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 Art tips and techniques, reviews and interviews from my studio. Archived here and at World Famous Comics. Comics 101 for 06/28/2001 Week 1: Parts Unknown-The Pin-up! Boot Camp First up, I'm taking you behind the scenes of a pin-up illustration I created for the new Image comic book, Parts Unknown. What's a 'pin-up' you ask? Well, if you're thinking of the pages stapled together in the middle of certain men's magazines, you're actually kind of close. The term started during World War II when our boys overseas, longing for female companionship, would actually tear the pages of photographed models from magazines and pin them up in their barracks (or wherever). The post war pin-up craze really took off and the term was associated with popular models like Bettie Page (hubba hubba). Pin-ups in comic books serve a similar purpose as they are a showcase for a particular book's character or characters. Many creators often use artists to illustrate their characters in his or her's own unique, artistic style. This gives the creator's readers a fresh take on an already established look, theme, or style in their comic book. This is also a chance for the artist to show off their dynamic talent and particular vision of the character(s). I was offered the task of creating artwork as a pin-up illustration for the first issue of Parts Unknown (on sale now which you can order here). Basically, I was free to do whatever I chose and after reading the entire series before it was published by Image, I had my idea in place. I wanted to do a unique kind of pin-up 'concept' for Beau Smith, the creator of Parts Unknown. I thought he might be getting a number of pin-ups already for this series with the possibility of some being too similar in subject matter or composition. I wanted to try a different angle. Since I love sci-fi and horror movies (both good and bad ones), this comic book was right up my alley. It had shape-changing, sex hungry aliens, beautiful babes, bone-crunching action, and enough hi-tech hardware that would make even Robocop smile. My plan was to make my pin-up illustration work as a homage to old 1950's sci-fi and horror B-film posters with taglines and a classic composition. But I also wanted to give it a modern edge and make it unique and as dynamic as possible in my own style. Roughin' It My first step in creating this 'B' movie poster pin-up was to find the right composition by drawing a series of small rough sketches or 'thumbnails' in my sketch book. Sometimes, it might take me two to ten or even more thumbnail sketches to find the composition I want. In this case, I was caught between two different comps I liked from the first few thumbnails I drew. In Example A, I felt like making the two main villians from the story, the evil alien Scalon leader and his mistress Cynthia, the focus of the illustration. I have our lead heroes, Lucci and Spurr, playing a supporting role in their action poses on the lower right of the scene.  Example A In my other thumbnail sketch, Example B, I created more of a montage scene with the same four characters, giving more emphasis to the alien bad guy. With the other three characters, I use a tier or pyramid design giving more focus to Lucci in the center. Being caught between the two pin-up designs, I decided to explore both simultaneously until one felt more right to me and was what I was looking for.  Example B Next week, we'll take a look at the next step of the pin-up where I begin to draw and refine the drawings based on my thumbnail sketches. -Joe Recent Columns:
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