An Interview with comics creator GeriLou Smith

1. What drew you to comics?

Honestly, I have always been interested in American Anime style cartoons. I love the story behind the art for I am a visual type of person. Sure, I can read a book and fantasies but to see the story come alive through pictures is what drew me to comics. I went crazy for Saturday Afternoon cartoons, especially Scooby-Doo or Speed Racer or Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles or Dragon Ball z, but when I found out that these cartoons were also in comics, I just had to have my own. IT WAS THE ART, first that drew me in. 2. Please tell us about your creative process.

I can draw as far back as I can remember. I would doodle in textbooks or notebooks when I was bored in school. It got me trouble a few times too. But I really didn't get into drawing or coloring comic books until after I graduated college. Drawing or painting for me in the beginning was just for fun that turned into a hobby that ended up as a career. It was a college professor that said I had a stylized way of painting, a lot like comics. So learning graphic design I used my skills and started drawing and coloring comics by computer, and for free. Over time, and hard work I started getting good at it. I am known as what most people would call a copy artist. I can see someone's art and mimic it to perfection, but if you told me to draw a person or scene just out of my head I can not do that. I have to see what I am drawing in some form. That is when I realized I was not good at sequential art but good at cover designs, character designs or coloring comics. So I focused my skilled on coloring and became a professional at it. Now I have comic companies looking to me to color their comics. 3. What characters do you hope to visit or revisit in your work?

I am re-creating a comic book called portalhunters in my own version which are already novels. My version will be a manga, sci-fi, adventure style with lots of back story and action. Within this comic, there are the main characters: Cooper and his brother Haze, Wade -- Cooper's best friend, and Kate, the professor and the genius kid named Jimmy. These are six characters I hope to build and develop to make them well known in the entertainment field, kind of like how we all know the group from Scooby-Doo. 4. Where can we find more information about your work?

Go to this website to find all my social media: https://linktr.ee/Gerilou.Art