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The first issue [of Last American], the line
works thicker, did you switch pens? |
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No, I just got faster and as you go along you understand
what you're doing a bit more. I didn't do as much
redrawing on that as other things I've done, It
was the first story I'd stuck panels on. The first
one was his wife and family in the snapshot the
first time I drew that it was awful, so I redrew
it and stuck it on. It was hard work on Last American'
coming up with new ways of him looking out the window!
It was really exhausting. I thought it was going
to be an action book, but it wasn't. |
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Did you see yourself as an action artist?
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I
did, but I'd take the same approach to anything
Dredd or Sonic, it's all grist to my mill, I find
I'm more confident in my ability to do different
sorts of subject matter. To do something like
Sonic well it's so rigorous, because all it is,
is storytelling you've got to have a lot of experience,
you can't show off... Well you can, but you have
to be clever.
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A lot of modem comics have tended more towards the
pin-up, a more art style mag as opposed to telling
a story. |
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The problem a lot of artists have is the scripts
are not really narratives anymore they seem to be
more polemics really. I mean, if an artist is given
a script with a story they wouldn't be allowed to
go week after week doing pin-ups. You look at a
lot of these things and theyŐre a story to draw,
its just people (characters) being cool. I have
to say I don't look at many comics now. |
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What sort of comics did you want to do when you
started? |
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War comics. British comics had always gone back
to the Second World War but the strange thing was,
I'd wanted to do this since I was 7 or 8 and my
first job had nothing to do with the war and I didn't
care, Hooray I've got a job (laugh). If you want
to be a professional artist you have to be flexible,
well I mean now a days there is no work around,
you have to take what you can get. All I think about
is what I don't want to do. If you pin yourself
down to what you do want you exclude so much. There
were things I've done in the past I enjoyed a lot,
like the 'Alien Legion' book, I don't plan for what
I want to be working on because if I got something
similar, it still wouldn't be what I wanted, so
I'd rather do something that has nothing to do with
what I'm interested in. Like Slaine was something
I was really interested in, I really like Celtic
stuff, myths and warriors and it was almost something
I really wanted to do, it was something I really
enjoyed, but it wasn't something quite how I viewed
it, I mean obviously it wouldn't be, I didn't write
it, but it's somehow slightly disappointing. I could
write a story but I couldn't make it live, that's
the worst thing about working with people like Wagner
is that he's such a fantastic writer you could read
the script and you're totally surprised by it.
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Do you break down a whole story first or go page
by page? |
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I break down whole stories usually. My favourite
way of working is to pencil a panel and then ink
it, but often they insist on seeing pencils, although
my pencils are inked if I've got to think up panel
alter panel I get bogged down, if I'm inking one
I can think up the next one. |
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With Sonic, do you have to send the pencils off
to be approved? |
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Yes by Sonico (Games company), they phone me up
to go ahead or redraw his foot or something, I don't
mind, if you do licensed characters that's what
they are about. |
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What comics did you read when you were growing up? |
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British ones and some American. I never found out
a lot of the artistŐs names because they were from
South America or wherever. I liked Russ Heath, I
never really liked Kirby, I can appreciate him now,
and because I know what he did, but when I used
to see his earlier work and imagine it in black
and white, (because that's what I'd grown up reading,)
and I used to think, well there's not much there,
is there? I think it's because his style was so
sophisticated then, when I was 6 or 7 it went right
over my head, but I look at it now and appreciate
it, but he never influenced me. I suppose my main
influence was stuff in magazines like "Look & Learn"
lots of illustrations like the battle of Agincourt
and Romans and that sort of stuff |
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you read European comics, Heavy Metal, Moebius? |
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Yes I used to get loads of them, but I haven't read
any for a long time. It's that super realism that
impressed me, it's so divorced from what I do though,
it over awes me to be honest the draughtsmanship,
I couldn't draw like that. I don't aspire to it,
no but it's great, chance would be a fine thing.
I really like historical books. |
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