How did you develop your style? Did you go to school for art?It was a case, as it usually goes, of one part happy accident, one part deadline pressure/efficiency issues, and the final ingredient, idol worship of the artists I admire and tried to learn via the work I grew up on and admired most.
No art school for me. I went to design school, though I did major in Illustration, it was mostly about the commercial reality side of things rather than honing artistic skills there. They taught me a love of Macs and photoshop however, and that will never change.
Who were some of your influences as an artist?
This one is easy. Ashley Wood, Kent Williams, Victor Ambrus, Ralph Steadman...and countless others.
What made you decide to start working in comics and graphic novels?
I received a vision from a being, claiming to be the Assyrian god "Marduk" (I guess all the current religions are wrong then!) who told me I should spend all my time trying to do them, as it pleased him and I'd receive magical gifts.
So far I've been published, but still looking for these magical godly rewards. I just hope it involves supermodels at some point. Who knows? Actually, I basically just do them because I love the medium, and they're effectively cheap movies, just on paper... and have next to zero interference in the creative process, unlike movies, games and other creative endeavors. I get pretty much free reign. I love that.
I hear Australia's pretty nice...what made you decide to move to the states? Do you feel that your recent move will have any effect on your artwork?
Australia IS nice. Especially if you like things like the weather, decent public health care, education and standards of living, and generally friendly people who love a drink. I come from the most isolated capitol city in the world though. Perth. Long way from anywhere... and the cost of living there just trebled thanks to our mining boom (we sell all our high priced dirt & minerals to China) and so it worked out that I may as well move to the US for awhile, actually be in the same room as the people I work with and soak up the great Cali culture of the arts which I kind of want to get involved with. It sure beats being 16 hours in the future and living with perpetual jetlag by working the nightshift at times.
Don't think it'll have any effect on the art...besides a positive one really, considering I may be able to get different art supplies here than in Perth, which may have been a bit more limited.
How does it feel to finally release Dead Space? I know it's been in the works for quite some time now... Has the response been good as far as you can tell?
Honestly I'm well beyond the days of eager anticipation before a comic comes out. (Except maybe unless I'm writing it as well!) I've done enough now, so it's all kind of an old hat in that respect. There's also a huge disconnect between when you work on the book and when it actually comes out; Months and months in between sometimes. I also don't go to the stores much, so I don't even see things on shelves often! I just see people at cons and hopefully they dig the books. And yes, thus far the response has been great.
Do you see the Dead Space series continuing after the release of the video game? Who came up with the concept for the story?
You'd be surprised what's planned for 'Dead Space'! Of course, I can't talk about it all, it's not my place...but there'll be more than just a comic and a game, it's really a big launch. I'd love to see the whole thing continue (story-wise) if the success grants it of course. I can't claim any credit for the actual story, I'm really on the book just to flesh out the universe a little visually myself and bring the comic aspect to life. It's actually an EA property, so a few super creative folks over there came up with the whole initial concept and such and we're working in collaboration with them. Antony Johnston as writer is far more involved in the story than I am of course.
What's your favorite subject matter to work on? What's been your favorite project thus far?
People think of me as a horror guy, but I'm effectively a sci-fi guy... it's just the darker stuff that really gets me. Which is a big reason I put my hand up for 'Dead Space', when EA offered me the gig. I love things like 'The Thing', 'Aliens', 'Event Horizon' and 'Dark City'. I'm not one for slasher films or torture porn. I need the fantasy/dark futuristic/alien type stuff. So far my favorite project, to be brutally honest, is still my ongoing personal project 'Wormwood Gentleman Corpse', which is a riff on old BBC sci-fi shows like Dr Who, coupled with my warped sense of quirk and lots of demons...and taking the piss out of it all. I do a miniseries of it in my spare time...except I basically have none.
Where did the idea for Wormwood come from? Do you see yourself continuing it beyond the current four part series 'Calamari Rising'?
Oh sure I do. It's my guilty pleasure. I fit it in when I can. I'm probably looking at doing some other projects I have lined up once the current miniseries 'Calamari Rising' is done, but I have a ton of stories planned for the future, when IDW Publishing, (who print and put the book out) and I can fit them into the schedule. At least one mini a year is my goal. Soon there'll be three TPB's worth of the stuff out there...which is a nice chunk for such a personal cult project I think considering many creator initiated projects sometimes don't even make it past a couple issues (historically speaking).
Ok, so as this is a music magazine, I have to ask...what type of music do you listen to? Do you listen to music when you draw? Who are some of your favorite bands?
Right now I alternate from some moody movie score music from stuff like Batman Begins, Gladiator, that sort of stuff, and Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Aphex Twin, NIN...but sometimes it just depends on the work and the mood. Those are the core sounds though. A huge favorite of mine however is an Aussie band called Regurgitator...and another called TISM (This Is Serious Mum). They can do some pretty hard stuff, but maintain an air of "piss take" with their lyrics at times.
Do you have any other projects planned beyond Fell, Wormwood & Dead Space? Red Snow kicked ass...You think you'll do another mini for the 30 Days of Night series?
There are lots. I'm at a point literally right now where I'm picking and choosing from lists of cool things, as well as working on a bunch of my own projects that I'm not ready to talk about yet. But no, I don't think I'll be doing another '30 Days of Night' miniseries. Red Snow, which I wrote and drew was to be my last comment on that property, for quite some time. There should be more 'Wormwood' sporadically between the other stuff I've got coming though. It's a case of too many stories and never enough time with that one.
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