State of the Art: Jason Howard Draws the Outer Family of Cemetery Beach

The great conundrum of comics press and criticism is that way too many of us struggle to talk about—or at least to fully and vibrantly capture—the artistic side of comics, which is what makes comics, well, comics. We can endlessly debate continuity, criticize character choices, pick apart plotting, but how many of us offer the artistic component the attention it deserves? How many of us cut deeper than comparing one artist to another, or trying to force into insufficient words how we respond to style and basic storytelling choices?

State of the Art is a video series produced in cooperation with Image Comics that shows artists at work as they discuss their series, their artistic journeys, their work process and more, all as we witness one of their characters come to life. Our third installment spotlights Jason Howard, artist behind the blitzkrieg sci-fi action of Cemetery Beach with writer Warren Ellis. The fourth of seven Cemetery Beach issues hits stands December 12th, and continues to follow recon expert Mike Blackburn and radical dissident Grace Moody as they blow their way out of a secret space colony and back to Earth to expose what’s happening away from terra firma. Check out the video below, and be sure to follow throughout the coming months as we feature other Image Comics favorites on State of the Art.

Cemetery Beach #4
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jason Howard
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: December 14, 2018
Force recon expert Mike Blackburn has promised to get dissident Grace Moody out of a secret, private space colony and back to Earth to reveal what happened here a century ago. The oldest people in the colony are about to show they can still kill.