ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701270005
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-16 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
The mythological Pandora is becoming a comic book superheroine seeking to recapture the evils let loose from her fabled box, and 23-year-old Kevin Sharpe of Blacksburg is one of three artists helping to create her.
In his one-room basement apartment where a bicycle is parked behind one chair and a guitar leans against another, Sharpe spends his days drawing larger-than-life cartoon characters.
His latest, Pandora, will hit the newsstands and comic book stores in June as a kind of Wonder Woman for the '90s.
On a wide desk set against a blank wall, he draws each comic-book frame in pencil on an 11-by-17-inch piece of paper, larger than it appears in the magazine.
His is the first step in an artistic assembly line that transforms pencil drawings into the bold comic book images. Someone else will go over his work with ink. A different person will then do the lettering, and yet another the coloring.
Sharpe has been in the business since he graduated from high school in Goochland County. That summer, he got hired by the Roanoke-based Mystery Graphics Press for his first comics drawing.
"I showed my artwork at a comic book convention one time and those guys happened to be there," he said.
It was more difficult than it sounds. Sharpe had been aiming for comic book publication for some time before that.
"I had to go around a lot, at least for a couple years, and show my stuff around and take critiques from other artists," he said. "A lot of people will give you helpful hints."
Two years after his work with Mystery Graphics, an art sample he had sent to DC Comics, one of the leading comic book publishers, netted him an assignment to draw a story in "Showcase" featuring a new character called Triumph.
"To be honest about it, I couldn't even remember what powers he had, it's been so long," Sharpe said with a grin.
Next he was hired by Harris Comics to draw a Vampirella story, because another artist was running late. His artwork was good enough for the publisher to ask him for a story in the following issue, and then in four subsequent issues.
"My speed at that time [meant] I was able to do a book in a month," he said.
Vampirella, who originated in 1969 with another comics publisher, is a shapely, scantily clad brunette sometimes described as an alien, sometimes as a vampire, and sometimes as both.
"They change the whole concept of her every now and then," Sharpe said. "The stuff I was drawing, I wasn't sure what it was."
DC and Harris are both based in New York, but their artists can be anywhere as long as FAX machines and Federal Express are available to deliver assignments and finished goods. "A lot of time, deadlines are tight," Sharpe said.
Since his work at Harris, Sharpe has been involved in a project with Ben Capozzi of Dreamsmith Studios in Christiansburg. "He's publishing a fantasy swords and sorcery which will be out in June of this year," Sharpe said.
That is the book featuring Pandora in three linked stories. The other two will be by artists Richard Pollard of Farmville and Jim Novak of Pittsburgh, Pa.
Sharpe is also doing some work for Avatar Press. Meanwhile, he is hoping for an assignment from Marvel or DC, the "big guns" of the comics industry, based on samples he has submitted to them.
But he has enjoyed drawing comic books ever since he has been reading them.
"Ever since I was a little kid, I used to sit around and draw," said Sharpe, who grew up in Louisa County before moving to Goochland while in high school.
"I couldn't even begin to tell you what my first comic book was, but I've been reading them for years," he said. It was probably either Marvel's "Fantastic Four" or "Incredible Hulk."
He still collects comics. He has boxes containing 1,000 or so in his apartment.
"Yeah, I still read 'em. I keep track of the artistic trends. I try not to be too influenced by artwork in the books, because you keep repeating other people's mistakes," he said.
His family was not terribly supportive when he decided what career he wanted. They knew he could draw, but they were skeptical of comic books as a career.
With pay between $100 and $200 a page, an artist can make a living in this field and many do. But it does depend on how fast the pages can be turned out and the number of assignments the artist gets. "You always have to keep your eye out for where your next job's coming from," he said.
Jobs have shrunk in recent years, and some artists have gotten out of the business. But pay rates are still good for those working, Sharpe said. Just as manufacturers have sent jobs out of the country, some comic book publishers are now having illustrations drawn overseas where the artists work more cheaply, he said.
"It happens everywhere," he said.
Some artists like flexibility in rendering the scripts they get, others prefer tight directions. "It all depends on how they feel comfortable translating and how much they want the artist to have their own interpretations," he said. "Right now, I'm generally geared toward writers who give me a lot of leeway."
He decided he liked the New River Valley after visiting a friend who lives in the region, and moved to Christiansburg. "I just noticed that people around this area were nice and friendly." He has lived in Blacksburg for about a year.
Sharpe is not one of those artists who wants to change a long-established character, or even originate his own. "I'm content with just leaving my mark on a character," he said.
In comics, superheroes predominate. Science fiction stories probably account for the second highest number of comics titles, he said, and an increasing number of comics are being inspired by Japanese animation.
"Finding your own voice and staying on your game is really tough," Sharpe said. "I generally try to take it one day at a time, but the end goal is to be able to work on the Hulk or Wolverine or a Marvel book that I enjoy.
"That's all I really want to do is leave my mark, say I was here and that I did a good job, hopefully." If the reader feels that way, he said, "That means more to me than anything else."
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gene Dalton. Kevin Sharpe works on his next creation inby CNBhis one-room basement apartment. color. Graphics. (cartoons) 1. (no
caption) ran on NRV-1. 2. A colored version of one of Sharpe's
Vampirella drawings. color. 3. This drawing of a character named
Lazarus is a part of the work Sharpe has done for Dreamsmith
Studios.