Super Real GN

by Josh Crawley

I’ve got a special comic book treat for you today! Thanks to my friend Jason Martin, we get a preview of the upcoming Super Real graphic novel from Super Real Graphics.

I met Jason back in 2005 through my friend Jim Heffron, Publisher of Lawdog Comics. Jim put together a nice little black and white anthology that included, among other things, Athena Voltaire by my friends Steve Bryant, Chad Fidler & company, Mike Heffron’s Mecka, Super Real, and an excerpt of a story of mine that wasn’t quite ready to go, but was drawn pretty damn well by Michael Watson.

About a year and a half later, I decided to try my hand at lettering. Conveniently, while Jason normally uses a different method for writing when doing regular issues of Super Real, the specials utilize guest artists, so there’s a much more standard script format in use. So I lettered up pages (from his script & low resolution guidelines) in Illustrator, sent him low resolution proofs, and after being approved, sent him Photoshop files he could tweak if need be, like the translucent sound effects.

It was really weird after I finished, because I was so used to talking to Jason frequently, and as it seems to happen in this industry when you’re half of a really big country away, we don’t talk anywhere near as often as we did. Thankfully, though, social networking sites like Twitter make it a little easier, if only because I can toss a little comment his way without worrying about forgetting something in a laundry list of things since I’m probably only making a single-minded comment anyways.

Super Real Movie Industry Special

The pages you see are originally from the Movie Industry Special, which featured numerous artists drawing the Super Real cast members in various movie-inspired traps. As always, the special was written by my friend Jason. The line art is by Jerry Gaylord with colors by Jason. I lettered the sections of the special that weren’t drawn by Jason, which is pretty much everything except for the bookend chapters. Jason did come in and tweak some of my letters here and there (as mentioned above), because sometimes he wants to add in or change a little text to help with the flow and/or balance of the page.

Super Real pages 135-136

Super Real page 137

Super Real page 138

Super Real page 139

Super Real page 140

Super Real page 141

Super Real page 142

Feel free to contact me with creators you’d like to see covered, comics for review, comments, concerns, corrections, questions, or even just your favorite beer. Be sure it says ATTN: JOSH if it’s sent post, otherwise there may be issues involving me living up to that “Master of Disaster” tag I’ve gotten. If you just want more of me running my mouth, check Twitter.com/joshcrawley .

josh@westfieldcomics.com

Westfield Comics
ATTN: JOSH
7475 Mineral Point Rd STE 22
Madison WI 53717
______________________
Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of Disaster at Westfield Comics, so you should check yourself.

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Super Real GN