The deviants are:
Dan ~DanCassity
John ~Klaymen1
Travis ~visway
Adron ~adronbuske.


Tell us a little about yourself?

DAN - Hi! My name is Dan Cassity, I’m 32, and I live Illinois with my wife and two boys (12 & 10). I’ve been drawing pretty much all my life, and started my focus on comic art at age 14. I pursue my dreams for comic stardom while being a member of the active duty Air Force. So far I have an Associate’s Degree in Human Resources, an Associates in Computer Studies, and I’m 24 semester hours away from my Bachelor’s Degree in Computer and Information Science.

My favorite books are the Harry Potter series; my favorite comics right now are Spider-man (all titles), The Spirit, and The Goon; my favorite cartoons are Spectacular Spider-man, Cowboy Bebop, South Park, and Outlaw Star; my favorite TV shows are “How I Met Your Mother” and “Smallville” (even though it ticks me off sometimes!).

JOHN - My name's John Eberle, but most people call me “awesome”. In all seriousness, though, I've lived in the Americas all my life, moving around to different places every few years. Currently residing in Southern Illinois. I like to call it So-Ill, ‘cause there's no ill like So-Ill. The moving around is from being a son of a military man. All that moving taught me a lot about being independent and individual - so if any views I express sound odd, that's because I am. My schooling includes going to a catholic elementary school – ugh - being kicked out of art in high school and more recently graduating college for culinary arts. I am currently enjoying paying off student loans.

One of my favorite books I'm reading right now is Gyo. If you are a fan of horror, it's a great read. As far as TV programs go, I love me some CSI. Even if that show was only the transition sequences of diving into body parts I would still watch it. Another show I'm watching, animation side, is “Spiderman and his Amazing Friends”. Call me dork but they are really entertaining and really well animated for the time they came out.

AARON – My name is Aaron Pittman, I am 21 years old and live in the USA in a tiny apartment with my girlfriend and my puppy. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember and my dream has always been to draw comic books. I’ve been in college for two years with the intent of majoring in art education.

TRAVIS - My name is Travis Nuckolls I live in the United States, I will be 30 on June the 23rd of this year (2008) and I have been drawing since I was able to put pencil to paper. The first comic character I can remember is Superman. I think I was about 4 when I first noticed big blue, but I didn't actually start drawing comics until a few years later when I discovered four Mutant Turtles with Ninja skillz. I kept right on drawing through high school; most artistic, art club, etc...

I always thought that I wanted to be a comic book artist, then I started college. I still wanted to be an illustrator, but I found out very quickly that it would take a little more dedication than I was willing give it. At that point I discovered the digital arts. It was sort of the great compromise of my career. It wasn't comics, but it was still creative. That, and I also got to play around on computers all day. In 2001, I received my Bachelor's Degree in Art specializing in graphic design from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. I have managed to work in graphic design (and illustration to a lesser degree) ever since.

Currently I am reading: The Walking Dead (comic) by Robert Kirkman, Diary by Chuck Palahniuk, Peter and the Star Catchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson; watching Numbers, Supernatural, House, Bones, Scrubs, The Office, 30 Rock, The Dresden Files; playing: HULK: Ultimate Destruction, Bioshock, Orange Box, Crackdown, Battlefield: Bad Company.

ADRON - I’m Adron Buske, a 30-year-old professional web designer. I’ve lived in the American Midwest for most of my life and I am, no kidding, the last of 15 kids. I attended university for five years, double majoring in Mass Communications and English with a minor in Theater. I didn’t finish, for financial reasons, but fell into professional work almost immediately regardless of my lack of diploma.

I started telling stories with words and pictures at age four, and the desire to be a storyteller has never left me. While I do have some (mostly underdeveloped) artistic talent in regard to drawing – and do graphic design everyday for my primary job - I think of myself foremost as a writer.

I grew up with the 80’s awesomeness of Voltron, G.I. Joe and He-Man. I was obsessed with Transformers: The Movie (the poster still hangs in my home office). I’m a huge fan of all things Joss Whedon (Firefly, Buffy, Angel), Bruce Timm’s animated DC universe (man, do I love me some Justice League Unlimited), Brian K. Vaughan’s comics, J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series… there’s so much. My book and DVD shelves are overflowing.


What made you decide that comics were what you want to do and what inspires your work?

DAN - I’ve loved comics for as long as I’ve been able to read! I started out with Casper, Richie Rich and all of the classic Harvey Comics. In 1989, when the major media networks announced that Robin was going to die (Batman: A Death in the Family), I asked my mom to take me to the grocery store to get copies. From that point on, I was hooked. To me, comic book heroes are real heroes. They’re not steroid using sports figures or political Hollywood moguls, they’re iconic representations of everything good in people and in the world. Comic books have given me nothing but sheer happiness, and I decided a long time ago that I wanted to provide that same joy to others by being a part of the business.




JOHN - I don't think I chose comics, they sorta chose me. I really just enjoy any type of creative process. Whether I'm play music on my guitar, working on a new recipe, taking photos, they are all forms of expressing oneself and comics are just another way of doing that. Whenever anyone asks about what inspires me, I can't really explain it. What I can tell you is, for me, I try to be a student of the world and not a student of a teacher. There are so many more ideas and thoughts you can gather from your own experiences than simply studying a person’s techniques. That's just me, though.

AARON - I would buy Sonic The Hedgehog and Young Justice comics from the gas station when I was little and redraw all the pages. That led to my love of comics and drawing them. Because of that, and Saturday morning cartoons, I've always had a slightly more cartoony style of drawing. I get enough of the "real" world while living in it and comic books just add a bit of fun and adventure into life that many other mediums don't. You can do absolutely anything with the comic medium.

TRAVIS - I've wanted to be involved in comics in some form or another since I picked up my first issue of "Iron Man." I never even collected that particular comic past the initial story line of the random issue I picked up, but that's what got me started. To me, drawing has always just seemed like a good way to get my daydreams out of my head. Comics are like watching someone else's daydreams spilled out onto paper.

ADRON - The early 90’s “X-Men” cartoon influenced me to step into a comic shop for the first time, where I purchased X-Men #1 (with full wraparound cover, yeah!). That opened up a whole new world for me. As soon as I got hooked on comics I began drawing them and making up my own stories. I love the escapism of comics, the limitless nature of those universes. The spandex superhero crowd dominated my early reading, until a kind comic shop clerk comped me a copy of “Sandman” #50. That single issue radically changed the way I looked at the medium and really broadened my ideas of storytelling. I’m still a Neil Gaiman devotee to this day.

A lot of my story ideas come from those little daydreams of “wouldn’t it be cool if I could do this super awesome thing…” – then deconstructing that idea, looking at it from several angles and figuring out how to make an engaging, character driven story from it. I also have a lot of those “inspiration” moments – I think a writer’s mind has to be unhinged enough that a single second of inspiration can be allowed to take their imagination in non-linear directions. For me, structure comes in the writing process – the big ideas are just in the air around us, ready to be taken in, processed and re-released.

More than anything, I want to create worlds people want to live and dream in, and characters that they grow to love like family.


What kind of role do you have as a comic artist?

DAN - I’m a comic book penciller. That means I perform the second step in the comic book process (after the script writing of course . I do all of the designs, layouts and pencil illustrations. When a story is decided upon, I sit down with the writer and we talk about how we want the book to look (settings, costumes, etc.) and how the characters should move, act, and feel. Once we think I’ve got it down, I hit the drawing board to do character designs, thumbnails and the required research.




JOHN - It's our job as comic artists to marry imagery and context into the art that is comic. This takes on many forms. The way panels are laid out, the focus of your subjects, even adding a tiny lip quiver on a person can change the message the we ultimately convey.

AARON - I would primarily call myself a penciller, but I have done everything else before. I've written the stories and scripts, designed the characters and costumes, drawn the actual pages, inked my pencils and colored my own comics before. It is a good and bad thing when you have full control of a comic book. You don't have to work with anybody else to get your ideas across, but you do second guess yourself a lot and are constantly changing things.

TRAVIS - I am an inker - or tracer if you believe the BS in "Chasing Amy”. Basically, I know I can draw, but I also know that I can't draw as fast as what is needed for sequential art. I have a good grasp of light and shadow, but it takes a little time for me to create a scene or a dynamic action sequence from scratch. However, I have always been good at touching up and/or collaborating with other artists. As an inker (at least in my experience) communication with both the penciller and the artist is necessary to make sure the lighting, texture and mood of a panel fits with the way the story is being told. So for my involvement with this particular book, inker seemed like a natural choice.

I am also a colorist. Through some of the graphic design jobs I have had I picked up a very solid background in logo design, character animation and illustration, color theory and web design. I put those skills to use in this book as a colorist for the cover and some bookmarks we will have at a later date. I also designed the C3 logo.

ADRON - Because of time crunch to get our book, Emergent Phenomena, done before the Wizard World Chicago convention, and because Dan was drawing three of the six stories in the book, I ended up doing finished pencils – from Dan’s really solid blue-line layouts - on one of my stories, “Loop & Hoodie”. The style is totally his, though I tweaked elements here and there to match my vision for the characters. Generally though, I leave the pencils to the real artists.

Being able to draw, though, allows me to contribute to the character designs, to help the artists find their vision of my original characters. I ended up being a production designer on the book as well, contributing to the cover and designing the interior attribution page.


Are you self-published/online or do you work for a major comic label? Can you share some of your experiences with us?

DAN - My first success has just occurred actually! After many attempts I’ve finally met a great group of guys in the Comic Creator Cabal and we’ve just self-published our first collective book, entitled “Emergent Phenomena”. In preparation for our appearance in the Artist Alley at the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con (booth 4504!!!) we ran from start to finish in about 4 months. Our final product is 62 pages of blood, sweat, and tears! Each member of the team spent an ungodly amount of time doing their part (writing, drawing, inking, coloring, and marketing) while also trying to work full-time jobs and maintain family lives. In the end, it was a labor of love that I know each of us will be ready to do again and again. It’s definitely not all kicks and giggles, but we’d all bend over backwards to one day be a paid professional, and we had an awesome time hanging out while we put the nose to the grindstone.




JOHN - The entire process doing a comic book, as a group of roughly 8 people and learning all the facets it takes to produce one, has been interesting to say the least. I actually did pencils, inks, color, word balloons and script work between the stories I worked on. I can tell you the each one is just as important as the others. From start to finish it took about 4 months from that very first group meeting discussing the stories to a finished product. A good portion of that most people don't think about is research. Knowing what format you're page layout will be, what DPI the pages will print in - all the tiny details take up just as much time, if not more, as drawing the pages.

AARON - I contributed to the self-published C3 anthology. I pencil the self-published comic ALEX GHOST (myspace.com/alexghostcomic). I also pencil and ink the online comic REAPER HEIGHTS (reaperheights.blogspot.com).

TRAVIS - This is my first foray into the actual publishing of a comic book. The closest I have come prior to this was writing a short story and serving as the managing editor for a creative writing magazine in junior college. For "Emergent Phenomena" we went through an online company called Ka-Blam - a print on demand site, so we are self-published.

As far as that experience is concerned, I think we only had a couple issues - the biggest of which was just coordinating the group and sorting out who would do what. In the beginning, we didn't even know what we were going to do. It went from a group of like-minded guys coming together to talk comics to "hey, let's make our own comic”. A few months later we have a book in hand. With no real guidelines or templates in place, the road was a little bumpy.

My advice in that arena would be to have clearly defined roles for each individual involved. Second, do your research and find out what your best option for printing will be and make sure you know their process and turn around time. Last - but certainly not least - set deadlines and stick to them.

ADRON - C3’s Emergent Phenomena is my first (self) published comics work. Six months ago, most of us had never met. We responded to an invitation to start a comic club – usually those sort of things end up being a lot talk and no follow through, but this group was different. We quickly decided that the best way to learn about this industry was to just jump in and do it. We set a goal – have a printed collection in hand by end of June – and the eight of us went at it with single-minded determination. And we did it!

We published through Ka-Blam, a little print on demand shop specializing in comics. The process was frustrating – they’ve only got 3-4 employees, so their response times are really slow and their methods sometimes confusing. However, the final printed product is impressive quality, they delivered faster than expected and for less money than the original website quote!

It’s definitely been a trial by fire, we’ve stumbled and made some mistakes, and the end result is a little rough around the edges. But I’m really proud of the work we’ve done, and even though the hours have been long and exhausting, I’ve learned so much and enjoyed the process immensely. It’s been a very fulfilling endeavor, especially because I’ve had such a good time working with this group of guys. It’s been a lot of fun.


What mediums do you prefer to work with and why? What mediums/artists do you admire?

DAN - I do all of my illustrations with Pentel mechanical pencils (0.3, 0.5, and 0.7). I do all layouts and sketching using a 0.5 non-repro blue lead bought from BluelinePro.com. After that, I trace my blue pencils with HB lead while tightening all the details. I like to start with the non-repro blue lead because I’m a sketchy guy. I make a lot of lines before finding the right one — the blue lead lets me work through it without screwing things up for the scanned or printed copy.




JOHN - I don't have a favorite medium. I like mixing and matching different mediums into works people never would of imagined. A good example of this is the cover for Bruder. The image is a combination of traditional drawing, digital inking, pattern work, and photo manipulation. I don't really admire artists as much as I should, I guess? I admire surgeons who use their hands to benefit mankind physically. I only change the mental aspect of people’s views on subjects. So I give blood when I can. You should, too.

AARON - I don't do anything too fancy. My art is rather traditional - just plain old pencil.

I admire anyone who can do what I can't. I've been frequenting Joshua Middleton’s blog lately. I really admire Ryan Ottley and how much he's grown as an artist. I think it’s really cool to see people change and adapt. Mike Mignola will always be an inspiration for me as well. He has created such an amazing and original world and he's done most of it on his own.

TRAVIS - I still use pencil and paper on rare occasions but I am mostly a MAC man. When I am drawing for myself I have several sketch books that I fill up with random unfinished ideas and sketches. However, for most of my work, I have a Wacom drawing tablet, the entire Adobe CS3 suite, and a couple of 3D programs. When it comes to inks and colors, I handle it all on screen.

My favorite people in comics right now are:

Artists:
Mike Mignola (HellBoy)
Alex Ross (KingdomCome)
Pia Guerra (Y The Last Man)
Tony Moore (The Walking Dead)
Eduardo Risso (100 Bullets)
Bruce Timm (Batman the Animated Series)

Writers:
Mike Mignola (Hellboy)
Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets)
Brian K. Vaughn (Y the Last Man)
Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead)
Warren Ellis (Crooked Little Vien)
Craig Thompson (Blankets)


ADRON - When drawing, I use Staedtler mechanicals, usually a 5 or 7 pt lead. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I ink with Micron markers – I haven’t made the stretch to a nice tech pen set yet. I’ve tried brushes and nibs, but never felt comfortable with them.

For web and print design, I work with Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3, primarily on a Mac, but also on Windows PC. I do all my lettering in Illustrator, too. The post-production (readying for print) on Emergent Phenomena was done in Photoshop CS3. I have a Wacom tablet pen, but rarely use it.

Some of my favorite artists are Bruce Timm, Phil Hester, Ryan Ottley, Mark Bagley, Georges Jeanty and Pia Guerra. And, seriously, Craig Thompson is so brilliant it’s ridiculous.


When working with a writer, what is involved and how does your approach to drawing the comic change as compared to writing and drawing your own ideas?
As a comic artist who else would you need to work with and how closely do you work with these other artists?

DAN - Working with a writer energizes me, but it is intimidating. The biggest thing is that I don’t want to jack-up their creations. They’ve each put a lot of heart and thought into their scripts and, like any creative person, they’ve usually got a strong mental image of how the comic should look and feel. I try to talk with them as much as possible and I ask a LOT of questions so that I can get as close to the look they have in mind as possible. When you’re drawing your own ideas, you put your heart into it, and everything you do has the benefit of a keen artist’s eye (HA!), but in the end it’s your stuff — so who’s going to tell you you’re wrong?!

The cool thing about illustrating another person’s script is that you’ll find yourself drawing things you would NEVER draw by choice. It’s no doubt that when I’m writing my own stories I avoid my weaknesses. Do writer’s care about that? Heck no! LOL. They are interested in telling the story, not necessarily setting the artist up for a cool drawing (although luckily they do that from time to time — yay). If you’re working with a writer, be prepared to make a few changes, tweak a few layouts, or to even toss an entire page if things aren’t going right. In the end, if the writer and artist are both happy with the final product, you’ve probably got the best book, and that’s what it’s all about.

Some of the other people I’ve worked with in my self-publishing efforts with the Comic Creator Cabal are the graphic design experts. These guys are the unsung heroes that apply Adobe Photoshop magic to everything we do (as in colors and digital inking). I’ve got to admit, I’m a straight-up penciller. I’ll tell you right now that I’d have our lead inker / designer / colorist Travis’ babies! Without him, I’d never make it to print! John Photoshopped his own work. I can’t do that yet, and in my opinion, he’s definitely got a leg-up because he has all of those additional tools at his disposal. Not only that, he’s got cool hair - some guys have all the luck!

JOHN - There is a lot more prep work involved. When it's yourself you have free reign. When you work with a writer you have to get their interpretation on the page. Sometimes this means doing sketches or even doing a page all over again. As an artist you work with everyone. Filling out a story in a certain page limit, knowing which pages are going to be flipped to. The technicals are with the production team. We work with the balloonist to keep words in page and make sure not to cover up important art elements. Man there is just too much to talk about here.

AARON - When I wrote and drew my own story all I did was write down a very basic script and made the rest up as I went along. I wouldn't suggest this process to anyone and if I ever write and draw a comic again I will spend more time actually writing it and planning it out.

For the C3 stuff, and for ALEX GHOST, I work directly with my collaborators because we all live in the same area. After ALEX pages are done, though, I have to mail them to the inker because he lives farther away.

With REAPER HEIGHTS, everything is done through email because the writer and colorist both live in the UK. I am emailed scripts, then I draw and scan my pages and email them back.

Working together in person is a lot more beneficial - it gets things done much faster and problems are fixed easier because you can physically talk to the person you are working with and actually show them what's going on. Whereas through email you sometimes run into a problem where you can't explain things quite as clearly as you could in person.

TRAVIS - I don't know if my answer to this question is relevant as an inker but I can say that working with writers for me has been a breeze. It's either been working with my own stuff, working with one of my best friends in the world, or working with the rest of the C3 guys. Basically I read through the story once or twice, then talk it over with the writer. After that I get the blue lines from the artist with the finished pencils on top. I have a short discussion with them and then I start putting together the inks.

ADRON - As a comic writer, there are few things as exciting, and scary, as watching an artist bring your written word to life in images. I write very detailed scripts, demanding a lot of my artists. I think very visually, and I tend to push their comfort zones. My earliest scripts were nightmares of 12 panel pages with 10 characters per panel. I’ve learned my lesson since then – my good friend and artist Gene Kelly really helped me to streamline my pages. (Drawing from my own scripts opened my eyes on some of that, too!)

For “ Loop & Hoodie ”, Dan and I basically sat next to each other and cranked out pages. We didn’t really have lead-time to do a lot of character concept work, so our characters really developed on the page. He’d lay out the page in blueline from my script, consult me if something wasn’t clear or to see if he was on the right track, and then I’d try not to screw it all up in the pencils while finalizing all the little details I pictured in my head.

Dan’s visual storytelling is so strong that I was able to cut and clean up a lot of extraneous dialogue in the lettering stage. When he handed over page five to me, I was floored – it was exactly as I had envisioned it. That’s a really fulfilling moment for a writer.

For “ Path of the Black Hand ”, I pretty much handed the script to John and let him go crazy. I was looking for a sort of delirious style that would convey the main character’s disorientation and increasing panic, and I think John really brought that across. He’d check in with me before inking a page to make sure I was cool with all the elements, but mostly it was his show.


Do you still use reference material such as stock or from life for poses, buildings and other props and item when drawing out comics? How do you come up with the poses? Are you ever unsatisfied with your work or have an artist’s block?

DAN - I’ve got a ton of reference material. I don’t really use it now as much as I used to, but I definitely peruse it from time-to-time for new ideas and to brush up on tough points of anatomy. My library consists of Bridgeman’s Complete Guide to Human Anatomy, Dungeons & Dragons books, Official Guides to the Marvel Universe, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, and a buttload of Simpson’s, Peanuts, and Calvin and Hobbes collections.

Another thing I keep around is a 10 inch “The Batman” figure I picked-up one time from Target. The series is drawn in kind of an angular fashion so this action figure is a perfect reference to pose and determine muscle wedging/basic perspectives of the body from various angles. I also use is my full-length mirror to work things out. If I can’t picture a pose in my mind I get off my booty and strike a pose in the mirror. Then I sit down and do a quick sketch of what I see. I use my blue non-repro pencil to flesh out the sketch lines until I find the right look, then I tighten the picture with regular pencils.

Sometimes I break my mental blocks by just sitting down and reading a couple of comics or playing a video game. I also have a few books in my library that really inspire me each time I look at them (like Kingdom Come or The Goon TPBs). I’ll relax for a bit, comb over some artwork that gets the creative juices going, then get back to the drawing board. If that doesn’t work, it also helps to have friends with the same interests around. I’ll often make a quick trip to the local comic shop and “nurture my nerdiness” for a bit so that by the time I’m back at the house the drawings are practically rolling off my fingertips!

I’ve got to admit that finally seeing my work in print and preparing for this year’s trip to Chicago is just awesome. There’s no other way to describe it. When I first saw the hardcopy print of “Emergent Phenomena” I just couldn’t believe that I’d be at the con signing some sketches and chilling with thousands of fans that are just as excited about comics as I am. For me, the cons feel like home, and I hope to become a fan-favorite and fan-friendly fixture there for years to come…





JOHN - You can't not use reference materials at some point in your art. I actually get a lot of use out of photos here on Deviant Art. Poses have almost all been done before. A good thing to keep in mind is the angle the pose is at. Anytime I get artist block it is in between drawings thankfully. I can work out my frustration through music most of the time and eventually come back to the art with a new perspective. I think most blocks for people come from doing the same thing for too long. If you always try something different or something new you will have that problem a lot less. Just stay away from repetition and, above all, do it because you enjoy what you are creating. Even if you are the only one that smiles at your art, that is what really counts.

AARON - If I get stuck on something I usually get really frustrated and just leave the drawing table to do something else. Ill play some video games, watch tv, read comics, go for a walk, just whatever. Then when I come back to it (which can be a day later at times) I have a fresh mindset and can think a bit more clearly. The only real cure for artist or writers block is to take a step away.

As far as reference, I use pictures a lot for scenery, buildings and cars. There is no way I could draw that stuff from memory. For anatomy, I have a small wooden figure with lots of joints that I use for posing or I use myself in a mirror. A mirror will become your best friend if you ever take a life drawing class and it really is helpful, especially with hands.

My feelings on my finished work are usually split between good and bad. Sometimes I feel I really nailed something and other times I think of ways it could have been better. All you can do though is remember those things and improve on them next time.

TRAVIS - I use reference material all the time. To me there is no substitute for the real thing and it only makes sense to use your surroundings. As far as being satisfied with my work, I am definitely from the "it's never quite finished" school of art. The more I look at something I have done, the more I think about how I could have done something differently. Maybe not even better, just different.

ADRON - For anatomy and poses – for when I’m really trying – I’ve got the Burne Hogarth books, some quality anime stuff for very stylized figures and a lot photos and scraps pulled from magazines, the web or that I’ve taken.

For those creative slowdowns, I keep stacks of research material around me. I’ve got tomes on witchcraft and magic, maps of ancient ruins, books on mythology and history, pictorial guides to guns and other weapons, Disinformation collections, dictionaries of names and theories. If I’m stuck, I dive into some font of information and soak up some knowledge. It never fails to give me a new idea. Wikipedia is good for that, too. Or, I just got lose myself to my guitar for an hour and return refreshed.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share you experience with us!

TRAVIS - In all, it has been a great ride so far for me. Thank you for giving us a forum to talk about our experience with our first book and be sure to check out "Emergent Phenomena" at the C3 booth at Wizard World Chicago 2008!

ADRON - Thank you for the opportunity to share what we do.