What if one person was two superheroes? ALTER EGO is a bombastic comic starring the smiling champion WHIZ-BANG, the prowling vigilante THE BLACK DOG, and the man behind both of their masks. This weekly newsletter is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Alter Ego, by Nate Cosby, Jacob Edgar, Kike J. Diaz & Rus Wooton. Go to this link to sign up for updates on when ALTER EGO will be available!
Yo yo! I’d give ya more preamble, but you find me smack-dab in the middle of working on the lettering draft of Alter Ego Chapter One. I’m writing the interior dialogue for one character who is three people. This is what I’ve got so far…
I’ll let ya know next week how it’s going.
Meanwhile, Jacob’s grinding out Chapter Two roughs…
So while we work, you guys can check out a great convo Jacob and I had with Phil Hester…or feel free to skip down to the very end, for a BIG surprise…
PART VIII: Phil Hester Wants To Sell Dozens Of Ragman Comics
Phil Hester’s one of my favorite drawers in all of drawing. His people are chunky and awesome. His ability to convey character though subtle physicality and facial expressions makes you want to hang out with the people he’s realized. On top of this, he’s a dang good writer, and for some reason has always been super nice to me. Me’n Jacob sponged up all we could from him in this conversation. –Nate
JACOB: Can you talk about the way that your work process has evolved from your early career until now? The way you get and use reference, the working relationship with writers/inkers/etc, what you draw with or on, all that jazz.
PHIL: I’m a traditional artist, mostly for practical purposes. I can’t carve three weeks out of my schedule to learn digital tools. Also, I like to have a tangible finished product. I’m also aware of how much of my style is mistakes. You screw up on paper and you have to draw your way out of it. No “undo.” Solving those problems in real time leads you down avenues you would never find from the omniscient perspective digital drawing provides.
From a technical standpoint, my career has been a long struggle to keep the energy found in my initial sketches and thumbnails alive in the finished piece– which has never happened. I’ll use a huge variety of techniques to achieve that, and change them up every few years. They range from enlarging and light-boxing my thumbs to the board, laying out directly on the board, using blue pencil, eschewing blue pencil, overdrawing and then cutting back into that mass with an eraser, you name it. The goal is to keep that little ember glowing. However you manage it is kosher.
The best thing about comics is working with your friends. I don’t see collaborators as coworkers as much as partners. You don’t want to let your partner down. You want to give them your best and make their life easier. I’ve been lucky to work with many inkers, artists, and writers who I see as friends first and co-creators second, notably my two main inkers, Ande Parks and Eric Gapstur. They know me well enough to interpret my intent with a drawing even if I fall short with it. That’s invaluable.
NATE: I wanna talk about character design and costuming. Do you like designing characters and their outfits? And what are some of your favorite characters you’ve designed (or redesigned)?
PHIL: Thanks! It’s one of my favorite aspects of the job. I guess it’s probably how most cartoonists start their art journey–doodling variations on your favorite hero’s look in your schoolwork. I simply never outgrew it. I’m of the Kirby/Cockrum school of decidedly non-practical looks for characters. What I’m looking to do is make an indelible impression on the reader. I’m looking to find that hook that makes the character memorable. If I can do that by making them sleek and iconic, I’ll do that. If it requires making them grotesque or idiosyncratic, so be it. I try to bring the essence of the character’s inner life to the surface, make it visible for all.
I’d say my favorite character design was for a pretty obscure hero called Legacy for Majestic back in the early 90s (such a time).
Our task was to create a Superman analog without, you know, getting sued. I feel like I captured the spirit of Superman without replicating any of his existing costume elements. I also love drawing monsters, so any chance to make a monster hero is going to thrill me.
NATE: Did you design The Irredeemable Ant-Man costume, in the series you did with Robert Kirkman?
PHIL: I did. It was an effort to reintroduce some wonkiness to the character. At the time, comics were obsessed with tactical functionality, which only serves to make super-heroes MORE ridiculous, in my opinion. We’re allowed to do weird things in comics, so why not let it all hang out. I loved Michael Golden original Bug design from Micronauts, so I wanted to pay homage to that combination of mysteriousness and almost cartoonish expressiveness, hence the antennae.
NATE: Speaking of Superman, you recently had a run on Action Comics, and as of today, you said you were grinding on a Justice League deadline. When you’re drawing well-known superheroes, what’s your approach? Are there moments where you think “I think I want to put my own stamp on this character,” or maybe “don’t screw this up, don’t change the recipe”?
PHIL: I think your stamp winds up on what you draw whether you like it or not. Maybe especially when you’re flying on a deadline. The real you comes out. No time to be precious or self-conscious. So, what results is MY Superman, which is very much like a parade balloon or 1950s Chevy–bulky and sleek at the same time, massive yet weightless, masculine but welcoming. A cartoon! He’s a cartoon, folks.
NATE: Glad you brought that up…one of the reasons I love your work so much is because of the size and texture. Everything is so damn BIG. There’s a rough and tumble quality to everything you draw, which is what makes your sequentials such a delight to see. The texture gives everything a sense of place. Not that you can’t draw smooth…there’s a James Bond cover you drew for me that was slick as hell, but since you’re you, it had this great “energy” brimming underneath, like when Daniel Craig’s Bond would wear a tight suit…his suits would “fit,” but it looks like he’s crammed in there so tight that he’s about to explode with action.
How much of your experience as an artist informs your scriptwriting? Are you seeing your art in your head as you write? Do you sketch things out for artists you collaborate with?
PHIL: I always “see” what I’m writing as I write, and will often offer sketches or thumbnails to the artist I’m collaborating with. That said, I always defer to the person who actually has to put those images on the page. They have a creative vision, too. It’s just easier for me to speak in that visual language by actually drawing it out, even if that drawing is very quick and unrefined. My thumbnails aren’t miniature pages as much as diagrams for character blocking, balloon placement, fundamental compositions, visual beats, and page design. Hopefully, my thumbnails have no bearing on the actual rendering.
I would hope my experience as an artist helps me decide just what story points make for an engaging scene. Something visual must always be occurring, even if the scene demands a lot of exposition or talking heads. The images must either reinforce or subtly counter the intended action to let the comic really live and breathe. That play between text and subtext is something comics can do better than any other medium, but to really avail yourself of it, you must write like an artist and draw like a writer.
JACOB: This isn't a groundbreaking question, buuut...For those artists working to break into comics, or early in their careers like myself, is there one specific piece of advice, or maybe a top three nuggets of wisdom, that you wish you had known then?
PHIL: Don’t wait. You’re not in the training montage, you’re in the fight. Do the kind of work you want to do as soon as possible. There’s no secret cabal of career gods who will monitor your progress to see what gigs you deserve. Start making your dream comics even if you think you’re not up to the task. If you keep growing as a creator, you will never feel up to the task. Outkick your coverage, as they say. What you can actually cover will only grow if it’s tested.
JACOB: Another non-groundbreaker: Is there one existing character out there that you haven't gotten to work on, but are just dying to?
PHIL: One of the coolest surprises of a long career in comics is the number of characters you might have antipathy for as a reader that you’re actually great at drawing. I try not to prejudge who will be fun to write or draw because I’m often pleasantly shocked at how invested I can get in a character I’d never thought deeply about before. Now, I still have my favorites. I’d love to write The Fantastic Four and I’d love to write and draw a Ragman comic. It would sell dozens.