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Interview:
Bob Almond
Interview with Bob Almond
By John L. Daniels, Jr.
Published: 2007-02-27
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An interview with Bob Almond, artist and inker, and member of the lauded
Captain Gravity creative team. You'll also want to read
the companion interviews with team members
Joshua Dysart
and
Sal Velluto!
John Daniels: How did you get involved in inking Captain
Gravity?
Bob Almond: In my third year of Black Panther for
Marvel I was contacted by former employers Penny-Farthing Press to
work on (unbeknownst to me at the time) this series inking over an
artist but I had to decline. Time passed, the BP run came to
an end, and the inker that PFP had subsequently hired for Captain
Gravity went his own way and left them inkless so I was contacted
again and I jumped on. But soon thereafter PFP removed the original
pencil artist from the series and sought out a new pencil artist. I
highly suggested my pal Sal to fill the spot and thus we were reunited
again.
“Inking is all about editing and
elaborating in order to play up or enhance aspects of space, weights,
textures…” — Bob Almond
JD: The process of inking comics is fascinating to some
readers and some do not realize what an intricate process it is.
Could you explain the procedures of inking and the techniques
involved?
BA: It’s all about editing and elaborating in order to play
up or enhance the aspects of space, weights, textures, contrast,
definition, and composition and design. My job is to capture and enhance
the intentions of the pencil artist by what’s laid out in the pencil
art. This is done by redrawing the art in ink by clarifying shapes
and using line weights, often with the use of light sources. I try
to be somewhat faithful but I also try to bring something to the
table. Besides the tools I use to do this (see below) some techniques
applied to the inking may include dry brush, ruling lines with a quill
and with curves or a straight-edge, and textural things like smudging
and spattering with ink, using found objects, scraping razor blades
through inked areas, etc.
JD: What type of instruments do you use to ink boards?
BA: I presently use a Windsor-Newton series 7 size 1 brush
(although I used a Raphael Kolinsky 8408 before that), a Hunt 102 nib
for ruling lines, Sakura micron markers, Faber-Castell Pitt markers,
straight-edges, french and flexi curves, templates for circles and
ellipses, Pro White correction fluid, zip-a-tone, tooth brushes,
erasers and much more… a literal bag of inking tricks.
JD: Readers recognize your run on Black Panther
(which you and Sal Velluto worked on) as the premiere run of this
title. How special is it to work with Sal on the Captain
Gravity title?
BA: Well, some of my most memorable projects have been those
where I was teamed up with Sal and after almost ten years many fans look
forward to more Sal and Bob gigs. Like a successful marriage we
communicate a lot and we know what’s in the other’s head
and what we’ll each bring to the project and this kind of
synergy often develops into some cool, magical stuff.
JD: Do you think the Captain Gravity series surprised
and received the acclaim it has from readers and fans who knew about
the series or new readers?
BA: Probably both. There was another CG series
before ours, plus a one-shot, so some readers had followed the
character to each project. But at the same time, some of those Sal
and Bob fans who enjoyed us on Bloodshot, or Black
Panther, or JSA followed us to PFP to this character that
they knew nothing about. And then there’s always the indie
readers who simply like period or genre sagas who probably tried it
out.
JD: Who were some of the inkers that influenced you to start
inking comics?
BA: My original intent had been to be a penciller. Until
the last few years very few artists entered the biz coveting to be an
inker/embellisher. But my pencil samples didn’t get me in the
door of any publishers so I tried inking samples and that did the
trick but it was a lot of the “right place, right time”
stuff. As a childhood reader and fan, I had always appreciated the
work of many Marvel inkers from the bronze to modern-ages like Joe
Rubenstein, Terry Austin, Klaus Janson, Mark Farmer, Tom Palmer, and
Bob Layton among others so I knew who’s work to reference when I
hesitantly got started and needed some ideas and help.
JD: While inking Captain Gravity what were some of
the most memorable panels for you?
BA: I enjoyed handling the historical figures like Adolf
Hitler, Ian Fleming, JFK, etc. because I have rarely had an
opportunity to do that before and I enjoy well-done period stories
like that as much as the next guy. That and handling anything with
Nazis, skull-headed villains, ancient relics, exotic locales and
beautiful women.
JD: Would you like to work on Captain Gravity series
for the fans?
BA: Yes. Especially with Joshua and Sal.
JD: The release of this trade paperback containing new
material is exciting. What would like fans to come away with after
reading Captain Gravity, and what are your feelings towards
this amazing accomplishment (for what I feel is the greatest comic
book novel series I have ever read)?
BA: It’s a fun quasi-historic jaunt that, as many have
said, plays out like Indiana Jones meets the Rocketeer
so it’s filled with action, mystery, intrigue, and a whole lot
of fun. But at the same time one experiences the racism and hateful
backdrop of the war-fraught era in contrast to the themes of love,
faith, sacrifice, hope, and the human condition. So in many ways
it’s an epic period piece with a timeless aura to it when one
looks at where the world is today.
—CCdC— Images are often used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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