Recently, it was announced that superstar artist Dale Eaglesham would be pairing up with Greg Pak on a three-issue arc of “Incredible Hulk” called “Planet Savage” starting with issue #623. It finds Eaglesham and Pak taking us through the Savage Land with the Hulk family, and from preview images, it looks fantastic.
We caught up with Eaglesham as part of our Multiversity Comics Presents interview series, and talked with him about his artistic process (or the lack thereof), the differences working with different superstar writers, and a whole lot more. Check it out after the jump.
And if you haven’t yet, make sure to check out Dale’s website and Facebook page STAT. He has a ton of great on there for all to see and you can keep up-to-date with his next projects there.
Can you walk us through your artistic process? What do you do from receiving the script to turning in final art?
DE: “Process? What process?” I hear that a lot when I ask other artists questions about how they approach drawing comics. Most just shrug their shoulders and say, “Dunno, I just draw, you know?” Some have no process and others draw incredibly detailed thumbnails and leave nothing to chance. Usually, I read the whole script through once or twice so I have a good, very practical grasp of the story. You don’t want to design say a room setting only to read in the script later it needed a big window for something important, a window you didn’t draw in.
Emotion is the ultimate goal of your storytelling, so I read between the lines and try to define that aspect with the first couple of readings. I make written notes to flesh out the emotion, atmosphere and setting of the story. Next are little tiny thumbnails drawn in the margins of the script. It’s nothing too detailed, just indicators of camera angle, proximity: the basic parameters of the panels/page. I don’t like to have everything worked out in advance because I want to let some of the creative process happen as I draw the page. I want there to be little surprises, moments of inspiration and invention. When I would draw JSA thumbnails with Starman in them, I left Starman’s figure really vague because the key to his zaniness is unexpected inspiration while you are drawing the page. That’s the short answer.
Since you came back to Marvel, you worked on Fantastic Four, then a book starring the original Captain America — Steve Rogers — and now you’re going to be taking over Incredible Hulk. Three of the pillars of the Marvel legacy. How exciting is it to tackle those characters?
DE: First, I should clarify that I’m not taking over Incredible Hulk. As things stand, I’m just doing a three-issue arc. But to answer your question, my time at Marvel so far has allowed me to realize a few childhood dreams — I’ve gotten to draw the Fantastic Four, which was my favorite book as a kid; I’ve gotten to work on a What If/ FF story with the legendary Stan Lee, who wrote those books at the time; I’ve gotten to work with Ed Brubaker, a writer whose work I’ve loved for years; and now I get to draw the Hulk, which is quite possibly the most fun draw I could possibly imagine, and again with an amazing writer. So yeah, it’s been a very exciting time for sure!
Your work on Fantastic Four felt like you genuinely loved what you were doing — it came through on every page to me. Were you a Fantastic Four fan growing up, and in particular, Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four?
DE: I was a huge fan. As I mentioned in many interviews at the time, my first comics were 12-cent Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four comics, and I still have them. That first exposure to comics showed me a new way to express my very active imagination, which was desperately seeking outlets at the time. Those FF issues were the genesis of my own artistic expression, so it was a huge honor to be able to add my own chapter to the history of this amazing title.
Continued belowWhat was also mind-boggling was working on an FF story in What If recently with Stan Lee. To be working alongside the man who created these characters… I can’t even begin to describe what an honor that was.
Speaking of Kirby, your style is something I started calling “the evolutionary Kirby” in reviews. Besides Jack, who do you look to for inspiration when you’re working, and who informed your artistic style as your own style developed?
DE: Oh, that was you?! I heard about that line, and I loved it. The inspiration depends on the book. For the FF, it was definitely Kirby. For Super-Soldier, I was aiming for a Hitchcock, film noir vibe. For Hulk, I’m going in a slightly Frazetta/Wrightson direction. Start thinking of new nicknames, David!
I read in an interview from August of 2009 that if you could work with any character, it would be Ka-Zar. Your first arc for Incredible Hulk is “Planet Savage” featuring Ka-Zar. How excited are you for the start of your work on this book, and in particular, to finally get to draw Ka-Zar for a living?
DE: You have no idea. Even though it’s only three issues, I’m having the time of my life. The kind of jungle setting that is the Savage Land is right up my alley. I don’t feel entirely comfortable drawing high-tech or futuristic locales, but jungles and other natural settings? Love it. Ka-Zar was a book I was hoping Marvel would be willing to revive, but the Hulk has been the most pleasant surprise of all — I knew I liked drawing him from past experience with convention sketches, but I had no idea just how much fun I would have drawing him. This is also my first time working with Greg [Pak] and it’s been really great so far. I’m really having the most fun I’ve had in a long, long time right now.
(See here and here for two examples of Hulk art from Eaglesham)
Over your last four books, you’ve illustrated works written by major talents like Geoff Johns, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker and now Greg Pak. How different is it working from a script from each of those writers, and how does that inform your art style from there?
DE: Structurally, the scripts aren’t that different from one writer to another. What changes is what they convey best. For example, I find that Geoff Johns and Greg Pak have certain things in common, namely their enthusiasm, openness and how good they are at creating the characters’ personalities. They, and Ed Brubaker as well, only need a few lines of dialog to communicate who a character is. I just started working with Greg, and within just a few pages, I already understood all the various characters. With Jonathan Hickman it was the tone that was most strongly conveyed. With Ed it was the mood, the tension, the suspense — I immediately “got” that the best approach would be a “film noir” style.
Have you ever thought about pursuing any creator-owned work?
DE: I’ve been working on my own project for over a decade now. My work doesn’t leave me a lot of time to work on this project, so it’s taking forever to put it together. And then there’s the fact that the project is simply MASSIVE in scope. It makes Lord of the Rings look like a Narnia installment. The elements are pretty much ready to go now, so I could start actually writing it in 2011.
How has the digital boom affected you in comics so far?
DE: Do you mean digital comics, or just the digital boom in general? If it’s the latter, I’d say it’s been a great help. It was amazing in my other work for Marvel so far, that I could draw these full-pencil pages and have them colored directly from that. The intensity of the work really burned me out, so I’m going with an inker for the Hulk project, but it was still really satisfying to be able to completely control how the art would look, other than the colors, of course. And being able to Google pretty much any ref I need is a huge time-saver. In the old days, I would keep magazine clipping of anything that I might one day be called upon to draw. For example, if I saw a Boston police cruiser in a mag, I’d keep the image just in case. Now I can just find everything online. I still don’t light-table anything, though. I know it’s becoming the norm now, but I don’t know that I’ll ever do that, myself.
Continued belowAnd if you meant digital comics, it hasn’t really affected me yet, except for one digital project that was recently offered to me. It’s great to have access to the Marvel comics database for ref, though. For the rest, time will tell.
Anything you’re particularly excited about that we haven’t talked about yet? What else do you have coming up?
DE: Publishing-wise, there’s What If #200 coming out December 29, and then the three issues of Incredible Hulk (623, 624 and 625) coming out as of February. After that, who knows?
