Tony Chromatic

Tony is back with another creator on the couch. This time its Nicolás Giacondino,

TC : I want to start as far back as you can remember. What are you first memories of art, were they a museum, cartoons, comic books, picture books, what started you down the path, what event incited you to pick up that pencil for the first time and make your mark on the world?

NG : Well, believe it or not, mate, the first memory I could dig up when I sat and started thinking about of your question dates back to kindergarten. I usually quote something much more near in time, like my high school years, but that’s when I started thinking of illustration as a profession.
I remember that when I was in kindergarten, we used to draw a lot of religious imagery, since I went to catholic school and all that. I clearly recall my schoolmates used to ask me if I was taking classes to draw the way I did. I mean, they were just kid’s stuff, but I reckon they were pretty advanced drawings for my age (which was around 5). That was a question that’d be asked on and on until I became an actual professional.
None of those drawings survive, I think, but I remember that they showed quite an interesting grasp of proportions for a little boy, as I said. And also, everything was in order; meaning I’d put the ears, eyes and nose were they belonged as well as drawing two feet, two hands, etc.
I was quite a timid kid, so I usually spent a lot of time alone (I didn’t have many friends, alas!) imagining stories and worlds and pondering strange questions and diverse matters (I had a special interest in space even at a young age). I was always very imaginative and since my mother (bless her!) didn’t let me watch a lot of TV, I had to make do with my toys and already I used to work out sound effects, settings and camera angles when playing for HOURS with them action figures.

TC : What were your influences as you were growing up? Your various online galleries show work that draws from all different genres ranging from mainstream comic books to table top role playing games to classic pulp heroes to strange steam punk creations. What would you say influenced you as you were growing up?

NG : The first clear influence I can recall was Mazinger Z, the anime. I loved that giant robot and owned a lot of action figures related to the show! I watched it religiously and since it was about big giant mechas, my mother didn’t complain about the violence (I can only wonder why she never objected to Baron Ashura being an hermaphrodite, ha!). It was as early as that that I was hooked on technology and dreamed of becoming a pilot one-day; or an astronomer. I considered it as a career for a long time, but being the lousy mathematician I am, I ruled it out quite fast.
After Mazinger Z, came the Ghostbusters mania. I loved the Ghostbusters and felt deeply attached to Egon Spengler; his was the only action figure of the bunch I owned, which I bought when I went to Disneyworld (and Universal Studios, more specifically) with my folks at age 10. Thus, I changed my mind about being a mecha pilot, and in exchange I now wanted to have one of them nifty backpacks to hunt ghosts! Coming to think about it, one of the things that I think marked me a lot about the Ghostbusters was that it was such a strange mix of everything on top of everything: Sci-Fi, mystery, arcane monsters, horror, and lots of comedy.
Then I grew up and slowly geared towards comics, as was foreseeable. I started collecting a small run of Ghostbusters adaptations from the TV show and that led me to the adaptation of ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ which I was also watching on TV. That show changed my life as well and I think it got into me all the knowledge I posses on how to work shadows and lights… it also deeply struck me as a style I wanted to imitate. I felt a connection to the simple lines, the bold characters and the iconic skylines and overall designs. I would later come to worship that blessed man called Bruce Timm for making me into what I am today. My biggest influence, bottom line.
Then there was a LOT of other things. As I said above, since I spent time alone, I read lots. I embarked upon the Pequod and the Nautilus with melville and Verne; I also went to the center of the earth with the latter and I was fascinated by the Alien creature conjured up by Mr. Ridley Scott. James Cameron’s Terminator excited me to no end, with its post-apocalyptic roots and the great European masters of Sci-Fi such as Juan Gimenez (The Metabarons) or even the fantastic Carlos Meglia all were stored in my head for further analysis. Then there was the Thundercats, the Silverhaws, He-man and the Masters of the Universe… I could go on all the length of this page and still leave things out.
The thing to remark here is that Sci-Fi was a very important feature I always bonded with. If there were starships, or advanced technology in a bleak world, then I was hooked!

TC :  Do you have a favorite comic? Is there a story that sticks out in your mind that when you read it really hit you and has stuck with you?

NG : I don’t think I have a favorite comic, because comics (as big an influence as they’ve been upon me) never struck me as single images I admired and really hit me deep. I guess that’s why I’ll always be more of an illustrator at heart, even though I do a lot of comic work and I love the medium.
I guess that, to answer your question, the first story that really hit me was Jim Lee’s run on the X-Men. That whole arc with Magneto… wow. I mean, I had been collecting comics for some time by then, what with the Ghostbusters and Batman: The Animated Series and some other stuff here and there. But those X-Men really showed me what comics could be in the hands of a master; I would stare for hours and hours and hours at every panel in those stories and I still have the original paperback I bought in Spanish (horribly translated, might I add) which I totally ripped off to start doing my own comics involving the characters.
Funnily enough, even though I quote Timm as my main influence, for a long time he was obscured by the sheer awesomeness and skills of Mr. Lee. Thus, I started out copying Lee, to later discover that what I liked about him was that he inspired me to draw, but his style wasn’t my thing.
It still happens today; whenever I see something by Jim, I’ll feel like drawing all day!

TC : I would like to ask about your original graphic novel UTOPIA. The book explores a lot of very psychological and emotional content that when reading it seemed to come from a very personal place. The characters seemed to be less self involved and more splinters of some greater idea, they seem to act as players in a grand dance. Could you tell the readers a little about what UTOPIA has to say, and where you drew the inspiration from the story?

NG :  UTOPIA is a big tapestry of things, as you so keenly deduced. Its main influence was life itself, as corny as it may sound. I began the work on the story when I did an illustration of myself and my girlfriend at the time, as a gift for her. I remember I once called her my ‘princess’ and she said ?I’m an Empress or nothing at all’; so it began.
I always liked to build up small stories for every illustration or drawing I ever did, and this was no exception. But the story kept unfolding every time I thought about it, and grew bigger and bigger, until it encompassed something beyond it’s original purpose.
Life, as I said, added to it of course and my own heartbreak and dark times were poured onto the canvas of the Tower and its inhabitants. Mainly, everything went into its two protagonists, The Empress and her Imperial Guardian, but other great personas presented themselves before me and when I thought twice, I already had another character added to the list.
Thus was born Brom, the Engineer Supreme, The murderous Piper, the treacherous Chacellor Opium and the story that entwined them all.
I guess if I had to sum up Utopia in a word, it would be acceptance. The novel was a form of release for my own pain, but I wanted to make it as general as possible in its presentation so that the readers could really feel and share the tale with their own souls; so that they could fill in the gaps that I’d purposely left open with their own experiences. But, mainly, the novel is to about moving on and accepting such things as they present to us in our lives. About how to let go and how to understand that we sometimes do not have control over anything but ourselves and the decisions we make. At least, that’s what I intended, though there are many other facets to explore in the narrative. The world of the Tower is vast and keeps growing, so this is just the tip of the  iceberg.
You mention the characters feel as if they were shards of a bigger story and they are. But I think what you ‘feel’ is that they’re shards of a single person: me. Or a personality, if you will. I tried and make the construction of the roles in the novel be different psychological aspects of myself, which in turn are psychological aspects of an average human being (if I might be so bold as to consider myself average!).
On another note, and I think one worthy of mention having to do with the way the reader’s connect to the work, is that I decided not to do it entirely in comic-book format; that is, panel to panel action. Rather I went for a mix of that and illustrated text, which switches from one to another when the story requires it. Granted, I have to give credit to Mr. Gaiman and Mr. Vess, because it was ‘Stardust’ that convinced me an illustrated story could get you involved much more than the usual comic approach. Having just a panel to show action gets the reader to really imagine everything else that happens. They sort of make their own comic inside their heads and that pulls them deeper into the story (or so I hope!)
Finally, I’d have to mention the fact that I was very lucky to have found Alex Kaulfuss, my Editor, because it is a strange deed to start out your comic career overseas publishing a self-written, self-illustrated graphic novel of 100 pages. I never believed in coincidence or chance, though, so I guess Utopia was meant to be published.

TC : I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about N0.1R, your web based comic? It’s a very fresh take on the classic noir story and I was wondering if you could share some of the future plans for the comic?

NG : N0.1R is, to date, the best story I’ve written, I think.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that I don’t over think it too much. I have to deliver a good four strips monthly so there’s no time to chew the story too much. It has to be out there in a snap! That’s, I guess, what pulp was all about and there’s certainly a lot of that in N0.1R.
There’s also a lot of the hard-boiled, noirsh films and stories that have influenced me, ranging from Dick Tracy to Hammet.
The catch is that in this story, every being on it is a robot. There’s (apparently) no organic life at all in this realm, but there are hints of it and that’s where the story gets all its mystery from.
I saw a film a couple of years ago, called ‘Brick’, with Joseph Gordon Levitt in the main role. It was a fabulous, mesmerizing tale of pure noir set in a high school contemporary setting. That’s, I think, what led me to think that even though detective stories are way overused, if you find a new setting for them, they become something else entirely.
Of course, I can’t avoid my philosophical vein no matter how simple and straightforward the storyline is and N0.1R will be, I expect, much deeper than it looks at first glance. It will deal with choices and what we do before them; how do we accept or react in the face of change and the paths we choose.
As for plans for it in the future, well, all I can say is that he first story arc is written already; or at least in my head it is. That means this story will have an end, and after that, the idea we have with my Editor, is to bring forth writers and artists to continue the story in the world I’ve developed. There’s a lot of room for all sorts of tales, so if the audience is interested, there’ll be N01.R for a long time.

TC : I know you are a HUGE J. R. R. Tolkien fan I was wondering if the classic works of literature have inspired your work? You work a lot with fantasy settings and your work with the War hammer 40,000 has drawn you much attention in the art community.

NG : I am passionate about Tokien, yes, though fantasy comes and goes with me. It’s like waves on the sea, whilst Science Fiction is a river constantly flowing through me.
There are a lot of classic that have inspired me, like 20,000 Leagues under the Sea as I stated before. I’ve read tons of material, from Tolkien to Borges, Hawthorne, Poe, Lovecraft, and contemporary writers such as Abnett, King and many more.
Tolkien moved me deeply. His understanding of Fantasy and what it could achieve in  our modern times to re-signify our myths and heroic past is something that will come with me my whole life and something I’ll stick to like a Bible.
But with Warhammer 40,000 I hit something I had never hit before in my life: I combined my passion for the baroque, with the post-apocalyptic, gothic future of the 41st Millennium. I remember at first, people and fans were mostly appalled that I was applying my style to something that’s meant to be dark an realistic. But, over time, I improved a lot and many, many, many hobbyists started seeing my work as fitting in the Dark Millennium. Slowly, I became a very renowned figure in forums and conventions and I’m happy to say I’m considered one of the best fan artists out there illustrating the GW franchise. I’ve been asked a thousand times if I have submitted my résumé to Games-Workshop, but I doubt they’d be interested. Some fans even went as far as signing a petition for the Nottingham headquarters to hire me. So, I couldn’t be happier with the acclaim my works have.
I think mostly, that’s the result of the love I have for that Universe and its intricacies. And that’s something that can also be said of my whole gallery of works so far: I’ve never done anything I didn’t love or believed in and that’s what draws people’s attention. The care and attention paid to details; the small references here and there, from the musical titles, to the ‘search for NRG!’s signature’ in each of my pieces… I hope I always have the strength to reward everyone for their tie and the great support they’ve shown me in these early years and there’s no better way of doing that than pushing my standards ever higher and delivering work that’s worth looking.

TC : “I have noticed that most of your images in your gallery have titled that are song lyrics or titles. It seems that you can see moods and emotions linked to those songs and the images that share their references. I was wondering if you could talk a little about that.”

NG : I usually feel very attached to my illustrations and renditions. I was always fascinated by the fact that I could draw and paint. It’s a great gift and comes with a set of ’sixth sense’ that comprises much more than just being able to do good anatomy or cool camera angles and shots.
I always feel my images. Usually they’ll come to me whilst I’m dozing off before sleep, or whilst I’m taking a break walking through a square or near the shoreline; and, most likely, on all those occasions I’ll be listening to music. Music always had a great impact and influence in my life and I think it’s directly entwined with any good art. Musicians have always dabbled in artwork, and I know many artists that can hold their own in a concert (Liam Sharp sings beautifully!). I played drums for a long time, back in high school and I still remember sitting in my father’s lap and listening to Queen and Supertramp (to name a couple of bands he introduced me to). He worked 25 years as a representative for Sony Music here in my country, so music was all around my house all the time… And it still is in my own house now. I enjoy putting on music that I’ll know will have an effect on the process of the illustration I’m working on: if I’m doing hardcore Sci-Fi, then I’ll listen to Propellerheads, Prodigy or Marilyn Manson. If I’m doing a barbarian illustration, I’ll likely be listening to Bach, Basil Poledouris or Metal (of all kinds and flavors); if I’m doing a moody detective piece, I’ll put on Dire Straits, and the same goes for those dark, gothic images and The Cure. I have no boundaries as to what I listen to and what’ll make my spirits feel connected to the works.
I agree with Quentin Tarantino when he says that music can complete a work and that’s what I try to do when I add my ’soundtrack’ of choice to my illustrations. I’ve often opened people’s eyes to music they wouldn’t have heard otherwise and there are some great, beautiful tracks that can make you feel that ‘extra’ bit of emotion when you’re viewing an image. Illustrators have to be very careful of everything about their images: titles, comments, an added reference to a song, on top of all the piece already has will all melt to become one single work of art that’ll (hopefully!) have the viewer enchanted for a while.
My latest image, for example, was a reimagining of He-Man from the classic 80s cartoon and I linked it to the Led Zeppelin song ‘Kashmir’, because the lyrics and tone of that composition really made the whole experience of working on a mystical shifting desert landscape and He-man’s despair much more poignant. And if I can translate that to the fans, then my work is done and I can sigh in relief that I’ve done a good job.

TC : I have seen what we in the industry like to call Teasers for a new project you seem to be cooking up with another one of the members of DeviantART titled FLOW. I was wondering if you would share some tidbits about this project.

NG : Yes, indeed. “Flow” is one of those things that happen by chance, but you know that there’s no chance in it at all. I met my co-creator through deviantART as we chatted about the industry and many more details and instantly felt connected to each other. He shared my vision of what a good comic-book, novel and illustration should be: a place to explore new worlds, to actively search for the roots that move us as human beings and to change people’s perspectives and add a bit more to their lives apart from just entertaining them.
As we talked on and on about many subjects, at one point, we both landed on the theme of Steampunk and how we loved the genre. I showed him an in-process draft of a diver being rescued by a mermaid and told him how I was planning on reimagining Andersen’s The Little Mermaid story, which he offered help with. He told me he had a story involving Charles Darwin and adding him to the mix changed the whole thing and that’s when the story started to take shape on its own (like all good stories do). Just like that, “Flow” was born. Anton (that’s my co-creator and writer’s name) instantly came up with lots of ideas and pages of text and character profiles for me to sink my teeth into and I did, avidly… we designed our hero and then we pondered a title. “Flow” seemed natural because the first story arc centers around seawater civilizations and that reimagining of The Little Mermaid I mentioned earlier. But the overall creative process behind this concept as well as the core of it flows. It’s an adventure story with a heart; what Indiana Jones was to all of us back in the day, only that this one will have a lot of new elements and Easter eggs for those ‘in the know’, like the possible inclusion of a Winfield Lovecraft selling precious stones
The style I’ll be applying to it is also quite a challenge for me because I’ll get to design many monsters and creatures as well as Victorian clothing and steam machinery, so it’ll keep me busy with research. I actually have literally more than 50 photos and diagrams and blueprints of the HMS Beagle Darwin used in his historical trip, as well as diving suit references and whatever else I can get my hands onto.
What we’re trying to do is to hook the reader with an old story, but a new approach. And that’s what resignifying myths is all about. That’s what working with archetypal figures brings up: themes that tie us all up and make us feel the whole of what we are, in a “simple” read.

TC : “Are there any other upcoming projects in the work for you that you feel like sharing with us?”

NG : There are many, actually… mostly, they have to do with Warhammer 40,000. I’ve become one of the chief Fan Artists of that universe around, so I’m getting to do all sort of images related to the gothic Dark Millennium, including designing the fabled Emperor’s Tarot which ties up to the deck I’m so passionate about! I’m also looking into the possibility of turning N0.1R into published material as well as working on some reimagining stuff of my own. Flow as well as other creations are also in the work, so the art part of my life seems pretty well covered.
It’s usually hard to see one’s achievements when you’re in the heat of things; but, from time to time, I’ll look from my computer or my desk to my book shelf and see my name on the spine of my graphic novel and smile. Smile like the 11 year-old kid that wanted to make it into comics and draw for a living.
You can find more of Nicolás work at his DivantArt page

I got a chance to sit down with the amazing concept artist Mike Henry and pick his brain for a bit, as I don’t waste any time we jumped right into it,

TC: Who were you biggest influences, your work runs the gamete from mainstream comic characters to original characters. What would you say were your biggest influences as a kid?

MH: Biggest influences as a kid were things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, GI Joe, He-Man, X-Men, Mega-Man… it goes on. I loved cartoons, games, and comics. I was an only child, so when friends couldn’t do something I would do any of the above. When I think back to those things I get just as excited as I did when I first watched them. The thing that pops up most in my art these days is the whole video game thing. Even if I design something for a comic or cartoon it has a video game feel to it.

TC: Were you always drawing, or is it something you found your way into later in life?

MH: I’ve been drawing my whole life. My Dad always likes to tell a story about when I got in trouble in first grad for not coloring pictures correctly. He showed the teacher I was just rushing through it to draw on the back. It’s kind of a cheesy story but it definitely puts things in perspective.

TC: Your wife seems to feature heavy in a lot of the projects you talk about, but before you met her who would you say was your greatest support or who gave you the nudging and support in your creative life?

MH: Great! Now she’s going to get a big head. Hehe. My parents were very supportive when I was young. I’m sure my Dad didn’t really want his son to be an “art kid”. But they always supported me in every random art thing I wanted to do. Later in life there were a couple college teachers here and there. I started dating my wife right after high school so she has been a main factor in my entire professional life.

TC: Ok I have to know, Brick Walkway is such an amazing looking character, and I know you have said that he features in a lot of your independent projects, but there are murmurs about him showing up in his own project I know back in 07 about him have a very Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart from Casablanca) role where everyone talks about him for a while and then he shows up. Can you talk a little more about the character or plans for him?

MH: Hehe… Well, Brick is the perfect character to me. I love characters that can walk the line between parody and just plain awesome. His name alone is an example of this. Brick Walkway is such a silly name, but if you ignore the funny side of it, it’s a great sounding name like Rock Hudson or Cab Calloway. I think the sound of his name is recognized before the silliness. Anyhow, he is a character that is sort of like an actor. I try to put him into every project that I do. He is always Brick, or B, or something like that, but his style and purpose in the story changes. He is kind of like a Leiji Matsumoto character. Right now plans for him are two fold. He is a main character in a story I developed with my wife called “Revenge Story” and he is a very minor character in “Island Chronicles” which my wife just became a part of.

TC: I’m so glad you bought up “Revenge Story” and “Island Chronicles”. Would you mind talking about them a little?

MH: Well, Revenge Story is more or less a love story in actuality. It takes place several years after a tragic incident that split up a group of 5 friends. They also happen to be trained assassins with ties to an organization. But the whole story takes place after their heyday. Things are not going well for them anymore. It’s one-shot/movie/mini-series sized in scope.

Island Chronicles is a Capcom-influenced, light hearted, long running, epic that should be just a ton of fun. A lot of the spirit is light but it is also very-influenced by Giant Robo so there is an epic, almost opera, quality about it. That one I don’t want to tell to much about yet, hehe.

TC: Are there any projects out there that you would love to work on?

MH: I do a weekly video game podcast (www.10thmusepodcast.com) with some developers I work with and in one episode we discussed working on a project you love and whether or not you would want to. I named MGS as my favorite series and said I would never work on it. It’s something that I never want to know the inner workings of. If I could name one project currently out there that I would want to be a part of it would be the next Street Fighter. I love that series as well but it’s something I feel I could sink into without ruining my final experience.

TC: You do a lot of fan work, Gargoyles, Batman, EXO- Squad. If you were going to helm the revival of a classic property would there be one you chose above all others?

MH: Exo-Squad all the way. I know it had a decent fan-base but I feel it needs another chance. The show was so well done it needs to be in front of a new audience. Plus, the characters have so much going on they would be a blast to re-design.

TC: You are a concept designer for Slipgate Ironworks and they’re working on a new MMO, can you tell us anything about the work you have been doing?

MH: All I can really say is we have been working on it for a good amount of time, putting a lot of effort into doing it right. I have been on the project for over three years and it brings new challenges every day. As one of the concept artists I basically work at defining every little nook and cranny of the world we are creating. Mountain, monsters, spoons… nothing goes untouched!

TC: You have gotten a lot of response to your Batman Villains series that you put up in your Deviant Art gallery. Was there a villain you like working on more than the others?

MH: I had a lot of fun on Mr. Freeze and the Phantasm. Both of them I like where I ended up with the characters and the painting process was fun on both… especially the Phantasm. I always thought she was a cool character. They have all been a blast to do. I had a rule for myself that if they weren’t fun, then I was doing it wrong. I’m very glad people have been digging them.

TC: You seemed to bring a freshness to the villains, we have seen many of the classic rouges gallery done by many different artists and its always a treat to see them reworked, the update to Ivy and the way you added little touches to Mr. Freeze to give it a more modern look, have there been other rouge galleries you have considered working on?

MH: Not really. At least not as a series where I would stick to the baddies. I find Batman’s rogues gallery to be the most compelling. I wouldn’t mind just doing the same thing for a different property, but it would be the whole cast.

TC: Was it intentional for the Riddler image ended up looking like Freddy Mercury?

MH: Haha, nope. I think that’s you internalizing.

TC: Are there any plans on breathing some new life into the Batman supporting cast? Perhaps Jim Gordon or the always-classic Alfred?

MH: I definitely have been thinking about it. I just have to find the time!

TC: I really want to thank you for taking some time to sit down and talk.

MH: Thanks a lot for having me.

You can check out more of Mikes work at his DeviantART page Zatransis and his podcasts at 10th Muse Podcast

Evan “DOC” Shaner has been delighting fans web wide for the last few years with his crisp lines and his pulp inspired imagery. He took some time out of his busy schedule to sit down with me and chat about art life and inspirations.

TC: Welcome Evan I would like to start by asking you what were you biggest inspirations when you were growing up, your work seems to display a lot of references from the Pulp era as well as touches from the age of high adventure such as Jonny Quest and Tin-Tin, what would you say were your biggest influences when you were a kid?

ES: I actually grew up reading a lot of the newspaper strips, thanks to my Dad and Grandfather.  Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, etc.  I watched the Batman cartoon on television, but I wasn’t really aware of comic books.  As far as pulp stories, Zorro might be about the closest thing I can think of but for the most part I didn’t get into that kind of stuff until much later on.  Basically, Charles Schulz and Bill Watterson were the big two for me. As far as the high adventure stuff, I was really into Jonny Quest and Indiana Jones, anything along those lines.  I know The Rocketeer was a favorite of mine as well.

TC: Did you start out on comics at a young age, or were they something you found your way into later in life?

ES: I’ve been drawing as far back as I can remember.  I didn’t really get into comic books specifically until I was 16 or so, late in high school.  Up until then it was pretty much all about the humor strips in the newspapers.  I would do a couple cartoons for the school newspaper every year, and spent most of my time drawing little gags for friends.  My mom always said she was worried I was going to get in trouble at school because I spent more time drawing in notebooks than paying attention.

TC: Whose work do you most look forward to? Now I know this is a hard question, but I will make it flat out, I’m not asking you to put one artist in front of another or to rank them in any way, I love so many artists but there are a few that I spend a lot of time waiting around for, are there any particular artists that you always get a bit excited when you see or that you wait for to come out? How about writers?

TC: Who do you attribute your development as an artist to? Mother, Father, Covers to old Pulp Magazines, what pushed you to be where you are today?

ES: Specifically as an artist I’m not sure, I’m the only one in my family who really draws.  My parents have always been unbelivably encouraging when it comes to my aspirations, I think partially because our family is pretty well involved with the arts.  My father, aunt, grandfather, and grandmother are all music teachers of some kind, so that mentality is just something I’ve grown up with.  My Dad gave me his old collection of the Peanuts paperbacks at an early age, and my Grandfather always let me borrow his books whenever I asked, so a healthy appetite for reading always helped.

TC: Paint Chips is amazing, and I wonder if you are ever going to revisit it, I still have a printed out version of the bowling balls from back in 07 that had me laughing so hard, I almost cried.

ES: Ha, I can’t believe people still remember specific gags like that.  Paint Chips started as a way for me to do something other than editorial cartoons, which paid well but I was bored to tears writing and drawing about school.  I think after college I was a little burnt out on humor strips, but I’d love to return to that if I get the chance.  Some of those Paint Chips are my favorite work from that time.

TC: On that note are we going to see anymore of the old characters, Roger the Bad Joke Yeti has always been a favorite of mine.

ES: Those always started in kind of a Mad Libs fashion.  I’d take a relatively normal sounding name and just stick it on some monster and give them an obscure affliction.  Like Steve the Thrifty Wolfman, it was all just nonsense for nonsense’s sake.  At some point I had plans for Derek, the vampire who liked stage musicals, but I don’t think I did anything with him.  Again, that’s something I’d love to come back to if I get the chance to.  Roger was always one of my favorites.

TC: Has there been any development on 1990 Gettysburg project?

ES: Oh man, I didn’t realize people were aware of that.  That was something I had looked at starting last fall as a way to start writing humor stuff again and just getting myself on a daily deadline of some sort.  Of course as soon as I had set it all up paying work came in and that ended up taking priority.  I haven’t been able to work on it since.  I thought it was a cute little idea though, and maybe I’ll get to do something with it in the future.

TC: Brothers Gordon. Always seem to creep up in both your blog and your journal I have for many years now wondered where you are going with them, what is there story, what are you future plans for these two. I understand you may not be able to talk about it, but if you are please feel free.

ES: The Brothers Gordon is something I’ve been working on for the better part of 2 years and comes from my love of books like Bone and Rocketo, working with really broad storytelling in a longer form.  To be honest, I probably won’t start a page on it for at least another 5 years.  Every time I think I’m finally ready to officially start working on pages I think of something else that changes it in some way story-wise.  At this point I’d just like it to gestate and see where it goes.

TC: Your work as of late has been reflective of more of a sequential nature, you have started to post cell pages on your DeviantART page and Brothers Gordon seems like it will become a graphic novel if not a web comic of sorts. Have you given any thought to if and how you want your work to be published? Would you prefer to go though a main stream source such as Marvel or DC or would you rather work out of an independent publisher?

ES: You have guys like Mitch and Francis to thank for me starting on sequentials, they’ve both really been pushing me to start thinking about storytelling as it relates to comic books.  It’s definitely a learning process for me, as I haven’t done anything like this up until now.  I’m really enjoying it though.  That’s a large part of why I haven’t been posting as many pinups and other such illustrations lately. As far as Brothers Gordon is concerned, it probably goes without saying that it would probably have to be at an independent publisher.  I haven’t put a whole lot of thought into specific companies yet, I’m just trying to concentrate on writing a solid story first to even start pitching.  It would definitely be in book form though, akin to Bone or Mouse Guard, or Kazu Kibuishi’s great work on Amulet.  I’d love to do a book at Scholastic even if it doesn’t end up being Brothers Gordon.  And as it stands right now, the major overall story is in three parts. I’d always thought I’d be working in newspapers, and despite the notion that they seem to be a dying form, I’d still love to do a newspaper strip.  A revival of the Steve Canyon/Terry and the Pirates type would be too much fun.

TC: If given the chance, what current book would you want to work on as an artist or writer?

ES: As far as mainstream books go?  I love the Fantastic Four and would really love to do anything involving them, especially the Thing.  I really like the original 5 X-Men too, there’s a lot of charm in that team.  Of course, doing anything with the Flash would be a blast too, same goes for Captain Marvel and Plastic Man.  And I’m a huge fan of DC’s “historical” characters.  Any of the western characters like Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, Powwow Smith, or any of the war characters like Sgt. Rock, Unknown Soldier, or the Losers.  You could pick any one of those and I’d be in heaven.  Not sure if I could tackle them as a writer, but regardless I’d really enjoy it.

TC: I would like to thank you so much for your time Evan

You can see more of Evan’s work at his Blog and his DeviantART page (more…)

Sean Gordon Murphy was born in Nashua New Hampshire in the fall of 1980. He went to Catholic school, like so many of us, and got interested in comics in grade school and spent many afternoons of his childhood drawing instead of making friends.

His formal education started in Salem, NH as an apprentice to Leslie Swank, a local painter, cartoonist and World War 2 vet. After graduating Pinkerton Academy in 1999 he attended the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and then the Savannah College of Art and Design. He started working professionally on titles like Star Wars and Noble Causes before he graduated from S.C.A.D. and moved to Hollywood. DC comics offered him titles like Batman/ Scarecrow: Year One, an amazing story arc with the best drawing of the Boy Wonder I have ever seen. In 2005 Sean published his first original graphic novel called Off Road, which went on to win an American Library Association award for young adults. Currently, he is living in Brooklyn New York with his girlfriend Colleen and there two dogs, Red and Luna. While, working on many projects including Hellblazer and meeting all his deadlines, Sean still agreed to give me an interview.

TC: It is typical when reading about comic artists to hear them go one and on about how they dreamed about drawing Spiderman or Superman. When they were kids, they would practice for days and days to get the S or the Cape or the Webbing right. You have a piece that you have posted in your Deviant ART gallery (I will put a link in here) where you show your childhood heroes. The image includes The Rocketeer, Snake Eyes, The Gray Ghost, Zorro, Gambit, Henry Rollins, Indiana Jones, Cap. Picard with a Tommy gun (more than likely from the holodeck) and Albert Einstein with a Buster Sword, and Madmartigan.

Now while I have a deep love, respect, and for the most part collection of statues of all of these characters, I find it interesting that your childhood heroes do not consist of the normal mainstream characters. Could you tell me a little about your influences as a child, and the type of books, comics, films, music, you were into as you were developing your skills as an artist?

SM: My first comic was Spider Man and his fantastic friends…or something like that. I bought Spider Man just for the art, and I’d only get the issues where he was in his costume a lot. Back then I was the type of reader that, these days, I hate. But I was only a kid, so it’s understandable. How can grown men still be into books where people dress in tights? I don’t know.

I was influenced by all the same stuff that you were probably influenced by: superheroes, science fiction, cartoons, etc. Each generation has interchangeable icons. In each of us is a longing to read about things that seem greater than ourselves, be it a soldier, a spaceman, or a cowboy. I’ll always feel nostalgia for those things.

Maybe what changed my perception was being a professional. Now that it’s a career choice I find myself looking for ways to stand out. And as easy as it would be to do an X-Men pinup and sell it at a con with the HUNDREDS of other X-Men pinups, I decided to throw in things more unexpected. A pinup with all the characters that I included? Well I like to think that it might say a little more about me than a pinup with just Wolverine. Putting Wolverine with Indy Jones? Now that’s personality.

For other influences, I have to say that they were pretty unremarkable. I didn’t rebel as a kid, I listened to adults, I listened to the Beach Boys, I did my homework. I wish I was cool enough to discover punk back then, but that didn’t happen until later. Now that I’m older I guess I’m making up for lost time.

TC: Your first original graphic novel titled Off Road takes a very personal look at the life of the main character, Trent and his trip home from art school. It seems very autobiographical. Can you tell me a little about what your mindset was when you were writing the book?

SM: For Off Road my goal was to simply write a competent story. I wasn’t trying to be Shakespeare or to blow people away with a magnum opus because I knew it was my first book. At the very least I wanted to have something that accomplished what it set out to do. To this day it’s still my favorite thing I’ve done. I’m really happy with the humor, the pacing, and most of the art.

TC: I would like to ask you about Punk Rock Jesus. I have been excited about reading it since I heard some mention of it on your web site a long while back. Can you tell me more about the project?

I’d prefer we not put this on the web, because I’m worried about how many other people are writing clone Jesus stories in Hollywood right now. Hope that’s okay.

TC: That’s more than all right, I completely understand. I would like to ask, with the nature of media and public perception in regards to the subject matter of this project do you think that when this books comes out there will be any backlash?

Yes I think there will be backlash. And I hope I can handle it. I’m an atheist but the book isn’t PRO atheism. It’s not a threat to any particular person, although I know it’s unavoidable that someone will get upset. I want it to represent many different mindsets equally in terms of how people view things like religion, science and politics. The book is mainly about those three things crashing into each other. But my goal isn’t to offend. My goal is to get comic book readers thinking about things that they normally wouldn’t think about.

But I’m willing to put myself in the line of fire to get my point across. Too many comics play it safe. I mean, what was the last groundbreaking comic we had? Watchmen or The Dark Knight? That was 20 years ago. Shame on us.

If I have to go break publishing the damn thing myself, then that’s what I’m going to do.

TC: I would like to end the article with a question about something you said back in 2008.

You said,

“I’m not shitting on the industry. In fact I love it so much for its potential that it infuriates me when people do things that detract from its credibility.”

This has stuck with me on the same level as such phrases as “To boldly go where no man has gone before” or “Gone, Gone, oh form of man…” I take a hard look at comics when I write, and a lot of times my editor likes me to scale back my bashing for fear of alienating people. I often get painted into a corner because I love comics so much, but I don’t back off when someone does something that I feel is more an act of a company man trying to sell a product and not of an artist or writer who is trying to craft a good story. I wonder if you would speak on the industry for a moment. Just your feelings about it, what it means to you, why you think comics are impotent.

SM: Well, to start out positive, I think comics are a great escape. They surely take readers to far off places and away from their daily lives. I like comics as an outlet for art. And I love its difficult nature: no one will ever fully understand the complexity of what it means to put a picture with some words.

But I don’t like what comics are doing. I don’t like how disconnected the process is, especially at the mainstream level. 10 people working on the same book with bad communication is a bad way to tell a story. Still, I understand WHY it’s like that (as far as a business is concerned) I just wish the professionals would strive for more and think about the LEGACY of comics and not the quick paychecks.

But in a way, we’re getting EXACTLY what we want. People who complain about the quality of the writing and the art that they’re buying don’t see how THEY’RE actually contributing to the problem. Your dollar is a vote, and you vote for more “bad” Spider Man (assuming we’re talking about a Spider Man complainer) each time you buy a copy. Marvel is reacting to YOU. You’re getting what you deserve. If we really wanted smarter comics then we wouldn’t be buying 90% of what’s published, and eventually the big two would find writers who delivered that new demand. It’s not proper to say “I want to change comics” but rather “I want the readers to want more for themselves”. But you can’t do that over night.

I understand that people lead boring lives and we all need to entertain ourselves, but at some point I think each person should ask themselves how much bad entertainment should they be experiencing? If we’re all afraid of the future (bad economy, war, etc) then it upon each of us to do something about it, and learning is a good start. Comics, reality TV, and Michael Bay movies are fine but at what point is the viewer going to take the responsibility to improve him/herself and start getting involved with the world and make a difference? I worry that the average comic reader is too involved in comics and doesn’t know enough about the world around him. And if everyone in the country spent as much time reading comics as they did, then how informed/prepared can we be when it comes time to make difficult decisions on government, the environment, or war?

TC: I want to thank you so much for this opportunity to pick your brain. You are a personal hero of mine and I know my readers appreciate you taking some time to answer a few questions.

SM: My pleasure. Usually I don’t like interviews because I feel the interviewer is struggling to find questions. And they’re usually the same questions: how I started, what my day’s like, etc. This has actually been some of the best questions I’ve ever gotten because I can tell that you care. And that’s a compliment to me.

For more about Sean Murphy check out Seangordonmurphy.com and SeanGordonMurphy on Deviant ART.

Tags: Comic's, Death Knives, interview with sean murphy, Madhouse, Sean Murphy, sean murphy interview

So I need to do this, for clarification as much as for personal reasons. It needs to get out of the way so I can stop feeling like its lurking out there like the proverbial elephant in the room.
I have a deep adoration for Alan Moore. His work has saved my life, literally. It has pulled me out of the dark moments and is always there for me when I need it. I look upon the pages of V for Vendetta and Saga of the Swamp Thing like a priest would look fondly upon the Bible. Comics are my religion Alan is my God and Neil Gaiman is my Jesus. So that being said, I am going to very briefly talk about Watchmen.

If you groaned or rolled your eyes or anything of that nature, fuck off and go play with your back issues of Spider-Man clone saga, I am going to have my say, and if you want to read it, continue.

I have not, nor will I ever see the film that is called Watchmen. I will not stop people from seeing it, its not my place to decide what choices people make, but I cant see the film because my convictions and allegiance to the man who showed me that a patch of moss could be a hero. From what I have seen about the way the material and Alan have been treated I cannot be part of the machine that is running rampant.

When I see things like children’s costumes of Rorschach and Doctor Manhattan my skin crawls and I have to click the home button on my browser bar. Sitting in local bars and listening to puffed up people talking about the film like they have some knowledge of the material it is based on gives me flash backs to listing to people claimed to have spartens after they saw 300.

So here is my take on the film. Fuck Zack Snyder. When the international trailer of 300 came out and there was a hidden frame of Rorschach’s mask in it I was excited. When Zack went to the press and said that he was going to stay true to the comic I was on cloud nine, when I found out Alan was not going to be attached to it I got worried, when I found out that it was going to be less than 4 hours I was starting to lose all hope. As things played out, I realized that this was not my Watchmen, it was not Alan’s Watchmen it was some sort of media abomination, some thing crafted to sell tickets it was not going to be true to the material it was not going to be anything close to what I wanted.

When I read that Alan did not want it to be made, I knew that it should not have been made, people will say a lot of things, but here you will get my opinion. I think its bull shit that someone who clams to love comics can take something like Watchmen something as religious, as influential as Watchmen something as powerful something with a message, something that has meaning, and just spit in the face of the creator and go ahead with a project with no regard for the hand that created it, I think anyone, company, thing, whatever that can do that, has lost all my respect.

So from the mouth of the man who clams comics as his religion with all the conviction of the Pope himself, a man who has lost blood for comics, who has gone to the hospital for fights over the validity of comics as an art form, I have lost all respect for Warner Brothers. Short of returning the rights of Watchmen to Alan and publicly apologizing for the travesties they have committed, I will no longer trust them. I will support artists and writers, because they are talented and they care and they have families to support, but I will no longer support Warner Brothers or Zack Snyder.

I have faith and convictions and I will not let pop culture, mass media and money every sway those decisions. My name is Tony Chromatic and I will not yield, by the holy blade of Saint Conan himself, we will change the world, if your with me, then stand with me, but even if your not, I will not stop until comic writers and artists are treated with the respect they deserve. This is my word.

Change is coming.

Rage, in psychiatry, is a mental state that is one extreme of the intensity spectrum of anger. When a person experiences rage it usually lasts until a threat is removed or the person under rage is incapacitated. The other end of the spectrum is annoyance.

Rage, in my office, happens when someone takes something well thought out and inventive and uses the corporate staple gun to attach an over merchandised past its prime tired ass story to it for no other reason than they really cant let original material shine without the all consuming shadow of the tired Canadian with death knives.

Lionsgate and Marvel Studios have decided to get together and make something that is both haggard and used up like some cheap two bit whore and something fresh and sweet like one of those high played hookers you see on all those VH1 shows. This twenty-dollar dose of duality in a box is titled Hulk VS.

Oh joy and happy days, Marvel has done another one of its rush job animations. The box art was less than impressing consisting of an almost cubist version of the Hulk and two over worked drawings of Thor god of thunder and Wolverine. Imp normally a fan of Canadian born artist Kaare Andrews but his lines feel flat on the cover of the DVD and the appearance of Wolverine on the cover of yet another Marvel product did little to excite me. But the thought of some Siamese twin double feature drew me into the Marvel tent like the promise of the elephant man or a lobster boy. Once inside the tent I was both repulsed and strangely overjoyed.

I had seen way too much of Wolverine by the time I was ten so I went for the Hulk VS. Thor episode first. The fingerprints of Madhouse were all over this thing. The lines were clean, the normal bubble animation that Marvel seems to wallow in was left behind for really clean colors and well placed shadows and angels. There was something else, something I had not seen in a Marvel animation before, somewhere between Loki possessing the Hulks mortal body and Thor pounding on him with all the fury a Thunder God can muster, there was a plot, and a really well put together one at that.
The All Father, Lord of the Hallowed Halls, Grim, He who is Death unto himself, Odin goes into an Odinsleep where he sleeps for a week to regain his power. During that week all manor of beasts attack Asgard trying to take the All Fathers kingdom for their own. So Loki kidnaps Bruce Banner and drags him into Asgard. He forces Bruce to become the Hulk and then casts out Banner taking over the Hulk and rolling on the Hallowed Halls.  Thor and Hulk throw down for a long wile getting all shades of bloody in the process. Thor eventually uses the power of Mjolnir, that’s is magic hammer for those of you out of the loop, to separate Loki’s control on the Hulk from the body of the Hulk. This leads to more issues because now there is just a raged out Hulk tear assign though Asgard kicking puppies and smashing houses. It gets typical for a bit when Loki and Thor have to team up to fight the Hulk but there is a really well done peace where Bruce Banner is in the underworld having vivid dreams of a normal life he has to give up to merge with the Hulk and eventually stop him from destroying Asguard. In the end they even do this really well done homage to the old live action TV show where Bruce Banner is walking down a barren highway, thumb out and trying to hitch a ride. It wrapped well, a nod to geek culture and a fresh story so it was a pretty nice surprise.

So coming off a well put together story about the big green monster man beating down on the thunder god I turned my attention to Hulk VS. Wolverine.

What a peace of shit that was. I can’t tell you how many times I have sat though the “origin story” of Wolverine. They may as well not have even called it Hulk Vs. Wolverine, they should have just called it Weapon-X or Wolverine Origins or some other re has title, the Hulk only plays a minor role, characters from project Weapon-X even get more face time and dialoged than Hulk does, it really just takes us down the same tired path. The worst part is not even the fact that I sat though the whole thing for the millionth but the fact that the voice actor decide to make Wolverine sound like Batman from the Dark Knight. All raspy and wana be Clint Eastwood, but he did it in a way that there were points that Wolverine sounded like he should have been on Coffee Talk. I don’t understand the need to constantly put this death knife wielding chain-smoking character on everything they stamp their little Marvel logo on. There seems to be no facet of the Marvel Universe that this guy does not show up in.  He’s ended up on covers of books he’s not even featured in, its almost as if they think by putting him on things they will somehow make people pick up there shitty books. After seeing the Hulk Vs. Thor I really thought there was some hope for Marvel, like they may have put something out that was not just some tired bull shit they constantly flood the market with, I was really excited it was like seeing a sun rise, only to open the front door and see some tired ass Canadian with death knives in his hands camped out on your lawn shitting in the bird feeder.

My recommendation is that we go strait into surgery to perform a head from ass removal and toss the offending Wolverine twin into a dumpster.

The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long-term behavior of the system. So this is sometimes presented as esoteric behavior, but can be exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position.

If a butterfly flaps its wings in Antarctica then some shit is about to go down in an apartment in Washington D.C., or something to that effect anyway. It seems to be the accepted norm in general comicdome (fuck you its a word) that everything story is somehow connected. That is to say Spiderman, Iron man and The Hulk  (or whatever DVD, major motion picture or Saturday morning cartoons that there trying to pimp) all somehow went to school with the same cross eyed goat lady and she eventually will grow up and harbor some hate for them all that will cause her to use her cross eyed goat powers to bring completely unrelated character’s together for some sort of nonsensical adventure where they bitch at each other for the first quarter of the story, they then get overwhelmingly attacked and as the formula dictates they finally learn to work as a team and defeat the goat lady and all her can chewing cross eyed splendor. ALL HAIL THE DEATH OF GOAT LADY, unless someone feel the need she needs to come back, and then just like some biblical allegory old cross eyed goat woman shall rise from the dead, most assuredly more powerful than before, and now need for some friends of her own, she will team up with known super villains, aliens, or terrorists whatever the flavor of the week is just to wreak more havoc until the super hero’s can get even more popular hero’s to join there happy band. Witty banter and a clash of ideals ensue and eventual after beating the reader over the head with some loosely constructed political message or some other such CNN inspired bullshit, the cross eyed goat woman is once more defeated. Ho-fucking-ray, its finally over. After six months of wading though adds for Honda Civics and Anti –Smoking aimed to change my perception of the world, the viral cross contaminating of characters and franchises is finally over.

Sadly no, a fucking epidemic is sweeping the comic book world. Now every Tom, Dick, and chain smoking Canadian with death knives lodged in his knuckles seems to be popping up in ever fucking comic book across the board. While comic cross over’s pop up now and again most people site that the symptoms of the newest outbreak were first seen in the pages of DC comics. The story arc known as “Identity Crisis” a seven issue series that actually made sense and had real world changing events in it. I thought the pacing was spot on, it was seven issues long and honestly one of the best constructed major comic “EVENTS” I had not only bought but enjoyed reading in at least the last ten years. It sold out multiple times and was hailed as one of the best series of all time. The cash trucks were making ten deliveries a day, and then the outbreak happened.  Marvel wanting to cash in on the new resurgence of “world changing events” and “major hero cross over’s” shat out “House of M” some kind of strange time jumping mental world dream within a dream bull shitery. This story is complete with phantom pregnancies, Nosebleeds and Tricky Dick Nixon. Lucy for us it was only eight issues long and when it was over, not much in the Marvel world had changed.  Some mutants lost their powers but got them back, they rewrote Wolverine’s origins yet again, a new coat of ink was painted on the same old chit, but nothing really changed.  Back at DC comics the infection was spreading with “52”, a year long confusing romp through every fucking character in the DC universe that at its conclusion became Countdown, yet another year long fuck fest of second string hero’s and so called world changing events that really changes the normally state of things about as much as fucking a bag of marshmallows changes your hair color. Marvel Comics also shows singes of fresh outbreaks of this herpes like infection. With their “Civil War” crossover. “Civil War” reads like some history students fan fic mixing the Second World War and Marvel Comic characters. It centers on a “Superhuman Registration Act” a concept covered in gods knows how many other comic story lines.  Even the writers of the rot have gone on record as saying that it’s a “political allegory” and that the focus of the book was not “ Superhero’s fighting each other”. What ends up happening is that Captain America fights for the non registration of the superhero’s and Rich Boy and techno mogul Tony Stark / Iron Man wants to have all super powered hero’s registered with the government. It ends with Cap putting down his weapons and stopping the bloody conflict, giving in to the Government and letting himself be arrested. He is soon shot and killed, and the public attention to comics goes off the charts much like the “Death of Superman” did a few years ago. The infection grew and evolved into what is now “Secret Invasion” Now any character that exists in the Marvel Universe may be a shape-shifted alien. The writers have clamed that this is going to be the “one hell of an end” to the bullshit infection they started in 2004 when we first noticed this was an epidemic. My only hope is that Dum Dum Dugan saves the day, as there are whispers around the comic shelves that there revamping the old characters to help them inoculate the plague they have contaminated the genre with.

My prescription, take 200mg of Prozac and a big ass helping of my foot up your ass. 

 

~Tony Chromatic 8/23/2008