OCTOBER 2005

by BOB LAYTON

The big ouchie--!

First off, as most of you have probably figured out by now, the Bob Layton.com website crashed last month, shutting down the site and bouncing most of your e-mails back to you for weeks.

As it turns out, the massive amount of images stored on the site became more than the server could handle and the whole shebang came crashing down.

Fortunately, thanks to the timely intervention of the lovely Mrs. Layton (who unselfishly sacrificed several weekends of her free time), the site has been redesigned and reorganized.  We're still in the process of milling through the archives and reorganizing them, so please be patient as we complete the procedure.

Also, thanks to all of you for your e-mails wishing me a Happy Birthday.  It really touched me to know that so many of you took the time to send me your congratulations.  It was genuinely appreciated.

CHAT WITH BOB IN OCTOBER

Comic Book Resources recently brought back their chat room and they have had a number of events so far. Fabian Nicieza, Tom Brevoort, Scott Allie, David Hine, Rick Remender, James Lucas Jones, Dan Hipp and Mark Smith and Nunzio DeFillippis and Christina Weir are among the people that have done them so far (the transcripts can be found here if you are curious (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=5675 )
I’ll be doing a chat on CBR to talk about my past projects, future projects or simply comics in general. (Or whatever you folks out there would like to discuss--I like Football, y'know.)

Join in on the chat on Thursday, October 13th at 9pm EDT.

color me--disappointed

If you haven’t been made painfully aware of the fact already, I've always been a real stickler about including color as part of the storytelling process--ever since my days of working with 20 staff watercolor artists at Valiant. I was the only Editor-In-Chief in the history of the business to include colorists in the  incentives royalty pool. In my opinion, a good colorist is every bit as essential to the final product as the writer, penciller or inker.

I've been blessed with the good fortune to have worked with some astoundingly good colorists from time-to-time over my long career. But the honest truth is that the vast majority of my work has been laid waste by brutally-unconscious color putter-downers.  Nothing is more disheartening than to put your heart and soul into an assignment, that takes months out of your life, only to have it butchered by a thoughtless and unqualified computer operator.

If you are thinking about becoming a colorist for the comics biz, I created this simple guideline, many years ago, to aid newcomers in accomplishing the assigned task without confusion or second-guessing.

If you are hoping to become a colorist--please, please, please use your head as your main tool.  No amount of effects or techniques is a substitute for good old-fashioned brainpower.
The foremost problem with the coloring in comics today is that the people “manning the mouse” tend to be technicians…not artists.
Basic concepts, such as value, contrast, negative space and texturing, seems to elude them.
In order to avoid confusion, I decided to lay down a few of our “do’s and don’ts”, to aid you in the decision making process when telling a story with color in a comic.

(These are general rules of thumb and not to be taken literally.  All rules can be broken, at the appropriate moment, by an innovative artist.)
 
1. Knockouts:  Knockouts are designed to draw the eye to the essential action. Flat color, over the key storytelling action, is discouraged.
 
2. White is a color:  There are two elements that will assure that the reader’s eye is drawn to the focal point—positive and negative space (Black or White).  You should generally leave some white space on every page.   I tend to discourage the filling of every crevasse and nook with color—as if you were being paid by the square inch instead of per page.  Additionally, I prefer that reflective surfaces (like battle armor) include some white highlights.

HERE'S A GOOD EXAMPLE OF USING WHITE TO CREATE CONTRAST FROM THIS MONTH'S UNPUBLISHED VAULT STORY
 

3. Attention to detail:  The thing that I appreciate the most is when a colorist embellishes the existing art…elevating it by the use of SFX, texturing, holds and other ingenious methods.  However, a discreet judgment concerning the proper use of these techniques is encouraged, as well.  The industry, as a whole, overworks those tools or utilizes them to hide bad art. 

 
4. CONTRAST!!!!!: Please do NOT put red characters against a red background and a red sky with people off-camera throwing red Jello at them!  We know this sounds like a moronically-simple request but you’d be surprised at how many “alleged colorists” violate this basic rule of good storytelling.  The suggested rule of thumb is neutral background colors for characters with primary colors.  The reverse--for the reverse.
 

HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF BREAKING THE CONTRAST RULE EFFECTIVELY

5. Stick to the established color schemes:  Since most companies are marketing their characters to other media such as TV, movies, toys, video games and novels, it requires sticking to prescribed 'specs'.  It is essential that you don’t make the mistake that other companies have made by having three or four differing versions of the same character. To that end, creating a color guide on your particular series would be extremely helpful for other colorists who might have the opportunity to color those characters in other titles.
 
6. Be true to the light sources: The best rule of thumb is to look at the glyph that represents the nose on a drawn figure.  The point of the nose will almost always act as a sundial—with the shadow pointing in the direction opposite of the light source.  So, if a panel confuses you, check out the point of the nose.
 
7. READ THE FRIGGIN' STORY!  You’d be surprised how many coloring questions can be answered by skimming over the plot before hand. 

9/27/05      

JACKSONVILLE JAGS SCREW-UP BOB'S BIRTHDAY!

Pennington and Fiedler Out, Testaverde Signed to Backup Bollinger (excerpt from the NY Jets website)

The New York Jets knew going into September 25th game that yards would be tough to come by and mistakes had to be kept to a minimum in order to have success against the Jacksonville Jaguars’ stout defense. Unfortunately, three turnovers and only 168 yards of total offense proved too difficult to overcome in the Jets’ 26-20 overtime loss to the Jaguars.

New York Jets head coach Herman Edwards announced Tuesday that starting quarterback Chad Pennington has torn his rotator cuff and will likely miss the rest of season and backup quarterback Jay Fiedler has dislocated his rotator cuff.  Both players are down in Alabama getting second opinions from Dr. James Andrews.  Edwards also announced that the Green & White signed veteran Vinnie Testeverde to backup Brooks Bolinger.

Translation:  My Jets are screwed for the year!  Arrgggghhhh--!         

Who are your picks to go to the Super Bowl this season?  Let's get this party started by writing me with your opinions and picks as the season progresses.

9/28/05      

Carnivale creator Daniel Knauf TO write six issues of the  monthly Iron Man

series for Marvel in 2006.    BOB SAYS NOTHING! 

From Marvel.com:

“Daniel Knauf, creator and executive producer of HBO’s Emmy-award winning dramatic series Carnivale, is slated to take the reigns of Marvel’s epic Iron Man series for a spectacular six issue story arc. The first highly anticipated issue is schedule to debut Spring, 2006.

While Daniel Knauf – whose impressive credits also include the films Blind Justice and Dark Descent as well as the CBS series Wolf Lake – is no stranger to creative writing, this series will mark his first comic book effort. Knauf will bring his innovative storytelling magic to Marvel’s Iron Man, the crusading Super Hero who was first introduced by Marvel in the 1960’s."

I know that many of you are going to write me to ask my opinion of Knauf and Marvel's move to bring in yet another Hollywood scribe to write their comics.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to pass on commenting this time around due to a conflict of interest.  As it turns out, Mr. Knauf has been involved in several creative ventures with the Producer that currently represents David Michelinie and me in Hollywood and I don't want to create any creative ripples that might hurt our guy from any future projects with Daniel...or us.  As much as it pains me, I plan to remain silent on the subject. (That doesn't mean you have to, however--HEH-HEH!)

And--please don't ask me if David and I should go back to Iron Man. It should be glaringly obvious by now that it's never going to happen.

9/29/05      

BOB CREATES TWO NEW COVERS FOR TADDEO'S ZOOM SUIT SERIES!

I was recently asked by creator and former Marvel Marketing mogul, John Taddeo, to create a couple of new covers for his upcoming series--ZOOM SUIT.

This brings the number of covers I've contributed to five.  I urge everyone goes to John's website and check out the animated ZOOM SUIT short by clicking the SUPERVERSE icon below.

9/29/05