[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ - Hello and welcome to Comic Culture.

I'm Terrence Dollard, a Professor in the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

My guest today is artist Mike Deodato.

Mike, how are you today?

- I'm doing good, thank you.

- Mike, you've had a long career in American comics but you are talking to me today from Brazil.

So could you tell me how you your foot in the door of American comics?

- About in 1991, somebody had the idea to make an agency in Sao Paul Brazil to represent Brazilian artists in US.

So they called me, I already had a name doing fan zines and dependent comics in Brazil.

So I started doing comics for small companies like Malibu, Innovation, Clips, continuity, all that and then I, the same way I did in Brazil, climbing my way to the biggest companies, I did it in US too until I had my great chance with "Wonder Woman, 1994" for DC Comics.

It was a long career but nobody knew me.

- And that run on "Wonder Woman" is one of those iconic runs in the 90s.

As I recall, Wonder Woman has a new costume and I was wondering if you were part of the team that came up with that new look.

- No, I wish I was, I love it but it was Brian Boland who had the idea.

My contribution to Wonder Woman was to make her look look more like comics in the 90s, the image way of doing comics, women very powerful, very sexy and so I saw it, I saw image books, I got in love with the work of Jim Lee and Mark Sylvester and I wanted to bring it to DC and Marvel.

When they left Marvel, I think everything was to stay there, DC too.

So I wanted to bring that energy to Wonder Woman and people loved and I think, three months the sales quadrupled and after one year in the book I was, Marvel hired me to give me a exclusive contract and then I spent at 24 years there.

- That's amazing that one year on a flagship character is enough to get the competition to sign you up for 24 years of exclusive work.

Now, when you are working on a comic like "Wonder Woman."

I'm assuming there's a bit of a language barrier.

You and I are speaking today but I'm imagining, conversational is a little bit different than let's say a DC style script which is full panel descriptions and dialogue and everything.

So was there any sort of barrier that you faced because of that language difference?

- Lucky for me, my, the agency that represented me by then, they provided me full translated script so I never had to talk to any editor or anything like that.

But even though, even with this condition there were problems like for instance, there was a scene in "Wonder Woman" where I was supposed to draw, create a character, very strong that looked like Lobo.

Lobo the character, the very strong but when I saw, I thought they were referring to the animal, the Wolf.

So I, it was supposed to be in armor and looked like Lobo.

So I drew a robot, wolf like robot because of the translation, it was bad but it was okay.

It was difficult, with time, I decided to learn English to control my own career and make my own decisions and I'm still learning but back then, it was one of the things I did because I worked so much in the 90s that at the end of the 90s, nobody wanted to read anymore because the quality of the work had fallen down a lot.

So I decided it was time to reflect, to make changes.

So I learned English, I fired my agents, I decided to do just one book a month and to care about quality instead of quantity and the results, I would get more money in the end but it was not my go thing and that's some resolution I follow to this to this day, just to work less with more quality and I, every decision I'm making in my career is based on if I'm feeling happy, satisfied with the work.

- You had mentioned that you created this this wolf character instead of the DC character Lobo.

So my question is, if you have to make corrections, in the 90s, you were sending your art physically to DC but now you can work on a computer or scan your artwork.

So if you had to make corrections, would that be something that they would send back to you or would you have to create all new pages?

- Well, probably, we communicated via fax and it was FedEx coming in and go so it three days coming and go.

So they probably would send me a fax of the page with saying where the correction was.

If they sent me the page, I would make the correction and send the page back.

If not, I would make a paste up and send to them to them so they make the correction in the office but it was very hard.

I remember I did a cover for "The Beauty and the Beast," completely painted with airbrush and they may never arrived there so I had to do another one exactly the same and send it again, it was hard.

- I'm sure you're glad that the modern age, were able to just scan or work digitally and send the files that way.

They must speed up your process quite a bit.

- A lot.

That's why I decided by, it was not 2010, I guess, I decide to migrate to digital only.

At first I always thought I'm gonna do half of the book traditional on paper and half digital but then I enjoyed so much, I got, it was so much faster then I decide to stay and I'm like three times faster but instead of using to do more books, I use it to, my free time to go to the gym, stay with family, read books, watch movies.

So this way I can recharge my brain and I can use it back on my art.

It took me time to realize, to learn this balance that anytime I use on my mind, on my brain and to have fun, it's not a waste of time.

It's actually, it's good for me, good for my art in the end.

So it took time but I learned.

- And it must be a challenge finding that balance between working all the time and a social life, a family life, a chance to get out and do that exercise.

So when you are in the studio now, I'm sure the family knows that when you're working, you're working not to bother you but how do you kind of make sure that you're not spending too much time on that page so that way you can go off and maybe see a movie or go to the gym?

- I make a goal to make one page a day if I can.

If I'm not, I don't worry.

I do what I can but by nine o'clock or 10 o'clock I stop and then I go and watch a series and I stop the day and usually every time by 5:00 PM, not today because of you but I do exercise, I do karate.

So I have my, I have to stop to have time with my family, I have to stop to play karate, I have to stop to watch a movie in the end of the day and in the middle of that, I can do, I plan to do a page, if I can't, whatever I do, I did my best.

Of course, if there is an emergency then, okay I forget everything and I do the page but nowadays, because I'm doing creator owned work, so it's, I'm like my own boss so I decide.

I only obey to the deadlines that my credit card tells me.

- You mentioned that you study karate.

I'm just wondering if studying a martial art like that has helped you with the fight choreography in your comics.

- Yeah, yeah, although... it's like you see the Bruce Lee movies, in real life, he wouldn't do that, those kicks very large, those movements very, he would be very, more much more economic, more, how can I say it, he would fight tight, not giving chance to the guy to grab your arm or your leg but since comics is a medium that has no movement, sometimes you have to make the guy give a kick very cinematographic, very beautiful, not efficient but beautiful.

So I try to balance between a real fight with real movements and the ones that bring the energy that you pass to the reader, the feeling that he's watching a very action scene with a lot of movement and so it's all more about feeling than real thing.

I was watching that three hour movie, "The Irish guy," I don't remember in Netflix, it it's one with Robert de Niro and at some point I noticed that he was pass close to a guy and do this, fight in a very short movement and go and go.

This is fantastic, that's how you do, you don't wanna be noticed.

In comics or other movies, you do like this.

I'm gonna shoot you and then it works so well.

So you have to decide what's the best way.

Comics, like for instance, "Stray Bullets" from, forgot the name, but he executes the choreography of fights, very real and it works.

So it's a lesson for me that sometimes I can put real movements and make it work in comics.

So you have to make decisions to how to pass the feeling the story needs - "Stray Bullets" is a great noir comic where it's kind of gritty and very realistic, very different from let's say, a Marvel or DC superhero.

So when you are working for Marvel or DC or now for your own creator owned projects, are you sort of tailoring the fights based on the style or genre of the comic?

- Yeah, it depends on, yeah, on the style of the genre.

It wouldn't work, I'm working, my newest book is in publishing right now, it's "The Fourth Man."

It's a crime book and it's in the '90s it's a very realistic book so it wouldn't work for me to make the fights or the running scenes with the guys too much.

I have to make it to contain myself to make the story work if not, it's gonna, it's not gonna fit the feeling I'm trying to transmit.

So depending on the genre and the story, I decide what is better because in the end, I want to tell, the best way to tell the story.

So if I put more panels, if I put the angles, those fish eye angles, it has to be, to have a motive for me to put that, it can't be just either of those, there has to be a reason.

I cannot distract the reader unless the script asks for it but I want to keep the reader immersed in the story.

If I do something to strain the angle too much, so this kind of story, asks for normal angles like you are watching it through the eyes of another character.

It doesn't mean I cannot be creative but I cannot be too creative in this kind of story.

So every story requires a different approach.

- And you've mentioned that you are doing creator own series at AWA for their upshot imprint.

So how did you sort of get started there and move from Marvel to, I guess, from security at Marvel to more of a risk but a higher reward with AWA?

- Well, the boss is the same.

It's Axel Alonso was my boss at Marvel and is still my boss, is one of my best friend in business so when I tried to create comics for mainstream and to create comics creator owned at the same time but it didn't work.

I did it with "Berserker Unbound" while I was working at Marvel and instead I was working, doing six pages a day for Marvel and then I decide, okay I'm doing do two more in the weekends and then I can finish this book in one year and I almost killed myself in the process.

That's when I realized it's impossible.

It's easier for a writer because they can do 10 books a month.

He can write, okay, next two pages is a fight between two armies and go withdraw and then go home.

We have to draw it.

So I decided it was time to leave Marvel.

So I left Marvel and when I announced it online, Axel heard and contact me, oh, I'm doing this company and he didn't have to sell it to me because he's my friend, I trust him.

He's a great professional and one of the best editors so I went there and I'm happy, I'm happy.

I did so far, I did "The Resistance" it's with dark characters but different from Marvel and DC, I have a stake on the, if it becomes a movie or something instead of just the name of the credits, I have a name on a check and after that, I did create on only "Bad Mother," "Redemption," "Not Our Robots," "The Fourth Man," I'm already working on another one and I did another one too, not announced yet.

I'm so happy.

It's a completely different genres and situations.

It's like in at Marvel I was doing perfect human beings with powers and beautiful people and at AWA I'm doing people with no power, old people with no shape at all and so, but great stories, human stories, fantastic writers.

Although it's, even though it's independent company we have the best of two worlds.

We have great talents, not so known from public and big stars like Straczynski and a lot of people, I forgot everyone but me, myself.

So it's been a blast, every project is different with a different genre and I'm loving it.

I will have to be kicked out to leave AWA.

- Now you mentioned that these are books of different genres, different styles.

As an artist, is that some, I mean, I guess it would be something that would always give you a new challenge that you would welcome rather than maybe staying on the Wolverine book or the X-Men book for a prolonged period because you do get the chance to just do different things and try different styles.

Is that something that you've been able to do just kind of maybe one's going to be a post apocalyptic story or one could be a crime drama and just play with those different art styles?

- Yeah, that's the thing I like best.

The thing is I drew, only at Marvel, I did, I drew superheroes for 24 years, only at Marvel and not counting DC and other, my time in Brazil or image and other, so it's enough.

I still love superheroes but I wanted to try something else.

And at AWA, we do books like season one of "Not All Robots," five issues, maybe we do another one depending on the answer of the public but it's completely, there could be finished there and then I jump to another book with doing a western or a crime book or a, so it's fantastic and there are great, great scripts.

Usually Axel presents me like three scripts for me to choose.

I came up with this terrible, terrible, what's the word, analogy.

Like, because in comic book creator owned stuff, we meet each other at conventions or internet, hey, let's do a book together.

Let's do and we try, like I did with, "Berserker Unbound," I met Jeff Lemire while I was doing "Thanos," we liked each other, with did the book together, it was great.

At AWA, a I think Axel works like a matchmaker.

He knows my, what I like best, hey, when do you wants us go in a date with Jeff McKensey?

Then we go out and we have a baby that is "The Fourth Man."

You're never gonna read a book, our book after this analogy but it works this way because he knows what I like best, he knows the best one so it makes a way to meet and create a great book so it's fantastic.

Also, they are making an example on how to treat the creator better.

When this NFT thing came and Marvel and DC put their foot down forbidding creators to sell the original digital art of the work, I complained online and AWA got my back and they pay the best rates up front.

They showed it's possible to make a company make money and still respect the creators and pay what's they're due.

So they're making, raising the bar on on how to treat well the creators.

- And you mentioned NFTs I was thinking, you said since 2010 you've been working all digitally.

And I know for a lot of creators, selling original art is a great way to supplement their income in the lean times.

So is this something that has not really bothered you because you've been so successful or do you still do the occasional cover or maybe a big splash page on board just to have something if you do go to a con and want to sell them?

- No, I'm all digital now, once in a while like twice a year I do two two commission work for, usually two clients of mine, old clients that I cannot say no.

So but because my vision is not that good nowadays, it's even better for me to work digitally.

So if I have to work on paper, it's much more work I have to put on and NFT came to save us because this way we could sell our digital original art and put a value on it, because it was, there is a contract that says that is unique and you have the one that is the original one and yeah but unfortunately Marvel and DC thinks we don't deserve the right so, you know.

I still love them.

I love the creative people at Marvel, DC.

The ones that make the business decision, those I don't love too much.

- You know, it's funny because no one ever says they love the lawyers who write the contracts.

- Except our lawyers.

- I was going to say, we have a, just a couple of minutes in our conversation left and you you are working all digitally.

Now, are you providing files to a color artist or are you doing all the color work yourself?

- I wish I had the time to do the colors and letters and everything, nowadays, I just do the the pencils and inks and the color work, I leave it to better ones than me.

I work with, several years with Rain Beredo, fantastic colorist at Marvel, then Frank Martin, Jr and nowadays I have been working with Lee Loughridge at AWA Studios, all great professionals, way better than me.

- And when you provide the art for them, do you give them notes about what you think the palette should look like or how the lighting should read?

- I used to.

I used to be the terror of editors and colorists and I would give notes and change this and then but then I realized it's better to give space for them to make their own decisions and I leave it to my own editors to find the little mistakes and it works better.

It's better you to find one you like and leave it alone, it's better.

- If the folks watching at home wanted to find more of your work on the web, where could they find it?

- Oh, go to AWASTUDIOS.NET, everything mine I'm doing right now is there and you're gonna find a lot of other fantastic books there too.

- Mike, I wanna thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to talk with me today.

It's been a great half hour.

- Thank you, it was great.

- And everyone at home, I'd like to thank you for watching Comic Culture, we will see you again soon.

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