Tag: Terry Beatty

Local cartoonist to draw classic comic strip

Cartoonist Terry Beatty's sample of The Phantom.
Cartoonist Terry Beatty's sample art for The Phantom. " I'm drawing the strip a little 'grittier' than this," the artist says on his blog. (Click to enlarge)

In the jungles of Bengalla, criminals quake in fear of The Ghost Who Walks — the masked crime-fighter known as The Phantom, who has patrolled newspaper comics sections since 1936.

Terry Beatty, a Kansas City area cartoonist, will be the new artist of the Sunday editions of the The Phantom comic strip. Beatty’s first strip will appear January 29th in newspapers around the world.

Beatty’s previous work includes comic books featuring Batman, Ms. Tree, Wild Dog, and Mike Danger. Recently he illustrated the graphic novel Return to Perdition, a sequel to Road to Perdition, which inspired the hit 2002 movie starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman.

Beatty originally accepted the assignment on a temporary basis due to the ill health of artist Eduardo Barreto. Sadly, Barreto died in December at age 57, making it necessary for King Features Syndicate to find a replacement artist on a permanent basis.

“Eduardo was a terrific guy,” Beatty said. “I was shaken by his death at such an early age. Originally, I was hesitant to go after this assignment because it somehow seemed disrespectful to him. In the end, I decided that someone would need to take the job and that I could do it in a way that respects Eduardo and the other tremendous illustrators who’ve drawn the strip.”

The Phantom was created by writer Lee Falk, who continued to work on the strip until his death in 1999. Over the years it has been drawn by a cadre of respected illustrators including Ray Moore, Wilson McCoy, Sy Barry, Fred Fredericks, Graham Nolan, Paul Ryan, and Barreto, among others.

Terry Beatty
Terry Beatty

Beatty’s first strips were needed quickly, so he produced them entirely in digital form. “I can work quickly in an all-digital format,” Beatty said, “but I prefer a combination of digital and traditional techniques. Now that we’re in a better shape on deadlines, I’ve switched to the combination approach.”

Beatty begins the strip digitally, adding panel borders, lettering, and basic pre-drawing. He then prints the digital effort on illustration board and finishes the drawings using brushes and black India ink. The strip is then colored by artist Tom Smith.

Beatty, who moved to the Kansas City area in 2011, will be a guest at Planet Comicon on March 24th and 25th in Overland Park. You can learn more about Terry Beatty on his blog, terrybeatty.blogspot.com.

Terry Beatty: The Kansas City Comics Interview

Wild Dog meets Terry Beatty
Comics artist Terry Beatty (right) meets Wild Dog, one of the characters he co-created. (Click to enlarge.)

Terry Beatty is an accomplished comic book artist and illustrator whose career stretches back to the early 1980s. He’s the co-creator — with Max Allan Collins — of the long-running private eye comic book series, Ms. Tree. Collaborations with Collins also include Mike Mist, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Danger, Johnny Dynamite, and Wild Dog. Collins and Beatty’s latest work is Return to Perdition, a graphic novel sequel to Road to Perdition, that will be released November 15th.

Beatty will also be a featured guest at the KC Fan Con this Sunday, November 6th in Overland Park.

For over a decade, Beatty was the primary inker of DC Comics’ animated-style Batman comics, including a four-year stint inking Chris Jones’ pencils on The Batman Strikes. Beatty’s cover paintings appear regularly on Scary Monsters magazine.

Beatty moved to the Kansas City area in 2011. He is currently accepting art commissions. For more information, contact him by email at terrybeatty@mac.com.

Kansas City Comics: If I recall correctly, you started out in comics fandom. I remember your early work on the covers of zines like Comics Buyer’s Guide back when it still was The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom. How did you get involved with TBG and what led you into creating comics for a living?

Terry Beatty: Alan Light, publisher of TBG, lived about a half hour’s drive from me, and I’d been a subscriber to TBG since the mid 1970’s. I saw a lot of artists getting their work published on the TBG covers and thought it would be a good place to make a splash — seeing as how all the “serious” comics fans were subscribers as well. Continue reading “Terry Beatty: The Kansas City Comics Interview”

Free State Comicon: Behind the Table

Guest Column By CW Cooke

CW Cooke
Writer CW Cooke and his wife Katie enjoy talking to comics fans at the 2011 Free State Comicon.

Saturday, September 10, 2011 was a fantastically enjoyable day. A special thanks goes out to Craig Klotz first and foremost for allowing me to take part in the Free State Comicon show and have fun out in Lawrence on that lovely day. Seriously, the only way it could have gone better is if I had a big announcement following the con.

I spent the entire day behind my table, watching people pass by, meeting fans, shaking hands, talking with other creators, meeting creators, signing autographs, selling books, and laughing. There was a lot of laughing. A lot of mischief was had on my side of the room, which we’ll discuss briefly in just a moment. Continue reading “Free State Comicon: Behind the Table”