The People’s Publisher

Howdy readers, and welcome to Blake Undying Week 5. You are all in for a special treat. Artist Kuba Kujawa has graciously answered a series of questions in an interview you will enjoy!

1.) Kuba, please tell the reading audience your full name and family
background.

My full name is Jakub Adam Kujawa - I am 22. Talking about my family would take a lot of time. A lot of freaky things that deeply influenced the life of my family happened here Poland over the past 60 years. Our history is the history of the fight for freedom - unfortunately my grandpa died in World War II and my parents were terrorized by the Soviets - Me and my two brothers are the first generation to live in a free country, but I can still remember the Soviet tanks in my town. Now we are laughing at that but those times were really bad for my country.

2.) Where do you live (country, state, town. Population?
Neighbors? Roommates? Pets?)

Poland is typical former USRR country, with a lot of inside community partitions. I live in Poznan City http://www.poznan.pl/mim/public/turystyka/index.html?lang=en. This is one of Poland’s biggest towns. As you probably know, most of the former USRR countries are very weird. I mean you are either rich or poor - here we don’t really have a middle class. But luckily in my part of the country (I live in the west) we can live as in the rest of the European Union, but when I go to the east I see a lot of poor village people. I saw once even a village without electricity!

My city is trying to become more European but we will need a lot of time to become as modern as Berlin or Prague. Currently I am organizing with my girlfriend my workshop near the old market of my town, but it’s very difficult, because flats are very expensive here ( more expensive than in Berlin! ) but I am trying to organize my life. I also have a dog - a poor big pal that I found on the streets when I was 13 - her name is Lara.

3.) When did you start drawing and painting?

I started early - in kindergarten:) But I started to draw for real when I was 13 in my master studio. I was familiarizing myself with traditional techniques (oil, watercolours, pencils, inks, etc. ) since I was a child. But seriously I can’t recall when I realized that I wanted to be an artist…

4.)Who are your major influences (comics, or artists in general)?

My main influence is Ventzislav Piriankov, my master since I was a kid. When I left his workshop I was inspired by the masters of art ( I read a lot about history of art), I also love the work of Jenny Saville and Alex Kanevsky, Helenwein and a lot lot more:) In comics art I am inspired with the work of Mcfarlane and Bisley.

5.) Did you attend school? If yes where, if not, where did you
get training?

Yes, I am a professional artist - I mean this is my education. I’ve finished art high school, and currently I am a student at the Academy of Fine Arts - in a traditional arts workshop. I’ve also had time between high school and university to finish 3D art and Photoshop courses - because besides my main traditional fascinations I was inspired by the digital arts.

6.) How have you enjoyed the experience of creating comics the Z2H way?
Good points/ Bad points?

I am very glad that I can work for Zeros 2 Heroes. I think that you are a solid and reliable company. I am impressed with the amount of work that you do for the comics world. A bad point is the contact -I mean not contacting you as a person, but contacting via internet. Unfortunately even the highest internet transfer isn’t real contact, but this could also be a good point because that is a great illustration that you search for a good artists around the world:)

7.) If you could work on any comic book/project of your choice, what would it be? Why?

If I could imagine a perfect project - it will be a fantasy or SF project with a lot of nudity - like Bisley does.

There you have it folks. Kuba is a traditionally trained painter in the classic school with a good understanding of creating art in the digital domain. He will go really far in the world of comics because he is a great talent, good communicator, and reliable artist. I’m sure Blake Undying creator Jason Cook will agree.

See you in the funny papers!

Julian

Ok Ok Ok! There’s a whole lotta shakin’ goinn’ on! Do this! Do that! Don’t do this! Don’t do that! What’s a fellah to do? You gotta take it alll in stride… just roll with the flow as Mike Nesmith sang. So I’m rolling along, down Moonlight Bay, contemplatin’ and figuring out this week’s agenda. As a freelance jack-of-all-trades every week is different.

But there is, was and always will be the funny books. The graphic novels. The comic strips and comic books. This is Blake Undying Week 5 and Krazy Kuba Kujawa is painting a storm.

Below is the first version of Page 03. Though not technically done in pencils, I as editor used the term in order to monitor the page’s progress based on conventional comic creation techniques: pencils, inks, colours, letters.

Blake Undying creator Jazzy Jason Cook suggested some revisions and after a couple more passes through the so-called “pencils” stage, Kuba refined the art to the “inks” step.

A few revisions later and we found ourselves at the “colours” step of the process. The changes are somewhat subtle, but required in order to make the action more evident to the reader.

So close… just a couple more tweaks and the page can go for final detailing. Kuba’s first revision in the colours stage has resulted in this piece:

So Kuba will have one more go over it, touching up here, adding a little dab there, and then the page will be ready for letters.

And, if you go to zeros2heroes.com and review the galleries in ZedWorks you’ll find that each one of the editors has created a gallery for the various books we are putting together. So there is plenty more stuff to see to get your eyes ejacu-bobulating.

But, as I mentioned at the top of the page, this has been a crazy week, Ladies and Gentlemen. I’dlike to list for y’all the number of projects, gigs, performances, demonstrations, ad infinitum I have on my plate. I’ll format the interview with Kuba for next week’s blog. Until then…

I’ll see you in the Funny Papers.

Julian

Twenty-two pages of rough colours uploaded to the dashboard. Killer Kuba Kujawa is rendering page after page of splendid art. Sure there are revisions… Jazzy Jason Cook has a vision and we’re putting it together into page after page of pulse-pounding panels and super-sonic sequentials.

I don’t know much about Kuba, except that he’s a young student studying in Poland, but that’s about all I know, besides the fact that he’s a killer painter. In the coming weeks I will introduce the man behind the art of Blake Undying in a series of interviews. In the same fashion we will meet the creator of Blake Undying, Jason Cook.

In the meantime, please feast your eyes on the step-by-step creation of the Blake Undying pinup. The first part of the Comic Creation Nation process is the development of a pinup that captures the main character(s) of the book. This is done with the help of a Vision Document that compiles a number of references and influences that were instrumental in helping the writer imagine his/her story. Jason’s original Vision Doc was almost 40 pages long, and I edited it down to 17. That’s how precise Jason is in his visualization of the Blake Undying Universe.

When the Brothers McElroy comes out in the Zeros 2 Heroes Comic Viewer, keep an eye open for this pinup hanging on a wall in of the scenes.

Over and Out,

Julian

Time flies, huh? We are already into Week 3 of Jubilant Jason Cook’s Blake Undying and let me tell you, Konsistent Kuba Kujawa is incredible. He is averaging just over a page of pencils a day. Well, they’re not really pencils, but well-defined colour layouts. Check out the Blake Undying Week 2 post for a more in-depth analysis of Kuba’s creation of Page X. He is laying out the whole book chronologically now (which according to the Comic Creation Nation process is the pencils stage), then he’ll go back and do a second pass all the while referring to the revisions Jason has asked me to pass on to Kuba (which will be considered inks). I’ll post some images next week, once we have a couple of versions to compare.

Now for something completely different…

Who is arguably the greatest cartoon character ever? Bugs Bunny, natch. And it was 70 years ago today that Winnipeger “Cartoon” Charlie Thorson drew a rabbit and gave him the name Bugs Bunny.

Like all cartoon characters (and humans too) Bugs took a few years of development, change… fermentation if you will, before he grew into his skin. He continued to ferment, and then the rot set in. Space Jam! Loonatics!

Not just a bunny, but one who bugs. He bugs because he is being bugged. He is a counter-revolutionary surrounded by revolutionaries (nuisances such as Elmer Fudd), reactionaries (over-reactors like Daffy Duck) and, to a lesser extent, goofballs (to wit the half-wit Elvis Buzzard). Bugs Bunny is a septuagenarian now, and in those years he has developed and grown up along with three generations of human beings.

Cartoonist Robert Crumb credits Bugs Bunny as being a major influence on him in this interview from 1991:

“Yeah, I was sexually attracted to certain cartoon characters when I was like five, six years old. Bugs Bunny was one of them, yeah. I had this picture… of Bugs Bunny which I carried around in my pocket for a long time.”

I stopped by the Cartoon Characters Retirement Village in Beverly Hills where Bugs was gracious enough to grant me the following intimate interview.

Julian: Well Mr. Bunny, let me start off by saying what an honour it is to meet you.

Bugs Bunny: Thanks, sonny. Please, call me Bugs, alright?

J: Alright Bugs. Uh, here’s my first question to you then: “Eh, what’s up, Doc?” (laughs).

BB: Oh brudder! As if I haven’t been asked THAT one a million times a day! Look doc, I don’t have much time here so get on with the real questions!

J: Uh, sure thing Bugs. Well then, um, let’s start at the beginning. Where were you born?

BB: I was born right here in Beverly Hills. Now the cartoons I starred in will have you believe I had a Papa Bunny and a Mama Bunny when I was a little Baby Bugsy Bunny…

J: Like in the cartoon Bob Clampett directed you in called The Old Grey Hare?

BB: Exactly! But I have no Mama or Papa, well no Mama really, but I do have almost a dozen fathers!

J: What do you mean?

BB: Well, the first guy to draw me and give me my name was a fellow Canuck of yours named Charles Thorson. That was in 1938, 70 years ago to the day.

J: Ah yes, I often visit Cartoon Charlie’s grave over in the old section of Mountainview Cemetery in East Vancouver.

BB: Charlie’s more like me granpaw to me though. A slew of other directors, character designers and animators like Freleng, Clampett, Jones, McKimson shaped me into what I am today: a washed-up old has-been.

J: Well, it is a fact that your output of work progressively diminished over the years, but you have consistently been in the public eye, entertaining audiences for three generations now.

BB: Look doc… if you think I had anything to do with any so-called projects featuring Bugs Bunny over the last 15 years, then you are mistaken.

J: You mean you had nothing to do with films like Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action or television properties such as Loonatics?

BB: I saw Space Jam and let me tell you bub, the guy they got doin’ me in that film looks, sounds and acts NUTHIN’ like me! And Loonatics ain’t even pretending to be me! Some new kid the Warner executives found named Buzz Bunny. The stories take place hundreds of years in the future, so I’m already dead in that universe. Any new so-called Bugs Bunny vehicles are bein’ fronted by imposters. They got an army of look-alikes for all us old Looney Tune folks.

J: Gee Bugs… I just figured with make-up, cosmetic surgery and CGI they could take years off your appearances.

BB: CGI? What the hell’s that?

J: Uh, Computer Generated Imagery…

BB: Look around you pal… no amount of smoke ‘n’ mirrors is gonna bring these characters back to life. Lookit ol’ Elmer there in the corner, all palsied and misshapen, lying in bed and dribbling pureed carrots. Daffy is so crazy now he can’t even have visitors or be allowed to mingle with the rest of us. The real Taz died in an Australian brushfire along with Hippity Hopper and his life-partner Sylvester Junior about ten years ago. And we all know what happened to the poor old Roadrunner. In fact, Wile E. is still managing his successful chain of Arizona Fried Road Runner drive-in restaurants and Coyote Ugly bars. I could go on, but I’ll just say none of us originals have done a film in over twenty years.

J: Interesting. Uh, well let’s just change the subject and talk briefly about another aspect of your celebrity, and that is your counter-revolutionary politics.

BB: Yeah, a lot of that is due to the father I feel closest to: Charles M. Jones.

J: Indeed, as Putterman once said: “ Jones redefined our understanding of Bugs and Daffy… where Bugs’s self-knowing stasis constantly defeats Daffy’s frenetic overreaching”. I also have a quote here from Chuck Jones where he states:

“Bugs was a counter-revolutionary, not a revolutionary at all. He didn’t go out to bug people, people bugged him and then he fought back. And I think that counter-revolutionaries are a damned sight more intriguing than revolutionaries.”

BB: You know, I just wanted to be left alone. I was always mindin’ me own business, lying in bed eatin’ carrots or singin’ an old song. But without fail there was always some nuisance or over-reactor distoibing my peace. I’d use a whole bunch of tactics to outsmart all dem dime-store dumdums, including puttin’ on a dress and make-up and goin’ counter to me own gender. Worked every time ‘cept that one instance with Elvis Buzzard in Robert McKimson’s Backwoods Bunny.

J: You put up brave physical, emotional and psychological battles with your so-called enemies for many years. When did the strain of fighting back all the time begin taking its toll on you?

BB: Near the end of Rabbit Rampage produced in 1955. I’m pleading with Elmer in frustration: “Why can’t we be friends? Maybe we can both benefit… do something revolutionary”. That was when I first started to think about retiring, which I finally did in 1979 after the release of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie. I did make a brief appearance in 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit and that was my last public appearance.

J: Well Bugs, I understand visiting hours are coming to an end so I’ll end our discussion now by asking you if you have any words of advice for the millions of fans you have out there?

BB: Yeah, don’t obey the rules but do it gracefully.

J: Goodbye Bugs.

BB: Bye kiddo. I’d walk you to the door but my mobility is somewhat limited since losin’ me lucky right foot to Yosemite Sam while shooting my last unreleased film.

J: That’s all folks!

BB: Oh brudder!

Toodles!

Julian

Hey there everyone out there in Internetland. How are yeh? I’m swell! And let me tell you, Jazzy Jason Cook’s Blake Undying is bananas! The script is hee-lariously dark, and Krazy Kuba Kujawa is kreating some of the sweetest, sickest art in Komics today!

Here, I’ll show you.

As you know from all the editors’ previous blogs, we here at Zeros2Heroes are creating comics following an original, creative, tried and true process developed by a passionate bunch of comics-lovin’ inkstuds here in the ‘Couve, Canada. So you know what I mean when I say that Page X was a breeze.

Sure, it took a number of iterations, but Page X is the money shot (actually Blake Undying has several money shots, this one just happened to truly represent the spirit of the book as a whole). Anyhoo, Jason and I we’re immediately on the same page when it came to choosing Page X. One of his first messages to me on the Dashboard was on Page 16 where he wrote: “Early contender for Page X”. He had one other page picked out, but I had already edited it with its facing partner into a two-page spread to make yer eyeballs ejacu-bobulate (like the Mask, another Zero to Hero). Gold!

So here is the page as thumbnailed by yours truly based on Jason’s description:

Kuba got the script and the Vision Document and created this rough based on the script and thumbnail:

Now Kuba doesn’t pencil. He just goes right into roughs that are blobs of colour. The page looked good, but Jason has a very vivid vision and requested the following revisions:

Subtle, but effective. As an editor I work with the creator/writer/client to translate their concepts into graphic narratives.

A few more revisions follwed, and the ta-dah! Nailed!

Once Jason approved the page I sent a message to Charismatic Chris Studebaker (who, by the way, is lettering the new ReBoot comic I edit) and let him know Blake Undying’s Page X is ready for his magic:

I tell yeh, this comic’s got the goods. And the bads!

Julian