Tounian wrote:Stan, I was curious, do all comic artists draw their pages at a much larger scale than the printed version? I've seen some of your pages at your booth and they look at least 50% larger to me than the comic, if not more so. Why is this done? Does every artist or comic company do it? I don't understand the point of making it one size to shrink it for production. When I was living in LA working at a shop, the clients had us sculpt the figures at twice the intended packaging size. It always seemed ludicrous to me, because you always lose that fine detail. Is there a reason its done in comics? Just curious...
It's standard practice around the world for the original comic art to be larger than the printed book. The smallest art size I can think of at the moment in the US, is Linda Medley's which are about 25% larger than print. I work with an image area of 10x15 inches, which is the standard. It's about 40% larger than the average comic book. The standard is getting smaller now to accommodate scanners. It used to be much larger. I own a Steve Ditko Spider-man page, and it is about 25% larger than mine. William Van Horn's current Donald Duck pages are about twice what mine are. Manga original pages tend to be smaller than the US, but still much larger than print.
The reason for the larger original is that it is much easier to work with. You can add in much more detail, and hand lettering (which is becoming a lost art) is easier. Also, when the art is reduced, the lines look much crisper, especially if you use kid finish paper like I do. Kid finish (or cold press) has a bit of texture to it, plate finish (hot press) is very smooth.
There is the danger that, if too much detail is added, you may lose it during the printing. Fine lines, such as in close cross-hatching, may fill in, turning the area black. However, with the better quality printing and paper, it's not that much of a problem. You just have to be aware of any pitfalls.