate J. Scott Campbell. Even my original characters were emulated after his style. I started collecting comics around that time and reading anything I could get my hands on, image comics had just started and I was into spawn and savage dragon. I was also a big fan of Jim Lee's stuff and for awhile thought I should change my last name to Lee because anyone with the last name Lee is god.

In the end I hit highschool and stopped collecting, I drew all through highschool and actually got quite good using my spare(which would have been art but I dropped it because it was crap) to draw and did some of my best work then. Then I went to collage and kind of got out of it for about 2-3 years until I met a new friend who was into drawing. He did more manga style characters and real life stuff. That got me going again, now it seems like I go in spurts. I kind of wish I had kept up with it from highschool because it feels like I'm starting out from scratch again.

But that's how I got inspired, a good friend and some good comic books. Though looking back at Gen-13 I have a hard time reading it, too much 90's pop culture.

[Popninja]

I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. My mother tells me that my sister would try and bust me for "drawing boobs," but I don't remember that, so I'm sure I've been drawing since I was at least 5.

Comics played a huge role in my love of drawing, but not until later in my childhood. Initially, it was all about Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactica. Comic book TV shows played a huge role, too, but I wasn't huge on comics until I was about 11 or 12.

The day I knew I wanted to draw comic characters was the day I saw Fantastic Four #243 on the comic rack. Drawn by my now favorite sequential artist, it knocked me on my ass. I had never seen anything like it, and once I saw it, I knew that was what I wanted to do. On the same day, I bought Uncanny X-Men #157, drawn by Dave Cockrum. It didn't blow me away like Byrne's FF did, but in a few months, a man named Paul Smith would take over the book and make me fall in love with the Uncanny X-Men.

Comics played a huge role in how I draw today, and as much as I try and discourage it from young artists now, I used comics to learn how to draw. Not intentionally, as if I had that in my head as how I wanted to learn, but I aped styles constantly, from Byrne to Frank Miller; JRJr. to Art Adams, I soaked it all in and used it to make myself the artist I am today. I also would draw so much that my mother literally thought something was wrong with me. I just teased her about it last month, how she would discourage me from sitting in my room the whole day drawing. But that's just the way I was. It's all that I would do, and I got really good at it. My dream was to write and draw X-Men comics. I used to fold copy paper in half and make X-Men comics, and one of the coolest part was writing the credits. "Written and Drawn by Norman Hardy."

The reason I loved the X-Men so much was because every artist that worked on that book was incredible to me. They didn't throw just anybody on UXM as regular artist. Some of my absolute favorite artists today worked on that comic when I was a kid. It was the comic I HAD TO BUY every month. Of course, over the last decade, that has changed and it has made me really sad, and kinda pissed. But I have my memories. My dream to one day write and draw X-Men died a long time ago. But my dream to one day launch my own comic book is still alive.

[Bruce Lee]

I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. Only beginning to improve recently, by going outside of my comfort zone (to an extent).

Mad Magazine probably had more of an influence with respect to my love of drawing.

I haven't always wanted to draw comic characters. I've always wanted to do cartooning.

Probably Don Martin, Picasso, and Basil Wolverton have had more of an impact on the way that I draw now than comics do.

Bone, is a fantastic story, and very solid art. I particularly enjoyed the Peter David and Larry Stroman run of X-Factor back in the 90s. I loved how they took off-shoots and also rans, and made them into characters that I deeply cared about, in a humorous way that did not in any way take itself seriously.

It was such a nice change of pace from the X-men angst.

So do you still read comics? Which Wolverton stories did you enjoy the most, Steve?

Here's one of my favorite Wolverton stories, THE BRAIN BATS OF VENUS from 1952. I found links to the story here:

http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.co...-of-venus.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page1.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page2.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page3.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page4.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page5.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page6.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page7.jpg

[MilkManX]

-How long have you been drawing?

Since I can remember. There are stories of a 2 or 3 year old me using Crayons on the walls of the house much to my parents dismay.



-Did comic books play a large role in your love for drawing?


They sure did.

First it was Dinosaurs and then Muscle Cars. I got into comics right around 8 or 9 and then got into drawing the characters from them. Batman,X-Men,Conan,and G.I Joe/Transformers were my favorites as a kid. I remember that besides the spinners the Toy stores would have a grab bag of like 5-10 comics repackaged cheap. I would get alot of comics that way.



-Did comics have a major impact on the way you draw now?

Yeah I think so. The Kirby and Toth influence is hard to rub off once it gets into you..


]-What was your favorite comic title (and tell me why, please)?

I liked alot of comics growing up but I seem to remember really liking Batman/Detective Comics and X-Men the most. I really loved that Clairemont/Byrne/Austin run.I liked the dynamics that the characters had. Batman was always just cool looking. Marshall Rogers and Walt Simonson on Batman was awesome.

In my teens I would really get into X-Men as it related to me more and the stories were really great.
I also would buy Savage Sword of Conan since I loved Conan as a kid and the B&W magazine offered more bang for the buck.

[Bruce Lee]

I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. My mother tells me that my sister would try and bust me for "drawing boobs," but I don't remember that, so I'm sure I've been drawing since I was at least 5.

Comics played a huge role in my love of drawing, but not until later in my childhood. Initially, it was all about Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactica. Comic book TV shows played a huge role, too, but I wasn't huge on comics until I was about 11 or 12.

Heh. Those movies and tv shows likewise had a similar impact on me. I remember drawing Buck, Wilma and Twiki the "ambuquad" robot a lot when I was 10 or 11. I haven't drawn those characters in a long time, but I drew Twiki on a posted note back around 2000:


I loved the Six Million Dollar Man tv show too. "Steve Austin" was my hero when I was 6 or 7. I used to call myself "Steve Loston" when I was little, whenever my brothers and I would pretend to be tv heroes.

The day I knew I wanted to draw comic characters was the day I saw Fantastic Four #243 on the comic rack. Drawn by my now favorite sequential artist, it knocked me on my ass. I had never seen anything like it, and once I saw it, I knew that was what I wanted to do. On the same day, I bought Uncanny X-Men #157, drawn by Dave Cockrum. It didn't blow me away like Byrne's FF did, but in a few months, a man named Paul Smith would take over the book and make me fall in love with the Uncanny X-Men.

I had (and still have) all the Byrne FF comics. I remember getting that issue where Franky Ray first gets her Human Torch-like abilities, and I just loved it! I had many of the Claremont/Byrne era UNCANNY X-MEN issues too. I remember buying my copy of UNCANNY X-MEN 137 off the shelf at the D&S Supermarket in town one evening. I didn't read it immediately--I saved it until the next day. My 6th grade class was going on a field trip to the Natural Tunnel in Virginia, and I took that issue to read on the bus on the way. Wow! It blew my mind. The X-Men fought and lost a huge battle on the Moon! The most important battle ever, and they LOST! And Jean Grey DIED! Holy--! It really floored me. I read through it about 4 or 5 times on the way back. What an amazing comic. It was ground breaking stuff back then, to kill a character. Today, character deaths have almost zero impact, and are kind of pointless, IMO, but back then...Wow!

Comics played a huge role in how I draw today, and as much as I try and discourage it from young artists now, I used comics to learn how to draw. Not intentionally, as if I had that in my head as how I wanted to learn, but I aped styles constantly, from Byrne to Frank Miller; JRJr. to Art Adams, I soaked it all in and used it to make myself the artist I am today. I also would draw so much that my mother literally thought something was wrong with me. I just teased her about it last month, how she would discourage me from sitting in my room the whole day drawing. But that's just the way I was. It's all that I would do, and I got really good at it. My dream was to write and draw X-Men comics. I used to fold copy paper in half and make X-Men comics, and one of the coolest part was writing the credits. "Written and Drawn by Norman Hardy."

The reason I loved the X-Men so much was because every artist that worked on that book was incredible to me. They didn't throw just anybody on UXM as regular artist. Some of my absolute favorite artists today worked on that comic when I was a kid. It was the comic I HAD TO BUY every month. Of course, over the last decade, that has changed and it has made me really sad, and kinda pissed. But I have my memories. My dream to one day write and draw X-Men died a long time ago. But my dream to one day launch my own comic book is still alive.

The X-MEN was once a truly great comic before it became such a commercial phenomenon. I really don't care that much about the X-MEN these days, but I still treasure the books from the days I collected the title. I loved the Byrne/Austin -era artwork, and I have a particular fondness for the era of Paul Smith's run on the title. I liked some of John Romita Jr's stuff too, but somewhere after about issue 200-something, I began to lose a lot of interest in the X-MEN stuff. I came back for the Jim Lee-era books, and that was interesting for a little while. Haven't really followed the X-MEN in years, but every now and then I read someplace that another member has been killed off, or has been reborn, or something like that. I couldn't tell you which characters are still alive, at this point. lol.

It's good that you haven't given up on your dream to launch your own comic book, Norm. You can still do that, if you set you mind to it. You just need to get motivated and get started on it, mister!

[Bruce Lee]

not always, but since I was 12 they definitly did. Adventures of Superman 501 was the first comic I really looked at and had the "Holy Crap" moment. as much shit as people talk about 90's era superboy, when I first saw it I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen, (which says so much about my style choices therealfter) I had read archie and Disney comics before them, and thought x men were cool before then, but that got me really wound up about how freaking cool these charecters and stories were "ohmygod, superman just DIED! but now he's back and he's young like me and he listens to headphones and has an awesome jacket!"

Did you think that the reboot of Superman was going to last back then? I think a lot of people thought that they'd never bring Superman back. I knew better, but I was surprised at how long it took DC to bring him back. It's weird to me that Marvel did the same sort of stunt with Captain America. I always think of Marvel Comics as being the innovator somehow, but with the death of Captain America, it was a bit of the same thing: Kill off the hero. World without said hero. Replacement hero. Return of the original hero. Same Superman death formula, pretty much. heh.

oh yeah. from 12 to 15 I was trying to ape Tom Grummet as much as possible, then I started to get into Manga, and became a real fan of Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the shell) and lOcke from http://damaged.anime.net/ alfter I moved out of my parents I really started to like Steve Dillon I guess I'm trying to mash all those styles together.

That's some crazy meshing there, PR! Did you read ROBIN back in the day? TEEN TITANS? What did you think of the NIGHTWING series that came along in the '90s? I liked Scott McDaniel's artwork a lot back then--mostly because of the dynamic poses and energy. The storytelling was sometimes a little manic, but the layouts were never boring!

Preacher, I loved the western aspect of it, and when I first read it I was starting to really question my views on religion and life in general. I loved the Buddy Dynamic between Jesse and Cassidy, and his relationship with Tulip. plus, that you never had any freaking clue what would happen next. Tulip may have her head blown off, or you might find a midget screwing a giant pile of beef. also, Garth Ennis and I seem to have the same sense of humor.

Ah. I've never really been a fan of PREACHER, Steve Dillon or Garth Ennis, to be honest. That book was not my thing I guess. I probably wasn't interested in it back in the '90s because I was providing a lot of illustrations at that time for DEADLANDS: WEIRD WEST, a western-horror roleplaying at that time, and I was having my fill of the western stuff. I drew Deadlands for many years, and PREACHER was a hit during those same years in the late '90s. Gunfighter and gore overload for me, back then.

[Ugga Bugga]

So do you still read comics? Which Wolverton stories did you enjoy the most, Steve?

Here's one of my favorite Wolverton stories, THE BRAIN BATS OF VENUS from 1952. I found links to the story here:

http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.co...-of-venus.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page1.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page2.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page3.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page4.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page5.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page6.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ja0u9vcxkW...T103+page7.jpg

That is great stuff.

I've been getting alot of compilations lately. I got the complete Don Martin, which has kept me going for a while.

I am working my way through the Preacher series, which seems to be a ton of fun.

I just started reading walking dead, because I need to support a PJ member.


As far as wolverton stories, I'm really not too familiar to be honest. I just google his drawings, and and look at them for long periods of time. I need to read more of his complete stories.

I like picking up the Essential marvel series at times, to read through some old stuff that I missed.