Benito Gallego

Interview with Benito Gallego [http://benitogallego.deviantart.com/]

I found him on Deviant Art and he just screamed to me a student of John Buscema. That can’t be a bad thing!

1.) You have a style very reminiscent of John Buscema? Can you tell us more about that.

Since I was a little boy I loved the Buscema Conan books and when I read other heroes like Ka-Zar, Thor or The Avengers it was always John Buscema's version the one I felt the best compared with the other artists. So when I started to try to draw I would imitate Big John's style. I just wanted to draw as good as the best.

Now I'm older and many of the ideas and concepts that I used to rely on when I was a child have proven wrong but others I'm still certain. Among the few that I still manage today as an adult is the strong believe that John Buscema is simply the best you can get in comic-book art.

2.) Besides Buscema, what other artists have influenced you? Also why do you stick to a more "traditional" style compared to alot of "modern comics"?

I could name a lot of artists that I admire like Joe Kubert, Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Jordi Bernet, Frank Frazetta, Will Esiner, Carlos Giménez, Víctor de la Fuente, Mike Mignola, Adam Hughes, Lee Weeks... and many others. At some point they all have had some influence in my work and I'm continually finding guys whose art I enjoy.
And yes, it is true that my style is quite "traditional". Maybe because when I move away from it to try to develop a "modern" approach I feel like I'm losing something. So why do I have to eat a hot-dog when I can have a "paella"?

3.) Do you prefer hand drawing/inking or digital or a combination of both?.

I used to hand draw-ink and color but since the new technologies have developed and we can have software and computers that can help an artist's task it would be foolish not to take advantage of it. Today I use digital tools mostly for coloring but also sometimes for making sketches and even inking depending on the subject and style that I'm working on at that moment.

For me the most important advantage is that even when you use a traditional method for drawing or inking you know it is always so much easier now to make corrections digitally using a computers program than it was before.

4.) What particular Tools do you like to use for penciling,inking and programs?


If we are talking digitally, first I have an A3 size scanner that allows me to scan my drawings on the first try. You safe a lot of time when you don't have to join two or more parts when using a small scanner. Then I use a wacom tablet which is way faster and versatile than the traditional mouse. The programs I use are Photoshop for coloring and making sketches. And for inking I use Illustrator.

When using traditional methods I prefer an ordinary pencil to a propelling pencil. And for inking I use a quill to make the main lines and a brush to fill the blacks. I don't usually use markers or felt-tip pens which I find too hard and inexpressive except for making straight lines. And for coloring an illustration I use watercolors combined with crayons, markers and gouache.

5.) What inspired your Zuda story? How do you think it went?

The idea of a race of people dwelling in the underground "like beasts, in caves where no sunlight ever entered" is a recurrent theme that appears in "The Lost Race", "Worms of the Earth", "People of the Dark" and other tales by Conan's creator Robert E. Howard. I took that idea and thought what if there were such a race in our modern-day cities? I thought that they probably would live in the sewers and could be called something like "The Children of the Sewer". If you put a hero (or anti-hero in this case) in this context you have a lot of posibilities of building an epic tale of adventure, fight, fantasy and horror.

At first I didn't have much expectations to win the contest. I just wanted to participate and expose my work to see the public's reaction. But when you see that people seem to like your work and you are getting near the top you cherish the idea that "Yeah, I can make it, I'm really close to win". So t was a bit dissapointing when finally I didn't win although a second place is not bad at all.

6.) Any other current projects in the works?

I hope to retake Roy Thomas' ANTHEM and CAPTAIN THUNDER & BLUE BOLT series soon. Meanwhile I have been contacted by Gerald Cooper from InVision Comics ([link]) and hopefully I'll be doing some work for them in a near future. I have also a story about gypsies, tartars, kosacks and zombies! that I wrote some time ago and that I would really love to draw.

7.)Any other websites that feature your work other than here at DA?

You can take a look at my gallery at comicartfans ([link]) although most of the pieces are also on DA.
I'm also developing my own website ([link]) that I hope to have finished in a couple of months. I think I said something like that a year ago!!

That’s it for the first one. I would like to thank Benito Gallego for taking his time to answer my questions. Stop by his Deviant Art page.

http://benitogallego.deviantart.com/

Interviews

Getting ready to do a series of interviews of other artists who are inspired or taken by similar artists.

If you drool over Kirby,Sinnott,Timm,Rude,Toth,Wood,Sickles,Caniff,Raymond,Romita,Wildey,etc.

Drop me a line!

First one should be up soon!

Storytelling now and then...

Every Wednesday I meet up with fellow artists and friends at a local coffee shop.

There tends to be some great discussion of art of comics and other mediums.

This past week it was a much smaller group of us and it was the few that are really into cinema as well.

What we have all noticed is that storytelling is not just falling apart in comics but movies as well. I made a comment on how the 60-80's comics all had really good storytelling and that a few artists seem to really catch onto cinematic techniques.

I have been on a Hitchcock kick lately and started to notice that alot of my favorite artists seem to have sequences or shots right out of these classic films. I know Jack Kirby use to have his TV on almost at all time while he was working as company but I bet it influenced some of his visuals for sure.

Another one of the group noted how comics tried to be too much like movies now and the movies now are trying to be too much like video games. I hope they do find a balance in this. The story is what is the most important if you want to have something that is great. A weak story with great visuals is just a picture book. A great story with weak art is still a great story and can always be improved on later.

One of my own personal goals is to make sure I am telling the story first and using the art to guide you.

Brush Inking Tips...

So in my own personal quest to become better at brush inking I have turned a great source.

Youtube.

So far this video explains so much and is very informative.




Another good one I found is here.

http://bee-chan.deviantart.com/art/Bee-s-Ink-and-Brush-Tutorial-16628747

There are many more but I found these 2 particular ones to be the most helpful.

Good luck!

Traditional Inks or what I like to call sexy…

Now it should be no clue that I prefer traditional inking on comics/pop art.

I can not tell you exactly why. I just think it looks really smooth and its easy to read.

Part of that is how the ‘weights’ of the lines draw your eye to parts of the illustration.

A master knows exactly how much of this to add or subtract from the pencil art.

In the hands of a master craftsman like Joe Sinnott it is amazing. He knows exactly how to make each image in a panel come to life. Pushing what needs to be in the foreground there and letting the rest seep into the background.

Even a complex image like this cover to FF #100 you can read each character easily even in Black and White.

I feel that the image should be readable in Black and White and maybe enhanced by color. I feel that modern comics almost depend on the color too much.

The Shadows of the soldiers on the wall here are a great example of making the image read. He could have just made them all black but it would have overpowered the rest of the image. Letting us see the bricks in the shadow let us see the characters easier.

Ask anyone in the biz who has been there since Joe Sinnott and they will tell you they learned from him or wanted him to ink their stuff. Stan Lee said that artists would fight over Joe’s schedule. He made it that good.

Here are some other artists who were also renown for their inking.

Wally Wood.

What is there to say that the picture can not? Not much. He was a master of using light and shadow. Even over Kirby (some say he overpowers Kirby’s style but I say it looks amazing…you get Kirby dynamic and Wood’s sexy shadows!)

He was also just an amazing artist in his own right.

Alex Toth

Someday soon I will get to a whole topic on one of my all time favorites Toth. (after IDW releases their new book about him late this year…)

Anyway. Toth has a simplicity that can be deceiving. It looks simple but its not. He just leaves out the unnecessary and highlights the best part of an illustration.

He was a huge fan of Noel Sickles(another blog topic to come soon!) and it shows!

Check out Ralph's posts on Noel Sickles here (http://the-unmutual.blogspot.com/2009/09/scorchy-smith-and-art-of-noel-sickles.html)

Mike Royer

(more info here courtesy of 20^th Century Danny Boy http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2007/08/looking-back-with-mike-royer.html )

Another of the legendary Jack Kirby Inkers. He is known for being true to Kirby but still enhancing the little things.

An amazing artist in his own right he now freelances and does some work for Disney on Winnie the Poo!

Doug Wildey.

While he was known for being meticulous he has an amazing line.

Creator of the TV Show Jonny Quest.

He studied the classic Newspaper strip artists like Milt Caniff, Noel Sickles and Alex Raymond.

Holiday break!

Have not had time to make any updates here due to the Holidays and some commission work.

Coming in 2010 is an article on the lost art of inking.

Featuring the lines of

Joe Sinnott

Wally Wood

Mike Royer

Alex Toth

and more!

Stay tuned!

In the meantime check out this great book from www.twomorrows.com publishing!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Holidays! Have a Happy New Year!

Saving the Comic Book....

Can the American Comic be saved?

At this point it is hard to say. It has been dying a slow death since the gloss paper direct market promo cover craze of the 90's.

That decade alone probably hurt comics more than anything.

They disapeared from news stands altogether. They also got very expensive. The inflation of the US Comic is more than almost any other product. $1.50 was about the rate for your average DC or MARVEL book at the time. IMAGE came in with $1.95 on nicer paper. Everyone followed suit.

Now they are $2.99- $3.99!? Its ludicris.

For about the same you can get SHONEN JUMP magazine. Its full of Manga comics printed in black and white on cheap paper. You wonder why all these kids love Manga/Anime and this is a major reason.



You know what? Thats what the kids are reading. They are not reading Spiderman or Batman. Only the BABYMEN are.

Why MARVEL or DC have not tried this I have no idea! They are crazy. Too proud and stuck in this system that is beyond its use now.

I am in the process of trying to find means to print comics cheap in a book like this with some other artists. I think its a much better model and it seems to serve the Euro and Asian markets very well. The popular stuff gets made into Trades and/or TV shows.

Will the US comic survive? Not for long at the rate they are now.

They can survive in the format they are now but unless they get an alternative back on the magazine racks,at grocery stores,toy stores,etc then they risk dying all together.

Kids don't read comics because they can't buy them easily. There are not alot of Direct Comic Book stores and alot of the ones there don't cater to kids. In fact some of them go out of their way to discourage kids to come in. I have seen it at a few shops when kids come in and want to look at comics (DUH) and the employee's scold them for (GASP) reading them!

Nice way to get some future customers...

Props to Tucson Comic Store HEROES and VILLIANS for not having this policy. The owner doesn't carry as much as I wish he did but he does get the kids to come in.