Interviews 

Artist August: Rebekah Isaacs (Interview)

By | August 10th, 2011
Posted in Interviews | % Comments

For today’s edition of Artist August, we are very proud to present our interview with one of our favorite rising stars: Rebekah Isaacs! You may know her from the phenomenal DV8 revival mini, Gods And Monsters, her series Magus with Jon Price, or her work from Marvel with Ms. Marvel and the Iron Age: Alpha/Omega, but there’s no way you’ll be able to miss her soon with the upcoming release of Angel/Faith #1 from Dark Horse (keep tuned to MC for more on that soon!).

For now, though, check behind the cut for a look into Rebekah’s path to artistry and how Disney is involved, an in-depth look at her process, and the secret origin of her affable feline companion Fantastic Donut (pictured above).

Can you look back on your life and recall the single moment that made you decide to work with sequential art? Or was it more of a natural progression that led you here? 

Rebekah Isaacs: It must’ve been reading Watchmen in high school. I’d been more interested in going into animation up to that point, and I’d read only a few comics, not enough to give me a realistic scope of the medium. I found a copy of the collected issues at my local library and it’s so cliched, but it blew my mind. I remembered thinking that this was a story that couldn’t be conveyed in moving images (and I still believe so) — it was something completely unique. The intimacy that the reader has with what’s on the page is still what I love most about comics. I don’t think there was any question about what I wanted to do with my life after that.

Who or what has influenced the development of your own art styles?

RI: I wore my influences on my sleeve in college, when I was really concerned about developing a style. Everything had a Disney-fied anime look to it. I started to learn towards a more realistic style as I read more American comics, but I still retained a lot of my animation influences. I love how the clarity of line in animation allows for such a huge range of expression in characters’ faces. I love Mucha (who doesn’t?) and on the comics front I love Steve McNiven and Chris Sprouse. These days I’m trying not to concern myself with style, because I know that’s when it starts to develop organically. I think it’ll be years, maybe more than a decade before I’ve settled into a permanent, distinctive style.

When you sit down to work, what would you say is your average “routine” for illustrating?

RI: Sit down, check my usual sites (except facebook; I recently had Jon change my facebook password so I couldn’t access it anymore because it’s the DEVIL!!), lay out my two artboards for the day, pre-printed with my enlarged thumbnails in blueline beside their corresponding script pages, pull up Photobooth on my mac and snap quick photo reference of any tricky scenes for the two pages, referencing the script often to make sure I’m getting the right facial expression/body language for the dialogue, finish pencilling the first page, lunch and an episode of House Hunters, draw, dinner, finish pencilling the second page, gin & sprite, pass out.  Repeat with two pages of inks a day after pencilling is finished.  I try to throw in at least two walks a day somewhere in that routine, too.  I “watch” TV shows on Netflix pretty much all day or listen to cheesy chill-out music to keep my anxiety down when I’m sweating a deadline.  When I do thumbnails I like to work kind of the same way — I do a big batch in very loose gestures on a blue layer, then go back over each of them, tightening them up in a black layer.  Then I discard the blue layer and flatten.  In that case the blue layer is like my pencils, and the black layer my inks.  There’s definitely a different mindset involved in penciling than inking, and I find I work best and fastest when I stay in one mindset as long as possible.

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

RI: I’m kinda lazy when it comes to technology,, so I don’t use much, although I have been doing my thumbnails on the iPad for the last year. I draw my thumbnails very quickly and loosely since I pencil and ink myself, so stylus precision isn’t really an issue. It’s saved me a ton of time since I do so much second-guessing and erasing and redrawing in my layouts. I think (and hope!) that digital art techniques will never become so convenient as to completely replace pencil, paper, ink, and brush. It’s great that there are total digital options for those who want them, though. On the pages themselves, I do small touch-ups and put panel borders in using Photoshop, but that’s about the extent of it. I couldn’t bear to part with the actual tactile satisfaction that the real materials offer.


What are three things that you absolutely cannot work without?

RI: Netflix streaming, three cups of coffee within 30 minutes of waking, and photobooth on my Mac for reference photos.

You’re certainly an up-and-comer in the industry, doing a great issue on Ms. Marvel and moving on to works like DV8, the Captain America Allies & Enemies collection, and the Alpha/Omega issues of Iron Age. How difficult was the path for you to get into comics, and what can you say to young artists looking to make their way into the industry?

RI: I’d say I fall somewhere in the middle when it comes to break-in stories. It took me a few years to get to Marvel & DC, and it was at times really frustrating, but I know others who struggled far longer. What finally worked for me was a combination of constantly submitting samples to anyone who would respond and getting face time in at conventions. There’s really no set way to do it though, and although everyone’s looking for that one magical trick that will work for them, the only thing you can do is draw everyday, challenge yourself to get better with every day, and keep showing your work to whoever will look. Conventions are still a viable option, especially smaller ones, but message boards like drawingboard.org and Pencil Jack are also often visited by editors and professional artists. You never know who might come across your work, so be prolific online.

In the case of Multiversity you greatly came to our attention with your work on DV8: Gods & Monsters, which was – at least in my case – my first ever experience with the characters. How did you get involved with this project? What was it like to work on the revival of these characters?

RI: DV8 came out of my attendance at NYCC ’08, along with my fill-in issue of Ms. Marvel. Ben Abernathy has previously had my portfolio emailed to him by another DC editor who I knew from SCAD, and he hadn’t contacted me yet but when I introduced myself in person at the convention he was very enthusiastic about my work, and I think he remembered seeing it before. I met up with him again at a small freelancers’ gathering nearby but I wasn’t sure that any work would come of it when the convention left. But very soon after, maybe less than a week, I got a message from Brian himself asking me if I’d be interested in the project. I didn’t know anything about the series but Brian was already one of my favorite writers so I didn’t hesitate a second. I grew to really love those characters, though. I really hope they’re able to make a comeback in the DCU at some point. What I especially loved about the way Brian wrote them is how eloquently and convincingly he conveyed the motivations of even the most vile of the group. Even the “bad guys” are relatable — it really makes you reflect on the darker parts of oneself and how easily even the tiniest bit of power could corrupt you too.

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You’re currently working on the upcoming Faith/Angel title for Dark Horse that will run with Buffy “Season 9.” How did your involvement on this project come about? Are you a fan of the Scoobies?

RI: I had submitted a portfolio to Dark Horse years ago and gotten a very thoughtful and lengthy critique, and ultimately a “thanks but no thanks” from Chris Warner, which I still feel very grateful for— but looking back, my work was so bad, i’m lucky to have gotten such helpful feedback, and i’m SUPER lucky if Scott and Sierra didn’t see it! Anyway, back to present day, I just remembered that and it made me laugh. Around last Christmas I was contacted by Sierra, who Brian had worked with at DC and had kindly passed along a good word to, about testing for a Whedonverse book. I did a TON of test work, threw a lot of tantrums when my likenesses came out looking like crud, got a little better, and finally was offered Angel & Faith. Getting that call was one of the best moments of my life. I wanted the book so badly that I’d convinced myself that there was no way I was gonna get it, but I should still give it my best shot. So yeah, I’m not a longtime Buffy & Angel fan (started watching them a little over a year ago) but when I get into something, I turn into a hardcore fan overnight. It’s just indescribable to be working on something with characters whose stories have actually made me cry! I’m not ashamed to admit it!



Since you’re an admitted fan of the Whedonverse here, what has been your favorite element(s) to bring to the comics (characters, places, etcetera)?

RI: Giles is my favorite character so I feel really lucky that he’s such an important part of Angel & Faith.  The two main leads are super fun to draw as well, gorgeous people that they are.  I’ve also been able to design quite a few demons, some cannon fodder for Angel & Faith to show off their ass-kickin skillz on and some major players.  Designing things is so much fun, and it’s great that DH has liked my designs enough to give me a lot of free reign in them.


The scope between things like Iron Age and Angel/Faith are fairly  different, what with one book being a big superhero title and the other being “street level magic/vampire slaying”, in a way. When working on the two, what are the differences of mind-set that you put yourself in for designing the pages?

RI: There really haven’t been as many differences as you might think.  There’s actually a similar amount of action and big fight scenes in A&F and Iron Age and I’ve had to do an equal amount of brainstorming in both books to get the action to leap off the page.  There’s a lot of raw emotion in Iron Age too, so both books require a lot of attention to body language and the “acting” of the characters.  I’ve never been very flashy with my page layouts, even on superhero books.  The only part of my approach that’s really changed in drawing A&F is the thought that has to go into likenesses.  The hardest part is not just drawing the right nose, or the right mouth, or the right body type, but conveying the actual personality of that character using those features.  There are lots of facial expressions that I might make in the mirror as reference that Eliza Dushku as Faith would never make, and vice versa.  That’s been a big challenge coming from superhero books but I really enjoy it, especially because it involves studying mannerisms so much.  I’ve always been a big fan of people watching.

In the case of a book like Magus, how does the experience of working on a book that is entirely your own design compare to your for-hire experience?

RI: I think I’ve been really lucky in my work-for-hire experience, in that I’ve worked on only a few books where I didn’t get to design large parts of it. DV8 and Angel & Faith both allow me a lot of freedom in that respect, and the experience hasn’t been much different than working on Magus, actually. Even Iron Age allowed me some design work in Birch’s laboratory and his robots. But even when I have to stick to previously designed characters, it’s no less enjoyable. It’s a fun challenge to show a lot of expression and emotion in superhero costumes. In that case I feel like I get to design my own take on their personality, more than their actual aesthetic. S’all good.

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Additionally with a title like Magus, we know that writers have a very personal connection to the stories as they plot, but the stories cannot exist without the accompanying art. To that end, how personal is the connection you have to the visual creation aspect of the book?

RI: I think all artists very connected with the characters they draw, we have to if we want to inject life and real emotion into the work. When you’ve imagined yourself in the character’s shoes to get the right body language or facial expression over hundreds of pages, it’s inevitable, and necessary to good art. When we started talking about pitching Magus to movie studios, I gave a lot of thought to how I’d feel when they started casting. I would have a very emotional response, maybe a little irrational, if a casting choice didn’t match my gut instinct, because I feel like I really know these characters. It would be tough.

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?

RI: Unfortunately, I fall into the google trap a lot, and I’ve read it all. The bad stuff can really, really hurt, but it’s given me thicker skin. The sad fact is that most people only go online to post if they have something negative to say, and negativity breeds negativity, so you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt. And when I read positive things, it means even more to me because of that. It can be a really valuable tool for self-improvement too, because it’s impossible for the artist, writer, and editor to catch every little mistake. I learned a really valuable lesson about thorough research when an inaccuracy in one of my backgrounds was pointed out online. Although it inevitably got pretty blown out of proportion, I really appreciated that it was pointed out.


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?

RI: I’m not sure, because I think their appropriate weight is 50/50% Even the best story can be destroyed by bad visual storytelling, and vice versa. I think it’s probably because these days there are a small handful of superstar writers who are writing tons of titles, naturally creating a stronger fanbase than artists, who are very limited in how much they can put out per month and get shuffled around a lot. I’m not saying either way is good or bad, but it seemed like artists were more celebrated in the 90s, so it could change and then change back again. As long as people are buying them and reading them, I’m not bothered by who’s getting the most glory.

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?

RI: This is the part that I was MOST lucky in. I hear stories about creators being discouraged by family all the time, and it really makes me sad. My parents both had creative jobs that they felt very passionate about and worked extremely hard at when I was growing up, and in hindsight we were never well off but it never felt that way. I did very well in school and outside of my family, I did hear a couple suggestions that I was “wasting my time” with art, but never from my family. They go out of their way to buy my books when they come out and they’ve read all of them from cover-to-cover even though neither had previously ever read a comic book. I owe so much to them.

What would be a dream project for you? Any particular writers you’re dying to work with or titles you’d like to take a stab at? Perhaps a personal project you just want to see come to fruition?

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RI: I’m a huge fan of the original Star Wars trilogy and would love to work on something that takes place between or post Episode IV-V-VI. A Wolverine book would be killer too.


Who are your favorite artists working in comics today?

RI: McNiven, Sprouse, J.P. Leon, Fiona Staples, Sean Murphy, Terry & Rachel Dodson, J.H. Williams, Amy Reeder, Adam Hughes… too many others to name

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

RI: The Once and Future King, Let Love In by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Empire Strikes Back, Preacher if I can bring an entire collected series, Dark Knight Returns if I can only bring a single book.

Finally, we at Multiversity are quite great fans of cats and have come to understand that you are as well. So please tell us: how did you come up with the name Fantastic Donut?

RI: You understand correctly. The only way I would give up my job is if I could be a Professional Lap for cats. We came up with the name using a method I heard about in a This American Life segment, when two young boys named their dog Pasta Batman based on their two respective favorite things. We modified it so that the two pet owners write 5 of their favorite things on slips of paper and shuffle them separately, forming pairs randomly. You then just choose a favorite without strangling each other. Jon kind of cheated by using an adjective, but “Fantastic Donut” was so perfect that I let it slide. It narrowly beat out “Tom Brady Jeff Goldblum” and “Japan Boner.”


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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