SCIENCE FICTION ARTIST IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

DigitalArtLIVE.com

COMICS

ATOMIC ROBO

KARA, ‘KARAFACTORY’

RICARDO BRESSO ISSUE 42 | AUG 2019

VUE ● TERRAGEN ● POSER ● DAZ STUDIO ● REAL-TIME 3D ● 2D DIGITAL PAINTING ● 2D/3D COMBINATIONS
digitalartlive.com/events/
2
digitalartlive.com/events/
3
•

•
•

JOIN NOW!
digitalartlive.com/academy/
4
 JOIN NOW!
digitalartlive.com/academy/
5
 PARTNER WITH
DIGITAL ART LIVE!
SHARE
YOUR EXPERIENCE AND
YOUR CREATIVE STORY

Tasos Anastasiades ’Esha’ Daniel Seebacher Chris Hecker, ‘Tigaer’

Just a few of the talented webinar presenters who have partnered with Digital Art Live!

Would you enjoy the opportunity of
teaching other artists, in a live online
setting? We are actively looking for artists
or content creators to work with Digital Art
Live as a partner, in presenting some of
our live webinars.
We’re particularly looking for artists and
content creators who work with DAZ Studio
and/or Poser, Vue and other landscape
software, or digital comics production.
We will also consider webinar ideas which
relate to your specialist skills, or which help
users to fully use a software plugin that
you’ve developed.
Webinars are recorded, and we profit-share
with our presenters on any future sales.
We sell on the popular DAZ content store,
which has strong traffic and sales.
Please use the link below to submit your
application, and we’ll be in touch!

https://digitalartlive.com/presenters

6
 Front Cover:
“Enter the
Toshop Matrix”,
a sci-fi cat-girl
painting by our
interviewee in
this issue,
Kara. Digitally
created and
painted in
Photoshop.

THE COMICS ISSUE

CONTENTS
OUR LIVE
WEBINARS!
―― 02

EDITORIAL
―― 09

INDEX OF
BACK ISSUES
―― 28

CONTESTS
INTERVIEWS
―― 36
―― 10 ―― 38 ―― 60
GRAPHIC
ATOMIC ROBO KARA, ‘KARAFACTORY’ RICARDO BRESSO
NOVELS
SURVEY #2 Brian Clevinger (story) Kara is comics maker in Ricardo works across a
and Scott Wegener (art) Paris who blends 3D and variety of media, including
―― 58 digital — and has just
talk about Atomic Robo, 2D, and has successfully
GALLERY: and how they make and used the method to make published a wordless 260-
POSER 11 sell this superb series. many graphic novels. panel ‘storyboard book’.
TOON DEMO PENCILS | CLIP STUDIO PENCILS | 3D | BRYCE DIGITAL | TRADITIONAL

―― 72 “I came to comics, and
very shortly thereafter to
IMAGINARIUM Robo, with absolutely no
―― 82 formal art education and
no deliberate craft to how
I approached my work. I
was passionate about it,
and maybe had an
aptitude for it. In the early
days, if it worked at all, it
was luck and instincts.”
“I first render the 3D
model ‘realistic’ — with
full lines, textures, lights,
and shadows — then in
Photoshop I manipulate
the renders to give the
illusion of a handmade
drawing. Sometimes you
really have to tinker, but
only the final result
7
counts.”
“My process is a laying on,
in order to build up. Each
panel is built up from the
initial drawing, with each
new type of material being
applied in such a way as
to correct the previous
image beneath it. In this
way the pictures ‘evolve’
to achieve the desired
end”.
MAGAZINE PODCAST
Join our mailing list to get a free Our fresh inspiration for sci-fi
magazine speeding to your inbox. artists, available on iTunes.
Subscribe at digitalartlivecom Subscribe to the Podcast feed

LIVE
Join our live webinar-based
workshops for digital artists.
digitalartlive.com

Credits for pictures, from top left: Detail from “Gigantic” by David Revoy; “Kitty” by Mutinate, the 3D robot cat that
ships free with Poser, tooned with Poser 11’s real-time comic book mode; detail from “Space Station” by Kara.

Paul Bussey Dave Haden

Editor-in-Chief, Conferences Editor and magazine layout
paul@digitalartlive.com david@digitalartlive.com

Support Dave
at Patreon.

Copyright © 2019 Digital Art LIVE. Published in the United Kingdom. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written
permission of the publisher. No copyright claim is made by the publisher regarding any artworks made by the artists featured in this magazine.

8
EDITOR’S LETTER
WELCOME...
“
Welcome to the “Comics” issue of your free
Digital Art Live magazine. This special
issue aligns with the launch of our Visual
Narratives Academy membership club, and also
celebrates comics and visual storytelling.
“With one mighty bound, he was FREE!” — such
was the late-1930s comics cliché, at the dawn of
the golden age of the superhero. And yet for
the makers of comics, that cliché has come true.
We have taken a mighty bound forward, and in
little more than a decade have become markedly
more free to create and sell than we were
before. For instance we now have superb tools
to make comics. The paper crowd has
affordable sketchbooks, elegant pencils, high-
tech pens, prismatic ink marker-brushes
specially shipped in from Japan, and big low-cost
scanners for the end result. The digital crowd
has affordable production tools in 2D (Krita),
2.5D (Cartoon Animator) and 3D (Poser,
Blender, SketchUp), which can be used with
£350 ‘draw on the screen’ pen-displays. Better,
these 3D tools tap into an ocean of royalty-free
content for DAZ/Poser, and 3D Warehouse.
We are also freer in terms of our choice of
subject-matter, and the angle from which a topic
can be addressed — while still finding readers.
Of course, if you want mega-bucks then the
current sweet spot might be to make your
heroine a freckle-faced 11-year old steampunk-
kid having magical comedy-adventures in the
dreamlands, in the company of a feisty pet
rabbit. But if you want to make a serious
documentary comic detailing corruption in
certain murky areas of science... then you’ll be
able to find a reading audience for that too.
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/3DArtDirect
9
We now also have global comics distribution
direct to readers, thanks to the circa-2007
arrival of cheap mass-market broadband
Internet, cheap hi-colour PC monitors,
smartphones, and Amazon’s Kindle platform.
Although Amazon arguably only came into its
own for selling comics with the Nov 2017
introduction of its excellent 10” Kindle HD
tablet — which was successfully discounted
for the mass market. There are also an
increasing number of indie digital distribution
services — the most recent of which is
Graphite which has just opened its beta self-
publishing platform. If you go looking, there
are many other niche distributors, alongside
the usual DIY crowd-funding services.
More change is coming. Semi-automation for
comics production is starting to happen,
adding another layer of tools. Africa and India
will start to offer intermediary Fivver-like off-
the-shelf $50 services — such as making
dynamic rough layouts from your 20-page
script, which you’ll then fit your comic onto.
While we still don’t have that magic “Make
Art!” button, the fledgling comics maker of
1985 — stuck with cheap splodgy pens, a pad
of iffy paper, the public library photocopier
and the postal service — would be astounded
at the tools we enjoy today. They would be
even more astounded at having instant open
access to all kinds and levels of audiences.
DAVID HADEN
Editor of Digital Art Live magazine
david@digitalartlive.com
RSS: https://digitalartlive.com/feed/
We talk with Brian Clevinger (story) and Scott Wegener (art), makers of
the Atomic Robo science-fiction comic, twice nominated for an Eisner
Award. Now with 13 completed graphic novels, a 12-part spin-off series,
an award-winning RPG game, and more coming!

DAL: Brian and Scott, welcome to the Digital in the idea that he went from work-for-hire to
Art Live in-depth interview. This is our “comics” co-creator in a couple of weeks!
themed issue and we’re very pleased to have
Scott: Yes it was really weird how well we
two makers of a great adventure comic. Had
meshed from the start? We’re both big history
you worked together before Atomic Robo, or —
nerds, big sci-fi nerds, big pulp nerds, and big
if not — then how did you first meet and get
tabletop nerds. Robo and his world were filled
together to brainstorm your character?
with so many of the same inspirations that I
Brian: No, at the time my day job was the was also trying to explore on my own, it was
webcomic 8-bit Theater. That series was easy to jump into it at full speed.
approaching its conclusion and I figured it’d be
DAL: The Atomic Robo series as it now stands is
a better idea to have another comic lined up,
rather complex, what with leaping across time
before I put myself out of work. Robo was a
and all the tech, and having a very long-lived
character I’d been tinkering with for a number
robot character and all that. Was it completely
of years. Just loose ideas in the back of my
planned out from the first, with all the timelines
mind. I finally came to realize that he could be
and elements? Was there lots of looping arrows
this lens through which we explore all sorts of
on a huge planning wall at your secret HQ and a
adventure fiction and sci-fi and pulp and weird
three-inch forward-planning “ten year plan”
history stories. Robo is basically an excuse to
binder on the desk… alongside a fluffy white
research and to play with and to remix all my
cat? Or was it more like, just… “heck, let’s wing
favourite narratives, tropes, and clichés.
it, have fun and see how he develops?”
I’d been looking for an artist for a while,
Brian: Not entirely planned, but we figured out
something like four or six months, without any
the major ‘beats’ of Robo’s life. We weren’t
luck. I was about to give up on the idea when I
interested in chronologically going through it
came across some of Scott’s artwork online. It
all, starting with the origin story. We knew it’d
was this great mix of the ordinary and the
be more interesting for Robo to already exist in
fantastic in a style where both looked like they
his world, to be this staple that everyone ‘just
belong to the same world. I threw the pitch at
knows and accepts’, and then to tell stories
him, he said it sounded like the sort of thing he
from throughout the timeline of that world, to
could have fun with, and Scott got so invested 10
see glimpses of how that came to be.
Picture: Scott Wegener.

ATOMIC ROBO

USA

COMICS | GAMES

WEB

11
Scott: Yes, so… we plotted out maybe one or
two major things that could happen to him in
each decade, starting with the 1920s and
moving forward. We figured some of this stuff
would become its own volumes, if we were lucky
enough to do more than one. Some of it would
be stuff that only referred to in a passing dialog
or a background detail or what not. Our thinking
was that with those major events loosely
sketched out — like usually no more than a
sentence — that gave us enough material for it
to feel like there’s a history to this world, but
also gave us a ton of freedom to explore what
happens in between. Or to change the details of
the major thing once we got to it and have to
actually make a story out of it!
DAL: Right. I see, thanks. But then… was there a
particular set of influences? For instance I
visualise a cork-board with Tintin, Doc Savage,
Sky Captain, H.P. Lovecraft, all at different
corners? On a six-sided board, of course!
Brian: Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Rocketeer,
and Buckaroo Banzai are the big ones for me.
There’s also a lot of Dragnet in there.
Scott: Oh, boy. Dragnet.
Brian: Yes…. we usually don’t mention that one
because it derails the conversation.
Scott: Usually if we’re telling people it’s like…
Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones… it’s because
we’re tabling at a convention and trying to make
a sale.
Brian: Yes, the sale is way more important than
Dragnet at that point! But I found it interesting
because it’s this highly technical and kind of
dangerous job. But it’s ‘just another day at the
office’ for the detectives. And I kind of wanted to
see if we could do huge adventures with a main
character who wasn’t as impressed with them as
the reader or bystanders might be.
DAL: Right. How did you first develop the visual
style — face — character-design of the Atomic
Robo character?
12
Pictures: opposite, Scott’s design reference
sheet for the official Atomic Robo scale-
model statue. This page, a page from Scott
showing Atomic Robo leaping into action in
the first big adventure comic. Colour by
Rhonda Pattison.

13
Scott: It's a little difficult to recall specifics over
a decade later, but The Rocketeer was definitely
an early influence. We wanted a retro look that
was also kind of timeless. The Rocketeer and
Iron Giant were high on the list of characters
who inspired us visually. I think it was a
question of what made them work visually —
and in both cases it was the eyes.
Ultimately, I looked to the big beefy cars of the
1950s to get across the idea of Robo's bulk and
solid construction. They weren't subtle about
what they represented — American industrial
might and ruggedness of construction, and to a
slightly lesser degree the dogged toughness of
American labour at that time. While Robo was
built decades earlier than those visual cues, they
best got across who and what Atomic Robo was.
His look was more inspired by the curves,
bulges, and big round headlights of the 1955
Buick Special than anything else.
DAL: Right, I never considered the car influence.
Fascinating, yes... I can see it now.
Real Science Adventures: with the main
comic a success, this 12-part spin-off
comic filled in ‘back story’ lore.
Scott: And, hey, he’s supposed to be timeless,
so he’s allowed to borrow imagery that post-
dates his own creation. This is comics!
DAL: Indeed. Were you pleased by the reception
of the first graphic novels, first the settings of
the Atomic Robo debut book and then the
Captain America-ish Dogs of War? That was
early 2009, for the trade paperbacks and then
the H.P. Lovecraft / Atomic Robo book Shadow
From Beyond Time which followed Xmas 2009.
Brian: I think we were just happy to be making
more comics! In summer 2019 we’re now about
to start our fourteenth volume of the main series
and it still feels crazy that we’re allowed to do
this. But, Yes, we were immensely happy about
readers’ responses to those early volumes.
DAL: Great. I liked your use of Lovecraft as a
character in the third graphic novel. And the
mention of his dad too. Of course Lovecraft was
pleased to see that being done, even when he
was alive. Frank Belknap Long, Robert Bloch
had him as characters while he was still alive.
Atomic Robo 1: In this first graphic novel
(2007) the reader gets an overview of
Robo’s adventures in the 20th century.
14
He even explicitly put himself in one of his
stories as a character, “Phillips, the Providence
mystic”. Actually, we really need an
“Encyclopaedia of Lovecraft as Character”, as
there have been so many uses now. But do you
still get ideas from Lovecraft these days, or have
you moved on?
Brian: Shadow from Beyond Time is our homage
to Lovecraftiana as a whole. We felt it was
important to answer some questions in the early
days of our books. The first series [collected
book #1] is a grab bag of short stories from
throughout Robo’s life, in case we never got to
do another one! The second series is all about
some World War 2 adventures, because we
didn’t want folks asking us whether or not the
super-strong invincible robot was involved in the
war. And the third volume tackled Lovecraft
mythos because an early criticism was, “Oh, it’s
just robot Hellboy.” And that’s true insofar as
Spider-Man is just Batman ‘Without Money’. I
mean, they’re both guys just swinging around
fighting petty crime and supervillains. So, we
Atomic Robo 2: “The Dogs of War”, in
which Robo serves his country in
missions during the ‘Weird War’. 15
figured we’d show these folks we could play with
the same toys as Hellboy, and still come out of it
completely different. But, yes, I think we’re done
with Lovecraft as a character. But maybe not his
dad…?
DAL: Right. Because his dad worked with Tesla,
in the story. In real life he was a travelling
salesman to the trade, for one of the Providence
jewellery companies, but then he went mad
when Lovecraft was just a young boy.
More generally, do you still look to the 1920-40s
pulps in general for ideas? Or does the story
now flow from the already-established interior
story-world settings of Atomic Robo? I mean
he’s ‘been around’ now, so has he outgrown his
original sources over time?
Brian: Yes, Robo was built in 1923.
Scott: In general, we aim for a mix. We’ve been
doing these stories for twelve years, we’ve
created a setting and a history, and folks want to
see us play with those elements.
Atomic Robo 3: “The Shadow from
Beyond Time”, in which Robo meets H.P.
Lovecraft and more! Set in the 1920s.
But at the same time part of what draws a lot of
people to Robo is that connection to pulp
adventures. Right now we’re in the middle of a
multi-volume story that comes from the world of
Atomic Robo itself. There’s no pulp influence.
Brian: Well, I’d say pulp can be more than just
having a Doc Savage with a different name crash
through a wall in the 1940s to punch a Nazi. It’s
a spirit of adventure where the stakes matter,
but also it’s not afraid to be a little silly. We’re
always doing that.
Scott: That’s true. We aren’t just regurgitating
pulp tropes, right? We’re using pulps as a
springboard into new adventures with that vibe
you were talking about. And over the years
we’ve added all these elements to Robo’s world.
Everyone loves “zorth” cartography, the vampire
dimension, odic fields, Doctor Dinosaur, ALAN,
and on and on. The longer the series goes the
more definition it has. It wouldn’t feel like a
genuine setting if we introduced stuff like that,
without having them ‘come back’ in some way.
We have to show that these things have an
impact.
Brian: Precisely. And, yes… right now — like
Scott said — we’re doing a big story that
involves all these bits of Atomic Robo continuity
that we’ve introduced over the years. But we
can’t get too far into our own mythos or we’ll
lose everyone. We’ve got to return to those pure
pulp roots as soon as we reach the end of this
current mini-epic.
DAL: Sounds good. What did you think of the big
Brad Bird movie Tomorrowland, which raided
and bound up so many of your type of retro
sources into a single Disney movie?
Brian: Never saw it!
Scott: Nope.
Brian: We’re a couple Tired Guys in Their 40s so
it takes a lot to get us out to a movin’ picture
show.
Scott: If it ain’t on Netflix, I haven’t seen it.
Brian: And if it is on Netflix, you haven’t watched
it yet.
Scott: Hey, I’m not as bad as you.
Brian: Yes, I can’t even defend myself there. At
least you can sorta watch stuff while you’re
working. Watching a movie while writing is a
nightmare.
DAL: Yes, sadly Tomorrowland was a huge box-
office failure, or they would have tied Capt.
Nemo and the Rocketeer and various other
Disney properties into a coherent backstory with
sequels, reboots and spinoffs. But I guess
sometimes a melange of retro also just gets too
complex for ordinary folks in the audience to
follow and fathom. Would a big Atomic Robo
movie be possible now, with the initial failure of
Tomorrowland apparently having rather
‘scorched the earth’ for nostalgic retro sci-fi? At
least in the minds of the Hollywood producers.
Brian: Oh, I don’t think it’s that bad. You need
several failures to bury an idea in Hollywood.
Scott: The Phantom, The Shadow, The
Rocketeer.
Brian: Hmm.
Scott: Wild, Wild West.
Brian: You’re hurting me.
Scott: Maybe Atomic Robo is the miracle shot
that’ll get it right!
Brian: Maybe… they’ll just pay us to keep the
option to a Robo movie that’ll never get made?
Best of both worlds.
Scott: An animated series could be fun. I think
that’s more our speed anyway.
Brian: Yes, I feel like at that scale we could still
have some influence. A movie has so much
invested in it that craft services would have
more impact on it than we would.
DAL: Right. The economics / audience /
technology for an animated series is probably
about right for that these days. The humour in
Atomic Robo also, would appeal if kept in. The
humour is very well done, and very refreshing to
see in science-fiction — which in literary terms
has become rather dour and depressive in
middle-age, or become very middle-of-the-road
elsewhere. Does Atomic Robo’s humour come
purely from dialogue or is there visual humour
too, and if so who adds that?
16
Real Science Adventures is a 12 part spin-off comic series, with
17
shorts that fill in some of the Robo back-story.
DAL: I guess I’m asking if there’s something of a
‘Marvel Method’ going on in your workflow —
where both the artist (Kirby) and writer (Stan
Lee) spitball a basic scenario and story, and then
the artist goes away and lays it out and pencils
it, then the writer comes back in and ‘writes to
the art’ directly on the page itself in response to
the art. Or is the humour all nailed down in a
formal script with thumbnails down the side,
before any art is drawn?
Brian: Oh, it’s definitely both. There’s a fair
amount of humour in the scripts but Scott adds
even more with body language, expressions, and
environmental details.
Scott: We spend a lot of time making each other
laugh and I think we bring that into the comic
too. And we’ve been making Atomic Robo
together for so long now that we kind of trust
each other.
Brian: But only kind of...
Scott: Right, let’s not get crazy! But we look out
for each other too. Brian’s scripts aren’t too
Atomic Robo 4: “Revenge of the
Vampire Dimension” (now called “Other
Strangenesses” for the collection).
concerned with how the final page will work. He
might suggest some visuals, some points of
view, some transitions, etc. But they don’t
always work on the page.
Brian: Guilty, as charged.
Scott: He trusts I’ll figure out what he’s trying to
do and to produce a version of it that’s actually
possible to put on a page.
Brian: Or to change the whole page and still end
up with everything where we need it to be for
the story. It might mean I’ve got to go back and
rewrite some dialog to fit the new flow of action,
but the end product looks like it was supposed to
be that way all along.
DAL: Super, thanks. Turning back to the
overarching story… then from 2010 to 2012
there was Atomic Robo and Other Strangeness,
Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science,
Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X. Ghost
of Station X was very highly acclaimed I believe,
and nominated for an Eisner? That must have
been very pleasing for you and the team?
Atomic Robo 5: “Deadly Art of Science”,
which tells the sort of Robo, his creator
Tesla, and the mysterious Jack Tarot.
18
Scott: We’ve had a few nominations over the
years. It’s always a pleasure!
DAL: And then there’s another seven completed
books after 2012, from Flying She-Devils of the
Pacific (early 2013) to Atomic Robo and the
Specter of Tomorrow (summer 2018) — we’ll run
all the covers in sequence below the interview.
And now you have the new Atomic Robo: The
Dawn of a New Era which introduces a posse of
younger characters. Children, I think? I’ve only
looked at it briefly and not read it. Do things
change radically, with this New Era? If so, why
have you felt the need to change? And will it be
maintained?
Brian: Well, not children. They’re working toward
their doctorates but instead of going somewhere
nice like MIT, they’ve come to this half-finished
science industrial complex out in the New Mexico
desert to hang out with Robo and risk their lives.
DAL: Ah, I see. Fresh-faced grad students.
Scott: We wanted to slow things down a little,
this time. Our last few stories have been fast-
Atomic Robo 6: “The Ghost of Station
X”. The graphic novel collection was
nominated for an Eisner Award.
paced adventures with huge stakes. We thought
it was time to pump on the brakes and do
something a little more, I dunno, domestic?
Brian: Yes, so… unlike most comics, our timeline
moves ahead at one year per year. Robo’s crew
of trusty Action Scientists debuted 12 years ago,
so they’re in their mid-40s today.
Scott: It’s time to give them desk jobs.
Brian: Dawn of a New Era introduces the next
generation of Action Scientists, with the old crew
acting as mentors or instructors.
DAL: Ah, I see. That was what I picked up when
I took a quick look at it.
Brian: And while everyone’s feeling out the
newer, quieter status quo… a terrible secret from
Robo’s past is starting to bubble up.
Scott: We want people to think we’re pumping
the brakes, but honestly we’re doing that slow
crawl up to the first big dive on a rollercoaster.
Brian: It’s gonna be a hell of a ride for the next
few volumes.
Atomic Robo 7: “The Flying She-Devils
of the Pacific”, battling a Japanese super
19 science attack on the USA.
DAL: Great. Where is Atomic Robo character
himself now in 2019, in terms of his
development? I mean both in terms of the
nailed-down look and the character traits, and
how has he most changed over time?
Scott: Personality wise, I think Robo is fairly
consistent. It develops as he matures, so Young
Robo is pretty bright-eyed and full of wonder,
and Old Robo is a world-weary but deep down
he’s still optimistic. Mostly Robo is just put upon
by the events that tend to happen to him.
Physically he's gotten bulkier. I put this down to
two things: me getting better at my craft, so his
physical look became a more cohesive
expression of his physical ability. And, on a
subconscious level, as I moved from youngish
adulthood into middle age, he has thickened as I
have thickened.
Brian: There’s also been a ton of little tweaks to
Robo’s design that I don’t think anyone would
notice, unless they were drawing him a couple
hundred times in every story.
Atomic Robo 8: “Savage Sword of
Doctor Dinosaur”, an adventure in which
Robo delves into the Hollow Earth.
Scott: That’s true! His shoulder joints change a
little in every volume… but I’m the only one who
knows.
DAL: I’ll look out for those. There have also been
spin-offs. You nailed down some the deep back-
story in the 12-parter title Atomic Robo
Presents: Real Science Adventures —partly
made with other artists. There’s also an RPG
game made by Mike Olson, so the fans can
devise their own adventures. That won an ENnie
Award for Best Game. Very impressive.
Have such things deepening and widening of the
Robo-world been a success, in terms of building
the brand and deepening fan-affection for the
character?
Brian: I don’t know if these spin-off projects
have expanded the audience. We really think of
them more like opportunities to expand on the
history of the world, for core fans who are
hungry for more. And they give us opportunities
to tell different sorts of stories that just don’t
make sense as a regular Atomic Robo volume.
Atomic Robo 9: “Knights of the Golden
Circle”, a 1884 time-travel story of
cyborg cowboys and a race against time.
20
DAL: The main comic’s art is beautiful itself, but
also beautifully staged and framed. The layouts
are standard enough for the frame-by-frame
cinematic “guided view” in Amazon's Kindle or
Comic Time not to get confused about edge-
detection (that's really the best way to read
Atomic Robo on a tablet, dear readers). But
then what's inside the panels is always very
dynamic, and that dynamism of per-panel layout
is as pleasing to the eye as the line-art itself.
So, my question is to Scott… did you train up for
years to be able to do that so perfectly, and if so
where and how? Or does it just come naturally?
Scott: If the first few issues of Robo have good
staging and visual storytelling it was 100% pure
luck. And I was just doing what my gut said to
do. And copying what I saw other people doing.
That's 300% accident, so far!
But I came to comics, and very shortly
thereafter to Robo, with absolutely no formal art
education and no kind of deliberate craft to how
I approached my work. It was something that I
was passionate about, and maybe had an
Atomic Robo 10: “The Ring of Fire”.
Readers should note that there’s a Web-
exclusive prologue to this book. 21
aptitude for. But in the early days if it worked at
all it was just luck/instincts.
Eventually I learned enough through directed
effort — how to tell a story on purpose, rather
than by accident. Partially it's been a learn-as-
you-go situation, and partially setting specific
educational goals outside of my work day to get
better at telling stories. It's probably a 50/50
mix.
DAL: That’ll be very inspiring for our readers, I
think. That someone can ‘make it big’ would
formal training or a degree.
Scott: Yes. So I guess the answer to your
question is: yes. I trained up for years while also
producing the work at the same time. Though I
would disagree with your statement about it
being perfect. There's always lots of room to
improve what we do.
DAL: Perfect for this reader. And these days it’s
all finished in Adobe Photoshop, I believe?
Have you found any plugins or similar which help
with production?
Atomic Robo 11: “The Temple of Od”, a
pre-World War II attempt to stop the
weaponising of supernatural energy.
Scott: The first nine volumes were pencil, ink, with perspective and detailed things like
and paper. And then just pencils that were vehicles? If so, how does that work for you and
indistinguishable from ink and paper. Then #10 how is it then integrated into the page layout?
and #11 were done in Sketchbook Pro which I
Scott: The short answer is… nope! I did waste a
loved, but Apple hates Wacom and I developed a
lot of time, last year learning Google SketchUp.
lot of interface problems with my stylus.
To model a kitchen that was used over and over
DAL: Ah, AutoDesk’s Sketchbook. Yes, it doesn’t throughout the volume I was working on. But I
quite have the slick inking brushes of Clip Studio never used it as a 3D model. Just a static image
(aka Manga Studio) or the latest Krita 4.2. like a piece of photo reference. Unless you are
doing 3D modelling all the time then you are
Scott: Now I work in Clip Studio Paint, which
neither fast nor very good at it. And if you
had some knobs and dials that allow me to
already know how to draw things in perspective
mostly correct those problems. Clip Studio is
it just becomes a waste of time.
purpose built for illustration and comics. It is
definitely the best tool for the job. It certainly has its uses for other artists. I know
of several superhero artists who have to draw
DAL: Yes, I’ve had an encounter with its great
New York or Metropolis over and over again in
many ‘knobs and dials’, though. And was rather
highly realistic detail. They have a library of
put off. I’d say that — despite its many abilities
building faces that they have created over time
— it’s perhaps too dauntingly over-complicated
that they can drop into Photoshop and
for most beginners to start with. But for pros it
manipulate into perspective. I think something
can certainly handle 3D import and positioning
like that would look extremely weird in Atomic
quite well. Do 3D models help at all, in planning
Robo though.
the layouts and getting the sketches nailed down

Atomic Robo 12: “The Spectre of Atomic Robo 13: “Dawn of a New Era”.
Tomorrow”. Robo strives to solve the Atomic Robo settles down for a quieter life
mystery of the secret cyborgs. at Tesladyne. Does he get it…?
22
Picture: cover for the first of the IDW mega-collections. Everything Explodes was released
by IDW in late 2015. The first Robo book (#1), “Dogs of War” (book #2) and Atomic Robo
and the Shadow from Beyond Time” (book 23 #3) are included, and it runs to 384 pages.
I do 2D pre-production mock ups of things and that she sells, featuring cat creatures from the
then extrapolate how they look from one angle comic. Ideal stuff for the blog! Off I went to
or another as the situation comes up. hivemill.com, to get a screenshot of said kittee…
but then I wondered... “this hivemill.com thing,
DAL: Thanks. Yes, one would imagine that city-
what else does it have?” And of course my eye
based comics — Spiderman, Batman and
then lighted on your sumptuous Atomic Robo
suchlike — would have a special penciller who
print books there. “Ahah,” I thought “Atomic
just did the architecture — an ‘architecuralist’ or
Robo looks great, and is also available for free
some such job-title. Talking of specialists, I have
online. Wow... it has all these complete books,
to say the colouring and lettering on Robo is also
and it looks like Doc Savage meets Lovecraft.
outstanding, so kudos to those members of your
Superb, why have I never heard of this before?"
team too. I believe your colourist Ronda
Pattison was nominated for an Eisner early on,
and I can quite see why from reading the
Lovecraft book. Superb work, there.
Brian: Yes, we’ve gone through a few colourists
over the years. Ronda Pattison did the first six
volumes, then Nic Filardi did She-Devils and
Savage Sword, then Anthony Clark knocked out
Golden Circle through Spectre of Tomorrow. And
then we brought Shan Murphy in starting with
Dawn of a New Era. I can’t pick a favourite
colourist. Each one of them brings something
different and interesting to the art.
DAL: Thanks. It certainly all work very nicely in
the end product. And it's also great to see that
all issues of Atomic Robo are online as free
webcomic pages, and at a good resolution too.
That was how I found you, actually. It was due
to a strange chain of co-incidence.
First, I became aware of Minna Sundberg’s
Nordic future-folkore comic/graphic-novel series
Stand Still. Stay Silent, because she also
produced a free visual ‘map’ of ancient
linguistics titled “Nordic Languages in the Old
World Language Families” — and I picked up on
that because I'm writing a book on the early
Tolkien that partly delves into such linguistics. A
very useful map, and that map made me aware
of her Stand Still. Stay Silent webcomic, and I
loved the comic’s setting and art and was please
to find it free online. I noted it for full reading
when complete, and also mentioned it on a few
blogs in the meantime.
Then, last week I needed a graphic cat with a
macabre Ulthar-ish twist, for my ‘Kittee Tuesday’ Picture: Part of the
weekly feature on my daily H.P. Lovecraft blog character design
Tentaclii. So I remembered Minna sheet for Carl Sagan,
Sundberg’s ‘Blessed Felines’ poster-print in the third Atomic
24Robo adventure.
And so I was pleased to find you, and that was
how it happened.
So... that leads me to my actual question. Why
had I never heard of Atomic Robo before that?
It seems a commonly expressed sentiment that
‘many people have never heard of Atomic Robo,
but they should have’?
Scott: Story of our lives!
Brian: So… they say the bar of entry into comics
is lower than it’s ever been. And that’s true, but
that doesn’t mean it’s easy to succeed. We’re a
25
couple guys plugging away at our robot scientist
having adventures. And we’re in direct
competition with hundreds — literally hundreds
— of other properties that enjoy the backing of a
multi-media, multi-decade, multi-million-to-
billion dollar franchises. Each.
DAL: Yes, sadly ‘big marketing’ still matters.
One would have hoped that the wide-open
Internet would have titled the field a little more
than it has. Then there’s all the competition for
readers, from the great comics of the past
century, from Krazy Kat onward.
A guest-star from Atomic
Robo book 3: ‘The Shadow
from Beyond Time’. As well
as H.P. Lovecraft, the
famous Carl Sagan
(Cosmos) appeared… also
as himself!
Scott: Original IPs like ours, made by a couple of
nobodies like us, they just don’t survive in that
‘big marketing’ environment. We’re still not sure
how we’ve been allowed to keep going.
Brian: Probably best not to draw attention to it,
and just try to keep making comics until
someone finally stops us!
DAL: It’s a pity there’s no curator really picking
up completed adventure titles like this, which
appeal to all ages, and pushing them.
Completed comics like this tend to get swamped
by the weekly tidal wave of juvenile superhero
and manga titles for young adolescents and what
I think of as the ‘duck comics’ for small children.
Discovery of imaginative completed adult-
friendly adventure and sci-fi is so difficult, even
with a copy of Previews to hand, and I’m an
expert searcher and constantly keeping an eye
out for such stuff. Everything seems to be just
focussed to the 12-14 year old buyer. No-one is
giving me a single place to swiftly find what I
want to find — completed imaginative adventure
comics suitable for the over-16s— and yet
there’s so much great stuff being made today.
And the apps are not much use there either.
Anyway, talking of the comics industry — where
do you see it going in the next few years and
what positive changes might you like to see?
Brian: I’d love to see creators unionize so we
can get decent page rates and royalties from
bigger publishers. But the logistical hurdles are
pretty significant.
DAL: Yes, though… political hurdles too. If
effective, such an independent organisation
would soon become a prime target for covert
‘capture’ and ‘steering’ by political groups.
Perhaps what’s needed is an avowedly a-political
marketing union, rather than a hiring union?
Where any indie comic that paid the set rates
can hire low-cost effective marketing services.
Brian: In the meantime, I’d like to see more
hybridized distribution models like Atomic Robo.
Especially for independent ventures. As you said
Robo is free online, we’re also in your comic
shop, and your local book store can order our
collections. We run Kickstarter campaigns for
extra fancy hardcover editions. If we relied on
only one of those options then we’d have run out
of money years ago. And I think that’s what
happens to a lot of new titles, independent and
corporate. It’s just crazy not to go after all these
markets.
Scott: I think a lot of folks assume you’re
cannibalizing your own sales by putting the book
in all those places. Like, why should someone
buy the hardcover for $25 when the trade
paperback is only $18? But why should they get
either of those when it’s on comiXology for $10?
And why should buy anything at all when it’s
free online? But it’s been our experience that
most readers don’t think in those terms. They’re
thinking, “Oh, I prefer softcovers,” so the other
versions don’t matter.
“Now I work in Clip Studio
Paint, which had some
knobs and dials that allow
me to mostly correct those
problems [I had with
Sketchbook Pro and Apple
devices]. Clip Studio is
purpose built for illustration
and comics.”
DAL: Yes, that’s right. For me the primary thing
is... long-form completed story in digital, easily
had via PayPal or Amazon, and viewable on the
10” Kindle HD. But for others it’s going to be
the Christmas gift hardback collection for their
nephew or niece, or the collectable individual
issue pamphlets with their cover-art, or the
episodic webcomic for their phone... so they can
show their friends in the playground.
Scott: Yes, everyone has their own preferred
format and that’s what they’re going to go with.
The trick is to make your stuff available in as
many formats as you can support — and folks
will grab the one they want.
DAL: Thanks. Good advice for makers. Are
there other sci-fi retro works that you admire,
and that our readers should be looking at?
26
Picture: cover for the Free Comic Book day release in 2016, bearing an uncanny
resemblance to the two creators of the Atomic Robo comic!
27
Have you seen the new artnovel Above the
Timberline, for instance? Not just comics
actually — perhaps you can also recommend
novels or audio adventures, maybe games?
Scott: Sadly, my mind draws a blank at this
question. My life outside the studio has been
incredibly busy with family stuff the last few
years. Good stuff. Just too much of it!
DAL: Yes, we’re already in the Age of
Abundance, and there are a couple of billions
more young minds coming soon… who are also
going to be getting creative. Good for them.
Scott: These days I have very little time and
absolutely no energy for hunting down and
engaging with new media. The last comics I can
remember sitting down and reading were Sam
Bosma’s Fantasy Sports books. And Spider-Man:
Into The Spider-Verse was the last movie I
watched that wasn’t just background noise while
I was working. I’m pretty disconnected from
most media right now. I enjoy what happens to
fall into my lap, but I don’t currently have the
mental bandwidth to go hunting it down.
I’m hoping that will change soon.
DAL: Yes, that goes back my point about how
difficult it is to hunt down.
Scott: I’m really into D&D [RPG table-top game]
and a few of its retro-clones at the moment.
DAL: Ah yes... I recently wrote an expansion for
The Midderlands, which is one of those ‘back to
the 1970s roots’ fun RPG games.
Scott: Quietly reading rules and inventing worlds
I will never play in is very meditative for me.
DAL: Indeed. More fun to write than to play...
Brian: I’m in a weird space lately where I’m
mostly reading non-fiction, old mystery novels,
or translations of wuxia stories. [wuxia =
popular Chinese folk genre, real-life Chinese
martial-arts in the hands of chivalric and
immortal heroes, who usual battle magical
forces and dragons]. All my sci-fi seems to
come from tabletop games, videogames, and
movies.
DAL: Yes, I tend to just follow authors — such as
Stephen Baxter, Neal Stephenson [see the DAL
interview with him in issue #32].
Is making comics inevitably a team/studio/
outsourced game now, or is there still a place for
the solo indie ‘DIY’ comic in the market?
Scott: Oh, no. There’s always going to be room
for the lone genius to throw a comic together.
Brian: You say “genius”... I say “maniac.”
/Laughter/
DAL: And finally, what’s next for Atomic Robo?
A board-game with AR elements? Full-cast
audio adventures in the ‘old-time radio serial’
style? Or just more great adventure stories in
the comics format?
Brian: More comics, I hope!
Scott: Are we allowed to say we’re working on a
board game?
Brian: I don’t think so, but there it is!
DAL: A board game would be fab… they can do
all sorts of things with electronics in them these
days, too. Card games are also hot, but the
market seems a bit over-saturated there
already. But perhaps AR will shake that up.
Scott: Maybe your dream of getting paid to not
make a movie will come true, Brian.
Brian: Hey, a guy can hope!
DAL: Super, let’s hope that work out for you
both. Ok, many thanks for this in-depth
interview and we hope it brings you many new
readers for Atomic Robo.
Scott: Thanks for talking with us!
Brian: Unionize!
Atomic Robo is online at:
http://www.atomic-robo.com/
All pages are free to read there!
The award-winning RPG game is at:
https://www.evilhat.com/
Hardback print collections can be ordered
from local bookstores or via:
https://hivemill.com/collections/atomic-robo
28
Atomic Robo has a two-book RPG Set,
plus speciality ‘Fate Dice’. The game
was first designed by Mike Olson at Evil
Hat Productions in 2012. The main
book weighs in at 320 pages and
embeds Atomic Robo in the ‘FATE Core’
game system, although this RPG stands
alone. You can play the Robo setting in
any era, and it can be played by only
two players if it’s slow gaming night.
Like Robo, the game aims to be a clean
and fun mix of high action, weird
science, and good humour.
In 2014 the game was the Gold Ennie
Award Winner for “Best Game” and
“Best Rules”; and in 2015 it won the
Origin Awards “Best Role Playing Game”
and “Best Role Playing Game
Supplement” awards.
Chapter 10 is “Telling Stores the Atomic
Robo Way” which is long, excellent and
useful for comics makers and storytellers.
Note that ‘FATE Core’ and the Robo
comics are available free online, and thus
an experienced and penniless game
master might bootstrap them together
after some work. But the dedicated Robo
RPG books are ideal for less experienced
or younger gamers, and anyone who
needs a streamlined experience. Note
also that FATE games require the special
dice — they’re not optional. We looked at
the Evil Hat store and found both books
in paper + dice for $35 all-in — but that’s
because of a summer sale. Expect to pay
29 $70 for such a bundle at normal times.
HAVE you missed out on an issue of
our free magazine? Please enjoy
this new handy double-page index
of our past issues, and check if
any are missing from your
collection. Our 15,000
readers are also able to
access back-issues of
our previous title 3D
Art Direct.
Every new issue
can be sent to your
email address, simply by
subscribing to our mailing-list...

https://digitalartlive.com/

Inset: Issue 28 (’Future Oceans’ issue) cover art by Artur Rosa.

Issue 1 Oct 2016 Issue 2 Nov 2016 Issue 3 Dec 2016 Issue 4 Jan 2016
Designing Future Cities Alien Plants/Creatures ’A Galaxy Far Away…’ The new Poser 11

● Tarik Keskin ● Matthew Attard ● Neil Thacker ● Charles Taylor (on

● Christian Hecker
● Gallery: Future
Cities, a huge 32 page
mega-gallery!
● The Imaginarium
(regular feature, in all
subsequent issues)
● Exidium Corporation ● Jean-Francois the new Poser 11)
● Gallery: Ryzom Liesenborghs ● Ariano di Pierro
concept illustrations ● Gallery: “These are ● Paulo Ciccone
● Gallery and essay: not the planets you’re (the Reality plugin)
the future bodily looking for…” ● In-depth 8,000-word
evolution of humans in ● Gallery: SpaceX review of the new
space manned Mars mission Poser 11 Pro!

30
Issue 5 Feb 2016 Issue 6 March 2016 Issue 7 April 2016 Issue 8 May 2016
Cosmos (space art) Cyber-humans + VR Future Female Heroes Our Future Frontier
● Dave Hardy ● Tara de Vries ● Leandra Dawn ● The Mars Society
● Ali Ries (Second Life) ● Aaron Griffin ● Ludovic Celle
● Tobais Roersch ● Ludovic Celle ● Paul Frances ● Gallery: Orbiting
● Oyshan Green ● Elaine Neck ● Troy Menke Cities in Space
(Terragen 4) ● Anders Plassgard ● Bob May’s collages ● Gallery: Space
● Gallery: The art of ● Gallery: Future ● Gallery and essay: Colonies/Outposts
the cosmic. cyber-humans Female future heroes ● Gallery: Mars in
1950s pulps

Issue 9 June 2016 Issue 10 July 2016 Issue 11 August 2016 Issue 12 Sept 2016
Blender: special issue Steampunk Future Landscapes Second Skin (tattoos)

● Colin Masson ● Renderosity ● ‘Artifex’ ● ‘Pixeluna’

● Thomas Piemontese ● Suzi Amberson ● Lewis Moorcroft ● Paolo Ciccone
● Shane Bevin (’Kachinadoll’) ● Rob Wildenberg ● Deane Whitmore
● Tutorial: How to ● Bob May ● ‘Tigaer’: ‘making of’ ● HiveWire: new Big
export a clean .OBJ ● Sci-fi in PC pinball ● Gallery: Future Cat for Poser
from Blender ● Steampunk gallery Oceans and Craft ● Gallery: Second Skin
● Index of past issues ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium
● Gallery: Blender art

31

Issue 13 Oct 2016
Spacewrecks (TTA)
● Vikram Mulligan
● Xistenceimaginations
● Craig Farham
● TTA series tribute
● NASA’s rescue-bot
● Index of past issues
● Gallery: Space hulks
wrecks, crashes
A FREE MAGAZINE
Issue 17 March 2017
Movie magic
● Greg Teegarden
● Tobias Richter
● Phil Dragash
● ESA’s Moon Temple
● Scott Richard
● Index of past issues
● Gallery: the spirit of
the cinema
YOUR
ART
HERE?
Issue 14 Nov/Dec 2016 Issue 15 Jan 2017 Issue 16 Feb 2017
CyberTRONic Mistworlds Future vehicles
● ‘CG Artiste’ ● Chuck Carter (Myst) ● Syd Mead interview
● ‘Keplianzar’ ● Cynthia Decker ● Vadim Motiv
● Jacques Pena ● Cathrine Langwagen ● Adam Connolly
● TTA series tribute ● Ulco Glimmerveen ● Mark Roosien
● Ugee 1910b pen ● Evolo competition ● UK’s Bloodhound
tablet—in-depth review ● Index of past issues supersonic rocket-car
● Gallery: Neon and ● Gallery: Myst-like ● Index of past issues
‘cyberglow’ artists digital art ● Gallery: “Vrooom!!”
YOUR YOUR
ART ART
HERE? HERE?
Issue 18 April 2017 Issue 19 May/Jun 2017 Issue 20 July 2017
Vue 2016 special issue Sci-fi comics Digital clothing
● Barry Marshall ● Patrick Gyger ● Kim Schneider (’Arki’)
● Vue 2016 R2 review (leading sci-fi ● Melissa Moraitis
● Anaor Karim museum curator) (’BlackTalonArts’)
● NASA’s tunnels ● Georges Peters ● Marvelous Designer
● W.P. Taub ● Arne Cooper 6.5—in-depth review
● Index of past issues ● RoboSimian ● Jepe
● Gallery: Nature ● Index of past issues ● Index of past issues
Grows on You! ● Gallery: comic-book ● Gallery: Future Fashion
32
 YOUR YOUR
ART ART
HERE? HERE?

Issue 21 August 2017 Issue 22 Sept 2017 Issue 23 Oct 2017 Issue 24 Nov 2017
Ecofutures Lighting for effect Gateway to space Abstracts in sci-fi

● Hal Tenny ● Joe Pingleton ● Neil Blevins (assets ● Andy Lomas (The
● Frank Little ● Davide Bianchini artist at Pixar) Matrix, Avatar)
● Organics in pulp art ● Characters in the ● GrahamTG ● Erwin Kho
● Linda Granqvist public domain ● Arthur C. Clarke ● Alastair Temple
● Index of past issues ● Lee (aka ‘Conlaodh’) ● Oshyan Greene ● Gallery: ‘At the borders
● Gallery: visions of ● Index of past issues ● Gallery: Arthur C. of abstraction’ in
the ‘ecofuture’ ● Gallery: characters Clarke tribute science fiction art
● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium

FOR DIGITAL ART

YOUR YOUR YOUR
ART ART ART
HERE? HERE? HERE?

Issue 25 Dec 2017 Issue 26 January 2018 Issue 27 Feb/Mar 2018 Issue 28 April 2018
Dynamic posing To the skies! Giant monsters Future oceans

● Jaki Blue ● Kevin Conran (Sky ● ‘Sanskarans’ ● Artur Rosa

● Tasos Anastasiades Captain movie) ● Simon Beer ● Matt Nava (Journey)
● Brian Armieri ● Alois Reiss ● Jean-Marie Marbach ● Samuel de Cruz
● Sugary Ashes ● Airships over Venus ● John Haverkamp ● Future oceans timeline
● Index of past issues ● Vladimir Yaremchuk ● Index of past issues ● Index of past issues
● Gallery: World of ● Index of past issues ● Comic strip ● Evola mini-gallery
Wearable Art ● Gallery ● Gallery ● Gallery
● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium

33
 YOUR YOUR YOUR
ART ART ART
HERE? HERE? HERE?

Issue 29 May 2018 Issue 30 June 2018 Issue 31 July/Aug 2018 Issue 32 Sept 2018
Fantasy portraits Alternative history Sci-fi rocks! (music) Design for videogames

● Kevin McBriarty ● Mike Doscher ● Robert McParland ● Wildfire Games

● Rebecca Elsey ● Fredy Wenzel ● Darius (TheBakaArts) ● Neal Stephenson
● Mirjam ● Small Brown Dog ● 3mmi ● Stefan Kraus
● Index of past issues ● Index of past issues ● Index of past issues ● World Creator review
● Gallery: fantasy ● Alt.history tour-guide ● Classic album covers ● Index of past issues
portraits ● Gallery: alternate ● Gallery: Rock album ● Gallery: Game themed
● Imaginarium histories inspired art artwork
● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium

YOUR YOUR YOUR

ART ART ART
HERE? HERE? HERE?

Issue 33 Oct 2018 Issue 34 Nov 2018 Issue 35 Dec 2018 Issue 36 Jan 2019
Abstract characters Future Interiors Getting value for your art Megacities

● Ulrick V. Jensen ● Tarik Keskin ● Chris Hecker ● Lorenz Ruwwe

● E. Golavanchuck ● Daniel Maland ● Drew Spence ● Jon Hrubesch
● Lovecraft posters ● ‘Petipet’ (Petro ● Gene Raz von Edler ● James Ledger
● Claudio Bergamin Apostoliuk) ● Index of past issues ● Index of past issues
● Index of past issues ● Index of past issues ● Mini-review: Meshbox ● Review: Bryce 7.1
● Gallery: Abstract ● Gallery: Future ‘H.P. Lovecraft 3D’ landscape software
Characters Interiors ● Gallery: To the Beach! ● Gallery: Megacities
● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium

Support this free magazine via Patreon! Your Editor kindly requests
your personal help, if you wish to support the production of this regular
free magazine. As little a $1 a month will make all the difference.
Please become my patron on Patreon, today.
34
 YOUR YOUR YOUR
ART ART ART
HERE? HERE? HERE?

Issue 37 Feb 2019 Issue 38 April 2019 Issue 39 May 2019 Issue 40 June 2019
Giant Historic Creatures Super Skin Deserts Depicting character

● ‘AM’, aka Alessandro ● Dave Abbo ● Armando Savoia ● Glen, aka ‘Glnw43’
Mastronardi (LAMH) ● Anestis Skitzis ● Ken Musgrave ● Anja von Lenski
● Arthur Dorety ● Pixeluna ● MojoWorld tribute ● Lisa Herron
● Herschel Hoffmeyer ● ‘La Femme’ review ● Steffen Brand ● Lovecraft on covers
● Index of past issues ● Index of past issues ● Michael Efriam ● Moon contest
● Gallery: underwater ● Gallery: exotic and ● Moon contest ● Gallery: Expressing
prehistoric creatures alien skins ● Gallery: Sci-fi Deserts character
● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium

YOUR YOUR YOUR

ART ART ART
HERE? HERE? HERE?

Issue 41 July 2019 Issue 42 Aug 2019 Issue 43 Sept 2019 Issue 44 Oct 2019
Moon Visual Narratives Real-time Halloween theme

● Xin Liu ● Atomic Robo

● Jeremiah Humphries ● Kara, ‘Karafactory’ Are you interested in being interviewed in a future
● Jan van de Klooster ● Ricardo Bresso
● Best graphic novels issue of the magazine? Please send the Web address
● NASA Moon art
● Index of past issues ● Index of past issues of your gallery or store, and we’ll visit!
● Gallery: Bases and ● Gallery: Comic and
cartoon art paul@digitalartlive.com
outposts
● Imaginarium ● Imaginarium

SOME OF OUR IN-DEPTH REVIEWS:

Poser Pro 11 Ugee 1910b (pen-monitor) Vue 2016 R2
#4 | January 2016 #14 | December 2016 #18 | April 2017
35
 ARCHITECTURE THAT REACTS
Amsterdam’s Laka Foundation wants to see
“architecture that reacts”. They invite design of any
scale, if capable of dynamic interaction with its
social, natural, or built surroundings. Previous
winners have combined robotics, mechanics,
innovative materials and fabrication including
biodesign and biofabrication, and much more.
The Italian illustration competition
Tapirulan is celebrating its first 15
years, with a SUPER theme.
“Open to all superillustrators, ready to
surpass themselves and especially
their competitors. At stake, for the
overall winner, there is the super prize
of 2,500 euros.”
They require just one superlative...
“square format illustration, to be sent
by 17th October 2019".
Entry is via: a 24" inch graphics board in JPG; a 500
word project statement; plus your biographical and
contact details. Early Registration opened on 1st
August 2019, and the entry deadline is 20th
December 2019. Entry fees start at $25 for
Individual Students, and $50 for a Student team.
https://lakareacts.com/competition-2020/
They welcome digital or print work.
While not free, there is a relatively
modest entry fee of 15 euros.
48 of the most super contest entrants
will be chosen for exhibition at the
annual Tapirulan art show — staged at
Cremona in Italy.
https://illustratorscontest.tapirulan.it/
en/super-competition-for-super-
illustrators/
36
The Public Library of the Canary Islands — a lovely
sunny territory of Spain — has a new 11,000 euro
prize contest (around $12,000). This is free to enter.
The Library invites unpublished picture-books from
around the world, made by those aged 18 years or
older. Your book must be in Spanish, and can be
with or without words. They are seeking “narrative
and visual originality” within the format, and also
“literary quality”.
37
The only drawback is that entries cannot be digital or
already laid out and finished. The entrant sends in
colour photocopies of three finished illustrations,
together with a full script and rough mock-up of the
book. The book can be up to 32 pages. Thus, some
cost is involved, even though entry is free.
The entry deadline is 30th September 2019.
https://bibliotecainsular.grancanaria.com/
Digital Art Live visits Paris to talk with
Kara, aka ‘KaraFactory’ or simply
Philippe. Kara uses 3D models to help
him depict complex steampunk
machines and gothic architecture in
his many graphic novels.

DAL: Philippe, welcome, and thanks for this
in-depth interview for the free Digital Art
Live magazine. You’ve just released a
superb online comic, made by mixing 2D
and 3D. When we saw that comic, we
thought we should invite you to our special
“comics” issue of the magazine.
Pictures: A preview demo showing the
process of taking 3D to 2D in “La Guerriere
Innocente” adventure, a French ‘BD’ album
(a short graphic novel) by Kara. Kara does
all the work on his comic ‘albums’, from
drawing and rendering to colouring and
lettering.

KARA: First of all, thank you very much for Inset: the 3D-2D panel seen embedded in
your invitation, It is a pleasure and an its full laid-out and finished page in the book
honour of course. La Guerriere Innocente.

DAL: How did you first start becoming

interested in making art, and begin to
discover your talent?
KARA: It is a passion that goes back to my
childhood. My father was a draftsman
[technical drawing, at a drafting table] and
my mother has a great artistic sense.
Maybe I inherited something from them? As
a child, I was often drawing. When I was 8-
10, I drew and designed a lot of board
games, with simple rules. I drew the
courses, the game pieces, but I could not
play them — because I did not have sisters
or brothers! So when I finished a game, I
started making another one.
France is of course a country with a great
tradition in making comics. We have a lot
here, and so very early I became interested
in our great classics. Some say today that I
have an ‘American’ way of inking comics,
which means I use lots of detail in the black
and white. 38
 KARA

FRANCE

PHOTOSHOP |
PENCILS | 3D |
BRYCE |

WEB

39
DAL: Yes, many French and Belgian comics can have more of a
‘clear line’ style. Moebius, Tintin...
KARA: Yet… I only discovered Marvel comics when I was 15 years
old. My style is also said to be very similar to Elfquest, yet I only
read this comic book very briefly. Perhaps it influenced marked me
more than I am aware...
Then in the 1970s and 80s, Japanese animation first arrived in
France, such as it was in those days. I was very much influenced
by this particular Japanese aesthetic. In the end, all these influences
have mixed together, and I try to create a style, a universe that is
consistent in both form and my stories.
DAL: I see. And did you then go on to learn in a university? Or
were you self-taught, after that?
KARA: I was self-taught until I entered a vocational school for
commercial artists, then I worked in animation storyboarding. But
for comics, I am largely self-taught. Though I have been helped by
a number of professionals who have taught me many things. Such
as Jack Manini. I thank them all again!
DAL: Was it a hard struggle to learn all the skills required?
KARA: There were good things and bad... at the time I did not
hesitate to show my love for the Japanese animation and mangas
arriving in France in the early 90s. That made me a little ‘marginal’
and at that time France took a dim view of such things. But my
friends and I, we were fans… geeks of Japanese animation. Imagine
the life of a geek in the 1980s in the USA! Then transfer that to
France. You will have an idea of what I have sometimes suffered.
But the Japanese animation, the mangas, the comics, the cinema,
and even the comics offered me such fascinating worlds! I could not
reject them to conform to a ‘normal’ society. But I knew I was right
to like it. Fortunately, I had a few loyal friends and parents
sometimes as passionate as me, and over the years, the Japanese
animation has gained a better reputation.
DAL: Yes, here in Great Britain, the British Museum has a huge
manga exhibition which is on right now.
KARA: But it was a long haul to some sort of grudging respectability
for manga. At the same time, I had to up my drawing level, to
create a coherent universe. I had to stretch beyond my comfort
zone. My art history classes helped me a lot there, and I met artists
who taught me a lot of different techniques that had been validated
by centuries of use. Again it was very interesting, but I had to learn
everything and then try to meld it all into a consistent style.
DAL: Today you are known France as “Kara”, and have a number of
superb ‘BD albums’ (what English-speakers would call ‘short graphic
novels’ of around 64 pages) in print. But what was ‘the big
breakthrough’ for you, the point in time where you started to make
pictures that got you much attention than before?
40
Pictures: more demos for the 3D to 2D process.
41
KARA: A single starting point is not obvious ... I
would say the day or I finally took pleasure to
draw a very detailed decoration. I hated the sets
[drawing sets for advertising storyboards]. And
then one day, I do not know why, I loved doing
some detailed decoration! I never really
understood it but that was the ‘click’ — it took
place at the end of my studies in cartooning.
Then I started highlighting and framing my
characters in ‘boxes’, and that made me realize
that I could finally create stories, universes.
The fact of publishing professionally motivated
me a lot to improve myself. I published eight
professional albums and a ninth as a writer with
a Japanese author!
DAL: Thanks. We will have a visual listing of
those at the end of the interview. Many of them
were made with substantial help with 3D, and
we will show examples of that. Talking of
software tools, what software do you use for
your digital sketching and inking?
KARA: I still ink a lot on paper. Only the sets are
made in digital, they are a mixture of 3D and
then retouched by hand using pen and a graphic
tablet. I make my storyboard frames in
Photoshop because it allows me to change my
mind very quickly, to change the boxes, etc.
DAL: Right, so you mix 3D elements into your
comics. What is the 3D software being used for
that? And does the software have the ability to
make a good basis for line-art? Perhaps via
using a plugin?
KARA: Let me keep my little secret about my
main 3D software, but for example… I still use
Bryce. Good old Bryce is not meant to be a
modeller, but one can quickly assemble simple
3D forms. That's enough for me to create the
basis of my architectures.
DAL: Yes, and Bryce has some surprising
capabilities re: ‘natural media’-like rendering in
something approaching real-time rendering. We
did a ‘free/low-cost software review’ of it in the
magazine back in issue #36, which looked at
some of those NPR and quick-rendering
possibilities.
KARA: I also use some royalty-free 3D objects
for statues, everyday objects like phones,
furniture, statues, etc. I also buy 3D objects
from designers. For example, I recently obtained
a pack of Egyptian statues for just $10!
DAL: Yes, there’s a huge range of older Poser
royalty-free items which still work perfectly well
with Poser 11’s real-time toon rendering. And
often at $3-10 or so.
KARA: Yes, there is software that is quite
capable — in the right hands — of an already
complete rendering that gives the illusion of
hand-made design or comic. But in my case, I
first render the 3D model ‘realistic’ — with full
lines, textures, lights, and shadows — then in
Photoshop I manipulate the renders to give the
illusion of a handmade drawing. Sometimes you
really have to tinker, but only the final result
counts. And of course, from an ethical point of
view, I never hide from the reader that they are
manipulated computer-generated images. I also
use photos that I made, or by a third person
from whom I have permission.
But beware, it's not about using two or three
basic filters in Photoshop and wham… ‘it's made
a magic cartoon page!’ No, you have to rework
the image in depth! For example, if I make a
forest, it is necessary that the vegetation is
‘readable’, with a foreground, a second, a third
layer, to give atmospheric depth. Then you have
to compose with characters in the scene, to
watch the thicknesses of the line [comic
characters usually have a thicker inked ‘holding
line’ around them, while distant backgrounds
need thinner lines]. Then you need to redraw
certain details by hand. So you cannot always
‘cheat’, we have to work too.
DAL: Right. And I think that you spent a long
time doing tests, on how to merge 2D and 3D,
before releasing your new comic “La Lagune des
Orphelines”?
KARA: Absolutely! Just for the big main box on
page 3, I re-did it six times. If I had worked up
this set in hand, I would have spent weeks on it.
I would have gone crazy! But with my method,
based on 3D, was enough for me to spend just
two hours each time. So it was worth it.
Also, the advantage of 3D scenery is that you
can re-use it at will.
42
Picture: Early
promotional poster
for Kara’s second
book, a two-volume
sci-fi take on Alice in
Wonderland, Le Miroir
des Alices (2006),
which was made with
the substantial help
from 3D renders.

43
44
45
46
47
48
>> Visit Kara’s DeviantArt pages for the
49 conclusion to this new comic-strip!
DAL: What are your render times like on 3D?
KARA: The Cathedral scenery on page 3 [see
previous page, and opposite] was created in 3D
in five or six hours. Each rendering takes me
about two hours per box. By hand, I would need
much more time!
Let me give you the method, point-by-point: I
start with a basic ‘realistic’ image in 3D or real-
world photography. I import it in Photoshop, I
run a mix of filters and retouch the result by
hand. To give you an example, in manga
production, there are mechanical tones to make
the values of gray (shadows, textures, etc). I
have created by hand, on sheet, my own similar
inked hatches. I have scanned, multiplied,
assembled these to create a texture so that I can
apply at will, and which is — most importantly —
in my style. For example, look at box one on
page 2, you’ll see that the character has shaded
shadows. It's this texture that I used.
The principle is simple: Agree to ‘lose’ time
upstream, to gain it downstream. I spent hours
modelling the interior of a cathedral in 3D, but
now it ‘exists’, and it is available when I want
and especially very quickly.
DAL: Super. I imagine that you are very pleased
with “La Lagune des Orphelines”? Which is your
latest comic strip. It’s a magnificent strip, very
beautiful and mysterious. Have you had a good
audience response, within the first week of its
release?
KARA: Thank you for appreciating my work. Yes,
I am very happy with this comic because it really
corresponds to the vision I had in mind! As I
often say to my students — I am a teacher in a
comics school in France, but also in a school of
cinema and videogames — that we all have in
our head a very precise vision of a work. And the
hard part is that the actual result corresponds as
much as possible to what we imagine. This is not
necessarily a question of pure technique, but of
fidelity to your personal vision and ‘points of
departure’ for a work.
In any case, the feedback was also very positive
from the readers. This is also why I made a story
without text, so that it is the most accessible and
universal story possible. The many positive
comments also encourage me to try to go
further. I have the idea for another comic, but
this time in a high sized format such as we see
on WebToon for example [suitable for down-
scrolling digital tablets]. It is a very particular
and intriguing format. The goal is to experiment,
not to make a success. Because for the moment,
it is just about experimenting for fun. In any
case, thank you for having appreciated my work!
DAL: Was there anything new in your step-by-
step workflow with “La Lagune des Orphelines”?
KARA: Regarding creation, the workflow
remained ‘very classic’ for me. It was necessary
first to make a storyboard, sketches of the stage
designs, and some fast sketches of specific
decorative elements. I then created the main
characters on paper sheets. They are almost all
hand drawn on paper and inked with felt and
brush. For the stage sets ... it was necessary to
invent everything. Of course, I'm not the first to
use 3D in comics, but there was a need to create
sets… so that they have the appearance of hand-
made drawings. Understand that I can do all my
sets in hand, but it would take me a considerable
time! 10 times more to make a comic book like
“Orphelines” entirely by hand. The goal of my
approach was to create a flow that allows me to
combine quality and speed. Today I am a
teacher of drawing, but for 15 years I was a
professional cartoonist. I began my pictures by
making very succinct synthetic images like
assemblies of cubes and cylinders...
DAL: Ah, right. Yes... many people will have
seen that approach in ‘how to’ books on
manually drawing cartoon figures.
KARA: … then I printed these, and used that as a
basis for the perspective I need to create my
refinements and build-up by hand. For example,
a cube was used as a base to create a house, a
cylinder, a medieval tower, and so on.
Later, I made more complete synthetic images
using a ‘toon renderer’, that is to say a 3D
rendering imitating a drawing with simple lines.
DAL: Yes, ‘back in the day’ the options for that
were fairly limited. Carrara and plugins was
perhaps the best option for convincingly tooning
3D, although I think 3DS Max was also viable
with a toon plugin and some perseverance.
50
Pictures: demo for the 3D to 2D process on the strip.
51
 Then along came Sketch & Toon in Cinema 4D,
but… very difficult to develop and control. And
of course Poser always had its Sketch Designer
module, although no-one ever explored beyond
the presets.
KARA: Yes. Then, with my latest, “Orphelines”, I
went to another stage with 3D, by creating sets
with details, textures, lights and shadows. I
then render in very high definition — my layout
boards are 1200 dpi — and then I import the
images into Photoshop to reprocess and give
them a hand-drawing look. By using various
filters, but also a lot of retouching by hand on a
graphic palette. The goal is to make a rendering
that combines the best possible with the
drawings of the characters.
Then before I put the character into a set, I
create the decor in 3D, and I place a small 3D
model — sometimes a simple cylinder — as a
placeholder to give me a scale. I make a first
rendering which I then print, and I draw my
character on a separate sheet using onion-
skinning so I can see what’s beneath. I scan
the final character and I superimpose it on the
digital scenery.
DAL: Great, thanks. Turning now to your future
projects. You recently posted character designs
for your forthcoming comic-strip named “Island
Girl”. With your own original character. Are you
able to say more about that new comic, and
your plans for it?
KARA: Yes, this is actually my next ‘test’
project. At first I wanted to pay tribute to the
famous Japanese cartoon Nadia and the Secret
of Blue Water. But in the end, I decided to
create an original character, because after all, if
I later want to exploit it freely, especially
commercially, it will be much easier! Again,
there will be no real scenario; it will be a ‘style
exercise’ in the style of “Orphelines”. But for
“Orphelines”, I had envisioned a reader with a
full PC monitor in widescreen or a magazine
spread, but then I realized that many
webcomics are read on small digital tablets and
thus in portrait orientation and height! So my
next format will be more conventional, for that
audience. I have finished the storyboard and I
will admit that this way of laying out the page is
also very creative! But I have no idea when this
finished comic strip will appear. Now I'm a
teacher, and comics are a hobby. But if I have
the opportunity of a professional project comes
again, I will try to reconcile this with my
teaching schedule!
DAL: I see, thanks. Is the longer-term plan to
move away from fan-art, and into making your
own creator-owned manga / cat-girl comics?
KARA: Absolutely, but not only cat-girls! I have
steampunk thriller stories, historical dramas,
romance, and so on. Moreover “Island Girl” (a
temporary title) will have a heroine who is
completely human. Finally, a human appears in
my work!
DAL: I see. What other creator-owned comics do
you like? I assume you have seen David
Revoy’s Pepper comics, for instance? He makes
his comics with the excellent free Krita software,
and his comics are free online.
KARA: Wow, a big question! For webtoons in
English, I really like the work of Color-Les at
webtoons.com. Regarding Revoy’s “Pepper”, I
have not yet read it — but I have seen a lot of
his drawings and extracts of his comic strip on
the net. Moreover, the publication of “Pepper”
in France in paper format raised a lot of
questions — because its funding method went
against the traditions of the publishing industry
here. There was a lot of debate on the subject
on the net. Everyone thought they were right,
and it is not easy yet to form an opinion...
DAL: Ah, I see. I hadn’t heard anything about
that controversy in English, it hasn’t percolated
out. The Patreon crowdfunding platform was
used to fund the book, I’d assume. I’d guess
they they also don’t like his very strong and
admirable stand for Creative Commons and
open re-use. Also, he’s at the forefront of
things like auto-colouring line-art in Krita, and
wants to automate other lower parts of comics-
making. I can’t imagine that all that makes him
popular among the comics establishment...
FK: As for influences… I have a huge list of
comic book authors on paper! As well as many
illustrators working in cinema and videogames. I
am also a diligent explorer of Artstation!
52
Picture: “To Catch the
Moon”. Traditional inks
intended for a finished
colour Christmas card
by Kara, for his fans.

53
DAL: Right. France is the home of Moebius (Jean
Girard) and many other great comics artists.
Therefore I should ask — what is the French
comic-book scene like these days? Beyond
simply the Revoy controversy. Is the industry
healthy, are there interesting technical things
happening there? What innovations should
English readers be reading, or watching out for,
from France?
KARA: This is a question that needs to be
answered in two parts. Firstly, from a graphics
making point of view, France and Belgium
produce many authors with very different styles
— even if the current generation is sometimes
influenced by Asian pop culture. If you step into
a French bricks-and-mortar comic bookstore,
you will be surprised to see that for each book
presented, there are in 90% of cases, in unique
and recognizable styles. If you like variety and
experimentation, and authors who have
developed a unique graphic identity, then France
is your country! But if you like the manga style
and the famous “big eyes” then you must use
that style — and then you will find yourself up
against thousands of Japanese creators who
make manga using this classic style.
DAL: Yes, and they can increasingly do so really
fast, using semi-automation and 3D for comics
creation. Japan is also swinging over rapidly to
digital consumption, too, but that’s another
matter. But back to France. You said there were
two points?
KARA: Yes. Second, from a business perspective
things are much more complicated. In summary:
54
our profession is perpetually ‘in crisis’! A third of
French authors are said to live below the French
poverty line, with less than 800 euros income
per month! Very few authors manage to live fully
in their profession, and probably less so in
comics. In addition, being an artist in France still
has a very romantic image. It thus seems hard
for many clients to imagine that we should be
paid to draw! For example, in the USA an artist
signing session at an event will pay, but in
France they are done free!
That said, the relationships between authors and
publishers are sometimes good, but occasionally
conflicting. Some authors prefer instead to
engage in self publishing, either by becoming a
print-on-demand publisher or by crowdfunding
or both. And for some, that works very well!
But without a big publisher you have to market a
lot, to build a network of readers.
DAL: Yes, few creatives are also good marketers.
We just want to be making the next project, not
spending months promoting the last one.
KARA: From a government perspective it is also
complicated because our administrative status
[i.e. tax status, re: fragmented and sporadic
income from different fields of activity] is
complex, and our trading status can be open to
question by the authorities.
But to be optimistic: I would say that the job is
changing as all jobs are. And there are many
attempts to find solutions to keep the profession
afloat, and in the meantime, everyone is doing
as well as they can.

Pictures:
Opposite, test
enviroments
for abandoned
‘ice-world’
project circa
2015.
This page,
cover for
Kara’s basic
guide to
starting to
learn
Photoshop,
available as a
free PDF in
French at his
blog. Made
purely in
Photoshop.

55
DAL: Thanks. Who are your favourite comics or DAL: Great. What is your work studio like? Is it
illustrative storytellers, these days? Not just well equipped, does it have a good view?
from France, but from anywhere. In older artists
KARA: I work today most of the time in schools
I really like the work of Berni Wrightson and
in the centre of Paris, the capital of France.
Norman Rockwell. In more recent writers, I like
When I draw or make digital creations, I'm in my
the work of Adam Warren, Stjepan Sejic, the
living room, which is also my little studio. Once
characters of J. Scott Campbell. In French
again, digital makes it possible to miniaturise
authors I would say Barbara Canepa or Claire
one’s workspace. Before… you had to have a
Wendling. In Asian writers... there are so
huge smelly photocopier to make copies, a big
many ... I would say Kaoru Mori, Ken Akamatsu,
drawing board and suchlike — but today, a small
Kozue Amano, Dall Young Lim, Mitsu Izumi, and
quiet clean printer placed on a corner table is
hundreds of others that I forget. I really like
enough. I also work on paper and then draw
illustrators like Rupid79, designers you see in
[ink] on computer, as I’m on a graphic tablet.
the artbooks for movies, videogames. Once
again, Artstation is a ‘Place to Be’ if you want to As for the view, I live a few miles outside Paris,
discover many artists unknown to the general in the countryside — so it's very green!
public, but shadowing the worlds of all the DAL: Wonderful. What skills would you like to
videogames you play, and the movies you'll see add next, and how do you plan to learn them?
be made with $ millions. Unfortunately, I do not
KARA: I would like to find time to learn how to
read a lot of novels, I really stay in the comics.
improve my very modest 3D skills. But for the
At the level of the stories that affect me, I have
moment, it's complicated. I would especially like
very varied tastes, I can read little-known stories
to improve in drawing — by making subjects a
of action, romance, comedy, in short, anything
little different from what I usually do. Like, for
that can vibrate with my tastes. In recent stories
example to learn to draw more men! The hard
that interest me, I read The Seventh Garden by
part is not the anatomy, the hardest is to find an
Mitsu Izumi, Bride Stories by Kaoru Mori.
identity. In fact, it's very hard for me to make
DAL: And I see that you also enjoy making handsome smooth guys! I'm doing much better
photographs. Have you thought of also making with the old men, because I can put lots of
videos? Like, music videos? details on their faces.
KARA: As for music, yes, and they are available DAL: We wish you well, with that. Many thanks
on my YouTube channel at https:// for taking the time to do this interview.
www.youtube.com/user/Karafactory/videos
KARA: Thank you in my turn for your invitation!
These are CMV - Cosplay Music Video — cosplay
As for ‘time’, yes — I need it! But that's what's
filmed with accompanying music. I also have
great with drawing, we learn a little bit every
‘work in progress’ of drawings that I make in
day! A comic book writer once said, “A geek is
front of my camera. I have made an amateur
someone who will never have enough of a life to
film fan and have a photo book online at the site
do everything he wants to do!” That's totally
http://kara.book.fr This remains amateur
true in my case!
photography, but digital tool allow one access to
so many means of expression that it would be a
shame to deprive myself of this tool as well!
Kara is online at:
DAL: If you could live and work anywhere in the
world, where would it be? https://www.deviantart.com/
KARA: Oh, I have no firm ideas on that one. karafactory
With the Internet it is possible to work remotely,
https://www.artstation.com/
but being in and from a place can also be an
enriching experience from a human and cultural karafactory
point of view. http://karafactory.blogspot.com
56
 BD (French term for short
graphic novels) by Kara:
Gabrielle (Pointe Noire 2001,
then by Soleil 2003).
Le Miroir des Alices (two
volumes, Soleil 2006).
Le Bleu du Ciel (three volumes,
Soleil 2007-2011).
La Guerriere Innocente (two
volumes, Soleil 2012-2014).
Kara does all the work on his
comic albums, from drawing and
rendering 3D to colouring and
lettering. There appears to be an
opportunity here for an English
57
translator of these books!

Back in issue #35 we surveyed the best completed comics from recent years.
We’ve since found more, plus collected vintage reprints... and here they are!
Paper Girls (2019, six volumes,
complete). Small-town delivery girls
find themselves in the middle of a
galaxy-spanning conflict. Soon to be a
major TV series. Paper and ebooks.
Creature Tech (2019, complete). A
newly full-colour edition of Doug
Tennapel’s classic and well-loved b&w
comedy adventure of aliens, biker
gangs and giant space eels! 220
pages. Paper and ebook.
Skyward (2019, complete in three
volumes in English). Earth’s gravity
has been reduced drastically! People
can, effectively, fly. What happens
next? Paper and ebooks.
Trigan Empire (2020, forthcoming in
English). Finally… a reprinting of the
huge fully-painted British science-
fiction adventures, from a big
reliable publisher who might actually
complete the set! Paper
58 and ebook.
Also noted:
Saga (ongoing, adult).
Sonata (ongoing).
Paranatural (ongoing, kids).
Stand Still, Stay Silent (ongoing).
Zone Continuum.
Atomic Robo (see interview).
Stardust (2019, 160 pages, complete
in English). The Neil Gaiman classic,
adapted as by Charles Vess, reissued
in a new edition. Said to have 38
extra pages. Paper and ebook.
Valerian Complete (seven volumes,
complete in English). The reprints
began with the big movie release in
2017, and at 2019 we now have
seven volumes of this classic space
adventure series. Paper and ebooks.
 Orbital (in seven short 48-page
volumes, complete in English).
Galaxy-hopping space-adventure
with superb art and brisk stories.
Paper and ebooks.
Ghost Tree (2019, series complete
in English). A poigniant tale of weird
rural mystery, family reunion and
ancient ghosts, with superb artwork.
Ebook.
Some Notes on a Nonentity (2017,
one volume, complete in English).
Another fair-minded graphic-novel
biography of H.P. Lovecraft, by Sam
Gafford and superb Lovecraftian
artist Jason Eckhardt. Print only.
The Fantastic Voyage of Lady
Rozenbilt (2014, four volumes,
complete in English). On a high
society voyage, criminals and
monsters mingle! Paper and ebooks.
Satania (2017, complete in English).
A young redhead sets off on a
journey to the centre of the Earth,
and finds Hell is not as she had
imagined! Paper and ebook.
At the Mountains of Madness (2019,
two volumes, complete in English).
The long-awaited complete 600-
page translation. Manga master Gou
Tanabe adapts the famous H.P.
Lovecraft tale.
59 Paper and ebook.
Chronosis (Oct 2019, forthcoming in
one volume). From MIT Press. A
philosopher has worked with a
comics artist to create a weird story
of a time-cult from before time!
I.D. (2019, Emma Rios, complete in
English). A quiet book in which three
Mars colonists discuss the new
technology that will transplant their
consciousness. Ebook.
These Savage Shores (2019,
complete in English). In 1776 a
vampire flees Europe on an East
India Company ship, only to find the
Indus hides eerie foes more deadly
than himself! Paper and ebook.
Over in Spain, Ricardo Parabere Bresso has
just published a new wordless ‘storyboard
book’ for H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of
Madness”. We talk with Ricardo about his love
of comics and his work for music and theatre.

DAL: Ricardo, welcome to the in-depth interview for our free

magazine. This issue of our magazine has the theme of
“Comics”, and we thought you would be a good interviewee
for this. Especially as you have just published a complete
word-less storyboard adaption of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The
Mountains of Madness”. But first, how did you first learn
that you were a creative artist? In your childhood. Have
you always created comics and storyboards?
RPB: Yes, I've always invented stories, both before or after
being able to express them adequately! Way back I have an
early memory of one of those tasks in which the student had
to write a simple story of two text pages — and then deliver
20 or 30 pages of layout. At the beginning of my
adolescence, I remember joining in with making comic books
and I draw monotonously. But such early drawing was done,
I fear, without too much critical judgment on my part.
DAL: I see. Where did you study and learn your current
skills?
RPB: I took some classes, though only for a few months, in a
workshop of a cartoonist from my hometown of Rosario in
Argentina. That’s in South America. The classes were with a
man called Marcelo Frusin. He had done work for Marvel
Comics and I remember his drawing style was very clean and
accurate.
Then I signed up for architecture classes, of all things, and
for those I had to draw freehand sketches of buildings and
streets. I did this quite easily, but my tendency to draw
other things quickly moved me away from the rather rigid
discipline of architecture.
Then I arrived in Barcelona, the big Spanish city.
DAL: Wonderful. Expensive, but very lively, culturally.
60
 Picture: Digital art for a CD cover,
featuring H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu.

RICARDO PARABERE
BRESSO

SPAIN

DIGITAL |
TRADITIONAL
MIXED MEDIA

WEB

61
RPB: Yes. I went to work for an Art Studio there
under the direction of Domingo Beltran. He had
a degree in what is called here the ‘plastic arts’,
with a teaching vocation and qualification, and
he taught me everything I know!
DAL: Super, that must have been a fun time, in
a fun city. Have you always had an interest in
fantasy and science-fiction?
RPB: Oh yes, I remember as a boy hunting
among the book exchange [second-hand / used-
books] bookstores. When I came home I had to
hide old copies of the French Metal Hurlant
[Heavy Metal] comic, and also some of the
American science fiction paperbacks that had
spicy covers with girls on them. Because my
grandmother would rip up any reading matter
she considered immoral, and especially anything
with some semi-nudity! /Laughter/
DAL: Right. Yes, it’s curious how simple nudity
is still considered immoral even today. And even
then only for certain body parts and certain
genders. But to turn to your own work, in your
work I noted that birds, and people falling from
a height, both feature regularly. Do these
themes arise from some of your personal
memories?
RPB: Yes, though perhaps from media rather
than personal memories. For instance I
remember encountering a comic called Cymbiola
— I seem to recall that had quite a few floating
bodies in it.
DAL: Yes, that was an early comic by François
Schuiten (Obscure Cities) with Claude Renard. I
think he did a similar graphic novel later,The
Leaning Girl? Though I’m not sure if she ever
got to float later in the story. Heavy Metal
artists of the 1980s — Bilal and Moebius and
others — were also quite keen on floating and
flying people. Also the artists in 1984 etc.
RPB: I consider that the desire to fly is
something quite common to man, if only in our
symbolic and dream spheres of activity.
Samosata was already fantasising about it way
back in the 2nd century after Christ, and even
today we continue to do so.
DAL: Indeed. Yes, there’s a moment in early
childhood when all imaginative children think
they might just be able to float, if only they tried
hard enough and jumped high enough.
Sometimes the dream carries on into adulthood.
Just the other day someone flew long-distance
across water on a personal hover back-pack.
Not quite an elegant or silent way to travel yet,
but give it another 100 years… But… back to
your comics making. Tell us about your early
work in making sequential storytelling (comics),
please. Such as “Shazam”, “Victor Hugo”, “Just
a Gigolo”, and others, please.
“It began when a heavy-
metal music band asked
me about fifteen or so
images for their use. That
was for a video clip they
wanted, to be called “The
Primordial Ones” — which
was inspired by H.P.
Lovecraft’s “At the
Mountains of Madness”.”
RPB: Well, many of these arose as storyboard
exercises for an imaginary video clip, or in the
case of “Victor Hugo” [see end of interview] for
admiration of the beauty of the text. Although I
also receive commissions from theatre groups,
and local bands to illustrate their lyrics.
DAL: Ah, I see. What comics have you enjoyed
reading, made by others?
RPB: Lately I have discovered one from the
1970s called Gilgamesh, the immortal — with an
exquisite narrative. That was a comic book from
the Argentine created by Lucho Olivera. I
enjoyed Marvel’s X-Factor, these stories of the
Multiple Man, Jamie Madrox.
I also remember DC Comic’s Batman: Year One,
from Frank Miller. And the graphic novelCarnival
of the Immortals by Enki Bilal, which first
appeared in Heavy Metal magazine.
DAL: Yes, I think the latter has just been re-
issued as a fine new collected edition. And which
artists and writers do you most admire or follow?
62
63
RPB: Hmmm… It is difficult for me to highlight A wordless ‘storyboard book’, released as an low
one artist over all the others. Even those cost ebook on Amazon. Can you tell us about
working in the same artistic medium with the the process of making that book, please?
same tools. So I end up admiring musicians,
RPB: Yes. It began when a heavy-metal music
filmmakers, painters and writers, all alike. I
band asked me about fifteen or so images for
believe that the greatest prize an artist can have
their use. That was for a video clip they wanted,
is that his work surpasses him, that his work
to be called “The Primordial Ones” — which was
eclipses the name of the author.
inspired by “At the Mountains of Madness”.
DAL: Yes, such as… Mr. H.P. Lovecraft. Which
But on my reading the story again it seemed to
bring us to talking about your own adaptation of
me like rather a challenge to produce a
Lovecraft’s epic story “At The Mountains of
storyboard that reflected all that narrative.
Madness”.
DAL: Yes, and there’s a lot of geology and
Not a tale to start reading him as a newbie, for
expedition logistics in the first third. That
various reasons, dear readers — try
section can read like a field report from an
“Nyarlathotep” followed by “The Colour out of
Antarctic expedition of the early 1930s — which
Space” for your first taste. But “Mountains” is
is what it’s not a good way to start reading
one of his that many long-time friends the man
Lovecraft for the first time.
would like to see adapted. And now you have
produced your own graphic novel, or something RPB: On the other hand there are also extended
akin to a graphic novel of “Mountains”. paragraphs that express personal feelings and

64
reflections, and this seemed one way to bring
the tale toward being a visual narrative.
Another aspect that seemed promising was the
attempts to describe cosmic and deep-time
things and locations, via our limited terrestrial
language. This allowed me to work up certain
sections into art that had a similar tendency
towards abstraction.
DAL: Right. You do digital work, I know, but
here most of your new book was made with
mixed media I think? But there were some later
multimedia sections, at the climax of the story,
where digital was involved? And then more
digital work, when you assembled them into
framed pages.
RPB: Yes, most of the book is made with mixed
media. They range from pencils, waxes, inks,
chalk, acrylics. My process is a laying on, in
order to build up. Each panel is built up from
the initial drawing, with each new type of
65
material being applied in such a way as to
correct the previous image beneath it. In that
way the pictures or vignettes ‘evolve’ to achieve
the desired end.
DAL: Fascinating. So each layer is a different
medium. And then you finish with digital.
RPB: Yes, the layout and editing part is digital
throughout.
DAL: How long did the book take you to make?
RPB: From the initial statement and
specifications to the publication on Amazon,
about a year.
DAL: Great, well congratulations. Any lengthy
book is quite an achievement. Have you heard
from Mr. del Toro? I know that he still wants to
make a big budget movie of “At the Mountains of
Madness”. And, eventually, I think he will…
Pictures: sample pages from “Mountains”.
RPB: Yes, I recall all the publicity for that, from a
few years ago now. I think it is very brave of
him, to still be pitching for it.
DAL: Yes, the studios didn’t go for it, in the end.
At least not at the big tent-pole mega-movie
price he needed to make and market it properly.
DAL: The fine quality of Lovecraft’s text and the
rhythm of his narration is undoubtedly a great
challenge to translate into cinematography. But
perhaps, hopefully, he may see my graphic
sequence and think me useful… one day…
DAL: Yes, he’ll make it eventually. Has your
book sold well? It’s available as a digital
download for tablets, via Amazon, and I
66
publicised it on Tentaclii (the H.P. Lovecraft
news clearing-house), but I’m not sure if that
provoked many sales or not...
RPB: Well, it’s only just been released… so it is
still early to draw conclusions, but the goal is for
the reader to enjoy it, if that means one or one
hundred readers.
67
DAL: The book’s wordless style seems like a
very unique format, at least for adults.
Do you know of others who have released such
storyboard and wholly wordless books? I can
only think of Frans Masereel, Jodorowsky (the
famous storyboards for Dune), offhand, in terms
of imaginative work for adults.
RPB: No, I don't know others who have tried
this format. Not for adults, certainly.
Lovecraft’s near novel-length story is also a
work that, in my opinion, lent itself to this
format. As told by Lovecraft, Dyer’s story is
traumatic and can be considered as akin to
someone who is remembering a nightmare.
DAL: The ‘build-up’ method of making it seems
like an expensive way of making such a big
book. Have you considered working purely
digitally, to keep your production costs lower?
Perhaps by using the software Corel Painter or
Krita?
RPB: I have considered such options, and do so
according to the work or theme. But I do not
rule out the digital medium for large
productions in future. It seems to me that any
tool is valid, if the results justify it.

“I consider that the desire

to fly is something quite
common to man, if only in
our symbolic and dream
spheres of activity.”

DAL: Do you plan to make more adaptations of

the many stories of H.P. Lovecraft? It would be
good to see a graphical adaption of his
“Hypnos”, for instance. That is an under-rated
story by him. Or perhaps you have your own
favourite story?
RPB: It is quite possible. I am also attracted to
other genres, but I recognize that Lovecraft's
work is a temptation for any ‘plastic artist’,
especially as he is public domain. The story
“Hypnos” could be next, if time allows…
DAL: What other work do you do? I see very
accomplished portraits and scenery on your
Gallery. Do you also work as a commercial
artist?
RPB: Yes, I work throughout all year round as a
commercial artist. I make pictures for
individuals, businesses, video clips for bands
and stage designs for theatre groups.
68
69
DAL: Ah, yes… now you mention it I can see how your style would fit
with theatre and dance backdrops, as well as heavy metal music
concerts. What is your working studio like, and also… what part of
Spain do you live and work in today?
RPB: I still live in Barcelona and work I from my home, though I only
make pictures on request these days. Also, at this time I am not
considering offers of work that involve too large or long a production
time. But maybe... in future I will focus more on the narrative side,
or on similar sequences.
DAL: I see on DeviantArt that you have also recently painted scenes
showing the traditional carnival processions, in your home town.
They are very vibrant and dynamic. Do you take part in these
processions yourself, or are you content to be an observer at such
events?
RPB: Well, if one is ‘on the spot’ at such events then it is inevitable
that one becomes part of these popular expression of the carnival.
Even the recorder — who does not celebrate by performing — is ‘part
of the picture’ for those who attend such events.
But lately... I am content to observe the giant papier-mache figures
and festival floats of the carnivals.
DAL: I see. Do you plan on making any future storytelling
sequences, arising from such local art and stories?
RPB: Yes, this area of Spain is rich in myths and legends. It would
be a shame not to re-vivify and adapt these tales for new
generations. Although... for now I am moving toward developing an
idea that is a fresh take on the character and story of “Rapunzel”.
But it will not repeat anything I’ve seen before.
DAL: That sounds great. Ok, well… thanks very much for this in-
depth interview. We wish you all the best for the future.
RPB: Thanks to you, too.

Ricardo Parabere Bresso is online at:

https://www.deviantart.com/paraberio/

His full “At the Mountains of Madness” storyboard

sequence, which tells the story as told by Lovecraft, is
available as an ebook titled Secuencia Grafica 1.

Opposite: an earlier comic storyboard sequence

adapating a section of Victor Hugo’s famous The
Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Here Ricardo used
inter-titles to tell the story, something which was
jettisoned for his 2019 wordless storyboard
adaptation of “At The Mountains of Madness”. 70
71
This month we present a departure from our usual Gallery
format. We show nine samples of the non-photoreal (NPR)
output possible from Poser 11. Poser is 3D software that
can speedily make 2D comic-book renders in real-time, and
has a powerful Sketch Designer module for sketch renders.

Poser 11 was released in 2016 and
Digital Art Live #4 (January 2016) has
a full in-depth 26-page review, which
also has several pages on the new real
time Comic Book mode. Poser is now
owned by Renderosity and sells there
at $199 for the full Poser Pro edition.
The comic-book effect is controlled by
a simple pop-up panel, with dials to
precisely adjust inking and tones. This
works best with a single low-intensity
IBL light, pointed straight at the scene
to give flat lighting with few shadows.
You make that simple light yourself.
Multiple renders then offer you the
best control for this effect, when
combined and blended in Photoshop.
Your basic multi-render set should be:
ink outlines only; colour flats only; a
shadows/highlights layer than can be
blended to suggest roundness and
volume — without turning the picture
back into 3D again!
No special shaders or long render
times are needed. A small set of plain
subtle textures is usually all you need
to retexture, with the skin ideally
being a ‘ramped’ toon texture.

Here we use Nursoda’s 3D alien72character ‘Loik’ for Poser, available at Renderosity.

Picture: A Photoshop combo of three renders: real-time comic-book with inks only; colour
flats (via a low-intensity IBL light, pointed straight at the character); light shadows.

Slight manual fixes atop the arms, ink lines subtly 73

humanised by Dynamic Auto-Painter.
 Hot tip: Once you
have the character
tooned how you
want, try flicking
through the other
Display Modes to
see if you get a
different look or
additional inking
lines appearing.
Such lines can help
in repairing breaks
in the line, such as
that seen here at
the top of Loik’s
arms.

What is a flat ‘toon’ light? A ‘raw’ all-in-one toon

It’s something you make render in Poser, with a basic
yourself, and it’s easy:
toon skin texture that does
1. Make a scene with a
single plain grey light, basic colour-tone ramping.
reduce the light down to
15% to 20% strength.
This is the real-time comic
book mode, in ‘flat’ IBL
2. Point it directly at the
character or prop. lighting, with no Photoshop
3. Switch the light to IBL fixes or re-inking at all.
mode.
Size: 3600 pixels.
4. Save it as a preset.
You’re done! 74 Time: 2 seconds.
 Hot tip: ‘Colour flats’
renders like this can be
run through Photoshop
or Dynamic Auto-
Painter filters without
smushing up your nice
crisp ink lines. Because
your ink lines are on
another layer.
Just don’t bank on the
shape edges remaining
the same — your ink
lines layer may no
longer fit on top, if you
go too wild with filters!

The same ‘raw’ toon render in

Poser, but this time as ‘colour
flats’ without the Comic Book
mode’s inking lines applied.
Again, no Photoshop fixes. But
an artist could easily add their
own hand-inking here.
Size: 3600 pixels.
Time: 2 seconds.

75
 Hot tip: There are
plenty of free
Photoshop Actions to
cleanly ‘knock out’ or
‘remove white’, leaving
you with only the ink
lines. Ask around to
find the best for
extracting fine lines.
Before running such an
Action in Photoshop,
first hide all your other
layers in the stack.

A basic ‘raw’ toon inks render

in Poser, with just very light
inks and no ‘colour flats’
underneath. Poser’s Comic
Book mode is very easy to
control, with real-time width
feedback and ability to turn
your inking on and off.
Size: 3600 pixels.
Time: 2 seconds.
76
 Hot tip: Poser’s sketch
render and its comic-
book filter can work
together quite happily.
But one drawback to
sketch renders is they
are not masked like the
comic-book renders
are. Use another
similar render to mask
and cut them out in
Photoshop.

Poser’s Sketch Renderer with a

custom dash-shading preset,
biting into what would be deep
shadows and bright highlights
(in a normal 3D render).
Again, no Photoshop fixes
here. An artist could easily
add their own outline inking.
Size: 1800 pixels.
Time: 5 seconds.
77
 Hot tips: Sketch
renders don’t just
sketch, they can also
paint too!
Many of the default
Sketch Render presets
that ship with Poser do
not render quickly and
may crash an under-
powered PC.
To create your own
quick custom presets,
we recommend you
turn off the background
rendering, and just
sketch render into your
character or prop.
Poser’s sketch render
and its comic-book
filter can work together
quite happily.

A Sketch Designer render to

give a soft watercolour style
suited to making a children’s
picturebook. Again, an artist
could firm up the outlines,
either by reducing the
strength of the light in Poser,
or by painting edges.
Size: 3600 pixels.
Time: 5 seconds.
78
 Hot tip: We’ve never
tried it, but Poser 11
lets you save out your
Sketch as a script, to
then power any brush
you like in the Corel
Painter software!

A Sketch Designer render to

give a firmer and more
‘brushed’ painted style. This
could be combined in
Photoshop with a render
produced by running Sketch
Designer only on the ink
outlines from the Comic
Book mode.
Size: 3600 pixels.
79 Time: 8 seconds.
Want to learn more about Hot tips: Photoshop’s
making comics? Look out ‘Paste in Place’
for news of our new Visual command will exactly
Narratives Academy align layers on top of
each other, provided
membership club soon.
you didn’t move the
camera in Poser
between renders!
Note that Adobe’s
“Load files into stack…”
script has never worked
with 32-bit Photoshop,
only in 64-bit.
Making repeatable
Photoshop Actions for
quick layer blending
requires precise and
strict file-naming of
your renders!

A full Photoshop blend of: a

custom ‘Moebius’-style Sketch
Designer dash-shading preset in
Poser; an old-school Firefly
‘toon outlines’ render from
Poser; and the usual ‘colour
flats’ render from Poser.
Size: 3600 pixels.
Time: 90 seconds for all three
render layers, then about 1
80 minute in Photoshop.
 Hot tip: Getting this kind
of believable ‘hand-
drawn’ effect consistent,
and thus giving your
comic a consistent look,
is not always easy. It
may help to automate the
process. While Poser 11
doesn't have replayable
Actions like Photoshop,
software like JitBit Macro
can automate a set of
complex steps in any
software, provided you
keep the user-interface
fixed.

Poser’s Sketch Renderer with a

custom marker-pen preset, more
suited to a ‘gothic horror’ comic.
In Photoshop this was merged with a
Poser ‘ink outline’ render (that had
been run through Dynamic Auto
Painter). Eyes were subtly coloured.
Size: 3600 pixels.
Time: 8 seconds, with about 2
minutes in DAP and Photoshop.
81
MOVIE: AD ASTRA
This big movie this Autumn presents audiences with science-
fiction set in a somewhat believable future. It’s a time when
exploration of our Solar System exploration is ongoing. The early
years of such deep-space travel and colonisation are incredibly
tough — but humanity retains its ambition and has sent a self-
sufficient deep-space colony mission as far as the planet Neptune.
Back on Earth they fear the worst for Neptune after 18 years of
silence, when suddenly... one of Neptune’s moons blows up! Fire
up the emergency fast-mission to Neptune, headed by the
estranged son of the head of the planned Neptune colony! In the
background, the Earth’s search for extraterrestrials is getting very
serious — so we’re guessing there may be alien encounters? The
movie’s basic premise sounds a little similar to Conrad’s famous
Heart of Darkness, but apparently that's just the story’s stepping-
off point. Generally, it looks to be a movie of intelligent near-
future space travel, in the style of Interstellar, Contact and 2010.

Our pick of the most inspirational art and sci-fi. Make your imagination LIVE!

82
 The names involved in the
movie promise much, so long
as studio tinkerers haven't
been allowed to interfere.
Two big delays to the release
of the movie don’t bode well,
in that regard. However, the
screenwriter James Gray has
a fine track record and is
also Director. The quality of
the script persuaded both
Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee
Jones to sign on with the
project. The veteran movie
actor Donald Sutherland
apparently also makes an
appearance. As such, we
have high hopes this may be
another movie of Interstellar
quality and intelligence.

Pictures: Press pictures, with thanks to 20th Century Fox.

83
Book: Harryhausen — The Lost
Movies
Known for his iconic stop-motion creatures
and monsters, Ray Harryhausen was at the
forefront of fantasy cinema special effects
for much of the 20th century.
But for every film that reached the big
screen — such as Clash of the Titans and
Jason and the Argonauts, there were half a
dozen projects never realised. The new
book Harryhausen: The Lost Movies
explores Harryhausen’s unrealised films,
including unused concepts, storyboards,
projects he turned down, and whole scenes
that ended up on the cutting-room floor.
This is a 176-page artbook in landscape
format from Titan Books, available from
10th September 2019. It includes never-
been-seen-before artwork, concept
sketches, photos and unique test footage
drawn from the Harryhausen Foundation
archives.
Artbook: The Art of Ian Kennedy
Ian Kennedy has long been celebrated in the UK
for his amazing cover-art on long-running
comics titles from DC Thomson — such as
Commando, Starblazer and Hotspur. Now a
beautiful art book, The Art of Ian Kennedy
(spring 2019) celebrates his 70 year career.
Kennedy began in DC Thomson’s Art
Department way back in 1949. He went on to
create over 1,250 Commando covers, which
continue to appear today from the now 86–year-
old artist. Working in the British ‘fully painted
comics’ tradition of Frank Bellamy and Don
Lawrence and others, each cover by Kennedy is
a small painted masterpeice of composition,
perspective, and visual storytelling. This quality
160-page artbook is presented chronologically
and includes work drawn from Kennedy’s
personal archives as well from the DC Thomson
studio archives. It is the first book from the
company’s new Media Heritage Comics team,
and others are set to follow — a natural choice
there would be to have a second book feature
the
84 life and work of artist Gordon Livingstone.
Book: Batman: Definitive History
If, like us, you’re baffled about why Batman
is quite so popular... then this new book is
for you. First introduced as yet another
colourful Caped Crusader in 1939, he POW!-
ed and BIFF!-ed through comics adventures
in the 1940s and 50s, until by the 1960s and
70s he became the epitome of TV and
cinema comedy camp. After that, re-
invented in the comics, he became the
avenging Dark Knight and everything
changed. This new book presents the
complete history of the Batman’s various
incarnations in vivid detail, featuring
exclusive commentary from the key
creatives who have been instrumental in re-
purposing a 1960s TV comedy character into
the powerful neo-gothic figure of today,
including Neal Adams, Grant Morrison,
Christopher Nolan and many others. The
book also ventures far and wide in terms of
media, including videogames, collector cards
and other media forms. The authors had full
access to the DC Comics archives.
Free ebook: Worlds Imagined
In 2017 Texas A&M University held a major
gallery exhibition of fantasy maps, “Worlds
Imagined” featuring the world’s best fantasy
maps to date. Not everyone could ‘mosey on
over’ to Texas to see the show, and so they've
kindly released the high-quality 100-page
exhibition catalogue for free as a PDF download.
The book doesn’t always show the entire map
but it's a fine reference for those starting out in
making fantasy maps, or for those who want to
catch up on the best what's been produced in
the last 20 years. Once a reader has the map’s
title and the maker’s name, then it’s not too
difficult to plug these into DuckDuckGo Images
and find a full scan or picture of the map.
While there are a few gaps (they couldn’t get
permission to show the original Tolkien maps,
for instance), we do get glimpses of rare maps
such as that made by R.E. Howard when first
planning the world of Conan the Barbarian.
There’s also a 25 minute video-tour of the
85
exhibition, on YouTube.
Ray Harryhausen
Opens May 2020, Edinburgh, UK
The UK is set to host the largest and widest
ranging exhibition of Ray Harryhausen’s
work ever seen, including newly restored
models. It will open at the National
Galleries of Scotland in Summer 2020, and
will run from May-October. The show is
being staged with the full co-operation of
The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.
https://www.rayharryhausen.com/
Pictures, from left, across double-page:
Harry Harryhausen hand-positions one of his
stop-motion skeleton warriors.
Press still from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Audrey Monahan, “Heading Home” —
showing H.P. Lovecraft heading home from
the Providence Public Library, late on a cold
but sunny Halloween eve. The photograph
features in the exhibition.
Still from Tarkovsky’s science fiction
masterpiece Stalker (1979), a film based on
the famous novel Roadside Picnic.
86
2001 exhibition
Opens January 2019, New York
A “2001: A Space Odyssey” exhibition will
open at New York's Museum of the Moving
Image on 18th January 2020 and run until
19th July 2020. The show is billed as... “the
most comprehensive look at this
groundbreaking film ever assembled in a
museum.” It will feature original artifacts
drawn from collections in many nations, and
from the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the
University of the Arts in London. Costumes,
costume designs, concept art, and test
footage from the film will be on show.
In addition to exploring Kubrick’s influences,
his deep research, and his innovative
production process with the likes of science
fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, the exhibition
looks at the released film’s widespread
influence on cinema, design, painting,
architecture and space travel design.
Accompanying the exhibition will be a series
of 70mm screenings of the film 2001.
Tickets will go on sale in September 2019
and early booking is advised for peak times.
http://www.movingimage.us/
Ars Necronomica & NecronomiCon
To 31st Aug 2019, Providence, USA
Ars Neconomica 2019: “Dark Dreams in the
Divine City” is the key art-show element of
the NecronomiCon convention. This
celebrates the life and work of the author H.P.
Lovecraft, in his home city of Providence, New
England, every two years. The art exhibition
is being held at the Providence Art Club, 10
and 11 Thomas Street. Lovecraft knew this
Art Club well, as his aunt was a member, and
he used it as one of the settings in his most
famous story “The Call of Cthulhu”.
The free exhibition of 60 artists runs there
until 31st August 2019 and features art
inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s life and work.
NecronomiCon is a very large event and there
are likely to be several other art-related
Lovecraft events in the city during its run.
There may also be unofficial fringe art events
at places in the city such as RSID’s Woods
Gerry Gallery and other venues.
The show is likely to be heavily attended, and
opening times are limited, so booking an
appointment visit may be advisable.
http://necronomicon-providence.com/
87
Tarkovsky: exhibition & screenings
Opens 14th September, Netherlands.
‘Eye’ in Holland presents a full retrospective
and exhibition of the feature films of Andrei
Tarkovsky, maker of the enduring science
fiction films Solaris and Stalker. In addition to a
full programme of digital restored prints of
Tarkovsky’s work, there is an exhibition that
includes unique personal documents such as
letters, photos and Polaroid photographs.
There will also be a six-part lecture series on
the conditions under which he worked — in
Soviet Russia Tarkovsky was forced to work in
the dreary straitjacket of socialist cinema.
Despite this he created a painterly beauty on
the screen that wove together dreams and
memories, past and present and future.
Because of his poetic approach his films were
dogged by state censorship and he was labelled
an ‘elitist’ by the authorities. After enduring
years of obstruction and censorship he defected
to Italy in 1982, but died soon after.
The programme of screenings also includes a
key classic that influenced Tarkovsky,
Paradzanov’s wonderfully strange film The
Color of Pomegranates (1969).
https://www.eyefilm.nl/
 Are you interested in being interviewed in a future
issue of the magazine? Or presenting a webinar for
our series? Please send the Web address of your
gallery or store, and we’ll visit!

paul@digitalartlive.com

We have a discount code for readers on the

software which made this picture! 15% off
Back cover: “Alien Crater” by Serendigity, real-time landscape maker WorldCreator,
made with the real-time World Creator until 31st Dec 2019. Add discount code
landscape software. 88 DIGITALARTLIVE at the checkout!