By Robin Jones
Hello, welcome, good day and how the fuck are ya doin’? Welcome to another Papercuts and Inkstains, and it’s the second of our special treats for you as this time around, we are talking with one of comics most shocking, sensory overloading, sublime artists, Mr Darick Robertson!
Darick Robertson is a name synonymous with ultra-violence, gonzo, boundary pushing artwork. He has co-created two of comics’ most outlandish, outrageous and outstanding bodies of work, Transmetropolitan and The Boys and he has worked with some of the greatest writers of comic bookdom, including Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, Stan Lee, Mark Waid and Greg Rucka to name but a few. He has illustrated classic characters like The Punisher, Spider-Man, the X-Men, The Justice League and the New Warriors. He has also written numerous other comics as well, including Spider-Man, New Warriors, Conan and Batman. Darick is currently working on Ballistic for Black Mask Comics and Oliver for Image Comics. And we here at Inter-Comics are lucky enough to have the man himself answering some of our and some of your questions!
So enough background, anyone who reads my column knows that The Boys is perhaps my favourite comic book story. It had ultra-violence, sex, depravity, Machiavellian political struggles, haunting back stories, defamation of the capitalist system, war weariness, a running social commentary and it looked none too lightly on the world of Superheroes. There was nothing I didn’t like about this series. The art, courtesy of Darick, was EXPLOSIVE! It leapt off of the page at you, grabbed you round the back of the head and slammed your face into the table repeatedly whilst it had wild, unbridled, passionate sex with your better half, which they enjoyed more than with yourself. It ate your favourite sandwich, drank your beer, then left you sat in a puddle of sweat, vomit, mucus and other bodily fluids as you struggled to catch your breath and figure out what the hell had just happened? Each character was flawless, with their appearance and facial expressions revealing all that Robertson and Ennis wanted to reveal to you. They visually had depth and even the stone cold bastard Billy Butcher came across as warm with the stroke of Robertson’s brush. After conducting this interview, I started reading Transmetropolitan and I can safely say that it has knocked Butcher and The Boys off the top spot. It’s easy to see why Wired magazine called it the “graphic novel of the decade.”
It combines elements from two of the 20th Centuries greatest writers, Hunter S. Thompson and Phillip K Dick, creating a dystopian, sci-fi tale, with an over-sexualized, over stimulated populous living in huge metropolitan areas, following Feeds on google glass style headwear, in cities where the poor are vilified, politicians are corrupt and only one man can bring the world to rights. Spider Jerusalem, a horny, drug taking, over stimulated, under-sexed, gonzo journalist, who hates fame, loves money, comes with “filthy assistants”, one of whom act’s as his bodyguard (who also happens to be an ex-stripper and nun of a semi transient sex addict) who bears a striking resemblance to the afore mentioned Thompson. Darick’s art is sublime, portraying an advanced yet morally decayed future with charm and ease. You love Spider Jerusalem as he is the voice of the disenfranchised, the mouth piece of the masses and he hates every minute in the limelight. It is quite frankly, fucking brilliant and if you haven’t read it, you deserve to be shot in the gut with Jerusalem’s bowel disruptor. On its unspeakable gut horror setting. But enough waffle from me, let’s get down to the nitty gritty!
Me: First off, you’ve worked on several titles with Garth Ennis, including Punisher MAX, Fury and the brilliant co-created The Boys. What is about Garth that made you want to keep doing projects with him?
Darick: Ennis is full of funny and challenging ideas. Creatively, he knows what he wants and explains himself very clearly.
Me: How did the idea and concept for The Boys come about?
Darick: Originally it was going to be a more subtle book, more along the lines of Hitman, and we were going to present it as fitting into the DCU. However as Ennis got deeper into the concept and we started to share ideas, we realized that it would never work unless we could go full out and do what we wanted to do, no gloves. That’s when Ennis started to say, and included in the pitch, that this series would “Out-Preacher, Preacher”.
Me: Did you set out with the intention to tear apart the foundations of the big two’s Superhero lore and history?
Darick: Not really as much as satirizing the idea of how Super-heroes would function within our real world. There are a lot of presumptions made that people with great power will rise to the challenge of great responsibility. What if they didn’t? What if the people with great super-power were just like everyone else in our corrupt, dirty real world? What if these people had super powers, but instead of nobility and integrity, a greasy dollar was all that leads to the costumes and uniforms? So not the characters themselves, but a different take on how and why those characters would exist. I love Super-heroes, and grew up with them in California, USA. Garth grew up on Beano, 2000 A.D. and war comics in Belfast, Ireland. Our creative worlds met in the middle in very different ways. I was just happy to be creating new characters and working with someone as talented as Ennis. I think for Ennis, he wanted to explore the side of US Comic book characters that he unsentimentally delved into with Hitman and Punisher, but really take them apart from the inside out, while making a deeper statement about corporate power and malfeasance, and its influence on corrupt government.
Me: Was it difficult turning down Spider-Man in favor of doing Transmetropolitan, or did the idea of pursuing something which would be yours outweigh the idea of drawing everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?
Darick: It was a difficult choice, in that until that time, I believed that drawing Spider-man monthly was what success would look like. However, I had already done quite a few Spider-man projects, including an issue of Amazing Spider-man and had worked on a Spidey story with Stan Lee himself in 1995, so really, there was less to gain from a side book that predictably, because of the state of the market at that time, got cancelled after eight issues. It was 1997, and the book I turned down was called “Spider-Man Team up” which was going to be a monthly title featuring Spider-man and a different Marvel character each issue/arc. I did not turn down “Amazing Spider-man” or the like. I had already been offered, but hadn’t committed to, Transmet when the Spider-man Team Up book was offered. Honestly, I would still enjoy a run on a book like that, I just believed in Warren Ellis and what we were planning with Transmetropolitan, too much to pass it up. So it was a tough choice. It was generous offer then and like I said, I would dig drawing that book today if it were offered again. A few years earlier I’d turned down a run on Excalibur, and I would have followed Alan Davis. I didn’t know who the writer would be because Scott Lobdell, who I knew and liked, had passed, so I said “no, thanks” so I could write and draw my own book for Malibu’s Ultraverse that never really got off the ground. But that writer on Excalibur that I inadvertently passed up collaborating with? Turned out to be Warren Ellis. D’oh!
So, Co-creating Transmet with Warren seemed like something I was inspired to do and was more to my sensibilities as a reader at that time. And to this day I love knowing, as I’m often told, that Transmet brought some readers back into comics or has been some reader’s introductory comic to the world of sequential art. That is more than I ever dreamed I might achieve with that title.
Me: What’s your creative process, and when it comes to creating a new story, what decision process do you go through to choose whether you write it, draw it or both?
Darick: I want to do good work with good people. I know that I am trying with great effort to keep that process fresh and find new pathways into creativity. I try to craft my work more now to get a look I am proud of, rather than just produce just to hit deadlines. I have reduced the number of steps in my technical process in the past 6 years. I went from creating layouts in non-photo blue, to pencil, to ink, and now I draw only in blue pencil and ink from there. I spend a lot more time thinking about a script before I draw it. I still avoid, and have for years, drawing thumbnails first unless I have to, as it tends to dilute the spontaneity of the final image. I try as much as possible, to capture of my original idea onto the page by drawing the script as I read it. As far as a comic I write, my process is the same in that I draw from my script. I write my scripts as if I’m not the artist and find myself annoyed as my own artist when drawing, like I’m two different people. But I feel it’s important that both crafts, both skills, get treated with equal effort. I shouldn’t get a pass at being a mediocre writer just because I can draw. I like writing my own stories, but when you have worked with writers of the caliber that I have, and when there are so many talented writers I still want to work with, it’s difficult to justify going off on my own. I imagine there’s a future where I’ll start exclusively writing and drawing my own ideas. I have a lot of stories I’d like to tell.
Me: Do you still read comics now and if so what are some of your favorites?
Darick: I don’t read as much as I want to, as I don’t get to shops that often and I’m very busy. Plus I try to keep my mind fresh so I’m not overly influenced by what’s being published. I’ve been reading SAGA and The Umbrella Academy. Both are fantastic. I want to read “Locke & Key” and “Quantum & Woody.” Mostly when I read now, I read prose. I read a few books at a time. I am currently reading a biography of Wyatt Earp, Tom Shadyac’s “Life’s Operating Manual” and “A Farewell To Arms” by Hemingway.
Me: What got you into comics in the first place, and do you have any particular titles which stand out from your reading history?
Darick: My first ever series that got me hooked was “The Flash”. Then I got my big boy pants reading Wolfman and Perez’s “Teen Titans” and Barr & Bolland’s “Camelot 3000”. From there I started getting into Frank Miller’s Daredevil and the classic Byrne/Smith/Claremont era X-men and also Spider-man was always on my reading list. When Dark Knight, Watchmen and then Sandman and Animal Man were published, my taste went that direction. I was heavily influenced by film too, as I’m a massive fan of movies, and would often want to work my ideas for films and such into comics. I drew as way of expressing story.
Me: I recently read something you tweeted, referring to people picking up on writers as being the sole creator of certain comic books whilst artists, who toil and sweat and pour life into words often get overlooked. Is this something which you find is endemic amongst comic book fans?
Darick: I just feel it’s disrespectful to something that is clearly a team effort to leave half the creative team out when the work gets into the media. Artwork in a sequential story is not accidental. It’s a craft that is embedded into the read. If it was just the writer, then it would be only text and it would be a novel. But when it’s a comic, that’s two story-tellers working in unison to create what the reader experiences. It wouldn’t be reasonable to just talk about the artwork as if those images would exist independent of the story when a writer has created the context, any more than it’s reasonable to talk about the images that are being used to promote a comic as if the writer, who’s name is often the only name being presented, created that artwork and by default, it’s solely a reflection of that writer’s talent. That artist is their own person and deserves to be regarded as such. Two people made it and it doesn’t take much to include both of their names or at the barest of minimums, credit the artist in the artwork being shown. Photographers get photo credit, and comic art gets credited often to the publisher. Two creators started with blank space and two creators made something successful together, so two creators should be named when discussing it. It wouldn’t exist without the other. Like a child has two parents; If a creative work has two parents, both are essential. Bendis AND Oeming made ‘Powers’. Moore AND Gibbons made ‘Watchmen’. Ennis AND Dillon gave us “Preacher”. Tony Moore, then Adlard AND Kirkman made “Walking Dead”. Somehow of late, a certain intellectual laziness in media has made it OK to boil a creative team down to one component. If you take away an artist’s name from his work, and just present the work, you imply that the writer drew the art as well as wrote the story. And you make the artist invisible and inconsequential to the successful creation.
Me: What has been the hardest panel you’ve ever had to draw?
Darick: Too many to mention! Emotionally or technically? The most recent technically difficult drawing I’ve done was page 3 from Ballistic #1:
But emotionally, one of the hardest things I recall was penciling the final page of Transmetropolitan as it was the end of a 6 year creative journey.
Me: You’ve worked with some of the biggest names in comics, is there anyone working at the moment who you would love to collaborate with, either writing or illustrating with them?
Darick: Certainly! There are too many to list and there are people I’ve collaborated with in the past that I’d love to work with again, I just can’t draw fast enough to even propose new projects outside of what’s already on my schedule for the next few years. The work I am currently doing with Adam Egypt Mortimer on “Ballistic” and Gary Whitta on “OLIVER” is very satisfying.
Me: Do you have any advice to give to new starting illustrators/writers out there?
Darick: Honestly, as far as this business goes, the internet and digital age has changed the game entirely. So as an artist, this is my only advice: Do it because it brings you a sense of accomplishment when you finish something and you enjoy it while you do it. Draw because it calls to you. Draw because you can’t think of anything else you’d rather do. Draw because it’s the best video game you’ll ever play, and the levels are only your limitations to what you can learn. If you do that, success will find you. Success will be in your soul, not in your paycheck.
Me: Finally, just for fun, who would win in a fight…. Billy Butcher or Spider Jerusalem?
Darick: Butcher for sure. But he’d have a pants load of shit when it was all over.
I’ve also got some readers’ questions for you, I hope this is ok?
Darick: HELL NO! Well, OK…
Matt Saviker asked: Did anything which you drew on the boys disturb you at all?
Darick: Of course! To create that stuff you have to really put your head in that reality and a lot of that was a very disturbing reality. The scene with the little boy getting sucked out of the plane in particular upset me, as I have two sons.
Flodo Span asked: Do you have to be a little bit twisted to co-create The Boys or do you just channel it for the book?
Darick: I’ve drawn violent images since I was a kid. Long before I drew the BOYS, I liked twisted stuff, like Tarantino movies and horror/sci-fi, Heavy Metal and Punk Rock, so if that makes me twisted, I suppose the answer is yes. I work my demons out in my artwork.
Leon McKenzie asked: If you had the pick of the Comic universe, which character would you love to write and draw today, and was there an event story that you weren’t involved in that you thought “I would have done a better job than THAT!”?
Darick: It’s arrogant to think I could do something better than another creative person as I don’t know what their challenges were, how much time they were given, how much editorial influence and interference may have been a factor,.. so I don’t judge stuff that way. I keep my judgment to my own stuff, as it’s got plenty of room for improvement. As a fan, I would have loved to have been involved drawing the Comedian and Rorschach for “Before Watchmen”. Just because I love Dave Gibbon’s character designs. I love the sillier characters of both the DC and Marvel universes and would love to get to play with them. I drew “Squirrel Girl” in Angoleme, France for a fan and realized that I would enjoy doing a series with her. When I worked on New Warriors back in the day, I loved Speedball. I like Firestorm, Blue Devil and Plastic man… but all this desire to create something like that just has me trying to get more original work out there as I truly enjoy not being told what I can’t do with a good idea. When you play with other people’s toys, you have to give them back. They’re not yours.
You can order Darick’s co-created masterpiece The Boys HERE Search his back catalogue of work HERE at Comixology, check out his personal website at www.darickrobertson.com and follow him madly like a stalker on Twitter @DarickR.
Next time around, we have Magneto, The Sixth Gun and Sinestro scribe Cullen Bunn chatting to us!
Until next time…
For more comic views and reviews follow Robin on Twitter at @Hulksmash1985
Posted on March 18th, 2014
Category: NEWS & VIEWS, PAPERCUTS AND INKSTAINS VOL. 2, PREVIEWS & UPCOMING RELEASES, REVIEWS
Tags: Ballistic, Black Mask Comics, Comic Artist, Comic Interviews, Darcik Robertson, Garth Ennis, Image Comics, Oliver, spider-man, The Boys, The Punisher, the X-Men, Transmetropolitan