COMIC ART of NICK CARDY

Mark Evanier interviews Nick Cardy.
M.E.: Colleen, what of Nick's work first impressed you?
COLLEEN DORAN: Aquaman. These guys are all going "Hoot, hoot, hoot," over the girls, but I was going "Hoot, hoot, hoot" over Aquaman! [laughter] Babe-ilicious!
M.E.: [To Nick] The obvious question is, did you model your characters on real people?
NICK CARDY: When I used to draw women, it depended on what the women were in the story. If they were villainesses, I'd lean toward one way; if they were ideal women — like Madeline Carroll or Grace Kelly — I'd lean another. I'd give a heroine very straight features. If I wanted to draw a saucy girl — Susan Hayward with a little turned-up nose — I'd do it that way.
If I was drawing a woman who was part-villainess, part-heroine, I would go a little toward Ava Gardner and make her just a little meaner looking but with nice features. Pretty girls can be just as mean. Every time they showed a villain they always showed him ugly. I've known some ugly guys who are pretty good. Most of my friends are that way! [laughter] I studied girls a lot...
MARV WOLFMAN: So did we! [laughter]
CARDY: I mean artistically! I tried to pick up from the illustrators and the painters who had beautiful ways of displaying their women. The women were always in decent poses, even when they were running. I did learn from a lot of good illustrators — John Petty, a wonderful pin-up artist...John Gannon was a terrific illustrator of women...Colby Whitmore and all these illustrators did some really beautiful women.
I'd say, "The leg is a little longer from the thigh." Say you're drawing a figure and if you put a small head on it, it looks longer. But if you put on a larger head, that figure looks a lot shorter. So it used to be that the heads were in proportion but I'd make the necks a little longer and it would work. People have a certain form and grace to them when they move — women, especially — so that is what I tried to replicate.
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