Comics UK

some artists are skilled at adapting their drawings to the smaller A4 format, PETER, but I still say that better results are attainable with the older [A3?] format; BOB NIXON'S compressed ROGER of 1985 onwards was fine, but it lacked the sheer finesse of his late 60s/early 70s work on the same character.

I magine KEN REID being demoted to 'postage-stamp' sized format; there's no danger his work would have thrived, let alone evolved as it did!

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:some artists are skilled at adapting their drawings to the smaller A4 format, PETER, but I still say that better results are attainable with the older [A3?] format; BOB NIXON'S compressed ROGER of 1985 onwards was fine, but it lacked the sheer finesse of his late 60s/early 70s work on the same character.

I magine KEN REID being demoted to 'postage-stamp' sized format; there's no danger his work would have thrived, let alone evolved as it did!

I don't know of any artists who draw their pages A4, although I think Jack Oliver did his Buster pages "same size" (as published) but most of us still work at least "half up" (around A3).

I've drawn a lot of my Viz pages twice-up (twice printed size, ie: approx A2) as they have at least 20 panels a page like the old Beanos.

On the whole the page rate in the Sixties was better in real terms compared to today's rates, so an artist such as Ken Reid could spend the luxury of time on just doing two pages a week and still make a reasonable living.

Lew

I generally like detailed, 'busy' drawing, especially on humorous strips, but with very few exceptions I prefer to see it reproduced as sharply and as close to the dimensions of the original artwork as possible. Personally I find it quite soul destroying to spend hours adding details to a piece of work only to discover they've become all-but invisible on the printed page.

For a rather startling example of the extent to which an artist's work can become degraded on the way from his drawing board just compare this detail of a Turk's head as it appeared on the cover of an old Hurricane comic with the same section from the original artwork:


(Incidentally I've never been able to identify the artist responsible for this superb panoramic illustration of the Siege of Nicaea so I'd welcome any suggestions)

- Phil Rushton

a prime example of 'blur-o-vision' you posted there, Phil!

[I should have known the size used in BEANO artwork; I drew a bleedin' ROGER set for BEANO in '87! tsk, tsk, must pay attention!]