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.

Rough Riders: Kong Art from Concept to Finish

My working methods have changed and evolved throughout my career; more or less, I've tried everything. From penciling directly on the Bristol board and inking, to making tiny thumbnail sketches, and everything in between.

For the first 40-page issue, I began by doing rough sketches on 8½" x 11" bond paper with a roller pen. These layouts I then blew up on a photocopier to 11" x 17". At this point, if the rough is tight enough, I may elect to "light table" (literally, trace on a light table) onto Bristol board, but in the case of Kong, I took the further step of doing a "tissue" (thin paper) refinement, tightening up the layout and fleshing out the drawings in pencil. Then, I traced those onto Bristol board, further refined the pencils, and inked them (and in the case of Kong, applying a lot of dot screens). Page 1, below, shows all three separate states of this process.

After the first issue, I began doing my roughs for Kong full size, skipping the smaller rough stage. As seen in the case of page 40 (below), I composed the layout with light blue and graphite pencil on thin paper (called "tissue" in the world of cartooning and commercial art). This rough layout I then light-tabled onto Bristol in pencil, then lettered and inked. I finished the art with dot screens, scraping away highlights with an X-Acto blade.

Left: Rough pencil layout on "tissue" (thin paper); Right: finished artwork in ink and dot screen.

On a totally different note, while I was drawing King Kong for Fantagraphics' Monster Comics, I was also creating my explicitly pornographic comics for Fantagraphics under their Eros Comix imprint (and under my patently unconvincing pseudonym, Anton Drek). Kong seemed to influence my Anton Drek comics, insofar as when it came time to collect Wendy Whitebread, Undercover Slut and Forbidden Frankenstein into a single trade paperback (it would undergo two editions and was already being translated into Spanish, Italian, French, and Finnish), I employed a Kong compositional theme, putting our stalwart heroine into the monsters massive palm.

Original thumbnail sketch, 4" across; red and black rollerball ink pen.

Full size rough on tissue, 14" x 17", blue and graphite pencils.

Material content aside, my approach to drawing this image is identical to the approach I was employing on Kong, which is to say, I drew a full-size rough (in this case, 14" x 17") in blue and graphite pencil, then transferred to Bristol board in pencil, then inked with a brush and probably crowquill pen.

14" x 17" brush and ink on Bristol board; colored blueline with Cel-Vinyl colors and acetate overlay.

The final step in this case was to color the illustration, which involved a creation of a "blue line" (the linework from the cartoon drawing is photographically transferred to illustration board), and then colored with paints. One can use watercolor, acrylic, or even oil, but for this one I used mainly Cel-Vinyl paints, which were used to paint cels in animation.

Cover of Anton's Collected Drek (first edition, June 1992), Cel-Vinyl paint on blueline with acetate overlay.

Aside from subject matter, I made no attempt to alter my drawing style or working method between "Don Simpson" and "Anton Drek" in the early 90s. Allow the Drek comics came to an end by 1992, my cartooning workflow has continued to evolve into the digital era. Scanners, for example, allow more accuracy and precise enlargement (although in recent years I've used a variety of tracing papers rather than Bristol board). Numerous examples of my current method have been posted on my various blogs, but if you are interested, you can start here.