Some of my favorite memories during the 1991-94 era of Boneyard Press.

You know, for all the destruction and heartbreak behind the scenes I’ve been revealing, there were also so many great times. I miss all of my friends back in Champaign, so many to even begin listing off (Eric, Dave, Tom, the whole Third Stone crew, Daga Dan, fuck, so many great guys back there).

The “Welcome to the Nation Motherfucker” photo shoot was a full on blast. I had all the thugs come over to my place by the railroad tracks with their favorite toys and we did a full photo shoot barbecue Chevy rodeo. We were drinking, riding the hood of Johnny’ G’s big ass beater around the dirt, being full on knuckle draggers, grilling up steaks.

There was one guy just walking by and when he saw all of the guns, assault rifles, us, shit man… he just ducked his head down, staring at the ground in front of his feet as he walked. You know he was just thinking “don’t look, don’t look, just don’t make eye contact.” God that makes me laugh.

There was a time a buddy of ours, I called him Chemo for his fucked up hair cut, and it was his birthday. He gave himself up to us blindfolded. I mean… he was nervous, but he gave himself up to whatever we had planned and we were fucking with him in the car so bad. I’ve got it all on videotape. I’m planning on posting it on my YouTube channel.

The best is when we got to my buddy Nick’s tattoo shop (Mark of Cain), and Nick’s just revving his gun. rrrrrRRRRNNNNNN. rrrrrRRRNNN. While we laughed and laughed, Chemo’s just shitting his big black boots. It was a hoot. He didn’t take the blindfold off until the tattoo was done either. That’s trust and some will their man…

I loved the bunker comradery that comes with intense life and death situations that were a regular part of my life then. I was a bouncer at a Rock Club in town (Mabel’s) and working there… that could lead to a sucker punch in the mouth from behind to a knife fight on Halloween night. For a couple of years there was a gang problem in town. It was an initiation for the black gangsters to group up and put a white guy in the hospital. It got so bad that the police posted officers on the rooftops downtown with binoculars. I almost got jumped by nine guys in front of the bar one night but I faced them down until the cops showed up.

It was a crazy time, like living through a war. My friends were dying in gunfights, drug overdoses, suicides… fucking brutal… but when we were all together, none of that shit mattered. You drank, you celebrated life with your friends. You clung to whatever ray of sunshine there was because that’s all you had.

I was very poor through ’93 and ’94. There was a time where I was literally fed by my friends who worked at places like Lox, Stock and Bagel. When the manager would go out, I’d slide in, get a big lunch, then take home the old bagels and cream cheese for me and my dogs. I was an insane broke motherfucker with absolutely nothing to lose. When I found out that I had lost my first court case with the Dahmer people because my cocksucking lawyer didn’t show up, I literally put my head through my bedroom door.

When I found out from the police that Michelle had been raped before she died, I ripped the new bedroom door apart with my bar hands then rampaged through the whole house in an incoherent rage. My friend Eric was sitting in my easy chair when it happened, when I came out of my rage and saw him in the chair, his face was white.

“I wish I never saw that.” Was all he’s ever said of it.

SUICIDE - Pencils: David Brewer - Inks: RENFRO

I was a wreck and my friends got me through it. My mother was alienated and repulsed by this new person her son had become. My family was up in Chicago and they were kidding themselves about my mental state. But all the locals in town, the metal heads, the people the college kids looked down on… those were the motherfuckers that had my back rain or shine.

The local metal bands, the wrestling fans, the bikers, the bouncers, they came out in support of me when no one else would. When I was at a bar there was always a drink in my hand from a friend. When someone came to town and needed a place to stay they crashed at my place or me theirs. There were many black nights and I had many friends to walk me through them. My friends and the poetry are what kept me alive. I miss them.

I was the first person to publish Dimitrios Patelis in America, an immensely talented Greek artist who I clicked with right away even through he drove everybody else nuts with his confidence in his art. Dimitri was living in Chicago alone, he’d just split from his chick, and he was working at a Harold’s Fried Chicken shack. I knew his birthday was coming up and she’d just come over and taken their stereo so he had no tunes.

No more banging chicks in the ass to Zodiac Mindwarp? Fuck, I couldn’t let my little buddy go down like that. I bought him a big ass boom box and sent it up to him at work just in time for his birthday. The phone call I got from him when he got it, yeah, that was a good day.

I loved getting to work with my heroes in the business. I loved working with hungry new talent like Guy Burwell or Duncan Rouleau, Albert Holaso, William Harms, Eric Perukin, Lance Polin, Stephen Elliot, Dimitri Patelis, Brad Moore, Kyle Hotz, Mark Beachum, Nelson Danielson, Will at Avatar, Wayne Allen Sallee (I don’t get to see him often, but I love this guy like a brother), Vincent Locke, That maniac Buzz and his troll buddy Nelson, Garry Way (another young thug I’m proud as fuck of, and you guessed it, I published him first. His last album with My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade, it really helped me get through some tough moments last year during my wife’s chemo therapy and that’s saying something. Next time I see this kid, I owe him a big fuckin’ hug.), Big B Mark Bernal who walked me through the comic business, Carol B (who helped me start the company), I mean, so many fucking people and so many good times…

Facing down the cops and all of those protesting assholes at the Dahmer cue, that was a shining moment. It was supposed to be a bloodbath with the KKK in full strength, the cops asked me to get out of town that weekend. I hate the fucking KKK so I wasn’t going anywhere. Third Stone played, I had all of my friends backing me, a keg, free watermelon for everyone, yeah, that was a great day.

The conventions and the fans. I love the conventions and the fans. For every douche bag comment in the press or on television, there’s been ten fans who’ve come up quietly to tell me how my work affected their lives, got them through bad times. That carries me a long way. The fact that I turned my idols in comics into friends of mine… to go from reading Cry For Dawn with your Cheerios in the morning, to leading a blind Joe Monks through the back alley barrooms of Mexico City at 2 in the morning..that’s a heavy thing. It’s a beautiful thing that brings me comfort when it’s cold inside.
-hdf

First professional work/first piece you sold (piece / year) and maybe a quick story behind it.

Well let me see… my first paid work was doing other kids’ art projects in high school. I would whip out a couple of quick drawings for them and they would buy me lunch. After that I was doing portraits for families and all that. One that was a lot of fun, I had to do jury duty and the bailiff hired me to do a drawing of her and her sister. That was good times!!!! Now I do mostly commission work for collectors and spot illo’s for websites/wiki pages/ or whatever I get asked to do. I am drawing all the time.

Self-taught or formally educated? (or mixture of both, mentors etc…)

I went to art school for a brief time. I continued on but not in art. I know this sounds odd, but I did not feel like I was getting anything out of it. So I bailed. I just drew all the time and taught myself what I needed to know. Not what I would recommend for all people, but it worked for me.

Tools of the trade: Taking a quick glance over at your pens, brushes etc…what tools have you mainly been using over the last few years?

Let me see…I love my pens. I use all Faber Castell PITT pens. I love the b size brush tip pen. Brushes, none that I have ever stayed with. I play with them when I go to the art store and just grab whatever feels right at the time but I use pens as much as I can. I got used to drawing on the run, so pens just came along with that.

Favorite brand of ink:

I have been using Higgins black magic forever but as of late I have not been happy with it so I am looking to change, so if anyone has any ideas they can let me know. I don’t know if they changed the formula on it, but it just does not seem to cover like it used to.

Type of paper:

I use all Bristol board. I have no certain brand that I stick with. I also switch between smooth and vellum depending on what I want for the end product. for comic pages I use Blue Line Pro. I bought a bunch of it and I am still working through the stack…hahahahaha.

Which artists or creators do you return to for a quick boost of inspiration? Who are the masters of ink?

I have one man that I have been worshiping for years and that is Bernie Wrightson in my mind it gets no better then him. I had a chance to talk with him a week ago at a con in Boston, and he lived up to everything. His art is amazing to look at in your hands…..the printed page does not even do it justice…wow did I just gush a bit?
Other then that I like Tim Bradstreet, Alex Ross, and Dave McKean (when I need a skewed point of view).

Once a client has handed off an illustration job to you, how do you first tackle the job? Could you give a quick overview of your process?

Well most of my clients have been having me work on versions of them using them as the main subject, turned into whatever they are looking for. A lot of folks want to be vampires oddly enough!!! So I get all the nuts and bolts of what they are looking for, and wait for them to send photos or refs of what they are looking for. If this is not the case I will do 1 or 2 quick sketches for them, to see if it what they are looking for.

Most of the time they go with my first idea and I love that. I like the trust between my vision and what they are looking for. From that point, I start to put it down on board. I work fast with the pencil, and if I am inking it I do no shading, I save that for when I go in with the ink. I just lay out the shapes of the shadows. No need to waste the time filling them in. Then I just button it up and send it away.

What’s currently sitting in your mp3 / CD player / turntable?

mmmmmmmm.music………lets see………I downloaded the new NIN album the other day and I get new tunes all the time. I have a wide range of tastes. I got a bunch of new MC Chris songs. I have also been downloading a lot of odd metal stuff. My all time fav song is the Gentle Art of Making Enemies by Faith No More.

What’s hanging on your walls and what is your favorite piece of art that you own (not created by you)?

I have a picture of Rorschach from the Watchmen that I bought from Joe Linsner when I was 14 at a New York Comicon.. It has been on my wall ever since. I love it. It is full color and I bought it for $5. It rocks.

Last novel you read and last movie that you saw (that you’d recommend)?

Novel….lets see…I re-read Diablo Cody’s Candy Girl the other night, that book is funny and disturbing at the same time. As for movies I am still blown away by The Dark Knight. Say what you want, but that is what a comic film should be.

Current and upcoming projects?

Current projects…hmmm. Just busting out commission work right now. I have a couple of promo pieces that I am going to be doing soon for a friend’s comic, but other then that I am looking for a steady gig right now. And as always I am pimping my gear. I sell t-shirts and prints of my art.

What would you tell an aspiring artist who is working his ass off but still needs and wants to break through to the next level?

That is a good question, because I am still in the trenches myself. I go to as many cons as I can as a guest and set up. I show my work to everyone that will look. Make friends that do what you want to do. They may not have work for you, but they will always let you know what they are doing and how they are doing it. And just stay with it. The more people that see you the better. Try to build a buzz about what you are doing. That’s what I do. I am selling work all the time to fans, without having a steady gig or a book coming out.

To read more Masters of Ink interviews check out the last two with Andy Brase and Becky Cloonan.

He warned me that I was going to be in for a hell of a read. He wasn’t kidding.

His story is one of the most unique in American comics publishing history. He came under the gun of his peers, the media and a lot of the comics industry for the controversial books that he published along with pulling off some pretty ballsy stunts. It was guerilla marketing at its’ finest and most shocking.

A lot of what happened occurred between 1991-1995. 12 years later, Hart was ready to talk about what went on behind the scenes. We ended up with 10,000 words that have to be broken up into several installments. It’s a long harrowing, heartbreaking, sometimes funny and always incendiary read. Hart has lost none of his passion. This is NOT easy reading. Discretion is advised for the faint of heart. Here’s the first installment.

By Hart D. Fisher

On starting the comic company, Boneyard Press.

You can blame one man, and one man only for inspiring me to go it on my own - Mark Beachum. I was home from college driving a mosquito spray truck for the summer. Mark Beachum was working for Northstar Studios (the original home of Faust, and yeah, I was there for the beginning of Faust) and living there. Dan Madsen, the publisher and high school friend of mine, told me it was the only way to get any work out of Mark. You practically had to chain him to a drawing table before he would produce. I crashed my truck (long story) and lost my job two weeks before the end of summer and I started hanging out with Mark. Mark was like “Why do you want to spend all of your artistic energy on something someone else owns?” and I just kind of shook my head. He said why work on Spiderman when I could create my own Spiderman.

No one ever said that to me before. Dan was doing it and making a living. Why couldn’t I? I’d been doing my own comic books since I was five. I used to have my mother Xerox them at work (she worked for the department of public aid. She was the welfare lady in some of the worst projects Chicago had to offer) and I would sell them at school. Bill the Bull started out as something I drew in Freshman Algebra. One of my buddies was sitting next to me in class, it was boring, I turned him into Bill the Bull and he was more of a super hero private eye thing then. Nowhere near as dark as the character is now. Dark Angel appeared in 5th and 6th issue of this run of Bill the Bull books when I was a junior in high school.

Inspirations

My comics were more lighthearted and funny growing up, but as my life become more and more violent, the comics went to a much darker place. My work wasn’t a product of the books I was reading, it was a product of my environment and my life experiences. My father was a nut for Mickey Spillane and Ian Flemming. Spillane created Mike Hammer and Flemming created James Bond. My father was enamored with the writer’s lives and those of their literary creations. This influenced me greatly. My father spoke often about Mickey Spillane, pounding out books when he needed some cash.

At the same time he was filling my head with these stories, my friends were getting into drugs, my uncle killed himself, my cousin drowned in Florida on a church trip, I lived on the south side of Chicago which meant when I got into a fight, it was normally with a group of people, not one on one and that was never pleasant, a friend’s father shot himself in the head, another friend od’d, several of my friends in high school had been molested (male and female) or were still in the situation of being molested actively. One of my friends had been molested by her step father repeatedly and got her pregnant. She had to leave for awhile to go have the baby in another state. Her father was a cop.

As I got older, I found myself in deeper and deeper. In college, things grew more and more dark. I was dating women that had been molested when they were young. One poor girl had a problem being photographed. My artwork in college was always under assault from instructors. They wanted to know where my violent art was coming from. They didn’t know I knew people that had had their heads beaten in between two phone books with a bat. My work comes from the world around me, but I have never been able to explain it much more explicitly than that.

When I created Dark Angel, it was coming from a dark pit. What most people, or non creative people, don’t understand, is that the artist creates to survive. I didn’t decide to create Dark Angel, he walked right out of my head and introduced himself and let me get to know him. At the time I was reading a lot of Eugene Izzi, (he was murdered several years back, he was found hanging by the neck outside his office out the window, doors locked from the inside. He was wearing a bulletproof vest, had mace, brass knuckles, but someone had beat the ever-loving shit out of him before they killed him. Chicago PD ruled it a suicide because the doors were locked from the inside.), Andrew Vachss, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Dashiel Hammet, Stephen King was starting to suck around this time, so I was backing off of his books and eating up any other good horror novel I could find. I read many textbooks on serial killers and criminal psychology.

I was also a movie freak. I watched movies. Tons of them. Horror movies, crime movies and action movies. I bought comics by the truckload in those days. I’d been reading comics since I was 5 and I had an appetite for it all. Legion of Super Heroes? If Keith Giffen was writing and drawing it, I was reading it. Frank Miller, loved his stuff then, not a big fan now that I’ve read all of Mickey Spillane’s novels. Grim Jack had been a favorite, Mike Grell’s work, the early Dark Horse stuff before they started playing it so safe, Lobo was fun with the Biz at the wheel.

When I started Boneyard Press, the first issue of the company was Dark Angel. I wrote and drew the book from my basement apartment in Champaign Illinois. It was so cold I had to duct tape newspapers on the walls in the winter time to stay warm. My landlord lived above me and was a religious midget. He collected little religious figurines and they covered every flat surface of his place. I had a big ass stereo that I would crank whenever I was working. I had visions of his figures rattling around on the tables like those old vibrating hockey games. Boneyard Press at that point wasn’t meant to be anything more than a one shot. But I felt the only way to truly test it out was to do a series. So I borrowed a chunk of change from my grandfather and went forward with it. The rest is just another old scar.
Head on over to American Horrors for Hart’s latest antics.

By Jason Thibault

Andy Brase doesn’t take any short cuts with his art. It’s painstakingly detailed and executed with the precision of a neurosurgeon. He’s got what’s referred to as scary talent. His covers for more mainstream companies like Marvel are otherworldly. And the rest is just plain awesome.
He must be making a lot of artists up their game. If it wasn’t for some of the cyber-erotic themes in his illustrations you’d swear his pen and ink drawings were rendered a century ago.

First professional work (piece / year) and maybe a quick story behind it.

Well, I’m not sure how to define my first professional work…. The first art I had published was a full comic I created, wrote, penciled, inked, etc. for the small comic publisher Hall of Heroes… It was called “Hall of Heroes Presents #4: Turaxx” I drew this comic when I was a freshman in college and it was printed when I was 19. This project didn’t pay though… it was more just for fun. At the time I still had quite a bit to learn with my art.
The first paying work came with a D&D comic that I inked over my friend Tyler Walpole’s pencil work. After 4 issues of that I was dying to get back to penciling too. In my heart, I’m a creator and being solely an inker would kill me.

Self-taught or formally educated? (or mixture of both, mentors etc…)

I would say self-taught mostly… I have a degree in art & design, but I didn’t learn how to draw like this from my classes really. I did quite a bit of my own drawing on the side always….

In fact, I had one class in college, where the teacher said we could draw whatever we wanted for the class…we just had to produce a handful of good pieces for the semester. I started working away on a new comic idea I had. After a week or so the teacher pulled me out of class and told me comics were “not REAL art” and she didn’t think I was ready for the class yet… She had a “drop class” form filled out even!…. I basically said, “ok, I won’t draw “comics”. So she allowed me to stay in the class… I drew the same thing I had planned on drawing , but I told her it wasn’t for “comics” so that was fine.

After college, I worked in a tattoo shop, then on the D&D comic, then in-house at a game company for a short period. After that I spent about 3 years in a very small studio apartment drawing night & day, and really focused in on improving my art. I remember I would sometimes work for 5 or 6 days without seeing anyone…. It became sort of surreal at times… My art really jump a few levels during that time… I wanted to put everything I could into the drawings and I didn’t care, at the time, if it was going to be published or not. I did a lot of work for RPGs and many drawings for my own “World of Chaos Destiny” in this time too.

Tools of the trade: Taking a quick glance over at your pens, brushes etc…what tools have you mainly been using over the last few years?

I mainly ink with Sakura Micron Pens for inking… I think my style of inking developed around using those pens actually… I use the 005 pens to do the fine line detail… also use 01 & 05 sizes a lot…. and a brush for some bigger lines and fills. “Winsor Newton series 7″ brush…. for pencil just a mechanical pencil.
The really run down 005 microns tend to work best on the small details.

Favorite brand of ink:

The kind that is black;) actually whatever works… I use different kinds of ink for the black fill areas… But I would never use a sharpie to fill blacks… I think those have acid that will eat up your paper in a few years…or turn it really yellow. I would only use those on a quick convention sketch or something not too important.

Type of paper:

“Strathmore Bristol 400 series: smooth finish” is my fav paper that I use quite a bit

Which artists or creators do you return to for a quick boost of inspiration? Who are the masters of ink?

Now days my art is really inspired by all kinds of visuals, experiences, and things I see. I try to just take in everything and let my art form from the ideas or visuals I have in my head. Shapes, textures & lighting from pics I take has been a real inspiration. If I have to pin it down to a few artists, some of the art that has inspired me most over the last few years include Beksinski, HR Giger, Frank Frazetta, Bernie Wrightson, Wayne Barlowe, Brom, also my awesome artist friends RK Post, Virginie Ropars, Quinton Hoover, Tyler Walpole, etc… I could go on…. and really so many more could be listed

Music is also a huge source of inspiration, sometimes more so than other visual art… I’ll talk more about that in the question below about the CD player.

The masters of ink?… well, actually I have not really looked too closely at what many would consider masters of ink… I would have to say Bernie Wrightson though. His work (Frankenstein included) had a big impact on me just after college when a friend borrowed me his “A Look Back” art book. This book includes many of his drawings from the 70’s.
I believe Wrightson’s Frankenstein was influenced a little by Franklin Booth, who is definitely one of the masters of pen & ink.
Many people compare my inking to old “masters” of ink from history… and many times I have never seen the artist’s work before… It is great to discover them though for myself … For me, my art is more about an idea, visual, or character I have in mind & I’m just drawing it… the style of inking just comes from trying to draw that image with lines alone and make it believable.

Once a client has handed off an illustration job to you, how do you first tackle the job? Can you give us a quick overview of your process?

It can vary a little on the type of work.
Basically I first come up with a rough or a few rough sketches for a composition or basic idea of the drawing… these can be really rough too. I sometimes do a little research into the character or ideas for background elements. An editor/ art director picks one, sometimes with a few suggestions. …Then I do a rough at the size I’m going to draw it (this sometimes is the same as the first step). I lightbox the rough composition to my good drawing paper/boards.
Then proceed to do tighter pencil work. I get a high res scan of the pencil version taken because many enjoy just my pencil work too. Then I ink right over top the pencil. Finally go over the drawing with a cleaner eraser… and scan.
Next I either send that off to the company or bring it into Photoshop and color it myself depending on the job.

What’s currently sitting in your mp3 / CD player / turntable?

I love music and it’s always been a source of inspiration. I usually use a CD Player and listen to CD albums (bought)
… I like them better than mp3s… and to me the album art can be a great thing to enhance the music… (obviously since I love visuals.) I’m not at all into the whole iTunes downloading music thing that is so popular now.
As for bands/artists, some I listen to regularly include Dismantled, Nine Inch Nails, Apoptygma Berzerk, Assemblage 23, Frontline Assembly, The Cure (only older), Skinny Puppy, Gary Numan & many dark electronic artists on Dependent Records…. Johnny Cash too, …also Nirvana, …& Rob Zombie’s visual world is great

Just today listening to: NIN, Dismantled, Informatik, & Destroid

What’s hanging on your walls and what is your favorite piece of art that you own (not created by you)?

nothing is on my walls…. at my old place I had up a Brom calendar and that was all. I just haven’t really taken time to decorate the walls that’s all…. I love other art though and have a book case full of art books, graphic novels, books on other cultures, animal books, cathedral books, anatomy books, etc.

as for other original art… I do not have much… I’d like to buy some original art at some point.

Last novel you read and last movie that you saw (that you’d recommend)?

I don’t get a chance to read novels often…. though I would highly recommend both of Brom’s books “The Plucker: An Illustrated Novel” and “The Devil’s Rose“….as far as movies I really haven’t seen too many lately … I would say “The Dark Knight” I guess… obviously that one is cool though;)

Current and upcoming projects.

Currently I have a new project I’m working on for one of the 2 big comic companies … & the other marvelous company is looking for covers to hook me up with… I’m under NDA on the current project so I don’t think I can say much. Some cool private commission work and a piece for a gallery in Paris too in the works.

As for upcoming releases a few covers I did for Dark Horse’s Kull comic will be hitting shelves soon… with Kull # 1 on Nov. 5th, I believe.
I did an intense Wolf illustration for a company called Wicked Jester… It will be printed as a limited edition book cover and T-shirt design… the limited version will be only available to order through their site (www.wickedjester.com) and will go up there on Halloween! The art is also appearing as full page ads in the magazines: Revolver & Tattoo;)

Another November release is “Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (Spectrum (Underwood Books))” One of the drawings from my own creator owned project “Chaos Destiny” will be included in the new Spectrum book. I have prints of art from my own project available through www.mastersinprint.com.

What would you tell an aspiring artist who is working his ass off but still needs and wants to break through to the next level?

Keep working;)… Try to soak in all the visuals and things around you… and don’t get too fixated on your fav artist… because you will learn all their mistakes and just be a knock off of a better artist. Even if a company wants you to draw like “superstar artist ___” still try to do it your own way…(within reason, still listen to advice) and be inspired by all sorts of things, so you are not standing in the shadow of another artist. Try to learn anatomy from life not just what you see in comics. I think art is something anyone can improve at even if you don’t feel you are talented “enough”… it’s more a drive inside that makes you improve.

For further info on Andy Brase go to:
http://www.myspace.com/brazart
http://www.mastersinprint.com/home
http://www.myspace.com/chaosdestinyworld
http://www.wickedjester.com
To read the first 12 Masters of Ink interviews head on over to the Jacen Burrows piece.

I originally intended to have Becky Cloonan included within the first set of Masters of Ink interviews but it was bad timing do to the onset of summer vacation and convention season. We chased her down again and landed 12 answers with Miss Cloonan. I’m a latecomer to her work. I’ve always admired it from afar but it wasn’t until earlier this year that I had my comic dealer hunt down a copy of Demo for me. It was worth the wait.

Whether she’s working on an album cover, illustration, mini-comic or graphic novel, her raw talent in pen and ink rendering shines through. On to the interview now.

First professional work (piece / year) and maybe a quick story behind it.

The first book that I worked on which was professionally published was Jennie One, written by Brian Wood and published by AIT/Planet Lar. Following that was DEMO, also written by Brian and published by AIT, which was a 12 issue series of one shot stories about people with super powers, but told in a way totally unlike a superhero comic. It was really well received, and Vertigo just recently published a collection of the original 12 issues. Brian and I are currently working on six new issues with Vertigo, in the same format as the original.

Self-taught or formally educated? (or mixture of both, mentors etc…)

I went to school for animation at SVA, and left after three years to draw comic books. I think that a formal education is important for a good foundation, and life drawing classes are critical, but most of my breakthroughs as an artist have been due to pushing myself harder. There’s a lot of artists that I look up to, and I’m happy to be friends with some amazingly talented people. We’re all constantly raising the bar for each other.

Tools of the trade: Taking a quick glance over at your pens, brushes etc…what tools have you mainly been using over the last few years?

I use mostly a brush, when I’m at home I use a Winsor & Newton series 7 (size 2) brush and Winsor & Newton India ink. While I’m traveling I use a Pentel brush pen, which is refillable so I don’t have to bring ink along. Sometimes I’ll use a G Pen, too. I really like using Borden and Riley paper for Pen and Ink, it’s very smooth, and thin enough so that I can transfer my sketches without any problems. I also love Mono erasers.

Favorite brand of ink:

I use Winsor & Newton India ink, or Yasutomo liquid sumi ink.

Type of paper:

For ink work I like really smooth paper, first because my pencils are really sloppy so rougher paper makes my pencils even more smudgy. When I paint though (sometimes I watercolor) I like paper with more tooth.

Which artists or creators do you return to for a quick boost of inspiration? Who are the masters of ink?

If I have to choose three (because if not I’ll go on forever!) my favorite artists are Joseph Clement Coll, Franklin Booth and Hokusai. My favorite cartoonists are Guy Davis, Kaoru Mori and Tim Sale. Actually, for inspiration I make a conscious effort to look beyond the art books I have, and I’ll go to a museum or watch a film or go to the opera or something. I find looking at art for inspiration usually leads me to frustration, so I try to look outside of my medium for that.

Once a client has handed off an illustration job to you, how do you first tackle the job. Could you provide us with a quick overview of your process?

If I’m working for a company I make sure to get a contract and establish my rate up front, and detail any extra expenses (rush job, corrections, etc). Then I’ll do a few thumbnails and show the client. They’ll pick one or make suggestions and I’ll jump into pencils. Same thing, I show them the pencils and they give me edits or an OK. Then I’ll go into inks and colors, showing the client every step. When they approve it, I’ll send them the high resolution file and an invoice, and they’ll get my check in the mail!

What’s currently sitting in your mp3 / CD player / turntable?

I usually just make enormous playlists and put them on shuffle, but for brevity’s sake today I’ve listened to Wolfsheim’s Casting Shadows, Clutch’s Robot Hive Exodus and Blind Guardian’s Nightfall in Middle-Earth. I’m also listening to the Twilight audio books which is like a total guilty pleasure that I love and hate at the same time. I’m very conflicted.

What’s hanging on your walls and what is your favorite piece of art that you own (not created by you)?

I don’t like hanging up my own art, I think I only have one silk screen of mine hanging that some of my friends signed. I dunno, I have so much cool art that it’s hard to pick! I have two German folio pages from the 1920’s by German artist Ferdinand Von Reznicek, a beautiful silk screen by Tim Sale and 4 Age of Reptiles lithographs by Ricardo Delgado. I’m a sucker for nice frames too, so I make sure to frame all the pieces I get. I also have a really cool stencil by Corey McAbee for his movie The American Astronaut. I also have a first edition printing of H.P. Lovecraft’s Supernatural Horror in Literature, and a few other interesting artifacts lying around. I really like antiques, and I try to pick up nick knacks from places I travel to so I’ve got almost a mini museum in my living room.

Last novel you read and last movie that you saw (that you’d recommend)?

The last book I read was “The Devil in the White City“, which was amazing. I love history and historic fiction, this was about the building of the World’s Fair in Chicago and the rise of H.H. Holmes. The last movie I saw was a screening of the The Shining, which was, as always, scary as fuck. I’ve actually been having a lot of fun doing horror comics lately, but knowing that I’ll never make a comic as scary as the Shining is like setting myself up for failure from the beginning. Still though, horror has been a fun genre for me to play around in, which is ironic because I’m a total cover-my-eyes wuss when it comes to scary movies.

Current and upcoming projects.

I just finished an 8 page short for Dark Horse Presents called “I see the Devil in my sleep”. I’m currently working on new Demo issues with Brian wood for Vertigo, and I’m doing a few other short projects on the side as well. My graphic novel East Coast Rising volume 2 won’t be printed through Tokyopop, so I’m working with them to find a way to finally print it, so I’m hoping that happens.

What would you tell an aspiring artist who is working his ass off but still needs and wants to break through to the next level?

Keep working your ass off! But also don’t forget to have fun- comics is a business that if you stop having fun you’ll end up killing yourself.
For more info on Becky head on over to:
http://www.estrigious.com (my website)
http://inkandthunder.blogspot.com (my blog)
To read the first 12 Masters of Ink interviews head on over to the Jacen Burrows piece.

Optimum Wound has a few other kindred spirits out there putting out amazing work online.

Christian Krank is a lunatic mad fucker. And a very talented one as well. I first read Christian’s work last year when he contacted me on MySpace. His comic Destroy Dystopia is a truly sublime and engaging experience. He mixed 17 million different elements into a blender and out came a psychotic new webcomic.

His pages while being quite densely layered are easy to follow. He’s from Germany and had the balls to pull off a story in English. He describes DD as a “kind of b-movie with splatter effects. Even so the later chapters seem to deviate from that.”

Our friend Kenneth Ashcraft put a blurb on webcomicsnation.com stating: Killer art and badass story this comic takes the graphic novel to new levels!! A must read!!

Inside and out, front to back; this comic is the best I have seen on the internet so far. It reminds of Cybernary from back in the day and a little Bladerunner plus something all new. Keep an eye one this one boys and girls, this comic is gonna hit the big-time!!!
That’s pretty damned accurate.

Christian is one of Dave McKean’s children. What I mean by that is Dave was one of the first to scan his drawings into the computer and then go to town with multiple layers of textures and Photoshop coloring underneath. Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith employ techniques that are variations on this.

And Christian is taking it into another direction altogether.
If you dig cyberpunk, manga, ultra-violence, Judge Dredd, The Road Warrior, Bladerunner, Ghost In the Shell or just a mind-bending bloody trip through the future, Destroy Dystopia is your ticket. Take the ride.

He’s got a shitload of pages posted. Pay attention to the backgrounds as he has a lot of things going on within each panel.

You can find the man himself on MySpace. Look him up.
He’s making us all up our game.

Through his webcomic he ended up working with Clifford Meth and Rufus Dayglo as the colorist on the graphic novel Snaked for IDW Publishing.
From there he continued on with Rufus on Tank Girl: Visions of Booga. He’s a hell of an artist.
Gotta drink me one of those Neuro Turbos someday.

After going through Ming Doyle’s Live Journal page it occurred to me that she probably manages to create more artwork in between her pro assignments than I’ve pulled off all combined. Her passion is infectious and she’s a rising star in the new generation of illustrators. Her work is the perfect mesh of polished sheen colliding with raw textured inky badassery. The pieces leave her hands looking like timeless classics. At first glance I couldn’t tell what era they were created in.

First professional work (piece / year) and maybe a quick story behind it.

I was immensely lucky in that my first professional work in both comics and illustration basically fell into my lap. It was the winter of ‘06, I’d just graduated from college a semester early and was pondering how to start a feasible career in art. After a lot of intense introspection I realized I hadn’t the faintest idea, so I decided to put off any kind of meaningful decision and sit at home drawing superhero fan art all day for Dean Trippe’s costume redesign site, Project: Rooftop (http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop/).

A month or so later I got an e-mail from a very talented and generous guy named Tim Daniel who wondered if I’d be interested in doing the art for a short story of his called “Loner” in the second volume of Popgun, a variety anthology published by Image. Since I’d drawn about as many pictures of Batman and Wonder Woman as I wanted to for that year I said yes, and I’ve since done several other pieces for Image as well as BOOM! Studios and various indie trades.

I’ve also gotten a lot of editorial illustration work as a result of my exposure from Project: Rooftop, the first, best, and bulk of it from Benjamen Purvis, an amazing art director who at the time was working for the Las Vegas Weekly.

Self-taught or formally educated? (or mixture of both, mentors etc…)

I earned my BFA with a dual concentration in painting and drawing from Cornell University and I definitely benefited from the life drawing courses there, but it’s my friends and colleagues who’ve inspired me to stick with art. My good pals pop culture artist Brandon Bird, comics hero Dean Trippe and master illustrator Daniel Krall along with many others have taught me a lot through their tenacity and drive. Having friends in the same field can be especially invaluable when you’re living the fairly isolated life of a freelancer.

Tools of the trade: Taking a quick glance over at your pens, brushes etc…what tools have you mainly been using over the last few years?

Speedball’s “Sketching” and “Mapping” pen and nib sets, Royal Taklon’s variety brush packs, mechanical pencils and countless Wite-Out pens. I’ll use the occasional Micron for tighter work on facial features, but I don’t like to rely too much on them. I think a lot of times they can kill the kineticism and energy of a piece.

Favorite brand of ink:

Any kind of India ink will do, but I’ve found that Higgins Calligraphy Ink Black Waterproof has a really nice smooth consistency.

Type of paper:

Strathmore’s smooth finish Bristol board for commissions and their sketch paper for everything else. I like the tooth on a lot of cheaper drawing pads.

Which artists or creators do you return to for a quick boost of inspiration? Who are the masters of ink?

I admire Jason Shawn Alexander, Dustin Nguyen and Sean Gordon Murphy for their fluent, expressive line work and Jae Lee, Leinil Francis Yu and Hyung Min-woo for their deft precision. And I’m crazy for Mike Mignola, but who isn’t? Whenever I’m feeling really stuck though I like to go back and look at Aubrey Beardsley, Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. You can’t lose with those guys.

Once a client has handed off an illustration job to you, how do you first tackle the job. Could you provide us with a quick overview of your process?

Because a lot of my illustration work has a really fast turnaround, sometimes of only a couple days, I can’t always run sketches by the editor or art director. I’ll do a rough pencil layout at full-size and put the final inks right onto that with no in between stage, then just scan the line art and color it in Photoshop.

Comics have a bit more of a grace period to them, silly as that may sound considering their often cramped deadlines. Still, I’ll at least turn in a rough version of the fully thumbnailed script drawn straight into Photoshop so I can cleanly and easily implement any edits, then I’ll print out the approved layouts and light box the final inks over those. It’s either a strength or a weakness depending on how you look at it, but I’m really not much for refined pencils.

What’s currently sitting in your mp3 / CD player / turntable?

Frank Black in all his incarnations is always front and center along with Andrew Bird, Robert Johnson, Led Zeppelin, Madrugada and Shiina Ringo. And my boyfriend has a band called Lemon Demon, so of course I’ve been listening to a lot of them lately!

What’s hanging on your walls and what is your favorite piece of art that you own (not created by you)?

Brandon Bird gave me a really arresting ink drawing a few years ago that I’m pretty fond of. It’s a portrait of Vin Diesel with a huge black wolf in a majestic forest setting. Aside from that I mainly have handwritten reminders to myself and failed sketches hanging everywhere. My memory can be truly awful, and I like constantly having some of my worst work looming over me as incentive to do better.

Last novel you read and last movie that you saw (that you’d recommend)?

I like to read Seneca the Younger’s Trojan Women every couple of months, but that’s a play. The last novel I read was actually Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I’m almost done with Goblet of Fire now. I’ve been busy?

The last movie I saw, and I can’t say that I recommend it, was Atom Age Vampire. The last thing I saw in theatres and genuinely enjoyed was The Dark Knight, oh shock of shocks!

Current and upcoming projects.

I’ve recently wrapped up art for several upcoming sequential projects, among them actress Keiko Agena’s story in the “Asian American Superhero Anthology” Secret Identities, Eric Calderon’s piece in an issue of BOOM!’s Zombie Tales, and Chad Kinkle’s yarn in Image’s Outlaw Territory. I also illustrated Rantz Hoseley’s tale in the recently released Tori Amos-inspired Comic Book Tattoo. Next up, I’m going to try developing some original story ideas.

What would you tell an aspiring artist who is working his ass off but still needs and wants to break through to the next level?

A lot of people have told me to never do anything for free, and I agree that’s a great philosophy to hold if you already enjoy a certain stature in the art community. However it’s a discouraging fact in this industry that sometimes you have to do a lot of work for no to little dough before anyone will give you the time of day. Try to pick or create projects that you know you’ll at least enjoy and think will offer you the greatest range of visibility as well as the most opportunity to improve your craft. That way when some really plum paying gig finally comes along you’ll be in a good position to knock it out of the park and impress, thereby landing more high profile work.

It’s a slow climb and I’m certainly not that far from the bottom rung myself but dedication and an almost fanatical work ethic count for a lot, and they’re the very least you need. The rest is just luck and good manners, so keep your fingers crossed and your socks clean.
For more further reading on Ming head over to:

Her site - http://www.mingdoyle.com
Her sketchblog - http://users.livejournal.com/_ming/
To read the first 12 Masters of Ink interviews head on over to the Jacen Burrows piece.

Back in mid-October, one of our long-time MySpace friends, Dell contacted us. He has a custom art shop under the name of Wicked Intent in Santa Rosa, California. They specialize in custom guitars, custom painting existing guitars, refurbishing old guitars but what we’re concerned about here is custom vinyl graphics. He thought some of my artwork would translate well into vinyl which happens to be one of the mediums that he excels at.
If you head on over to his MySpace page and take a look through his galleries you’ll see he’s quite accomplished with that craft and many others.

I was blown away with the results that Dell came up with. I asked him to detail his process. This is what he said:

The process for vinyls around here is to first find or make an image you like. You then need to make sure that the image is “vinyl friendly”. Vinyl is very versatile but does have its limits. Too much detail in the image and they are almost always difficult to work with. Most vinyl machines simply work as a plotter. The razor plops down and cuts the outline of the image into the vinyl. Some are more fancy, but I am not that lucky. In the case of the Optimum Wound images, the issue was trying to keep as much detail as possible as to not lose the reflection of the original work. It needs to look like the original image after all. Once the image is revised enough, its off to the cutter for a test. The only way to know if it will work is to cut it out.

Next, one has to peel away the unwanted sections of vinyl to reveal the image. This is why massed produced vinyls tend to not be very detailed. Too much detail is hard to work around with removing extra material. I do not mass produce. I am therefore willing to take a little extra time to work with the material removal. During this process, an exacto knife will be your best friend. Its great for lifting corners and holding down small sections you want that are surrounded by material you don’t.

Once the image is done its time to put on the application paper. This allows you to remove the vinyl sticker from its backing and apply it cleanly to the surface you are working with. Next, clean up the edges in a paper cutter so it looks all neat and pretty and off they go to whoever wanted it in the first place.
It’s a good to have talented friends.
Here are five pictures of Dell’s creations followed by 2 of the pen and ink pieces that he based them on.
-Jay

VINYL CREATIONS BY DELL OF WICKED INTENT

PEN AND INK DRAWINGS BY JASON THIBAULT

It’s been a long time since one of the core OpWound creators has launched a new webcomic. The wait is now over. Richard Serrao’s new online graphic novel is now live. It will update with 3 new pages every Thursday over at webcomicsnation.com.

The goods.
Silent Scream is about a stripper named Bouncing Betty who goes on a kill crazy rampage taking out mobsters, pimps, hit men, pedophiles and any other low-lifes you can think of and along the way she becomes partners with a two man kill team who teach her a thing or two about hunting and killing two legged prey.

I got Rich to write a few words on his new story.
The original idea only involved her and it was called 13 the Hard Way and was about her time working for the Triads as a hitwoman. The other part of the story involving a hitman and his partner was originally pitched to Marvel comics as a very dark and violent Punisher mini story about 3-4 years before Max was created and of course it was rejected for being too dark and too violent. So…that left me with all of this material finished and no one wanting it. That’s when I decided to have a bit of fun with the stories and mix them together and see what happened.

I wanted to do a revenge story that I wanted to read, very reminiscent of the grind house films of the 70’s and 80’s. At the time Punisher Max didn’t exist and most of the comics out there were pretty tame with the exception of Preacher. I didn’t want to pull any punches so I made it with an over the top level of insane violence, sex and peppered it heavily with foul-mouthed dialogue and finally stirred it with a film noir sensibility.

Most of the comic scene has changed during the length of time that it took me to do the work for this GN but I still feel like no one has really touched on a story exactly like this one…Silent Scream pretty much wrote itself. For me the hard part was trying to get into the head of each character in order to understand how they would think and speak and still be able to walk away afterwards without losing who I was. It was sort of like method acting, immersing myself so completely into each character. It became a bit scary for me at the time because I was on Morphine in the Hospital hooked up to an IV unit. I was not allowed to eat for almost a week as tests were being run on me. Needless to say, writing when you’re hopped up is quite an experience to say the least.

New pen and ink drawing by Richard Serrao.

King of Nekropolis is cancelled
The orders numbers came in from Diamond on King of Nekropolis and they were not large enough to justify printing the book. The reception was only about half that of our first book, Rex. Either people weren’t as jazzed about K.O.N. or we were the wrong publisher to put it out. Either way, we’ve killed the project. We will definitely continue to push Rex though. The webcomic continues to get a lot of readership which is encouraging. We’re extremely proud of that book.

Silent Scream starts on Thursday, Oct 16th.
We’ve got a new online graphic novel starting up this week, Silent Scream. It’s Richard Serrao’s first new work since Memento Mori. It’ll update on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the rest of the year and beyond. It’s another gritty crime revenger brought to you in glorious black and white. This is a wet one with plenty o’ bullets.

Build Your Own Comic Empire
We’re starting up the “build your own comic empire” blogs again. They’ll be similar to the ones we did last year on MySpace, but updated and will go into much further depth. There’ll be tutorials, reviews, interviews and tons of other info-packed blog posts that will help new creators further along in their journey. Oh yeah…and there’ll be videos now as well.

Optimum Wound Volume 1.
We’re going back to our original plans to put out our creation under one roof. This was where our heads were at back in 2005 and ’06. The plan is to drop a 160-200 paged affordably priced bomb on you every 3 months. Something that takes a while to finish, doesn’t empty your wallet and will leave you thirsting for more every new season. We started off as a group package and I feel I’ve let down our original fan base by veering off into other publishing endeavors. I spent a whole year worried what the comic mainstream thought about us when the whole reason we launched was to be another alternative to the status quo.
You’re going to be served up a steady diet of edgy and sometimes dangerous fare again. I feel our original voice has been lost and now I’m ready to bring it back 120%.

We’re putting together Volume 1 right now and will have it out in the Spring of 2009.

Hitting the ground running.
You’ll be seeing this blog update a lot more often. There’ll be commentary, Q&A’s and new artwork posted regularly. You’ll have a reason to keep coming back.
Thanks for sticking around this long. We’re just getting started.
-Jay