Johnny Saturn

Here we have Tilt’s final design.  When he made his appearance in Johnny Saturn no. 1, those massive shoulder shields had been reduced to a more manageable size, and their angle shifted from vertical to a 45 degree angle.  I also threw out the armored gauntlets.

            

Great article!  I plan to make good use of it myself!

That’s all.  I rarely do short posts, but I felt it was important to share this.  Thank me later.

Scott

ADDENDUM!

I just saw this MTV interview with Grant Morrison, and I had to put it out for you.  In my world, Morrison and Alan Moore stand in the same high esteem as my musical heroes Neil Young and Eric Clapton.  Enjoy!

            

My first attempt at Tilt!  I quickly dropped the piping on the costume, because I’d already used that motifs several times, not the least of which in Johnny Saturn I himself.  For those few who don’t get the “tilt” reference, I’m alluding to pinball.  Those huge buttons or studs on Tilt’s costume loosely represent pinball bumpers.

            

Hello, Folks!

It’s a new week, and I feel really positive about it.  I feel well, my mind is sharp, and I’ve got a lot I want to accomplish this week!

There’s not much to report here, really.  I’m doing my best to work ahead and build up a buffer again.  Not having a buffer of ready made comic episodes means that you are slave to your update schedule, and that’s no fun for me.  So, as you read this, I’ll most likely be slapping down ink on paper.

Does anyone mistrust modern phones as much as I do?  I have nightmares on a regular basis where I can’t figure out my phone’s functions, or I can’t seem to hit the right numbers on the key pad.  This carries into my real life, and my anxiety level shoots up every time I have to use a cell phone.  I’m no Luddite!  I’ve tackled the internet and its opportunities in a way that most people my age would never dream of!  I’ve decided that one of these days soon, I’m going to get one of the cell phones that has no extra functions–no camera, voice recorder, phone book, rolodex, calendar, internet, etc. etc. etc.!  I mean, we need cell phones for safety, but why do we have to deal with tiny numbers, pitifully low volume levels, touch screens, megapixels, and all that other chicanery?  Aren’t we connected enough?  Does all that stuff improve our lives?  Don’t even get me started on texting!

Okay… I’m taking a deep breath, willing my shoulders to relax…  Out with the bad, in with the good, and so forth.

Do you like music?  Do you want to do something fun?  Go to YouTube, and do a search on a song of your choice, and listen to all it’s versions down through time.  It’s a hoot.  The other night, I followed “House of the Rising Sun” from Leadbelly down to Duran Duran.  Apparently, every music act ever has recorded “House,” and some people even think that the Animals wrote it! (Gasp! Heresy!)  My point is this: A popular song takes on a life of its own, making its winding way down through the years by being sung again and again and being continually reinvented.  It’s a marvelous thing to behold and a little awe inspiring when you think about it.

Leadbelly:

Frigid Pink (I think they were a Pink Floyd cover band):

Duran Duran (I didn’t expect much, really, but was pleasantly surprised):

Sometimes song covers go a little . . . off.   My favorite example is Celine Dion’s cover of ACDC’s song “All Night Long.”  I’m not making this up.  Another example is this little number, Cher’s recording of Neil Young’s Mr. Soul.   Yep, really.  Listen at your own risk!

And, for reference, the master:

            

If ever there was a bad character idea, it was this early basket-ball themed character Rebound.  I don’t know what I was thinking, really.  While I almost immediately realized that I was playing into stereotypes, Rebound did give me the inspiration for Tilt!  It would have been cool if I could make this work, because basketball is everywhere in Indiana.

            

With this drawing, I had at last arrived at the look I wanted for Titanium Tom!  I imagined him as part astronaut, part the anti-hero step-brother of the Six Million Dollar Man.  Pasting the symbol for the element titanium on his shoulder sealed the deal for me!  Interestingly enough, Tom’s shiny suit got more crinkly and shinier when he appeared in the comic, and Tom himself got much beefier.  The spit curl was an afterthought, yet many people have told me that this is their favorite element of the character… Really!

            

Hey, Folks!

Item: We’re back! Issue ten begins today!

Item: Today I saw a report that fundamentalist groups are picketing the yet un-released video game “Dante’s Inferno.” To be honest, I don’t see what the hubbub is about—Heaven and Hell have been mainstays in comics forever! Whether it’s Hellboy, or Preacher, or Savage Dragon’s trip through both realms, the afterlife has been well represented in sequential art. Come to think of it, some Johnny Saturn characters have certainly journeyed through hell, and come close to the gates of heaven. At least we didn’t do what Spider-Man did when he made a deal with the devil to get out of being married.

Item: Today, when I was drawing at the Indianapolis Art Center, I tried something new. I turned all my cognitive processes off, and drew in a state of “no mind.” Samurai art! In the absence of having to think about what I was doing, my drawings were actually more accurate! Why, you might wonder, would this be the case? Because I wasn’t associating the subject matter with what they are, so I drew exactly what I saw without falling into the trap of drawing things likes the nose, eyes, etc., in the mechanical, canned way I’ve used to. Zen, baby!

Item: It seems like the day of the digital comic downloads is about to reach fruition. In the past, we’ve sold Johnny Saturn on Drive Thru Comics, Wowio, and directly off this site. We still sell comics on Drive Thru, but sales have fallen off there. Wowio was a real cash cow for many of us, but once it sold to Platinum Studios we got out. They changed their business model, and there was good reason at the time to think that this was all a massive intellectual property grab on Platinum’s part. Now, we are looking to the near-future launches of ComicsXP and Longbox. As I’ve mentioned in earlier blog posts, we are heavily aligned with ComicsXP, its owner Bob Hickey, and its Marketing and Pr guy, Chuck Moore. Longbox is a similar service, one that is also promising. Combine this movement with the emergence of iPhones and Kindles, and you’ve got a market whose time has come.

Scott.

            

Hi, Folks!

Just a reminder, Johnny Saturn resumes June 22nd, next Monday!

You’ve seen all our plot lines weave together over the last five issues, and now it’s time for the payoff!

See you Monday!

Scott.

            

This version of Titanium Tom is quite close in many respects to the design I adopted for him.  The military haircut, mirrored glasses, grim, humorless attitude, and clenched jaw all felt right.  The rest of this costume, with the industrial cyborg gear, didn’t quite do it for me.  That having been said, I like this outfit, and may well use it for another character.

            

Hi, Folks!

It’s time to resurrect the long unused Art Talk. Here we go!

Today I began penciling page 1 of Johnny Saturn issue 10. As usual, I penciled the first panel, realized it wasn’t good at all, and thoroughly erased it. I always have problems beginning a new issue, or a new project! It never fails! Today was no exception.

Why do I have this difficulty? Well, I didn’t do any warm up sketching, for one. Many of the Silver Aged artists would do warm ups for up an hour before beginning their main job. John Buscema used to draw on the backs oh is original pages, and fill up stacks of typewriter paper. Gil Kane devoted an hour every morning getting into top form.

Now in my fifteenth year of actively cartooning, I have never made warm ups part of my daily routine. This year is different. In my figurative work, Benita poses for me and lets me get warmed up before I go the Indianapolis Art Center and draw live models. I want to get the most for the experience, and coming in cold doesn’t help that.

What should one draw during these warm ups? Excellent question. In earlier times, I would have limited myself to photos of dancers, athletes, or nudes. Since I go to the Art Center, I really don’t see the point in drawing from 2D photos like I used to. Lately, I have taken to copying the work of figurative master Andrew Loomis, as seen in his classic, criminally out of print book “Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth.” Let me be clear on this: Loomis was better than Burne Hogarth, who wrote those popular and useful books that are so well known among the community of comic artists. Burne was good, and I may well get around to studying his books again, but Loomis is the master.

You might wonder, why would I study the work of another artist when I’ve got photographs I could work from? Well, studying the techniques of the great masters is a tried and true tradition, is it not? Plus, trying to replicate a master’s drawing line for line gives you a bizarre insight into the mind of that master. You begin to see the world from his perspective, how he perceived his subject matter. This can be enlightening, to say the least, and perhaps even transformative to the artist.

What am I going to do in the morning? Warm up, of course.

Scott.