EARLY FEMFORCE ART - "TROPHY WIFE SCORNED" Starring the Blue Bulleteer

It's always weird for me to look back on old artwork, especially when I compare it with what I'm doing now. Waaaay back in 2008, I penciled "Trophy Wife Scorned" for AC Comics starring the character Blue Bulleteer. Originally the story was supposed to appear in an issue of Femforce, but was shuffled to their Green Lama title. 

A cold and wet Blue Bulleteer arrives at the city morgue where she identifies 

the body of dead crime lord, Carlos Manettti.

BB hears someone approaching and hides. Two thugs come in carrying gas cans.

They are followed by femme fatale, Lea Manetti - widow of the deceased gangster.

She orders the thugs to burn down the morgue which will also

destroy her dead husbands appearance.

BB surprises the thugs and a fight ensues!

Lea shoots her tommy gun, but it fires wildly, killing one of the thugs and starting a fire.

The gun jams before Lea can shoot the Blue Bulleteer. BB knocks the femme fatale 

through the door of the morgue.

Outside in the rainy alley,  the Blue Bulleteer confronts Lea. The widow 

throws her shoes at BB, who knocks her out and leaves her for the police.

INFLUENCES PART 1

Every individual has people and things that influence the direction their lives take. I, myself, have several.  The biggest and earliest one was my Dad. He was a fantastic artist who not only drew & painted, but also built models, made toys for his children, and sculpted. He had gone to American Academy Of Art in Chicago and studied commercial illustration. Growing up in an artistic environment opened my eyes to the world of art and ultimately compelled my to follow in his footsteps. I plan on speaking more about my Pop later on, but for now I'm just going to leave you with some of his artwork.

ADVENTURES IN INKING PART 1

For anyone who doesn't know, inking is the act of refining comic book pencil art by adding permanent ink linework and blacks to the art over the pencils. I am, first and foremost, a penciler. Yes, I paint. In a pinch I can color. But penciling is my love.  So what happens when I'm asked to ink something? It's not my favorite thing in the world, but I'll do it if I have to.

The good thing about me inking my own work is that I have complete control over it. There have been times where my pencils have come back and the person inking them has only traced over them. That makes the art look flat. Inking, despite what people may think, is not tracing - there is a skill to it. If I'm inking myself, then I don't have to worry about that.

The bad thing about me inking my own work is that I have complete control over it. If something goes wrong, I'm the guy who's to blame for it.  As I said before, inking is a skill, and one I haven't had as much experience with.

There are 2 ways in which I've inked myself. The first is over my very tight complete pencils. An example of this can be seen in Len Strazewski's story TRUE COLORS (2006).

As you can see, The pencils leave very little mystery to the way this should be finished. 

The other way is to have very loose pencils, which was the case with Markosia's KONG: KING OF SKULL ISLAND TPB ( 2009). 

Because of time constraints, it was impossible to do tight, finished pencils for this project. This was actually a fun way to work, because the finish looked so much better than the breakdowns.

Inking is a skill that I am still developing. I think it is enjoyable, but not easy. In time, I hope I become as comfortable with it as I am with penciling.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS PART 1

Ever wonder what steps an artist goes through from  start to finish on a project?  Well, for me, there's a set process.

It usually starts with a script. This is page one of the first Stormy Tempest story that Len Strazewski and I worked on together for AC Comics Femforce title. Stormy is a police officer from the future who was sent back in the past to assassinate a political candidate. She was captured, and Len thought she should be put in a Gitmo-type facility.

When I read the script, I thought about James Cagney's walk down the last mile in the 1938 film Angels With Dirty Faces. I wanted to capture the mood of that scene, so I kept it in mind when I worked out the layout of the page.

After I do thumbnails, if I have time, I take photos of a model. I almost always use some type of photo reference, primarily for proportions. In this case my friend Natanya Rubin was the model for Stormy.

After loading the photo reference into the layout, I start drawing. I do a rough pencil for editorial approval and to work out any kinks. If there are any problems with the layout or the drawing, they are solved here.

Once I get approval, I do my final drawing, cleaning up the line work and adding shadows and blacks. I use a 3H pencil for the line work and an ordinary #2 pencil for the blacks.

At that point, the pages leave my hands and go to the inker. In this case, the inker is Jeff Austin.

And that's it. I usually work on more than one page at a time - I'll do 5 pages of roughs and then start the line work on all 5 pages before adding the blacks. It's a good process and works really well for me.

WHY "15 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT"?

Yeah, why did I pick such a strange name? Well, 15 Minutes To Midnight is for me what THX 1138 is to George Lucas. It's the title of the first comic story that I conceived.

This is the wrap around cover for the story

A painted version of the first page

Back when I was a student at American Academy Of Art in Chicago, I came up with this great  Twilight Zone-like story which came from images of how people living in the 1930's might envision the future. Instead of the post-apocalyptic futures we've been treated to over the past 30 years I wanted to make a place that looked great on the outside but was a bit more insidious on the inside. 

The story bounced the main character to 3 different time periods, all of which seemed both familiar and strange. One of those time periods takes place in the 1940's during World War II.

The title was inspired by the Doomsday Clock.  I think it's interesting that scientists have charted how close the human race is to complete destruction. It's also interesting to see how that time has moved closer and further away from the zero hour over the years.

So what happened to this story? Well, I have it completely planned out in my head.  It's 3 chapters long ( each chapter being about 20 pages) and the first 2 chapters have been penciled. I've just gotten too busy with other projects to finish it.  Also, in all honesty, I have to admit that the artwork isn't as good as the stuff I'm producing now.  I feel that I'll have to redraw the whole thing before it can see publication. However, I am planning on finishing it, so perhaps someday soon it will see the light of day.

FIRST POST!

Hi Everyone! I'm Scott Larson, comic book artist and current penciler of the Stormy Tempest feature in AC Comics Femforce title. This is my first foray into the world of blogging, so I'm very excited to be talking to you all.

I've known since I was about 12 that I wanted to draw comic books for a living. I loved reading them growing up. My favorites were Detective Comics, because of the Steve Englehart/ Marshall Rogers run ( and I loved Batman because of the old '60's TV show) and Marvel Comics Star Wars title, especially the artwork of Ron Frenz and Tom Palmer. I also grew up in a family of artists. My Pop had attended American Academy Of Art in Chicago. So becoming a comic book artist seemed like a natural.

After college I became the assistant of inker Andrew Pepoy,  spotting blacks for Marvel Comics Mutant X and DC Comics Robin. In 2005 I had my first penciling job for Capstone Press's educational graphic novel Marie Curie And Radioactivity. Since then I've worked for Markosia Enterprises, penciling Heretic and Kong: King Of Skull Island and for AC Comics on various titles.

My hope with this blog is to connect with you by showing you current artwork, past artwork, citing my influences, telling my journey, and keeping you updated with news of my career. Hopefully you'll find it entertaining and have fun reading about my adventures. Every post I plan on including at least one piece of artwork. Today I'm including images of the different books I've worked on over the past few years.

Thanks for being here!