Found on the Dark (Horse) Web.
Okay, I know I’ve been dipping into the “here’s another old comics video from YouTube” well a few times lately on the ol’ site here, and sorry about that. I’ll have Genuine Content™, again soon.
Part of it is that I’ve been spending a bunch of time searching through YouTube looking for period piece comic book videos, trying desperately to avoid newer uploads by the openly deranged — “WHY WOKENESS DESTROYED MY LITTLE PONY,” “A GIRL…DRAWING A SUPERGIRL COMIC, WTF!?!?!” — that sort of thing. But I’m enjoying these clips of old news reports, weird and flawed as they are, as somewhat condescending as they can be, still provide nice looks at the World of Comics That Had Once Been.
This particular example is a short look at Dark Horse Comics from the 1990s, where we get to see Ron Randall drawing some Predator pages, and the reporter trying to do “bits” and not really succeeding (but I’ll give him the “get thee to an anatomy class” line, which is pretty good).
At least this had a little closer look at the actual production of comics. Some shade thrown at Frank Miller’s all-black page from Sin City: “I can do that!” “Yeah, no you couldn’t.”
Ron’s a great guy! We did an interview with him on our now dead podcast at Emerald City one year, and he’s always great to talk to since. I have an original page or two of his and always get something signed at a con and have a nice chat. Genuinely awesome guy. Good stories. A prefect booster of the form and industry and a fine draftsman. I remember TREKKER from the moment it came out and still read it.
The comedic tone irrationally bothers me, even though I realize it probably stems from some combination of a) copying the same tired formula for comic news pieces and b) getting to actually report on something fun for once.
Having said that, it’s cool that they showcased a variety of adult jobs at a comic book company. I bet some kids saw this (or similar) and became curious about how to break into comics.