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Our ever popular weekly spotlight continues this week with talented and dangerous Chris Piers!

1. One of the things that I admire the most about your work is your use of technology. Can you explain your process and comment on how you think the use of that technology has shaped your style?

I went through a phase where I used my Wacom tablet to produce purely digital lineart. It was honestly mostly a question of when I had time to work, though. Essentially I could grab a minute here and there at work and sketch, using the tablet and PhotoShop. I liked some of the structure it gave my character-work but over time I felt it really made my work "stiff." I've since tried to spend a lot more time returning to good old-fashioned pencil and ink on Bristol boards. However, I do still use the tablet. What I tend to do now is sketch out very, very loose figure work and panels with the tablet and print that out. I then use a lightbox to put it on a Bristol board and ink it. It sounds time-consuming but each stage is pretty loose and it actually saves me time.

2. Anyone who knows you knows that you have a keen love of pop culture. How do you think that has fed into your art and writing?

I do love pop culture - comics, tv, movies. But it all stems from my one basic love: storytelling. I enjoy the art of telling a story in anything from standup comedy to nonfiction novels. It all feeds into my brain and I just let myself keep all that info as surface detail. I'm more focused and fascinated with the structure of telling stories (act breaks, character arcs and motivations, themes) and use the pop-culture stuff as a sheen. Maybe it'll show up in a way I draw an action scene, or if I include a joke based on something lots of people know about, or how I design a character to include parts of actors I find interesting.

3. More than anyone else I've met in the DCC you've really grown and changed. Can you explain how the Conspiracy group has affected your personal and creative life?

It's aided me in so many ways. First of all, I have a fantastic network of friends. Fun people to hang out with and discuss art techniques one day and the news or sports the next. It also pushes all of us to constantly have new material to review with one another. The networking aspect can't be overstated. I teach part time at the Writer's Center (Writing for Comics) thanks to the DCC. I do a weekly podcast (Television Zombies) with friends from the DCC. I've done countless stories for our anthologies and jam comics, which has in turn lead to other comics offers. Every city deserves a DCC.