Wikky Comic (#4 April 1971)

When I was a kid I really loved Harvey Comics (Casper, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, etc), so this is my homage to them.

The figures were drawn in pencil, inked with a pen and then scanned and colored in Photoshop. The text and various graphic elements were created in my ancient copy of Freehand (which I have since put out to pasture and replaced with Illustrator) and imported into Photoshop where everything was assembled.

Then after I got everything looking just so, I had fun messing it all up by adding dirt, tears and aging effects to make it look like a 30 year old comic that someone found in their attic.

I loved the way old comic covers told a little story of their own. That seems to be a lost art these days.

Here's the original penciled and inked drawing for the cover. Once I scanned this drawing into Photoshop, I decided I didn't like the boy's right hand, and redrew it onscreen.


Here's a color test I did for Wikky, to try and figure out the best color scheme. I ended up picking the one in the upper right.

According to comic book theory, green and purple signify evil. Check out any comic from the 60s and 70s and you'll see that good guys always wear primary colors (think Superman and his red, yellow and blue) while bad guys always wear secondary colors (orange, purple and green, as in the Hulk or Green Goblin).