Artists I Like: Earl Norem

Earl Norem is a legend. From men's magazines to baseball to toys to comics, he has illustrated more covers than I have eaten Milky Way bars... and that's saying a lot.

When I was a teenager I discovered Savage Sword of Conan and, of course, Norem eventually showed up on a cover (he did at least 48 SSoC covers!) and, at that time, I was not as blown away by him as with Joe Jusko or Michael Golden. It felt like I was seeing an older painter at work and his style was out of synch with what I expected.

But he won me over. I kept seeing Norem covers and kind of fell in love with his textures and colors and old school aesthetic. I can't say just how much his work has influenced me, to be honest. Maybe not that much. I don't know. But he's been in my head canon since the 80s so there must be some osmosis happening.

Earl Norem died in 2015 at the age of 92. A WWII vet, and a massively accomplished and respected illustrator.

 

Artists I Like: Sergio Aragonés

Groo is another comic I didn't collect or even see when I was young and it's a damn shame. But it never showed up in my neck of the woods. I think I saw some ads here and there because I knew the name, but just didn't have any opportunity that I knew of to get my hands on it. I guess Flo's Flea Market quarter comics boxes didn't have any Groo.

Of course, Sergio Aragonés is not simply the Groo guy. He was a Mad Magazine guy first, and a hell of a good one. He was known as one of the fastest cartoonists around.

Take a look at any Groo page and just marvel at the little details. The buildings look like they have real form and usage, the costumes are unusual but have a ring of truth to them. They are weird. The people are weird. But not in a "anything goes" kind of way. They are weirdly real. And yet wildly, wildly insane.

Aragonés has a command of form and movement and expression that is beyond superhuman. As a cartoonist myself, I am in awe of his powers. Just flip to any random Groo page and look at how he draws swords, for example. They have so much character. I caution people against holding any other artists in too high a regard. But I find myself breaking that rule and elevating Sergio Aragonés to a godlike status in my mind. And I think he deserves it.

Aragones' sword game is strong.

Hymla?

Here's a drawing I did before creating Hymla the Horn, but she is totally a prototype for the character. All I have to do is black out one tooth and this is Hymla.

 

Hymla the Horn!

CW: This post contains a bit of nudity, so you might want to hide it from your granny. A lot of this art is more appropriate for my Blood Red Pinups blog, but I'm in a mood to blur the lines and feeling less interested in compartmentalization.

Theme music for this post: Wo Fat's entire discography, but The Conjuring and The Black Code in particular. I think Hymla's theme song is probably "Beggar's Bargain".

Those of you reading this thing who care, let me know in the comments if you want to see a god damn Hymla the Horn comic book. I'll do what I want, you know that. But it is a strong motivator to know anyone out there gives even one shit.

HYMLA THE HORN: The story of a low class, low brow dishwasher turned slayer.

Hymla the Horn was born from a sketch. I can't seem to locate the original sketch sheet, done in Clip Studio Paint. But I did find a snippet of it that was saved on October 8, 2022, with the name "Hymla" drawn on it. So I must have created her at least by Oct 2022, duh.

Since then, she has popped up in my sketchbooks over and over again. I played an AD&D character based on her. I wrote a comic script. Clearly this brash, brazen ne'er-do-well looms large in my head. Both figuratively and literally. She ain't no wispy little daisy, after all.

The first Hymla drawing I can find, 2022.

Eventually I will make a Hymla comic book. I don't know when. I don't know how. I just know she is inevitable. So far there is one script written: Hymla is introduced as a lowly cantankerous kitchen helper in a tavern dive bar. A cult invades the bar and turns everyone into a mindless cult member, so Hymla brutally and bloodily slays every motherfucker in the place with various kitchen implements. Then she takes the tavern owner's old sword off the wall and walks off into a life of adventure, having discovered she has a knack for slaying.

Hymla is like... what if Conan/Red Sonja but fat and sassy and mean and missing a front tooth? Pure fight comic, violent as fuck, just for funsies. A character that says "I don't give a shit what you think" and means it.

"But why is she called Hymla the HORN?"... Because it sounds cool. I added the tagline "the Horn" right after doodling that first image and creating an AD&D first edition character. One of her carried items was a horn (the kind you blow). She also had a magic sword that she could blow through the pommel to inspire her comrades. None of that Dungeons & Dragons info is canon to the character, though. Just a riff on an idea. But that is the origin of "the Horn". It also ties into the first comic book script because her boss, the tavern owner, has a fancy old horn on his wall that she takes with her when she leaves the bloody mess behind. Unless I change up the script.

Bit of a tangent here, but fuck it, this is my blog... I don't savor the idea of having to draw the same thing over and over. Which is why my relationship to comics has always been slightly at arm's length. Though I was much more of a comics guy before getting into tabletop RPG creation so heavily in the 2000s and later in the 2010s. I used to draw a lot more comics, folks. Anyway... I resist the idea of giving this character a signature sword and horn because I don't want to have to draw the same thing all the time. One of the things I always loved about Conan comics was that in each story he could have a different weapon, different clothes and armor, different everything. All that was consistent was his personality, his long black hair, and muscles.

Hymla's world is Yria, the same setting I've explored in the pages of Black Pudding RPG zine. Well, to be fair, when I use this setting for stories and comic ideas I tend to cleanse it of elves, dwarfs, and halflings. But that's neither here nor there, as the rubes are wont to say. I think it matters not. Maybe those folks all died off in a plague or maybe they are still around, just not showing up much. Can't say yet. But this is the world of the Worm Witch, Blazing Heart, and Hunter Raven and all that jazz. Hymla just walks through it for a good time.

And that's Hymla. What matters is she's a fat, tough, mean, mirthful, belligerent motherfucker who wanders the land slaying monsters, wizards, and other villainous bastards while drinking, gambling, singing, and probably fucking. Not a sex comic idea, mind you, but definitely a hard rated-R. And NOW I'm officially rambling. You are witnessing me working out the idea on the page, naked for the world to see.

Anyhow. Here's the ultimate collection of Hymla the Horn artwork, as it stands in the year of our lord 2024, September 2.

This ended up being the cover for Black Pudding issue 8.

Doodled during a D&D game where we fought a kraken in the middle of the night.

Nobody Nose

I'm a sucker for a good pun, I guess.

This is a post about drawing noses. Because it is not an easy thing to do. And yet, also, quite easy. I dunno how to say that in a way that sounds smart. Let's just look at some examples of artists drawing noses, then look at how I draw them. Because I'm gonna predict that I do not have a consistent way of doing it. Which... is fine, I think. Art is feels, not accuracy.

Most artists tend to draw female noses differently than male ones. I guess because they want to ladies to have "pretty" noses, so they reign in their wilder cartooning habits for something more modest.

Here's a bit of Sergio Aragonés. I thought this was a nice little capsule of noses. See how each character has a completely different looking nose? Aragonés is a master of cartooning and he really tries to give each character a look of their own. Notice how Groo's granny here has a nose just like Groo's.

But when Aragonés wants to draw the pretty girls, he switches gears too.

Abe Snake, artist of the adult comic Muffin Topp, draws very cute little noses on his ladies too, often just a curved line pointing up.

But here are some male characters from Muffin Topp.

Comic artist Rune Ryberg opts for a little curved line pointing down on many of his females.

Here's a scene from a Ryberg comic showing men and women together. The female noses are slightly smaller, on average, but the size difference here is not very noticeable.

Vaughn Bodé liked to suggest a female nose, often in different ways. There are far fewer examples of his male noses on human characters because so many of his characters are lizards, robots, and weirdos.

And here are a few other artists working in styles that I like.

The classic pinup style female nose is small, usually upturned, and just not very prominent. It is there, but not dominant.

Yet many women have big honkers. What about cartoonists who draw more prominent noses on their women as well as their men? Now, I think in the above example you can see that William Skaar's treatment of noses on his female characters is kinda cool and interesting. He doesn't give them tiny, upturned noses. Their honkers are more pronounced. I like that. It's a different vibe.

An assortment of cartoonists leads to an assortment of noses.

Noses can be almost any shape. No wait, fuck that. Noses can be any shape. Whatever you want to draw. If you want to draw a ridiculous little square for every nose on every character, you can do that. Because this is art. There are no rules.

Yet we don't just draw squares for noses, usually. We want to express something. And it won't always be satisfied with a little square. We experiment, doodle, and screw around with it until we draw a nose we think looks about right. Then maybe we draw a lot of noses like that as we move forward into our journey.

Here are some noses from my own art. I don't have a standard style for noses. I go with what feels right. My noses have changed over the years, though. I used to try to draw them realistically when I was young, then I shifted to something more cartoony. I'm still searching for noses.

 

Artists I Like: Wendy Pini

This week's Artist I Like is the legendary Wendy Pini, co-creator of the classic Elfquest series of comics and stuff. Her long-time husband and partner Richard Pini co-created the comic with her and was a co-writer, editor, etc.

Wendy Pini has a style and approach to art that, I think, has inspired many generations of artists. If you've ever seen a faerie or elf drawing and said it reminds you of Keebler Elves, for example, that artist was probably inspired by Wendy Pini or by some artist who was inspired by Wendy Pini. There were a LOT of artists in the 80s inspired by Pini's work, especially among the small press and alternative comics folks. Just look at anything from Aircel or later from Sirius to see the connection. Heck, even a recent inclusion on my Sunday list, Stardriver Art, has a style that contains some Pini DNA.

Personally, I never owned any Elfquest comics when I was younger. I picked up the hardback volume one of the series in the early 2000s and I think I own a softcover volume two. She is an artist I have admired from afar, but never dived into very deeply. Maybe there wasn't enough carnage and nudity for my tastes... I think Elfquest is a fairly tame comic. My perception of it is that they always wanted to turn it into an animated series or movie, and have been conscientious about their content choices for that and other reasons. But I could be wrong about that.

Oh, Wendy Pini was also famous for doing cosplay. Specifically, she is very well known for her seminal Red Sonja cosplay, riffing on Frank Thorne's classic run.

Also, for the record, I just this minute realized that "WaRP" as in Warp Graphics stands for Wendy and Richard Pini. Wow. 

EDIT: Here's a great video about the Pinis and Elfquest. It hits on the history and reminds us how much the Pinis influenced the creator-owned comic book movement. Very nice.

EDIT TOO: Thanks to the video above, I learned that the Pinis donated all that original Elfquest art to The Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University... isn't that beautiful? You could, in theory, go there and sit and look at it. Amazing.