1. What initially drew you to comics?
Monsters. When I was, maybe, between 7-10 years of age, I was heavily into things like dinosaurs and Godzilla and The Wolfman and Creature from the Black Lagoon. I watched War of the Garagantuas a lot --
My family and I lived in Southern California. Starting when I was ten years old—over the course of ten years , every June—when school would get out— we would drive to Manitoba to spend the summer. That's where my parents are from and my Dad had a honeybee business there. Then we would drive back to SoCal at the end of June —when school would resume. The drive took three days. One such trip we were getting ready to leave Canada and I was in a drug store looking for something to do during the drive—to take with me in the car--and I happened upon a comic book rack. To my amazement, a couple of the comics had monsters on the covers. The comics were Swamp Thing and Man-Thing. This was great—and I bought them. When I arrived home a few days later, I discovered my best friend had started reading them, as well. Serendipity, I think.
We started collecting. Every comic with monsters in them. Werewolf by Night was my favorite.
What do comics allow you to do as a visual storyteller?
This is hard to put words to. I’ll try. In terms of the medium, I really enjoy the combination of art and storytelling. It's truly unique. As I started collecting comics, art became a very important to me. I figured out who the artists were and started collecting original art. This was especially heightened in the eighties when artists like Bill Sienkiewicz—who brought an illustrator mentality to the medium—started to flourish. This was very exciting to me—and inspired me to pursue the profession—
I went through the illustration program at California State University, Long Beach. I wanted to learn everything about creating art. Drawing comics was always plan A—as comics are a very fast paced art medium, which I like. Every panel is a small work of art. A panel might take an hour. An illustration for a cover might take a week—not something I enjoyed. I didn’t have the patience for it—which I why I enjoy drawing interiors more than covers--
and—
I love telling stories.
Movies are, obviously, similar—but with comics—as a creator --I have a ton of creative control and I can document anything I want. I get my script and tell the story. I’m not restricted by budget or producers, etc. That's a huge plus—
—and there's something about getting published that is very exciting.
3. You have done artwork for so many well-known characters -- any that you would like to revisit/re-envision?
I’m super lucky and have worked on a lot of really interesting projects and characters—and if I had the opportunity to re-visit any of them, I would be very happy. I'd probably re-examine the character. For example, if I ever did another Death story I’d probably draw her a little different than I did in the nineties—that's just my nature.
I like being creative and challenging the status quo. When I was approached to work on Dr. Strange I shared that I’d do it, but only if we re-examined the character—approached him from a different angle—
That said, aren’t any characters that I have spent time with that I’m actively thinking about returning to.
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