I recently interviewed Ashley Soltis for her blog (which you can find here), and so she’s now returned the favour and interviewed me for mine. I’m afraid I do rather go on a bit…but thanks to Ashley for an excellent set of questions!
1.) What initially drew you to the world of comics?
It’s hard to say because I’ve been reading comics for as long as I can remember. When I was a small child my granddad used to buy me the Beano every week, and throughout my childhood first he and then my father would buy me a comic every week (comics were traditionally weekly, rather than monthly, here in the UK). After the Beano I moved on to Look-In, and then from there it was on to Marvel UK’s titles that reprinted Marvel’s licensed US titles, Star Wars, The Transformers and Action Force (GI Joe). One day I found a stack of Marvel UK’s reprints of the Secret Wars crossover event, and that introduced me to the world of super-hero comics. Also, there was a little cartoon strip that ran every week, set in the Marvel UK offices, and that introduced me to the idea that there were actually people whose job it was to make these comics. I think from that point on I knew what I ultimately wanted to be when I grew up, and working on a Marvel UK title became a real dream of mine (one that came true last year when I worked on the UK Spectacular Spider-Man title, and then Marvel Heroes). I think what really appeals to me about comics though is that I love to read, and I love art, and comics combine those two passions of mine beautifully. It’s a very unique storytelling medium, combining the visual spectacle of the movies with the literary depth of the novel.
2.) What inspires/motivates you in your work?
Well, paying the bills is always a big motivator! Heh. But, seriously, that consideration has probably skewed my writing towards more commercial concepts, rather than self-indulgent, overly artistic nonsense. That’s not to say that I don’t try and say something with my writing! I’ve always been interested in addressing relevant social issues in my writing, and considering that comics traditionally appeal to a young, teenage audience, I’m interested in particularly addressing the issues that concern that age group. That’s certainly something I’ll be doing with Alpha Gods. However, the key is to wrap all of that up in an exciting story, with dynamic, interesting characters, so that your audience doesn’t feel like it’s just being lectured to, or spoon-fed advice. Besides, I don’t think it’s entirely helpful to try and present “solutions” to the problems faced by that age group, but instead to merely show characters that the reader can identify with, going through similar problems to those the reader may face, so that the reader can see that they’re normal and that we all go through that stuff. Apart from that, though, I’m a great believer in the old adage that you can’t write about what you don’t know. So, there’s usually an element of my own life experiences in everything I write, plus I read a lot of non-fiction. I have an interest in ancient history and mythology, and that informs a lot of my writing.
3.) Do you have any favorite artists/comic book creators who have influenced you?
Oh, definitely. On the artistic side, I got into inking when I found myself loving Bob Layton’s work on iron Man in the eighties. That was the first time that I really noticed an inker. The art always seemed better when Bob was inking the book, so I took the time to really look at the art and try and figure out why. When I later started learning to ink I was influenced by the top inkers at the time, guys like Jimmy Palmiotti, Art Thibert and, of course, my mentor, Tim Townsend. I was lucky enough to run into Tim online about a decade ago and he was kind enough to take me under his wing for a while and taught me a lot about the art if comic book inking. Now I follow Tim on deviantArt and I still find his work very inspiring and seeing his progression over the last decade really inspires me and challenges me to go further with my own work.
On the writing side, my biggest influences would be Chris Claremont’s work on the X-Men, and the various spin off titles, such as Excalibur and New Mutants. Speaking of New Mutants, Louise Simonson’s post Claremont run has also been a huge influence on my work. Staying with the X-Men, Scott Lobdell is also a favourite writer of mine, particularly his work on Generation X. As you can see, I’ve always been drawn to comics about group of superhuman teens.
4.) All in all, what is it like to be an inker?
Apart from the constant “tracer” jokes it’s very enjoyable, although probably harder work than many would imagine. One of the nicest things about inking is that you never suffer from that bane of all artists – staring at a blank page and not knowing where to start. Probably the worst part is that so few people have a true appreciation of what an inker actually does, and how much more than simply tracing the pencil art it is. An inker adds depth and tone to the pages, adds a level of detail and finesse to a page that the penciler generally doesn’t have the time to do. A good inker can take a penciled page and really make it pop, whereas a bad ink job will often either result in a lot of the fine detail of the pencils being lost, or it will completely smother and stifle the original pencils. The real challenge for any inker is to complement and enhance the pencil art while simultaneously establishing their own clearly identifiable style.
5.) What are your favorite genres of comics?
Well, as much as many comic creators like to point out that there’s a lot more to comics than super-heroes…I do love me some super-hero action! That said, in my own work I’ve done a little bit of everything, science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance and, of course, super-heroes…sometimes all in the same comic. Ultimately, what really matters is the quality of the writing and art, and not the genre. Actually, if I’m honest, of the reasons that I love super-hero comics is that with super-heroes you can incorporate so many other genres too. There’s often an element of science fiction, there’ll be some romance, some action, maybe some fantasy…I love that the possibilities are endless.
6.) What are your other hobbies or interests, besides comics?
Well, recently I’ve been doing more writing outside of comics, contributing to the Elephant Words flash fiction site on a weekly basis. I also enjoy doing non-comics related art too, and you can find some of that work on my deviantArt page. Outside of writing and art though I’m also a keen musician, and enjoy writing, playing and recording music. Music isn’t as big a part of my life as it was decade ago, when I was in a band and recording CDs and the like, but it is still very important to me.
7.) Do you feel that your work has progressed since you first started?
Oh, hugely, yes. When it comes to writing I think I still have a lot to learn, and that’s something that contributing to Elephant Words has really helped with. When I look at my inking from just a year or two ago it’s really embarrassing. The switch to digital inking has been a real help in my constant quest for technical perfection, but digital inking is very new and I’m constantly finding new and better ways to achieve the look I’m striving for. I’ve been working in comics, off and on, for fourteen years now, but it’s really only in the last two or three years that my work has really achieved what I would regard as a truly professional standard.
8.) What is your ultimate goal, in regards to your roll in the comic industry?
Well, ultimately, I’d love to be Editor In Chief of Marvel Comics…hahahah! No, but seriously, I’d just like to be earning enough money to live comfortably and have the freedom to travel a lot more. I’d love to be writing regularly for one of the big two publishers, and see my creator owned projects such as Alpha Gods achieve success both in the comic world and beyond. I’d love to see one of my comics adapted into a movie. As for the inking – I’ve already inked Spider-Man, the X-Men and Iron Man…anything after that is just gravy. Obviously, I'd love to be inking a regular monthly book for Marvel or DC, but I'm also aware of what a huge amount of work that would be.
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