ART! History Lesson #2: GLOBAL FREQUENCY #12

GLOBAL FREQUENCY #12, by Warren Ellis, Gene Ha, Art Lyon, and Michael Heisler, published in August, 2004 by Wildstorm Publications.

Gene Ha and I started on this final issue of Warren Ellis‘ techno-thriller  when we were about half way through our work on Top Ten: The Forty-Niners. It was a great change of pace, and I learned a lot that I then carried over to my work on The 49ers. The 49ers had a generally muted, realistic, subdued, post-WWII look, and on GF I got to cut loose and do all kinds of crazy digital stuff and (relatively speaking) cranked up the colors. I actually put about a jillion times more effort into the computer imagery than I did into actually coloring Gene’s art.

Global Frequency #12 was nominated for that year’s Best Single Issue Eisner award.

GLOBAL FREQUENCY volume 2, “DETONATION RADIO”, reprints Global Frequency #7-12. Well worth the money. Pick up volume 1 while you’re at it.

For a long time, this was my favorite coloring job I had ever done. I found all the work I put into the “gutters” (the spaces between panels) and backgrounds very satisfying. I’m noodly that way.

Here’s page 2, uncropped and without text or word ballons – essentially the final file I turned in.

For the collected edition, Gene did a portrait of me as a rough-and-ready member of the Global Frequency. I added the computer read-out stuff  and the background. Hopefully I’m doing good in some war-torn Middle-Eastern country.