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Artist August: Greg Smallwood [Interview]

By | August 3rd, 2013
Posted in Columns, Interviews | % Comments

Every year brings a few big surprises in comics, and one of 2013’s biggest has been “Dream Thief” from Jai Nitz, Greg Smallwood and Dark Horse Comics. This book has been one of the best of the year so far, combining an inventive idea, stylized storytelling and some of the most beautiful art on the market. The last two parts of that are heavily thanks to artist Smallwood, someone who I had previously never heard of, but now I’ll perpetually be on watch for.

As part of Artist August, I talked to Greg about how he became interested in comic art, how Dream Thief came together, his reaction to Alex Ross covering his book, and much more. Thanks to Greg for chatting, and check out this book!

Can you look back on your life and recall the single moment or work that made you want to work in comics? Or was it more of a natural progression that led you here?

Smallwood: My dad is a comic book fan so I grew up around comics. For as long as I can remember, my answer to, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” has always been comic book artist.

Who or what has influenced the development of your art the most?

Smallwood: My dad’s taste in comics art guided me during my formative years. Beyond that, I’d say art software. I do all of my work in Photoshop and I use programs like Sketchup and Sculptris quite a bit. My work would probably look a lot different if I didn’t have access to these digital tools.

You mentioned your dad’s interest in comics and his taste in art being a major factor in driving you. What specifics are we talking about? Which comics and artists were your favorites growing up, and who do you dig now?

Smallwood: Although my parents would buy me new comics at our local shop, most of the stuff I read when I was a kid was from my dad’s collection. Books like The Rocketeer, Xenozoic Tales, and Cinder & Ashe made a big impression on me at an early age and really became a standard for me when it came to art in comics. When my dad told me that Jose Luis Garcia Lopez was a master of the craft, I took him at his word and studied the way Garcia Lopez told stories. My dad and I still enjoyed the work of stylish and flashy guys like Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee but it was impressed upon me at an early age that storytelling was king and style came second.

It’s hard to separate my art from my upbringing. Both of my parents are adept at drawing so they didn’t just tape my work to the fridge and tell me, “good job.” I drew personalized cards for my mom on birthdays and holidays and she was always specific about what she liked when it came to the art on each and every card. I noticed early on that she got a kick out of the way I drew faces so I focused more and more on facial expressions and drawing them to be more emotive. My dad always told me that female anatomy is the hardest to learn and that the mark of a good artist is one that can draw women really well. It’s not a coincidence that the two things I draw better than anything else are faces and women.

As for artists that I dig now, my top ten would be Garcia Lopez (inked by Kevin Nowlan is the best), Will Eisner, Alex Toth, Chris Samnee, Sean Phillips, Dave Stevens, Mark Schultz, Jason Latour, Darwyn Cooke, and Dave Johnson. In addition to those guys, I’m always pouring over my EC reprints and looking at comic strip artists like Leonard Starr and Alex Raymond.

I think one of the most amazing things for me about your work is how evolved and confident it feels for any artist, let alone a relative newcomer. What do you feel has most driven your development since you started trying to break into the industry?

Continued below

Smallwood: Alex Toth once wrote, “Simplify, simplify, simplify.” Nothing says confidence like simplicity and I’m always pushing my style to be more streamlined and efficient.

Dream Thief is a book that really snuck up on me, as I hadn’t heard anything about it, but then all of a sudden I was reading and loving it. How did that book come together, and how have you felt about the response have you been so far?

Smallwood: Jai Nitz e-mailed me out of the blue after seeing my work online back in 2009. He was interested in collaborating and Dream Thief was the first idea he ran by me. I loved it. We put together our first pitch for it back in ‘09 but it wasn’t until our second pitch in 2012 that we got picked up by Dark Horse.

The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive and I think a lot of that does have to do with the fact that we came out of nowhere. Readers didn’t really bring any expectations with them when they read the first issue and I think that’s helped us a lot.

The book is an absolutely stunning one, and in the first issue there are a litany of incredible pages and panels. Two of my favorites were when John discovers that he killed his girlfriend, and the pages are all built around a question mark and an exclamation point. As an artist, I’m always fascinated by how pages like that come together. Did Jai and yourself collaborate to conceptualize those, or were those beauties all from your mind?

Smallwood: It’s really an organic process. Jai and I will go back and forth on this stuff so much that it’s hard to pinpoint where it all began. I threw an exclamation mark over John’s head in the very first panel of issue one as a funny little nod to Metal Gear Solid. When Jai saw that, he fell in love with the idea and suggested we use an interrobang instead. Pretty soon, Jai and I were looking for ways to incorporate the interrobang as a motif throughout the book. To be honest, that two page spread mostly came from laziness. I was trying to figure out a way to skip out on drawing the background when the idea of using the interrobang motif hit me. To quote Toth again, “Eliminate the superfluous, the unnecessary. Be lazy!”

You provide all visual elements in this book, from penciling and inking to coloring and lettering. Why did the two of you decide to go that route, and what kind of advantages does that give you as an artist?

Smallwood: Perfectionism. I just like doing everything because it gives me complete control over the finished product. It’s a lot of work but it makes for a visually cohesive comic.

Overall, how closely together do you and Jai work in terms of putting together this series?

Smallwood: Pretty close. We live about five minutes away from each other so a lot of our discussions about the comic take place in person over a beer. We’re always bouncing ideas off of each other and we’re both interested in tweaking each issue until it’s perfect. Our editors have to pry the comic out of our hands just to get it to the printers.

The first issue had a cover from Alex Ross. When that first came together, did the concept blow your mind a little bit?

Smallwood: I giggled like a little school girl when I first saw the cover. Alex is a huge inspiration to me so getting him to paint a character that I designed was a dream come true. We even had his little pencil sketch for the cover when we pitched the comic and I’m sure having his name attached helped us considerably.

Speaking of the covers, each of them for Dream Thief come from other artists. Why did the two of you decide to go with people like Ross and Ryan Sook for the covers instead of you, and is cover work something you’re interested in doing?

Continued below

Smallwood: Considering that I’m an unknown, we thought it best to use some established artists to grab people’s attention. Really, I just wanted to see guys like Sook and Nowlan draw Dream Thief! If we get to do more Dream Thief comics, I’ll probably be tackling the covers.

Perusing your work on your blog, it becomes you’re a huge fan of movies, TV shows and their femme fatales (amongst other aspects). Do you find films to be an influence in your work, or in the way you deliver your stories?

Smallwood: They’re a huge influence. I probably watch more movies than I read comics and I’m always thinking about how certain filmmakers would tackle a scene that I’m drawing in Dream Thief. Too many comics rely on flashy illustrations rather than clear storytelling so my idea of pacing, emoting, and tone largely comes from movies. That said, I still try and utilize the comic medium to its fullest and stay from the boring “widescreen” approach to page layout.

As a newer artist in the comic world, one of the questions you’ll assuredly get asked a lot is “if you could work on any project, what would it be? What’s your dream project?” I hope I get to be the first one, as that is my next question.

Smallwood: Beyond some creator-owned ideas I’d like to eventually tackle, there are a couple of dream projects that I’d love to have the opportunity to work on. Number one would be Robocop. I’ve got a great story in mind for the character that I’m surprised no one’s done yet. I even drew up a pitch for it at one point. Number two would be a standalone Batman story. Silence of the Lambs and Michael Mann’s Manhunter but with Batman, Joker, and The Riddler. Number three would be The Spirit. Will Eisner is a hero of mine and I’d love to take a crack at his creation.


//TAGS | Artist August

David Harper

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