Monday, June 7, 2010
Patric Reynolds
Posted By Gavin Sheehan on June 7, 2010, 12:48 AM
Of all the degrees you could get in the world, would you ever consider picking one up in sequential design? Or in more layman terms: comic book planning. With various subjects in fine arts found across the globe, along with the large audience of comic book fans aspiring to be writers and artists, the turnout for a serious degree is relatively low as only those who are serious about entering the field choose to apply and achieve the degree. Today we chat with one of the few people I know who sought out this degree and has successfully put it to good use.
--- Patric Reynolds sought out his Master's in the field and never looked back, working on titles out of the Dark Horse lineup, as well as being one of the fortunate people to get a shot at the Serenity one-shot comic that just barely hit the shelves last week. I got a chance to chat with the man himself about his life and career, the work he's done for Dark Horse, thoughts on the industry and its future, and a few other topics here and there. All with samples of his works for you to check out.
Patric
Reynolds
http://www.theredarmystudio.com
Gavin:
Hey Patric! First thing, tell us a little bit about
yourself.
Patric:
Wow. I should give you a little historical background first. I
spent the first twenty-two years of my life in Salt Lake City, but I moved to
Las Vegas to teach middle and high school art. After five years, I
decided that it was the closest that anyone ever gets to experiencing
hell. Everything about that job was so incredibly exhausting. I was
in my mid twenties and I felt like I was middle-aged, so I knew
something had to change. Then, out of the blue, the Savannah College
of Art and Design sent me a postcard in the mail telling me that they
were reviewing portfolios in Las Vegas that summer. I had applied to
SCAD when I was in high school, but I couldn't afford to go with
other siblings going to college as well. I guess they kept my name
on record since then, it must have been at least ten years. So I
went, applied, got accepted, and finished my Master's Degree in the
summer of 2009. Toward the end of the two years that I spent in
Savannah I began working for Dark Horse, and they've kept me busy
ever since. Some random, interesting facts that might tell you a
little more: My three favorite movies are “Donnie Darko”, “No
Country For Old Men”, and “The Iron Giant”. And I still sleep
on vintage 1980 Empire Strikes Back bedsheets.
Gavin:
How did you first get interested in comics, and what were some of
your favorite titles growing up?
Patric:
I really had just a passing interest in comics when I was a kid. My
first comic was some obscure Uncanny
X-Men issue, I can’t even
remember the title. followed by some of Dark Horse's Terminator and
Aliens stuff. I think I got interested in those because I loved the
films; they were coolest movies ever to a twelve year old. So when
Dark Horse's Robocop Vs. Terminator
came out, I totally had a nerd explosion. It was not one, but two
cool characters in a single series, and they were beating the crap
out of each other. So I started getting into more series, notably
The Maxx. But, it was
Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's Arkham Asylum
that actually made me start thinking about comics and realizing that
they could so much more than entertain. They can make you reevaluate
yourself and change the way you look at comics, but also how you
perceive reality in general. Asylum
did that. There were so many layers, so many secrets that it held...
it was painted, collaged, hell, there was even a fossil on the inside
front cover! I wanted to make something like that. I don't remember
wanting to be anything other than a comic book artist after I read
it. I think the final nail in the coffin (so to speak) was Bill
Sienkiewicz's Voodoo Child: The Illustrated Legend of Jimi
Hendrix. It was so beautifully
expressive and human, and it perfectly rendered its explosive subject
matter. It was just page after page of this tsunami of a human soul
gushing out in these little panels of possibility. I was no longer
look at a comic, but narrative art.
Gavin:
What first drew you toward artwork and drawing?
Patric:
Ah man... I think my mom started hanging up my little robot doodles
in her cubicle at work when I was about three. She would always
bring home re-appropriated pens, markers, and typing paper from work
for me to fiddle around with. Drawing was ingrained into my mind at
such a young age mostly because my mom kept everything and always
kept me busy. I can't remember not doing it. Then I got into
dinosaurs- everything about them fascinated me. In school, teachers
would give me extra drawing "assignments" to keep me from
bouncing off the walls, sometimes literally. In fact my third grade
teacher, Mr. Hastings, was so exhausted with me that one day he told
me to go and draw every dinosaur that I knew so he could “hang them
up in the hallway.” I think ended drawing about 100 of them. Then
I went back to bouncing off the walls.
Gavin:
Prior to comics you worked as a high school art teacher. What made
you pursue that career and how was it for you working with teens at
that level?
Patric:
Ha! Can I swear? Just kidding. It’s a very…interesting story.
When I graduated from Utah State with a BFA in illustration, my
parents and I thought "um.... so what now?" Illustration
is not an incredibly lucrative and stable career path. Although I
always wanted to draw for a living, it didn't seem like I could
support myself doing that. I never gave it a shot, thinking that
there was no way I’d ever be good enough. My parents and I thought
that teaching art might be a good way to earn a living, get health
benefits, and do art too. So I immediately went into this "Plan
B" without really considering Plan A. Representatives from Las
Vegas came down to Utah for the annual teacher fair, and I landed a
job teaching middle school in a pretty rough neighborhood down there.
And it was mostly awful. Las Vegas presents a unique problem. Its
hard to value education in a city where you don't even need a high
school diploma to work in a casino and earn more money than the
teacher of the class you're sleeping through. It’s easy to get a
hold of money, but just as easy to lose it. That created a transient
environment in every sense of the word. As a Las Vegas middle school
teacher (as any middle school teacher, really), you're not so much
teaching as you're just managing behavior and making sure kids don't
set things on fire. Anything "educational" about my
interaction with the students was probably incidental. I mean, you
have to tell them not to eat paint for goodness sakes. So, I didn't
have a whole lot of time to draw. When I transferred to a high
school in a more affluent neighborhood two years later I thought
"well, at least the students will be more self-motivated and
more like real adults." I didn't really find that to be the
case. Granted they didn't eat as much paint, but there were other
problems. My class sizes were huge (I had to 56 in a room one year),
and the students were bigger and more dangerous. One time I caught a
kid making a hollow point bullet with a pair of scissors in my class.
No lie. Another “advanced” student questioned quite loudly why
she should heed my artistic instruction when I was “just a
teacher.” After I got through being volcanically upset, I decided
to use comments like that as an opportunity. One thing I tried to do
was show them that I was an artist as well. If I wanted them to
trust me, they had to believe that I could do it, that I could be
successful. I started drawing an autobiographical comic on my own
(I'd eventually use that as my portfolio to get into SCAD's MFA
program), and I'd show them the progress I was making whenever I got
a chance. Credibility goes a long way when teaching students of any
age. They took to that pretty well. A lot of them read comics
anyway, so they also became motivated to learn on that level, too. I
definitely helped "turn the light on" inside some students'
heads, which made it hard to leave them behind. But I think that they
knew the life I had to lead.
Gavin:
Going back education wise, you attended Savannah College of Art &
Design and got your MFA in Sequential Art. What made you choose SCAD
and what was their program like for you there?
Patric:
SCAD has the unique distinction of being the only college in the
country to offer a complete degree program in Sequential Art. You
can actually earn a degree in comics. I was very surprised that
there weren't many classes that focused on teaching you how to draw,
at least at the graduate level. Although one drawing class, Paul
Hudson's Drawing for Sequential Art, all but destroyed me and my will
to live. Many classes focused on teaching you how to tell visual
stories, and to complete well-thought out concepts in very short
amount of time. This what a lot of editors in the comic industry
complain about when they look at portfolios; that students coming out
of school can draw just fine, but they have a hard time telling a
viable, engaging story. The faculty at SCAD is made of professionals
who have years of experience in the industry. John Lowe, Dean of the
College of Communications, has worked for every major comic book
publisher and still manages to ink Veronica
(the Archie Comics
spin-off) regularly. Professor Tom Lyle has spent the last 25 years
working for Marvel and DC Comics, working on Robin
and Spider-Man along
the way. It was through their years of acquired knowledge and
established networks that I began to learn what it took to be a
professional. But I had to want to learn in order to take full
advantage of their learning opportunities, even if it made me
uncomfortable or if my work suffered or lacked confidence. That's
basically what I took away from my experience at SCAD; I just learned
that I needed to keep learning. It is entirely what you bring to it.
I mean, no one needs a Master's Degree to draw comics. Just because
you have a degree in the profession does not mean you're getting
hired. The degree isn't the important thing. It doesn’t
automatically make you learn what it takes to be a successful
professional. Its the classroom experiences, working alongside other
talented people who are just as hungry and motivated as you are, and
constantly being held accountable for your own successes and failures
that make SCAD’s Sequential art program an invaluable experience.
I don’t think I could have got that anywhere else.
Gavin:
How did you officially break into the business and land a job with
Dark Horse?
Patric:
That's another good story. During the beginning of my last year in
graduate school, I began sending my portfolio off to every publisher
I could think of. But, I kept getting the same responses. It was
mostly "Great stuff, we'll show 'em around the office."
That went on for about nine months. I began to get nervous, since
school was almost finished. Then people began telling me that I
should start sending my stuff to artists and writers, since they
already have established connections with publishers. So one day I
sent my portfolio to Duncan Fegredo, who is a regular artist for Dark
Horse's HellBoy
series. Duncan was incredibly supportive and seemed to really like
what he saw and he said he'd pass the work along to Scott Allie, the
Senior Managing Editor at Dark Horse. The next day, Scott Allie
e-mailed me and said "Hey, good stuff... call me on my cell
phone and we'll talk possibilities." I still can't believe it.
Scott got me started on a little 8-page story for Dark Horse MySpace
Presents #23, and I think the
rest is history.
Gavin:
The first title you did was a one-shot of Abe Sapien. How was it for
you working on that title and the challenges you met now doing it on
a professional level?
Patric:
First off, it was the longest project I'd ever done professionally.
Up until that point I'd had done two little stories (the
aforementioned MySpace
Presents story and then a six-page
back story in HellBoy: The Wild Hunt #7),
and this project was 24 pages. Just the length was daunting. My
initial thought was "Man, that's a lot of pages with plenty of
room to screw up." I got nervous just reading the script,
because I thought I had to draw the hell of everything. I thought
that every panel had to be perfectly composed with the best possible
shot, since it was my first one-shot. I did a lot of over-thinking.
Also, I had to draw a licensed character (Abe Sapien,of course), so I
couldn't really deviate a whole lot from how he was depicted in past
issues. I really had to nail him, right down the placement of his
gills and his lack of fingernails. Other than that, writer John
Arcudi left a lot of the script interpretation up to me, which was a
very good thing in the long run. For instance, the Nokken creature
that appears in the end of the story wasn't described in a whole lot
of detail. John really wanted me to do explore its appearance on my
own. The only real lead he gave me was a Google image of a mass of
hair and two glowing eyes breaking the surface of the water.
Everything else was up to me. After some research I came up with the
creature you see in the book. Initially I didn't want to give it
eyes, so that it would seem more savage and emotionless. But, Mike
(Mignola), John and Scott wanted me to make it slightly more human,
eyes and all. And that was another challenge as well- having six or
seven people evaluate and approve everything you do before you move
on to the next page. I got a taste of that in graduate school during
critiques, but when you've got Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, John
Arcudi, and three other assistant editors looking over every panel,
it can give you the jitters. Sometimes changes had to made after I
drew them. For example, I had to go back and change Abe's outfit to
better suit the story, even after I had finished inking the pages,
and some panels had to be redrawn three or four times. One issue
that is inherent to the more realistic style that I choose draw in is
that sometimes the characters appear to be little "stiff"
or "posed." Scott wanted me to give the characters a bit
more life and fluidity like Frank Frazetta or Joe Kubert,
particularly with the action sequences. That became quite a
challenge in some panels because I use lots of photo reference, and
I'm used to drawing what I see. I dunno, that may be because I don't
trust my drawing skills or my imagination completely. Anyway,
Scott's point was that I have to make the characters believable, yet
extraordinary. There's a sequence in the book where Abe busts into a
kitchen in a panic and demands to see the possessed son. This is
were I had the hardest time trying to let go of the photo reference
and make Abe look like a tense, unhinged fish man. Scott kept
telling me to sell the emotion and the action, to look beyond the
reference a little bit deeper. I think after four tries Scott
approved the page. Scott obviously wants me to be the best artist
that I can be so I'm pretty thankful for all that, as painful as it
may have been initially. We learn things by doing them, there is no
other way.
Gavin:
Since then you've moved onto doing works for P.B.R.D.
and HellBoy.
What's it like for you working with those writers and creators on
titles and seeing your artistic touch on that world?
Patric:
My first gig was "And What Shall I Find There?", an eight-page
Dark Horse MySpace Presents story written by Josh Dysart.
It’s a spooky little story about Professor Broom's (HellBoy's
mentor and "father") first supernatural experience. Josh
is incredibly enthusiastic and supportive. We were talking on the
phone once and he said "yeah, man.. I'd like to work with you on
more stuff, because you ink like a motherfucker!" Josh wanted
me to do some more projects with him right after I finished the
story. Scott had already had me in mind for some other projects, so
unfortunately I wasn't able to collaborate with Josh at the time.
Scott Allie actually wrote the script for the next job I did, a
back-up story titled "The Burial of Katherine Baker" that
accompanied HellBoy: The Wild Hunt #7. Mike Mignola also
collaborated on that piece too, so the pages had to be approved by
him also. At the time, Mike didn't really know too much about me. I
think I kind of made him nervous while I was doing that little story.
He got a little concerned that the old man/demon villain was looking
a bit too much like Santa Claus. For someone who is unfamiliar with
the way I usually work, it would be hard for them to imagine the
final finished image. I do pencils and inks, but my pencils are more
like tight roughs, just contour lines and no shading. Most of the
work and detail is done at the inking stage. So when Mike got my
first pencils, I could understand why he was a bit apprehensive.
That in turn made me nervous, because I began thinking that if Mike
Mignola didn't like stuff I was doing and if I couldn't get his
characters and stories right, I'd be sunk. Scott reassured me that I
should keep on doing what I do, take suggestions, and keep plowing
ahead. I never really heard from Mike directly, usually his
suggestions and critiques would be passed down from Scott. In all of
the jobs I've done for Dark Horse, most of the direction and critique
I get is from Scott Allie himself. He's the guy who tells me to
consider different angles, change the acting, improve the
storytelling, etc. I have the most interaction with him, but every
once in a while the writer or creator would drop little suggestions,
too. When I got through about the halfway point of Abe Sapien, Mike
started contacting me directly with positive comments. He would say
things like "Wow, that shot of the burning Nix bursting through
the house is pretty nice." I was so thrilled to get that from
Mike Mignola that I think I called my mom and told her about it. As
far as adding my touch to the whole The HellBoy and B.P.R.D.
universes, I'm still a little demure about it. Those stories are so
distinctive and visually recognizable, with Guy Davis, Dave Stewart
and Duncan Fegredo creating that visual personality is such memorable
ways. I just hope my contribution isn't too jarring.
Gavin:
One of the more highlighted gigs you've gotten involved with
recently is the Firefly comic that will be written by Patton Oswalt.
How did you get involved with that project and how has that been
coming along?
Patric:
After I finished Abe Sapien, I needed another gig in the worst way.
I implored Scott about more work, and he said that Dark Horse was
working on securing an exclusive and licensed franchise (more on that
later) mini series, but it was pretty far off on the horizon. I did
some sample "audition" pages for that, but it was too far
away and I needed work to get me through the winter. Scott told me
that he had a script for a Serenity based one-shot in his
hands that focused on the character of Wash. He straight up told me
that he didn't have an artist for it yet, but he didn't know if I'd
be the right one for it. Most of my stuff is kind of bouncy and
organic, and he wasn't sure if my style lent itself to the sci-fi
genre too well. But ultimately he gave me a chance. He told me that
if I did a knock-out sample page and proved that I could handle
exterior spaceship battles and nailing likenesses of actors, then I'd
be considered for the job. Now, I had heard of the movie and
television series, but I'd never seen them. Scott suggested I watch
the movie and entire television series to get a good read on the
universe and characters within it, do some concept sketches, and then
come up with a sample page. I really enjoyed the movie, and thought
to myself "man, George Lucas should be taking notes."
After watching the whole television series, I couldn't understand how
or why it got canceled. The character relationships alone were
incredibly engaging and fulfilling, and I felt fortunate that I had a
chance to contribute to it. I ended up illustrating the "leaf
on the wind" scene from the movie, figuring that was the best
showcase for Wash's character. The page itself literally took me 24
hours, as I had to get used using rulers, designing multiple ships,
and using extraordinary perspective with my trusty crowquill pen. I
thought that using a technical pen would detract from the organic
quality I usually bring to a page, so I stuck with the old school
dip-pen. After I turned it into Scott Allie, we had this
exchange:
Scott: "Great! I'll just turn this in to
Joss and see what he thinks."
Me: "Joss...
WHEDON!?!?!"
Scott: "Yeah, he's got to approve
it."
Me: "Oh sweet Jesus..."
Patric: I had no idea that
it was going to Joss Whedon himself. That's probably a good thing,
though. Had I known beforehand, I might have exploded in a mushroom
cloud of nervousness. After a few weeks, Scott got back to me and
told me that we were on for the Serenity one-shot. I was thrilled.
It was definitely the sweetest gig Dark Horse had given me up until
then. But then I remembered how long one page took me, and now I had
to do 24 of them. The hardest part about anything is starting it,
and once I got into a routine it was easy to ride the momentum.
Twelve hour days were not uncommon, but Patton and Joss would
directly e-mail more positive comments and support, so I looked
forward to the challenge of the next page because I knew I must have
been doing something right. When I sent in the last page, Patton
replied "Home run." Man, I hope so.
Gavin:
One particular book I've seen from you is a black and white of John
Coltrane, which is very different from other material you've done.
What inspired you to do that and how have people reacted to that
work?
Patric:
I always loved John Coltrane's music. But I wanted to know more
about it, and I wanted to know why I liked it so much. So when the
SCAD sequential art department posted its call for entries for its
annual anthology, I thought John Coltrane would make good subject
matter for the "Biography" theme that year. But entries
were limited to eight pages, so I had to choose a part of Coltrane's
life, and not try to tell his entire life story. I had seen Ken
Burns' extensive documentary on jazz, particularly the "Masterpiece
By Midnight" episode that featured John Coltrane. I also read
Lewis Porter's biography "the Life and Music of John Coltrane,"
and I became fascinated by Coltrane's story. He believed that jazz
music was universal, and could "heal the corrupt and tortured
world." Coltrane thought that it was the musician's
responsibility to give the listener a "picture of the wonderful
things he senses" in the world. He was a like preacher
sermonizing to a congregation, trying to show you the path of some
kind of righteous understanding. People often wondered how he, or
any other jazz musician, could sustain those improvised 40-minute
solos in the upper registers on such a consistent basis. The physical
demands were astonishing. But, when an artist of any kind gets into
that frame of mind, what is physical? In that state, an artist
transcends that physical state, and ascends to something bigger than
themselves. When you hear John Coltrane, you can hear him
disconnecting, elevating, and finally bringing back something earnest
and spiritual. I don't know what that something is, but it’s
bigger than I am. It was like Coltrane found out what the world
would sound like when it became itself; free, united, and pure. He
was just the messenger. But something else that fascinated me about
Coltrane was his humanity. Coltrane lost both his father and
grandfather when he was eleven. The only thing John remembered of
his father was the sound of his banjo and violin being played from
behind the door of his room. John started playing music so that he
could remember those sounds, and therefore his father (not a single
photograph of John’s father exists). He got so obsessed with it
that he was given the keys to the church where he could practice into
the night. He needed to keep sustaining that energy, so he turned to
heroin. He got so wrapped up in it that Miles Davis kicked him out
of his band in 1957, punching Coltrane in the face backstage.
Coltrane then went home to Philadelphia, locked himself in his room
for two weeks, and had some kind of spiritual experience. The story
goes that here he made a deal with God that if he was given the
strength to kick heroin, he would do nothing but use his music for
good. Two weeks later, he comes out of his room, never does heroin
again, and commits himself to "becoming a saint." I
thought that would make a good comic short story, and I titled it
"Ascension." When I sent my work to Duncan Fegredo, those
pages were included. He said he really loved the title, so I guess
it turned out pretty good.
Gavin:
Very recently you relocated to Utah. What made you want to move
here, and how are you enjoying the community and location?
Patric:
Actually, I missed Utah after living in Las Vegas (the hottest place
on earth) and Savannah (the dampest place on earth) for the last
seven years. I had originally planned to move directly to Portland,
Oregon from Savannah when I graduated from SCAD. Tragically, my dad
and uncle were killed in a small plane crash last August. So I moved
back to Salt Lake to be closer to my family for a while and help out
wherever I can. What made that tragedy even harder was that I was
literally right in the middle of doing Abe Sapien: The Haunted
Boy, and I was about three weeks away from graduating from SCAD.
I had to fly home for two weeks and then fly back and finish both
school and the Abe story. But I know that's what my dad would have
wanted me to do. I couldn't not finish. When I finished Abe, writer
John Arcudi told me "you did great. Your dad would have been
proud." John's such a great guy- that really meant a lot coming
from him. I still have plans to move to Portland in the coming
months, but that all depends upon when I can get this next miniseries
done for Dark Horse. While I've been here, though, I discovered that
Utah has a pretty visible comic scene. I think that's helped in very
large part by Eisner award-wining distributor Night Flight Comics and
organizer Mimi Cruz, who have put together lectures and signings at
the Salt Lake Public with industry greats like X-Men mainstay
Chris Claremont, back on May 1st for Free Comic Book Day! I
was pretty fortunate to share a table space with Chris and artist
Bill Galvan (Archie, Simpsons), writer Jake Black (TMNT,
Supergirl), artist Brady Canfield (Wombat Rue) and writer
Quinn Johnson (Rune Stone). Those guys are great, we were
talking about doing some sketching jams at coffee shops and getting
together for beers to talk shop before the night was done. I had no
idea there were so many professionals living in Utah, including Ryan
Ottley (Invincible). I'm not going lie, I thought Utah would
be a comic industry vacuum. Nothing could be further from the
truth.
Gavin:
Without giving away any major details, what have you got coming up
that people can check out?
Patric:
Oh yeah. That "exclusive licensed miniseries" I mentioned
earlier is actually a four part story that is based off of the
upcoming film "Let Me In." This film is a remake of the
Swedish film "Let the Right One In," which in turn is based
off of the book by the same name. The Swedish film is not only one
of the best horror films I've seen, but one of the best films
overall. It centers around two out-casted and lonely children, one
of which happens to be a vampire. It’s so nuanced, well-crafted,
and bittersweet. Its going to lend itself to a graphic novel very
well, if I don't screw it up. This four-part story that I’m
illustrating takes places before the events of the remade film, and
its is going to do a terrific job of establishing how the actual
"monster" of the story isn't nearly as terrifying as the
some of the more "human" characters. It’s going to be
pretty intense. That's going to keep me busy for the next eight
months or so, and I won't have time to work on much else. While
readers are waiting for that to hit the shelves (the first issue
should be out before the film debuts in October), they can check out
Serenity: Float Out, in stores now!
Gavin:
Going national, what's your take on the comic book industry as it
stands right now?
Patric:
I'm tentatively excited. From an artist's perspective, I think that
there is a lot more opportunity for people to get their work
published now than there ever was. Comic book companies seem more
willing to take risks with compelling stories and different artists,
thus providing more opportunities for newcomers. Publishers are not
afraid to be too mature- they know that comics can be serious
literature. At the same time I know there are no guarantees,
especially in this economy. Jobs can fall through at the last
minute, and there's still a very palpable atmosphere of
unpredictability. Even senior staff and editor's are getting let go.
But one thing I have noticed is that is more parity in the industry
than in the past. Independent publishers are becoming more visible
because as the audience for comics keeps widening and comics become
more accessible through digital media. This also makes the audience
more diverse. But that diversity is going to have many different
tastes and expectations, so more variety is needed if comics are
going to survive. Marvel and DC will always have a huge audience,
but until the movie industry was able to believably put their titles
on the big screen to reach a massive audience (in the late 90's)
they were struggling. But I can also see the indie influence on some
of their titles. The recent Marvel Noir series is sort of a
stylistic answer to DC's Vertigo or Dark Horse's titles. I noticed
that Marvel also puts out graphic novels based upon Stephen King
books now, which would have been unheard of back in the days when I
was just picking up Uncanny X-Men in the early nineties. I
was also surprised to see that Dark Horse publishes their fair share
of Japanese manga-style comics, too. Dark Horse in particular
publishes a wide range of comics (from Emily Strange to Conan
to Evil Dead), which is one reason why I like working with
them so much. They're not afraid to put out something for
everyone.
Gavin:
What would you say are some of the best series in print right
now?
Patric: Scalped by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guera. It’s easily one of
the most compelling and involving series I've ever read, and its one
of few series I regularly follow. Every issue is more tightly wound
than the last. Every single character is doomed in some way, but
Jason Aaron is so good at making you think that they're one or two
decisions away from redemption, or damnation. At SCAD I learned that
characters are developed when they are put under pressure, and they
are always under some kind of pressure in Scalped. Just when
you think things can't possibly get any worse, they always do. To
me, that takes a ton of creativity to keep it believable. That
razor's edge is always sharp. It reminds me of my favorite television
show “The Shield”, only on an Sioux reservation with more nudity
and swearing. Guera's artwork always seems effortlessly expressive
and sculptural, with a very descriptive use of black and shadow. I
know I'm biased, but if I'm walking into the comic book store, I'm
going right for the B.P.R.D. titles, too. Its basically HellBoy
without HellBoy, and it has created this group of characters that are
so well thought-out that they all could get their own series.
Without HellBoy, they all have to bring the best of themselves out to
get through each supernatural dilemma. I keep wanting to see who's
going to step up next.
Gavin:
What are your thoughts on digital publishing and how some books are
now going strictly to that format?
Patric:
I think its totally necessary if the comic industry wants to still
be relevant. Digital publishing widens the audience and its access
to comics, simple as that. Thanks to digital publishing, it’s
incredibly easy to get something out into the public. Its also a
whole lot less messier than actually drawing the work by hand, even
tough I still need to have the feel of bristol board underneath my
hands as I scratch over it with my pen. From an artistic standpoint,
I don't see anything wrong with creating a comic digitally as long as
the artist can still tell a good story and isn't hiding the fact that
they can't draw. I do think there will always be a need for actual
printed books, as long as people have an interest in reading. A
book is a tangible, immediate, and permanent piece of entertainment
and literature that cannot be replaced.
Gavin:
Where do you see the state of comics over the next couple of
years?
Patric:
Hopefully publishers will keep taking risks and giving a more
diverse group of writers and artists chances to communicate their
ideas. I see comics getting more respect and viability as a literary
art form (schools are using it more and more as a teaching tool in
the classrooms). I'm not nearly as worried about the state of the
comics as I am the film industry, which seems to have completely run
out of ideas. I do hope that a standard is set so that more security
and benefits are provided to artists and writers, and that all of
them are they are treated more like full-time employees.
Gavin:
Is there anything you'd like to plug or promote?
Patric:
Of course! Some friends and I do a sketchblog called Garage Ink, where me and four other artists (Andy
Black, Evan Bryce Cranston, Rebekah Isaacs, and Mike Getty) come up
with sketches based on random themes, like "What if the economy
forced the Avengers to get part time jobs?" Also, I have a lot
of friends from SCAD that have things hitting the shelves in the very
near future. Oni Press is publishing the manga-flavored wrestling
comic SuperPro K.O.! by my best buddy Jarrett Williams in
July. Wildstorm is publishing an eight-issue series titled DV8:
Gods & Monsters by fellow
SCAD alum and sketchblog artist Rebekah Isaacs, and written by Brian
Wood. Finally, Mike Getty has been doing some incredibly smooth
superhero stuff in Image Comics' Guardians of the Globe which is due
out in August. Give 'em a spin! Oh, and don't forget to check out
my website.
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