DEATHLOK: case study
Assignment: Inking a 20-25 year old drawing by Charles Costas, tightened up by Rich Buckler.
Details behind the pencils: I asked Charles for some background to this drawing and received the following brief on how it was imagined:
Charles:
“It was a piece I drew in the late 80′s when I was still in high school. I was 16-17 with hopes of becoming a comic artist. I loved the Deathlok that you and Mike had drawn in the Cap #286-288 and designed this piece as an homage. I doodled out a rough prelim of of the image and then started on a larger, more finished version. Unfortunately, when I started working on the more finished piece, I found that I had lost a lot of the life that was in the prelim and I had begun to over-render it. So, I filed the two versions away.
A couple years ago, I cleaned out the attic and came across the prelim and the half-finished pencils. When I looked at the piece, I remembered how proud I was of the layout and felt that it needed to be finished. So, I dug out an unused sheet of 20+ year old bristol board and started penciling a new version of the image based on the original prelim. It had been a number of years since I had drawn something so I was a little rusty. Anyway, the second attempt was more in line with what I wanted to do with the original prelim, but still didn’t look right. The anatomy was way out of whack and it needed some help.
I originally turned to Mike (Zeck) to get some help, but given his schedule (and probably how much work it was going to take to get it into shape), he passed on the opportunity. The New York Comic-Con was coming up, so I decided to take the piece there to see if I might enlist some additional professional help. I talked with a few people (I won’t name names) who also politely declined to work on the piece. But then, it occurred to me who I should ask – none other than Rich Buckler, the guy who created Deathlok! I took it to Rich and the room seemed to slow down as a I waited for his response on whether he would take on the challenge. He looked at me, with the piece in his hands, and said “sure, just come back in an hour.” Well, it took more than an hour, but I was thrilled with the work Rich had done to breath new life into the piece. But, it still wasn’t finished… that’s when I thought of you. Since this started as an homage to Zeck/Beatty, it would be fitting that it was finished by you.
So, there’s the story… about 21+ years after I had originally come up with the concept to that piece, it’s finally finished. Ironically, there was an unpublished Punisher portfolio plate which Mike published in his sketchbook a few years back which has a very similar layout to this piece. What’s funny is that my piece pre-dated Mike’s by a few years! If I remember correctly, I think I showed Mike the Deathlok layout when he visited my house back in the late 80′s. Maybe this drawing made a lasting impression on Mike as well! Maybe…”
Below are some photos of the work in process with short descriptions of what I did to full-fill the dream of Charles’ “Deathlok” artwork!
On our left is a photocopy of the original pencils done by Charles, at around age 16-17.
Our right shows the original art that was re-drawn, as described above by artist, Rich Buckler.
Charles had use a bigger piece of bristol board, so I asked if I could cut it down to the standard 11×17″ comic art size.
He agreed, and I trimmed the piece to that size and added a half-inch border on the inside of the art.
Having cropped the piece, I also lost a bit of the gun. I redrew it and corrected it some more to fit the image area.
I started inking the more “technical” things on the piece, using various tools of the trade!
Close up!
Decided to finish the wall with bricks. Charles had them indicated lightly but seemed like he wasn’t sure.
I felt the wall needed the perspective to draw the eye into the figure.
Showing I can still do some tight feathering with the best of them! 
Details of the brick wall and more brush work!
More brush work, dry-brush on the chrome skull cap, nib inking on the face at this point.
Also note: I tried to add some-sort of curved roof top, since Deathlok is in an alley way, but it wasn’t working to my liking. I felt the piece needed some more black to balance it out. See completed art below.
Touch up and some other use of acrylic white paint to complete the piece.
Comparing side by side, after and before! I hope you all enjoyed this photo essay of the process?
Comments are more than welcome below!
Job completed! 
Thx-
- John
