VOZART

 When I first started in comics I was immediately designated as a penciller. While it was great that I was making some money, I was frustrated in that the artist in me thought that I should be the only one working on my drawings...that's the way I had always worked as a fan. Fortunately, Nick Cuti at Charleton Comics gave me the chance to do several stories where I both penciled and inked, so I could see the work moving forward. It didn't seem to impress any of the editors at Marvel or D.C. where a house style was important. There was a lot of the young talent that felt the same way about their work, and realizing that, Mike Friedrich started his ground-breaking  series with creator owned material: Star*Reach.  You drew what you wanted and what you loved. So my stories were going to be all about mystery, sex, and comedy. My work still didn't seem to impress anyone in traditional comics, but it did give me a direction to start moving toward if I ever wanted to be better th...

 What you see on the boards in these two posts is one act of the GI Joe episode, or approximately one third of the show. Once we were given the script, we were usually given two weeks to turn around the work. It rarely took me more than a week...which is why I liked to do a lot of the work at home. lol. Working in comics really forced your to hone your drawing skills and deal with tight deadlines, so working in animation at the time, the workload was considerably easier and better paying.  The interesting thing was that when the film would come back from the overseas studios that had been animating it, we discovered they were pretty much just tracing everything off our boards rather than trying to draw on model...so if I did an episode, everyone would immediately recognize it as mine, and this held true for all the artists. Watching the rushes we could always go, Warren (Greenwood) did that act, Larry (Houston) did that act,Frank (Parr) did that act,etc.  And now, on with...

 Soon after I moved to California from Indiana in 1985 I started working in animation and doing less and less work for comics. My first staff job was working at Marvel Production and doing boards mostly for the GI Joe series. Since I had worked a couple of year on the GI Joe comic book series, I was familiar with the concept and most of the characters. I liked the people I was working with, the pay was great, and the job left me plenty of time to work on my own. Almost the perfect job, if there is one. Here is one of the many boards I did for the series.   The first page was a mock cover I always did to amuse my directors. As I said, I had time to kill on this job.  The second part on Friday of this week. See you  then.  Best, Mike

 While working on my own projects has always been the most rewarding experience for me in comics, certainly working on Flagg with Chaykin was a close second. The stories and characters were always fun to draw,  I was learning a new skill working with craftint Duoshade boards, and the crews I was working with were good friends and skilled at what they did. The only problem was American Flagg was so intrinsically Howard's work it was a lot like trying to follow Sean Connery on James Bond. All in all, a fun time. Next week a new story at Vozart2...look for it!! Best, Mike 

 In the late 80's I had pretty much stopped doing much work for comics and had settled into storyboarding for animation. Then along comes Howard Chaykin who had recently moved to LA and invited me to work on a run of American Flagg with him. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance and we soon opened our own studio in nearby Montrose where we were joined by several other artist both breaking in and established over the next few year. Working with Howard on Flagg was an education and revelation, and a lot of fun. With Howard as art director and writer (along with John Francis Moore) our art crew of myself, Richard Ory, letterer Kenny Bruzenak and a couple of others produced twelve issues over the next year. Working on the duo-tone art boards forced me to stop seeing my work basically as two-dimensional line work and more as tonal three-d. All in all if forced me to improve my drawing. And working with Howard's simple plots taught me a lot as a visual storyteller. Here are copies ...