TheComic Art f Book - Washington County Museum

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Aaron Lopresti Creation Story
Aaron Lopresti first emerged from a river of toxic sludge flowing out of a sewer on the outskirts of
Portland. He was seeking revenge and justice. No that’s not true, but almost. Around the age of
11 Aaron started reading comics and was hooked soon after. He and his next door neighbor formed
a comic label and started making covers with their own characters and ideas. While these early
experiments may not have launched his career right then and there they foretold of the art and
storytelling that would later be a central part of the rest of his life.
In 1985 Aaron headed to college. His first stop was the University of Oregon then on to study film
making at the University of Southern California. The trade off in pursuing film, instead of art, was
a cinematic focus on building a compelling story at the expense of gaining experience with his
drawing. “My art suffered because a lot of the wild stuff you might do as a comics storyteller you
don’t do as a director.” After a year-long stint as a script analyst for Tri-Star pictures in 1988, Aaron
made a change in his career direction. Coming back to Oregon, he took a position at the Art Farm
in Portland, in 1990. It was here that Aaron learned everything he needed to start his career in
illustration and comics. Everything he could have learned in art school, he would later say. In the
early 1990’s Aaron started working sporadically on small projects for Marvel comics. In 1992 he was
approached by Dave Olbrich and Tom Mason with a huge proposition. They asked if he would
be interested in leaving Marvel to join a new start up comic company, Malibu, to draw for their new
Ultraverse comic line. Aaron immediately connected with one of their characters, Sludge, which
reminded him of Berni Wrightson’s work on the first Swamp Thing books.
“Monsters and fantasy were my favorite subjects so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to draw a
monster book.” Not only that, they offered Aaron almost double what he was making at Marvel.
Aaron took them up their offer and it proved to be a perfect fit. “For the first time in my life, I didn’t
feel like I would lose my job if I made a mistake. So unlike at Marvel where I was constantly second
guessing myself (and as a result doing horrible work) I was able to cut loose at Malibu and finally
start producing professional looking work. As a result I got noticed and my career started moving
upward.”
In the ensuing years Aaron continued to take on higher profile projects in comics and in other areas.
From 1990-1993 he taught an extension course for the Pacific Northwest College of Art, in 1995
founded his own studio under the name Studiosaurus Comic Art Studio, and has regularly been a
featured guest at comic conventions. In addition to freelance work for Marvel, he has done work for
Valiant Comics, Wildstorm Studios, and has been a contract freelancer for DC comics since 2007.
Over the past twenty plus years Aaron has been tapped to draw many of the most iconic characters in
comics. This list includes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, and Justice League International. In addition to these he has created numerous characters of his own most notably, Garbage
Man. With his Garbage Man work Aaron has full control over every aspect of the production. “When I
both write and draw a story I have a freedom that doesn’t exist when only doing one of the jobs. You
never know if a script is going to work until you start drawing it. Since (with Garbage Man) I am both
writer and artist I can alter a scene while drawing as I see fit. This way I can play to my strengths as
an artist and produce my best work. I would say without hesitation that Garbage Man is the best work
I have ever produced.”
Aaron cites a handful of artists that have been influences on his work. Artists like Frank Frazetta,
Barry Smith, Berni Wrightson, James Bama, Kevin Nowlan, Brian Bolland, Michael Golden, William
Stout, Mike Ploog, Gil Elvgren, John Severin, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Aaron also publishes work outside of comics. This includes “Fantastical Creatures Field Guide”
(published by Watson-Guptil , NY), a fantasy portfolio titled “Fantastic Worlds”, and eight sketch
books and art books through his own publishing company, Cold Crocodile Press.
Adam Mikos
Curator
Gallery view, showing complete series of original drawings for issue. The comic book in which the
series was featured is available on the book rest for visitors to discover how the finished product appeared
Gallery view, showing introductory text
Installation view showing original pages with the comic book they
appeared in. Artwork is hung with transparent, archival corners to
allow viewers to see “behind the scenes” notations
Installation view of video and coloring table. Additional enlargements of original artwork
are fun, engaging, and demonstrate the complexity of the artists work.
These steps in the process of creating a comic book are printed as seperate panels and
are hung with the artwork
The Process How Comic Books Happen
From beginning to end there can be as many as five or six people involved in finishing the artwork for a
single page in a comic book. During Aaron’s career he has worked in many different situations, sometimes taking on more than one of the stages of his drawings. Widely known as a penciller, he has also
done inking for many projects and in his personal work frequently does the entire process himself.
Script Writer
A comic book starts with a script. For example, Aaron is currently working on the acclaimed Justice
League International series. The script is the storyline that will be followed by the characters in the book.
In most cases it is a continuation of what has happened previously in the larger story of the particular
characters. The script writer sends Aaron a final draft of the storyline for the pages he is working on.
Penciller
As the Penciller, Aaron will read through the scripted story arc and start sketching. In comic books it is
really the artwork that tells the story and so the penciller is the foundation of the creative process. The
penciller makes decisions about how the pages will break into cells, perspectives, and how to present the
story in visually compelling ways. The penciller also determines how the plot will move across the pages.
Once the script has been translated into pictures, using a non-photo blue pencil, the penciller then sends
the finished drawing to the Inker. On average, a page can take Aaron 6-8 hours from start to finish.
Inker
The job of the inker is to take the blue pencil drawing and use black ink, typically India ink, to darken all
of the lines in the drawing. This has historically been done with the use of pens and brushes, but with the
advancement in digital technology is increasingly being done with the use of computers. Asking one artist
to draw on top of another’s work can be a perilous request. Each has their own style and the inker can
either capture and emphasize the penciller’s vision or miss the mark completely and render a drawing that
ruins the penciller’s intentions. Once the inker has finished with the page, it is sent to a colorist.
Colorist
Essentially the colorist does exactly what the name suggests, taking the black ink drawings and adding color. Today this is also done digitally through the use of computers, but in the past colorists utilized
special dyes applied by brush, hand-cut opaque printing films and created color-separated printing plates.
Through these various processes, color, shading and added emphasis are incorporated into the drawings. In some cases there is another stop on the way to being finished, at the desk of a letterer.
Letterer
The title describes the duties pretty clearly. Here the words are added into the layout. Think “POW”,
“ZANG”, and “I AM PERAXXUS. YOU HAVE INVADED MY CRAFT.” Although the letterer has very
specific dialog and text to add in the composition, as with the inker, their technique and skill ultimately can
either fit into the visual style of the page or become a distraction.
Editor
Finally, the page comes under the scrutiny of an editor who accepts the finished piece for production.
Then it starts all over again for the remaining pages of the story.
Gallery view, showing text panels detailing the process or creating a comic book.
Coloring station with a variety of enlargements of Aaron’s original drawings. Visitors are encouraged to try their hand in finishing a piece. Also on the table is a monitor featuring a five minute
video produced by the museum featuring Aaron working in his studio. In the video he describes
his working process
Installation view, featuring original cover artt and the issue the
piece was used for
Display of original cover art by Aaron Lopresti with copy of comic book
Exhibition view, including display cases with Big Little Books
Comic books have been a staple of American popular culture for over 80 years. Their role as
entertainment and as a social barometer for our history is invaluable. Numerous characters
have traveled the world and been a part of the American identity at home and abroad. These
first “books” were actually compilations of comic strips that had previously run in newspapers
and began appearing in bound form in the early 1930’s. Taking a step further, the American
comic strip itself dates back to the late 19th century.
Comic books are broken down into a couple basic categories. Here are the five recognized
periods:
Platinum Age Anything before the Golden Age. First use of the term “comic book”. First
known comic book in full-color, 1901.
Golden Age Late 1930’s to approximately the end of the 1940’s. Famous Funnies galvanizes
the comic book format. Superman first appears in 1938 and is considered by some to be the
beginning of the golden age. Captain America first appears (1941).
Silver Age 1950’s through the late 1960’s Horror and true-crime stories flourish. 1954 saw
the introduction of the Comics Code Authority to address the perception of moral corruption in
comics. Introduction of the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.
Bronze Age 1970 to 1985 Introduction of the Green Lantern
Modern Age Mid 1980’s to current day. Introduction of Alan Moore’s The Watchmen and
Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
The exact dates of these phases are unclear and generally tied to new characters or events in
the industry.
It is common for significant issues to sell for over a million dollars. Action Comics #1, introducing Superman has sold for over 2 million. According to The Comic Chronicals, as an industry,
in 2011 the “estimated OVERALL North American Market size, including estimates for newsstand comics and bookstore TPB sales” equalled $660-$690 million dollars.
The Washington County Museum would like to thank Mr. Aaron Lopresti for his participation in this exhibition. The WCM would also like to thank Mr. Chuck Conner for loaning from his personal collection of
Big Little Books to the exhibition and the wood shop at PCC Rock Creek for building the excellent book
rests.