Interviews

Stay tuned for my conversation with T Campbell, the creator of "Epic Misney" (Drawn and Colored by John Waltrip) and the Creator/Writer for the Web Comics; Fans!, Penny & Aggie, Guilded Age, and more...

It will be posted up next week. If there is an artist, writer, creator, or actor from the comic book world or the Saturday morning cartoon world that you would like to have us do ... drop us a line and we will do our best in getting it.

Now for Part 2 of my Conversation with: J.H. Williams III delving into his process and thinking in Detective Comics and much, much more! Enjoy!

SMC!: In regards to the process itself; do you have to request for a specific title or do they come to you with ideas of titles to work on?

JH3: Earlier in my career it was definitely take what was offered to me. As things are moving along, I'm getting to a point where I can dictate my own projects in a lot of ways or at least make suggestions of the types of things I'd like to do. The companies are definitely looking at me differently now. Where if I suggest something, they will want to take a look at it and think about it seriously.

SMC!: With me being an outsider looking in, once you get a project what is the process in developing the final piece for you? For example, with Detective comics, what was the process going into this project?

JH3: Just really figuring out, with Greg Rucka, what this character needs to be about. He had his own notions, and of course I had my notions going in. We knew right off the bat that the character was going to be lesbian and not really related to Batman in any way other than the iconography. For me, it’s about trying to figure out who she was as a character. I like my characters to be very well-rounded and come across as somebody you can believe in if you ran into them on the street. You'd go, “Oh, of course she's real!” and have that kind of quality to it. It was a matter of going back and forth with Greg, thinking about who she is, who the characters are, and how she relates to the bigger story that's being told. Coming at it from that perspective before any drawing takes place.

SMC!: With your current run on Detective comics, for me it seems to be the most creative that you've done so far. Specifically issue 857. It’s extremely beautiful on how you've laid everything out with how it flows and is easily readable. How did you decide to graphically incorporate that underlying relationship between Alice and Batwoman without giving anything away? Because by the time you reach the final revelation at the end, all of those previously subtle tie-in's that you've done (including the cover) all started to make sense.

JH3: That is basically, I think on a design level in telling stories, really about knowing where we were going. We knew who Alice was right from the onset and what her relationship to Batwoman was. So we were able to do lots of subliminal things based on that in terms of design and visual cues. We knew it was really, really important to have those elements. We wanted it to be where people could go back, read and reread it and then go "Oh shit! It was there all along!” and not something that looked like it was thrown in on the fly. It really needed to feel like a revelation or a reveal of something that was already there.

SMC!: Well it really worked on that level. The next day after reading that issue, it finally clicked and I went back to really look at all of those pages that were throwing me clues all along. It was perfect.

JH3: It was really very important to hit all those notes. Design can help with that sort of stuff versus a traditional comic book page. There are lots of little things they can do that will hit the reader in subliminal ways and not even realize that something has been cued in their brain. Then when the right moment comes, if we've done our job right, it will trigger.

SMC!: Sadly I'm a late bloomer to your work, I came along during your stint on Jonah Hex and then of course Detective Comics. While doing research I noticed a lot of covers I had recognized and delved into some of your earlier stuff. I began to notice that you've really wanted to get away from that conventional panel layout from the beginning. When did you decide to make that leap to say, “You know, I want to break out of it?” Earlier on, you still looked kind of confined within the panels and every once in a while you would try to break out of that standard layout on the page.

JH3: I don't think there was a particular moment or conscious decision. It was more about exploration. The fact that you chose to use the word ‘confined’ is very interesting. In a lot of ways, not to bash on the traditional way in which comics are told, it can be confining in terms of what can be achieved on the page. I got more and more interested in figuring out where those boundaries were or if there truly were boundaries. So that kind of sparked all the design stuff going on in the back of my head from those two years I took of advertising art and design. It kind of gelled. Then being able to work with Dan Johnson, all of the more famous writers came after that. These were all writers that were cued into wanting to do something different. I think some of those influences that I was exposed to as a kid when I read comics, all started to come out. Stuff that I haven't looked at since I was a kid, I would open up and say, “Oh my God! That was there! That was an influence on me!” Subconsciously, I was trying to get my work to go to those places; such as Jim Starlin's cosmic stuff or Steranko's really design heavy, noir, science-fiction elements, and the solid storytelling by Howard Chaykin. A lot of these classic guys did stuff that my work is reminiscent of. I did it without consciously trying to do that. It was all in the back of my brain and as I became interested in telling innovative stories, those things naturally kind of started to come out. Then being able to work on projects that embrace that, such as Promethia, I was able to fully jump out and do some interesting things. The other part of it is the experimentation level, in seeing what works and what doesn't work. I can almost guarantee you, that there are some instances of my crazy design stuff that went too far and didn't work quite as well as it could have if it had been taken slightly differently. Even going back to Chase with Dan, we tried some different and interesting things in there to bring out different dynamics in the types of stories we were telling. When we got to issue 1 million, which was sadly our last issue, we knew we were telling a futuristic science-fiction story. One of the things that came to my head was if this was a futuristic story and issue 1 million, shouldn't it look different than any of the other issues? So, I just went kind of really weird with the layouts and saw that I could make it work. I just wanted to keep pushing those boundaries and seeing where I can take things and now I have settled in a way where I'm able to balance the traditional with the weirdness

SMC!: You're now making me want to go back and dig through all of my boxes and pull out Chase 1 million, which I know I have somewhere. Now after your run with Detective comics what projects you have coming up in the future?

JH3: That's kind of up in the air at the moment. After these seven issues, Jacques is coming on, so I have three issues left coming out. I'm supposed to return with another storyline that involves the Alice character in greater detail. Kind of hitting home all the things that we are setting up. At this point, I'm not sure what's going on. There are some talks about switching things up and having that come out in a different way. With so much being up in the air, there is not much I can explain or go into in any detail. Then there are some other projects that are waiting in the wings but beyond that I can't really talk about anything at this point.

SMC!: No problem. Now is being listed in wizards top 10 hot artists, at the number two spot, intimidating for you or no big deal? Are you gunning for number one?

JH3: I'd love to be number one! I'm not even sure who was number one; I think it was Ivan Reis wasn't it? It was pretty exciting finding out. I didn't even know I was in the top 10. I had done an extensive interview with someone at Wizard. I think it's going to be published this month possibly, which was kind of a career retrospective interview and that's all I expected out of it. Then someone told me I was in the Wizard top 10. I was like, "Oh cool." Then a friend came to me and said I moved up from number four to number two. I was like, "I didn't even know I was number four." <laughter>

SMC!: Surprise!

JH3: I was pretty excited. Then I was, "That'll be fantastic to get the number one spot." As far as being intimidated by it, no not really. I just do what I do, and if people appreciate it to that degree it's wonderful. If anything, it emboldens me to keep doing what I do. At the same time, I don't know if emboldened is the right word. It's not like I set out to try to take the comic world by storm or anything like that or make an impact on the comic readership in any way. Everything I do is natural and secondhand for me, so it's just a matter of fact I guess. I just like to be in a position where I do the things I like to do and I do the things the way I do them, but get more shelf life out of. If that's a good way to put it?

SMC!: What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into the industry?

JH3: Oooh, that's a good question because even when I was trying to break in, breaking into comics was such a difficult thing. Like I said, I set out to be a comic book artist at age 10 and I couldn't get in for a very long time. Looking back at my work back then, I can see why. At the time, you think you're giving it your all and you want someone to give you that shot because you believe you can do the work and so forth. There was so many people trying to get into this industry, and even more now. Back then, when I was getting in the industry, even before the bust happened it was daunting. Then we had the bust, just as I was breaking in and so it took a long time for me to get along to really juicy projects because of that, I think. For new people coming into the industry, even though it’s at a creative high, it's a smaller industry in terms of what the sales potential was back then. In that regard, people are trying to get in because comics are cooler in the eyes of the general public. When I was a teenager you didn't show people you're reading comics. They would look at you thinking what kind of a dork you are. Now it's like when you're reading comics, it’s cool and that's great but on the other hand, it means more and more people want to get into this job. So it's hard, hard, hard to get in. The most daunting aspect of it is that it's political. They know a lot of people want it and there's only so much room for people to get in. So you end up getting a lot of politics involved from editorial having to look at portfolios and stuff. They can see really great guys constantly, I'm sure, but they just can't hire them all. It's just a matter of timing. Being at the right place at the right time and to keep honing your craft. The other thing about trying to get in is to have perseverance. It's not just one brick wall, but it's several. When you bust through 1 there will be another one in front of you. You just have to have that perseverance to keep doing it if it's something you really, really want to do. To be willing to not make a lot of money at first, as well. Which is tough for a lot of guys.

SMC!: They're hoping to get in with a big paycheck sometimes.

JH3: Yeah, and that's realistically not going to happen. This is the sort of information that a lot of people aren't necessarily aware of. It's probably good for them to know that they're not going to be making a lot of money right away and to be patient. Probably work a second job while doing it, until they can get to a point in their career where they can demand to get higher fees because they have an audience to back them up

These are 10 fun and sometimes nonsensical questions that will (maybe?) give us a look into the psyche of the person. HA! Right ...

SMC!: Question #1: What was your favorite Saturday morning show growing up?

JH3: Oh, I'd have to say, um, a lot of the Kroftt, um ...

SMC!: The Sid & Marty Kroftt shows?

JH3: Yeah a lot of that weird stuff like, Dr. Shrinker and Land of the Lost. That weird, weird Marty Kroftt stuff comes to mind.

SMC!: Question #2: If you are a donut what donut would you be?

JH3: I have to say, a chocolate cake donut with chocolate icing but with salted peanuts on top.

SMC!: Question #3: What's your least favorite vegetable?

JH3: My least favorite vegetable is probably the one that everyone needs to eat all the time and that’s broccoli. <laughter> I do eat my broccoli though, so don't anybody worry about it. I just disguise it in soup and stuff.

SMC!: Question #4: What character have you not worked on, that you would love to do?

JH3: That's a tough question. I love so many different characters and I can see myself tackling just about anything. I'd love a really solid shot at Superman, a solid shot at Wonder Woman. There are a lot of Marvel characters I really like a solid shot at. I can see myself doing a pretty cool Wolverine & Spiderman, and Capt. America would be amazing. Those are more of the popular characters and I like a lot of the weird characters, too. More of the obscure stuff like Dr. Strange or some of the monster characters would be cool. I'm pretty wide open.

SMC!: Question #5: What's your current favorite song on your MP3 playlist?

JH3: <laughter> You've opened up a can of worms. <laughter> I'm a huge, huge music guy. I have one of those huge capacity, super iPods. I'm not sure how many gigabytes is. It’s completely full and my music collection isn't completely on it.

SMC!: Let's do it this way, what was the last song that you listened to?

JH3: The last song I heard was the new song by Thom Yorke. Off of his latest collection, there’s a song on there that's just amazing.

SMC!: Question #6: Tom or Jerry?

JH3: Tom

SMC!: Question #7: What's your favorite comfort food?

JH3: Probably Mac and cheese... The homemade kind!

SMC!: Question #8: What is your funniest convention moment? Either as a guest or an attendee.

JH3: My funniest convention moment was; a fan came up to me while I was at this table and he didn't seem overly weird at first. The more we talked to him the weirder it became. He was this big guy, heavy set, wearing a Superman shirt and he was talking to us about Superman. But he was asking us <laughter> what it would take to become Superman. I'm like, “What do you mean? You can get a costume or whatever.” He was, “No! I like to know what it would take to molecularly change my body to become Superman.”

SMC!: <laughter> I've met him...

JH3: Have you? <laughter> I was like, “I don't know how to answer this question for you.” Then he kept asking it, and asking it, and asking it in one form or another. He just kept getting more and more agitated as we couldn't answer his question. He started weaving back and forth and doing all this weird stuff. I was like, whoa what's going on? The only thing I could think of to get him to leave the table was, Mike Carlin was editing Superman at the time, so I gave him Mike Carlin's phone number. <laughter> Call him. He’s editing Superman and he can answer your questions.

SMC!: Did Mike ever forgive you with that?

JH3: I've no idea if he ever heard from the guy or not. I've been kind of afraid to ask him. <laughter>.

SMC!: Question #9: Do you install your toilet paper so you pull from the top or the bottom?

JH3: Top

SMC!: Question #10: What book are you currently reading; comic or otherwise smart

JH3: I just got done reading ‘Maintenance’ by Oni press. I tend to stack up issues of stuff and read them in bulk. So I just got done reading that, and I’m also reading ‘Solomon King’.

I hope you liked the 1st of hopefully many more interviews with people in the Comic Book Industry and also personalities related to Saturday Morning cartoons. Let us know what you think, along with people you would like to see interviewed in the future (even with questions you may want asked of them).

I had the honor this week of being able to talk with twice Eisner Award nominated artist and currently ranked #2 on Wizard's Top 10 Hot Artists; J.H. Williams III. It was a very enjoyable time in which we talked about his background, his art style & process, and a whole lot more. We had so much fun talking, that the conversation needed to be split into a more digestable size. Part 2 will be posted next week. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did doing it.

SMC!: At what point did you get bit by the art bug? Was it pretty early on or were you a late bloomer?

JH3: It was pretty early on. I remember drawing for pretty much forever. I don't remember a time when I wasn't drawing.

SMC!: Did you always want to get into comics or did you stumble into it?

JH3: Comics were a very informative thing for me when I was a little kid. I used to read them and draw the characters as a kid, but didn't think much beyond that. I didn't really pay attention to credits, who was drawing what or who was writing, until a certain point when I was a kid. I was also a toy nut, but what kid isn't? I was enamored by these Japanese toys called the ‘Micronauts’ and I was totally ape for them. I had probably everything on those toys that I could find. One day while I was going through a convenience store, a 7-Eleven style convenience store spinner rack that had comics, I came across a Micronauts comic from Marvel and of course I had to buy it right away. I took it home and read it right away; I think it was the very first issue, so I lucked out. I was blown away by the story and the art. Of course there is a bit of biasness in terms of you know, very a...

SMC!: You’re already stuck on the characters...

JH3: ...Yeah, the whole concept of the Micronauts. Here is a story, kind of fleshing out these really bizarre characters and interesting concepts that of course the toys didn't really convey a lot of. Other than just the basics. Here was this great science fiction story on par with Star Wars, really. The art was very unique. Reading it, everything had a sense of sophistication to it which immediately grabbed me and that was finally when I noticed the credits. <laughter>

Not just the bit where it was Stan Lee presents. I pored over every inch of those pages so I knew every little detail, and that's when I discovered, "Wow! Who are these people doing this stuff?" That was Bill Matlow and Michael Golden at the time doing inks. It was just really vivid stuff.

SMC!: Do you still have the issue?

JH3: Yeah. I had gotten rid of them much later in life. I lost a lot of my comic collection at one point, because I was almost homeless at one time so everything had to go. I've gone back and bought those issues.

SMC!: At least things have really turned around for you right now. So that's great.

JH3: Yeah. I was so blown away by that stuff; of course, I wanted to draw the characters based on the comic. I showed those comics to some friends of mine and they were both, “If you like that you should check out this other comic called the uncanny X-Men.” That was Byrne & Claremont and that was just as captivating to my young mind as the Micronauts, but for completely different reasons. At that point, I was completely bonkers thinking, that is what I was going to do, because I knew I can draw at that point. I’ve got to draw comics! I have to be a comic book artist! That was really early in my childhood; I'd have to say it was 8 or 10. To my parents of course, I was insane. I never ever deviated from that path. I didn't give myself a choice or really any other avenue. It was either a do or die kind of mentality.

SMC!: Where your parents are a supportive of you? Or were they, "Oh, you better have a backup!"

JH3: Yeah, they were, “You better have a backup”; they weren't overly keen on the whole thing. But, like I said, I didn't give myself a choice on the psychological level. In high school I considered myself a pretty smart kid. I was pretty bored in school, so I never gave it very much effort. My grades were never that great and I guess it was at a psychological level that I wanted to be a comic book artist. So I didn't apply myself 100% with my education, as I probably should have, in retrospect.

SMC!: Now who's been the greatest influence on you creatively or artistically growing up?

JH3: Oh, Geez... To be honest, it's not any known artists in comics or fine arts. There were lots of guys I was blown away by, like; Michael Golden, Byrne, Simonson, Steranko. They were all great guys. The biggest influence on me and what really triggered my brain…, like I said, I was really bored with school but I had the smarts to do school. I just didn't apply myself. I had this one teacher; I had entered into this program called ROP. It's called Regional Occupational Program, ROP for short. It was an advertising and art design class. It was off campus so me and my other art friends who can draw and stuff, decided to take this class. Well this teacher, his name was Mr. Eckhart; he was more about the thinking behind the drawings rather than the quality of the drawings themselves, which completely changed everything for me. I think that's where all of my heavy design influence comes from now. All the subtext and subliminal design cues and symbolisms in my work now all stems from what that teacher did. I took that class for two years. It really changed everything for me. It made it to where, when I think about drawing I really can't help think about the design of the drawing as well as the quality of the drawing.

SMC!: It definitely shows in your work today, with a very heavy design background. With either your standard layout or on your own time getting creative, what is your favorite medium to work?

JH3: I don't know. I really don't have a favorite medium because I kind of like to dabble in everything. I'm all about looking at tools that I would need to get the desired effect at the time. It’s more about that for me.

SMC!: Over the years you've had the opportunity to write, draw, ink, color, and pretty much everything but edit as far as I'm aware of. Out of all of those facets which is in the most difficult for you to tackle, and why?

JH3: I'd say probably inking has been the toughest for me. When I was a kid, I would try inking all of my own stuff. What kid wouldn't? After a while, I just wasn't happy with the results of inking my own stuff. I would clearly use all the wrong tools. So I just focused on being a penciller, and so for many, many, many years of my career, I disregarded honing those skills until the tail end of Promethia. When I started dabbling in it and doing covers for Marvel, I decided on inking 99% of those myself, because I knew that if I was going to grow creatively I needed to do it. I'd say over the years doing the inks would be the most challenging for me at this point, in terms of making it as polished and clean as I would like. I still don't think it is as clean as it did when I worked with Mick Gray. It just doesn't have the same qualities as that. Some of that is a dexterity control issue. I have a tremor that I have to struggle with. The plus side to inking my own work now is that I really don't pencil anymore. Most of my energy is just focused on doing the drawing with ink now. That's probably one of the reasons why I find it extremely challenging. It can be frustrating sometimes, because like I said, it was a skill I ignored for a very long time so I'm playing catch-up there.

SMC!: So after a rough layout, you go straight into pen work?

JH3: Yeah.

SMC!: Wow! That makes it even more impressive when I look at your pages.

JH3: It frees me up in some ways. But it's a bit daunting at the same time, because if I mess it up, I mess it up. If I make mistakes, I have to find ways to make it look like they're not mistakes. Kind of work with it in that way. I found that when I was penciling, Mick Gray can attest to that, that I penciled so tightly that I can make a photocopy of one of my drawings at high contrast and it would look like ink. Since it was so tight anyways, I just switched what I was using. I think if I fully penciled and then inked you would never see anything come out. I'm just too slow.

SMC!: You did ‘Hellboy: Weird Tales’ and ‘Chase’ as pretty much everybody; you wrote, you drew, etc. Did you find those two experiences more challenging then drawing off of someone else's words, or was it easier for you to put on all of the hats?

JH3: I would say that it was harder and that's primarily why when I did the writing chore on those projects I worked with a writing partner. That's another skill I need to focus and practice on honing. I do have plans to try to write something completely myself at some point. It just has to be the right project. I find that with creating stories I'm really, really good with coming up with the crazy concepts and coming up with bigger picture and knowing where I want to start & where I want to end. I find that the most difficult is the in between stuff and making sure it all fits together. I’d say that with creating stories, I'm really good with coming up with the big idea. When I was working on ‘Chase’, Dan Johnson had a very similar mindset to mine, as far as how weird you would like things to be. So he and I bounced off of each other, which I feel made the work very strong. Same with the ‘Hellboy: Weird Tales’ story, when I worked with Hayden Blackman who actually I plan on doing more work with. We've been working together all along since, on some create our own projects that are sitting on the side waiting for the time of day.

SMC!: Hopefully we'll see them soon.

JH3: It's very challenging. I think that if I sat down, I am pretty confident I can do it. I just don't think I can do it in a very realistically timely fashion, in terms of bringing a paycheck in the house. At some point, when the time is right, I definitely want to do it. I do have some weird concepts for a project I want to do completely myself, that is, I don't know how else to describe it other than sequential poetry.

SMC!: It sounds very interesting.

JH3: I've got a whole ton of writing that is the versed like that. I've got this idea in my head, that I think I can convert it to sequential form. It would be a cool project to do someday, because I don't think it's really been done before. I've seen it done a little bit in mini comics, here and there, but on the level I see it in my brain with the production values and everything. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this done. It's just a matter of convincing the publisher that they should publish this.

SMC!: Which has been the most memorable title that you've worked on? Is there one that has really stood out for you?

JH3: That's a tough question. Each one of them has really stood out for different reasons but the one that jumps out the most, I would have to say is Promethia and my Batwoman work. Promethia sits out so strongly for me because it was the work that I spent the most time on. I worked on that for six years, and that's a long time.

SMC!: And you got a nomination for Best Writer/Penciller with the Eisner awards.

JH3: Yeah, and with that being a large body of work, that's where the ripple started for me. Each one of the projects I've done has... There's something about them that tends to stand on their own.

I hope you enjoyed Part 1. I will be posting up Part 2 next week, where we will be talking about his run on Detective Comics, his future projects, the introduction of "The Ten!", and much more ... In the meantime, stop by his blog at www.jhwilliams3.com where you can see a lot of his work, some of his creative process, and even buy some of his stuff. See ya next week and feel free to comment.