[light music] [superhero theme 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 Ray Anthony Height.

Ray, welcome back to Comic Culture.

- Hey, it's good to be back, Terrence.

I love the fact that your opening is so perfect.

It gives me a high bar to kind of like, OK, I can't flub this.

I can't embarrass Terrence on this whole thing.

- Well, you couldn't embarrass me.

I can do a pretty good job of that myself.

That makes both of us.

So Ray, the last time we spoke, gosh, I think it was close to 10 years ago.

You were with a company whose name I won't mention.

And we talked about your character, Midnight Tiger.

- Yes.

- And now you are sort of spinning off into another direction where you have your own studio.

I think it's Studio Sky Tiger.

So how do you go from being an in-demand artist working not only on your own work but for Marvel and DC to being sort of this person who's creating content, but not only creating content, bringing other people in and giving them the chance to create?

- Wow, that is quite a journey.

But I'll give you the CliffsNotes version.

Essentially, during the time that we were speaking, I was working for a company that we won't name, but also a company that I don't mind naming, which is Marvel Comics, and kind of splitting that time and figuring out kind of where I was going to go.

I think at that time, 10 years ago, I was thinking about, or I was letting go of the idea of an exclusive contract with Marvel.

Because during that time, you know, Midnight Tiger was coming out.

You know, I wasn't quite sure how it was being received in full.

But then when I basically told the fans that it did have, which wasn't that many that I thought that I was going to just move on over because I didn't think the sales were going to do very well, at least based on what I was showed, that I'm just going to go and focus on, you know, being a full-time freelancer at Marvel.

Since then, I kept getting people telling me, like, when are you going to get back to Midnight Tiger?

It didn't even matter what I was working on.

I went from working on the X-Men and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur to one of my last things that I had done at Marvel was Star Wars Doctor Aphra.

During that entire time, the Midnight Tiger fans, however they kept growing, I kept getting more and more and more of that.

So when I was at shows, people were asking me this question.

If it wasn't signing Marvel books, I would get the occasional Midnight Tiger book.

And I thought, you know, I love that character.

It's my character.

It's a story that I know that I didn't get a chance to finish at the other company.

I decided to bring that character back.

But at the same time, I wasn't quite getting what I needed out of Marvel.

I ended up doing some work over at DC as well.

DC came to me after I made the decision to do my own thing.

And since I had never worked at DC, it really started with Milestone.

So Milestone co-founder, Dennis Cowan, was a mentor of mine.

And so I was asked to contribute to Milestones in history.

And people, with the reboot of Milestone, that was happening a few years ago, there was a big talk at the town.

I have also, a lot of people were asking me, was I a part of it?

I said, no, I was not a part of that whole thing.

I wasn't a part of that.

Because I knew a lot of people.

Like, you know, I was friends with Dwayne McDuffie.

I was friends, you know, with, like I said, Dennis Cowan was my mentor.

And, but I wasn't directly a part of it.

I just knew a lot of people who was.

Eventually, you know, with the start and stopping of however that went down during those years, they eventually got something together and it was Milestones in history.

And I contributed a print story to that, which is kind of full circle, because Dennis and Dwayne did a print story in the 90s that I absolutely adored.

You guys can look that up, it's so cool.

And so I got a chance to do the Milestones in history version, but I thought that that was it.

I wasn't sure how that was gonna pan out.

And then I ended up doing the Aquaman, the Lost Kingdom tie-in for DC.

And then all that entire time I thought to myself, I can be doing this myself.

I knew every aspect of comics from, you know, I was writing things on my own.

I knew about all the art chores, you know, and briefly before I even went to Marvel or whatever, I had a production company.

So I had a, and we worked with Viz Media and Cartoon Network producing comics for their shows.

So I had all of this in my toolbox.

And I thought, okay, while people were asking me questions and I was giving them answers and then mentoring people and all this other kind of things myself, I was like, I need to do this myself.

And that's how Studio Sky Tiger was born.

And I wanted to use that, my studio as a platform to do my own IP.

I have at least seven now, seven IP that I haven't produced.

Two of which have been pub, actually three.

Three have been published, the other four, not so much.

And so I wanted to kind of create, so for the students that are there and anybody that's gonna be watching this, I am a huge manga and anime fan from the 80s.

So when, you know, "Akira" came out, I was there.

We were watching "Dragon Ball" before it was English dubbed and it was, let's say we were getting it, getting the tapes by not so legal means.

(laughs) So, but we were watching, it was all like imports and you like do a friend of a friend of a friend, you know, we were getting these things.

So I was inundated with this stuff early, which influenced my work anyway.

And so I was always in love as I got more and more into the business of comics and storytelling.

I was in love with the process of the manga studio and how they produce because, you know, "Weekly Shonen Jump" by Shueisha, they produce anywhere between 15 and 25 pages a week of black and white, fully, you know, it's not color, but it's all black and white and it's all the pages are done.

And they're doing this on a weekly basis.

And so there's a chapter every week.

And I was like, "That's incredible."

That's breakneck speed.

There are things that are there that, like you don't get something for nothing.

There are sacrifices being made there.

Just for any aspiring comic book creators, a team has to do that.

It's not usually one person.

So, you know, talk to me, find me anywhere.

I'll tell you about that process.

But anyway, I wanted to know how I can make that work in American comics, like my own version, so I can get out all my IP.

And that's, again, how I was born.

I ended up putting out an open call for assistance.

And then that open call, this goes to show you never know who's watching.

One of the administrators at the Joe Kubrick School posted that and I started getting Kubrick graduates coming in for that.

And that was kind of awesome.

And then, you know, people from SCAD and all of that, and we had a team of eight people.

Now we're down to five.

Because the first iteration, that was a learning curve for all of us.

And now through trial and error, we got our core group.

So that's Studio Sky Tiger Comics.

So now we do production and we do our own comics.

So we're a production house and a publishing house, kind of a boutique publisher.

- You've got a cohort of creators that you're working with, writers, artists.

And the fact that you are not just strictly focusing on comics, that you're able to do something rather, I'm imagining there's a lot of people out there who do design, or there's a lot of people who do this type of artwork.

But the ability to do something in this comic style is something that a typical graphic designer can't do.

And a specialty house that can handle storyboarding and can handle character design, and can make it look the way that audiences want it to look.

That's a good calling card for an up and coming studio.

So, as you are this creator, you're also this business person.

So how do you sort of balance the fact that you wanna spend time getting new clients, but you also want to sit and create because that's your passion?

- That is an ongoing struggle, my friend.

(laughing) That is an ongoing struggle.

Because this week I'm supposed to be doing layouts for, or finishing layouts for our flagship book, which is the reboot of Midnight Tiger, Midnight Tiger Evo.

And so I'm supposed to be doing that.

But at the same time, I'm scheduling appearances.

So I got contacted for another appearance at a local college to do a small convention there.

And I'm bringing my entire crew that are on the West Coast that I can bring.

At the same time, we just released our second publication, which is doing very, very well.

It's been promoted, "Sincere American Nightmare."

Because of the climate, the storyline is doing well.

Essentially there is this person named Sincere who is kind of a cross between the Joker and Nat Turner.

And he wants to unify all the gangs to overthrow the government.

He's our anti-villain.

We're setting that up.

And that's by Jamal Anansi is the writer and the artist is Marcus D. Newsome.

They both had companies of their own producing their own work, which is great.

'Cause that's what I love.

I don't have to worry about that, I thought.

So what happened is I'm coaching through storytelling and pacing and layout as we're all working on this thing together.

And we're all from Compton, which is the reason why we ended up merging.

And when I started this company, I was talking about my future plans and both of them were like, "No, let's merge right now.

And we'll do everything under your brand, under your banner, since you're the one with the name and the legacy and all of that kind of stuff."

And I was like, "Okay, let's go."

So we did that.

And then the first one we did, because my wife's a writer and she actually came back to it.

This one is we have a more humorous and it's WTF Mama.

I don't know if you guys can see it.

As a matter of fact, speaking of Prince, this is our cover that has been selling out like crazy.

And so technically this is our first publication and it is hilarious.

We're trying to expand.

We're trying to do all these things.

So I'm juggling these projects and trying to somewhere wedge in time to do our flagship book, which is "Midnight Tiger Evo."

And we build a website which launches March 1st.

That is studioskytiger.com.

So I'm doing all these things, but I have to carve out time, Terrence.

I have to like say, "Okay, no meetings, none of that.

I need two weeks to just knock out this aspect of the work because the book is written.

I've actually planned out the first six issues."

So I did that first.

And so I know what I'm doing, but figuring out the time, once everybody's settled and I have trained everybody to the point where, okay, you guys can take care of it, you're good.

And then I can focus on the flagship book and then work on that and then come back and we all have a meeting about it.

- So I just want to go back to "WTF Mama."

(Terry laughs) - Everybody stops on that.

- What I find great about this is, this is what I find so interesting about modern comics is that there is this evolution of art and the fact that anime and manga have become sort of accepted by American audiences and seeing these different art styles.

And then this almost Disney style arts style for "WTF Mama," where it's, again, it's different voices coming into comics that we wouldn't see necessarily with, let's say a Batman book, because Batman has to look a certain way.

And I know that there's absolute Batman out there that has a different vibe completely.

But this is just a whole different, I guess, sensibility where we're looking at different art styles.

"Sincere" has this boondock style artwork meets something you would see on the old anime that would be on "Toonami," I guess was the name of that.

- "Toonami."

- Had to think about that.

And then you've got this very cutesy style, but obviously a little bit more grown up with "WTF" in the title.

So again, as you are working with these other creators and giving them the opportunity to sort of explore, are you looking for those unique voices, those people who have something that speaks to a contemporary audience, but might not be on the mainstream quite yet?

- That's our entire business model.

(Terry laughs) I mean, we have this new phrase that we're basically saying is that, Studios Sky Tiger Comics, we are the diaspora.

Like we do everything, you can find us everywhere.

And the other thing is, is that we do comics that feel like your favorite cartoon and anime.

And so that's why when you're dropping those things, you're just like, "Yes, Terrence totally got it.

"Like that's exactly what we're doing."

And it makes me feel good that there was no prompt.

Like you saw it immediately and people who are at conviction see it immediately.

And so I wanna give voices to people who would have a hard time trying to break into the mainstream.

And I'm using my years and my connections and all the things that in 20 years I've built in order to lift voices who would have a hard time.

And this business is difficult.

Everybody who's in this business for any length of time, they do it 'cause they love it.

It's just built into their DNA.

And people, and I mean people who are, they're not creators.

Terrence, you're talking about this right now.

You have your own show about this whole thing.

And it's, how long have you been reading comics?

- Well, before I could actually read is how long I've been reading comics.

I like to tell the story.

My mom would sit me down with the newspaper and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

And we would just talk about what Dagwood was doing or what Snoopy was doing.

So yes, comics are in my DNA, I suppose.

- It definitely is.

I mean, you literally just talked exactly how I, I came into it through the Sunday papers.

As a, you know, I don't know how well I was actually talking at that time.

But for sure, that's kind of, you know, my whole thing.

'Cause my goal when I was a kid, let's call it pre-teen to younger, was to do, you know, the comic strips, you know, syndicated.

But then I got introduced to comics by the time I was 10.

And then that just changed my entire world.

So, but yeah, it's in our DNA and people who love it usually love it for life.

So those are the people that, like the marginalized voices in my studio, I think pretty much everybody's represented in that studio.

And some of them already had their own projects that they're doing.

Like they, you know, clients will come to us.

We have a brochure.

It basically gives a layout of what we do and stuff like that.

And then, you know, what I do is I say, okay, this person fits that style.

Let's do a test run, see if they can do the story.

They get the test run, like my second in command, you know, TJ Bell just got a series with "Half Evil."

And I can't say much more than that about it, but, you know, they're doing that.

And, you know, we're doing something with a company later that has been in comics for probably 80 years.

So, you know, we keep branching out.

And again, we have our own books.

That's why we have "Sincere American Nightmare."

We have "Ebony and the Hall of Dragons," all written by Jamal Anansi and Anansi Comics, which is an imprint of Studio Sky Tiger Comics.

Lucas Coible is his longtime partner with the art on the art chores.

So, and I just brought them fully into the studio.

Same thing with Marcus D. Newsome, who has his book "Lightning Strike," and he does everything like me.

He writes, he draws, he does everything.

And so that's his book.

And now that is also under the same banner.

So you'll be able to find those books with me and that team.

And so anyway, that's how we built this whole thing.

That's what we're trying to do.

And hopefully, you know, the Marvels and the DCs and whomever will see their talent and offer them gigs, you know, because I know that that's one of the things that's their goal.

That's what they want to do.

That's it.

It's already happened for us, for DC Comics and Milestone Media, 'cause we worked on "Shadow Cabinet" and "Absolute Power 2025" with "Batman and the Signal" with Vita Ayala.

So that was great.

And, you know, but yeah, we keep going.

That was our first true year.

- Well, I do want to talk a little bit about your art because, well, you're really good, first off, but you shared something recently on social media and it's the cover to "Sincere" number one.

And I think you were taking inspiration, was it "Boys in the Hood"?

- Yes, absolutely.

- So, you know, you're making this pop culture connection with this book.

When you're doing a cover like that, when you have an idea for this homage, how do you sort of get this idea onto, I don't know if it's the tablet or if it's the board, and, you know, you'd say you're doing the coloring, you're doing the inking, you're doing all the layouts.

So, you know, what's your process like on a cover like that?

- Well, one of the things, I'll bring in the actual inspiration, let's say into digital space and kind of map out the placement, the composition.

I usually do it by doing color blocking.

That's my thing.

I'll block things out with color.

And then I kind of, I don't throw away the source material, but what I do is I keep it somewhere else and just basically do exactly what I would do had I came up with the composition.

And then what I do is I flip back and forth to see if the colors match, you know?

So that would kind of be my process.

And once I have that as a layout, as my base layout, then I go to finishes.

Then I go through my entire process, which would be, well, since I'm doing it all, I do loose pencils or the color blocking is technically my pencils.

I just tighten it up and then I ink it.

And then I do the coloring.

Then I do my polishes, like, you know, the lighting and the glows and, you know, the atmospheric perspective and all of that.

And then I go back to the original and say, okay, how close are they?

Like when people, so I do this thing.

Is I make it this small, like super small.

And if it reads at this size, it'll read large.

So, and that's usually what I do.

And I'm gonna blow your mind right now.

So the art for WTF Mama is also my art.

- My mind is blown.

- So yeah, yeah.

It's also, so let's see if I can show, I mean, the humor is more in the words.

So it's nothing necessarily like, you know, I read it.

So this is all my art, right?

But also at the same time, you know, if you go to the Batman and the Signal Dynamic Duo Story, that is all of my layouts.

Some of my inks and the team did the rest of the inks on that.

So really my foundation is in that artwork as well.

So one of the things that I thought was a negative as I was coming up as an artist was that I was hired to do a lot of fill-ins.

And my ideology about doing fill-ins is that everybody's read a comic with a consistent main artist, and then you get a fill-in and sometimes that artist's art is so different, it's jarring.

So I didn't like that kind of stuff either.

So as an artist, I prided myself on trying to match the main artists.

And so I developed this skill in breaking the essence of other people's art down so I can mimic it enough so that when a comic book reader gets the book, it's seamless.

And I've had people come up to me with books that they didn't know that I did till they saw my name because they thought it was the main artist.

So that was good, and I did my job, but I was like, "Mm."

If you wanted to see my actual art style, I would say look up the series "Superb."

And I would also say, like I said, the "Batman Signals" story, that was all me.

That was all my thing 'cause I didn't have anybody to follow.

The other thing was, I would say, "Moon Girl and the Devil Dinosaur" number 42 when she meets Spider-Man, that's also me.

And what is it?

The "Star Wars Dr.

Aphra."

Those are pretty much like my base, that's me.

Everything else, I'm doing a riff on someone else.

- I mean, that's really interesting because you're talking about doing a fill-in book and being able to mimic the style of the artist.

I know in the '80s, I'm actually reading through some early Mazzachelli "Daredevil" work where he was actually the fill-in artist for another up-and-coming artist whose career never took off.

And you can kind of see that they aren't able to match that up.

And it is jarring to go from one to the other.

It's also amazing to see how quickly in the span of about a year, Mazzachelli becomes Mazzachelli after just being a guy.

But I see we have about three minutes left.

And first off, I wanna give you the opportunity to share with the audience how they can find you on the web so they can find out more about Studio Sky Tiger.

- You can find, well, you can definitely find me and the studio on Instagram.

Me at @raheightcomics on Instagram and @studioskytigercomics is our main studio Instagram.

And then you can find us on Facebook, Studio Sky Tiger Comics, and me.

I mean, I am the studio, I made it that way.

So if you can find me or the studio, you'll be able to find us both.

And then, like I said, March 1st, we launched studioskytiger.com.

And you can read "Midnight Tiger" for free because it's also a webcomic at midnighttigercomic.com.

- And, you know, again, just a quick, hopefully softball question.

If you could do a crossover with Sky Tiger and any character, pardon me, Midnight Tiger, and any character out there, who would that crossover be with?

- There, so the thought came to me, and I just ran with it, is the crossover would be Miles Morales and Static.

- I would pay good money to see that.

- Apparently other people will too.

I would love for that to happen.

You know, I just need to talk to Marvel and DC about that crossover.

- Well, Ray, they are telling us that we are just about out of time.

I wanna thank you so much for taking time out of your day to talk with me.

You're very busy schedule.

It's been a great half hour.

- Oh, thank you.

Thank you so much.

And like I said, any time, let's not let it be 10 years next time.

- It sounds like a deal to me.

I'd like to thank everyone at home for watching Comic Culture.

We will see you again soon.

(dramatic music) - Comic Culture is a production of the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, giving broadcasting majors professional experience and onscreen credit before they graduate.

(dramatic music)