Pages in black and white

I have written before that mostly I do the different stages of the drawing of Splinters in groups of pages. After that I have done the sketching part of some 40 pages, I start putting the linework in black. For this story I don't use ink, but black conté-pencil. This gives the line-art a more rough and irregular look, that fits more to the character of Splinters than a slick, smooth line.

It is a very detailed kind of work, especially for the small parts of an image. Because the pencils I use are very soft, I have to do a lot of sharpening. I think the store where I buy my art-supplies is quite happy with me... I use a lot of those conté-pencils.

The paper that I use is not smooth, in fact it's watercolour-paper with a nice structure, to give the line-work even more character. 

Kriegspiel

As I've written before, I have always been interested in stories about the Second Worldwar. In my comics-collection I have quite a few books about that period. And always when I visit a comics-store and see a book about the war, I take a look. I thought it would be nice if I share some of the titles I have with you.

I bought Kriegspiel by Arno and Bocquet at the end of the eighties in Paris. It's not really a comic, but more an illustrated story. I was especially impressed by Arno's beautiful drawings. I think they catch the atmosphere of the war in a very strong and emotional way.

The book tells some witness-stories from the Warsaw-ghetto, but also about after-war gangs in Eastern-Europe.

Not only Arno's artwork is fantastic, but also the graphic design of the book fits very well  to the war-period. The book was published first in 1988 by Alpen Publishers and reprinted in 1992 by La Sirene. I think you can only find it on Ebay nowadays.