In 1990, producer Kim Dawson and writer Bobby Herbeck put Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
onto the big screen. The live-action film took the No. 1 spot on its
opening weekend and since then has become a beloved modern classic among
comic fans and the now-grown kids who saw it in theaters in ’90 and are
showing their children. As the cast and crew celebrate the 30th
anniversary of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
, Herbeck and Dawson talked to Scoop
about the movie, recounting behind the scenes events that brought the Ninja Turtles
to life.
Scoop: Let’s start with how each of you got involved in this movie.
Kim Dawson (KD):
In the summer of 1986, I got a call from my partner [producer] Gary
Propper that he was in Detroit and had found a comic book that was the
first issue of the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the black and
white. He was a talent manager, managing a comedian named Gallagher
playing at the Fox Theatre. He got so excited when he found this comic
because he felt it could be the first movie that we made. We did a lot
of television projects together, but the first movie we made that could
be a live-action picture. He sent me the comic and then the next day I
called Mirage Studios, who had just signed a deal with Surge Licensing
for treatment and then with the two of them it took us a couple of
months to negotiate the deal and we finally put it together. Actually, I
misspoke, it was the summer of ’87, so by the fall of ’87 we had a deal
in place and that’s when I introduced the project to Bobby.
Bobby Herbeck (BH):
I was working for Golden Harvest, I was writing a movie for them,
they’re out of Hong Kong, they did the Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies.
Kim told them “Bobby’s over there working with Golden Harvest, that’s a
perfect fit to make the
Ninja Turtles.” Which took some time
to get my boss to put the dots together. He kept telling me, “Write the
movie I’m paying you for and quit bugging me with the pinjin, ninjin
turtles.” He gave it a different title, which someday maybe we’ll do the
Pinjin Ninjin Turtles. A couple of months maybe, it was going around Hollywood.
KD: It was longer than that because by December that
year we had prototype toys from Playmates, and there was a graphic
novel by that point, and there was now going to be a cartoon series
promoting the toy line. The toy line launched at Toy Fair in February of
’88. Bobby and I and Gary Propper went out to Hollywood and talked to
everybody we knew and basically pitched our hearts out. We had the toys,
we had the press kit, we had what we thought was a viable package and
people weren’t buying at that point. Nobody was interested.
BH: I was literally laughed out of some pitch
meetings and after one of the pitch meetings, they called my agent and
said, “Who’s the guy smoking pot that came in with this turtles thing?”
They thought this was just some stoner trying to sell a movie. It didn’t
happen easy, but I kept going back to Tom Gray, my boss at Golden
Harvest. Finally, one night we had a drink and it donned on me, he had a
12 year-old kid at home and I said, “Hey Tom…” and he said “Don’t go
there.” I said, “Just one more time, you go home tonight and ask your
kid about the
Turtles because now they’re on TV, building an
audience.” By the time I got back to Long Beach that night he’d left me a
message to call him and get Kim and meet him for breakfast in the
morning. We had a meeting and he was leaving the booth, he calls it he
had one butt cheek off the booth when Kim reeled him back in with “You
have the best martial arts guys in the world. You just put them in the
costumes and dub the voices.” Then he slid back in and the ball started
rolling. It took, maybe three months.
Scoop: You said it was a tough sell and I was wondering if you saw any reluctance because of
Howard the Duck since that was around the same time.
BH: You are so right my dear. This was Tom Gray’s biggest fear: that it was
Howard the Duck. [both laugh]
KD: And there was another comic book that had been a live-action picture called
Garbage Pail Kids that had also tanked badly.
Howard the Duck was obviously George Lucas, and Lucas was…I think everyone at Universal was stunned that the movie didn’t do better.
BH: And again, this wasn’t what Golden Harvest did.
They did these action kick butt martial arts movies; they didn’t do kids
movies. They didn’t have a clue at the beginning and I’m sure Raymond
Chow, the man that owned the company was like “What are you talking
about?” I don’t think he had a clue how you make that movie. As time
evolved with the help of Kim and Gary Propper, rest his soul, the other
producer we lost last year, really the force behind finding the book and
then coming to me, and then working with Tom and putting it in his
brain, really – this is how you do this movie. It just started evolving.
Everything I tell people, Kim and I – it was all timing. It’s like
catching a wave, our timing was perfect. Kids had only had TVs then,
they didn’t have iPads and Xboxes and stuff, they got their
entertainment on TV.
Pong was the game.
Scoop: You
mentioned that part of the pitch was getting martial arts actors and
putting them in the suits, then dubbing the voices. Did you have any
voice or suit actors in mind when you started?
KD: No,
here’s how it went down when Golden Harvest made the deal for the
rights, they sent Bobby to Massachusetts to work with Kevin [Eastman]
and Peter [Laird], they were looking for the right director to do it. We
focused in on Steve Barron who had been doing a lot of Michael Jackson
videos, he did “Billie Jean” and a few others. I think he was the
production designer/art director on
Dark Crystal. He just had a
real look that they liked, and I felt that would probably be to our
advantage. So, when Steve came on board, he was good friends with Brian
Henson and together, they convinced Jim [Henson] that the Creature Shop
should be the ones to make the costumes. Brian felt that in order to do
the movie properly, that the actor inside the costume had to be enough
of a stuntman to do a backflip and drop through a simulated manhole
cover. So, they had trampolines in the Creature Shop, so they were
building suits to make those work, so it was really focused around the
puppeteers and the actors that he brought together. The voice actors
were an after thought later on. We didn’t replace those voices until
well after the movie had been finished.
Scoop: I
wanted to ask about the costumes. We’re at the 30-year mark and the
costumes still look great. I was curious about the process of getting
Jim Henson’s Creature Shop involved. It sounds like they put a lot of
thought into mobility as well as the look.
BH: A lot.
KD: It had to be. There were actually two sets of
turtle costumes: you had the stunt turtles, the guys who did all the
fighting and running, that sort of stuff, then you had the talking
turtles, that were the acting turtles. The acting turtles had, under
their shells, extensive electronics that were the servo motors that were
used to move the facial features. I think what you’re driving at, a key
point of the success of the film, is between the puppeteers who used
joysticks and also remote control gloves called waldos and the actor
inside the suit. There had to be a rapport. Brian was very careful in
casting those parts so that those guys could behave the way the
characters are written, because Bobby wrote these deep characters that
were all differentiated in their words and that had to manifest itself
in how they behaved inside the costume with their facial features and
everything. So, it was a complex dance, if you will.
Steve Barron was at the heart of it because even as they cast all
these characters, he had to be thinking about how they would interact. I
think it was that chemistry between the puppeteers, the actors inside
the costumes, Steve Barron, and Brian, even the script supervisor,
because they were all wired up – could hear one another, talk to one
another. So, aside from the fact that the costumes were operating at 110
degrees of non-air conditioned studios, the sweat that built up in the
costumes kind of shut them down. It kind of fried those electronics on a
regular basis. It took longer to make it than it should have, probably.
Scoop: What story points or background from the comics did you want to include in the movie?
BH: That
was all by design. Once Tom Gray said he was in, we were going to go
for it. We flew to Northampton to meet Peter and Kevin, to convince
them. My job was to convince them that Golden Harvest was the company to
make the movie – which we did. I got back, not home two days and was
told, “Pack up, you need to go back and sit with Peter and Kevin. They
need to sign off on the story for the movie.” That was not a short and
easy process, it took some time for them both. I’d do a treatment and
give it to them, we’d meet a few days later and I could tell by their
body language that one liked it and one didn’t. That went on for a
while. I finally said one morning, “How did you guys ever get a comic
book done? You can’t agree on anything.” So, they finally agreed and I
came back. I’m getting to answer your question, a lot of it came from
the graphic comic book, obviously, the characters and then to just
delineate them a bit more on screen and some of the story points, plot
points were from the comic book. I added Tatsu to the mix.
KD: You added comedy to it and rapport. The original
comics are pretty anxious. It’s much darker. I think that we knew we
had to make a movie that was PG-13 or PG. We couldn’t make a movie that
was dark and an R. We knew that there was an audience of comic fans out
there, but Tom Gray was interested in the more youthful audience, which
is where New Line felt that they could bring it to the theaters and
attract an audience that was kind of bifurcated. We had a youth audience
in the afternoon and in the evenings and then later at night we had the
cult comic book collectors.
BH: Two
things here, first of all, Kim’s the one that brought this up a while
ago, Tom didn’t really give two beans about the story as much as the
action, because they were an action company. So, it was not always easy
with him and writing it, as to what they wanted and didn’t want. Once I
was assigned to it, Steve took me to London to write this – which was
great to be away from Hollywood with Steve and do this. I looked at
Star Wars,
the first one, I wanted to count the number of battles and I wanted to
see the motivation from Lucas as a writer. I realized each battle had a
reason, a theme. It wasn’t just “Hey we need a battle scene here.” But
that is part of a template.
So, every time in that movie when the Turtles go up against the Foot,
there’s a reason for it. It’s very important in the writing that
Splinter says, I’m paraphrasing this “You never start the fight, you
only defend.” That was the message. I’m a message guy. I love the scene
where he talks to the boys and tells them he loves them and will always
be there. My friends, adults who took the kids to the movie back then,
one big rugby player guy starts crying and says “Oh, man I took my son
to see the movie.” And I asked “What are you crying about?” and he said
“My son looked up and said, ‘Are you my friend daddy?’ and I said ‘Yes’
and he said ‘I love you daddy.’ I started crying and said, ‘I love
you.’” He’s telling me “You piece of s---, you made me cry in front of
my son at the movie theater.” [both laugh]
For
Kim and I, this has all been wonderful for us because we’ve been kind
of in this bubble. I know when I’m out in the world and someone says,
“This guy wrote the
Ninja Turtles movie” the reaction I get. We
are just blown away by the love and devotion of the fans and how many
there are. We had no idea, after all these years. And the second
generation. It’s a blessing.
Scoop: What are each of your favorite parts of the movie?
BH: I
have several, I like the whole thing because it was a success. I love
the opening because kids are at the edge of their seats to see the
Turtles like this. Seeing Raphael lifting the manhole cover and knocking
the light out and you finally see his face from the cop’s bubble light
and the next shot is in the sewer and you see them in silhouette. I get
goosebumps every time. I think that was a brilliant thing. The beginning
for me.
KD: One of my favorite parts of the movie is the
farmhouse. When they go to the farmhouse and the things that happen
there. The dialogue between Donny and Casey and certainly the repertoire
between Casey and April, I love. The Kodak moment when Raphael wakes up
and Leonardo is there is my favorite moment in the movie because it’s
like what brothers would do. “Get a grip. What’s the matter with you?”
BH: Two
of my favorites scenes are that Kodak moment and the one when they
bring April down to the den and she’s passed out and they look at
Splinter and say, “Can we keep her?” that had all kinds of connotations
to me. I just love that.
Scoop: Did you have any pushback from the studio or censors regarding the fighting in the movie?
KD: It’s
interesting. Particularly in certain territories around the world,
there was a fair bit of pushback. Norway, I think they changed the name
to
Hero Turtles. I don’t think it got nearly the traction it
could have or should have in Japan or Korea where martial arts are a big
thing because they felt it was –
BH: A mockery.
KD: Right. Whereas the guys who played the characters, the stunt Turtles, Pat Johnson was the choreographer and he did all the
Three Ninja movies,
he was brilliant. He was an amazing fight choreographer. You just can’t
say enough. Oddly enough, the second and third film don’t have quite as
much violence in them. This was back in a time when violence wasn’t
tolerated as much as in today’s world, when you compare movies where
they’re blowing the crap out of stuff. There was pushback. We did get
some from whatever organization in Washington, DC pushes back on kids’
violence. The truth is, when you look at it, these fights do have a
message and all that. The movie’s an allegory for things that are going
on in life that are much deeper and richer than a 7 or 8-year-old can
understand, I think. There’s a lot of double entendre in the film and
that’s all due to Bobby and [co-screenplay writer Todd Langen] and the
words that they wrote and built the characters and certainly the
direction. But, there was some pushback.
Scoop: The
movie has built a legacy. It was No. 1 on its opening weekend, a lot of
people consider it among their favorite movies, and the kids who saw it
in 1990 are showing
their kids now. As the movie is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, what are you feeling as you reflect back on it?
KD: Oh,
how blessed we were to be involved. I swear. In life you have those
moments where you can go left or right, it’s that Robert Frost poem “The
Road Less Traveled” it feels like we arrived in that moment at the
right time in our lives. It’s been that sort of thing. It kind of
launched a whole new career for me, because I was a television producer
up until that time and I’ve been able to produce films since then and
I’ve made amazing relationships with people.
So, as I start to build from 30 years ago the things I’ve been able
to do as a result of that particular picture, it’s a blessing. When the
movie was first released, I’d moved to Orlando to produce
The Mickey Mouse Club for
Disney Channel. I was out of the Hollywood mix and I’ve been able to
stay in Florida as a result of the film because we did three in a row.
Two up in North Carolina where it was easy to get to and the third film
was made out in Oregon. For me, it was just that seminal moment that
broke open a new pathway in what was now a long career. I started in the
mid-‘70s in the film and television business. For me, it was just that
opportunity where you got to take a path that you never even
anticipated. I owe that to GP, Gary Propper was my partner, like I said,
he was the manager of Gallagher at the time. We made a dozen specials
for Showtime and I’d done a lot of work in entertainment and sports
prior to that. Once we started down the path of Turtles, it kind of gave
me a new perspective of what the world was about because it was
frivolous and it was lightning in a bottle. No doubt about it.
[
Editor’s Note: Kim Dawson had to end his portion of the interview at this point for another engagement.]
Scoop: Bobby, do you want to comment on getting pushback from the studio or censors regarding the fighting in the movie?
BH: Like
Kim said, we did get that, you always get it, but to go a step further
on what Kim was saying about the Asian market, according to Tom Gray who
was running the company at the time, he told me a couple of year ago – I
was shocked – this movie didn’t really play in Asia at all. They didn’t
want it. It played everywhere else in the world. I think he told me
there was no Asian market, therefore the foreign numbers weren’t very
good, box office-wise. Now, once it was a hit, they started buying into
it because it became a phenomena around the world. It just brought
awareness to it – this little graphic book that was in a store in
Detroit. It just put it on the map and Peter and Kevin.
The other thing, when I was writing the delicate balance I always
felt was not to write down to the kids on this movie and to write
straight across and keep the parents in mind because you had the
teenagers and then you had the younger kids. Like Kim said, there were
two groups that went to the movie. I always say that part of the success
of the movie is that it was written such that the parents – and I know
for a fact because I’ve had parents tell me – they took the kid to see
it, kind of begrudgingly, and come home and call their sister or brother
or friend and say, “It was really a cute movie. It’s really good, go
see it, you’ll enjoy it too.” So that helped.
In
the business, they’re making big money on these movies, these tentpole
movies, because people are going back to see them again. I’m not a math
person, but someday I’m going to ask somebody what they think the box
office would’ve been today at today’s price of a ticket, because you
remember, tickets were a heck of a lot cheaper in 1990. I’d be curious
what that number would’ve been today.
Tom Gray and I had made a bet. We were going to lunch the week before
it opened, and he was nervous as hell. He said, “Herbs, I think we’ve
got
Howard the Duck on our hands.” I said, “No, we have an audience.
Howard the Duck fell
out of the sky. We have an audience already waiting to see this.” He
said, “What do you think it’s going to do opening weekend?” I said, “My
money is on $20 million-plus.” And he goes, “From your mouth to God’s
ears. If that movie opens to $20 million the first weekend, Golden
Harvest will buy you anything you want.” I didn’t go for the house. So,
we’re in his car going to lunch in Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevard
where they cross and this beautiful black convertible two-seater
Mercedes pulls up and I said, “I want one of those.” And I was about to
get married to boot. And he said, “You got it Herbs. If the movie does
$23, $25 million the first weekend.” To this day, 30 years later, no I
never got the car.
And
I say, that is typical Hollywood. They love you at the time and
then…next… They didn’t let me write the sequel. I didn’t have a sequel
to write. They didn’t let Judith [Hoag] come back for the sequel either
to play April. That’s all Raymond Chow because he’s very tight. When you
write a movie, if you write the sequel, it’s called your quote – what
you got paid to write the first one, they have to up the ante on the
second one. He didn’t want to do that. He didn’t let me have the sequel.
I was not happy at all. I said to Tom, how can you let this happen, I’m
the one that brought you the movie? He said, “Well, my hands are tied.”
I did not leave with very good feelings there. Tom was very upset when
we won the People’s Choice Award on national TV and Kim and I are on
stage thanking everybody and Tom, to this day, has not gotten over that
we didn’t thank him.
There’s just so many things to the story. We’re doing a documentary
series on this whole history from the beginning of Peter and Kevin to
how this movie got made and subsequently what happened during and what’s
happened over the years after and the lawsuits and the this and that.
The latest chapter after this is the coronavirus. We were all set, 30th
anniversary. The virus couldn’t have hit on the 29th or the 31st
anniversary – on the 30th the virus hits. We were supposed to do
WonderCon and Comic-Con, we were supposed to do a series of autograph
shows and other cons. But everything’s shut down.
But,
we found a workaround with social media. We’re doing a pizza party on
the 23rd of May on our YouTube channel at 8 at night Eastern, 5 Pacific.
Judith, bless her, has rounded up not only the cast, but she got Steve
Barron, Brian Henson, Kim and I are going to be on it. It’s just a thank
you to the fans. No money involved here. This is just a thank you to
everybody and our way of showing some appreciation. It’s the first time
we will have all been together in all these years.
Scoop: You have the documentary and the pizza party. Are you working on anything else for the anniversary?
BH: We’re
going to do a book. We just talked to Neca who had some ideas, because
they think it should be a coffee table book with pictures and stuff.
They’re going to join forces with us. This guy Randy [Falk] is amazing,
the guy that runs that company and his partner, the guy who designs
stuff, Trevor [Zammit]. I thought, “this will be a half-hour
conversation [referencing a call from earlier in the day], we’ll get to
Amanda in no problem.” This thing went on and on. They’re doing a whole
line of 30th anniversary toys that are going to be in Walmart and Target
in June. When it comes to the Turtles, they do a lot of other action
figure stuff, but when it comes to the Turtles, all they are interested
in are the early Turtles. Not today’s, they just want ones from our
time. They think they’re the original, and I agree.
I’m
not a big Michael Bay fan and what he did to the Turtles. I get asked
that in a lot of interviews. Frank’s TV interviewed me last year and
asked, “What do you think of the Michael Bay Turtles?” and I said, “Not
much.” They didn’t change Superman and Spider-Man and Wonder Woman and
how Batman looked. Maybe a subtle change, but not a change like that, to
a point where there… My grandson jumped in my lap, he was 6 when he
first saw the first Michael Bay one and he said “Pop-Pop, why’d you make
them so scary?” I said, “I had nothing to do with it.” They are!
They’re just not the sweet, fun looking little Turtles.
Scoop: One of the things I like about this movie is
that April O’Neil isn’t just a damsel. Raphael does save her, but she
has gumption and attitude. Was it important to you to write her that
way?
BH: Absolutely. I asked [Judith] what was the
hardest scene in the movie, I knew what it was, it was waking up and
discovering Splinter and the Turtles and she has to scream and jump up
on the couch. She said that was the scene and I said I thought that was
the hardest to do. That scene I didn’t like that much, not her fault. I
didn’t want her to look like some screeching little… I had a thing in my
comedy act that when you look at older movies, the woman when she
always fell down. How come the men don’t fall down? I fall down all the
time. You see a woman running and she falls, you go “C’mon, with the
falling. Stop falling.”
I
wanted her to have just a little edge to her because that’s what the
‘90s was, you know. Women were raising a little hell about the glass
ceiling and I thought she should not be the atypical woman that they put
on the screen. She could carry her own and in real life, she is that
way. She’s a tough broad. I love her. I mean it, she’s been a godsend
for us, putting this thing together. I said, “You’re our superstar,
you’re going to get the Oscar for this – I’m not sure what we’ll call
it. Best supporting, that’s for sure.”
Scoop: Before Kim got off the phone, I asked how
he’s feeling as he reflects on how popular the movie is and the fact
that people who saw it in 1990 are showing
their kids now. With the 30th anniversary this year, how are you feeling?
BH: I’m
a weepy guy. I’m very sensitive and I cannot tell you…I’m touched. I’m
almost going to cry. I’m touched by it all, I’m overwhelmed. When my
wife and I go to a public function… I’ll give you a couple quick
examples. I go to a wedding last year and there’s people in their 30s,
mainly, at this wedding. Someone mentioned, “See the guy over there, he
wrote
Ninja Turtles, the movie.” So, when I’m leaving, I was
stormed by about eight guys going out the door, saying, “Dude, you can’t
go” and when they say “dude,” I know they know. “Dude, can we get a
picture with you?”
It’s
happened again and again to almost the point of embarrassment. I’ve
been invited to celebrity events and I used to be a judge at the
Pepperdine Songfest that the students put on every year. The first year I
went, I was sitting next to Ben Stein and some other faces. Ben was
introduced and he got a nice ovation and they go “Bobby Herbeck” and I’m
standing up and they say, “The man who wrote the first
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
movie” and as I’m standing up – my wife will tell you – the kids jumped
up and were screaming like I was Elvis. I shot back down in the seat.
This was an auditorium full of kids.
At the intermission, someone came in the green room and asked, “Are
you here for the second part of the show?” and I said, “Yes, I’m
judging.” They said, “Oh man, you aren’t going to believe this.” There
were all kinds of students putting on productions, song and dance. The
second number, these four guys come out – they didn’t know I was going
to be there – they come out on stage dressed as Ninja Turtles. They’re
singing a number and pointing out at me. I look at Tami [his wife] and I
got tears, and said, “Can you believe this?” That’s why the kids wanted
to know if I was going to stay. And I was mobbed afterwards when the
show was over.
I’m just saying, it’s there, it’s been there and now I’m realizing
it’s bigger. When we talked to TMNT Minute podcast, I said, “So what do
you think, we have several thousand fans?” And they said, “No dude, it’s
in the millions.” I said, “You’re kidding me.” And that’s what the Neca
guys are saying. That’s what Randy was saying today. I’m just blown
away, you know? In my business… First of all, to get a hit like this and
it
lasts this long, and still has a gravity pull? You just
can’t be more blessed than that. I’m serious. We got so lucky. I’ve
tried to get another one all along the way, but lightning only strikes
once. Now, George Lucas is a different cat, but we’ll take this. The
second one did okay, but everybody loves the first movie. I’m blessed.
And people like you, I can’t thank you enough for wanting to take your
time and hear what we have to say, but beyond that being a fan. That’s
why we’re doing this.
Original Post:
https://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1017?articleID=242751
For more information on convention appearances for Bobby Herbeck
and Kim Dawson, contact their booking agent at Eva Ink Artist Group/Pros
& Cons Celebrity Booking at evaink@aol.com.
Genre
mash-ups provide very entertaining stories as seemingly disparate
genres come together and artist Arthur Suydam’s art is a great example of how that can work. His Marvel Zombies and
homage covers have become highly collectible Modern books, featuring
the decaying forms of Marvel’s biggest heroes. Suydam recently talked to
Scoop about those covers, his work on Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth, and how he became a fan of comics.
On weekends my parents would come to visit me, and they would bring me comic books to read. DC’s Star Spangled War Stories with dinosaurs, Legion of Super Heroes, World’s Finest and Superman.
At that time those were my favorites. I was wrapped from head to toe in
bandages, wrapped up like a mummy. When I finally was released from the
hospital a year later, I had to relearn how to walk. Soon as they began
to take some of the bandages off my hands I began to draw. I taught
myself to hold a pencil between fingers that were less burned. At that
time, I drew mostly dinosaurs with my older brother who also liked to
draw, later animals, and then superheroes.
I
made a promise to myself that someday I would work for Warren
publishing doing their horror books. Years later, when I was in my
senior year of high school, I went up to visit their editor, Jim Warren
in New York to show him my work. Warren hired me on the spot. However,
when I mentioned that I was still in high school, he informed me that I
had the job if I wanted it, but to come back after I graduated. Upon
graduation, the following year, I returned to New York to begin work at
Warren publishing on their Creepy and Eerie magazines
and on the way, I stopped off at DC Comics to see editor Joe Orlando who
was managing a series of EC/Warren style horror comics for DC. During
the interview, Joe informed me that he was the art director for Warren
who had brought over all the great EC artists to work at Warren. After
reviewing my portfolio Joe asked me to work for DC Comics instead and to
forget about working for Warren. Joe opened up a drawer and told me
that there were 250 scripts in that drawer and that I could have as many
of them as I wanted and he handed me my first script and the pro career
began. My first story was entitled: “Carnival of Dwarfs.”
Scoop: What’s your artistic process like – do you do a lot of preliminary sketches and planning?
Scoop: You are well known for attention grabbing cover art. What do you find challenging about crafting covers?
Scoop: Are there any Marvel characters that you wanted to turn into zombies but didn’t get the opportunity?
.
I was told that fans were collecting the books for the covers,
purchasing five copies of the same book just to get the new covers.
Because these series were big hits, editors kept calling me to work on
their other series. I recall one particular meeting when one editor, who
had been soliciting me for a year to work on his line of books, blew up
because I couldn’t work on his books because all my time was already
contracted with the Marvel Zombie series, which kept selling
out every couple of days mandating new covers for the second, third, and
fourth printings and so on. There were a lot of months where I had very
little sleep during those days. Finally, one day he called me when
there was an opening and I was able to say yes to the Deadpool Merc with a Mouth series, where I continued the homage to the classics direction.
Regarding
favorites, I don’t think I have any favorites. I try to do my best work
on whatever series I’m working on at the time. I believe some of the
fans favorite from that series might be the Nirvana water baby homage I
did for issue 12. That one was based on a cover I did for the Dynamite, Raise the Dead
series. I told Marvel’s editor that I didn’t want to repeat anything I
had already done on another series, however the editor insisted, so here
we are.
AS: My
favorite gigs are the ones that provide opportunity to try out new
things and that give me a challenge. I like inserting little
ironies into the storytelling of a cover illustration and find that it
can help prevent a theme from going flat.
AS: There’s
no difference really. Perhaps a bit more of input in the planning stage
from the client working on band album covers, depending on the group.
Bands tend to come to you with an idea of what they want – comic
publishers tend to want me to provide the full concept from start to
finish for a piece.
Scoop: What are you working on now and how can fans support your work?