Comics artist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A comics artist is an artist working within the comics medium. The term may refer to any number of artists who contribute to produce a work in the comics form, from those who oversee all aspects of the work to those who contribute only a part.
Though such comics artists as Chris Ware and Daniel Clowes will create and produce their work themselves, presenting finished artwork to a publisher, there are other processes through which a work in the comics medium is produced, which split the tasks amongst many specialised artists.
Within the comic strip format, it is typical for one creator to produce the whole strip. However, it is not uncommon for the writing of the strip and the creating of the art for the strip to be created by two people, a writer and an artist.
With regards to the comic book format, the work can be split in many different ways. The writing and the creation of the art can be split between two people, an example being From Hell, which was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Eddie Campbell. The artistic chores can also be further split, especially on work produced for the larger comic book publishers, with four people typically working on the art: a penciller; an inker; a colorist; and a letterer.
Sometimes this combination of four artists is augmented by a fifth, a breakdown artist. However, the generally occurs only when an artist fails to meet a deadline or when a writer, sometimes referred to as a scripter, produces breakdown art. Breakdown art is where the story has been laid out very roughly in pencils to indicate panel layouts and character positions within panels, but with no great detail filled in, and is sometimes referred to as "layouts."
The norm of four artists can also be reduced to three if the penciller also inks his own work, usually being credited within the book as a penciller/inker. John Byrne and Walt Simonson are artists who have, on occasion, inked their own work.
The writing of a comic book can also be shared between two people, with one person writing the plot and another the script.
It is worth noting that these roles are highly interchangeable, and many artists can fulfill different roles. Stan Sakai is a highly regarded letterer of comic books who also creates his own series, Usagi Yojimbo, and Eddie Campbell has separately provided scripts, art and, with his daughter, colors for comic books, while also producing his own autobiographical works.
Another unusual set up was that of Cerebus, on which, for the majority of the run, Dave Sim created everything except the backgrounds, these being provided by Gerhard.
