First Attempt

JOE: Here are the stages of my first attempt at a finished cover. My favorite stage is the third image, the pencil drawing that eventually becomes the finished ink drawing. I've shared this sentiment with many comic artist, we all agree that our pencils always look better that the finished inks. So frustrating.

STAN:  I'm not sure that I agree about sketches being better than the finished artwork.  They can be as good, but different.  In the same way that a black and white and a colour photograph of the same subject can be equally compelling.  I'm amused to see that I'm "Stan Nicholis" at this stage.  That's no criticism of Joe; for some reason my name often gets mangled, and you'd be amazed at some of the variations.  "Nicholas" is a common one.  Which is OK except for the way some people pronounce it - ie "Nickelarse".  But we all have our crosses to bear.

Cover Concepts

JOE: Here are the earliest concept sketches for the cover. Stan's novels have amazing covers featuring beautiful and detailed sculptures, wonderfully photographed in close up. I felt my art would never be able to compete with that, so I went with my strength, movement. Oh and red, lots of red.

STAN:  It's hard to overestimate the importance of covers.  After all, it's usually a reader's first connection with a book, and they aren't going to go further and investigate if the cover's off-putting.  I like the impression of dynamic movement in these sketches.  And red is a wise choice - witness its importance in so-called "retail psychology".  It has a power to draw the eye unrivaled by most other colors.

Samurai Awry

JOE:  I really wanted to emulate samurai films in the Orcs graphic novel, the sketch below is an example of a moment of a near impossible feat of swordsmanship. As the project came along, the word "impossible" started to bug me.

JOE:  For Jup to have the reach with a blade that would facilitate a lot of the moves I wanted him to pull off, they would have to be long swords, not the short ones from earlier sketches. But with longer swords, something as simple as a light jog would be difficult.

STAN:  Here we have Joe confronting the same sort of problem writers have to resolve.  It's the old function versus decorative conundrum: what looks cool isn't necessarily practical.  In one of my other fantasy series, the Quicksilver trilogy (known as the Dreamtime trilogy in the US), my central character carried his sword strapped to his back - something else that was probably influenced by samurai movies.  But while it's a convenient way to transport a weapon, it's hopeless if you need to draw it in a hurry.  In the end you tend to go for some kind of compromise between elegance of appearance and reality.   

JOE: I did a series of sketches, of Jup just drawing his swords, to see if this was something he could do easily and quickly. It was at this point I began contemplating giving him an axe instead.

JOE: I was 100 pages into penciling when I came to this particular page. I was torn, the swords look cool, but how on earth would Jup be able to draw them both while on a horse.

JOE:  I came up with a harness for his alternate weapon, a pair of axes. The axe heads hang on his belt, he simply need to unhook the harness and slid the axe handles forward. In the end the axes won out, and now I know why it is the weapon of choice for dwarves everywhere.

Samurai

JOE: Jup is the only non-orc in the war-band, he's' an outsider and the other orcs are mistrustful of him. A perfect comparison would be Toshiro Mifune's wandering samurai in Kurosawa's Yojimbo. I came to this piece for inspiration out of desire to move away from the traditional depiction of the red-bearded, nordic-inspired dwarfs, with their battle axes and horned helmets. ( ironically, Mifune played the title character in the film, Red Beard). Samurai's have the mastery of swordplay and code of honor that I thought would be a good fit for Jup.

STAN:  I'm pleased that Joe didn't go for the traditional, not to say clichéd, depiction of dwarves.  And the samurai aspect certainly rings a bell with me - I'm pretty sure it was one of the influences in the ragbag of my subconscious.  Mifune had a unique screen presence, and was equally convincing as fool or hero.  He was unforgettable in Seven Samurai, and perhaps even more so in Throne of Blood.  It's nice to think that something of his spirit made its way into the graphic novel.   

JOE: Jup shaves his head and dons the Wolverines uniform to fit in with his orc brothers at arms. If he were to put on the garb of this native dwarf race, I imagine he'd looksomething the this:

Contrast

JOE: Boy, I sure do have a lot of drawings of Haskeer beating the living crap outta people.

JOE: But my all time favorite sketch is this one of Haskeer sitting on a barrel, enjoying his pipe full of pellucid. I love the way he is still such a badass, and yet there is something dainty about the way he's holding that pipe.

STAN:  That "dainty" pose is a very nice touch.  One of the things I love about the graphic art is how a little detail can speak volumes about a character.  At times like this I wish I could draw a straight line .  

Berserker

JOE:  Haskeer is the one orc character that went through the least amount of changes, through the entire process, his basic design is unchanged. The proportions vary, but the squat nose, heavy brow and cleft chin (not naturally occurring, I've always pictured him taking a axe blade to the chin) remains consistent. The mace was also an early decision, but the type of mace, even up to today, varies from drawing to drawing. (Although in the graphic novel I went with Haskeer wielding two smaller ones for throwing). Haskeer is essentially orc prime, and all of my other orcs are variations, or at times deviations from him.

 STAN:  Yeah, orc prime - I like that.  Judging by readers' feedback, Haskeer's one of the most popular characters.  You might think that's odd, given his tendency to act like an insensitive oaf and the fact that he's not exactly the sharpest sword in the scabbard.  But somehow there's something endearing about him.  I've a soft spot for the big chump myself.  

Buddy Cop Film

STAN:  Conflict breeds drama.  For a warband like the Wolverines, conflict's a daily occurrence, so there's plenty of drama in that respect.  But inevitably there are tensions within the band too, and no more so than in the relationship between Haskeer and Jup.  Haskeer's usually the antagonist, his animosity partly based on the fact that the dwarves tend to be more pragmatic than idealistic, and many fight for whichever side pays the most.  This isn't the case with Jup, but Haskeer occasionally has doubts about that.  They also have different temperaments - Haskeer can be reckless where Jup exercises caution, for example - but at base they share certain things in common, like a love of combat and loyalty to the band.  There are times when either would happily slit the other's throat, but when the chips are down their instinct is to co-operate. They've saved each other's lives on more than one occasion.  It's a classic love-hate thing.

JOE: "One's an orc, with a violent steak and a head full of concrete, the other's a dwarf with precognitive powers and chip on his shoulder. But when these two have to team up and fight there way through a fantasy world full of monsters, fanatical holy warriors and evil sorceresses, things are gonna get a little nuts!"  That would be the the trailer if they ever made a movie about Haskeer and Jup.