Darrow, Geof - Hard Boiled, issue 1, pages 10-11 (Sept 1990)
Artist: Geof Darrow (Penciller)
21 Comments - 866 Views - 9 Likes
Artwork Details
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Description‘Nobody move. My name’s Nixon. I’m a tax collector.’It’s not hard to remember how striking Geof Darrow’s art on Hard Boiled was when it was first released. The detail, and the random and almost bizarre imagery that he would include in his finished pieces, was almost incomprehensible – it certainly violated any assumptions about a comic artist using the least amount of imagery to communicate the story. Comics are about reading anyway, right? Maybe not so much with Hard Boiled, Frank Miller & Geof Darrow’s three issue mini-series published by Dark Horse from 1990-1992. The collaboration was an interesting one all the way around, but powerful enough that Miller and Darrow won the 1991 Eisner award for Best Writer/Artist for the series. The story features Carl Seltz, an insurance investigator who discovers he is also a homicidal cyborg tax collector who happens to be the last hope of an enslaved robot race. Let’s start with the collaboration. As many know, Darrow has a heck of a cast of characters when it comes to influences – among them such greats as Jack Kirby (who he met early in his career while working at Hanna-Barbara) and Jean Giraud (a.k.a., Moebius, who he met while Giraud was at Disney working on the movie, Tron). It was Moebius who introduced Darrow to Frank Miller, although in their first meeting a sheepish Darrow never even let it be known he was an artist! As to their working relationship, it was not the cleanest one – Miller was more of a collaborator with artists while Darrow did not want to share until the work was finished. With a story that was not overly heavy in dialogue and where imagery would therefore play a central role in advancing the narrative, that would prove to be a tough match – and a likely contributor to a three-issue series taking almost two years to complete. Their working process impacted not just story delivery, but the story itself. Darrow has said Nixon was never meant to be a robot, but as he provided finished art, Miller could not conceive of a human being taking the beating and damage Darrow was visually representing. So, they first took a stab at him being a cyborg…but then settled on him being a robot because there was still no way something even remotely human could take that kind of punishment. As to Darrow’s creative process generally, in response to a question in a February 2011 interview about his work being super-detailed, he responded - ‘I never thought of it that way. I never thought of it being that detailed. It was what I thought it was supposed to be.’ Now, to this piece and his creative process on Hard Boiled, Darrow has stated that the character was always done first and then the backgrounds were put in. How that was done is the interesting part. In similar fashion to ‘not planning out’ a complex finished page, Darrow first created original pencil drawings onto Strathmore board – these could be in all sorts of different sizes and shapes as he captured certain characters, background imagery, etc. From there, he created finished, self-inked pieces on vellum over his own pencils, typically patchwork-quilting multiple Strathmore board imagery onto the final vellum piece. As he did so, he might add additional flourishes, details or just finish off an edge to a piece of vellum not exactly calibrated to the boards below it, which is why it is typical the final inked vellum piece for publication may evidence subtle differences from what he has originally penciled (as is the case with this piece). So, why didn’t Darrow just ink the penciled art directly? Well, he bears down so hard sometimes on the art board that the pencil leaves indents and the texturing can make it very difficult to cleanly ink the pencils. You can see that in this piece - his penciling is bold, dark and very much finished; it’s certainly not sketched work. And, as he pulled the pencil piece into the larger tapestry of the book, he clearly decided it needed some additional barbed wire! All of which is to say this is one of the Strathmore board original pencil pieces that was inked over onto vellum (with some additional flourishes) for final publication. And, as opposed to being a contributing panel or other component on the bigger finished vellum piece, this is the large pencil original (the board is ~ 12 inches x 20 inches) used for the double page vellum splash that would be pages 10-11 of the first issue (with some additional flourishes and finishing work) – the only DPS of the main character in the series. IMHO, a signature image capturing the very unique creative process behind an important comic book from the early 90’s…a period of deep nostalgia for me. Big thanks to Tom! Social/Sharing |
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Comments on this Artwork
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Ruben DaCollector 
Member Since 2008
1 - Posted on 5/1/2021
Excellent write up, Chris! Very informative way to teach fans what Darrow's working process was like. Memorable scene, indeed. I find it very difficult to stomach badly broken fingers going in the wrong direction!
Chris K.
Member Since 2008
1 - Posted on 5/1/2021
Ruben DaCollector wrote:
Excellent write up, Chris! Very informative way to teach fans what Darrow's working process was like. Memorable scene, indeed. I find it very difficult to stomach badly broken fingers going in the wrong direction!
Always appreciate your comments, Ruben! I can't say those nasty looking fingers sit well with me, either...
E DLS
Member Since 2005
1 - Posted on 5/1/2021
Absolutely incredible write up for a ridiculously fascinating piece. Kudos to you on both.
Amir E
Member Since 2020
1 - Posted on 5/1/2021
This piece is phenomenal. Furthermore, such detailed art deserved an amazing write up and you outdid yourself this time! I learned something new reading what you wrote Chris and it really enhanced the experience for me. Thank you for sharing and taking the time!
artless artmore
Member Since 2013
1 - Posted on 5/2/2021
Terrific piece and thanks for all the info! Interesting to read that Seltz went from human to robot-who-thinks-it's-human-and-fights-other-robots during the creation of Hard Boiled, similer to what happened to Deckard in Blade Runner from Dick's novel to the film. I always enjoyed seeing Darrow at the SD Comicon every year back in the 90s, but I passed on so many great pieces from Hard Boiled and regret it now...
Timothy Finney
Member Since 2006
1 - Posted on 5/2/2021
Artistically, Hard Boiled was a revelation. Also, yes, yours was a terrific description. Congratulations!
J. Sid
Member Since 2004
1 - Posted on 5/2/2021
I never thought the stuff was that detailed either. :)
Jeff Singh
Member Since 2004
1 - Posted on 5/2/2021
Fantastic and memorable art! That fantastic write up was only about 200 words short of an APA submission...your subconscious is telling you how much you miss contributing.
Chris K.
Member Since 2008
Posted on 5/2/2021
Jeff Singh wrote:
Fantastic and memorable art! That fantastic write up was only about 200 words short of an APA submission...your subconscious is telling you how much you miss contributing.
One of these days, Mr. Singh...one of these days...
Bill J
Member Since 2009
1 - Posted on 5/10/2021
Unbelievably cool! Love Geof's pencils here! The amount of detail he puts into every drawing is amazing! Congrats on the great pick-up!
Chris C
Member Since 2004
1 - Posted on 7/2/2021
...and I have to add, one of the most informative writeups I've seen. Darrow's whole process has interested me from the beginning and this is as good a breakdown as I've seen.
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