After that I jumped, especially being in art school, to the illustrators.

I was lucky enough to be given books that weren’t top sellers; books that were kind of under the radar.

Kyle Baker’s work is really funny, but it’s also got a very clear vision.

So I look at a lot of stuff now that I did and some of it looks tame to me, but my interest in terms of what I want to say with it is a little different.

That was a real learning element for me, because I realized that the more true you are to yourself, the more you will lose people.

After that I jumped, especially being in art school, to the illustrators.

And that, to me, is the main attraction to comics. It’s an avenue to say what you want to say.

To me, the technique was almost irrelevant; it was what was coming across.

One of the problems I have with a lot of movies these days is that everything is too well lit. In the world of digital creations there is a tendency to show too much.

So much of Jaws was amazing because the mind filled in what was missing.

Especially with Elektra, because I’m doing a lot of the covers for the new version of Elektra.

I didn’t want to feel constrained, so I took on the Mutants.

So there’s kind of a simultaneous aspect to pushing the boundaries, and being very safe.

If you’re going to establish a certain level of unreality than you have to deal with it.

But I’m aware of the fact that I’m working in a commercial venue where I’m producing something that I wouldn’t normally be approaching the way I’m doing it.

Nothing is really media driven or committee driven, so you can actually just produce something.

I wanted to learn how to paint rather than just doing black-and-white work.

Like Godfather, you look at a movie like that, or something that James Gray has directed, a film with minimal or pin lighting as opposed to everything being lit bright and flat, where everything is evident.

Do the story in the way it really demands to be done, which may mean using several different styles or only one style; but it’s still about respecting the story.

For a while I felt very alone; sort of out there in the world of comics, especially here in the States.

People who can pull you in and take you on a journey, as opposed to simply adding flash. Again, that feels very clinical, and I don’t respond to that the way I used to.

But if I really want to produce my own work and tell stories, then I will.

There is a whole generation of people who are going to see movies or watch TV who don’t want to work.

So, when the special effects are at the service of the story and draw you into it, that is really the magic.

I still love a lot of the guys who just paint.

If somebody can inspire me, it feels really special.

I want to say 90% of stuff out there is just crap that got made. The main point is that it got produced.

I wanted to be complete, because I figured that, visually, there was an avenue to explore with painted stuff.

So cartooning, for me, is an honorable thing. It’s pushing the envelope. It’s the truth of something through exaggeration.

To me, that’s one of the things that I love about doing this stuff. One day I can work on this piece in watercolor, and then work on something else on the computer, or work on something else that’s a completely different approach.

But with comics you’re reading and assimilating an image simultaneously, instead of just reading or watching the tube.

It’s interesting, because in the corporate stuff there’s a dichotomy there, depending on the creator. Even what, in essence, may be a very safe corporate approach, there is some stuff that is allowed to be pushed.

And I’ve never viewed comics as assignments for the client.

But there’s still an avenue for smaller comics and personal expression.

Comics are really my life blood in a lot of respects.

You’re telling the story, creating the sets, doing the lighting, the designing, and establishing the pace.

Cartooning is an honorable thing.