Phoenix Comic Con Coverage: How to Draw with Todd and Greg

Spawn artists Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo presented a how to draw comics workshop at the Phoenix Comic Con on Saturday, May 29. The tutorial was a basic demonstration of superhero illustration, with an emphasis on the face and hands.

"If you can draw faces and hands," McFarlane explained, "you can get a job in comics." He further described successful character drawing in comics as acting on Broadway because dramatic body movement is essential in both media.

McFarlane was very complimentary of his partner Capullo, saying, "The artists [comic book fans] like know how to position their camera, and Greg is the best artist I know. He can put the camera anywhere in the room."

Capullo encouraged young artists to keep drawing and accept honest criticism. "An editor gave me the best advice, a guy named Larry Hama," he recalled. "'You're in the Big Apple now,' he said to me. It took me two years to take his advice."

While describing the importance of movement, McFarlane mentioned that he was recently directing a video game commercial. He didn't reveal any details, other than that the actors were carrying swords and shields.



The artists also took a humorous interlude to discuss how to play Pictionary. McFarlane explained that his wife always draws animals the same way (see image above), and essentially asked, how hard is it to add a trunk to make your drawing an elephant?

"Whenever we get picked for a team, people are always like, well, great, now we're going to lose!" McFarlane joked. "Guys, we have the same 20 seconds as you! If you can't tell, we are usually very slow, very anal, very detailed about our drawings."

Perhaps that explains the fate of Image United #3.

Is Kick-Ass Gonna Kick Ass?

Kick-Ass, inspired by the comic book Kick-Ass, is coming soon to a theater near you, but the movie has already attracted international attention, i.e. this article from The Guardian. The interview with writer Mike Millar poses an interesting question regarding the comics-to-film phenomenon: Should comics be written with the intent of cinematic adaptation? Of course, every writer wants to establish a franchise viable for cinema and cash in accordingly, but what does this make the comic medium other than a glorified storyboard? As a comic book fan first, I take issue (no pun intended) with this mentality; consider the following excerpt from Millar's interview:

"The trouble is that the superhero movies so far – and I don't want to be unfair to them because I think generally they have been good – have been made two generations after they've been created, and in Superman's case three generations after they've been created. So if the technology had existed to make a Fantastic Four movie in 1966 it would have been amazing, because you had Kennedy and the space race and all of that. But now, really, what is the Fantastic Four?"

The implication is, cinematic adaptation asserts viability, and without it, the Fantastic Four is . . . well, nothing more than a comic book, right? The elephant in the room is, forty years later, Marvel's founding family is still worthy of at least two feature films -- whether or not they were good is relative to Hollywood's desire to produce them. These characters are still worthy of attention. Will Kick-Ass be as viable 40 years from now? No, perhaps Millar realizes, now is the time to act, lest his creation fall by the wayside of pop culture. After all, comic book movies produced in conjunction with a new, monthly comic book have always paved the road to success in both industries . . .

. . . right, Todd McFarlane? Right, Frank Miller?