Some interviews

[mimikeke]

I've been slowly interviewing Dredd creators for my Tumblr.  Thought I'd start reposting them here, starting with the latest one I did with Arthur Ranson.  It probably rehashes a lot of the same material you might've seen if you've been a fan for a while - most of my followers are new to the comic - but hopefully there is a little bit of new info though.  I'm afraid it's a giant ugly wall of text here but there are some fun tidbits such as what he thought of "Dead End" and the new Dredd movie.

You talk about not liking your work described as photorealistic - how would you categorize yourself?

I have gone on a bit about that label. (see website - http://www.arthurranson.com/blog/photorealist-fusspot)

Find myself reluctant to categorise myself. European? Do have Jack Kirby books and Al Williamson was an influence but the Continental European tradition came closer my interests and character .

By the time I got to Anderson, my comic stuff was intended to be predominantly old-fashioned line work and it was that I was interested in and tried to improve. I bought books on pen and ink techniques ( not much help but good illustrations) and on early line artists now mostly unremembered. Joseph Clement Coll or Willy Pogany, anybody?

If anyone asked what I did for a living I said 'I draw comics'. What they envisioned that meant depended on their experience of comics.. If they didn't go blank because they had never read a comic I imagine they thought either Bash Street Kids or Superman.


Your version of Anderson has been quite definitive for later incarnations of her character. Can you describe how you came about visualizing Anderson and either separating her from or building upon previous incarnations?

If as you seem to suggest my Anderson has influenced other artists I wouldn't know. Was gratified to see Michael Dowling keeping the hairstyle that Anderson was given by me when she got to be 50. Liked his work overall. Think he is my favourite of the new Anderson artists.

When first drawing Anderson, taking over from such a great artist as Brian Bolland posed the problem of respecting his work but -being new to this audience - distinguishing myself as someone else. Mundanely enough it came down to giving her different boots and haircut. Did have this thing about having her as a real woman and not the sort of sexual fantasy as can be found in comics female characters. Cassandra Anderson is written as a person with feelings so there was some attempt to indicate that.

Can you talk about with how to portray Anderson's PSI ability and the world she was in (i.e. using circular frames, cutting your page into pieces and rearranging, etc.)?

Great thing about indicating magical mystery stuff is the opportunity to experiment with techniques and layouts. That was part of my enjoyment in the work.. Some of it came from seeing images in different places and thinking ' I could use that to do such and such . . ' - the cutting up and pasting multiple prints of a drawing came from something I saw at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for instance. - some came from inventing a way to image the impossible and distinguish the mystical from the 'reality' of Cassandra's life. To make the distinction the black border of frames was often dropped whenever something unearthly was going on.

A circle or a diamond shape has an implication of its own that reads over into what is represented. A hand in a rectangular panel is a hand, in a circle it becomes a symbol.

Besides which it was intriguing to play around like that. I liked the plots which gave the opportunity.

You mentioned in a previous interview sending over story ideas to Grant and Wagner - can we hear any of them?

I wish you could. Were I able to remember I would be happy to take credit for any ideas that were used. I didn't keep notes.

With John Wagner it was only on 'Button Man' that I put forward suggestions but now have no idea what they might have been. There would have been my input about how it was presented, adding more frames and such like. John granted me freedom to do that but whether from confidence in my ability or in order to stop me calling him all the time to see if he was OK with it, I can't be sure.

Oh, mustn't fail to mention I did change the end of the first Button Man story. Which was a blessing.

By Alan Grant's account it was my request the story should take itself seriously and a drawing I had done that influenced the writing of 'Mazeworld'. Alan wasn't thrilled by the first but liked the picture. He has also somewhere credited me with inventing the theology of the Mazeworld religion. I don't recall doing that but it sounds like something I might do.

Vagueness about this is not due to my failing memory but proposing ideas to folk who may or not want them is too regular an occasion on my part to be memorable .

How much creative influence did you have over the script for Anderson? Was there a lot of description in Grant's scripts or did he leave a lot of the artistic guesswork up to you? Did you make any influential suggestions?

Can't recall ever having any direct input into Alan Grant's scripts for Anderson. I added frames but no plot changes or suggestions. There never seemed any need to. Which now strikes me as odd since I rarely passed up an opportunity to offer my thoughts to writers. Could it be that Alan's scripts were just so good?

When we did 'Mazeworld' together I was more involved but we started from a different place. The ideas Alan had about Mazeworld were initially pretty fluid. Even so I suspect I added nothing to the plotting.

'Artistic guesswork' is a nice phrase and yes I guess that was my prerogative, guessing what might work artistically. Alan didn't overload his scripts with description - thank goodness. I was lucky with writers and mostly they were mercifully terse when it came to appearances.

Can you describe the difference in drawing for Dredd vs. Anderson?

The first strip I did for 2000AD was Judge Dredd and that was interesting - a pretty straightforward get-the-baddies story but with a giant spider. The few (3?) more I did later were no fun at all. They were short and intended to be humourous so not archetypal Dredd. There was no room for manoeuvre. I was obliged to do as I was told. There were Dredd stories I would have liked to work on but nobody asked.

Anderson scripts allowed for more invention, had more scope for things I liked to do. Her character was more interesting for me too. I sort of cared about her. I was aghast when I saw her 'commit suicide' and got in touch with Alan to put my mind at rest as I didn't want to wait a week for 2000AD and the next installment.

What kind of mystical and artistic influences did you pull from in your Anderson series?

Mystical influences? Sounds like I used a Ouija board or had a spirit guide - probably Native American with a meaningful name. No, more's the pity. As a kid I used to lay in bed at night willing for a visitation from some non-threatening spectre but never had any luck .

Ever since Sunday School (Baptist) age seven, I had an interest in religion and later in Jungian thought with its archetypes, collective unconscious, dream interpretation and all that...Jung's 'Man and His Symbols' was on my bookshelf. Alan Grant would on occasion send images he had found and thought useful.

By the time of Anderson I owned a number of books on mysticism, the supernatural and beliefs about it. Art history had me looking at religious images and representation. The first impulses to art were religious and done before they would have been categorised as art.

I am interested in what you might call the Transpersonal since it is such a large part of humanity's experience and history. As an atheist I believe all that stuff comes from the minds of people which is extraordinary don't you think?

The most directly influential artistic influences came from continental, mostly French, comics... Moebius and Druillet in particular demonstrate there are alternative ways to lay out a page. That long ago, one was unlikely to see continental comics without crossing the Channel. Trips I made I returned from with piles of albums - Tintin ( the comic book not the character), l' Echo de Savanes, Pilote - and I don't even read French. Things have improved but continental Europe was the place for individuality, experiment and variety in comics. 'Le Bande dessinée artiste' even sounds more intellectual and culturally acceptable.

So many of your panels for comics are so detailed - for instance, the image you drew of Anderson as Satan's herald - how do you approach working on such a piece?
Satan and 'Bad' Anderson as his herald - one of my favourites. Pity 2000AD never allowed Alan and I to do an alternative universe version of Anderson.

Worried about drawing the horns and wings from different angles and perspectives I had made a model of Satan using a shop bought 8 inch toy plastic figure of a man, wire, paper and candle wax.

Cassandra's outfit I sketched out with a sideways look at some medieval armour.

What would I have done? Put it on tracing paper, transfer it to board and start inking. Using tracing paper for initial drawing allows for making changes, introducing new images and adding details.

Transferring it to board I used blue chalk and a pin headed pointer that leaves a fine blue line that disappears and leaves the board smooth and ready for colouring with water soluble ink I used.

The space background on that page would have been inked directly without pencilling but with an astronomy book close by. I was confident of my inking in those days. It wasn't till my knib was active that I knew what it might look like.

Like any other application of a craft - dancing, playing an instrument, shooting pool - after enough practice it becomes unself-conscious. A bit Zen.

To answer your question ' how do you approach working on such a piece' it was with anticipation, pleasure and it seems confidence. For this page I remember wanting to do a pin-up which was not a thing I normally did.. For a change and as a challenge.

Personally I'd love for you to explain some of the actual technique and any art tricks you used on a lot of these comics.  If you have any original sketches, that would be even more awesome

No sketches I'm afraid. Working the way I did made them largely unnecessary.

Thought hard about this but don't think I can offer any helpful hints on technique or art tricks.

What is it you want to do? Like me and everybody else you will find an intention and way of working that suits you. Trial and error.

( Jeez! Such trite advice.)

I see that you've transitioned to using digital medium, can you talk a little about that? Do you prefer it more now?
The 'Sirius' story is done with Paint from Serif. Paint came free so I started playing with it. Seems I started Sirius (what was I thinking?) in January 2012 so I have had time to get used to it. Unlike real life it does have a 'undo last action' button which is just as well. Seems I do prefer it to paper and ink otherwise I wouldn't spend so much time at it. Certainly allows for some interesting modelling and atmospheric effects.. Limits the frame shape to rectangles of course. Being able to cut and paste parts of the image has been useful. Unlike ink drawings it is possible to make any old mark and change it afterwards. Everything is mutable. A single frame could take forever to really finish to the highest possible standard and I don't have time or patience for that in this story. Hoping to find an ending for what passes as a plot in Sirius and finish it before next January. Two years is quite long enough.

What projects are you working on these days?
The Sirius strip takes the largest part of my involvement.

Using an app for designing websites I am putting Sirius into comic-book format. Only out of interest. No expectation of it ever being printed.

There is an abstract painting that is taking up time.

Not yet working on it but some sort of comic book story in black and white. Need a drawing pad thingy for that.

I've got to know if you watched the 2012 Dredd movie, and if you did, what you thought of it?

Watched the movie via DVD. It was closer in feel to the 2000AD Judge Dredd than earlier movies managed. The testing of Anderson by Dredd is an Alan Grant plot line - one I have drawn. Olivia Thirlby was a lovely Anderson - she had the independence of character our Cassandra has and I liked her haircut. Don't believe a psychic would have been taken by surprise by villain creeping up behind he though. I enjoyed the film. Minimum of plot and lots of action.

[Colin YNWA]

Nice interview, which reminded me to check back on Mr Ranson's blog which I've not checked for an age.

Do you have a linkie to your Tumblr? Who else have you interviewed there?

[TordelBack]

Good interview Mimi, thanks!  A bit shocked to realise Ranson did so little Dredd.

[Frank]

I'd read that ill health meant Ranson couldn't work, so it's good to learn such an extraordinary artist can still exercise his talents in some form. Interesting to hear he shares the general opinion that Mike Dowling is the artist best suited to the character, and even more interesting to learn to learn that an artist who drew on tracing paper and famously worked from photo reference has a daughter called Cassandra, who has a familiar face.

Thanks for sharing.

[mimikeke]

My tumblr link is holyfrittata.tumblr.com. I'm afraid it's at least partially comprised of stupid ramblings about whatever latest piece of the comic I've read   It's mostly Dredd but lately has a bit of Rogue sprinkled in.

Previously I interviewed Michael Carroll and Arthur Wyatt.  Being writers, they wrote a bit more than Mr. Ranson did, so I'll just link them here.    They are from earlier this year, so some of the info is a bit outdated.

http://holyfrittata.tumblr.com/post/82776526261/exciting-news-guys-michaelcarroll-graciously
http://holyfrittata.tumblr.com/post/84597310934/back-again-with-an-interview

[dweezil2]

Good work mimikeke!
Very interesting read!