1. What drew you to comics initially?
When I was a kid my parents split early. I was six. My father would take me every week to a shop called KW Second Hand books. He would search and sift through marketing books for his career and plop me down in front of a giant wall of bookshelves with nothing but comics. This is before bags and boards, and they were just in huge heaping piles. The newsprint pages on the outside facing had turned yellow from the owner smoking in the joint. There I fell in love with comics, and for hours I’d rip through piles. I gravitated to monster comics. DC’s Creature Commandos, anything fighting Nazis. My gramps was a WW2 bomber for the RAF so I always loved monsters in WW2 stories. G.I. Robot, Werewolf by Night, Buscema’s Frankenstein and Conan. Tomb of Dracula. I was hooked and would go home to draw what I was reading. From age six, all I wanted to do was be a comic creator.
2. What do comics allow you to do in storytelling and creating?
Comics are my outlet for expression. I've just always lived in a comic book world. They are quicker, punchier and my favorite form of storytelling. I come from a fine art background in college so I get to express that. I had a minor in film so I get to pretend like I'm making films. It let me cross over with my other career as a wrestler which is another amazing form of storytelling. If I wasn't a comic artist and creator, I'd for sure be an animator or film maker. But to me comics are the best!
3. Who are the authors and artists that inspire you?
My biggest is in umsic, Maynard James Keenan I listen to everyday while I work with Tool, Perfect Circle and Puscifer. For comics, I worship at the Altar of the Holy Trinity of Moebius, Kirby and Otomo. I love Toppi and Toth as well. Their storytelling and art I look at everyday like a cup of coffee. In film, I love Kubrick and John Carpenter. My Top 5 films are The Shining, The Thing, Blade Runner, Road Warrior and Conan. Basically the summer of 82 is the gold mine and gold standard.
4. Please tell us about Far Cry, Southern Cross, and any other titles you’d like to mention?
Well, as far as Far Cry, I worked on animating the trailer for Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon that won some awards and went kinda viral. I've done some other cut screen animation since for that property, I recently did some covers for the new comic series for Ablaze. Southern Cross was my Image series which I hope to return to in the future once we get the green light from Image. In 2020, Karl Kerschl and I started a boutique publishing company called LETHAL COMICS. We run off Kickstarter and 2023 will be our biggest year. My series there is called Mother Trucker. "Mother Trucker is a 36 page Sci-Fi space wrestling epic, about a bad ass wrestle goddess, trucking through the galaxy, searching for her long lost kid and looking to become the greatest champion of Truck Off, the Wrestlemania of the Star ways!" I have two books out now part two just shipped, and we are now finishing off a 100 page horror anthology for the film Psycho Goreman.
5. Where can we go to find out more about your work?
You can find everything I'm doing on Lethalcomics.com or find me on line on any social media at @andybelanger or @andy_belanger
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