Dustin Nguyen is a busy guy. Between finishing up “American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares” for Vertigo, co-writing and drawing “Justice League Beyond” and the newly released “Batman: Li’l Gotham” for DC Digital, and doing an array of covers for DC, Dustin found some time to chat with us about his process, his projects, and his newfound love for a certain Robin.
Let’s talk about the inspiration behind “Batman: Li’l Gotham” – what made you want to tell these fun little Bat-tales?
Dustin Nguyen: It just comes mostly out of my love for drawing the Gotham cast, and the style was a way I drew them whenever I was taking a break from my normal books and projects. It’s fun, and allows me to exaggerate the many things about the colorful characters.
You’re a guy who has done a lot of holiday-themed work for DC in the past. Was the idea of “Batman: Li’l Gotham” being tied to holidays always part of the pitch, or did that evolve later?
DN: Oddly enough, I originally pitched the idea about 5 years ago as a set of snowglobe figures to be made for the holiday season, but you know- snowglobes? Come on? haha that didn’t fly at all.
Between then and the next few years, I tried to pitch it where I could, we even got a pair of short 2 page annual stories in “Batman” and “Detective Comics” which was very fun and gave Derek and I a taste of things, but never anything solid. This year, when DC Digital launched and I saw they were doing lots of shorter stories, lots of non-continuity stuff, I figured it was a good place to try out this stuff. The thing about these characters were that I usually drew them as holiday cards for friends and family, and mostly sketches for my website to wish everyone a “Happy” this and “Merry” that. So the choice was obvious- let’s do a holiday themed one (also, in my mind- if you do something that’s themed after a monthly calendar even, that guarantees us some sort of stability for at least a year right?) I went on to talk to Derek about it, and sure enough, over a few hours of talking, we had a list of events that we wanted to cover, and stories to take place in each. So here we are, just a calendar of small events.
“Batman: Li’l Gotham” is beautifully painted with watercolors, which is something you’ve been incorporating more and more lately into your work – how did that become part of your bag of tricks, and how does your process change when working with watercolors versus just providing pencils for a project? What are the benefits to each approach?
DN: You know, for these particular characters and setting, it was majorly due to me really being annoyed with the computer. I’ve always done these sketches for fun and as a break from real work, so anything I can do to avoid getting up, scanning it, lasso-ing, layering, flatting, and just fiddling with the computer made me happy. Also, im just big fan of the traditional, I do a ton of digital work already for my other freelance gigs, this balances it out a bit.
My process remains mostly still the same, storytelling before all else. Execution-wise, I can be a little looser on my layouts knowing I’ll be the one that’s going to do final colors and line art for the image, I can leave out line art and go with only color where I think fits. That sort of stuff.
The upside is I have more control of the final product. The downside is that it can be a lot slower sometimes, especially on interior pages. Pin ups and covers are easy, but ask any monthly guy and he’ll tell you that pages, interior pages are a different monster. To maintain the same consistency and atmosphere from panel to panel is the hardest part. Anytime I do this stuff, it gives me a newfound respect for inkers and mainly colorists. That- and I have no one to rely on or blame but myself when it ends up sucking.
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So far, what character have you enjoyed writing/drawing the most, or are looking forward to tackling? Is there a holiday you’re particularly jazzed about working on?
DN: Surprisingly, Damian is my new favorite. I hated that guy when he was introduced and said I’d never include him in anything I did if it were up to me. Tim was always the Robin for me, but after working with Paul Dini, and seeing his take on Damian, it opened up my closed minded Batman: The Animated Series eyes. Besides him, the characters I want to tackle most are the ones that walk the line between good and bad, characters like Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze have a lot of potential in a world that’s made of pure fun. There’s a New Year story coming in January that I cant wait to tell called ‘New Year’s REVOLUTION.’ It was the original story I used to pitch the series to DC and sort of our own little ‘Gotham Girls’ Night Out’ chapter. Can’t wait.
This is your second current collaboration (along with “Justice League Beyond”) with Derek Fridolfs – how did you guys initially hook up, and what is your collaborative process typically like, both with co-writing, and when he is inking your work?
DN: Derek and I are both products of the late Wildstorm Studios, they paired us up for both our first gigs on a book and character named JET. Since then, we’ve just grown up together in the comic industry and enjoyed working together. Our process is pretty simple on the writing side, we just call call each other up, or get online and chat it out. Derek’s an amazing talent all around from drawing to writing, so whenever we have an idea, I already know he’s seeing it in his head as a picture as well as a story. When it comes the art side, it’s the truest of collaborations because I go pretty loose, I splatter and smear, and Derek comes in and brings the final product to what he thinks it should look like with his own style.
Moving over to your work in the “Beyond” universe, what has been the most challenging aspect of working on “Justice League Beyond?”
DN: I think the most challenging aspect of “JLB” was that it was our first time working on a digital format. In print, it looks almost the same, but the format we used had to be optimized for e-readers and ipads and such. Instead of making a book that was print, then later scanned in or whatever to be read on the reader- we made it digital first, so digital reading from the ground up. So most pages are cut across the middle, and you’d lose most vertical panels that would run the height of the page, and there goes your splash pages too. I never cared for splash pages, but it did create a problem with the pacing of panels at times. It took a bit of retooling the storytelling we usual do, but overall, it did lead to some very fun ways to tell a story we never thought of before.
Did you have much input on the design of the “Beyond” characters? What goes into deciding how to translate a certain character into the Beyond world?
DN: It was a pretty open discussion for the book, but Justice League Beyond was heavily Derek’s ideas and plots. He knew the universe better than anyone, and the New Gods storyline and characters was something he had wanted to tell for a while. Names of characters would be brought up that I’d never even heard of before sometimes, it was great- sort of a history lesson talking to that guy. But the core “JLB” members were ones we felt needed more exploration, which is what lead to the Origins Stories.
You’re a guy who has done a tremendous amount of work in the Bat-universe. What is it about Batman that satisfies you, both from a writer’s and an artist’s standpoint?
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DN: Honestly, my answer changes every time I’m asked that. As a creator in general, I think that he’s just a captivating character with the history and ability to be told in so many ways, the possibilities are endless. Also, he has a way better looking costume than any character out there.
Besides Batman, what other characters do you have a desire to work on?
DN: Again, that changes every time I’m asked that. This month, it’s Superman.
You’re just wrapping up “American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares” with Scott Synder. How does working on a horror comic differ, for you, than working on a superhero one?
DN: I got to draw SO MANY cool things!
Heh, really though. It’s one of those things, like this Little Gotham’s project, where it’s just the extreme ends of the comic spectrum of style, you get to draw things that isn’t the usual look for an American comic book. You get to try out different techniques and storytelling. It’s a bigger risk to your fan base, which’s used to seeing you draw one way, maybe they’ll hate it? But you hope they won’t, and if they don’t, then you’ve actually managed to push yourself just a bit further.
Dracula is a character who has been interpreted and reinterpreted time and time again. What renditions of the character particularly influenced your depiction of him?
DN: I’d have to say, the biggest influence in my depiction was Scott’s description of him, we wanted to leave the character very open to interpretation and not tied to any previous incarnations of him. Scott felt he should truly be a nightmare, something you cant quite describe or explain. Honestly, the script was MUCH scarier than I could have ever drawn it.
You work on many covers and, towards the beginning of The New 52, most of what we saw from you were those. What appeals to you about working on covers, and when you’re working on one, what is your process and ultimate goal to achieve with it?
DN: It’s probably the same appeal that every artist out there has to work on covers- to be seen and represent characters you love drawing. A cover could be what sells the book if a reader knows nothing about it, so you try your best to ultimately make that connection for them. Sometimes, covers are very rushed and you’d have to come up with an idea overnight, have it done by the end of the next day. Sometimes, you get a few weeks to think about it, and throw ideas back and forth with your writer and editors. The ones where you get more time obviously, usually turn out better, but that’s’ not to say some of my favorite covers weren’t conceived and executed in a weekend. I think a good idea’s just a good idea.
Depending on the book, I take a different approach to each. For the “Batman Beyond” and “Justice League Beyond” covers, I wanted it to look very slick, and almost obviously digital, so the majority of that was done on the computer. For the “American Vampire” stuff, I went for the more traditional feel, very visceral and aged, so I painted everything on paper.
“Manifest Eternity,” as far as I can tell, is the only creator owned work that you’d done. Do you have any creator owned work planned, or anything you have an itch to do in the future?
DN: That would be a solid yes, we’ll see!
Finally, what does 2013 have in store for you? Anything you can tell us/tease/hint at?
DN: “Batman: Li’l Gotham” is actually takes up the majority of my time next year, but I do have a few things lined up, nothing I’m allowed to announce just yet
