Idwx chap 03

THE FIRST DECADE

C H A P T E R3

C O N T I N U I N G

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taking care of the huge amount of trading-card workthere was at the time and also doing general creativeservice work. As the demand for trading cardslessened, it increased simultaneously for creativeservices. Ted left in 1998 to work for ToddMcFarlane, while I took over WildStorm’sdepartment.

“Thus it was that when wecame back together with Robbieand Alex in 1999 to form Ideaand Design Works, the ideawas that our new companywould be wholly dedicated tocreative services. At the time, we

“Ted & I originally started working together at

WildStorm in 1995, when I was hired by the

Editorial department of which he was already a part.

But we soon became our own two-man department,

Kris Oprisko remembers the early days of IDW’s creative service business.

C H A P T E R

ART &DESIGN

3

37

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taking care of the huge amount of trading-card workthere was at the time and also doing general creativeservice work. As the demand for trading cardslessened, it increased simultaneously for creativeservices. Ted left in 1998 to work for ToddMcFarlane, while I took over WildStorm’sdepartment.

“Thus it was that when wecame back together with Robbieand Alex in 1999 to form Ideaand Design Works, the ideawas that our new companywould be wholly dedicated tocreative services. At the time, we

“Ted & I originally started working together at

WildStorm in 1995, when I was hired by the

Editorial department of which he was already a part.

But we soon became our own two-man department,

Kris Oprisko remembers the early days of IDW’s creative service business.

C H A P T E R

ART &DESIGN

3

37


had no intention of becoming a comic-bookpublisher.

“However, we were more than open to doingcomics—delivered ready-to-print—as work-for-hirejobs. And one of our very first projects after openingour doors was just such a comic job,for the folks at Ultimate Sports. Thecompany had been founded by anex-sports agent who was changing hisfocus to producing comics featuring‘super-hero’ versions of real-lifeathletes. We felt supremely equippedto make these comics, since we wereall sports fans who’d just left asuccessful comic company. Weended up doing several projectswith them based on both MLBand NFL players. I particularlyenjoyed writing Gridiron Giants,an NFL book with shape-changing athletes like DanMarino, Barry Sanders andTerrell Davis.

“But to say we were doingonly comic projects in those

early days would be to vastly understate the widereach we were making into all areas of culture andadvertising as we tried to find our niche. From Japancame the opportunity to work on a special-editionPepsi can bearing the silver, mouth-free Japanesemascot Pepsi-man. The art for Pepsi-man was done

by Rich Johnson, a great guy Ted & Iboth knew from ourWildStorm days. Itwould unfortunatelybe our last projecttogether, as Rich passedaway far too young, andis still missed.

“IDW made itssplash in bus stations andmagazines across Americawith our line of Degreeantiperspirant ads, a mix ofphotos and drawing with artprovided by Ryan Benjamin.We were excited by theexposure and eager to showthat our kind of art had a placein the larger marketplace.

39

_______________________________________________________IDW’s biggest national ad campaign was for Degree Deodorant.

38

___________________________________________________________________Some of the IDW-created titles that were published by Ultimate Sports Force.


had no intention of becoming a comic-bookpublisher.

“However, we were more than open to doingcomics—delivered ready-to-print—as work-for-hirejobs. And one of our very first projects after openingour doors was just such a comic job,for the folks at Ultimate Sports. Thecompany had been founded by anex-sports agent who was changing hisfocus to producing comics featuring‘super-hero’ versions of real-lifeathletes. We felt supremely equippedto make these comics, since we wereall sports fans who’d just left asuccessful comic company. Weended up doing several projectswith them based on both MLBand NFL players. I particularlyenjoyed writing Gridiron Giants,an NFL book with shape-changing athletes like DanMarino, Barry Sanders andTerrell Davis.

“But to say we were doingonly comic projects in those

early days would be to vastly understate the widereach we were making into all areas of culture andadvertising as we tried to find our niche. From Japancame the opportunity to work on a special-editionPepsi can bearing the silver, mouth-free Japanesemascot Pepsi-man. The art for Pepsi-man was done

by Rich Johnson, a great guy Ted & Iboth knew from ourWildStorm days. Itwould unfortunatelybe our last projecttogether, as Rich passedaway far too young, andis still missed.

“IDW made itssplash in bus stations andmagazines across Americawith our line of Degreeantiperspirant ads, a mix ofphotos and drawing with artprovided by Ryan Benjamin.We were excited by theexposure and eager to showthat our kind of art had a placein the larger marketplace.

39

_______________________________________________________IDW’s biggest national ad campaign was for Degree Deodorant.

38

___________________________________________________________________Some of the IDW-created titles that were published by Ultimate Sports Force.


_____________________Preliminary designs andfinal product for Pepsi.


_____________________Preliminary designs andfinal product for Pepsi.


whistles. If we wanted to remain active in that area,we would have had to transform into a DVD menu-only design house, and none of us wanted to restrictthe company in that manner.

“Good thing we didn’t, because the future stillheld projects of almost every conceivable nature.Another area of heavy Robbie activity was the style

guide projects we took on. Style guides were the“bibles” used by owners of Intellectual Properties toshowcase their IP, to tell the story behind theircharacters and show how those characters should bepresented. They were meant to be useful, but had toalso have a sense of cutting-edge graphic design.They also generally ran to several hundred pages, so

43

________________________________________________A selection of some of the DVD menus created by IDW.

“At around the same time, we began to receivejobs from the newly emerging DVD market. Thiswas still the early days of DVDs, when most discsONLY contained the film–not the director’scommentaries, alternate takes, and easter eggs thatpack the DVD collections of today. We were hiredto design the menus for the DVDs–I say ‘we,’ but

these DVD projects were all Robbie. During thisperiod we worked with studios such as Artisan,Trimark, and Lions Gate, producing menus for titleslike Natural Born Killers, The Songcatcher, and Chuck& Buck. Eventually the projects just became tooinvolved and complex for us–the menus were nowfully 3D animated and laden-down with bells and

42


whistles. If we wanted to remain active in that area,we would have had to transform into a DVD menu-only design house, and none of us wanted to restrictthe company in that manner.

“Good thing we didn’t, because the future stillheld projects of almost every conceivable nature.Another area of heavy Robbie activity was the style

guide projects we took on. Style guides were the“bibles” used by owners of Intellectual Properties toshowcase their IP, to tell the story behind theircharacters and show how those characters should bepresented. They were meant to be useful, but had toalso have a sense of cutting-edge graphic design.They also generally ran to several hundred pages, so

43

________________________________________________A selection of some of the DVD menus created by IDW.

“At around the same time, we began to receivejobs from the newly emerging DVD market. Thiswas still the early days of DVDs, when most discsONLY contained the film–not the director’scommentaries, alternate takes, and easter eggs thatpack the DVD collections of today. We were hiredto design the menus for the DVDs–I say ‘we,’ but

these DVD projects were all Robbie. During thisperiod we worked with studios such as Artisan,Trimark, and Lions Gate, producing menus for titleslike Natural Born Killers, The Songcatcher, and Chuck& Buck. Eventually the projects just became tooinvolved and complex for us–the menus were nowfully 3D animated and laden-down with bells and

42


the whole office invariablywas involved with collatingand putting them togetheronce Robbie’s design work wasdone. High-profile projects likethese included an installment ofthe Final Fantasy videogame series,the syndicated TV program TheMan Show, and one put togetherfor Wilbur, a proposed children’sTV show, that even featured faux-cowskin binders! We also did someonline style guides, including one forRobert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids.

“We took a brief sidestep into theworld of animated-style art with workon two Rugrats children’s books forNickelodeon, Secret-Agent Dad and APickles Passover. The Klasky-Csupopeople were understandably proud oftheir creations, and we were held toan exacting standard. There weremany blueline revisions before finalapproval–you’d never imagine howmuch Angelica’s cheek or Chas’mustache is agonized over. We alsodeliberately used very angled viewsof the art for the book, many ofthem upshots. This not only freedup “dead” space for the text, butalso presented the art to kidsfrom a kid’s own perspective.

“One other type of creativeservice work that I really enjoyedwas writing videogames. As gamesevolved, they came to have plotsthat moved the story along usingcomputer-animated cut scenes. Itwas my job, once the ‘game’ part was

in process, to come up with andwrite the ‘story’ part that the cutscenes would show. On oneproject, ATV Offroad Fury, I hadfull freedom to augment theracing game with any story Ichose–providing the maincharacter could either be maleor female and was never referredto by name! I also wrote a scriptfor Warhawk that I poured myheart into for months. The ideawas that the publisher wouldpick parts of my script andscripts that other writers hadproduced to incorporate thebest bits into the final game.Even though that game isnow released on PS3 and thejob’s been done for years, Ihaven’t had the heart to checkit out and see what they mighthave cut.“Although in the end IDW

would become knownprimarily for its comic line, inthe beginning we were a creativeservice house. Those earlyprojects, worked on by the fouroriginal owners in the tiny,cramped offices that were ourheadquarters in those days, werewhere the real identity of IDWwas forged. We tried, we aspired,we messed up, we tried again,we improved, and in the end…we learned.”

45

IDW

________________________________________________In addition to creating the style guide for The Man Show,

IDW provided the design for this six-pack of beer.

____________________The Wilbur style guidefeatured faux cow skin.

____________________________________________IDW produced these Rugrats picture books.

44

The Complete List of IDW Complete Idiot’s GuidesFor the past several years, we’ve worked with Alpha Books/Pearson Education producing a numberof titles for their Complete Idiot’s Guide series. In most cases these were of the “Illustrated” variety,meaning along with an explanation of the subject itself there were many step-by-step how-toinstructions for drawing.

CIG to Drawing Basics, IllustratedThis book served as a general introduction on how to draw, with words and text provided by Frank Fradella.

Similar to the case with Manga, Illustrated, Alpha had an old title of the same name that they just weren't

pleased with. They wanted more of a focus on the step-by-step process of art creation, which we provided

in this volume.

CIG to Drawing Manga, IllustratedThis title was really two-in-one. At first, we were hired to provide art for a manga

how-to book that was already completed, with art by David Hutchison. But

Alpha wasn’t completely happy with the text they had, so it led to a total revamp

of the book. The new and improved text was provided by John Layman.

CIG to Drawing Manga, Illustrated (2nd Edition)The originally CIGDM proved so popular that an updated, revised version was needed. The text was

cleaned up and augmented, while David added a few extra art pieces as well.

CIG to Manga Fantasy Creatures, IllustratedThe second manga-related CIG book we produced marked the writing debut on the series for gamingguru Matt Forbeck, while we went straight to Japan to provide the art, using native talent Tomoko Taniguchi.

The subject this time was the fantastic creatures that populate the pages of manga in all their wild and

wacky forms.

CIG to Drawing Manga Shoujo, IllustratedWith Matt and Tomoko now in place as our regular Manga CIG team, we explored the softer side of thegenre with a how-to book on Shoujo manga. Not as well known in the U.S. as some of its cousins, this sub-

genre focuses on the female readership of manga. Caution - extreme cuteness levels!

CIG to Drawing Superheroes and Villains, IllustratedMoving away from manga, this guide focused on the men in tights–heroes

and villains of the traditional comic superhero variety. Rather than focusing

on pre-existing characters, the guide provided original characters as a

springboard to spark the readers’ own creativity. Matt Forbeck provided

the text, with art by Yair Herrera.

CIG to U.S. HistoryThis was a bit of a different project for us, as the art was done in-house by Alpha while we provided a

script. And that’s just what it was–a comic script–since the project would be a comic-style fully illustrated

history of the United States. Ken Hite was the scriptwriter on this project.

Honorable MentionWe also completed an entire CIG project with text by Matt Forbeck on the ins and outs of a popular RPG,but rights issues with the game unfortunately consigned that to the unpublished pile.


the whole office invariablywas involved with collatingand putting them togetheronce Robbie’s design work wasdone. High-profile projects likethese included an installment ofthe Final Fantasy videogame series,the syndicated TV program TheMan Show, and one put togetherfor Wilbur, a proposed children’sTV show, that even featured faux-cowskin binders! We also did someonline style guides, including one forRobert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids.

“We took a brief sidestep into theworld of animated-style art with workon two Rugrats children’s books forNickelodeon, Secret-Agent Dad and APickles Passover. The Klasky-Csupopeople were understandably proud oftheir creations, and we were held toan exacting standard. There weremany blueline revisions before finalapproval–you’d never imagine howmuch Angelica’s cheek or Chas’mustache is agonized over. We alsodeliberately used very angled viewsof the art for the book, many ofthem upshots. This not only freedup “dead” space for the text, butalso presented the art to kidsfrom a kid’s own perspective.

“One other type of creativeservice work that I really enjoyedwas writing videogames. As gamesevolved, they came to have plotsthat moved the story along usingcomputer-animated cut scenes. Itwas my job, once the ‘game’ part was

in process, to come up with andwrite the ‘story’ part that the cutscenes would show. On oneproject, ATV Offroad Fury, I hadfull freedom to augment theracing game with any story Ichose–providing the maincharacter could either be maleor female and was never referredto by name! I also wrote a scriptfor Warhawk that I poured myheart into for months. The ideawas that the publisher wouldpick parts of my script andscripts that other writers hadproduced to incorporate thebest bits into the final game.Even though that game isnow released on PS3 and thejob’s been done for years, Ihaven’t had the heart to checkit out and see what they mighthave cut.“Although in the end IDW

would become knownprimarily for its comic line, inthe beginning we were a creativeservice house. Those earlyprojects, worked on by the fouroriginal owners in the tiny,cramped offices that were ourheadquarters in those days, werewhere the real identity of IDWwas forged. We tried, we aspired,we messed up, we tried again,we improved, and in the end…we learned.”

45

IDW

________________________________________________In addition to creating the style guide for The Man Show,

IDW provided the design for this six-pack of beer.

____________________The Wilbur style guidefeatured faux cow skin.

____________________________________________IDW produced these Rugrats picture books.

44

The Complete List of IDW Complete Idiot’s GuidesFor the past several years, we’ve worked with Alpha Books/Pearson Education producing a numberof titles for their Complete Idiot’s Guide series. In most cases these were of the “Illustrated” variety,meaning along with an explanation of the subject itself there were many step-by-step how-toinstructions for drawing.

CIG to Drawing Basics, IllustratedThis book served as a general introduction on how to draw, with words and text provided by Frank Fradella.

Similar to the case with Manga, Illustrated, Alpha had an old title of the same name that they just weren't

pleased with. They wanted more of a focus on the step-by-step process of art creation, which we provided

in this volume.

CIG to Drawing Manga, IllustratedThis title was really two-in-one. At first, we were hired to provide art for a manga

how-to book that was already completed, with art by David Hutchison. But

Alpha wasn’t completely happy with the text they had, so it led to a total revamp

of the book. The new and improved text was provided by John Layman.

CIG to Drawing Manga, Illustrated (2nd Edition)The originally CIGDM proved so popular that an updated, revised version was needed. The text was

cleaned up and augmented, while David added a few extra art pieces as well.

CIG to Manga Fantasy Creatures, IllustratedThe second manga-related CIG book we produced marked the writing debut on the series for gamingguru Matt Forbeck, while we went straight to Japan to provide the art, using native talent Tomoko Taniguchi.

The subject this time was the fantastic creatures that populate the pages of manga in all their wild and

wacky forms.

CIG to Drawing Manga Shoujo, IllustratedWith Matt and Tomoko now in place as our regular Manga CIG team, we explored the softer side of thegenre with a how-to book on Shoujo manga. Not as well known in the U.S. as some of its cousins, this sub-

genre focuses on the female readership of manga. Caution - extreme cuteness levels!

CIG to Drawing Superheroes and Villains, IllustratedMoving away from manga, this guide focused on the men in tights–heroes

and villains of the traditional comic superhero variety. Rather than focusing

on pre-existing characters, the guide provided original characters as a

springboard to spark the readers’ own creativity. Matt Forbeck provided

the text, with art by Yair Herrera.

CIG to U.S. HistoryThis was a bit of a different project for us, as the art was done in-house by Alpha while we provided a

script. And that’s just what it was–a comic script–since the project would be a comic-style fully illustrated

history of the United States. Ken Hite was the scriptwriter on this project.

Honorable MentionWe also completed an entire CIG project with text by Matt Forbeck on the ins and outs of a popular RPG,but rights issues with the game unfortunately consigned that to the unpublished pile.


Documents

Idwx chap 03