Okay then, time to do one of those text-based blog posts I promised a couple of days ago. Since I picked up a copy of
Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes at the comic book store today, I thought I'd write a little something about one of my favorite artists: Mr. Adam Hughes.
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Born in Riverside, New Jersey in 1967, Adam Hughes got started in comics in the late 1980s, drawing a detective comic called
Maze Agency, but it didn't take long before he was drawing DC's top super-team book,
Justice League America. He also had brief runs of titles like
Ghost,
Penthouse Comix,
Gen13: Ordinary Heroes and the
Star Trek: Debt of Honor graphic novel, but his meticulous art style was probably never meant for monthly comics. For the last decade or so, he's been the cover artist for first
Wonder Woman (drawing the covers for most issues between #139 and #197), then
Catwoman (#45-83).
Hughes' forte is drawing gorgeous women, drawing inspiration from classic good girl artists and painters like Gill Elvgren, Norman Rockwell, Alphonse Mucha and Drew Struzan, as well as his comic book contemporaries such as Dave Stevens, Steve Rude and Jaime Hernandez.
There are many reasons I love his artwork (in addition to the pretty girls, obviously): the graceful and elegant linework, the expressiveness of the characters, his masterful use of color theory and his ability to tell a whole story in a single image.
The book I bought today,
Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes, features almost a hundred of his best covers in an oversized hardcover coffee-table book format. Every cover is accompanied with a "behind the scenes" commentary by Adam and, in most cases, preparatory sketches. The artwork is arranged chronologically, spanning his 20-year career at DC Comics, which means it's also a document of the artist's journey. Along the way, Adam reveals some of the secrets he learned, dropping some helpful art tips for us wannabe artists. Even at $40, this book's totally worth it.
If you want to know more about Adam Hughes, check out his
website or his
DeviantArt page.
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Michael J. Parobeck was born in Ohio in 1965, and educated at the Central Academy of Commercial Art in Cincinnati. He began his comics career in 1987, debuting in a charity comic called Quest For Dreams Lost. In 1989, he started picking up work for DC Comics, for example short stories in Secret Origins. His first ongoing assignment was El Diablo, followed by The Fly, Justice Society of America and Elongated Man. However, his most popular work would be a three-year run on Batman Adventures, a Batman title based on the animated TV series. Midway during his Batman run, he was diagnosed as having Type 1 diabetes, while also dealing with severe childhood trauma. As a result, he had a hard time with his new medical disorder, instead burying himself deeper into his work and neglecting his insulin injections. He died from complications resulting from his diabetes in July 1996, only 30 years old.
Parobeck’s style was quite unlike a lot of the comic book art of the early 1990s, when the order of the day was beefy exaggerated anatomy and heavy cross-hatching. His fluid animation-inspired drawing style was always coupled with clear, clean layouts, great senses of design and drama, and accessible, attractive characters. You would often see characters with a wide smile on their faces and imagine they were drawn by someone who genuinely loved what he was doing. 
Among his influences are John Byrne (Parobeck referred to him as being “the reason that I got into this field at all.”), Jaime Hernandez and Alex Toth. And thanks to his distinctive style, Parobeck himself became an inspiration to others. Mike took the time to help other young artists (including David Mack) who he would correspond with letters of advice and encouragement.
Unfortunately, not much of his work remains in print today, which is truly a shame. Batman: The Dark Knight Adventures collects the first six issues of his Batman Adventures run (and it’s a steal at $7.95), but that’s about it. For the rest of his body of work, you’ll have to hit the back issue bins and the online mail order companies. It’s well worth the effort, though.
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