CAROUSEL BY JESSE HAMM Carousel 026: Figure-Ground One of the challenges of drawing comics is that you have to make figures appear to be separate from the environments behind them. This can be difficult, because both the background and the figures in a drawing are made of the same stuff: lines, and the spaces between […]

CAROUSEL BY JESSE HAMM Carousel 025: Close Read: Uncanny X-Men Annual #11 Alan Davis has long been admired by other artists for his appealing draftsmanship and his command of action, humor, and other key elements of superhero fiction. His work is further distinguished by his masterful panel-by-panel storytelling. One particular example of his work that […]

CAROUSEL BY JESSE HAMM Carousel 024: Drawing Animals Aspiring cartoonists are always advised to study human anatomy, but animal anatomy often goes unmentioned. This may be because most comics today are set in urban environments, where animals seldom play key roles. But regardless of what role they play, you can bet animals will appear in […]

CAROUSEL BY JESSE HAMM Carousel 023: Inking Tips Once upon a time, inking comics was necessary because comics were printed on newsprint, and media like pencils, pastels, or paint didn’t show up very well in reproduction. Nowadays, printing technology and web displays are so sharp that cartoonists can get away with drawing in pencil or […]

CAROUSEL BY JESSE HAMM Carousel 022: Mort Drucker: An Appreciation On Thursday, April 9, we lost cartoonist Mort Drucker, age 91. Drucker was a master of caricature—some would say THE master—who spent half a century drawing movie parodies for MAD magazine, as well as movie posters, album covers, and art for other markets. His talent was tremendous and unique, and […]

CAROUSEL BY JESSE HAMM Carousel 021: Drawing vs. Cartooning Read any collection of single-panel cartoons, in which the cartoons are organized from the early 20th century to the present, and you’ll notice a curious trend. The earliest cartoons will look like serious illustrations, with extensive linear shading, detailed backgrounds, and realistic figures. But as the […]