For many in
Utah comic-book circles, being independent isn't just a choice its almost
habitual. But the ideal of creating your own miniseries for the area and even
the country to pick up is becoming more viable over time and has started to
shift Indie into the spotlight. And that trend is catching on with major writers
and artists as well.
--- This
Saturday over at Dr. Volt's, the co-creators of the comic Underground
come to town for a signing and to promote the new series they have coming. But
before they arrive I got a chance to chat with both Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker
about their careers and the titles they've worked on, as well as thoughts on the
industry itself and the new book.
Steve Lieber
http://www.stevelieber.com/
Gavin: Hey Steve, first off, tell us a bit
about yourself.
Steve: I’m an illustrator in
Portland, Oregon. I was born in Pittsburgh, PA, and studied comic book art at
the Joe Kubert School. I’ve worked on characters and properties like
Batman, Superman, Hellboy, and Road To Perdition,
but I’m best known as the artist of the graphic novel Whiteout, recently
adapted by Warner Brothers as a movie starring Kate Beckinsale. I'm a founding
member of Periscope Studio, the largest studio of freelance comics artists in
North America.
Gavin: What first got you interested
in drawing. And what were some early comics you read early
on?
Steve: I remember copying Peanuts strips
out of the newspaper when I was really young. I was one of those kids for whom
escapist stuff was really important, and it wasn't that big of a leave from
wanting to read comics about cool stuff to wanting to draw them my self.
Gavin:
What was the big breaking point for your career in
comics?
Steve: Definitely Whiteout. I'd been
working in comics professionally for six or seven years, but nothing I'd drawn
had really clicked with readers. My skills weren't in tune with most of the
projects I'd been working on.
Gavin: How was it for
you working on the Whiteout series when it first
hit?
Steve: It was a dream project. I loved the
story, the setting, and the character, and I got to control the look of it. Most
comics from big publishers are done in a sort of assembly line, where the art
gets handed off from one artist to another to get it done. Not this book. Every
mark on the page was mine- my virtues, my quirks, my faults.
Gavin:
Offhand, what's your take on the film version that just recently came
out?
Steve: Haven't seen it yet. I'm really excited,
though!
Gavin: What was it like for you working at
DC, specifically with the Detective Comics and Gotham Central
series?
Steve: Detective wasn't the right
project for me. It was a giant storyline with lots of different artists and
writers doing different parts of the same story, and I felt like a fish out of
water. Gotham Central was a different- that was a real pleasure. My
"voice" as an illustrator was more appropriate for that storyline, and I think
the results were a lot better.
Gavin:
You also had a hand in Marvel's Civil War: Front Line for the first ten
issues. What was that experience like for you working with the majority of the
Marvel characters?
Steve: I was off in a mostly
unexplored corner of Marvel's Universe, and I had a
blast.
Gavin: How does it feel working on stories
that have been recognized by the Eisner
Awards?
Steve: It felt great, but it's important not
to take things like awards too seriously. If you believe them when they say you
did good, you have to believe them when they say you didn't. It's more important
to work to your own tastes.
Gavin:
After everything you've worked on so far, what's been your favorite series to
date and why?
Steve: Definitely the current one:
Underground. I love Jeff Parker's story. He's a mind-blowingly great
writer with the ability to switch from hilarious to horrifying with the turn of
a page. No one in comics can tell a story as well as he
does.
Gavin: Tell us about
Underground.
Steve: Wesley Fisher and Set
Ridge are Park Rangers in Marion, Kentucky, a small town without much in the way
of jobs or opportunity, but they do have a Stillwater Cave, a huge,
magnificently decorated cave that Wes wants to keep pristine. Some folks in town
want it opened to the public as a show cave- get some tourists, bring in some
money. A conflict in the cave with some local guys that should've stopped at
words spirals out of control, and before long, Wes and Seth are running for
their lives through the dark. That cave is a dangerous, unforgiving environment,
and even a small mistake can easily lead to horrible injury or death. We've put
entire whole first issue up for free on our website.
Gavin:
How did you and Jeff come together to work on it, and what's the creative
process like for you both?
Steve: I knew I wanted to
do a realistic crime-thriller set in a cave, and I even wrote and drew a short
story as a kind of "pilot episode" , but I just couldn't figure out what made
the characters tick. That's where Jeff Parker came in. We share a studio, and
I'd been telling him cool stuff about caves for years, lending him books and
videos, so when I brought him in he was primed for
it.
Gavin: How long will this initial series run and
do you have any plans for more afterward?
Steve: It's
a five issue story. I've got an idea for something else we can do with one of
the characters, but that's not on the schedule fright
now.
Gavin: A little industry-wise, what are your
thoughts on the state of comics today?
Steve:
I don't think there's ever been a better time to be interested in comics. The
best work of previous decades is available in affordable reprints or archival
editions. There's a flood of fine work from other countries available in
English. Cartoonists who want to undertake a big, ambitious project know that
there's a market for such things. And the cartoonists who want to do such things
are sticking with the medium and getting better. There are more women and girls
buying comics and creating comics than there have been in many, many years. And
every year there more and more artists are able to support themselves as
web-based cartoonists, telling their own stories to intensely loyal
audiences.
Gavin: Is there anything you feel could be
done to make them bigger or better these days?
Steve:
That's for every cartoonist to decide for himself. Or
herself.
Gavin: Who are some writers and artists you
recommend people check out in comics today?
Steve:
I'll buy absolutely anything by Jaime Hernandez, Carla Speed McNeil, or Joe
Sacco. Jim Ottaviani's doing nifty work with his books about scientists. Robert
Kirkman's Walking Dead is addictive as heck. On the web, I love Erika
Moen's DAR (http://darcomic.com) It's alternately filthy and sweet. Also
Chris Onstad's Achewood is a dazzling achievement. Read one strip and
you'll have no idea what you're looking at. Stick with it long enough to get to
know the characters and you'll be addicted for life.
Gavin:
Do you have any advice for people trying to break into
comics?
Steve: Produce complete stories and publish
them as minicomics or put them on the web. Keep doing it and getting better.
Build your audience.
Gavin: Is there anything you'd
like to plug or promote?
Steve: I'm the co-author of
The Complete Idiot's Guide To Creating A Graphic Novel. There's a revised
edition coming out this November.
Jeff
Parker
http://www.parkerspace.com/
Gavin: Hey Jeff! First off, tell
us a little bit about yourself.
Jeff: I'm a failed
artist. Not entirely, I made a living for quite a while just on drawing- for
comics, animation, live action storyboards. But I seem to be much faster and
connect better with people by writing. It's all storytelling, which is my
overall forte. I can't believe I said "forte."
Gavin:
What first got you interested in writing. And what were some early comics you
read early on?
Jeff: I loved Dennis The Menace
comics. And even though I didn't know the names of the artists, the stories I
gravitated to were the ones drawn by Al Wiseman.
Gavin:
How did you eventually get involved with
Solitaire?
Jeff: I had sent art samples to
Malibu, in that case it was a few pages of Fantastic Four that I made up. Hank
Kanalz liked them and soon I was drawing steadily for them- until Marvel bought
the company and ended it!
Gavin: What was the big
breaking point for your career in illustrating?
Jeff:
I don't think I ever had one, but if I did it was The Interman, the
adventure I wrote and drew in 2003. A problem with me as an artist is that I try
to morph my style into whatever the story calls for. That sounds like what you
should do, but the reality is that I never displayed a strong style that editors
would know what to expect of me. Also I'm not very good at hiding when a script
doesn't inspire me. You're supposed to be so pro that you can make even a lame
script look like a million dollars. I just can't make the necessary mental
separation. So I'm better off writing, where I can determine the foundation of a
story right off.
Gavin:
You've worked around for most every major company. Which has been your
favorite?
Jeff: I've clicked the most with Marvel-
they've given me the chance to tell so many different kinds of
stories.
Gavin: Over the years which series has been
the most rewarding for you to work on?
Jeff: So far
it's between Agents Of Atlas at Marvel and Mysterius The
Unfathomable at Wildstorm.
Gavin:
How did you eventually get involved with Virgin Comics, and what was that time
like for you?
Jeff:
MacKenzie Cadenhead who had been one of my editors at Marvel, went to work for
Virgin and asked me to pitch some things. Then one day she told me that they
wanted to develop some notions from Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. That was a
lot of fun, I got on the phone with Dave and he recounted a lot of his early
pre-Eurythmics career and this stage act he would do called Mr. Memory. It was a
gag where he couldn't remember anything the crowd said, but somehow out of that
came the idea for the book Walk-In. Actually, I remember- he wasn't even
talking about his main concept, he referred to the idea of a "walk-in" where an
entity from another world takes over your body. Not really possession, more
about switching places- and that led to the character Ian, notice I always pick
short names, who was having blackouts and strange visions. I love sci-fi like
that that doesn't at first look like sci-fi. So it was generally enjoyable,
though by the time I followed Andy Diggle on Gamekeeper, Virgin was
falling apart. They never had a clear plan for making money and in my opinion,
weren't really trying to sell their books. MacKenzie was gone by this point. If
you're publishing, you have to plan things so that the books pay for themselves,
you can't count on external media rewards.
Gavin: The
most recent series you've been working on has been Agents Of Atlas. How
did that opportunity come about, and what's it been like working on such an
interesting title?
Jeff:
Mark Paniccia at Marvel first asked if I could pitch the Secret Avengers from
What If #9 because he had a hunch that we could do something cool with
it. It took a while, but it got approved and Leonard Kirk came on as the artist.
Not many people read that miniseries, but those who did were loud about it- it
really stuck with them. The good buzz kept building and finally the set up of
Dark Reign gave us a natural entry point for a new series. Carlo Pagulayan and
Gabriel Hardman both came on as our main artists and suddenly the book took on
all kinds of gravity. I know a lot of artists who have Atlas on their pull list
because they have to see what these guys will draw next. I try of course to push
the stories into scenarios that appeal to me as an artist so they'll enjoy it.
Atlas is an odd balance. On one hand it should feel comfortable and hit your
nostalgia buttons, but at the same time it's all about subverting expectations.
I want the readers to not feel like they know where things are going. That's
established in the first series when instead of defeating the Yellow Claw and
his empire, Jimmy Woo decides to take charge of it. From that point you should
know that you're getting on a ride without a familiar map.
Gavin:
In all of your work, do you prefer being an artist or a writer, and
why?
Jeff: I really prefer writing because it works
with my patience level better. As an artist I'm so much slower. But I do plan to
draw my own stories again. I can't see drawing for another writer, I like
starting the ball rolling too much. Of course I say that, but I recently drew a
two pager in Uncanny X-Men: First Class that Roger Langridge wrote. But
that's different, Roger's a genius.
Gavin: How did
you and Steve come together to work on Underground, and what's the
creative process like for you both?
Jeff:
Lieber had the idea first, and acted like he planned to write it. But the whole
time, he kept telling me interesting facts about caves and showing me caving
videos and talking nonstop about prusiking and single-rope technique. Then he'd
casually mention story ideas he was tossing around, and before too long I'd been
lured in.
Gavin:
Do you have any plans for more afterward?
Jeff: This
is five issues, and along the way I did come up with something following up our
main character, but I think Steve is more interested in following one of the
supporting characters down a completely different vein- I'm not going to say
what it would be, but I really like the Coen Brothers type approach of branching
off in that way.
Gavin: A little industry-wise, what
are your thoughts on the state of comics today?
Jeff:
Really? I think we're on the verge of a paradigm shift, like we were when the
Direct Market was created. Except now we're about to move into the wider world
of digital. The iPhone style apps are moving fast, and soon we should be in
Kindle-style readers, which is a very natural fit for comics. I think this will
let us branch back out beyond superhero genre in a major way- essentially
getting comics back to where they were fifty years ago.
Gavin:
Who are some writers and artists you recommend people check out in comics
today?
Jeff: Two of my faves are in my studio, Paul
Tobin and Colleen Coover. They both do quite a bit of work for Marvel, but
together they have a graphic novel coming out from Top Shelf soon that is really
going to impress people. I don't think it's announced yet, so I won't name
it.
Gavin: Do you have any advice for people trying
to break into comics?
Jeff: Do your own comics. You
shouldn't set out wanting to tell Spider-Man's stories, you should aspire to
create something new and more personal. If you do quality stuff of your own,
you'll get work for hire as well, because editors look for talent in other books
more than samples. They have to know that you can finish a job and work with
others, in addition to being good. My main gripe is that a lot of new creators
seem to focus on being able to beat the worst of what they see in print: "Well I
can do better than this artist/writer." Don't shoot for the bottom, come out
gunning for the top. You want to be so good that your work can NOT be ignored.
Would you go into any other field aspiring to being mediocre, like "I could be a
passable attorney-afair-to-middling doctor who more or less keeps patients
alive- an engineer who can get by?"
Gavin:
What can we expect from you the rest of the
year?
Jeff: Spider-Man 1602 is coming up. Yes,
I totally set that up on purpose, I get irony. And that's been a really neat
project for me. I'm working with artist Ramon Rosanas, another world class
illustrator. I've been so fortunate to work with such heavy
hitters.
Gavin: Is there anything you'd like to plug
or promote?
Jeff: Just my
website.