I posted here earlier about comic book character design. I’m still struggling with it. Here are a few sketches which follow no narrative and tell no story (all drawn with my Rotring fountain pen and Pelikan brilliant black ink) All drawings are between 1″ and 2″ in height.
character study - boy scratching arm
character study - boy playing zombie in cape
character study - boy with African Escape Hen
character study - boy moonwalkin'
Drawing in oil paint on a large canvas with a brush always seemed pretty natural to me but I’ve been having a lot of trouble finding that same comfort while drawing with a pen or pencil on paper. But since I want to start drawing a comic strip, it would be pretty useful to feel good about drawing with pen on paper. I have tried Rapidograph pens numerous times throughout the years and have never been happy with the results. Robert Crumb manages to create very expressive lines with his Rapidographs – but they just don’t work for me. In fact, most pens leave me feeling like the line is dead and cold rather than being alive and expressive.
I’ve been trying to find what other comic artists prefer in pens – and was glad to find recently that there are a number of artists working with non-dip fountain pens.
Not being versed in fountain pen nib lore and culture, I thought it might help future discussions on forums or with pen sellers to have some images to illustrate my current pens and the types of drawings that I’m working on.
I bought this Rotring Fountain Pen from a local art store about ten years ago. I can’t find the model name or any information about it online. It’s all metal and has a nice weight, even if the body is a tad slim. The cap doesn’t stay posted well so I leave it off while drawing. Please leave a comment if you know anything about this pen. I would really love to at least know the model number.
Rotring Black Fountain Pen with cap
Here are a few close-ups of the nib…
Rotring Black Fountain Pen Medium "M" Nib
Rotring Black Fountain Pen Medium "M" Nib
This little sketch is about 1 and a quarter inches tall. Still working with the black Rotring’s “M” nib. It’s difficult to get tiny detail in the eyes and shadows and hashing. The figure on the left is supposed to be holding a small toy – but when the ink started blotting and pooling I abandoned hope of making that work. I’m sure that I need a more narrow tip pen.
Small sketch made with Rotring Medium "M" Nib
I later purchased this Rotring – which I believe may belong to their line of pens known as “Initial”.
Rotring blue Initial pen with cap
This pen has a Fine (“F”) nib – but looks almost exactly like the Medium (“M”) nib on my other Rotring. If there is a difference, I’d say the Medium nib actually looks slightly smaller. This makes purchasing a new nib all the more confusing because I want a nib that writes somewhat similarly to the black pen’s medium nib while being just slightly more narrow.
The ink converter broke for this pen – and the converter in my black pen doesn’t fit well in the blue so none of the drawings in this post were made with the blue pen.
Sheaffer brown fountain pen ink BOM#728-8563
How much the pooling is related to nib – or to ink … I don’t know. Smudging happens because the ink doesn’t dry instantly and I get careless. That’s not a big deal to me – but I do want to find a good flowing, wet ink that won’t flood out of the nib and expand the weight of the line. …it’s tough to explain and that one issue alone really deserves a separate post later.
ink smearing on a 1" sketch
I know the following image makes no sense. I was trying to draw several small toys but the heaviness of the line obscured any detail so I gave up trying.
ink pooling on a very small 1" sketch
I’m not unhappy with the look of the following sketch – but with my current Rotring “M” nib, this took a lot of additional care to avoid pooling too much in in the lines. This sketch, from top to bottom is not much more than 1 inch.
small 1 and a half inch sketch of stilts
Russ Johnson’s Forty Years With Mister Oswald is one of the greatest and least known comics ever.
Let me put that statement in perspective before starting my review. Two things that I love most are old comedy films (Laurel & Hardy, Lum and Abner, W.C.Fields, etc.) and comics / graphic novels. I’m most fond of the following comic artists: George Herriman (Krazy Kat), Floyd Gottfredson (early Mickey Mouse), Chris Ware, Joe Sacco, Carl Barks (Donald Duck), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge), Jeff Smith (Bone) and now, Russ Johnson.
Background:
I found this in a used book store a few months ago while going through the old cartoon/comic section. Most of the books in this section were collections of either strips or single panel art (like you’d find in the New Yorker) and were published in the 60’s. When I picked up Forty Years and started flipping through the pages I knew immediately that I had just discovered something rare and wonderful. I looked for a price – $35.00
I didn’t know it at the time, but $35.00 is a steal. You can find it online for less – but I wouldn’t complain about getting a copy at twice the price. Strangely, I almost put it back because I thought $35.00 was too much for a book I knew nothing about. I can’t really explain it now, but somehow I both know it was going to be worth it, but was afraid to gamble on the price. Fortunately, I decided to bite the bullet. I left the store pretty sure that I had just found something tremendous. I was right.
The Review:
Forty Years with Mister Oswald is the story of the life of an American hardware store owner in the early 20th century.
Russ Johnson started drawing strips about daily life and trials of a hardware store owner around 1927 when he went to work in his father’s hardware store. Each week, Johnson would hang his drawings in the display window of the hardware store for customers to read. Soon, the Hardware Retailer, a magazine geared towards hardware store owners and suppliers found out about these strips and asked Johnson to begin submitting strips for each month’s issue. Johnson continued drawing Mister Oswald for the next 65 years.
The first few pages of the book look almost nothing like the rest. Johnson’s style and sophistication as a comic artist and story teller grew at a very rapid rate. Early drawings are spare and unpopulated and have much cruder character designs. This is typical for younger artists and I don’t intend that as a negative criticism of his work. The early strips are charming and very funny. The amazing thing is that Johnson’s style evolved and matured so quickly. Compositions within panels soon become richer and more compelling. Characters quickly find their niche within their world and begin to go about life in a naturalistic manner – moving freely in all dimensions within the panels. This naturalism has the effect of making each scene feel even more real. With Johnson’s increasing fondness for including great amounts of detail in every panel (he is not a lazy artist) scenes and characters become solid, grounded and real. I love that his drawings retain a cartoony, happy, easy feel, while also being loaded with enough rich detail to help make the stories and situations feel more real.
This attention to detail is especially amazing given how busy Johnson was; he was almost always working. I can’t imagine how much time he spent working on each week’s strip – but the time invested was well worth it. There aren’t many people who could have done as much as Johnson did and continue to draw such terrific, hilarious comics for 65 years. There isn’t much information about Johnson on the web, but this rare interview with Johnson at Hogan’s Alley captures some of the enthusiasm and spirit which made these strips so rich and rewarding.
Chapters:
I doubt that the strips were originally published with any words from the author, but Johnson adds a nice anecdotal summary before each chapter. These behind-the-scenes details are a terrific addition to the book and usually describe how the comic life of Mister Oswald paralleled that of the author. Chapters are divided into themes and revolve around certain events and periods of time, such as: The Roaring Twenties, Anatomy of a Hardware Store, Buying Merchandise, The Depression, Employees, War in Europe, Rationing, Post-War, Prosperous Times, Relatives, Conventions, Ersatz, Selling Out. That’s just a sample. The book contains 44 chapters, and in each, we are presented with a complex view of society, business, finance, family and friends. The war years are particularly fascinating and serve as a nice historical/political document in comic form from a perspective that you won’t often find.
Take the following snippet from the opening introduction for the chapter “Herman Hammers” as an example of Johnson’s wit and political edge. Note: this takes place during war time and materials and goods are being rationed for the war effort. Oswald had just lost his employees due to enlisting in the Army and working for the war effort and he’s in a crunch for hiring new labor where none exists. He’ll eventually settle for Herman Hammers as a replacement employee – a decision which will keep the reader laughing throughout the rest of the book.
Chapter 14 : Herman Hammers
Metals were practically non-existent for civilian use and manufacturers began substituting pottery, wood, glass and plastic wherever possible. Plastics at that time were greatly inferior to those manufactured today. It was strictly ersatz, which meant you wouldn’t be able to give away articles made from it or other substitutes when the real thing became available again. To Mr. Oswald, Herman Hammers was ersatz. But there just wasn’t anyone better available.
Herman’s wife’s name is Yvonne. Her mother got the name out of a book and thought it was pronounced “Wy-vonny”, and that is what she has always been called. Herman and Yvonne named their first child Utopia, which pretty well described the way they felt about her arrival. Yvonne’s mother assisted in naming all the other children, and strangely enough, everyone is mispronounced except the last one.
I think that’s about the best intro ever. I’m still laughing about “Herman Hammers was ersatz“. I almost called this blog ‘strictly ersatz’ because of that introduction, but I decided against it because I only wanted to write about things I love.
Johnson’s characters are filled with life through masterful story telling, realistic settings, brilliant situations, and hilarious dialog. Each page has me wishing I worked with these people and I can’t stop wondering what it might have been like to know and work with the real Mr. Oswald.
Herman Hammers, the short guy, is probably one of the funniest characters in any comic strip ever.
To summarize:
Each page and every story is modern beyond its years. This is a work of love and genius and it is far ahead of its time.
Fortunately, it’s also of it’s time.
Johnson’s tales will have you laughing on every page. Get it if you can, but save an extra copy for me.
Turn Page Now 