Joe Maduriera

A buddy of mine is a huge Joe Mad fan and was never really attractedto his work. One day he showed me this two page spread and I knew I had to go for it. It's a pretty busy page so I figured I would tackle it in planes. Closest to farthest. Twenty minutes in, I knew this approach would not work It's such a busy page and the Tiny Wasp all big and in front of Thor really played with my head. Usualy the figure or mass that is closest is the largest mass and would therefore get the thickest lines and variations. Not so here. I needed to make sure the Wasp still looked small, just very close to the camera. Which made me go somewhere I am not comfortabele. The wonderful world of halos.

I am not a fan of halos but like any other device an inker can use on a page, it has it's place and purpose. This was truly my first time experimenting with this technique and am still trying to find it's proper use. I think it was a successful beginning.

Then I the was all the different textures I was able to play with. Giving bricks, leather and sentient symbiotic space goo all need look like different surfaces. This area is one of my favorite playgrounds. To me,this is where you can make a page come to life. Making all the surfaces look anfeel real gives the page an anchor in reality and allows the reader to suspend disbelief and accept that a giant Venom monster is crashing through a wall chasing a thunder god.