BLOGODOOM!!
Tuesday September 04th 2007, 5:33 pmWELL…
yep it has certainly been too long since I last blogged. I know I suck. But it is entirely blamed on something else, or rather Directly Company oriented. I’m talking about the absolute dreaded deadline of doom. Basically said company decided to schedule the Batman issues every 2 weeks to make up for another artist being late, at my expense, even though I wasn’t done with my SCHEDULED work and everyone involved knew what my pace is. I always do my best to work as diligently as I can. I didn’t find this out about the shipping until I was half way through the 3rd installment when I came back from con. And the way I found out was when I got lettering proofs for the first 2 issues back to back. So very kind of them to inform me so eloquently. So instead of being an ass about it I decided to not take any weekends off and work everyday until I was finished by a certain time. What a nightmare it turned into. It ended up with me working over a month, with the last day being a 24 hour work day, without time off. You would think I could crash after that, but nope. I needed to do the next Crossing Midnight cover before that ended up being late. So it turns out everything in my life needed to cease in order to get this stuff done in time and it still might ship late because we are so on the wire with this. And that is why there have been no blogs for so long. That is if anyone really cares about what I have to say in these things anyway. So there you have it. My website obligations have already gone to shit. But next time this happens, and it probably will because the companies are shit for planning properly, I’m not going to be a nice guy and help them with such a bone-head decision on their part. That was pure hell and made me not very pleasant to be around, just ask my wife. Enough with this longwinded pity party!!!
The second issue of my Batman arc arrived a short time ago with very positive reviews overall. Just yesterday I went over the final color corrections for the final installment and I think it will fit perfectly as the ending chapter. The overall effect of this arc needed to have this building up to a crescendo feeling and I think it does that pretty well. The 3 issues have a real sense of progression to them with the first being medium on a scale and the final being at the highest. Hopefully most of you will agree when you see it. That this story has this feeling of slowly burning and ramping up.
SIDES…
I just recently finished reading THE OTHER SIDE published by vertigo, between sleep and work. What a great read that was. I’m not a big fan of war stories unless they offer something different than the usual stuff. This one certainly did. I was at first compelled to check this out because of the amazing Cameron Stewart. I love his work. But as I got into the story I was really impressed with how well it was written by Jason Aaron. Very intense, and hard to take at times, but a story like this should be. Cameron drew the hell out of this book, stunning. The combination of Jason’s thought provoking writing and Cameron’s extremely detailed art (that doesn’t forget the emotions of the scenes) made for a powerfully emotional impact. The ending just hits you very hard and haunts you for quite sometime afterward, which is very appropriate. When you see the content you’ll know what I mean by that. Great stuff.
TRADES…
Volume one of the old Tangent comics stuff has come out and some of you may not know that I was a contributor to some of that material. I worked on the Tangent Universe version of Green Lantern one shot, with James Robinson as the writer. This was one of the early experiments I did in regards to shifting styles on a story. The issue was written as an anthology with bridging sequences and normally this sort of thing will have several artists working on the individual stories and maybe one artist for the bridging sequences. For some reason that I have never discovered the editor wanted just one artist for the whole anthology. I thought this was an odd and intriguing idea, so I decided to tackle it as if each story was drawn by a different artist but actually it would be all my work. This was an interesting challenge to me and I hadn’t really considered this sort of thing very much before. I was surprised by the results and how much it really looked and felt like a true anthology when it was all finished. This really opened my eyes early on to the possibilities of where I could take things and led me down the path I went on with other projects. Anyway, if any of you are so inclined, pick this up if you like superhero stuff. It was fun.
MUSIC…
GOD SPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR—lift your skinny fists like antennas to heaven
KILLING JOKE —brighter than a thousand suns
MOTORHEAD—another perfect day (expanded edition)
THE GOSSIP—e.p.
THE MISSION —god’s own medicine (remastered and expanded)
THE MISSION— the first chapter (remastered and expanded)
THE MISSION —children (remastered and expanded)
THE MISSION —god is a bullet (u.s. version)
MOBY with DEBBIE HARRY—new york, new york e.p. single
KLAXONS—myths of the near future
FOREIGNER—double vision
VCR—power destiny
SKYE—mind how you go
69 EYES —angels
SIA—colour the small one
OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW—big iron world
NINA SIMONE—remixed and reimagined
FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM — mourning sun
VENUS DOOM IS COMING!!!
11 Comments so far
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Jim, I hope you get some time off soon for some R & R for yourself and Wendy. I can only imagine how frustrating it is for you to work under so much pressure due to circumstances beyond your control especially since I know you have a really good work ethic and always push yourself to go the extra distance with your art. I worry that what happened to Gene Day (Marvel artist extraordianaire on Shang Chi Master of Kung Fu) will happen to you. I hope that the company and people you’re working with get their shite together so that you don’t always have to pick things up on the ass end. It’s sad that there are a number of people in this industry that don’t take their deadlines that seriously and it ends up affecting those like you that are disciplined – I hope all of this doesn’t discourage you and that we’ll get to experience your art for many years to come.
I’d forgotten that you did some work on the Tangent Comics, I’ll have to revisit that and let my customers know!
Last Thursday at my store, Penn (of Penn and Teller) made a rare visit to my store and he was asking me for a sampling from some each of the main companies. So on the DC side I pointed him towards your two issues of Batman and the Batman Snow trade you did with the very talented, much missed Seth Fisher. Also Bill Willingham bought one of your new sketchbooks.
Comment by Ralph Mathieu 09.04.07 @ 8:44 pmthanks ralph. wendy and i are going to go see the tezuka exhibit in san fransisco this thursday through saturday. it will be really nice to do something fun. i’m a huge tezuka fan.
and don’t worry. i’m sticking around for a long time.
in october we are going to the ocean in mendocino for a week for our anniversary and a vacation.
your new order of sketchbooks are on their way.
Comment by jwh3 09.04.07 @ 10:39 pmjust aslong as we get some more J.W.H III goodness we’re willing to wait.
Comment by Austin 09.05.07 @ 5:50 pmwhoops, JHWIII. Anyways, after your run on batman are you going back to Detective?
Comment by Austin 09.05.07 @ 8:34 pmGood lord. That sucks. Get some rest Jim.
I knew you were busy but that is crazy.
Love to you and Wendy.
On a music note: I could listen to GSYBE: “lift your skinny fists…” every day and not get tired of it. Love that album.
Sorry about the stress, but I think its definitely not showing in your work. Batman is phenomenal; I recommend it to everybody. Hmm tho, who could that late artist before you be… But the International Batmen all drawn in the Ed McGuiness and Howard Chayken etc. styles, thats so brillaint. Keep doing something different.
I met you at Comic Con if you remember, and I took a picture with you and Grant, and it was rather amazing.
The Other Side, definitely an important unique and beautifully different kind of war comic.
keep drawing, I’ll pay attention
Comment by -ray 09.08.07 @ 10:34 pmEight days till VENUS DOOM!
Comment by Scott Johnson 09.10.07 @ 7:47 amHey Jim! Your dedication to your work and putting in the extra hours to get Batman out in a timely manner is very inspiring. Thank you for that.
BTW, your work on Batman has thus far been amazing–the linework and the layouts have been nothing short of beautiful. I just hope you get to work with Grant again soon after this story. It’s just magic when you guys collaborate.
Comment by Andrew Drilon 09.10.07 @ 10:28 amthanks for the all of kind words from everyone. i’m about to start my next project but i’m not sure when official announcements will be made since the series won’t launch until sometime next year. it is bat related but NOT a return to detective. grant and i are still planning to work more together on a creator owned project which will start after my current bat related project. more info on all of this when the time is right.
Comment by jwh3 09.12.07 @ 10:11 amI’m amazed I’ve never seen this site before so let me just say that I’m extremely happy I have. J.H., you are one of my top favorite modern artists and I’ve been following your work for a very long time. Your art has been an incredible inspiration to me, especially in my pursuit to become a comic artist, so I really wanted to thank you for being consistently amazing. I feel you’ve truly changed the way comics can be illustrated. I’m anxious to see whatever else you have coming out. Especially your Jonah Hex issue, your next Batman project, and your project with Grant! Take care!
Comment by Craig 09.24.07 @ 6:09 pmLeave a Comment
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Sorry they messed you over so much on the Batman run. If it makes you feel any better, I have been loving the hell out of it. Since you did the work on Detective I was looking forward to this. I love the way you do panel layouts. It is work like that that will keep comics in print as a medium – I think work like that is so much better printed then in electronic format.
As far as that goes, I had never read Promethea, but went out and bought all the trades.
Comment by Jim 09.04.07 @ 8:04 pm