Atomic Robo & Stuff

Scott Wegener

Hello. I'm a HUGE Penny Arcade fan and recently I've been getting these little urges to do more than read the comic and lurk on the forums. So I figured I would get a little involved in the digital community side of things.

These are recent and random sketches -some for work, some for fun.


Some costume work for ROBO Vol.3


My secret superhero crush.


Lucy Nocturne from POPGUN Vol.2


My studio mascot CRANKSHAFT and ROBO in his experimental ROCK'EM, SOCK'EM BATTLE SUIT.


Mr. GRIMSPLEEN. I've been listening to the old and new PA D&D podcasts while I work and my lack of a gaming group is driving me nuts. So instead I sketched up this guy.

NibCrom

Well, I don't have any critics for Atomic Robo's artist, but welcome to the AC!

Forbe!

Scott Wegener wrote: »

Lucy Nocturne from POPGUN Vol.2

Really cool work all together.

Just looking really quickly, the only thing I would nitpick is that the logo on her shirt is simply flat. It looks like you just drew it on there without any regards to her breasts and the way the cloth would behave. She doesn't appear to be flat chested, and even if she were, the pill logo would probably conform to her body a little better.

Do you have any other examples of you work? You seem to draw a lot of front/ 3/4ths views. Some of these would look really cool if they were more dynamic.

Iruka

Damn, nice bunch of sketches. I enjoy your line quality and weight. I'm glad you came outta lurking, you should post more.

I will say, that on some of your sketches the feet dont seem to be planted firmly, bat girl is doing alight, but your tam wearing robot and grimspleen look like they both have a foot pointing too far down. That's the only crit i got though

Loomdun

are you the comic artist for Nuklearpower? ;p

Munch

Just wanted to drop in and say I love your work. I picked up Killer of Demons this week and really dug it, in large part due to your art.

Tam

Love the style, Atomic.

The one crit I do have is that the shoulders aren't working in places- "pill" girl and the golf robot especially.

earthwormadam

I dig the chunkiness of these.

beavotron

great style man.

Scott Wegener

All valid crits, thanks guys. It's good to be kept on my toes. Even if they are just a bunch of quick sketches

FORBE -the PILL drives me nuts. I suppose I could fix it . . if I can find it. What really bugs me on that one is how the arm supporting her weight is to far to the right (from our perspective). So she should roll over backwards.

FORBE (again)-yeah, I tend to do most sketches as if I'm going to use them as character reference sheets for work. So I tend to stick with less dynamic poses so I can see everything clearly. But I've got some less boring stuff on my website. And I'll post some more stuff too.

TAM -yeah her right shoulder should be higher than her left. Robo's should is correct, even though it looks fucking broken, haha. He had huge shoulder plates. It's his left shoulder that is actually too small.

NIBCROM and MUNCH -Hey look, comic book readers! Awesome! LOL

LOOMDUN -There is no artist on Nuklearpower. that's what makes it a sprite comic. At least you didn't ask me how I "Like working for Mr. Clevinger." I swear to Christ I am going to throat-punch the next 8-Bit fan who asks me that at a show. Seriously though, working with Brian is a lot of fun. He's a great guy.

spellchrome

The thick lines in your work give it a definite feeling, like "Yes, this is the way I want it to look." I like it, even your sketches come out clear.
I'd like to see you draw a male figure who isn't a warrior, a robot or an old dude.

Cool drawings.

Scott Wegener

SPELLCHROME- . . .like a dude wearing nothing but socks, doing the dishes? Or something less risque, like a dude who's just a librarian or an auto mechanic?

FORBE -as requested. Someone doing something more dynamic.

Loomdun

Scott Wegener wrote: »

LOOMDUN -There is no artist on Nuklearpower. that's what makes it a sprite comic. At least you didn't ask me how I "Like working for Mr. Clevinger." I swear to Christ I am going to throat-punch the next 8-Bit fan who asks me that at a show. Seriously though, working with Brian is a lot of fun. He's a great guy.

Oh, I hardly pay attention to the things he sais I just remember seeing atomic robo and I was like "heyyyy youuuuzzzz are related to a web comicz" to many wordsss to many

ManonvonSuperock

I dig your sfx lettering

Leggraphics

definitely the big english driving cap not the little

Fugitive

Very cool stuff. A friend of mine actually just bought Atomic Robo for his iPhone recently and I've been meaning to check it out since I'm a fan of the style.

I guess my only issue overall is the way your inked pages lose a lot of the fluidity and energy of the sketches. It comes down to personal taste but I really enjoy the quick and dirty of the Grimspleen and Crankshaft inks to the comic page, although the page might come together better in color than it does in black and white.

Only other nitpick I have is a little bit of confusion over panel 2 and panel 3 from the mecha crossing the center line between frames.

Otherwise it's all very very cool.

PROX

I think you could stand to lose a few dimpley scratchiness, but overall you've got the chops. The texturing you are using generates a lot of noise and I lose the ideas of the big shapes. This hurts most when you are trying to forshorten things. I like your design sense though. Great shapes, very mignola.

brokecracker

Hey Robo, Cool to see you on the forum. Love the style, like a steampunk Jim Mahfood. Big fan of AR. yada yada yada I'm gonna stalk you yada yada yada.

The only real problem I have is with the depth in the Black and White composition. There is some line variance but it seems a little static, like the things that are closer DO have thicker lines, but they don't break the figures out to me. I like to see silhouettes of the characters in the panels if it is black & white, but that may just be me. Maybe an all over pattern would grey them out a bit, or a b&w half tone. I don't know, am I making sense?

Of course all this is bullocks if it is getting colored...

I...I love you.

Scott Wegener

LOOMDUM - Oh yeah I know, I was just kidding. Yes, to be more specific, I'm the artist working with the guy at 8 BIT. It's been really cool since I was totally ignorant of webcomics before I met Brian. We've been working to apply a lot of the techniques you see in webcomics (as far as marketing, distribution, free stuff, etc.) to Atomic Robo. It's a slow process because we have to deal with our more traditional publisher, but it is moving forward. Eventually we want to start offering web-exclusive content and turn www.atomic-robo into an online supplement (like an RPG source book) for Robo.

FUGITIVE -I have that same gripe about the transition from pencils to inks. It drives me nuts. The only artists I know who can keep that same feeling of "quick and dirty" when they ink are the guys who work with a brush, rather than pen. Sadly, I suck ass with a brush. For Vol.4 of Atomic Robo I'm experimenting with just pencils, cleaned up a little in PS and then coloring directly over those.

Good eye on that last panel. Totally correct. It happened like that as a result of design. this page is a left-hand page (like if you were reading the comic) and the missiles drew your eye right off the book when it was reversed. So I broke the 180 degree rule of Camera Work 101. There was probably another solution, but deadlines often force you say, "Well, this will have to do. How can I avoid that in the future."

PROX -Mignola is the balls.

BONECRACKER -Strangely enough I feel the same way. I love a lot of heavy blacks -they're nice and noir. But the pallet I worked out with the colorist makes they almost impossible to use correctly. For some reason we get the reveres affect, and the blacks pop off the page (like a photo negative) and screw everything up. So instead I provide her with a rough thumbnail with the areas i think should be dark shaded in and she does it with her colors.

LEGGRAPHICS -we went with the big hat.

MANONVON -Haha thanks. My letterer laughs at my sfx. but when I have an idea for a sfx or I want them placed in a certain place I do that and he replaces them with very nice looking words/sfx.

This is kind of oldish (FOR GOD SAKE DON"T CRITIQUE IT!! It already went to print and I don't need to find anything else wrong with it!! LOL). Kinda gives a feel for how the colors interact with the linework.

Fugitive

I like the coloring on the cloth.

I don't know how I feel about the coloring on the metal. This is more of a style critique. On Robo I kind of feel like you could be pushing the contrasts a bit more with some darker grays where it butts up against the highlights. You might even try putting in some black lines to push it ever further, just to see how it goes. The linework seems like it would work well with a slightly more stylized treatment of the kind of "generic" reflections you've got going on.

I feel like the linework goes well with the stark, rigid shadows you use on the cloth. I'm wondering how the metal would look if you used more of that kind of blocky style of applying highlights and shadows. I guess I'm just not too hot on the gradients you're using for the metals, particularly on the robots to either side. Personally I don't think the gradients work quite as well with the very loose, gestural style you use for your lines.

Keep it up!

Forbe!

Your communist robots reminds me of Rifts.

desperaterobots

I'm totally reminded of Joe Madureira who was my all-time favourite x-men artist. His stuff was simple and chunky and full of energy.

Therefore, your stuff is awesome.

earthwormadam

Gonna hafta look into buying some of these, fuck groceries.

Muggins

Scott tell me: If Tesla were still alive (And he is) what do you think he would say to you about that robot? Personally I think he would be too busy being chased by all the women and whatnot.

Munch

Hey Scott, just saw it was announced that you'll be the interior artist on an upcoming Human Torch one-shot. How's it feel to become the go-to artist for robots punching Nazis?

Scott Wegener

Why am I not getting the "Daily Notifications" on this thread? Irritating.

MUNCH- Yeah I'm about halfway done with that TORCH book now. It's been fun, but I can't wait to get back to ATOMIC ROBO. We're bringing Carl Sagan back in Vol.3 #4 and I can't wait to draw that. (Carl was in Vol.1 #4 which was by far out most popular issue of the first mini-series.)

It's awesome to be the go-to guy for robot-on-nazi action. At first I was like "Pfft, TORCH? Seriously?" But then they told me it was a story set in 1939 with the original TORCH who is a robot -and he won't have any skin for most of the book. So he's either a robot or a robot on fire. That says "WIN" to me. Working on PUNISHER was a lot of fun, but this is more fun.

VERETAS - I think at 153yrs old he might not even remember building ROBO.

EARTHWORMADAM -I think you can get ROBO Vol.1 and Vol.2 for a deal on Amazon. Also check out www.heavyink.com -they have great discounts and VERY cheap shipping.

DESPERATEROBOTS -When I was younger I loved Joe Mad's work. It was like gritty Disney. His recent work on ULTIMATES3 made me weep with dispair though.

FORBE! - more specifically Ramon Perez's RIFTS work. I love Perez, so when we decided to do ComBots I totally wanted them to be a homage to his work. His webcomic (ButternutSquash) is fucking hysterical.

FUGITIVE - The metal on Robo or the metal on the ComBots? Or both? The coloring style is going to change once ROBO Vol.4 gets rolling since it will be going over pencils instead of inks. But Ronda Pattison (who colors my stuff) was nominated for an Eisner Award last year for her coloring on ATOMIC ROBO. So I just let her do her thing.