From Beetstro: http://beetstro.com/comics/interview-ben-templesmith-talks-games-and-comics
With a friendly face and stylish swagger, Templesmith can easily stand out in a sea of comic book nerds. Usually found with a blazer and a beer, Australian artist Ben Templesmith is mostly known for his work on graphic novel -- later adapted to film --
30 Days of Night. Gamers might find his name incredibly familiar. He recently worked on a comic book series based on Electronic Arts' Horror Shooter game --
Dead Space.
For the small piece of some freshly baked digital cookies, Templesmith agreed to sit down on my zero's and one's and chat about his work, life, goals and, of course, video games.
Before we get down to business, I need to know: What games are you currently playing and/or looking forward to?BT: Although I have massive deadlines to deal with right now, I've managed to sneak in a few brief hours on
Fallout 3 and liking it for the most part. I was a huge fan of the first and second
Fallout games from ye olde times. The big one for me, as a history geek, is
Empire: Total War next year. I love me some mass genocidal war strategy games. I still desperately want to play
Dead Space though but I'll have to follow up on a copy...or check my post office box as I've yet to have a chance to see if I've got one posted to me yet! I hope so. So many deadlines, so little time to do other things!
I can't wait to get my hands on Fallout 3. Pre-Dead Space, did you even want to work on any game related book or perhaps concept art for video games?BT: Yeah, quite a few. Probably since I played the old
Dune 2 game from
Westwood. There's a bunch of games I'd love to have a hand in visually, though I've seen real concept artists and they quite frankly, leave me for dead. They do fantastic fully painted work that's so quick and creative. I'm angling to do something sometime though. I did have a role in the
30 Days of Night online stuff to a degree. Just some character designs for the most part.
I've always looked up to concept artists with great admiration, jealously and hatred -- but mostly admiration. Before going into the Dead Space project, what was the thing that called out to you the most or what where you most excited about creating?BT: Probably just being able to get to tell some stories via the printed page, which is still one of the purest mediums possible to go from ideas in the head through to the audience. There's very little filter, unlike with games, movies etc where so many people work on the same projects. One big reason I love comics. So the
Dead Space book had a lot of freedom as much that appears in it is pre-game. The monsters were pretty locked, but I got to play with the civilian side of the colony and really add the feel to it I thought a game like that should have. To me it screamed out great movies of the past like
The Thing,
Aliens,
Event Horizon etc, so those were my visual influences when working on it I guess, in large part.
It was a no brainier to me, given your style and the nature of the game to have you as the artist on this. How did you work with the game's artists to create the look, if at all? Where you given lots of freedom for tentacles?
BT: Well I mostly worked with the producers and the most awesome Cate Latchford, who was basically the liaison. They really game me a lot of freedom.
Deadlines ensue lots of traditions for me: Doritos, House M.D. and random background music. While trying to meet your deadlines, what was your music of choice?BT: It all depends what I'm working on. These days I go for moody orchestral stuff that doesn't clutter my background. Screaming hard core metal etc actually stops me working well these days.
I tend to want to get up and bang my air drums and jam on my air guitar. Most of the time metal doesn't work for me either. As side from music, did you find inspiration in way of movies, artists, naked old men?BT: John Carpenter's
The Thing is probably the biggest. Which is funny, as it was also the biggest influence on me for
30 Days of Night way back when. I owe a lot to that movie, the feel it gave and the creature horror that still stacks up pretty well to this day. And it was made in 1983/84 I think.
Project wrapped up and your drink count was:BT: No idea. I stopped counting after the first 5 or so! I don't drink often except at cons and the finale of
Dead Space really coincided for me with San Diego Comic-con and my final promo for the book there. So...many drinks were had for many things!
If you had a million dollars you would:BT: Invest most and move somewhere in Asia, live like a king on the returns and just paint personal stuff and become a real "artiste".
I think you should make babies with Twitter -- would you agree?BT: Only if you get to eat them afterwards. I think baby eating will be the real civil rights issue of the 21st century. Prove me wrong!
Roasted is where it's at! I'm a Plug. You're an outlet -- use me! (Yes, this is where you plug in yourself and your awesome).
BT: For the most part I sit in my studio area at the IDW Publishing offices rather than work from home right now. Currently I just wrapped "Welcome to Hoxford" which hopefully you'll be hearing more about soon, ( especially the collected release which is still to come! ) deep into "The Presidents of the US" arty profile book. Also just wrapped the next Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse book. A large oneshot ( about 32 pages instead of just the regular 22 pages most comics are ) full of short stories. Then the new stuff I'm about to make a real move on is a Doctor Who thing and a new miniseries with writer/editor in chief of IDW, Chris Ryall which should be a lot of fun, called Groom Lake. That's all I can think of right now, but I'm pretty sure there's more than that! Cheers for the plug!
Did you find Templesmith full of awesome? Check out Templesmith's daily ramblings on
Twitter!