Artist August: Dustin Weaver (Interview)

Dustin Weaver is someone who has made a pretty fast rise in the comics industry, but it’s with good reason: the guy is immensely talented, as we see in his Marvel title with Jonathan Hickman – SHIELD. Month in and month out, he gets the opportunity to depict the secret history of the Marvel universe, getting to visualize characters as diverse as Leonardo da Vinci and Galactus, while bringing to life new places and environments that push the medium to the brink of its capabilities. He’s an immense talent, and it’s great to see his work get such a starring role (and not just because he was an Alaskan resident once like I am).

Today on Artist August, we talk with Dustin about the influence of Portland and Periscope Studios on his work, what is so thrilling for him in his work on SHIELD, the incredibly touching story as to how he decided he wanted to work in comics, and more.

Check it all out after the jump, and thanks to Dustin for chatting with us.

Is there a single moment that you can look back on as the impetus for you wanting to work in comics? Or was it more of a natural progression that led you here?

Dustin’s Oldest Work Online – Age 13

Dustin Weaver: When I was 13, I got the opportunity to take a tour of Homage studios, where guys like Jim Lee, Mark Sylverstri, Scott Williams, Whilce Portocio, and a whole bunch of other artists worked. It was the place that later became Wildstorm. The opportunity came about when my dad was making arrangements for our family to go to Disneyland– I was just starting chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and if you’ve got cancer, you and your family can go to Disneyland for a couple days for free (at least you could back then). Just so happens that when my dad was making the arrangements, the woman he was on the phone with had previously worked as the receptionist at Homage Studios and said that she could get us a tour. What a coincidence, right?… Why was my dad talking about how much I liked comics to the girl working the phone at Disney? I don’t know.

At that time, Jim Lee was my idol. I was obsessed with his work. So this was a huge deal to me, but it turned out to be even better than I could have imagined. Jim, himself, gave my family and me the tour of the studio and took us to lunch. I knew that I would get to meet Jim, but I didn’t know that I would also get to meet all of these other artists that I really liked. Seeing the studio was so cool. There were toys and comics everywhere. Whilce and Sylvestri were really nice and talked to me and my family about being professional comic artists. I got to see how comics were made and right away I knew it was what I wanted to do.

All of the time while I was sick from the chemo was spent drawing comics. Jim also gave me an Image Comics hat. It was black with an embroidered “i” on it. That was pretty much my hair while I had none.

Who or what has influenced the development of your art?

DW: I tend to think of influences like ingredients. It’s like I’m making a stew, and I’m not always trying to make the same stew. There are certain flavors that are always present in my work, certain influences that are ingrained in me, like Jim Lee. Other big ones are Katsuhiro Otomo, Travis Charest, Moebius, and Juan Gimenez. Beyond that, I look to other influences depending on what I’m going for at the time, and these could be anything, but I continually come back to guys like Miyazaki, Shiro, Tardi, Georges Bess, and Geof Darrow.

A particularly amazing image from SHIELD 1

SHIELD has been a big hit critically and commercially. How did you get on board, and how has the ride been so far?

DW: I was working for Marvel doing some X-Men-related books and editor Nick Lowe asked if I would be interested in doing this new series. He was really excited about it and he gave me the basic idea. I was hesitant at first because I could imagine this kind of thing easily being bad. I wasn’t familiar with Hickman’s work, so the first thing I did was look into who he was and what he did. When I did that, it became clear to me that he was a creator with a vision, and that this series had the potential of being really good. It didn’t take me long to say “Let’s do it”.

Before the first issue came out, I was really scared that people were going to hate it. I was bracing myself for heartbreak. When it got really good reviews, I was glad, but then I was afraid that it would get over-hyped and that there would be a backlash of haters. That didn’t really happen. I’ve very slowly lowered my guard. Part of me is still prepared for Nick to tell me we’re canceled, but that part of me is getting smaller. I’m really so grateful to the fans of the book. I wish I could get this stuff done faster for you guys.

SHIELD calls for a lot of unique locales, a lot of grandiose ideas and characters, and a story that is rather epic in scope. What has been the most interesting element to bring to life? What difficulties does the diversity and scope cause for you as an artist?

DW: That was actually a big part of what appealed to me about this series. When Nick and I were first discussing Shield, it was clear that I would be getting to draw a lot of different things and possibly creating new things. Getting to create new things in a universe that is as well-developed as the Marvel Universe is is a rare and cool thing.

The most interesting elements would be hard to pin down. I’ve definitely enjoyed Da Vinci as a character. I actually feel a little ownership of him even though he’s a real guy. I’ve also really liked the stuff with Celestials. I wanted to do them a little differently than I’ve seen them done before. I’m trying to do my own version of Jack Kirby-isms (without just doing Jack Kirby) and infuse it with a bit of Miyazaki. I’ve enjoyed the results of that. The scene where Da Vinci goes to the sun is certainly a highlight and one of the weirdest scenes I’ve ever gotten to do. I’ve also really enjoyed doing the flashback scenes with Richards and Stark.

The difficulties are obvious. When you’re regularly having to draw something that you haven’t drawn before, it slows you down.

As a follow-up to the last question, does this project require a lot of research on your part? Does Hickman give you a bit of a rubric for your art with scripts or anything?

DW: At this point Jonathan puts a lot of trust in me to design this world. With the first issue, he did send me visual reference for a few things, and of course I send him and Nick sketches of everything I design before it gets set in stone. Sometimes they want changes, but generally, they just let me have fun.

But, yeah, I do a lot of research. I have extensive downloaded image collections for all the different time periods and historical characters. I also use google maps street view on a regular basis.

One of the things that makes SHIELD intriguing as a fan to read is some of the little hidden details, like Moon Knight and Apocalypse being ancient members during the first Brood war. Are these little things that you’re throwing in as you see fit, or are they there on the script from Hickman?

DW: Moon Knight and Apocalypse were in the script. I can’t take credit for those. I really don’t know enough about the Marvel universe to know what to stick in and where… That’s not entirely true. I know some things, and I’m learning more about the Marvel universe all the time. I have thrown a few things in, which I’m not sure if I’d want to point out because I could have been wrong to have thrown them in.

One of the great things about reading SHIELD is watching you experiment across any given page, such as the transition between years before the war of Da Vinci and Newton or the birth of the Celestial in the sun. What is the process for you when putting together such intense sequences?

DW: Well, thanks for noticing.

Unlike books I’ve worked on in the past, with SHIELD I’ve really given myself very few rules as far as style. To go back to the stew metaphor, though this stew is always called Shield, I’ve given myself permission to make it a little different each time I sit down to stew it up. With the way that the story jumps around, shifting the stylistic approach seemed to suit it. Obviously I’m not radically shifting styles. I’m not suddenly becoming more cartoony or more realistic. The forms are consistent.

The same kind of freedom also applies to page layouts. Panel layout is where you create rhythm. It’s like music, and I try to make the music tell the story of the scene. If it’s an exciting scene, I like the layout to get exciting. But sometimes you need to just let the images speak for themselves. I also like developing layout motifs and refrains. In Shield an example of a motif is the inset panel boarder frame.

You’re a Portland resident and a Periscope Studios member. How does living in one of the comic meccas of the US affect your work, and how is it working in one of the most talented comic enclaves around?

DW: I don’t know. Living here feels good, like it’s where I should be. I think it attracts people like me. So, the fact that there are so many other comic creators and readers is just a side effect of the kind of place Portland is. It’s that feeling of being where I should be that has the biggest effect on me.

Being in Periscope studio is a great thing. Having a studio to go to to get work done really helps you… get work done. The studio also has great resources like large scanners, printers, a couple Cintiqs, and interns. Often members of the studio will do tutorials on everything from water color painting to writing. There are a lot of talented people here.

In the digital age, new tools are available to artists of all types. How does that affect and expand your work?

DW: I’m generally a traditional guy. I like drawing with a pencil and ink on paper. I don’t see myself going fully digital at any point, but I have become a big fan of the Cintiq. Using a mouse is so slow, and I never got used to regular tablets, but the Cintiq, with the ability to draw right on the screen, is so great. I want to use it more and more in my art.

Does feedback (both positive and negative) with fans and critics via social media push you as an artist? How does that aspect affect your art?

DW: My reactions to feedback vary. Sometimes some positive feedback is all I need to really energize me. Other times, I think that that person, with their positive feedback, doesn’t know what they’re talking about and they don’t see how bad I am. It seems to depend on my confidence level at the time. There are times when someone could say, “Dustin is really good at backgrounds (for example) and all I hear is, “Dustin isn’t good at figures.”

It’s dangerous to take peoples opinions too much to heart. If you’re feeling good about your work but are also striving to be better, then you’re in a good place. It can be a delicate equilibrium that you risk upsetting by putting too much importance on other people’s opinions. So I try not to have feedback (positive or negative) affect me too much. Sometimes I fail at that.

In the average comic book criticism or review, artists are typically given a lot less hype than writers are, even though this is a visual medium. Why do you think that is?

DW: This question is opening a big can of worms in my head. There seem to be a bunch of tangents I could go down, but I think the answer is simple. Writers are the ones deciding what happens and what the characters do. Artists make it a comic. In small ways we decide what happens, but most decisions we make are related to the craft of making comics. Most people care more about what happens, or, more accurately, what’s going to happen, than the craft of making that thing happen. Really, nether artists nor writers are often asked about craft.

Writers being hyped more than artists has not always been the case. In the past, for better in some cases and worse in others, artists had more control over what they would be drawing. And I think in the past artists were given more hype.

The old “Marvel” way of writing scripts isn’t done anymore. That’s where it was up to the artist how the story would break down into pages and panels. Nowadays, writers dictate how they want the panels broken up and sometimes even what kinds of shots should be in those panels. The artist’s creative input has been minimized. Most artists are guys who can draw, drawing what they are told to draw. It’s illustration, not comic book artistry. Part of me wants to say, why would you hype artists?

I think the best artists working in mainstream comics are capable of looking at the story they’re given and, disregarding what they’re being told to do, ask themselves how they themselves would tell this story. And the answer to that question is good.

Comics, even with increasing acceptance amongst the mainstream, are still a niche medium. With that in mind, have your friends and family always been supportive of your pursuit of a career in this field?

DW: My family was generally a “follow your dreams” kind of family. There have been a few times when my dad has asked me if I’ve thought about pursuing work in story-boarding or other commercial work. It always irritates me a little. “I don’t want to do that,” I think. “I want to make comics.” It’s true that commercial work pays way better than comics. A lot of comic artists do that kind of stuff on the side, but, from what I’ve seen, it offers very little creative satisfaction or freedom and can be unpleasant. It’s not nearly as much fun as making comics. I’m not against doing that stuff, it’s just that having a successful career in comics is a lot of hard work, and I just want to stay focused on my goals. I want to be moving in a direction of more creative freedom.

What would be a dream project for you?

DW: My dream projects all involve me writing and drawing my own stories, or working closely with a collaborator to write and draw something. I basically never want to be in a position where, when I ask myself, “How would I tell this story?”, the answer is, “I wouldn’t”.

There are some existing properties that I would like to work on in an artist/story collaborator capacity. Wolverine is one. Wolverine was my guy when I was first reading comics. He’s in my comic DNA. I think I have something to say about him.

I’ve always wanted to do a Transformers reboot story.

I did some sketches that I posted online of a Batman crossover with the Italian comic character Diabolik set in the 60’s. I still think that would be fun. Also in that vein, I’d like to do a Superman crossover with the French comic character, the Metabaron. Only, with that one, I wouldn’t want to write it. I’d want it to be written by Jodorowsky.

Desert Island question: one book, one album, one film and one comic. What do you take with you?

DW: Oh, man. Starting with the comic. If it could be a series then I’d take Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix series. If it’s only one book then it would have to be Phoenix Volume 4: Karma. It would serve as an inspiration in the face of adversity, and an inspiration artistically.

The album would be The Velvet Underground’s self titled album. I’m certain that I will never be tired of that album.

Choosing a film is tough… Damn it. Every movie I think of is so dark. A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, Lost Highway. Maybe Hannah and Her Sisters is the way to go… No, it’s gotta be A Clockwork Orange.

Choosing one book is also hard. I’m not nearly as well read as I’d like to be. I’m going to go with Crime and Punishment.

Who are your favorite artists working in comics today?

DW: Dash Shaw – I’ve only read Body Worlds so far but I thought it was freaking fantastic and I’m looking forward to reading more. Just based on that I could say this is a guy I like.

Brandon Graham – I’m completely envious of the career that Brandon is creating for himself. His stuff is really cool and a lot of fun. I think he has the potential to create important comics.

I’m not sure what he’s doing these days, but the Fantagraphics reprints of Jacques Tardi’s stuff I am eating up with a spoon.

Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata – I really enjoyed Death Note and I’m currently enjoying Bakuman.

As for guys that are more mainstream, Frank Quitely is clearly one of the best. Leinil Yu- I still love the razzle-dazzle. J.H. Williams III’s stuff is amazing. I haven’t read any books drawn by Olivier Coipel, but every time I flip through one it screws with my head– his strengths might be my weaknesses. Another guy whose work makes me feel insecure is Sean Murphy.

What projects do you have coming up?

DW: I still have 3 1/2 issues of SHIELD left to do. After that, we’ll see. I’m going to start pushing harder towards getting some my of own stories done. I’ve talked a little with Marvel about future projects, but it’s all tentative… It’s going to be an interesting time.