The Yellow Kong: Dating by Dotscreen!

Several original pages appear here in color, to show how some of the dotscreen has aged. For conoisseurs of old comic book and comic strip art, the concept of Benday screens is nothing new; a number of manufacturers made dot screens on advesive-back film (Zip-A-Tone, Mecanorma, Pantone, Formatt), and I probably used every variety on the original art for Kong.

Some of the effects I was able to accomplish, depending on whether the dots were printed on the front of the film, was scratching off the pattern to create mist or white glows, etc.

Some of it seems to have aged better than others, although I no longer have any record of which brand was used on which page. All of the art was stored in the same (not optimal) conditions, with heat in the summer and cold in the winter, and all of the art was scanned under the same parameters. The scans match the originals fairly accurately on my monitor. The only factor that is different is the manufacturer (although it all might have fared better in a more climate-controlled storage facility).

However, as illustrator Vince Dorse suggests, the yellowing kind of gives the art a patina of charm! Enjoy.

Close-up of Ann Darrow that has aged pretty well, although some slight shrinkage is evident to the right of the circle where two pieces of dot screen were laid next to one another.

Dots and line patterns are used on this page, which shows different degrees of yellowing. Clearly, it is the adhesive backing that is the culprit. So much for archival quality! Although it does make the flesh tones of the villagers rich and varied.

Some scratching on top of the film is evident in panel one, to create a modulating effect.

Spotlights are emphasized against the skyline by cutting away the dot screen. This page was one of the last I drew; it is so iconic, I don't know why I didn't plan it from the start.

Different dot screen values (probably 20% black to 40% black) were used in bands to give the water added depth in the second panel. Leaving the figure of Ann and the bubbles white make them pop out from the murky depths. Some shrinkage, however, can be seen at the top right corner and along the seams, particularly between Ann's neck and left arm. It appears in the photocopies of the time and probably the printed comic, so I probably did not do such a great job joining that spot in the first place.

First Kingdom: Kong Thumbnails from 1990

The first issue of King Kong began an exceptional assignment in my freelance career in many ways (I have always thought of it as freelance work, despite owning co-copyright on the artwork). First of all, it was an adaptation of a well-known story (one could hardly think of a story more familiar to fans of fantasy, sci-fi, horror, comics, or even cinema in general), and an assignment I would never have applied for. Fantagraphics, in fact, came to me - Thom Powers, whom I knew from Detroit, did a lot of the traffic editing for the Monster Comics line. It was in some ways a stretch, requiring period research (not easily accomplished in pre-internet days), and I also had to avoid quoting the movie directly - Fantagraphics only had the rights to illustrate the 1932 story, which was essentially a novelization of the screenplay.

Consequently, I approached the project, and especially the first issue, with more than the usual preparation. I recently came across the original 8½" x 11" roughs I made, in rollerball pen, and was shocked that the finished lettering already appeared on the roughs. Now, it was not at all unusual for me to start by making  8½" x 11" roughs (I did it for numerous projects at the time, including Megaton Meets the Uncategorizable X+Thems #1, various TMNT projects, Marvel and DC samples, and so forth (I've posted many of these all over my various blogs). But what is different about Kong is that I seem to have actually already lettered the dialogue on the 11" x 17" Bristol board, made reduced photocopies, then drew the roughs on these blank pages.

If I typed out a plot or script of some sort, it's present location is unknown; also, if I scribbled anything at all in a sketchbook, that is also not on hand; I can only conclude from looking at these roughs that I panicked to some degree, after lettering the text on the boards, and wanted to play it safe by roughing out the visuals, which I then blew up on a photocopier and traced onto the Bristol with the lettering, then inking.

It may also be the case that I went to such lengths because I wanted to get the lettering out of the way first. Lettering of course takes up visual space, and there's no sense drawing lush jungle backgrounds or cityscapes if they are only going to be covered over later by lettering. I have since placed the lettering first, although nowadays I just pencil the lettering very tightly on my layout, rather than ink the lettering and make photocopies, as I seem to have done with Kong.

In any case, this lettering-first extreme was highly unusual for me, and I don't think I ever went to this length again. In fact, after the first issue of Kong, I drew rough layouts without lettering, which was more my usual routine during this period in my career. (Issues #2-6 of Kong were done in this fashion, and a few examples of those roughs follow at the end here.)

In fact, as I post the, I realize that I only lettered the first twenty or so pages; after that point, I used my traditional 8½" x 11" rough template to scribble out my visuals, with only blobs to indicate word balloons.

I have scanned the roughs here in color, so you can see not only the yellowing as the paper has aged, but also the Avery-label patches over certain panels as I made corrections to the roughs before proceeding to later stages in the artwork.

These sheet of sketches, on a cream-colored legal pad, predates the first issue - it was for a tryout page that eventually appeared, with some modifications, later in the story (issue #3, as indicated), with Ann stranded up  in a tree as Jack tries to rescue her, and Kong is about to go at it with the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Full-size intermediate rough in marker; you can see clearly Ann has on a safari shirt different than what is depicted in the final story.

Here is the original inked page, submitted as a sample to Fantagraphics, left, and the page as it appeared in the final story, modified to be more consistent with the surrounding sequence.

This is an example of one of the later story page roughs, done full-size (11" x 17") on Strathmore Graphics paper or equivalent, known as a "tissue" for being thin and traceable on a light table.