Tuesday, May 18, 2010

PLASTIC MAN IN WEDNESDAY COMICS

PLASTIC MAN will appear in DC's hardcover collection of their popular WEDNESDAY COMICS, in a strip written by Evan Dorkin and drawn by myself. Editor Mark Chiarello intended to use the strip if one of the regular artists on the project had trouble meeting the weekly deadline, but I'm guessing all of the folks he worked with were punctual, because it wasn't published. Thankfully, this strip is seeing the light of day now, which makes me happy because I think it's good. I got my complimentary copies of the book from DC yesterday, and it's a damned spiffy package.
Here's a little sneak peak of it, with colors by the editor himself, and lettering by Siobhan DeStefano herself----I mucked up the word balloons, I think, they're the only thing I don't like about the strip. Apparently, this should hit stores the first week in June!



**Actually, now that I think of it, I should give some credit to Andy Suriano as well---that's his design of Plas I'm using there. I vowed never again to try and draw like Jack Cole, cuz it's stupid to follow in the tracks of a genius, because your work will always end up looking second rate. I used to swear that one day I'd draw Plas in his 1960's/Jack Sparling/Gil Kane/Win Mortimer style, but I may have given up on that dream, I dunno.

15 comments:

Don Shank said...

This looks fantastic Stephen! I can't wait to pick this up. I love your style.

dicecipher said...

Cool to see more of your work.

sdestefano said...

Thanks folks.
Cool to hear from you, Don. You going to San Diego, maybe?

Guillermo Biasini said...

Wow cool. Hope this style get the animated treat someday. Watching this, and remenbering the pilot for Plastic Man, made my day.

sdestefano said...

thanks Guillermo! I appreciate the kind words.

Anonymous said...

Even though I've never read the original Plastic Man comics before, or for that matter, many of the old DC and Marvel comics (I was never into superhero comics at all really. Maybe I'll get into them more when I'm older. I'm still in high school unfortunately always working on improving my drawing skills, so maybe I can be great storyboard artist one day like you or Bob Camp), these drawings are great. Very slick, stylish, and appealing, topped with clear staging, just like your Ren and Stimpy storyboards.

Sorry for wasting your time with my rambling diatribe by the way.

sdestefano said...

Robert, I certainly don't feel like you've wasted my time. I'm happy you've written! I appreciate the kind words, and furthermore, it gives me an opportunity to go off about one of my very favorite cartoonists, Jack Cole, the creator of Plastic Man. If you've never read Cole's original Plas adventures from the 1940's, and you're interested in learning about cartooning, I can't think of anyone whose work is better to learn from. Cole's Plastic Man may truly have been the closest comics ever got to a Tex Avery cartoon for outlandish whackiness, and Cole was an extraordinarily good draftsman---perhaps one of the very finest of the "Golden Age" of comics. It's most definitely NOT an average "superhero" comic book. There are several ways to collect Cole's bits of genius, and I can't recommend to you highly enough that you should search his work down!

Chris said...

Wow! These look great!!! Very Kurtzman-esque!!! I haven't bought superhero comics in ages, but I may have to plunk down and get this one!

I have to agree with you. You F'd up the word ballons. =)

sdestefano said...

I did! I totally F'in F'ed up the balloons! Too bad, cuz the little wife did such a nice job typesetting in Photoshop. Ah well. Next time I know....

ALBERT PARDO said...

-CONGRATS SDe,

-YOU'RE POSING OF THESE CHARACTERS IS ALWAYS AWESOME, ESPECIALLY PLASTIC MAN, GREAT SHAPES AS USUAL, NICE CONSTRUCTION, FUN STUFF...

-I NEED TO PICK THIS UP..!

Don Shank said...

Hey Stephen,
I won't be making it to the San Diego Con this year. I'll actually be down there at the beginning of the month though. I sort of go every other year as the Con alternates and every other year it conflicts with my anniversary.
The comic-con has been bumming me out because it is so huge now. It's a fight to see the artists and friends that I want to while lucasfilm screams at me about their latest videogame or whatever.
Though, I'm still a cartoon nerd and I love San Diego, so maybe next year.

Chris said...

Not to beat the point, but what was your thinking in making the balloons look that way? They are more like thought balloons or whisper balloons rather than regular speech balloons.

Not to knock the letterer, but I never liked serif fonts for dialogue. That combined with the wack balloons - yeesh! At least the pictures are perty!*

*All said with gentle ribbing, of course.

sdestefano said...

Clearly, not enough thinking went into my word balloons.
But I do like the font---it's the exact typeface Kurtzman used in HUMBUG. This, you cannot complain about.

Chris said...

'Nuff said. =)

Have you seen this great site? Barnacle Press

David said...

Hi Stephen, I'm really enjoying your work. I also recently read your interview in Hogan's Alley... great stuff. I run a blog where I post Q&As with cartoonist and I was wondering if you would like to participate? Please stop by and take a look. http://david-wasting-paper.blogspot.com/

If you are interested please send me an email at dmp1234@yahoo.com and I will get the questions out to you.

Thanks Stephen.