During my tenure as Brand Manager at Image Comics, one thing became startlingly apparent: lots of creators use phone selfies for their publicity portraits. But they deserve better.
I served as the photography editor at Paste Magazine and a consulting photographer for Uber, with various work landing at Stereogum, +Soma, and a few weddings along the way. I promised my creators that any pictures I took would “probably be better than a selfie, but a lot worse than Annie Leibovitz.”
This new responsibility evolved into one of my favorite aspects of the position. Creators tended to be far more appreciative than I expected; musicians, actors, and book authors perpetually expect lenses. For comic creators, it’s a novelty. These shoots were also a time to bond with the writers and artists whose work I promoted—I was invested in promoting them as the thought leaders of sequential art just as much as their works. Here are some of my favorite portraits taken over the past year throughout New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and San Diego. I’ve also included a few less staged shots from various conventions and events.
W. Maxwell Prince, Ice Cream Man. I attempted to create the same color scheme used by colorist Chris O’Halloran for the cover of Ice Cream Man’s first volume, Rainbow Sprinkles. I used a hidden Speedlite gelled pink to help approximate that palette, and then tweaked the hue in Adobe Lightroom. Another goal: make Will look as evil as humanly possible while holding a frozen dessert. Shot in Brooklyn, NY.
W. Maxwell Prince, Ice Cream Man. A more friendly, softer alternative that falls more in line with Will’s benevolent personality. Shot in Brooklyn, NY.
Caitlin Yarsky, Coyotes. I’m an avid fan of using a ring flash when shooting portraits. The device offers a warm, glowing diffusion around the subject, and the subject’s eyes reflect the circular light source. I especially love the way Caitlin’s profile interacts with it—her work is so surreal and ethereal, and this lighting helps channel that blossom into her portrait. Shot in Seattle, WA.
Skottie Young, Deadpool, Middlewest. Skottie Young’s wife, Casey McCauley, is an immaculate photographer who works miracles with natural light. Skottie knows photography and knows how to pose. I just let him do his thing and left my finger on the shutter. He didn’t disappoint. Shot in Chicago, IL.
Sarah Delaine, Little Girls. Sarah used to work in marketing at Image. Now she illustrates a disturbing book about two pre-teens grappling with a mythological demon. Half the challenge with these portraits is finding a small pocket of calm in a bustling convention center, which is often the only place where my path will cross with a creator. The backdrop here is a pillar at the Javits Convention Center. The pillar wasn’t wide enough to fill the frame, so I extended its pattern using the content-aware scale in Photoshop. Shot in New York, NY.
Jeremy Haun, The Realm, The Beauty. Jeremy doesn’t like this picture because he says he looks like a grumpy old man, but I love it; the man has no conniptions about staring into the abyss of the lens. Jeremy Haun is the real beauty. Shot in Chicago, IL.
John Layman, Chew, Leviathan, Outer Darkness. John Layman is a great, warm, hilarious man, and this picture is about as John Layman as it gets. Shot in Chicago, IL.
Jorge Corona, Middlewest, No. 1 with a Bullet. Jorge, his wife and The Family Trade artist Morgan Beem, and I took a stroll to East River State Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for this session. I don’t love late morning/afternoon outdoor shoots because the sun tends to be too powerful, casting some stark shadows. But the shade provided by these trees gave some nice, neutral(ish) light. Shot in Brooklyn, NY.
Rob Guillory, Farmhand, Chew. One simple oversight can mean the difference between a simple edit job and much, much more work. I forgot to ask Rob to take off his badge, which displayed a Dark Horse lanyard and branded badge. Some 30 minutes of toiling in Photoshop later, I don’t think my clone, heal, and patch job is terribly noticeable. Rob is lovely, as always. Shot in Chicago, IL.
Farel Dalrymple, Proxima Centauri. Farel makes unapologetically moody tone poems about teenage alienation in unapologetically severe settings. His latest masterwork, Proxima Centauri, revolves around a young boy suspended in space, wondering if he’ll ever reunite with his brother on earth. I wanted to capture that psychedelic sci-fi fantasy, so I overlayed a gradient on the soft screen blend mode with some starry textures. The initial light spread is made using some blinds and gels. Shot in Portland, OR.
Nick Pitarra, Leviathan, The Manhattan Projects. I love everything about Nick Pitarra. That is all. Shot in Chicago, IL.
Christopher Sebela, Crowded. Christopher Sebela and I do work at the same coffee shop in Portland. I needed a picture of him for an issue of Image+, and he happily obliged. I tried to balance out the flash with the fading sunlight; I lowered the f-stop for a shallower depth of field without comprising any detail on Christopher. Shot in Portland, OR.
Todd McFarlane, Wes Craig, and Mirka Andolfo, New York City Comic Con. As part of my panel programming, I’d have three artists get together and perform a live draw, branded as an Image Art Jam. The creators would draw on a computer hooked into an overhead monitor, so the audience could see the artists draw in real time. Wes Craig (Deadly Class) was intoxicated with joy to draw alongside Todd McFarlane (Spawn). I’d ask a question during the panel and he’d have a hard time concentrating because he’d want to watch Todd draw next to him. Wes’ facial expression says it all. Mirka Andolfo (Unnatural) is also phenomenal. Shot in New York, NY.
Kelly Sue Deconnick (Bitch Planet) and Chelsea Cain (Man-Eaters), Rose City Comic Con. These two trailblazers hosted a panel together at Rose City Comic Con to a packed house. Shot in Portland, OR.
Rick Remender with Deadly Class actresses Lana Condor and María Gabriela de Faría. Rick Remender epitomizes the apex of the creator-owned model. He did sterling work for Marvel, but the sheer innovation and personal dedication he channels into his Giant Generator comic family is nothing short of monumental. Proof in point: Rick is the showrunner of Syfy’s Deadly Class, based off his hyper-violent neon ‘80s comic of the same name. Here he poses with Lana and María, who respectively play the characters Saya and Maria.