Comments on: Berkeley Breathed speaks again

By: Phil Wohlrab

Phil Wohlrab — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:57:36 +0000

I checked out “Mars needs Moms” yesterday. Good story and Berke’s illustrations are great, however, the painting of those illustrations is where I take issue. He said he went digital and no one can tell because he’s cheated with an airbrush and the computor mimics an airbrush without even trying.
The problem is the airbrush is no good when you’re making hard edges. If you use it the wrong way you can blot color in such a way that you can tell you’re using a computor brush. And your hard edges look fuzzy, which is exactly what happend in “Mars needs Moms”. His light sources are great and his clouds look better than anything, but in certain areas it gets too fuzzy for my liking. Digital paint is exploding now. When I was in college a few years ago, computor paint was a joke. We sat in class, using a mouse to create art that was fit only for the trash can. Now, kids that grew up with the software and wacom tablets are tearing it up.
http://acidlullaby.cgsociety.org/gallery/
http://www.furiae.com/index.php?view=gallery
I think Berke would have been better off getting a better handle on digital paint before using it to illustrate an entire book.

By: Stacy Curtis

Stacy Curtis — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:38:36 +0000

How rare for a cartoonist to have an ego the size of the Empire State Building and be ungracious to other cartoonists!

By: Rick Stromoski

Rick Stromoski — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:34:05 +0000

I’m certain that it must have been a thrill to talk to a cartoonist of Berke’s caliber and I’m sure he was gracious to you as the interview illustrates. Perhaps you should ask Garry Trudeau or anyone else who saw his talk to the NCS a few years back how gracious Berke is (was).

By: Scott Metzger

Scott Metzger — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:15:31 +0000

I second what David said. Berke was generous with his time and his responses to the questions were thoughtful and entertaining. I appreciate it.

By: David Reddick

David Reddick — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:39:22 +0000

In Berke’s defense, Rick, while obviously your point is valid on the unfortunate subject of the bumping of 2 other comics at a time when Opus appears, he was and is incredibly collegial and gracious to us at Tall Tale Features… He’s answered Tom Racine instantaneously, and has been uber-generous to us with his time, and is genuinely interested in talking comics and shop, and I for one am thrilled and grateful!

By: Rick Stromoski

Rick Stromoski — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:46:22 +0000

Sorry for the dup posts

By: Rick Stromoski

Rick Stromoski — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:45:25 +0000

Dan Piraro in the last issue of Hogan’s Alley rightly pointed out that Berke’s insistance on the larger space specs for Opus is in theory a noble gesture trying to teach newspapers that comics need more space but in actuality is a pipedream. Newspaper’s financial situation aren’t going to change and they are never going back to a larger format. He also points out that when a comic gets bought, another one is bumped. When Opus gets bought, Two comics get bumped. So in essence, a pretty selfish position to take against one’s colleagues in an ever shrinking market. But then, Berke never was one to be very collegial when it came to other cartoonists or their work.

By: Rick Stromoski

Rick Stromoski — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:44:22 +0000

By: Anne Hambrock

Anne Hambrock — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:18:25 +0000

Was his answer about going digital referring to the strip? I thought it was an answer about his children’s books. I also took it to be a reference to his color work rather than his line work as he mentioned he always used an airbrush anyway.

By: Larry Levine

Larry Levine — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:57:38 +0000

I didn’t realize Berke had gone completely digital, never would have guessed Opus was drawn on a Cintiq.