Hellboy Commission (Patreon)

     I'm not a big fan of artists drawing characters closely associated with one particular artist, especially its creator. They just never look right. (I've seen versions of my characters from other artists so far off the mark that I almost didn't recognize them. Then again, I've seen a few that honored the "feel" of my characters and I quite liked them, so you never know.) This commission is a perfect example. My style is a million miles away from Mike Mignola (whose work I love, by the way), but I tried to emulate his shadow placement in this piece-- with some exceptions, like the rim-lighting. But it just doesn't capture the feeling of the Hellboy characters. I think it comes down to my approach being fundamentally different from "superhero" comic art-- and I would tentatively put Hellboy in that category. My work is fairly subdued; not what you'd call super dynamic. A friend recently critiqued my layouts and panels as being dull, essentially, and I can see what he means: I don't do a lot of fancy layouts, or lots of canted angles and characters breaking panels to pose dramatically. But there's a reason for that. Reasons, actually. First off, I hate that shit, to put it bluntly. Flash over substance. I also think it can be confusing for some readers. My wife is not a comic reader, but she'll occasionally try out a graphic novel, and I've paid attention to the layouts she struggles with. From the point of view of someone who didn't grow up with the visual language of comics, I can see where they might be confusing. So, I try to keep my layouts accessible to all readers. But I also want my characters to be down to earth. They may be monsters or bounty hunters, aliens, elves or goblins, but they're people first. And people don't just stand around posing...well, unless they're Nessie. And I think the lack of dynamics all over every page actually accentuates the action when it does occur. Instead of Abbey being a badass all the time, how much more dramatic is it when she suddenly busts out the vampire whoop-ass? That's my take, anyway. Oh, and Hellboy is awesome.