WELCOME TO CRIMINAL WEEK ON MYSPACE COMIC BOOKS!

MYSPACE COMIC BOOKS is celebrating ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS CRIMINAL with five rounds of spotlights devoted to peeling back the acclaimed, award-winning, and arresting crime series – a whole week of everything gloriously and unrepentantly CRIMINAL!

Thanks to compatriots-in-comics-crime at MARVEL COMICS for making this happen. Click here for all the stunning CRIMINAL week events!

CRIMINAL Conspiracy: Michael Lark Interviews Sean Phillips

MySpace Comic Books is proud to present part three of CRIMINAL WEEK, with a special interview between two of the industry's most acclaimed artists! MICHAEL LARK, Eisner Award-winning artist of Daredevil sat down with Criminal's SEAN PHILLIPS to talk about the crime noir series that has everyone buzzing! Just how does Phillips approach illustrating Criminal? What inspires the series' trademark look? Michael Lark investigated and came back with the answers you demanded for this third installment of our spotlight on Criminal!

Michael Lark: The first thing I noticed, when I saw the first preview pages for Criminal, was your use of a traditional three-row grid, which was a bit of a departure after "Sleeper."  I know you often like to try new things, but what was your thinking on using the three-row grid?

Sean Phillips: I chose the three-tier grid for a few reasons. The first was just to make Criminal look different to Sleeper. That was all cascading, small pics over a full-page splash. That was designed to be read by the seasoned comics reader who already knows the rules on how to read a comic page. With Criminal, the hope was always to get non-comics readers to pick it up; the crime-fiction or crime-movie fans who might not have read a comic for years. I wanted to make the pages as easy to follow as possible, real simple left-to-right storytelling. Also, I like to set up little rules on a new book: page composition in this case, but also sometimes trying a slightly different drawing style, using new tools to draw with or whatever.

Also, for Criminal we made a five-page trailer, showing scenes from the series. The hope was I'd get to reuse those panels in the actual book, and having them all the same height would have theoretically made that easier to slot them into the new pages. But unfortunately, I didn't get to reuse hardly any of them and the ones I did use, I re-inked anyway so that the pages of original art would be complete if anyone wanted to buy them.

I always liked the way you used a four-tier grid in a lot of your books, but I always had a bit of trouble fitting everything in those low panels.

ML: Do you ever find yourself feeling painted into a corner by these rules you make for yourself? Do you read the script for a page and think "Man, I wish for just this one page I could use a four-row grid"?

SP: No, never. Ed might find it hard to write for a three-tier grid sometimes, but once he's figured it out, the rest comes easy for me. In the new story, we actually open on a full-page splash, that felt really weird, to have all that space to fill.

In the case of Marvel Zombies, that was all based on a 3 or 4-panel grid and sometimes it was a little difficult to give everything enough space. There was a lot of characters to fit in though.

ML: I think I told you, back when I read the first issue of Criminal, that I liked the layout you were using, because it reminded me of old EC crime comics.  Did that play any role, at all, in your decision? Or was it just a happy accident?

SP: Happy accident, I think. The only EC crime comics I'd seen were some Bernie Krigstein ones in that book that came out about him. That Master Race story of his is a classic though, especially the first panel which was used on the cover of that Fantagraphics book. Subconscious influence I'd say...

ML: You mentioned trying things like a different style or different tools.  Have any of those types of stylistic experiments played a role in the look of Criminal?

SP: For the actual story pages, I've mostly been trying to refine what I learned drawing Sleeper: trying to simplify down what I do without losing what makes my work mine. I've tried a couple of different techniques on a couple of dream/flashback sequences. Painted in greys for one and drawn in ballpoint pen for another. Those things are fun to try for a few pages but usually take too long to do on a monthly comic too often.

I think the biggest stylistic change on Criminal was that I do my own lettering. I use a font of my handwriting that Rich Starkings at Comicraft kindly made for me and I hand draw the balloons and caption boxes on the actual artwork. This gives much more control on placement and flow and makes it easier to judge how much black a page might need. I usually letter the whole book before I even do any drawing...

ML: I've been ballooning (and sometimes lettering) my own pages for a few years now, and I know that I find lettering placement can affect timing and pacing to a much larger degree than most people think. Do you find that doing the lettering yourself affects your approach to the panel and page compositions?

SP: I've always ballooned my pages. I can't see how you couldn't. Surely the most important thing in a comic is to not make it difficult to read, the words and the pictures. I always balloon the pages before any drawing just to make sure all the dialogue and captions gets read in the right order, and also to make sure I leave enough room in the drawings for the lettering. Since I started doing my own lettering, it's easier to fine tune all that while I'm penciling and inking and sometimes after, if need be. Panel borders can get shifted a few millimeters to allow a balloon to sit nicely in a panel. Characters can overlap balloons if it makes for a nicer composition. Hand drawn panels borders and balloons and caption boxes help the lettering become a more organic part of the art rather than appear to be a floating separate element above the drawings.

ML: Do you follow Ed's panel and page breaks pretty faithfully? Or does doing the lettering yourself give you the freedom to sometimes break up panels for composition and pacing purposes?

SP: I never change a page break, but I often split a panel into two or three new panels just so that I can split the dialogue up a little or to stop the characters talking over each other.  

ML: I've noticed you've taken a slightly more painterly approach. Do you use the brush exclusively for the bulk of the art? Or do you take a more Caniff-like approach – using a pen to do faces and hands, for instance, then using the brush for the rest of the figure?

SP: I use a Pitt pen to outline all the figures, and for drawing in eyes and noses and small details like that, then in with a brush pen for the blacks. Bigger faces and figures would be all brush and smaller figures would have more pen. Backgrounds usually have more pen just so the lines don't get too thick.

Back on Sleeper I used a Gillot nib, but I changed paper on Criminal and the dip pen digs into the paper too much. I'm using watercolour paper rather than Bristol board. It makes dry brush easier and I can get it through my printer to print out the lettering and panel borders as bluelines. Also, I've started to use, on your recommendation, Pentel Colour Brushes. I've been using real sable brushes for years, but they don't seem to last as long as they used to. I'm lucky to get more than three pages out of one, whereas the Colour Brushes last for dozens of pages. Cheaper too!

The other place where I play with styles is on the covers and back-up features. There I can do whatever I like, painting in oils or acrylics, using a faux screenprint look or ballpoint pen again.

ML: Yeah, the covers have been looking great.  The Robert McGinnis influence was really apparent in the first few, which gave the book that old pulp crime paperback feel.  What other artists are influencing your work on Criminal?

SP: Actually your stuff has been an influence on Criminal. I've always liked how you manage to place your characters in a totally believable realistic world. I always think I'm just faking it, so for Criminal I've made more of an effort on the backgrounds, trying to get a convincing West Coast city. It obviously would be a lot easier if I was American, there's only so much I can get from other comics or movies or Google. I don't understand American road signs or street corners or cars or bars or anything else really. The biggest influence on Criminal has been what reference I've been able to find of what Ed asks me to draw.

I've tried not to be influenced by any other comics, in fact I've purposely not looked at Sin City or Stray Bullets or Sinner since starting the book. I have been looking at Jorge Zaffino comics and even bought some of his original art recently. I've always liked his stuff, so it's probably always been an influence, not just on Criminal. Other comic artists who have informed my style of drawing recently include Milt Caniff, Steranko, Mignola, Kent Williams, Duncan Fegredo, Gene Colan, Jordi Bernet and John Paul Leon.

I'm not really that into crime movies but some I've watched for the back-up features in Criminal have been influential, especially Blast Of Silence. I love that film and have recently drawn the cover for the Criterion edition of it, out soon on DVD. I also did the first few scenes of the movie as a four-page comic that will be included in the box.

As well as McGinnis, I've been looking at some illustrators from the 50's such as Lynn Buckham, Joe Bowler and Austin Briggs. They haven't been much of an influence yet as I haven't got any idea how to copy what they did. I'm totally self taught as a painter and always feel that I could do with finding out how to paint properly like they did. My biggest influence is my ineptitude at pushing paint around a canvas.

ML: So, of those artists you've named, what elements of their styles or approaches have been creeping into your work? I can definitely see the Caniff in your brushwork, and the McGinnis in the covers for the first story arc.  But can you elaborate on what affect the other artists are having on your own art?

SP: They're all just general influences. It's not like I consciously take certain things from their work. I haven't got the time or patience to properly study other artists. I usually like artists who ink their own pencils; in fact, artists who don't necessarily see pencilling and inking as two separate things. I like to see evidence of the tools used, expressive mark marking that's as much as a result of happy accidents than an application of craft. I like a pen line to look like a pen line and a brush stroke to look like a brush stroke. I'm not keen on a lot of modern inkers who are so slick you can't tell how they made the marks on the paper (or in fact if pen or paper was even involved in the case of digital inks).

All those comic artists I mentioned have that organic look to their work. I used to want my work to look like Mike Mignola inked by Kent Williams, but I've moved in a different direction. As much as I'd like to draw like any of those artists, it still always ends up looking like my work. I'm getting better at seeing that as a good thing nowadays.

I'm torn between wanting my stuff to look loose and brushy and sharp and graphic.

ML: How much of this "different direction" is a response to the tone and feel of Criminal, and how much of it would you say is just a natural progression that you're making as an artist?

SP: Hopefully every script gets the art it needs.  The art should always serve the story. With Criminal, I can be a little looser than I can on a superhero comic. Things like the street backgrounds can be suggested with more abstract brush strokes than with drawing every window and lamp post in detail. I'd like to think there's some subconscious natural progression that I'm getting better at drawing this stuff. Somedays I haven't a clue if I am though!

ML: You've been working with Ed Brubaker for some time now.  He seems to be surrounding himself with artists who he trusts with his vision and ideas.   I know that as I've worked with him over the years, we've developed a very collaborative relationship, and he has reached a point where he gives me very little direction in the script – a sentence or two for each panel description is the most I get.  As an artist, I love this, since it gives me lots of room for interpretation. How would you describe your own working relationship with him?

SP: Obviously, I'm his favourite artist to work with. I always get his best scripts on time! Actually it sounds pretty similar to how you work with him. Ed's scripts contain everything I need to know to draw that is required, but they're sparse enough to give me plenty of room to decide how to stage the action. I'd like to think that what I give back to Ed is better than he saw it in his head. I always try to make the writer look good, to make the words and pictures more than the some of their parts. One thing I've always asked for from Ed is not to know what's going to happen in the story. I like to find out when I read the script for the first time. I never know at the beginning of a story who's going to live or die, which character's going to be important and who's just in a couple of scenes. I don't want to know I've got a really difficult scene to draw in a couple of months.

ML: When you get a batch of script pages from Ed, how do approach turning it into finished art? What are the steps you take in the production of the book, from script to finished issue, and how long does the process generally take?



SP: I usually can do about eight pages a week penciled, inked and lettered. In an ideal world I'd first do thumbnails of the whole story, a couple of inches high, planning out panel shapes and how the lettering is going to flow. Then I add vague matchstick figures to those, giving me enough information to shoot my photoref. That takes a couple of days, taking photos of myself in a variety of outfits with a digital camera. I absolutely hate taking the photo ref, wish I'd learnt to draw instead, but it's necessary to get the realism I want in my work. I find when I don't use photo ref, figures and faces are less interesting, more stock poses. I don't have time on a monthly comic to spend ages fine tuning the figures. Taking photos of myself, without being able to see what I'm shooting can lead to happy accidents in the poses, things that I wouldn't have thought of if I was making it all up. Then I need to research all the background stuff, cars, buildings, interiors or whatever. I usually do that as I go along, scene by scene. I'll then draw out panel borders and lettering in Illustrator and print that out in blue onto watercolour paper. Sometimes I'll also print out photos in blue for backgrounds in panels, which I can then ink straight over. Balloons and caption boxes are inked freehand with a dip pen and panel borders are ruled out in black.

 

I don't really do pencils as such. I do some rough underdrawing in blue marker and then it's straight to ink. I like to do most of the drawing in ink rather than just tracing over tight pencils. The blue marker has a fat tip and stops me getting too detailed. Then the finished pages are scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop and the lettering is dropped into Illustrator.

After drawing all the story pages, and while Val Staples is colouring them, I'll work on the back-up features and other design work for the issue. I've got a degree in graphic design so I like to keep my hand in designing Criminal. I'll lay out the text pages, draw or paint any pictures for the back-up articles and send it all to Val. He drops all my pages into an Indesign doc and sends it off to Marvel to get printed.

And then we all start over again.

ML: Aside from working with Ed, what is it about Criminal that appeals to you, as an artist and a storyteller? What initially attracted you to the project?

SP: Ed writes stuff I like to read and stuff I like to draw. In Sleeper and now in Criminal, I get to draw middle-aged men who look a bit like me frowning. Couldn't be easier!

Criminal pushes my buttons artistically. I like drawing people standing around talking and smoking in rain soaked streets. Unfortunately, sometimes to make that convincing I have to draw cars and buildings, but I'm starting to enjoy that too.

ML: Again, as an artist and a storyteller, what do you hope the reader takes away after reading Criminal?

SP: Ed and I do Criminal for the love. I can make a ton more money drawing zombies, but I'd rather work on something that I really believe in. Hopefully, some of that rubs off on the reader and they can grow to love Criminal, too. We put a lot effort into making Criminal as good as it can be. Not just in the stories, but in everything from the articles to the covers to the logo to the few ads we choose to run. I love working on a comic where we can do what we like. If enough people like it too and continue to buy it, we can carry on doing this for years.