The Creation Of DR. WERTHAM P. FREDRICS

For the faithful few who frequent my humble little arty blog here,

most of you have likely seen my twisted take on the infamous Dr. Fredric Wertham, the psychologist who helped to nearly destroy the comic book industry in the 1950's.

My humorous take on him, Dr. Wertham P. Fredrics, is a much more (hopefully) loveable character than the real Wertham could ever hope to be. More of a cross between your Grandpa and Ludwig Von Drake, Dr. Wetham P. Fredrics has only one on-going theme, one solitary purpose for existing, and that is to convey the 'facts' as he has irrevocably concluded long ago,
that "Comics are SCHMUT!"

I thought it might be interesting to you to see my creative process.

Every comic story, image, or illustration has to start somewhere. Some artists are quite skilled at transferring their creative ideas from their 'noodle', or brain, to the sheet of paper in front of them. In my younger days I took great care in making my layouts very detailed, indeed some talented souls are quite adept at creating rough drafts that are practically finished works in themselves.

I lean very far the other way at this point in my life. My rough sketches are without a doubt some of the roughest you may ever chance to glance upon. Someone with no idea of my thought /work process may look at my rough sketches and have no idea what is in my mind. Only I can decipher these terrible scribbles I call my rough drafts, and I alone can bring forth the image that existed in my head by using these 'roughs' as a reference.

This sketch in fact may be less rough than my usual, but it is still 'purty durn' rough! Below is my original rough idea for Dr. Wertham Fredrics, and the finished line art that emerged bears but little resemblance to the seed that I originally planted with a few scratchy pen lines.

(I must also point out that if my doctor bears any physical resemblance to the actual Wertham, that is merely a happy coincidence, as I did not base my drawing on his true likeness, but rather on the image in my head)

I am currently working on a humorous comic book featuring Dr. Wertham P. Fredrics as the main character, in which the good doctor, whenever he exposes himself to the 'schmut' of any comic book (by merely looking at it's contents), transforms into the hulking brute known as Captain Culture, who promptly goes about smashing in the faces of anyone who enjoys reading comic books.

Brute force and ignorance, indeed.

First, here is my original rough sketch of my idea...

The next step was drawing the final line art...

...and finally, here is the colored version.