Norm Breyfogle (Auto)Biography: New Light Through Old Windows: 2008 - 2010

"The art speaks for itself."

New Light Through Old Windows: 2008 - 2010

Eventually Speakeasy was merged into another company, Markosa, and Of Bitter Souls was cancelled, but not before Norm had drawn further issues, including the last issue for no cost. However the end of First Salvo wasn’t as bad to Norm as it was to other professionals. Thad Branco merely ceased to communicate with artists and writers after sending out a general email announcing the cancellation of Danger’s Dozen. The eventual silence displayed by the First Salvo staff resulted in a lot of ill feeling amongst artists with some stating work had been completed but they had not been paid for the results. Norm had luckily discovered the demise of First Salvo in time to cease working on the latest script that had been sent to him.

With the demise of Speakeasy/Markosa and First Salvo, and the indifference shown to him by Marvel and DC, Norm branched out into the field of commercial and advertising art. Engaging the services of an artist representative company, Debut Art, Norm was soon inundated with requests for illustrations, paintings and sketches for clients as diverse as Mojo Magazine, The Red Bulletin (a magazine published by Red Bull to promote their Formula 1 racing team), book publishers and record companies. Before too long Norm found himself so busy that he would actually have to turn down work and took the decision to close his commission list for the duration rather than produce work that he felt was below his standard, although he did keep allowing himself the option of picking up any meaningful comic book work.

Norm has also allowed himself a certain amount of latitude for charity work. Little known, and little publicized, is the fact that Norm is one of the most generous artists when it comes to donations to the various charities that request either a sketch or original art. Norm receives many such requests and will always check out the charity beforehand, and once he is satisfied then a donation will always be forthcoming. In recent years Norm has donated art to cancer charities, the Inkwell Awards, to artist fundraisers (such as Gene Colan and Dave Simons) and the HERO Initiative. Such donations are always most welcome and are testament to Norm’s ongoing concern for his fellow artists and humanity as a whole.

It wasn’t surprising that an artist of Norm’s caliber would be away from comic books for long. In 2008 Norm attended a convention in New York where he encountered fellow artist Joe Staton. At the time Staton was working for Archie Comics and upon learning that Norm was once at again at liberty in relation to comic book work, arranged an introduction with Archie editor Mike Pellerito. Quickly seizing the opportunity, Pellerito enquired as to the possibility of Norm drawing Archie with a positive response. ‘Norm has been one of my favorite artists for a long time,’ said Archie editor Mike Pellerito.

At this past NY Comic Con he was talking to Joe Staton and I was introduced though Joe. At the time Joe was working on another of our New Look Projects, Jughead- The Matchmakers which ran in Jughead’s Double Digest #139-142, and he casually mentioned that Norm should be the artist for the next New Look project.

In all honesty, just standing in the middle of a conversation between two of my favorite comic book artists was cool enough but to get to work with them is the real treat.

Norm’s art has always been eye catching, so that was the big draw. Other than a short conversation and a few phone calls we didn’t know each other. With those conversations he came across friendly and very professional and we progressed from there. With Norm the art speaks for itself.[i]

Considering Norm’s past history as an action/superhero artist and his established dramatic style, one could easily have expected to see a radical difference in style between Archie and a character such as Batman but this clearly wasn’t the case. ‘My style is pretty naturalistic and adapts well to many genres,’ said Norm, ‘and since this is Archie's ‘New Look,’ I'm free to use my own style, rather than aping the traditional Archie drawing style. At first I considered doing a cross between my typical style and the traditional Archie style, but I realized early that there was no need for that, and if this is meant to be a new look, why not go all the way?

‘The reason we chose Norm is why we tried this series in the first place,’ said Mike, ‘everyone always wanted to see what Archie and the gang would look like if they were ‘real’. With the New Look series we have been giving the Archie family of characters a realistic style but also telling stories with a bit more heart and not such a silly tone as the regular Archie stories. Artists like Norm, real storytellers can give the readers a great experience with these romantic comic stories.’

‘As far as preparation goes,’ Norm continued, ‘I did pencil sketches of all of the main characters first and gathered a bunch of reference in the form of teen magazines and whatnot. I drew two different versions of Archie, one with the cross-hatching on his hair and one without and let my editor Mike Pellerito decide to go without the cross-hatching. I've always known that drawing pretty women and children/teens is the hardest thing for a comics artist to master, but I sometimes forget. This job has reminded me of that fact. I remember how, as an amateur artist writing and drawing my own stories, I would always kind of rush through the talking heads parts, impatiently wanting to get to the action scenes. I could draw muscles/anatomy better than anything else first, for the same reason. I guess my ability to really enjoy drawing Archie is an indication of my professionalism, in that I enjoy drawing *everything* now.’

The idea of tackling such a diverse and new subject matter is one that Norm clearly relished. Despite a long career drawing diverse characters and working for several publishers, Norm had never drawn in the Archie style. ‘The closest I ever came to that (drawing Archie style) was when I drew ‘Bob Violence’ for First Comics twenty years ago,’ said Norm, ‘but even that was quite a bit different. Sure, I guess I'd give drawing a more traditional Archie a shot. More than likely, however, I'll be doing some ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ for Archie Comic Publications.’ As for the possibility of Norm writing a story set in Riverdale down the track, ‘Oh, boy, would it ever NOT be the Archie our parents knew! Knowing me, I'd raise deep, not resolvable, philosophical questions. But no, I'd not want to write Archie. I've got no experience writing others' characters; all my writing has been my own perfectly free expression, and that's what I want it to remain ... not to mention that Archie hasn't solicited my writing, anyway.’

‘The art speaks for itself,’ said Mike Pellerito. ‘Just gorgeous art and great story telling. One thing, I’m not sure if people will find this interesting, but most pencillers don’t usually have a great ink line but Norm really is a good inker not just a great penciller.’

Norm released details of his Archie work on-line, along with character sketches[ii], in late December, 2008. The lead in time gave people the opportunity to order the story arc and the feedback was highly positive. This feedback led Archie to offer Norm further work, with a new story to be drawn in the traditional ‘Archie’ style, as popularized by the likes of Stan Goldberg. By the end of 2009 the editors at Archie were pleased with both the sales figures and the professionalism displayed by Norm and indicated that they would be providing him with enough work to keep him occupied full time once more. ‘Since the 1950s and 1960s, super-hero art has become more and more sophisticated,’ said Norm on his working on a more traditional Archie, ‘but Archie hadn't really changed in that way. It's like I'm bringing Archie up to date in proportion to the evolution of the super-heroes, by retaining the basic cartoonish style of the faces but making everything else more illustrative and solid.’

When the announcement came that Archie had offered to keep Norm busy drawing for as long as he wanted it came as no great surprise really. Archie editors were so impressed with the quality and professionalism of both Norm and his art that they couldn’t wait for his first four issues to be published before asking if he’d be available for more work, finally sealing the deal when the last pages of the ‘new look’ issues were completed and sent in. ‘After my Archie ‘New Look’ story arc was completed,’ said Norm, ‘Victor Gorelick (editor-in-chief of Archie) expressed a desire to keep me employed. A few months later, they offered me the penciling gig on these two new ‘traditional look’ titles, and I accepted the challenging offer and then took a very deep breath, anticipating all the pages per month.’

Working in a cartoon style isn’t new to Norm as his early Bob Violence strip shows, albeit in a highly exaggerated form. Even though Norm had long proven capable of doing the work, it still proved to be a challenge to start with. ‘At first, since I'd never drawn in this style before,’ said Norm, ‘I wasn't sure how difficult it would be, but now I've really gotten into it. It was easier that I thought it might be. In preparation for this gig, what I've discovered in my research is that, as long as the Archie characters' faces and body proportions are obviously in the cartoony, traditional style, everything else can be more or less realistic. In fact, it seems that Victor Gorelick enjoys and encourages my own touches of realism, partly due to the fact (I assume) that these two new titles are set five years in the future and are ‘alternate reality’ or ‘imaginary’ storylines, dealing with somewhat more adult characters and situations.’

Inspiration came from many different areas, as Archie has a more diverse range of artists than people might first imagine. ‘I have a series of traditional examples of the man characters' heads exhibiting various emotions,’ said Norm, ‘from various angles, drawn by artists like Bob Montana and Dan DeCarlo, to help keep my stuff looking sufficiently Archie-like. I also looked at some of the very first Archie stories published in Pep Comics and saw how the traditional Archie look evolved and came about. In addition, I've seen some sample pages from Gene Colan's traditional look Archie work and some art from various Archie spoofs.’

Unlike the ‘new look’ Archie, Norm wasn’t able to both pencil and ink these pages alone, and other than the cover art, he found himself reunited with inker Joe Rubenstein, for the first time in nearly ten years since the pair worked at DC on Batman and, most notably, Anarky. ‘I don't have time to ink in addition to penciling about 50 pages per month! When I accepted this gig, I suggested Joe Rubenstein as my inker, since I know he's very good and has inked a lot of my stuff in the past. After seeing some pages of his sample inks over my sample Archie pencils, they hired him.’ Norm was more than happy to see Joe’s ink gracing his pencils once more. ‘I know we'll be getting quality work form Joe. He's a top comic pro, and an excellent artist.’

In recognition of Norm’s popularity and talents, Archie launched a new title, Life With Archie, which would focus on a realistic ‘alternate’ Archie. Initially written by Michael Uslan, better known as the producer for various DC Comics movies, the series was taken over by another long time DC Comics annuli, Paul Kupperberg. Norm’s contract called for two 25 page stories for each issue, plus covers, the latter of which he was free to ink.

Over half his life ago Norm Breyfogle’s first professional story was published in DC’s New Talent Showcase. In that time much has changed in the comic book industry. The direct market came and went. Internet and digital comics have been established. The Marvel and DC Norm worked for are now distant memories, with Marvel now owned by Disney and DC by Time-Warner. Editors and writers are long since gone, moved on to other companies or retired, and, in some cases, passed away. First Comics is long defunct, as is Eclipse, Malibu, Bravura and Now. Story lines are event driven, with characters being killed and resurrected with a frequency that means that any impact killing a character once had has gone. Characters are created with a view of making movies. Through all of this Norm has survived and thrived and for the first time in a long while he is settled and happy. The future, which looked bleak when both Marvel and DC decided to dispense with his services, looks bright, with both Archie and other publishers vying for his services. No matter how many offers are on the table Norm is committed to Archie for the time being. ‘I've verbally agreed to six issues of each title,’ he said. ‘After that, I don't yet know. I guess I'll see how I feel at that time.’ Hopefully other editors and publishers see what the Archie editors, and the many readers, have already seen, that Norm Breyfogle is still a force to be reckoned with and is still yet to reach the peak of his artistic abilities.

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[i] First Look at Norm Breyfogle On Archie, 20^th Century Danny Boy blog

[ii] In a private email to the author artist Alan Weiss noted that every time he sees a ‘realistic’ depiction of Archie he notices strong similarities between the character and Jimmy Olsen.

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Next: Last Chapter (for now)