Spin Magazine: Real Life Rock Tales (feat Moby)

For a couple of years Spin Magazine ran a back page feature called Real Life Rock Tales, which was an interview with a musician or band told in comics form. An anecdote would be scripted by the interviewer/writer, and a different artist would be hired every month to do the illustrations. Sarah and I contributed art to two installments. 

The first one we worked on was about Moby getting knocked around my security guys at his own concert. I'm glad we got to draw him getting smacked around rather than working his self-aggrandizing shtick or creeping on Natalie Portman and other women. Moby = Dick.

I didn't really enjoy working on these, mainly because the writers didn't understand how to write for comics (the other reason being that I wasn't really into the bands). This is almost always the case when you draw something written by someone who comes from prose or journalism. I've drawn a few things scripted by non-comics folks, and there were problems with all of the scripts. I don't necessarily mind there being too many panels or too much text -- that's something I'm guilty of myself, and I'm good at parsing that into a credible page that still flows. 

It should have helped things out with the larger magazine page size. But that title panel they used cut the page down into a squatter format, which was obnoxious. So you can see in the layout how I had to use a number of horizontal and stacked panels to get everything in and still have room for as much art and detail as possible. You can also see how Sarah used a constant caption color to help make that text stand out and read better. Sarah did a really nice job on this page.

Panel 3 is a good example of having to come up with a way to get the extra text in, I broke up a single caption into multiple captions to reflect the chaos of the fight, and allow the captions to be laid in so the bouncers and the action is clearly visible. Pain in the ass, but I think it worked out nicely. It works with the image and the fractured nature adds to the violence, like the fight itself shattered the caption.  It also slows the reader down to take in each segment until "dislocated" almost feels like a punchline. And a descriptive of the dislocated text. Sometimes you're just doing whatever the heck you have to do to get things to fit. And sometimes you can take a cue from the text to puzzle things out and add a little extra bit of business while you're at it. 

The script also had some dialog that I hated to letter, mostly the UK slang that i am pretty sure was added by the writer. It's all dead on the page and sounds like someone trying to sound hip by including them, but it comes off as corny. Same with the vegan t-shirts, a missed opportunity for a joke -- but, then again, the script's about the incident and wasn't looking for much in the way of chicken fat. I'm pretty sure I added the (admittedly puerile) "Oi! Moby's dick" because I was bored and wanted to throw something, anything in (the bouncer's shirts, the crowd holding up scores for the stage dive, the literal sound effects in a few places). The main job was to serve the story/script, fit everything in as best as possible, attempt the  likenesses for Moby as best as possible, and try to make it look fun. And keep the lettering solid because it had to read cleanly in those tight spaces. I'm sure Sarah had to digitally clean up some of the text and push things together. 

I can't find much information online about the feature. I found a Dee Dee Ramone story illustrated by Paul Pope and two pages that were done by artists I'm unfamiliar with. My feeling is that Spin editors relied on a lot of local NYC-area talent for the most part, hiring illustrators that they knew personally along with known comics people. I know Amanda Conner did at least one of them, she still lived in NYC at the time. I'm sure they used some folks from outside the area, I have a faint memory of one of the Image artists drawing one of the stories, or someone with that style. 

I'm still looking for more of the Kyle and Evan strips to post, but I only have a tear sheet for the first page of the third installment, which was a two-pager. I have to find the actual Magazines and I don't know where they are offhand. While going through the tear sheets I found more magazine work we did for Nickelodeon, Mad, Maxim U.K., Game Developer as well as Spin. 

There's a lot of cartooning to be found in magazines from the 90s and 00's, unfortunately a lot of it was work-for-hire, and will stay buried in them. We own the work we did for Disney Adventures (Kid Blastoff) and all our original Nickelodeon comics and art (I'd love to collect all of this material along with Kid Blastoff, Biff-Bam-Pow and some new work someday). 

I'm glad I found these tear sheets so I can post more magazine work here,  most of it will be unfamiliar to you folks. I just wish I knew where the actual magazines are so I can post the rest of the Reflex strips. I guess I can scan a copy of Dork #2 if I have to. They weren't printed all that cleanly. Whatever. We shall see. 

Boy, I miss magazine gigs. Even the dull ones. They paid well and on time. And it felt professional and "real" in a way the Direct Market never really did. If that makes any sense. 

Anyway. More soon, later.