Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't like to be pigeon-holed.
Really, subtlety is what is really important to me and my work.
There is a tendency for the New Gods to work best as guest stars.
Comics and music have historically had a pretty dicey relationship.
[Paper Girls] is very much is about how we are thinking about our past and growing up.
What impresses me the most about DC characters is how long a lot of them have been around.
Back then, as a kid, you could really just do whatever you wanted until your parents got home.
Nothing I've worked on has been asked this much of me to put it on the page [like Paper Girls].
We wanted the book [Paper Girls] to feel to evoke the '80s, but not necessarily feel that it was drawn then.
If the reader doesn't care or relate to the characters, all that visual spectacle is pretty but feels empty.
'Paper Girls' in 1900 would be really cool. The girls could ride those old bicycles with the giant front wheel!
I feel like we're always learning about ourselves, but at twelve, you're learning big things that shape your identity.
One of the funny things about Wonder Woman is that everybody does love her. She does win everybody over at some point.
I guess you could blame it on being raised by comics and television, but I've always loved robots in any shape or size.
The '80s were a really different time for kids.Technology has changed so much of how we stay in touch and keep tabs on people.
Paul Smith's artwork was so elegant and so graphic, so I think that's always had a strong effect on me, especially starting out.
A lot of times we look at the past as something that was really great, but we ignore things that have actually gotten better since then.
What I've been trying to do with my art, which has been feeling very graphically sharp - to soften it up and make it feel more hand-done.
You want, whenever you're telling a story, to have a certain amount of range, and you want to be able to take the audience on that ride with you.
I've always preferred comics that really rely on visual storytelling. It's what makes comics special. Otherwise, you're better off reading a novel.
I do all my coloring on PhotoShop - it's good and bad: It helped refine my color, but I do miss the texture and organic quality of the traditional.
[Paper Girls] needed to have a certain kind of almost neon style to it, but at the same time we wanted also to show the modern perspective that we had.
Wonder Woman feels like she's been put on a pedestal for so long, and it's hard to write that character because they're perfect and they can't do anything wrong.
To be honest, my first instinct when I heard about the 'Greendale' project was that it was a licensing thing. As I learned more about the project, I saw how pure it was.
Something like 'Dr. Thirteen,' which features no big characters, was probably the most fun thing I've worked on because the story was so great, and it was written so well.
'Human Target' was probably one of the best projects I ever worked on - that and 'Dr.Thirteen.' I just appreciated how smart Peter Milligan's writing is. It was smart and entertaining.
I don't think I've ever worked on a project [Paper Girls] that is this personal. We draw so much on our memories of growing and we're putting so much of our present day into it as well.
The New Gods really need to be larger than life. There's an operatic quality to them, and they need to be handled pretty carefully, or else you'll go too far and be almost like a caricature.
After a couple of years at Vertigo, I realized that if I was going to be a professional artist, I'd have to devote myself to it full time, so I ended up leaving my job there and went freelance.
I've become really aware of all the subtle things you can communicate through the art and how you're presenting a character, particularly someone like Wonder Woman, who means so much to so many people.
Matt Wilson, the colorist, has this great palate [in Paper Girls] that brings up all these emotions and this feel of the '80s without being actually as kind of as bright and primary as it could have been.
One of my earliest jobs drawing was 'Wonder Woman: Our Worlds At War,' with Phil Jimenez, which was a really cool jaunt through her history. I got to draw this two-page spread that was set in the Golden Age.
One of my favorite comics is Love and Rockets by the Hernandez Brothers. They do such a wonderful job of showing you how the character of Maggie ages and really doesn't present that with any kind of judgment.
One of my favorite comics is 'Love and Rockets' by the Hernandez Brothers. They do such a wonderful job of showing you how the character of Maggie ages and really doesn't present that with any kind of judgment.
Ditko isn't a direct influence, but I really admire his work and how his personality always comes through the drawing. There's a honest and quirky humanity to it, and you always feel the artist behind the comic. That's really rare.
What I like about Paper Girls in particular is that because we're approaching it more from a female perspective, we're able to consider the emotional states of these characters a little bit more, and think more of their interiority.
What I like about 'Paper Girls' in particular is that, because we're approaching it more from a female perspective, we're able to consider the emotional states of these characters a little bit more and think more of their interiority.
I want her to be powerful on these covers, and sometimes that's a quiet power and other times it's a more bombastic power. But when you're going to have a book out there that's called Wonder Woman and she's on it, you have a responsibility to put out a certain kind of image.
Everybody has said or done the wrong thing and regretted it later, but at the time, you really couldn't help it! As you get older, you're more guarded, but that's a really tough process of learning, to be brutally honest, about some things and keeping your mouth shut about others.
A lot of times we look at the past as something that was really great, but we ignore things that have actually gotten better since then.Our girls [Paper Girls] are now dealing with what their futures look like, and reflecting on what they hoped the present day versions might be like.
With Erin [from Paper Girls], I wanted to show what she might look like when she's 40, and I wanted it to feel authentic. In terms of inspiration I ended up using my wife for a lot of it. Just to kind of to give me almost an anchor so that I would be invested in making this character real.
I'm really happy that more and more people are making their own comics. I remember how daunting it was for me to just put pen to paper, page by page, until you had a finished comic, but the way new creators are doing that and bravely bringing their unique voices and experiences to their work is really inspiring.
Each book requires a different look. Sometimes I get to take a personal direction that's appropriate for the story. I try to push things within a range. Some are rougher, some more expressionistic, some are slicker graphically and call for a prettier drawing style that I can do. Some have a more classical vibe, and some are in between.
I realize that this is not what you want to put on a cover with Wonder Woman emblazoned on it. She could be in trouble, but she doesn't need to be completely out of control. So whenever I'm doing these covers, I try to make sure that there's an element where, even if there is danger, it's not something where agency is taken away from her.
When coming up with Wonder Woman cover designs, sometimes people will pitch ideas to me, either the writer or the editor. And it's interesting, because I know they're not trying to, but they end up pitching things that end up feeling like damsel-in-distress covers, where the tension comes from her needing to be rescued somehow. And it's something I immediately push back against.
It starts with the writing. We have to think of all these characters - we have to treat them all equally. We have to think of them as having an interior life and having motivations. When I'm drawing female characters, I'm looking for that. I'm looking for subtext. I'm looking for ways to make the reader relate to them in a way that goes beyond the pure aesthetic value. You know, just drawing an attractive woman really gets kind of boring after a while.