After that I jumped, especially being in art school, to the illustrators.
— Bill Sienkiewicz
But I'm aware of the fact that I'm working in a commercial venue where I'm producing something that I wouldn't normally be approaching the way I'm doing it.
But with comics you're reading and assimilating an image simultaneously, instead of just reading or watching the tube.
Do the story in the way it really demands to be done, which may mean using several different styles or only one style; but it's still about respecting the story.
I didn't want to feel constrained, so I took on the Mutants.
I wanted to be complete, because I figured that, visually, there was an avenue to explore with painted stuff.
If somebody can inspire me, it feels really special.
Kyle Baker's work is really funny, but it's also got a very clear vision.
One of the problems I have with a lot of movies these days is that everything is too well lit. In the world of digital creations there is a tendency to show too much.
So I look at a lot of stuff now that I did and some of it looks tame to me, but my interest in terms of what I want to say with it is a little different.
So, when the special effects are at the service of the story and draw you into it, that is really the magic.
To me, that's one of the things that I love about doing this stuff. One day I can work on this piece in watercolor, and then work on something else on the computer, or work on something else that's a completely different approach.
And I've never viewed comics as assignments for the client.
But if I really want to produce my own work and tell stories, then I will.
Cartooning is an honorable thing.
Especially with Elektra, because I'm doing a lot of the covers for the new version of Elektra.
I still love a lot of the guys who just paint.
I wanted to learn how to paint rather than just doing black-and-white work.
If you're going to establish a certain level of unreality than you have to deal with it.
Like Godfather, you look at a movie like that, or something that James Gray has directed, a film with minimal or pin lighting as opposed to everything being lit bright and flat, where everything is evident.
People who can pull you in and take you on a journey, as opposed to simply adding flash. Again, that feels very clinical, and I don't respond to that the way I used to.
So much of 'Jaws' was amazing because the mind filled in what was missing.
That was a real learning element for me, because I realized that the more true you are to yourself, the more you will lose people.
To me, the technique was almost irrelevant; it was what was coming across.
And that, to me, is the main attraction to comics. It's an avenue to say what you want to say.
But there's still an avenue for smaller comics and personal expression.
Comics are really my life blood in a lot of respects.
For a while I felt very alone; sort of out there in the world of comics, especially here in the States.
I want to say 90% of stuff out there is just crap that got made. The main point is that it got produced.
I was lucky enough to be given books that weren't top sellers; books that were kind of under the radar.
It's interesting, because in the corporate stuff there's a dichotomy there, depending on the creator. Even what, in essence, may be a very safe corporate approach, there is some stuff that is allowed to be pushed.
Nothing is really media driven or committee driven, so you can actually just produce something.
So cartooning, for me, is an honorable thing. It's pushing the envelope. It's the truth of something through exaggeration.
So there's kind of a simultaneous aspect to pushing the boundaries, and being very safe.
There is a whole generation of people who are going to see movies or watch TV who don't want to work.
You're telling the story, creating the sets, doing the lighting, the designing, and establishing the pace.
