BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO So cool! That's what artist Steve Uy thought when he got the chance to illustrate a Jakeem Thunder adventure in this July's issue of JSA Classified. Uy's making his mainstream interior art DCU debut in the pages of JSA Classified # 28. He's happy to be working with industry veteran Fabian Nicieza on this tale.
THE PULSE: When you had the chance to work on the JSA Classified, what interested you the most about drawing these characters?
STEVE UY: I had just finished doing the interiors for Legion #4 for Jeanine Schaefer back in mid-February, so Mike Marts immediately jumped in and asked me to do a JSA Classified one shot. It was initially a way to keep me working while we developed another, much larger project on the side (which ultimately fell through), so seeing as to how I had never done a mainstream superhero book before, I found it to be an irresistible offer. It was a good way to get my feet wet with a more realistic interior style, which I hadn't done in a long time, and as a one-shot, it was a low-commitment project. So whatever mistakes or shortcomings I suffered from, I could easily make up for with my next project with little backlash.
THE PULSE: Did you know it was a Jakeem Thunder story before you signed on? If so, how familiar were you with this new incarnation of the Johnny Thunder mythos?
UY: Mike showed me a script for a Jakeem Thunder story by Fabian Nicieza. I skimmed through it, but I paid more attention to the scene changes and set designs I would have to illustrate than I did the story. I didn't really care what the story was, I was determined to tackle anything he threw at me, so in my mind I was already signed on before he even gave me the script.
As for my familiarity with Jakeem, I had absolutely NONE! In fact, I didn't even know whether he was bald or not. I started illustrating the issue a week before the NY Con in Feb 23, and I didn't know if he had hair or not until two weeks after (Mike wasn't sure either!) so for the first five pages, I basically drew him in as "Pencilman" over fully penned, inked, and colored pages. I did ask around, but no one seemed to know if Jakeem had hair!
THE PULSE: What influenced you the most when you were making your version of Jakeem Thunder -- aside from his hair?
UY: I wanted to make him just an everyday sorta guy, someone that had no coolness factor or superheroic traits. Just completely average. I wanted to keep everything loose and learn a lot while doing this one issue, so I didn't bother to settle on any specific designs for any of the characters. I just drew them all on the fly. This does make them completely inconsistent throughout the issue, but it also allowed me to see what worked and what didn't as I made little changes here and there to their designs throughout the issue. It was a sacrifice I decided on in the beginning for the sake of future mainstream issues/projects.
THE PULSE: Which other members of the JSA might make an appearance in these pages?
UY: Alan Scott shows up a little bit. I already did a cover on him with issue # 25. So he was the only familiar face in the book. Stargirl has a bit part too, although to be honest I'm not really happy with how I designed her at all. She seemed way too cartoony compared to the guys.
THE PULSE: What have been some of the biggest challenges of drawing this?
UY: The freaking riot scenes! Drawing a lot of people is no big deal, even if it is a bit boring. Coloring them too is another thing entirely. There were a couple of crowd scenes in the issue, and they were pretty grueling. I could have done a lot better on them, but I just got tired in the end. I try to do a page every two days since that was the rate I did my personal projects in. It was a strict deadline I set for myself for this book, so anytime I went over that I got a bit anxious. I'll try to slow myself down after I do a couple more books, once I've "proven" myself to myself.
Also, this is my first book based in the city. Everything else I had done was basically fantasy, so for the most part I was starting fresh, with entirely new textures and backgrounds I had never developed before. Over time I'll get more adept at this setting, so I was just trying to keep my head above water with this first issue and learning the ropes.
There's still a hell of a lot of room for improvement.
THE PULSE: What kind of art technique are you using to create the pages?
UY: Same as always, just drawing and coloring with photoshop. However, with this book, I got a cintiq tablet (one of those monitors you can draw on), so I tried doing everything 100% on the computer. I drew everything straight on photoshop, so this is my first full-digital book. It's a little hard to draw straight lines, but aside from that, it's the same as drawing on paper, I just have an easier time undoing mistakes (which is annoyingly common with me nowadays).
THE PULSE: What is your story about?
UY: In a nutshell, Jakeem decides to use his powers to help out the needy. The needy get too needy and demand too much of him. So Jakeem decides to kill them all. Well, only 2/3rds of that is true, but it might've been a cool twist eh?
THE PULSE: Have you ever worked with Fabian Nicieza before? IF not, what has it been like working with him compared to some of the other writers you've collaborated with? If you have worked with him before, how did that aid in your creative process here?
UY: Nope, never met him before. Or even now. Legion #4 was the first time I ever worked from someone else's script, so I have no real experience in that. I've always just written and drawn for myself. Fabian has been in this industry since forever, so his script was easy to translate onto the page. I'm usually very cinematic with my books, drawing every little detail and establishing shot like it was a movie. Fabian keeps things efficient, which saved me some effort. No extraneous panels. Establishing shots were where I needed them to be, I didn't have to battle with the script to make it work on paper too much. (But dammit, why those riot scenes?! WHY!?)
THE PULSE: How is working on the JSA Classified different than working on the Legion CN series?
UY: I can use more detail and I'm free to use whatever textures I want, whereas the Legion stuff was quite strict in how I could draw the characters and backgrounds. At first, I thought the JSA book would be harder because of the extended detail, but now that I was free to just draw in any style, I actually found it to be much more natural. Even though I'm known for drawing in an animated style, I did find the JSA book to be much more... "me" in the end.
JSA Classified # 28 is scheduled to be in stores this July.
Posts: 21254 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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OMGs, I freaking LOVE his art on these pages! I'm so excited to see Jakeem Thunder again - since he hasn't shown up yet in the regular Justice Society of America title One Year Later yet - just on the cover of the first issue.
JSA Classified continues to bring interesting and entertaining issues each month. I dropped JLA Classified long ago. BO-RING and inconsequential.
Posts: 240 | From: Lakewood, OH | Registered: Aug 2003
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I would have to agree on the JSAC v. JLAC comment. I long ago dropped JLAC as it seemed like all inventory and filler material. I have really enjoyed the solo adventures of the JSA members in JSAC.
Although I am holding out hope that at some point this book will occassionally tie into the JSoA.
Posts: 57 | Registered: Feb 2006
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I agree .. JSAC is tremendously better than JLAC. I like single- or two-issue stories where you don't have to know 100 percent of what's been going on in the main book(s) to follow. The recent Alan Scott issue, for example ... a satsifying 22-page story.
Posts: 594 | Registered: May 2001
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