I was wondering if you wouldn't mind giving your take on approaching drawing human anatomy in comics. One of the major hurdles I faced in my years of art school and my journey to become a professional was the level at which I drew human anatomy. At the Kubert school I made this my primary focus but found that my quest to draw accurately ever single muscle and sinew on the human body led me to being way too slow in being able to have a decent page rate to survive drawing comics. I eventually got into 3-D animation and video games but still love comics and that medium.

I remember you commenting that you knew trying to match yourself against Gil Kane or Neal Adams in the anatomy and realism department was not worth the effort but what is your philosophy on this? I can see in your work stylized figures and anatomy. Is the pursuit of perfectly anatomically, musculature a wasted venture for comic art? Jack Kirby knew his shit but was very stylized and he became THE COMICBOOK ARTIST. Other guys like say Garcia Lopez who draws a beautifully realistic human figure never really gained any level of fanfare as say Jim Lee or You for instance....

Just wondering what your thoughts were on drawing the human form and representing that form in comics?

Often, drawing things realistically (be they human figures or background elements) plays very much against the kinds of dynamics we need in these books. Every once in a while a Neal Adams will come along, who seems to be able to draw supremely realistic images while maintaining the "comic booky" dynamism -- but the truth is Neal cheats like crazy, and often his figures (even in civilian clothes) are very distorted. The fact that he is a superb anatomist is what makes this work, of course. When someone without a clue draws distorted figures, you end up with most of the stuff pumped out of M***** in the last decade.

The key is to find just the right degree of stylization. Don't worry about drawing exactly the right muscle doing exactly the right thing in exactly the right place -- BUT be sure you know all these things, and build your stylization upon that foundation.

As one of my Art College instructors said so wisely, so long ago, "In order to paint an abstract you have to know what it is you're leaving out."

I drove myself nutz trying to get everything accurate and it took me forever to finish things. It lead to my backgrounds being poor because too much effort was wasted in getting anatomy perfect.

I've found a happy medium now and owe alot to your style and dynamism which I try to put into my drawings.

Thanks for the reply.