Interview with Scott Allie on Newsarama w/Fegredo page!

[Petersen]

http://www.newsarama.com/DarkHorsenew/AllieBooks/DHStateUnion.htm

http://www.newsarama.com/DarkHorsenew/AllieBooks/HBYDC01PG16.jpg

[Xequals10]

Crap! When I saw the article earlier today they had 2 different pages that looked like they might be the two right after this one. I was gonna save em when I got home tonight. I don't suppose anyone got them? I can't wait to read this. Hellboy is going to be popping up in the BPRD and Mignola is going to draw "something". I'm curious to see what this is.

[hellboyone]

The page looks excellent!

R.

[Mist the Soul-Gatherer]

Crap! When I saw the article earlier today they had 2 different pages that looked like they might be the two right after this one. I was gonna save em when I got home tonight. I don't suppose anyone got them? I can't wait to read this. Hellboy is going to be popping up in the BPRD and Mignola is going to draw "something". I'm curious to see what this is.

Yeah, X, I'm curious, too. In the Hellmail section at the back of
Black Flame #6, Scott Allie writes that in B.P.R.D. : The Universal
Machine, Abe shares a Hellboy story as an extended flashback and
"Mignola jumps in to draw a turning-point sequence."

Turning-point sequence? Is it April, yet??

H

[Neil Hill]

Fegredo genius at work on that page, no doubt! The best part though is that I'm sure Dave Stewart's colors will make the page look even better. Basically kind of a win-win situation! :D

Thanks for posting the link Peterson!

[Mikolaj]

What a good looking page... Damn. More and more good things too look forward, this year! YEAH!!
Big thnx for posting this, Petersen!!

Mikolaj

[Jakob Westman]

Sweet!
A bit Eduardo Risso-ish in black and white isn't it?

/ Jakob

[Myron L]

I agree with Scott when he says that Revelations was a great book that many might have missed...I loved the stylistic art from Ramos and the characterization is great...

Scott....will we see more of the main character from the book ? Another mini-series ?

[jscott]

I guess when that interview was orginally posted they had what I assume were two Bermejo pages, which were quite rockin' as they say (and to think I never really liked his work!)

Fegredo had always been top-notch and I 'm really looking forward to this book now.

[Xequals10]

I am 99% sure that the two pages they had up were Fegredo's. They looked like the two pages after the one they have up now.

[Petersen]

I saw this on Broken Frontier's site.....it appears to be a scrapped Lee B. page (the same page # as the Duncan page above)

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/img/2006/feb/HBYDC1PG16.jpg

[Johann]

my oh my, I gotta say...i'm starting to think i would have liked Bermejo more, His scaped pages better be collected withh the trade.

Reminds me, i just finally picked up Makoma ...awsome.

[Neil Hill]

my oh my, I gotta say...i'm starting to think i would have liked Bermejo more, His scraped pages better be collected withh the trade.

Yeah, I wouldn't be holding your breath on that one. :) Why would Scott and company want to divert attention away from the chosen artist and his work, by posting pages from an artist who didn't work out? I mean no offense in asking that question. Just the logical part of my mind trying to work things out.

[Johann]

yeah, i know what ya mean...i'll still be picking up the series in issue and trade form.
I think Fegredo's work will look asome with color, Bermejo is better in B&W...

[Mikolaj]

After comparing both of these pages I have to say that I'm glad that Fegredo took over the job of drawing HB from Lee. I'm not neggateing the awsomness of Lee's art I just think that his style is much more suitable for hellboy!

[Neil Hill]

After comparing both of these pages I have to say that I'm glad that Fegredo took over the job of drawing HB from Lee. I'm not neggateing the awsomness of Lee's art I just think that his style is much more suitable for hellboy!

It's strange, because both artists style's have merit, but only one will be illustrating the series. Personally, I lean more towards Fegredo in all things (I've just liked his artwork longer), but I mean no disrespect to Lee's work in saying that.

[Poe Ghostal]

After comparing both of these pages I have to say that I'm glad that Fegredo took over the job of drawing HB from Lee. I'm not neggateing the awsomness of Lee's art I just think that his style is much more suitable for hellboy!
I would have liked to see some of Bermejo's more realistic style. Often, writers and artists of the fantastic ground their work in realist techniques so as to enhance the suspension of disbelief (one of the major reasons for the immense popularity of Lord of the Rings is Tolkien's slavish attention to detail). I've always found it interesting that Mignola chose to go the opposite route, using a more iconic art style to create an impressionistic effect that greatly enhances mood, but at the cost of a certain amount of reader immersiveness.

In any event, I would have been interested in seeing Bermejo's more realistic take, but Fegredo's pages look very good.

[Maija]

I like my art to be... arty, not diagramatic, which is how Bermejo's work strikes me. There's a lot less liveliness and mood to it than Fegredo's.

I don't find that "realism" in the art in a comic increases my belief in a story because hand-drawn lines and CMYK ink in unnatural blocks of colour are not "real" to begin with. It's a comic-- it should be fantastic! (as in, "fantasy"). [EDIT: I don't remember who this was or exact words, so ignore the earlier attribution!] Someone said in an interview that he didn't understand the talking head "realistic" sort of comics when you have this medium that doesn't have the budgetary constraints of a film-- it costs you no more to blow up a city and invade it with incredible creatures, so why not take all the advantage of that? You can do absolutely whatever you imagine! Bermejo didn't take any imaginative risks on that page. Aside from Hellboy, it's pretty literal illustration.

Eric Powell can paint "real" like nobody's business (check out his portfolio of personal paintings) but I love his comic art because he takes it to cartoony extremes (Franky, for just one of many egs). Guy Davis can create fantastic machines and nightmare creatures like you'd never dare imagine, and he does so with an energetic linework that you wouldn't say is "realistic" but it adds life and energy to the work. And of course Mignola himself went from a "real" style to a striking, elegant reduction of form that is yards more interesting to me than the detail of his earlier work. Though I also enjoy the opposite extreme as seen in Geoff Darrow's Shaolin Cowboy, and there we get to see a talking mule, some Matrix-like fight scenes with a crab, bizARRE creatures, and hundreds of people mutilated in hundreds of different ways because it costs him nothing more than some ink, many hours and probably a touch of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Bermejo's static art doesn't evoke a fantastical place or fantastical people for me. They are rather ordinary people, perhaps with an interest in Ren Faires, on an ordinary path in ordinary woods. There's a remarkable lack of menace or mood in that silent panel in the top corner.

But look at the swirl of smoke around Hellboy's head in the first panel of the Fegredo page. Look at the skeletal white branch in the silent panel. Look at the claustrophobic clutter of branches filling the page. Look at the woman's white eye and the pinprick eyes of the skinny man. There's heaps more Hellboy-ish mood in the Fegredo page. It makes me really quite keen to see the rest of the book.

[Petersen]

I agree with the idea of taking advantage of your unlimited budget..but I think there is just as much that can be said for taking advantage of story telling period. If it enhances the meaning of your story to make it as 'real' as possible, whether to ground your characters, make it more believable a situation, or to emphasize the mundane, then by all means do it!

I hope that the diversity of comics can be as strong as it was in the 30s & 40s: westerns, horror, sci-fi, romance, superhero, adventure, war, etc.....I know many of these genres are coming back, but now anything other than superhero is 'indy'. I bring this up because I think there is just as much validity of purpose in having a story told with, say, photographs as there is for one told with abstracted larger than life drawings. As long as the story is well done. Comics are all about telling a story with words and pictures (sometimes just pictures) I prefer the folks who can imagine a place I have never been to and put it on paper.

>Bermejo didn't take any imaginative risks on that page.
Truth be told, I get a better creepy vibe from Bermejo's page. A similar feeling that I get to Hellboy opening a cabinet full of heads hooked up to radio equipment or skeletons upright pointing to a door. It's not over the top larger than life figures, but shows three rather spooky characters (I'm getting some of the spooky vibe from Hellboy's body language and expression)

I like Ducan's work and trust Mike & Scott's opinion, but I think the pros and cons of these two pages are not easy to decipher

[hellboyone]

I hope that the diversity of comics can be as strong as it was in the 30s & 40s: westerns, horror, sci-fi, romance, superhero, adventure, war, etc.....

It's always been that strong. Unfortunately, it's in Japan, where most of the population reads comics. With so much competing for our attention (plus I think that the comic book as we know it probably won't exist within 10 years), I doubt we'll ever repeat comics' former glory here in North America.

-----------

Regarding Fegredo vs. Bermejo, the style of artwork doesn't have anything to do with whether a story is immersive or whether it'll hold your suspension of disbelief. If the story's fantastic, that's all there is to it.

R.

[Maija]

but I think there is just as much that can be said for taking advantage of story telling period. If it enhances the meaning of your story to make it as 'real' as possible, whether to ground your characters, make it more believable a situation, or to emphasize the mundane, then by all means do it! Oh I agree. I didn't mean to say that a story has to be needlessly over the top and fantastical all the time. But I think that the art should be used to tell story and not just illustrate it. If a picture is worth a thousand words then take full advantage of that thousand word opportunity!

Bermejo's page as quoted here isn't done any favours by being bitmapped to jaggy 2-bit black & white, so that makes it extra hard for me to get any kind of "creepy" vibe off of it. The characters are kinda creepy but the backgrounds do nothing for me. I suppose they might be made to work with colour.

Rick: I've been yanked out of a good story by bad art before. But I agree a good story goes a long way to getting me past art that I found off-putting eg. The Coffin but particularly The Watchmen which I love, and which I've come to appreciate as having art appropriate to the story. Conversely, I've picked up books because of the art and been really disappointed by the story (eg. much of Flight Vol. 1).

It's always been that strong. Unfortunately, it's in Japan, where most of the population reads comics. Also Europe, where it's always been treated as an esteemed art form and not just a pop culture commodity.

[morna]

Generally speaking I am not a fan of realism. My own work is almost always completely abstracted so I obviously have a strong leaning in that direction. Personal preference wise the Fegredo page is more to my liking, but there's something to be said for pure skill as well. Bermejo's page is, to me more flat and lifeless but the one panel with HB looking over his shoulder is pretty darn brilliant. Quite aside from it's having been rendered real pretty I get a real creepy vibe just from the tension in the pose. That part is actually working for me - and throw in some beautiful malignant Dave Stewart colouring and ya I can see it being quite moody.

Looking at the two pieces I am finding it interesting to note the differences and the similarities there. It's a rare opportunity to peek inside the process. You can almost hear the directions from Mignola ... what each of the characters look like - things you'd expect but even specifics like ... a small panel with just trees on the top right. fascinating

[Maija]

I thought about transcribing a relevant but long passage about how comics are like maps from Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks that I am reading right now, but instead I'll just encourage everyone to read Hicksville.

Hicksville is a town where comics are very important.

It's also a really cool book.

But the art may not be to everyone's taste. :)

[Maija]

Looking at the two pieces I am finding it interesting to note the differences and the similarities there. It's perhaps unfortunate for both artists that the same page by each is available for us to look at and compare. How often does that happen? If I had seen it by itself with nothing for comparison I might not be as critical of Bermejo's page. And I wonder how Fegredo feels having his work put side-by-side with "what might have been" so that you can have some fans wishing Bermejo was still on the project.

Weird situation.

[Poe Ghostal]

It's perhaps unfortunate for both artists that the same page by each is available for us to look at and compare. How often does that happen? If I had seen it by itself with nothing for comparison I might not be as critical of Bermejo's page. And I wonder how Fegredo feels having his work put side-by-side with "what might have been" so that you can have some fans wishing Bermejo was still on the project.

Weird situation.
I think it's fascinating and I'm very grateful to have the chance to compare. And I suspect--or I would hope--that both Bermejo and Fegredo are comfortable enough with themselves as artists to allow their respective work to stand for itself, even when standing side by side.

As for the cartoony/realistic division--I'll say this: I'm a huge fan of the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness franchise, but I haven't picked up the new comics (by Devil's Due I think?) because the art is too cartoony for me. And I love The Goon. However, Powell was going for a cartoony style from the beginning, and that art style perfectly fits the larger-than-life, cartoony storytelling. And while ED/AOD is "cartoony" as well, the humor of the films (at least for me) often lay in the fact that the violence and humor itself was cartoony, but the presentation was not. On the other hand, I really liked the moody, painted look of the Dark Horse comic adaptation of Army of Darkness--it added an atmosphere and creepiness to the story that wasn't in the film much at all. It's a fine line.

But anyway, Hellboy just hasn't been done in a realistic style too often. It was interesting to see those first few pages by Bermejo. But now they've got an artist whose style is much closer to Mignola's; and in addition, Fegredo seems to be adding some Mignola-esque touches to his pencils, though I don't know his art well enough to make that claim for certain--he may just have an iconic style that's similar to Mignola's (not in its details necessarily, but in its general level of "iconicity"--in the McCloudian sense).

In any event, I like both artists, and while I think the art would have made a big difference in the overall effect of Darkness Calls, I don't think artist would have been "better" than the other. Just different. And since Bermejo's style was a bit more of a departure from Mignola's style, and I often enjoy artistic experimentation, I would have liked to see what Bermejo did with it. Again, though, I'm sure Fegredo will put his own spin on Hellboy, and I look forward to it.

[Maija]

Sorry I didn't mean to imply that I prefer "cartoony-ness" because actually I don't. As you say, Eric Powell uses it well and uses it because it's appropriate to the story, but it's funny that in spite of such exaggerated characters like Franky, he's switched to pencil shading to give them a "real" feel instead of more cartoonish inks. Meanwhile, he continues to have trouble finding a way to draw the ladies. The gorgeous dames are the most "real" and least exaggerated characters and yet they always seem a little awkward anatomically.

It's not "cartoony-ness" that I'm thinking of but fantasy, and even that is not quite the right word. "Graphic communication of the intangible" is more accurate maybe. Part of the power of ink is not just that you can draw cars exploding, but you can also use the language of art to do things that you can't do with photography which is not only in the mark-making, but in the communication of mood and feeling, something you can sort of capture in photography with lighting or a model's expression, but it's limited. The language of art allows even more intangible information to be written into the image than you could in a photograph and I LOVE it when an artist exploits that power. Otherwise it's just a diagram.

I didn't care for the graphic novel The Road to Perdition because the artwork, although technically well executed, didn't add anything more to the story than staged photographs would have. It is very diagramatic. It reminded me of the line-art illustration found in brochures and textbooks of the seventies. The images in that story merely fill in what the dialogue doesn't tell you, but they don't add anything more. It looks like storyboards for a movie.

[alz]

So based on the different art panels, these base layout is by Mike? (thumbnails to be interpreted by the artist)

[petriacce]

It is interesting to see the "same" page by two different artists. I'm tempted to draw and post my version of the page just so everyone can be thankful I'm not going to be the artist. ;)

I'm not one that gets hung up on only Mignola drawing Hellboy, although it is my preference. I like to see different artists tackle the red guy. I can see both Fegredo and Bermejo working well with Hellboy. I have also enjoyed Corben's work with "Makoma". I would even like to see Humberto Ramos drawing some Hellboy. His "Revelations" stuff was awesome.

That reminds me. I need to write a letter.

Maybe we'll see some more of Bermejo's work in a new Weird Tales story somewhere down the line so we can see and compare his work on Hellboy.

[Hellcow]

I'm not one that gets hung up on only Mignola drawing Hellboy, although it is my preference. I like to see different artists tackle the red guy. I can see both Fegredo and Bermejo working well with Hellboy. I have also enjoyed Corben's work with "Makoma". I would even like to see Humberto Ramos drawing some Hellboy. His "Revelations" stuff was awesome.



Just to be boring and sound like the broken record that I am, I'm going to go against everyone else's opinion and say I am STILL hung up on only Mignola drawing Hellboy.

Poor me.

[Mike Cross]

Hellcow, i feel your pain, I don't totally agree, but i do understand what you and everyone in that camp feels. As I've said before and this is the last time i will say this..creators move on. We are lucky that Mike still wants to draw Hellboy..he's writing the character so that's good for me. Do/did you only want Mike to draw Abe stories? Then, do you not like Guy's BPRD?
To me, Fegredo does a darn fine Hellboy based on the work we've seen and i look forward to it. It's not as good as Petriacce hellboy, but then again, what is?

Mike

[Neil Hill]

What's really interesting to me here, is that the long ago debate over whether or not fans approved of Bermejo taking over Hellboy (taking over being a much stronger phrase then I'm truly intending) has now been replaced by a debate over whether Fegredo is better than Bermejo, and the merits of both artists. I suppose we fans are never truly satisfied unless we can comment or complain. Thankfully we have forums like this where we can do both. :D