Scrap Mettle

I’m a huge Scott Morse fan. Huge. And for that I gotta thank fellow artist, Cream City faithful, and good friend Amado Rodriguez.

Amado and I met over three years ago and immediately his love and passion for indie comics, particularly their creators, became infectious. He introduced me to hip indie cats such as Jim Mahfood, Dave Crosland, Sam Hiti, Rob Schrab, and Jamie Hewlett. I can’t say I remember the exact day or manner that Amado dropped Scott Morse’s work onto my lap but the effect of Morse’s genius did not go unnoticed.

First, I hunted down Smack Dab. Then I snatched up Soulwind, Volcanic Revolver, Ancient Joe, Visitations, Magic Pickle, Barefoot Serpent, Southpaw, and Spaghetti Western. With most of his older books in my grubby little hands, I’ve also been diligent in keeping up with Morse’s most recent releases: Little Book of Horror: Frankenstein, Noble Boy, and The Ancient Book of Myth and War. As if my fascination with Morse wasn’t already in the realm of awkward, I was beyond excited to pick up his new art book from Image Comics, Scrap Mettle.


Clocking in at 400 pages, Scrap Mettle is a monster of a hardcover book. It’s best described as a stocky coffee table book/bar room brawl bruiser filled with scraps of “fast art” Morse has produced in his everyday creative process. The artwork comes from the artist’s personal Holy Trinity of mediums: inks, watercolors, and cell vinyl.


Now, if you’ve never seen Morse’s work, imagine a colorful amalgamation of kid’s book illustration, animation, and abstract painting. He was mentored by legendary American animation great Maurice Noble whose contributions to the medium, along with Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, introduced a fine art sensibility, particularly in background design. Accordingly, there is an emphasis on shapes and mood in Morse’s work. It’s not about clean, crisp linework. It’s about the colors, the movement, and the tone conveyed in the overall piece. That may sound like Art History 101 speak but when you look at Morse’s paintings, you’re not looking at “comic book” art; you’re looking at fine art infused with a love for animation that brings his creations to life.


The widescreen format of Scrap Mettle and its design (courtesy of AdHouse's Chris Pitzer) gives each piece of artwork more than enough breathing room for maximum viewing enjoyment and exploration (or in case, uncontrolled drooling). We get to see behind Morse’s creative curtain and sample some of his loose inks. Considering that the artist has made a living by rendering left-handed boxing tigers and magic pickles, it’s interesting to see that the majority of his subjects in his inked odds and ends appear to be people he’s observed in his everyday travels. While the inks are a fascinating look at Morse’s creative work out, the section featuring the cell vinyl style he is known for really make Scrap Mettle shine...

“It’s sort of like the Tonka Truck of the paint world, this cell vinyl. When I was first introduced to it, Maurice Noble insisted we use it….Maurice was old school, from a time when they still painted everything. Photoshop and telecine color corrections made him cringe. If you went into painting something with the intention of changing it in the computer later, you weren’t doing your job right. You were half-assing it. You should have painted the color you wanted the first time and moved on. Think twice and paint once.”

That’s a hard quote to follow so I’ll leave it at that. I could write up a few more paragraphs about how awesome this book is but ultimately, it’s an art book and you have to see it for yourself to either love it or hate it.


You can pick up a copy of Scrap Mettle over at Amazon or at Bud Plant where you get an exclusive and limited bookplate signed by Morse. And if you want to check out some of Scott Morse’s artwork and keep up with his ongoings, visit his website and his blog.

Bernie

Messiah of Evil

In my continued attempt to highlight some of the best of the worst zombie-related horror flicks I’ve had the privilege of sitting through, today's featured movie is...

In 1962, maybe four, even five people saw Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls; the story of a young girl who mysteriously survives what should’ve been a fatal car accident only to be haunted by a creepy apparition when she becomes the organist for a small town church. The film was black and white, low-budget, and very surreal. Eventually, it would grow to cult status among the horror-loving community.

In 1968, a young Pittsburgh filmmaker named George Romero directs Night of the Living Dead; the father of all zombie movies to come. Night of the Living Dead focuses on a small group of folks who hold up in a farmhouse after the dead inexplicably come back to life. The film was black and white, low-budget, and rather graphic for its time. Eventually, it would grow to cult status among the horror-loving community.

In 1974, after writing American Graffiti for George Lucas and before they worked on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Howard the Duck, writers/directors Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz moved onto their newest project, a small budget horror flick titled Messiah of Evil.

Messiah of Evil (aka Dead People, Revenge of the Screaming Dead, The Second Coming) centers on a young woman (Marianna Hill in the role of Arietty) who has arrived at the coastal town of Point Dune in search of her missing father. In his recent letters, Arietty’s father believes he is being enveloped by evil and losing his mind. Being a dutiful and concerned daughter, Arietty does some searching and stumbles onto the strange townspeople of Point Dune, a rich playboy (Michael Greer) and his two female companions who are investigating the town’s supernatural history, and eventually the real reason behind her father’s disappearance.

Like Carnival of Souls, Messiah has an abstract, somnambulant feel that makes the viewer feel like they are watching an extended dream sequence. Everything is a bit hazy and you’re not quite sure if what you’re experiencing is real or a product of Areitty’s overly distressed imagination. Even when they introduce a few outside characters to clue you in on the reality of the situation, you get the sense that the plot is playing out like a study in mass hysteria, especially when the supernatural elements kick into high gear. Beach fires and arcane rituals. Rat eating albino locals. Talk of a rising Blood Moon. Ramblings of the second coming of a Dark Stranger. It all adds up to a muddled, ambiguous narrative that owes its tone to the macabre Italian horror genre made famous by Lucio Fulci, Mario Bava, and Dario Argento. But to balance those elements, Messiah of Evil looked to Night of the Living Dead and imported ferocious, visceral, cannibalistic zombies. See for yourself in this creepy 6-minute theater scene from the movie…

Quote of Note:

Supernatural aficionado/Bored playboy/Thom: Would you mind unzipping…my vest.

Arietty unzips his vest and walks away slowly, half looking back in his direction. Thom leaps at Arietty, grabs her in his arms, and pulls the woman tightly towards his chest.

Thom: You can’t unzip a man and walk away.

It’s not going to make many top-ten cult classics lists and, understandably, most horror lovers would rather spend their time with Suspiria, The Beyond, and Vampyr. But before you dismiss Messiah of Evil as derivative-70’s-wannabe-Italian-horror-zombie fare, hunt down a copy on DVD, and watch it for yourself. Fortunately, the film has fallen into pubic domain and is readily available in cheap two packs, horror movie collections, or just download it right here. Unfortunately, until someone like Anchor Bay gets their hands on Messiah of Evil and produces a remastered version of the film, you’ll have to settle for a sub par transfer.

Bernie

I Eat Your Skin

In my continued attempt to highlight some of the best of the worst zombie-related horror flicks I’ve had the privilege of sitting through, today's featured movie is...


As you watch the first few minutes before the credits roll in 1964’s I Eat Your Skin (aka Eat Your Skin, Voodoo Blood Bath, Zombie), the viewer is treated to a scantily clad bikini babe dancing her cheeks off in the middle of a voodoo ritual.

And then they bring out a goat.

Immediately you get the impression that this is either going to be greatest crappy horror movie ever made or…just crap. Luckily, if you’re anything like me, the mixture of camp, comedy, horror, scantily clad women, 60’s swinging sexuality, voodoo priests, calypso music, and zombies will make the movie an automatic cult classic in the vein of Horror of Party Beach and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies (yes, that’s a real movie…seriously).

So here’s the skinny: In 1970, Cinemation Industries’ distributor Jerry Gross was in search of a horror movie for a double bill he was putting together. He already had his first film - the in-house produced I Drink Your Blood. Somewhere along the way, Gross stumbles onto the unreleased Voodoo Blood Bath that had been gathering dust for six years. Of course, to draw in the kids, Voodoo Blood Bath is changed to I Eat Your Skin in order to work better with I Drink Your Blood. And there you have it! Instant money maker!

The plot: The hero, successful writer/ladies man/James Bond stand-in Tom Harris (William Joyce), is forced to travel to Voodoo Island by his alcoholic agent to conduct research for his latest opus. You see, a scientist is working on a cure for cancer on said remote island and his professional advice would be invaluable. Along with the agent’s wife (expertly/annoyingly portrayed by actress Betty Hyatt Linton) and the scientist’s beautiful young daughter, the foursome almost fall into the clutches of voodoo-loving natives (thus the name of the island), a world conquering wannabe, and (you betcha) zombies.

The verdict: Contrary to the movie’s title, there is no eating of skin to speak of. None. Not even a little cannibalism by the Voodoo Island natives. As for the zombies, their makeup is best described as dried oatmeal for skin and egg yokes for eyes. Yummy but not creepy by any means.


The film’s saving grace comes at the hands of our hero in his full campy, swinging glory. When he’s not fighting off the undead with machetes and boxes of TNT, Harris surrounds himself with a crowd of bikini babes or busies himself by wooing impressionable young women into the night…and into the morning (woo!). All that and the playboy still finds the time to get up early and write his next best-selling novel.

If all that sounds interesting, you have no choice but to see I Eat You Skin for yourself. DVD you ask? Oh yeah. You can buy your own copy right here.

Bernie

King of the Zombies

In my continued attempt to highlight some of the best of the worst zombie-related horror flicks I’ve had the privilege of sitting through, today's featured movie is...


King of the Zombies (1941) begins with our hero (Bill Summers played by John Archer), his loyal servant (Mantan Moreland as Jefferson 'Jeff' Jackson), and pilot James 'Mac' McCarthy (Dick Purcell) flying over the Caribbean in search of a downed Navy Admiral. A savage storm forces the trio to crash land on a nearby island where they are fortunate to find the mansion residence of the creepy Dr. Mikhail Sangre (Henry Victor). Unfortunately, the trio find that the not-so-good doctor is mixing it up with Nazis, local voodoo rituals, and (you guessed it) zombies. Horror and hilarity ensue, the latter coming from Moreland’s portrayal of the trusty sidekick.


It would be easy (and understandable) to label Mantan Moreland’s performance as a racial stereotype of blacks in American society and entertainment during the 30’s and 40’s. Throughout the movie, you can see the “black face” caricature come through in Moreland’s mannerisms and dialogue. So if you you’ve actually watched the movie and hate it for that reason alone, I don’t blame you. But, for my part, what could easily be dismissed as uninspired, black-and-white horror film fodder is elevated to cult horror/comedy classic status behind Moreland’s comic genius. Along with such actors as Sam McDaniel and Stepin Fetchit, Moreland was the master of the nervous, easily terrified valet.


Aside from Moreland, the film doesn’t have too many highlights. Main baddie Henry Victor plays his part as a taller Bela Lugosi, which makes sense since Lugosi was the first choice for the evil Dr. Sangre (obviously, Lugosi declined, along with Peter Lorre). And at 67-minutes in length, King of Zombies feels like it could’ve been a really long Three Stooges skit or one of the Abbott and Costello meets (insert ghoul here) series of films. At least during its initial release, King of the Zombies was nominated for a Oscar in the Best Musical Score of a Dramatic Picture category. But don't let all that 1940s critical acclaim fool you; this is an entertaining b-movie romp of the undead variety.

Quote of note 1:

Main hero Bill Summer (John Archer): "When a man's dead he's dead."

Trust sidekick Jefferson 'Jeff' Jackson (Mantan Moreland): "Well supposin' he's dead and don't know it?"

Quote of note 2:

Kitchen maid Samantha (Marguerite Whitten): "Imagine that, us havin' a white zombie for dinner."

If you have anything other than a dial-up connection (or a lot of patience), you can actually watch the movie online for free courtesy of the Internet Archive. The public domain film is available for streaming and download right here.

However, if you feel the unexplained urge to add King of Zombies to your movie collection, the DVD is available here.

Bernie

The Thirsty Dead

Planet Terror, the second half of the Tarantino/Rodriquez helmed Grindhouse two-biller, hits DVD shelves everywhere today. In celebration of the grindhouse genre and the recent outpouring of undead love, I wanted to highlight some of the best of the worst zombie-related horror flicks I’ve had the privilege of sitting through. First up…


They need a special liquid to stay young. It is red, thick and warm!

The Thirsty Dead (aka Blood Hunt, The Blood Cult of Shangri-La) was released in 1974 and revolves around four young girls who are taken captive in Manila by a cult who drinks “red, thick, and warm” liquid to maintain their immortality. The liquid in question? Um, blood, of course. Obviously, the creative marketing executive who thought up the movie’s tagline felt it would be even creepier not to use the word “blood”.

Yeah.

During the 88-minutes running time, the four girls overact their way through pagan rituals, PG torture scenes, failed escape attempts, and poorly edited attacks by potato sack-cloth wearing zombies.

Quote of note:

Captive girl 1/Claire the stripper: “The girl most likely to be sacrificed to a pagan god. Oh well, think of the honor of it.

Captive girl 2/Laura the heroine/Girl being sacrificed: “I don’t mind.”

Warning: This movie sucks in the best possible way. Subtle scenes of 70’s sexuality, un-graphic gore, and dismal special effects. Do not watch it unless you are a true zombie fanatic, drunk, drinking, or desperate. If you happen to fall into at least two of those categories, you can order your own DVD of The Thirsty Dead right here.

Bernie

R.I.P. Draven 08/21/1994 - 10/02/2007

In respect to my best bud's best bud.

Attic Bugs

I had a chance to meet fellow artist/creative genius J. Chris Campbell at Wizard Chicago this past August and we got along like gangbusters.

J. Chris was nice enough to share a copy of his Zig Zag comic with me and after reading it, I fell in love with his little critters - The Attic Bugs. So here's my rendition of the two bugs enjoying a nice bike ride...
And make sure to visit J. Chris' blog this October and check out the month-long monster love!

Bernie

The Ancient Book of Myth and War

The Ancient Book of Myth and War presents to you a time capsule, a glimpse into a strange and wondrous world, where myths and legends still roam freely and wars rage in the hearts and minds of the noble and the feeble alike. Experiments in color, shape, line and composition enrich each and every page, accompanied by text that will enlighten the audience with atmospheric facts concerning origins, eras, and even media used in the production of the art itself. The Ancient Book of Myth and War is a fine art hardcover collection of images produced by some of the most highly sophisticated animation designers in the industry.

And just who are those “highly sophisticated animation designers” you ask?

First up is Scott Morse. Along with being presently employed at Pixar, Morse is the genius behind such books as Southpaw, Soulwind, Volcanic Revolver, Magic Pickle, Spaghetti Western, Visitations, Ancient Joe, and Barefoot Serpent. You can check out Morse’s blog here.

Lou Romano, also on the Pixar payroll, has worked on The Powerpuff Girls, The Iron Giant, and The Incredibles. You can check out Romano’s blog here.

Don Shank has worked on a number of animated projects including Ren and Stimpy, Dexter's Lab, and Samurai Jack. He also did development work on The Incredibles. You can check out Shank's blog right here.

Finally, Nate Wragg is an animation industry vet and (also) a present Pixar employee where he was a sketch artist on Ratatouille. He had a short story featured in Image Comics’ Afterworks 2 anthology produced by yet another completely different group of talented Pixar artists. You can check out Wragg’s blog right here.

After having some trouble getting my local comic shop to order this book for me, I simply ordered it through Amazon, got it a few weeks ago, and have been devouring it ever since. Great talent. Amazing artwork. Excellent production and presentation. No wonder they artists debuted the book at the Nucleus Art Gallery back in March of this year.

According to Morse’s blog, there are three other Ancient Books in the works. Next up: The Ancient Book of Sex and Science.

Published by Red Window and distributed by AdHouse Books, The Ancient Book of Myth and War is available at a nice discount at Amazon and worth every penny.

Bernie

Creator Interview: Jason Copland - Part 3

And here's the third and final part of my interview with artist Jason Copland.

To read part one of the interview, click here.
To read part two of the interview, click here.


Bernie Gonzalez: Moving onto your most recent project to hit the shelves…how did your story with Matt in Postcards come about?

Jason Copland: My involvement in Postcards was an act of kindness by the book's editor and head honcho, Jason Rodriguez. We had worked together previously (Jason was my editor for the Stuart Moore penned Western Tales of Terror story I illustrated) and he felt that my work would fit nicely in Postcards. Jason had a few stories that still needed an artist and he felt that my style would work best in service of Matt's story. So, via email, Jason introduced me to Matt, although I was aware of his work though the DC Conspiracy.

BG: Let's talk about the production. How did you and Matt put the story together?
JC: The production of our story was fairly uneventful, really. Matt sent me the "Marvel style" script, a plot with dialogue broken down over the four-page length it was originally meant to be. It was the first time I had worked from just a plot, so it was kind of exciting and scary, at the same time. I began by listing all the beats of each page that needed to be illustrated and, to my surprise/horror, I quickly realized that some pages were going to need 13-16 panels to accurately depict all the information Matt had described. Many of those panels were going to be repeating panels with slight variations, which meant that many of them needed to be the same shape and scale. That fact led me to organizing the pages in a 4x4 grid layout. After that, it became a matter of deciding which panels, on pages with less than sixteen panels, got an extra frame to help control the story’s pacing and tension.

As I was working on the layouts, I realized that 4 pages just wasn't going to be enough space. I felt that the last shot needed to be large enough to help alleviate the claustrophobic tone that the restrictive grid system of the previous pages imposed. So, instead of cramming the final shot in, I made a case for having a splash page as a fifth page to give the ending a more visually fulfilling ending. Thankfully, Jason agreed.

I emailed out the layouts to Jason and Matt when I finished them and got their "OKs”. From there, I printed out the pages and inked them and then sent them out for corrections. No corrections were asked for but there was a change to one of the panels on the first page to accommodate the lettering.

BG: Now that Postcards is on the shelves and you can see "Send Louis His Underwear" in the context of the other stories, what do you think of your contribution? The overall book?

JC: I am very happy with the work I contributed to Postcards. I think Matt and I put together a great little tale. And being part of this amazing book that is filled with so many talented creators is the icing on the cake.

BG: After Postcards, you're working on Kill All Monsters! Being a huge Godzilla fan, I'm already sold on the title alone. So realizing that you want to keep a few aces up your sleeves for the paying customers down the road, what's the skinny behind Kill All Monsters!?

JC: Well, KAM! started as an idea I had to have a book that I could use as a showcase for my work. I was going to contact writers and ask them to write a story for a "robot vs. monster" anthology that I would then illustrate and self publish. After talking with Alex Ness, we came up with a basic premise of what was to become Kill All Monsters!, which is, how do you combat giant monsters that are bent on ridding the Earth of all human life? That's right! Build giant robots!


Enter writer, Michael May. Mike took that very basic 50's giant movie monster idea and mixed in some 60's Nick Fury-ish espionage and intrigue with some 22nd Century eco-concerns, and what came together is something I've very excited about. KAM! is a book I'd love to draw for as long as I possibly can.

BG: Any other upcoming projects you can talk about?

JC: There's a book of poems by Alex Ness, called A Life of Ravens, that's about to hit the printers. The book features illustrations by some very talented comic creators such as Mike Grell, Peter Bergting, Alex Sheikman, Josh Howard, Paul Harmon and Rich Koslowski. I illustrated a short poem called Valkyrie Fly; it has three full page illustrations, which was a bit of a departure for me as I usually only draw sequential stuff.

Also, I'm just finishing up the inks for a short story that's going to be part of an anthology book editor/writer James Powell is putting together entitled Dear Santa, Let Me Explain. The really cool thing for me about this story is that I wrote it, too. It will be the first story I wrote that will make it to print. It's called "Whatever It Takes" and it's an autobiographical recounting of an unusual Christmas time moment.

BG: Any upcoming appearances, conventions, events, etc?

JC: I will be attending this year's Fallcon in Minnesota and next year's Emerald City Con in Seattle. I don't think I'll make it to next year's San Diego Con unless Kill All Monsters! finds a good home.

BG: Anything else you want to add that can’t be held against you in the court of law, but possibly in the court of public opinion?

JC: Just that I'd like to thank Indie Pulp for giving me the chance to chat about myself. It's the one subject that I know a lot about!


If you’d like to contact Jason, see more of his artwork, and keep tabs on his upcoming projects, visit his website and his blog. You can also see more of Jason over at his Myspace page and Comicspace page.

Also, to find out more about Postcards: Stories That Never Happened, make sure to visit the Eximious Press website or purchase the book over at Amazon.

Bernie

Creator Interview: Jason Copland - Part 2

Here's part two of my interview with artist Jason Copland. To read part one, click here.


Bernie Gonzalez: A “lack of nightly sleep” is a perfect sequeway to get talking about your own artwork. We’ll start with the big question: How would you describe your art style?

Jason Copland: I don't know if I can talk about my stylistic tendencies without it sounding self depreciating. Um, let's see, I guess my work tends to be "liney". Is that a word? I use a lot of lines. I try to make sure that all those lines I use have a legitimate purpose, like helping describe texture/mass/mood/etc.

BG: How do you think others describe your art style?

JC: Scratchy, probably. Dense, maybe.

BG: So how'd it get that way? How did your art style become "liney"? Think of your artwork from maybe five, ten years ago. How did you get from that to now?

JC: The "liney" quality of my work probably stems from my preference for doing 90% of my inking with a pen and nib and the other 10% with a brush. There is less variance of line weight with a nib which can make the marks read more "liney". A second reason would be because I've been working mainly in indie comics, where color usually isn't an option, and I feel the need to do more hatching to give the pages a better sense of depth and mood.

BG: Were you always "liney" or was there a specific moment, inspiration, project, etc that brought that style out?

JC: Looking at my first comic book story I illustrated (back in 2001), I can say that my style has always been pretty much the same. I am starting to try to break out of my current style, though, and my work in Postcards was the first step in that direction.

BG: What was that first comic story from 2001?

JC: That first comic book story I illustrated was a book called Braids of The Gorgon. It was a Greek mythology based book that writer Ken Faggio and I were putting together. I finished the first two issues (of four) but no one seemed interested in it, publisher wise. I think with an editor, we could have made the book tighter and really made it rock. I still think about the book and wonder if we should give it another go.

BG: Let’s go through the rest of your published and unpublished work.

JC: My first published stuff was in A. David Lewis' book, Mortal Coils. I did art for stories that appeared in the first and second issues. That was in 2002. Published stuff, aside from Postcards and Mortal Coils, includes doing the art for Stuart Moore's story in Western Tales of Terror #4 and a two-issue mini series titled Empty Chamber with cohort A. David Lewis.

Besides the two issues of Braids of The Gorgon, the only other unpublished things I've got are a short story with Josh Hale Fialkov and my 24-hour comic that I did last year, which can be seen in its entirety on my Comicspace page.


BG: Are you a sketcher? Do you have a sketchbook where you work out ideas or just plain scribble?

JC: I don't do a lot of sketching for sketching's sake, actually. I do own a sketchbook but it rarely gets used. Most of the drawing I do, that I would consider sketching, is done for the purpose of working out page/panel layouts. The only time I do any real amount of sketching is when I'm starting a new project and need to generate characters and settings.

BG: I noticed that you have some sketches up on your blog from your recent time on the picket line. What's that been like?

JC: Being on strike has been a great opportunity to get back into the "sketching for sketching's sake" mode. I've even done some stuff that I like, which is something I don't say very often!

BG: In a behind-the-scenes, DVD making-of featurette breakdown, describe your working process when it comes to creating a comic page. How do produce a sequential page?

JC: First thing I do is read the script a number of times to get a sense of the overall page flow. I will make a note to myself if I think a panel will only work as a horizontal or vertical panel, depending on what is taking place in that shot. Once that concern is addressed, I start roughing out the page layout, sketching it out on loose sheets of paper, at about half the scale of the penciled pages.
JC: After the basic panel dimensions are worked out, I start drawing the individual panels on separate sheets of paper at actual size, tightening up the roughs. I then scan all the panels and assemble the page in Photoshop. At this point I make any changes that I feel need to be made to make the page stronger, sometimes that means rescaling a panel or body part or something, sometimes it means I rethink and change a whole panel. If all is good, I have my "penciled" page.

JC: I then print it out on 2 ply Bristol paper, in non-repro blue, and start inking.
BG: In his book, Writing the Australian Crawl, American poet, William Stafford said: “Art is a reckless encounter with whatever comes along”. For whatever reason, that quote always stuck with me, particularly when in comes to creating an illustration. Considering your process, how much control would you say you have over the final piece of art? How much is left to the unexpected or happy accidents?

JC: Up until I ink it, the process is pretty open to change. The "happy accidents" happen in the "penciling" process, mostly when I'm resizing panels and moving panels around. But, I do feel I have control of the final page through most of the process. Although, for my Postcards pages, I introduced the use of a dry brush technique for the grey tones which took a good deal of control away from me. And while this might sound crazy, I totally enjoyed not being in my artistic comfort zone and I ended up being very happy with the results; I have used it on a few newer projects since.

BG: Let me toss out another quote. French critic & poet Paul Valery said: “A poem is never finished, only abandoned”. Would you say you have the ability to call a piece/page finished?

JC: I would say, yes, I have the ability to call a page "finished". I am able to let a page go and start on the next one. But having said that, I have this sense that a page will always be "unfinished" in one way or another. I'd like to think that I am always evolving as an artist and that I would end up looking at my pages and find things that I would want to change, especially after a certain amount of time away from them.

BG: You mentioned earlier that your father graduated from Alberta College of Art. Is your father an artist as well? Did you see him drawing as you were growing up? Does he still draw now, and if so, do the two of you look at each other's work?

JC: He is indeed an artist. He's a very talented studio artist and illustrator. Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to see him at work while I was growing up as my parents got divorced when I was very young. Although, we have recently begun to exchange emails and that has given me a chance to see some more of his work. He does some amazing Japanese influenced illustrations which he creates mostly in digital media.

BG: Do you have a particular artist or network of artists that you use for feedback on a regular basis?

JC: You know, I do have a small network of fellow artists that I correspond with from time to time, but I never ask them to look at my work. I probably should, though. One of the guys I chat with regularly is Alex Sheikman, creator of Robotika.He sends me stuff he's working on, through email and snail mail, which is a thrill. I love Alex's work, so getting stuff from him is always a rush. I'll give him feedback once in a while, but his work is so strong that I almost never have anything to say, other than "Wow".

BG: Greatest inspiration/s in comics?

JC: Guy Davis. Walter Simonson. Ashley Wood. Tony Moore. Paul Pope. Bill Sienkiewcz. All I have to do is look at one of their books and I'm raring to go.

BG: Do you regularly follow or seek out a specific comic artist’s work?

JC: All the fellas I mentioned in the question above. I grab whatever these guys draw.

BG: Greatest inspiration/s outside of comics?

JC: My wife and son are my greatest inspirations. I have a picture of them above my drawing table that I look at whenever I question my resolve. It never fails to motivate me.

BG: Out of curiosity, what does your wife think of your artwork and the comics you've drawn?

JC: She seems to like what I draw. That's what she tells me, anyway. But seriously, she is extremely supportive of my work and for that I can't thank her enough.

To read the third and final of the interview, click here.

Creator Interview: Jason Copland - Part 1

Here's the first part of my Indie Pulp interview with artist Jason Copland.

I first stumbled onto Jason Copland’s work in Postcards: Stories That Never Happened…


Edited by Jason Rodriquez, Postcards is a collection of stories inspired by actual vintage postcards gathered from flea markets, antique shops, and second-hand stores. The postcards may be limited by a single paragraph of text, but the creators that have contributed to this anthology have allowed their imaginations to fill in the blanks and tell the “true stories that never happened”. One of the stories in the anthology, “Send Louis His Underwear”, was written by Matt Dembicki and illustrated by Copland.

The story, particularly the artwork, made such an impression on me that I decided to contact Jason and hit him up for an interview. Big thanks to Jason for agreeing to the interview and providing some honest, insightful answers into his life and art.


Bernie Gonzalez: Alright, Jason. Let’s start by filling a few blanks in your bio. What's your background? Did you go to art school/take art classes? Self taught?

Jason Copland: Well, I've taken my share of post-secondary art education, that's for sure. My first stop was the Alberta College of Art, the school my father graduated from (and my Dad's friend, John Byrne, dropped out of!). After two years there, I decided to follow Byrnes' lead and dropped out, too. I moved back to Vancouver and, after spending a few years in music retail, I felt a need to go back to school. I enrolled in a two-year community college art program where the focus was more on practical skills and techniques of image making. From there I finished out my art school training at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Six years of post secondary education in total...and one huge student loan!

BG: Ah, the abyss that is the student loan debt. I know it all too well. So to beat that beast back where he came from, do you have a day job or are you able to make a living through your art?

JC: For part of the week I work a day job as a librarian assistant at the Vancouver Public Library. The other part of my week in spent taking care of Stewart, my two-year-old son. Comics are still a side thing, but with some luck and a lot of hard work, I hope to be able to make my living doing comics fulltime.

BG: Is Stewart already spending some time with a drawing pad and those jumbo-sized crayons?

JC: He just turned two-year-old in July, so it's still too early to tell if he's going to follow in his old man's footsteps. But, he has done some sketching while sitting at my drawing table, so you never know! Personally, I think he should take up a trade, that way he'd be sure to make a decent living.

BG: With Stewart and a day job, how do you organize your drawing time? Take me through a typical day/week.

JC: Almost all my drawing time comes at the end of my day. Monday through Wednesday I take care of Stewart. Those days start around 8am and go until my wife comes home from work at 5:30pm. I get a little work done during his nap time, most of which is emailing people and surfing the internet. After putting Stewart to bed and spending some time with my wife, I'll draw from 10pm to about 2am. Then, I'm up at 8am to do it all again. My Thursday and Fridays are roughly the same as above except I work at the library instead of taking care of Stewart.


BG: I believe “busy” is the appropriate word. So why comics? Why do you feel the need to spend all the time and effort creating art for the comic medium?

JC: Funny, I've been asking that question to myself for years. I have a hard time coming up with a concrete answer. I guess it's because of my love and respect for the medium. I've been reading comics since I was a wee lad and have always regarded the art form (and the creators involved) very highly. I'm fascinated with the sequential nature of comics, telling a story with a series of images is a very satisfying experience. Plus, the notion that you can create new worlds with nothing but ink, pen and paper is very liberating, too.

BG: Would you say that most of your artwork is comic artwork? If so, then do you think of yourself as a "serious" artist?

JC: Yeah, almost all my work is traditional sequential comic book work. I definitely consider myself a "serious" artist. And why wouldn't I? Because comics are considered a "Low Art" form? I don't believe in the notions of "High Art" and "Low Art". That offensive distinction was created by institutional art critics and historians to bring an air of validity to the art forms that they had a stake in, namely painting and sculpture. Comics are just as valid and important. In terms of "Art", I'd put Frank Miller's Sin City on equal footing with Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Seriously. Ok, I'll get off my soapbox, now.

BG: No, no. Stay on your soapbox for a little longer. I'll even play devil's advocate.

In the grand scheme of things, aside from Hollywood's recent interest in GRAPHIC NOVELS (in capitals for emphasis and credibility), comics have primarily been seen as juvenile. Kids read comics before they grow up, develop their reading comprehension, and move onto "real" books, "real" literature. So how can you compare something like Sin City, a book that may have more illustrative/fine art qualities than the average comic, with an actual piece of FINE ART (in capitals for emphasis and credibility) like Mona Lisa?

JC: I think comics got a bad shake, historically speaking. Once Dr. Wertham got his crusade up and going, the US Senate started questioning the morality of comics and their creators, and the stifling Comics Code Authority was put in place, Comics didn't stand a chance to be considered anything but lowbrow amusement. Comics were too far ahead of their time and that scared too many people. In another reality, one where the fear mongering of people like Dr. Wertham never existed, comics of today would be regarded far more favorably as a valid form of entertainment and expression. As far as I'm concerned, all the Mona Lisa has going for it over Sin City is about 500 years of validation.

BG: Interesting perspective. Let’s give this fine art vs. comics comparison one more go around.

When people discuss fine art, names like Picasso, Monet, Klimt, van Gogh, Renoir, etc commonly turn up. When it comes to comic art, there is also a rich history with artists such as Romita, Kirby, Dikto, Toth, Eisner, etc. As a comic artist, how important do you think it is for a comic artist to know about comic art history? How much do you know about comic art history?

JC: If someone is interested in making comics, a general knowledge of comic history should be a high priority. Knowing the past helps inform decisions made about the future. I have what I would call a basic knowledge of the history of comics. I'm not so good with the finer details about particular "Ages" but I know of the overall rise/fall/rise again details of comic book history. Or, at least, I once did but my lack of nightly sleep is starting to take its toll on my long term memory.

To read the second part of the interview, click here.

Robot Dreams

Published by First Second Books, Robot Dreams is Sara Varon’s newest graphic novel and her third book. Her first venture into the graphic novel world was titled Sweater Weather; a 96-page all-ages story about a few animals and their snowy-day adventure that earned Varon a “Best New Talent” Harvey award nomination in 2004. In 2006, Varon made good use of her fluffy style and pastel love in her wordless children’s book, Chicken and Cat.

Now, with Robot Dreams, she’s made a natural progression and taken her wordless visual passion and produced a 208-page OGN that, on its surface, could easily be dismissed as another kid’s book. Dogs reading papers, robots playing at the beach, connoisseur anteaters, and a melting snowman populate the cartoony landscape. But upon deeper examination, the story explores the value of friendship in subtle fashion and in a variety of relationships…and it’s all done without text.

Like Joshua Simmons’ House, Robot Dreams stands as a perfect example of the power pure visual storytelling can demonstrate. It takes a brave and talented storyteller to convey a narrative driven soley by the pictures without the aid or protection of snappy lines, monologues, or thought balloons. Fortunately, Varon is able to deliver a great deal of understated emotion without a single word.

If you can spare a few minutes, I'd recommend giving Robot Dreams a "read".

Bernie

Copic Multiliner SP Brush

The newest weapon in my creative armory...



I saw the Copic Multiliner SP Brush (BS) at Wizard Chicago and instantly fell in love. Well, as much in love as you can fall with a pen.

In my limited experience with brush pens, I've found that the tips give out way too quickly. They start flexing too much and I lose control of my line widths. I'll admit to having a heavy hand, but I need a strong, resilient tip with some resistance when I work on an illustration. This new pen produces velvet-soft strokes of 0.2 to 5mm, has refillable ink cartridges, a replaceable tip, and comes in a sturdy aluminum casing.

Let's see what magic we can make.

Bernie

House

In his first graphic novel entitled House, writer/artist Joshua Simmons tells the tale of a trio of teenagers (one guy and two girls) who stumble upon an abandoned, dilapidated mansion in the middle of a forest. At first, the teenagers freely meander through the mansion, taking a few moments to walk across the roof, skinny-dip in a submerged section of the residence, and explore the seemingly unending hallways. At the same time, there is a subtle subtext of jealousy as two friends move towards a budding romance. After walking through a labyrinth of corridors, the trio eventually find themselves in a room decorated by a solitary painting.

The painting (also the cover of the book, above) is a haunting head-and-shoulders image of a bearded general William Sherman-like figure in a Civil War-era uniform. Any indication of warm humanity is lost within the dark recessed of the man’s sunken eyes. While there are no pupils to speak of, the sullen figure appears to be looking right at you. Basically, it’s kinda creepy.

After staring at the painting for a few seconds, the teenagers discover a boarded passageway that leads into the trio’s shocking journey through the house.

What makes Simmons’ story so unique is that it’s told entirely with black-and-white visuals without the use of any words whatsoever. Everything in the story is communicated through the visuals by way of Simmons’s scratchy linework and his remarkable composition. The first half-dozen pages are open and white. But as the teenagers make their way towards the mansion, the imagery becomes dense. Once they are inside the house, white is replaced with black and the artwork becomes more claustrophobic.

It’s difficult to go into further detail about House because it really is one of those books you have to experience for yourself. I know that might sound cliché but there’s a discovery that comes along with the story; a horrific, intense discovery. Even using the words “horrific” and “intense” in this review don’t mean a thing unless you take 5-10 minutes to go through the pages and follow the trio through the mansion. Then you'll get it. Then you’ve gone on the 80-page ride as Simmons intended. Then you’ll understand when I say that I doubt a collapsing stairwell has been rendered in such a frightful fashion. Is that a tease? Damn right it is!

You can find out more about Joshua Simmons at his website and his blog. You can purchase a copy of House at the Fantagraphics Books website.

Bernie