Interview with Joe Wehrle Jr.
Part 1
Christmas Spirit in a Speakeasy
Cartoonist Spotlights
Bob Vojtko
Zinographies
Edward Bolman
Mike Cody
Hunt Emerson
Brad W. Foster
Doug Holverson
Richard Krauss
Rick McCollum
DC McNamara
Dave Miller
John Porcellino
Poopsheet Foundation
King-Cat
Michael Roden
Dave Sim's Cerebus
Dan W. Taylor
Bob Vojtko
Joe Wehrle Jr.
Interview with Joe Wehrle Jr. Part 4 of 4 > Part 1
Bring us up to date on any new comics or illustration work?
I've been doing some full-page illustrations for the Robert E. Howard journal, Two-Gun Raconteur, and we have a portrait site online which has brought a lot of favorable comment. Last year I wrote the rough draft of a long science-fiction narrative poem, which I need to revise before I decide just what to do with it. A couple of sections may remain as they are, or again, I may choose to take that part of the story in a different direction. I'm still pondering. I can visualize publishing it with a bunch of ethereal Boris Dolgov-style drawings.
When I get a new idea for a comic that excites me, I usually work up a few roughs or some sample pages before the concept goes out of my head. These brainstorms are probably not very commercial, but I keep the bare bones in a folio in case the opportunity arises to do something with them.
I find myself working more at my music these days. I started trying to play blues guitar as a teenager, but didn't begin to get the sound I wanted until I figured out open tuning.
In my early forties, I got hold of an old C-melody sax, and a few years later a junked clarinet, so I learned the basic fingering for reed instruments. My daughter and son-in-law got me a wonderful soprano sax last Christmas, and then a few months later I found my long-desired tenor on eBay for a ridiculously low price. I'm currently fixing up a somewhat battered 1914 model Buescher alto, seeing what sort of mouthpiece and ligature will work best with that. So I feel I have a lot of exploration ahead of me in that area of my life, too. Let's see where that takes me. In the final analysis, though, I'd have to say I'm still pretty much that kid who sat on the back porch all summer, reading comics.
Tell us a little about your Pencil Portrait business and website.
I guess about the first portraits I did were for the independent science fiction and fantasy publishers. Mirage Press was issuing a book by Seabury Quinn in the early 1970s, and it was to be illustrated by Dave Prosser, whom I had actually visited on one of my infrequent journeys anywhere. Because Quinn died while the book was being prepared, I wondered if Mirage could use a sort of memorial portrait of him, so I worked one up, with bat, wolf and pentagram added to suggest the mood of his stories. They used it on the back of the book jacket. Later I did Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith for them, and still later those portraits which appeared on Lava Mountain records.
It seemed a natural progression from this that local individuals began asking me to do black and white portraits for them, and when we got online, we created a website for this. I have tried to keep photocopies of all this work, so that in most cases I can show you the portrait, then launch into an involved story about how this particular piece came to be created. There are a couple of examples, though, dating back to the '70s, that are a complete mystery to me. I have no idea who the people are, or who commissioned me to draw them, and that puzzles me since I pride myself on a good memory.
Buyers have generally been very complimentary about my portraits, but I still worry my way through the process, since I know that, with just one or two photos to work from, the overall impression I get may not quite express the unique personality a family member looks for after long association with the subject. So I try for accuracy and that indefinable quality, and I often recall the portrait a renowned artist did of Lyndon Johnson when he was in office. Johnson termed it "the ugliest thing in the world".
I feel a little easier about animal portraits, and I wasn't concerned at all when, a few months ago, I was asked for a detailed rendering of a 1930 Ford truck a guy restored. I captured that old girl just fine.
Most of the portraits I do are 8x10 or 9x12, with intense black prismacolor pencil on coquille board. That's now a bit of a problem, since it seems that the paper mills are phasing out coquille. A number of artists visiting my site have asked where they can get the stuff, and I have to tell them I don't know. My art supplier sent me something they called coquille board last time, but I'm afraid it just looks like nicely textured drawing paper to me. I can get a drawing that pretty much satisfies me, but it doesn't quite have that crisp quality of coquille. Guess I'll keep looking.
>An index of artwork and fiction by Joe Wehrle Jr.
Ordering Information
A few copies of Joe's publications are still available from him. To order, send your request and payment via PayPal to Joe Wehrle Jr. or if you prefer the US mail send your order with a money order to:
Joe Wehrle, Jr.
P.O. Box 41,
Punxsutawney, PA 15767
$12 Stovepipe graphic novel
$12 Drawn by Wehrle protfolio
$2.50 Groundhog comic book
Many thanks to Joe for his help with this interview and for the use of his artwork! Please send any additions or corrections to the Index of Joe's work to me at Midnight Fiction.
-RK
Servitor opens with the crash landing of an alien space craft in the Mojave Desert in 1952. Below are a few panels from this work in progress.
The hero, Rico is chased through an alley by a gang member.
Rico encounters an alien being!
Concerned about the safety of his family, Rico returns home.