Interviews Archives

You have a wide variety of work in your portfolio, but a very distinct style throughout. Is there an influence there, or just something you developed over time?

The role of a freelance artist is to bring other people's ideas to life and so I adapt my style to the requests of my various client's. Most of the time my, however, my distinctive style still shines through. It has certainly been something that I have developed over the years but I am also sure that the stuff my dreams are made of has been influenced by the artwork of many other artists who I admire (including Matt Groening, Bill Watterson, Jim Henson, Tim Burton, and others).

What is your favorite medium to use when creating a piece. And does it depend on the project or request of the customer?

My favorite medium to work with is a Wacom tablet and my computer. I love the ability to "zoom in" for detail work and "undo" mistakes. However, I also really like traditional acrylic on canvas and the thick, chunky textures you can build up. It's also fun to experiment with other mediums so I guess it really does depend on the project or client.

Being a freelance artist, what is the easiest/hardest/most rewarding part of your job?

Being a freelance artist has both it's challenges and rewards. The easiest part for me is creating the actual artwork. The challenging part is the constant promotion, billing, contract negotiation, and all the other aspects of running a business. In can also sometimes be a challenge to figure out exactly want a client is after. (It helps to have a bit of ESP.) However, I very much enjoy being able to set my own schedule and be my own boss, not to mention the short commute from bedroom to home studio. The most rewarding aspect, however, is that I am lucky to do what I enjoy and be able to make a living from it.

The weekly spotlight on the people behind the D.C. Conspiracy continues with Rebecca Simms!

1. When did you first start combining your writing and drawing to create comics?

When I was younger I wrote my first comic inspired by the children's books "Frog and Toad" by Arnold Lobel. I came up with my own two characters, slugs instead of frogs (and toads) and wrote and drew an adventure of the two protagonists in a "Sword in the Store"-themed story. I was 9 years old; I think my mom still has the original copy.

It wasn't for quite a few years later when I got back into writing and drawing comics again. Coming up with the stories for my current comic, Girl Ninja, my old roommate and I would sit around and rant about really girly situations, and then reply, "Hey, wouldn't that be funny if Girl Ninja did this..." then insert a funny scenario where Girl Ninja hacks up someone's cell phone with her Katana. Currently, I am working with a new writer for my comic. This helps relieve my schedule and adds some new perspective and fresh faces to my comic, along with a lot of my own input, while I continue to write for other comic projects I have.

2. Women in comics are still a minority (though there are tons of examples of those who work in the field being at least as equally talented) - do you ever feel like this hinders or helps you?

Well, I wouldn't say it's a hindrance. There's no task in comic-making that requires any specific gender, I would think. That just stems from the same argument that there are fewer females in the world of gaming. Of course this has changed greatly over the years, as the typical roles have been crossed. It's becoming more common and culturally acceptable for women to have a strong influence in comics and in gaming and other counter culture activities and lifestyles.

I believe it can also be a help. Since there are fewer women in the comic industry, I think it brings on a lot of encouragement and support to do well and succeed and, in turn, bring on more women with them same interests and passions. I personally have not felt the hindrance of my gender, but don't know many other females that share the same love and appreciation of comics. They are out there. It won't be long before we see more and more women enter the comic scene.

3. What goals, both short and long term, have you set for yourself when it comes to your comics?

Short term goals: try to stick to my schedule better. It sounds simple, but prioritizing is very important when working on a comic. Especially one with a deadline. My goal this year is to have my pages for my comic, and other projects, done on time and in a quality controlled fashion.

Long term goals? First, finish Girl Ninja book 2 by the New Year, and work on book 3. I'd also like to work on more projects in the DCC group and have already started writing pieces for the next two anthologies. This goes back to my goal of being more organized and sticking to a schedule. VERY IMPORTANT, kids!

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.

1.How did you become involved with the DC Conspiracy?

I'd met Matt Dembicki about six years ago at SPACE. I lived in Harrisburg, PA then, and we were both in the same issue of Rafer Robert's Plastic Farm. We'd just kinda kept in touch after, and I luckily moved to DC for a new job a few months before the first Conspiracy meeting at Dremo's. I feel really lucky to have found such a hungry and talented group of creators. Being a part of the group helps me focus on my art, and make the idea of making my own comics more than just a fantasy. I owe Matt and the group a blessing and a debt with every finished piece.

2.What, if anything, do you consistently draw inspiration from?

Berni Wrightson, Jack Kirby, Paul Chadwick, Nick Cave, Charles Burns, David Lapham, Frank Frazetta, Tom Waits, Mark Schultz, Wally Wood, Clutch, Sam Keith, Brian Bolland, Tim Bradstreet, The Baltimore Ravens, and Jaco Pastorius. Oh, you want me to go on? These are my mentors. Along with my family, these are my dependable sources of inspiration.

3.What is your favorite stage of creating comics? for example: writing, pencils, inks, etc. and why?

Inking has always been my most favorite part of the creation process. From the moment I met Joe Sinnott at the Ithicon it's been the most important part of being a comic book artist. I had just drawn my first completed short story for the back story in the first issue of Plastic Farm. He looked at my art and gave me the best advice. "Kid, you gotta ink with a brush." Since then it's always been about the ink for me. Now, my pencils are more like rough guidelines. I make most of my decisions in the inking phase.

1.) What are the benefits to your art that you got from a sequential art focused education.

Two of the biggest benefits I think are, having the opportunity to take classes from professional comic artist and the amount of time spent making comics. Being able to watch first hand, how to plan out and draw a comic from experienced Professors and hear what goes through their mind as they complete a page, little tips and tricks of the trade.
But from as much as I learned from the Professors, I think I leaned more from the actual time spent creating comics. For me it was two full years (including summer classes) of being immersed in creating comics. Having to finish a 4 - 5 page story in one or two weeks, sometimes for multiple classes at the same time, then doing it all over again for the next project. That is the biggest benefit, the time, the hours spent practicing.

2.) In what ways has the use of digital drawing techniques improved your art and what things do you still prefer to use traditional techniques for?

It has improved my art by giving me more control over what the finished image looks like. It lets me experiment without worrying if I'll ruin the image, cause I can always hit the undo button. It also lets me fix all the problems in my traditionally drawn art. I always have little mistakes here and there, an accidental ink smudge, a lopsided eye, stuff that's easy to fix in Photoshop.
What I really love is combining both traditional and digital art. Taking a pencil or ink drawing, scanning it into the computer and coloring it with Photoshop or Corel painter. Bringing in different textures, working with multiple layers, playing with the transparency levels. To me its kind of like conducting an orchestra only using color instead of sound and trying to make all of those colors ring harmoniously in tune with each other.

3.) Do you prefer to collaborate on creating comics or do it all yourself?

I like both. But I think I get the best results from collaborations. Two heads (or more) are better than one they say. And the projects move much faster than if I were to do the whole thing myself. Its always interesting to see how others envision your script, or how they would ink your pencils or color your inks. It's a good way to keep the whole process fresh.