| Gene Longcrier grew up as an avid fan of comic books. He has aspirations of producing his own comic artwork with both established professionals, as well as anyone else who has a passion for this creative expression. Currently a student at OSU/Okmulgee, majoring in Graphic Design Technology, Gene [photo at right] has graced Zonal Vision #1 with his artwork. | |
ZV: You're a musician as well as an artist?
GL: I play anything with more than 4 strings. If I don't know how to play it, I play at it. My first semi-professional paid gig I was 16. My first paid art gig was a 4ft x4ft painting of a tiger for the local Wal-Mart. Our school mascot was the Tigers. I was paid $50 & it took 8 hours to do. At the same time I was to play bass guitar for 3 hours to a bunch of drunks. For too many years of my life I though I could make it as a musician. I thought it was a more lucrative profession than it was. When Kim & I got married (3/2/93) I settled down and stopped playing the bars.
ZV: You had an interesting art experience?
GL: I left Tech (OSU/Okmulgee)in November '87, in the middle of the tri-mester & painted billboards un November '89. Almost to the day I painted billboards.
ZV: How about your interest in comic art?
GL: I've always been a fan of comics and fantasy art. Everybody told me I have natural talent. I nurture these talents by what feels good. Boris & Frazetta have healthy imaginations. They're not inhibited and have nurtured they're imaginations. Very little is taboo in the way they approach illustration. I've always tried to emulate them.
ZV: Have you been able to do thisat OSU/Okmulgee?
GL: It's not a fine arts school. you have to edit yourself because of the PC attitude & I'm not talking computers. A lot of ideas I've had for illustration over tha past year I've rethought to put into my book. If I could ve uninhibited, creative without taboos, I could be more creative. I feel I go through periods of artistic depression, not writer's block. Rather than do anything just to get the job done, I leave it at nothing.
ZV: Is that the curse of commercial art?
GL: Be good at what you do, but don't take it too light heartedly. They want creativity in an inhibited environment. A lot of good artists fall through the cracks because they can't learn to play the game.
ZV: Are you playing the game?
GL: I'm trying hard to learn. I'm still learning the rules. I'm hopingto be able to break them soon. All of them!
ZV: If you could do anything you wanted to do artistically, what would it be?
GL: First, I'd like to ink a few issues of anything by Arthur Adams (talking comic books) just to get a feel for his style & then go on to do my own books. Anything anyone threw at me.
ZV: What is your ultimate goal?
GL: My ultimate goal is to do comic books from cover to cover.
ZV: How about comic book covers?
GL: Yes, I would like to do some very illustrative covers somewhere in the vein of Glenn Fabry (DC Vertigo Preacher) or Simon Bisley (Sept '97 Heavy Metal cover). Bisley is best known for each of his mini-series of DC's Lobo. He did "Lobo: Lobo's Back". He did the majority of the books & painted covers on some. He did the Batman/Judge Dredd crossover from cover to coer. The whole book was painted. That's what I'd like to do in art.
ZV: If you had one shot at any character & knew it would be publishe, what would it be?
GL: A Golden Age Green Lantern story, one of the coolest. If I coud do a group it would be the Justice Society of America. Those were the coolest. The original Flash (pre-Barry Allen) was the best Flash. It didn't matter what earth you came from, Superman was still Superman.
ZV: When did you start collecting comics?
GL: I started reading comics when I was 6-years-old. The earliest comic I remember owning & reading was X-Men #42, The Death of Professor X. I bought it at a church garage sale for a nickel. I didn't seriously collect until I was 12, but I had 6 good years of reading enjoyment. I read everything, all early 70's DC books, including the Claw and Starfire. I did a lot of trading in those 6 years. To this day I couldn't tell you what happened to all my old early Kamandi's or Werewolf By Night.
ZV: What about the X-Men?
GL: I always stuck with the X-Men. I'm currently shopping to get a copy of X-Men #4 to complete the current run of X-Men.
ZV: Would you like to draw X-Men?
GL: I'd like to pencil the X-Men if Peter David did an issue. Or the ultimate, if they could get Chris Claremont to come back.
ZV: Why did you collect the 70's DC's?
GL: What I like about the 70's DC's was it was a revisitation of the 60's Marvels; insomuch, that it was heavily influenced by Kirby. Kirby did a lot of DC's in the 70's & almost everything of Marvel's in the 60's.
ZV: What do you read now?
GL: Actually, because of school very little. Basically, anything that Arthur Adams is working on. Something that seems strange to me is that I am getting interested in American Manga (Japanese stylized comic art such as that by Joe Madureira).
ZV: How do your current studios in Graphic Design Technology at OSU/Okmulgee fit in with your comic art asperations?
GL: The future of comics is becoming more & more reliant on the computer industry & anyone that knows the basic skills that we are learning to get, will already know half of what it takes to put out a comic book. Everything else is just business. Right now I'm learning how to use Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Illustrator 7.0. Hopefully, whatever they do with Quark will make it easier than the difficulties with what I've encountered in Illustrator.
ZV: Who influenced your interest in comics & art?
GL: My dad really influenced me to become an artist because of his abilities. When I first started reading comics I'd ask him to show me how to draw them. Pretty soon he got tired of me asking him to show me how to draw. He said you don't need me to show you how to draw something that's already there.
ZV: What influenced your interest in computer art?
GL: Virtually every comic you pick up these days in the credits for colorist they'll list some kind of computer software name or an alias that they thought would be cute. My best friend in illustration is my hand, but with today's marketplace relying on quantity combined with quality, the computer is the best shortcut. There's also a lot of effects that are nearly impossible to hand render, unless you're Greg Wolverton (OSU/Okm graduate & artist extraordinaire).
ZV: How would you apply what you're learning?
GL: I would probably follow suit with what Howard Porter is doing with JLA. His process of putting together a comic is to rough out each individual page & occasionally an individual panel & scan that into use as a template from which he would determine light sources. Then like a cinematographer, he determines what lighting effects are best suited for each scene. You can also tell from his work that he works in multiple layers to achieve in-and-out-of-focus elements within each panel. Although his art isn't my favorite, these techniques used give greater visual depth than most.
ZV: What kind of computer do they use in comics?
GL: Nobody in the comics business will tell what software they're using. It's like it's a big trade secret. I don't even know if they're using Macintosh or PC's.
ZV: What would you use?
GL: Macintosh.
ZV: Are you doing comic art in any of your classes?
GL: Not really, but in my current Ad Design 2 class I'm resorting to cartooning for an ad campaign.
ZV: What will you do when you graduate?
GL: I plan to graduate sometime within the next year & hopefully, my book will empower me with enough clout to do design illustration for a studio. I don't dislike the idea of an agency, as long as it's not corporate. As an aside, I've been told by one of my instructors (that I didn't expect to hear it from) that I should really go with my comic books. If anyone has any ideas that that would be McColough, they are totally wrong.
ZV: What do you enjoy about working with computers?
GL: i love filters. I love importing my artwork into Photoshop & just going nuts with the filters. Even on the best computers on campus that ability is limited, as filters eat up RAM (and I would quote the eat up). One of my main goals is to go into desktop publshing of original fun comics (not funny animals), like putting the heroes back into hero books. Even with today's artists (& there's been an overflow of good artists in the past decade), they still bore me as a whole.
ZV: What would it take to do your own desktop publishing?
GL: A writer, myself for pencils, & someone I could trust with my artwork to ink it. Overall, a good creative team & everyone familiar with Quark & Adobe software.
ZV: What equipment would you need?
GL: Macintosh startup equipment would simply consist of any model PowerMac. Any "quality" flatbed scanner. An Epson printer capable of printing as large as 11 x 17 format. To start out I couldn't work with less than a gigabyte of RAM for a 32 page comic, to accomodate every page as an individual document with multiple layers & lots of filter usage! I could be far off. I could easily need 2 or 3 computer terminals, each with more than 4 gig if everyone was on the book working. In a living room/dining room apartment it would take 1 easel, an art table & a computer anywhere you could put one & you could set up shop. The only problem with desktop publishing is that you have to deal with an output service bureau or a comparble print shop. Your in-house Epson printer is only there for comps. There's no way you'll print off a 32 page book in thousands of copies from a little Epson printer. Besides, printers can by the paper cheaper.
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