I was thinking about all these great manga artists learned the trade from being an assistant to another artist. i think america should adopt this approach in a intern process, low pay but great experience in w/e trade of the arts,ie drawing,writing,coloring,editing, u wanna learn…get on the job type training. what do u guys think?
Err…they already do.
It’s just not as common of knowledge or consistently part of the routine as in Japan.
Mostly because American comics come out on a monthly basis and Japanese ones will come out weekly.
But there’s plenty of people who learn by assisting other creators.
Mike Turner started as Silverstri’s background artist.
Hell that’s how most of Top Cow artists get their start in house.
Most colorists have flatters to help speed up the coloring process.
Christina Strain, Emily Warren and many other colorists will ghost on books to help out on deadlines.
Hell Emily was helping Laura Martin on Secret Invasion.
Don’t even get me started on inking assistants. Just look in the credits page.
Pat Lee did that a lot. Maybe he still does. If so, he should learn how to pay his assistants and ghost-artists.
Pat Lee took it to the enth degree and just did faces on a lot of figures but took ALL the credit.
The difference between American and Japanese studios is that the Japanese KNOW they’re not getting credit. Here, it’s up in the air but you’ll usually know upfront if it’s ghosting or assists.
i understood the in house companies like wildstorm and top cow did it…but didnt think it was too big since it was really only a handful of companies doing it. i know aspen did it hardcore.
Pat Lee can’t draw faces well, either. Horrible artist - worse than Joe Mad by several tiers.
:wgrin:
:shake:
boo urns…boo urns
Yeah, Pat Lee’s Transfromers are dope, but that’s it.
Aspen didn’t really as much.
Marvel back in the 90’s was huge into that kinda thing with their bullpen.
Joel Gomez did all the backgrounds for Iron and the Maiden.
It’s pretty common practice, just not on every single issue like Japan.
oh aspen has a few in house people who learned that way…well specifically Talent Caldwell
Actually Talent learned while at Top Cow.
He did bg’s for Turner on Fathom.
Christina learned from Peter while coloring the Superman series Talent did way back when.
The new guys they get usually spend a lot of time drawing stuff to learn, but not all that much of it is on published books, unless it’s backgrounds.
The colorists get a work out, though.
Truth-be-told they really didn’t have enough titles to run a sweatshop and only a couple of them are still in studio.
It’s much harder to do assists when you have to mail everything back and forth. Unless you’re one of the bigger companies, the FedEx bills get pretty ridiculous.
A friend of mine worked for Marvel Comics for a time period, he explained his work area as “The Bull Pin”.
Basically he would be handed comics where the artist upon the cover did a few pages, then he had to mimic and do the rest.
He also stated that they were pretty lenient on Annuals, allowing them to do all the art and experiment.
wildstorm guys have a studio together…specifically jim lee, garza and some others.
if i was ever given the opportunity…let it be known, i’d quit school, sacrifice w/e relationships i had…id cut everyone the fuck off to do comics. id sacrifice it all.
Heh, that’s pretty much what you have to do just to get the opportunity.
i’m thinking of self publishing a comic…im seeing if i can wrangle any friends to help…but if not im going to publish this thing on my own…tradeback form.
well i’ve had all these crazy ideas before and i decided to just pool all my ideas into one crazy zany one piece esque comic.
its about an orphan kid who lives on an island, similar to like jamaica. He lived with his brother til about the age of 12. He used to be picked on alot, but his brother was always there to defend him, but at 12 his brother has to join the military. its required service in his country to join the military for about 5 years. After another beatdown just before the night he leaves to the military, he takes his lil brother and tells him a story of his people. They were once clans of great ninjas, and his grand parents were leaders of the clan of ninjas. But for some reason a great war broke out and to save his father from the war, they sent the father away. His father eventually met a new wife away from the ninja island. and lost his royalty rights and lived as normal people. for w/e reason his parents dissapeared leaving him and his brothers to be orphans.
He then gives his lil brother a map, a compass and a flute. He doesnt understand why, and his brother tells him, the compass will only point where u need to be, not where u want to be. And the flute is broken, and the map is half faded and ripped in half.
But with that his brother leaves for the military, around 14, the older brother stops sending letters, til one day someone from the military, to tell him his brother was lost at sea during the war. At this point he decides he has nothing left anymore, he picks up his stuff and a lil raft and begins to set sail in hopes of finding the lost clan. another thing about the compass is it has 3 arrows…which point in all weird directions…til the day he leaves when they all decide to point in one direction, south. so he begins to head south on his raft, and hits an island days later…an island taken over by zombies lol.
yeah i got the first volume plotted out. and i really wanna get my friend who’s fucking awesome and has the exact art style i want to do this…but if she cant i will draw this myself. i got a book on self publishing, my best friend bought for me, so im really big on doing this. i hate 9-5’s and all i really know is martial arts and to draw…so im going big.
also the kid rocks a big ass fucking fro…one of the reasons he got picked on. i’ve designed the hero, mentally ive designed the brother and i’ve designed a graffiti artist he meets on zombie island.
heres an early design of the kid
http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v207/58/43/49403220/n49403220_31820217_2358.jpg