| REVIEWS: MOVIES & DVDs | COMIC BOOKS | VIDEOGAMES | WEB SITES & MORE Bradstreet and Gandolfini: Separated at Birth by Mike-oh
The resemblance is uncanny. I'm certain Tim Bradstreet has had this suggested to him before. Although, I'm not so sure Gandolfini has anyone going up to him and telling him how much he looks like Tim Bradstreet. "You know, the guy that draws those Punisher comic covers." "Get the f**k outta here!" But when I first saw Bradstreet, that's all I could think about. He was sitting on a panel with two other comic book cover artists, Dave Dorman and Tony Harris. These guys were sharing their secrets and answering our questions at the Dallas Comic Con held in Plano, Texas last April, 2006. The panel discussed illustration techniques, the benefits of digitizing their art, the use of photography as reference as well as varying degrees of inclusion in the final product, some of their different assignments like ExMachina, the Punisher, and Star Wars. Dave Dorman mentioned more than once that he has more experience than the other two panelists and that he attended the Kubert School in ’79. Despite this amazing display of unearned conceit, I couldn't stop thinking about the connection between Bradstreet and Gandolfini. Bradstreet does an awesome job of portraying mobsters on the covers comic books like the Punisher, Hellblazer, and the Human Target. Gandolfini does a masterful job of portraying a mobster on the hit cable television show The Sopranos and thugs in films like Get Shorty. Dorman also talked about not using computers for anything, sticking strictly to hand painted art. He mentioned that since the beginning of his career, he had been interested in sequential art but fell into a career of exclusively producing covers. I wanted to ask Tim Bradstreet if he had any brothers in television or in the mob. Instead, I asked Dorman what he thought about Marvel's Secret War and DC's Justice, examples of complete series that were painted by the artist. Dave’s response was simple and honest – that he can’t concentrate long enough to maintain that level of work. And that it was too daunting. Dorman also said that he had lost some business from art director’s that passed on him when learning that he doesn’t do digital art. Tony Harris was a funny guy. Good sense of humor. He has been working on ExMachina on covers and inside art. Like Tim Bradstreet, Tony uses photography that he shoots himself as his source material for his art. Like Bradstreet, his art has a terrific sense of realism. But unlike Tim Bradstreet, Tony Harris looks nothing like Tony Soprano. And unlike Bradstreet, Harris does more than jsut covers. He uses his technique to produce the sequential art for every panel of each issue of ExMachina. Harris takes extensive photos of his subjects and stages the entire story like a theatrical event. He doesn’t bother with costumes or wardrobe. He uses the camera to discover the most interesting angles and compositions. Tim Bradstreet talked quite a bit about his start as an illustrator for games and how he moved into comic book art. Tim said that he had seen some early art from Alex Ross that used movie stills as the source material so that it looked exactly like the scene from Indiana Jones where he’s climbing the steps of the capital, except now the character has elf ears or whatever. Inspired by this, Tim began working with photo references that he would trace and then ink. This eventually led to complete photo shoots where he composes most or all of the pictures elements in front of the camera before shooting, tracing and inking. Although he doesn’t bother to shoot everything himself. He will combine his own photography with found images where it saves time and effort. I'm sure that James Gandolfini works equally hard to bring his portraits of criminals, thugs, and goons to life. All of this made me wonder what the connection was with Bradstreet and Gandolfini and the criminal element. Someone once told me that if you are Italian, you are either in the mob or working for the mob. I'm not even sure that Bradstreet is Italian. But something is very fishy here. I figured I should learn more.
Tim
told us that he's not very good at taking fan criticism. I wondered
if he takes critics out back and breaks their legs, or at least
their fingers. I wondered how many of his critics are now wearing
cement shoes at the bottom of the Jersey River. Someone suggests
to Tim that what he should do in the case of someone criticizing
his art is to whip back at them with “Why don’t you
try to do better?” According to this guy, that should shut
up those naysayers every time. Tim was gracious and didn’t
goof on the guy or anything. I was surprised. Not because I think
that Tim’s a jerk but it must take a lot of self control not
to rib a guy who offers such juvenile advice. Or better still, have
a couple of your goons take the guy for a ride that he'll never
come back from. I spent at least an hour and a half with Tim Bradstreet that day. And except for a countless number of pictures and photos of criminals with guns and knives, convicts in prison, mobsters and their victims, and so on, I could find no other evidence that linked Tim Bradstreet to James Gandolfini. Admittedly, I never asked him straight out. But I figured, just in case Bradstreet isn't in fact a member of the Sopranos crime family, there's no sense in taking chances with my own life. I have stood in the presence of Tim Bradstreet and have lived to tell the tale.
So,
what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Let us know. All comments welcome. |
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Thunder Mike-oh |
