In an effort to stay humble and laugh at myself a little... I'm doing the UNTHINKABLE: throwing up the seven WORST jobs I've done in comics. Worse in my opinion, that is. I know you may have your favorites, but these are just the ones that haunt me.
MY TOP SEVEN WORST ART JOBS:
1 INFINITY Inc #49. 1st DC job inking! Hell, my first job for either of the Big Two. After I turned it in, Roy Thomas said, "You're not thinking of doing this professionally, are you?" I don't blame him for asking!
This baldheaded guy suffers the most; I feel sorry he was stuck with me as an inker. His doesn't look male, female or even human after I got finished with him. Didn't help that I knew none of these characters I was inking...
This poor guy's left eye seem to be floating off his face, doesn't it? Not the penciller's fault either—this was all MY fault. Yikes!
Check out the cover, which doesn't look to bad—probably because I didn't do it. Sorta ironic that it has the old Sandman on the cover isn't it? I had no idea another version of this character would show up in my life a short time later.
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2 VARIOUS I Before E stories panels. This was an anthology of early comic stories before I broke into Marvel or DC.
These two ... from different stories... show endless struggles with women's faces, what I call the 'pinched face' I often succumbed to. No wonder the first woman looks so distressed, with eyes that big! Check out the second face: it's so small, it's just freaky looking!
And check out this guy's massive neck; looks like a leather sausage. Sorta got away from me...
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3 Mr. Monster short story. This was an experiment I used to try, drawing very tiny then blowing up the art in photocopies. It worked when I tried it later in Maxx. It didn't work here. Apologies to Mr. Monster creator Michael T. Gilbert who just scratched his head when he saw it.
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4 Judge Dredd story. Rushed out. And first story I painted, obviously. I actually think every mistake I currently make can be traced back to this story, for better or worse.
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5 Marvel presents 100 (especially the last two-thirds of the book, also rushed out in 1 day).
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6 Honorable mention goes to this wonky panel from Zero Girl. My pal Vassilis pointed it out, after I kept prodding him to come up with SOMETHING that he wasn't wild about. It is kind of an odd angle for the guy's head, let alone being vertical and just so...off kilter (even for that book).
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7 Guess which one this is? If you isolate this panel, you'll be struck by what appears to be re-touched up art of a drawing of Fred and Barney Rubble, which is what it is. Not Dringenberg's fault, this one's all my fault. Mike actually made it look better. Yup, if you hadn't guessed yet, it's from that infamous sucker, Sandman Number 1.
Now, as to all the horrible art I currently do, there's simply too much of it to keep track of. But I will say one thing: at least nowadays it's 'on purpose'. Sorta. At least the idea that it's on purpose gives me the illusion of control.
Next week, some carefully edited art that probably makes me look better than I actually am.
