[triumphant upbeat music] [triumphant upbeat music continues] [triumphant upbeat music continues] [triumphant upbeat music continues] [triumphant upbeat music continues] - Hello and welcome to "Comic Culture".

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

My guest today is Artist Val Mayerick.

Val, welcome back to "Comic Culture".

- Thank you, good to be back.

- So, Val, the last time you were on the show, we talked a little bit about your work at Marvel, working on "Man-Thing", and of course co-creating "Howard the Duck".

Today, we're going to be talking about a new comic project that you're working on called "The Convoy".

So what is "The Convoy"?

- "The Convoy" is, it's rather a multi-layered, kind of a complex story.

I'm working on it, it's written by a French writer, Amalric, and he lives in Paris.

He contacted me a a couple of years ago, because he was interested in doing a comic book.

He loves comics.

He's very fluent in English.

He has lived all over the Anglosphere and he understands all the English vernacular and so forth.

And he's been a comic book fan most of his life.

And he has always wanted to do a comic.

And for whatever reason, he chose me out of the hundreds of possible people he could have, you know, contacted.

And we got to work on this.

It's been slow going, but, and at any rate, that's kind of tangential.

"The Convoy" story itself is about indeed a truck convoy that makes a, a trip from Los Angeles to Washington, DC for reasons that are very complex and fighting sinister forces that are, that have invaded the Earth.

- And what's interesting about this comic, I had a chance to look at some of the pages, is it is, well, it's got a lot of mood, which I guess we would expect from your art, but there's also a lot of, you know, stuff that's based in real life.

So when you're doing something that is, let's say a semi-truck that's fighting, let's say, you know, some sort of monster, how do you sort of balance the creative side of that illustration with what has to look like a truck?

- You just do your research and then use your imagination.

What I always put myself in mind of when I'm doing this is the original "Road Warrior" film from the early 80s, the original of Mel Gibson.

And there it was, I mean, all the crazy, you know, futuristic sci-fi stuff that you, that nightmare stuff that you could imagine.

And then real trucks, real vehicles.

I've spent a lot of time, especially when I was younger, driving around the US.

I've been to every state in the lower 48, I've not been to Alaska.

And I've just seen so many of these vehicles from time to time.

And I have an old friend now who is actually a truck driver.

He's getting on years, he's my age, but they need drivers so badly.

They're hiring old guys and inexperienced guys.

And he has been driving a truck now for two years all across the country.

He's stationed in Oregon, and, but he's been as far, he's been to North Carolina, he's been to the Carolinas, he's been to Ohio.

He's been to Jersey.

He sends me pictures, photo reference of all the different trucks he sees and the truck that he drives, especially the interiors.

'Cause these guys live in their trucks these days.

And so that's been interesting.

And I guess I don't really think of it so much as, you know, it's difficult to combine genres.

I just draw the trucks as they are and then just if a monster flies into the truck, so be it, you know?

- It's interesting, you mentioned traveling to across the country and I know that, you know, travel is good for the soul, but as an artist, you know, you might see something that you don't see if you just stay close to home.

So when you're out traveling, are you looking at, at everything with that artist's eye, that curiosity?

Or are you just kind of just enjoying being on vacation, so to speak?

- Well, both, I mean, it's hard to turn off my quote artist's eye, but if I see something that I would like to transcribe into a painting later on, I'll take some snapshots of it and do some sketches.

When I was younger, when I traveled, I used to do a great deal, a great many sketches of just things that came to mind or things that I was seeing.

Now I don't do that so much, because now a lot of my traveling ends up being the result of being invited to a convention.

And since I'm doing, like, 20, 30 sketches a day at a convention, I don't really feel like doing any more of it at night, so.

Yeah, it's funny too, if you go to a convention, I'm assuming most convention venues are about the same.

They've got, you know, tables, they've got some drapery and a lot of people standing around.

- Right.

- So it's not quite the same as maybe going to the desert in Arizona or something like that.

- No, right, right.

- Now the thing about "The Convoy" is that, if I'm not mistaken, it's being offered as a digital comic from a British publisher.

And you said that the writer is from France and you said that another collaborator is in Australia and you're in Texas.

So how does all of this, you know, this is a lot of moving parts, so how do you kind of coordinate everything so that you're able to know what the story is and deliver it in a way that is going to be appropriate for a digital audience?

- The main brain behind this is Amalric, the guy in Paris.

And it's his concept and he pretty much just describes what he would like to see to me.

And then with Jeremy, the writer in Australia, he, I think he brought Jeremy on board just to write dialogue and to work out little dramatic scenes, because that's apparently Jeremy's strong suit.

And although he writes, he's known for writing thrillers and suspense novels.

Amalriq, he's the editor in chief and the head writer basically.

And it's his concepts that are being realized in this story.

And yeah, it is gonna be a digital comic on Aces Weekly, put up by David Lloyd of "V for Vendetta" fame.

And you just go to there when the, when at least the first chapter is complete, we'll send all that to David.

He'll post all that.

And then you log on and then just decide if you, you know, how many comics do you wanna watch and for how long.

- I was looking at some of the pages that you sent over and I was looking at the promo video for "The Convoy" and it showed you at the drawing board working.

So it looked like you were working on the traditional 10 by 15 page.

But it seems maybe for the digital presentation, maybe that's going to be changed a little bit.

So how do you sort of prepare for a switch in the physical way that you're doing the art for a new medium like a digital comic that might be read on a smaller screen and people can zoom in on?

- Well, the only, the major difference is it's not portrait format, which like a regular comic book is, or it's landscape, meaning it's horizontal as opposed to digital.

So I began working on that format quite a few years ago, about 15 years ago with a now deceased writer, James Hudnall.

We did a comic strip there called "Blue Cat".

I found that particular format to be really liberating.

I was able to just really, the storytelling process for me was much less arduous, working that out in that, you know, working in that format for me was very easy.

So it really wasn't an adjustment.

It was almost just like, "Wow, finally I can draw in, you know, draw comics the way," and I'm not sure why that is.

Maybe it's because, you know, I grew up reading the Sunday Funnies, you know, as a kid and, you know, the old Prince Valiants and the Li'l Abner and all those comic book, those Sunday comic strips were pretty much more in the, you know, horizontal format.

And actually going back to, and I did a, I worked on a graphic novel a few years back called "Dust & Blood".

It was about the Little Big Horn and that was all done in, we chose to do that in the landscape format as well.

Something I didn't have to get used to, in fact, I have to get, when I go back to doing conventional comics, I have to get used to doing it that way.

And that I feel very cramped when I'm doing it that way, for some reason.

Just doesn't work for me as well.

Really, it wasn't an adjustment that was unwelcome.

- It's interesting because, you know, I've seen people talk about how people watching videos on their phones is sort of changing the visual language of television and film, because a wide shot might not work the same way on a landscaped phone as it would obviously on a TV screen or on a motion picture screen.

So are you finding that it's tougher for you on this landscape to maybe have a closeup, because it might not balance as well because you are in that sort of horizontal plane?

- No, I'm not encountering any sort of, any sort of obstacle like that.

I just lay the page out the way I would like to, you know, also keep in mind that the viewer, depending on what device they're viewing it on, they're going to zoom in on certain panels, you know, to see, you know, just to see more detail or to see, some of 'em are just literally curious as to see the ink line, you know, and look at at how much, you know, what kind of effort was put into each panel based on the inking technique and the coloring technique and so forth.

So they'll be all over the page basically.

And they can pretty much, they'll be able to do pretty much whatever they want with the page.

So I just tell the story the way I feel comfortable doing it.

- You say that people can zoom in and look at your technique.

Are you ever tempted to look at something and think, "Gosh, if I were maybe working digitally, I could zoom in and I could smooth out that line?"

Or that where the brush kind of breaks down and we see a little bit of a, it's not as clean as it looks when it's a little further away.

Are you ever tempted to maybe, because it's for a digital audience, maybe lean into the digital tools a little?

- I do that a little bit.

As I was saying before, when you were setting up things in the studio and we were just casually talking, I will, when before I send the art to Eric, Amalric in Paris, of course I scan it, and I scan it at a very high res, because David Lloyd requires that.

And I will examine the scans and then if I see little flaws that I think I can improve.

'Cause I'm doing ink washes and there's no color per se, but I'm doing a lot of gray tones and ink washes.

And if I see some of the, that area that looks a little rough, just didn't work out so well, I'll go in with with Photoshop and fix that up.

But that's the furthest extent that I go, because I'm not very well-versed in digital illustration, so I don't wanna screw it up either.

So, but yeah, I do use the technology with my limited knowledge and if I feel it's necessary.

- Now you're mentioning that you do ink washes, so it's really not that easy.

It looks like, you know, because you might be working in a gray scale that it's simpler than color, but when you're doing that, you're sort of imparting depth, you're imparting light and shadow.

So when you're planning out the page, are you thinking about where that light source is and then kind of moving your camera around to make sure that the lighting's consistent?

Or is it something that, because you've been doing this so long, it's sort of natural to you that you would kind of put it in the right spot?

- Yeah, kind of the latter.

I determine a lot of the really, the lights and darks with black and white.

I would like to think that this comic would stand on its own without the tones.

I use black shadows and so forth, you know, as much as I would in any book or actually, I like to think of it like I'm working on a black and white comic, like I was working with Eerie and Creepy and that stuff.

It allows itself to be colored if need be, but it stands on its own in black and white.

- It's interesting because when I, I'm looking at the artwork, what I'm noticing is that you mentioned your older work at Eerie and Creepy, you are one of those artists that seems to just hit another gear as you do more art.

I've noticed that your art is probably stronger in many different ways.

So as you are, you know, just working, is it that sort of just repetition that gets you stronger or are you actively looking at stuff and saying, "I could do it better if I try this or if I try that?"

- Well, you just grow more comfortable with the content.

Amalric and I did a lot of discussion about that in preliminary sketches and prior to actually getting down to the real comic, it's like, what's this gonna look like?

It's an odd story.

It's not, it's kind of a sci-fi adventure, but it's also kind of tongue in cheek with that.

There's some gritty realism at the same time.

There's fantastic elements as well.

So it's like, I like working with what I wanna say, just with real stuff, you know, as being the content.

I worked for over 20 years doing storyboard work for advertising and storyboard work is kind of like comic book work, but not because storyboard work is not meant to be a finished work.

It's a step, you know, in creating a commercial or a film.

And sometimes storyboard work is just skeletal, it's just basic stuff, just so the director could see where the camera's gotta go.

Other times, other directors, sometimes art directors really require the storyboards to be a little more detailed and a little more illustrative.

And I've done, I've worked on both kinds and I think that, I think that's what's being reflected in "The Convoy" work.

Also, storyboard work is done more horizontally than vertically.

I just wanted to get away from, one thing I really wanted to do was get away from these major, these huge, these layoffs of these, you know, poster, movie poster-like full page splashes where there's all sorts of stuff going on on the page and it might be interesting visually, but it's not really helping, it's not really helping progress the story.

You know, it just took me time.

It took me a little bit of time to decide what the approach was going to be on this.

And I think I've landed on it, you know, there's some spooky kind of technique where it needs to be and there's just like regular everyday stuff like truck stops and stuff where it needs to be.

- Yeah, I think really that's what makes an interesting horror sci-fi kind of thing, is that you can have a large chunk of it that is completely everyday normal life going to the grocery store until that one moment when, you know, there's the vampire, and all this stuff starts going down.

So it, finding that balance is, to me, that's the interesting part is finding the balance between the expected and the unexpected.

So it seems, you know, as you're collaborating, how much of this pre-planning is, you know, maybe you throwing something out that's inspiring the writing and how much of that is the writing that's coming back and saying, "No, let's push it in this direction."

- Eric has a very, very specific vision and he could be very, very particular about little details.

We've gone a little round and round a little bit on that.

But the fact of the matter is that it is his concept.

It is his story.

And I, and again, working with, and as long as I did it in advertising, I learned how to collaborate.

In fact, I've gotten to the point where I don't really have a lot of respect for diva type artists unless they truly are geniuses.

But I, I'll come up with, Eric will say, "Well, how about this guy?

He's a professor and he, you know, is helping discover why these monsters are appearing."

And so I'll come up with something that, you know, some quintessential picture of an old professor and then he'll say, "Well, maybe he's not that old," and he'll, we'll kind of work things out.

And sometimes what I do, the first shot at the first, you know, attempt at it, he loves it.

Other times we kind of, you know, go back and do some revisions and a lot of revisions can be stressful, but fortunately we've not had to do that too many times.

- Before we were recording, we talked a little bit about how you're kind of going between three continents with your collaborators, and how that makes it a little tricky for you to maybe coordinate on Zoom and get, you know, everything working out.

So as an artist, you get to set your own schedule.

So are you somebody who's in the chair, you know, you get up at six o'clock, you're in the chair by nine and you go, you know, you're done for the day at five?

Or do you just sort of follow, you know, your own schedule, but get the work done.

Might be up to two one morning, you might be up to 11 the next night.

- Yeah, I just, it's pretty much catch as catch can.

I have a 26-year-old son who has autism who lives with us and it's day to day with him.

There are some days when there are, you know, the demands for him are considerable and there are days when he gets along just fine with by himself.

I also have a horse that I ride, not just for my own pleasure, but also to keep the horse in decent shape and make sure that he's getting fed properly and so forth.

So a couple of times a week, I go to the ranch where I board the horse and take care of him.

And I'm also active physically, I work out and stuff, so I use the daylight to get those things done, whereas most people are indoors doing their job until five or 6:00 PM, I'm out there getting everything done, you know, shopping, buying some stuff at the hardware store I need, go to the art supply store, taking care of my son, taking care of my horse.

And around 6:00 PM is when I start thinking about, "Now I can really settle into the drawing board or the easel."

And I started getting paint and stuff ready to go, and then I'll work as long as I can until, either until I'm interrupted or until I'm just too tired to continue.

That's the kind of schedule I've been on really since I worked with Dan Adkins, way back when I was 22 years old, was at, Dan was a night owl.

Dan kept Craig Russell and I up late and I kind of got used to it and I've really never been able to get too far out of it.

When I was working with advertising, in advertising, I, of course had to go to early morning meetings, but I make the adjustments where necessary, - When you work from home, there's a lot of distractions.

So being able to at least know that, you know, "Once I've taken care of all of the stuff that requires, you know, my attention," this is sort of that, I guess dedicated time.

And, you know, it's funny because we talked before, again, we started recording, but we talked a little bit about lighting and how you use lighting to help you with your work, because you don't necessarily work during the day.

So, you know, when you are doing something that is different from comics, you know, how do you sort of switch between being a fine artist doing painting versus being somebody who's more of a commercial artist doing let's say a comic?

- For me at least, it's not a switch, it's just a matter of having the appropriate skills.

I would imagine say a comic book artist, he's a young comic artist, comics, he's been working in comics for four or five years and pen and ink mostly.

And then he sees a painting by Joe Jusko and he thinks, "Wow, I'd like to try that."

Well, that's gonna be very challenging.

He, you know, he's gonna have to get different tools, different materials and orient himself entirely differently.

Get much more specific visual reference for a painting.

I've been doing that for so long and it's, there's really no area of transition for me.

It's just a couple of nights ago, finished a couple of panels for a "Convoy", black and white and the ink wash, put those aside, and got immediately up onto the next painting, which I've got some paintings selling in galleries now, and the gallery owner wants more work.

So I just said, "Well, that's what I've gotta do."

And I've been oil painting long enough that I don't have to really think about, "Oh my God, this is different," or oh, the only major difference is, you know, it's a larger surface and you're, and then other major differences, of course, you're working with a different medium that won't dry quickly and can be, can turn into a mess if you don't have your skills down.

That's sort of a transition could be stressful I could see with someone who's not experienced in either one or the other.

So for me it's just like, and now going back to what you mentioned about digital art.

Now, if I had to, if I was forced to, you know, if a client said this, "I need this to be digital, and I want this all to be through Illustrator, through Photoshop," then I would be experiencing what you're talking about.

It would be a lot of anxiety like, "Oh my God," you know.

And, you know, and an adjustment, which, you know, I would have to make, which in terms of going from drawing with line work to oil painting, I don't have that problem.

- I know I struggle myself if I'm, I call myself an amateur cartoonist.

If I have to do something with color, I'm gonna have a really hard time doing it.

So I'm always amazed when somebody can make that shift.

But again, you know, as somebody who's been working in the industry for decades, I understand that, you know, that's your skillset and it's something that's to be appreciated.

Now I, we have about five minutes or so left in our conversation, I just was wondering if we could talk a little bit about how you get involved with Aces Weekly to get "The Convoy" as part of their weekly comic selection?

- Well, that was a circuitous route of February.

There was one we, from the time that Eric and I, and his French name is Almaric.

That's what he told me, but he anglicized it to Eric.

So I'll interchange those names sometimes.

But when Eric and I first began talking, it was, "How are we going to finance this?"

He did not have any extra money put aside to pay me and I didn't wanna work for free.

So we talked about crowdfunding, we talked about crowdfunding for quite some time.

We went through a lot of different, Eric especially did a lot of research regarding different approaches to crowdfunding.

And after much consideration, and quite a bit of time, we decided that wasn't the way to go, because my name was the only known name among the three people that were involved.

And it was also kind of an odd story, you know, is it a science fiction story?

Is it a fantasy?

Is it just an adventure?

The more he looked into crowdfunding, and the landscape, as you well probably know, the landscape in crowdfunding changes weekly.

You know, guys that weren't making any money before now are making 30, $40,000.

And the people you would think would be getting a lot of backing with their project are not, and it's so, you know, up and down and material.

And so we decided that wasn't the way to go.

So then we thought, "Okay, well, what do we do?"

So we thought about approaching smaller publishers like IDW, Dark Horse, so forth.

I think we actually did approach Dark Horse.

I don't recall the response, but it wasn't, the actual content of the response, but it wasn't positive, they weren't interested.

Eric apparently knew and had had a relationship with David Lloyd and I had worked with David Lloyd indirectly with, when I was doing the comic strip "Blue Cat" with James Hudnall.

So I knew what that process was.

I knew you worked, you know, in the landscape format.

I knew how, you know, that David Lloyd was a great guy to work with.

He didn't, you know, he just wanted good work.

He wasn't worried about the content necessarily, whether, you know, it was, had some agenda to it or anything like that.

He just wanted to do some interesting, just post some interesting work.

So he said, "Would you care to work with David Lloyd?"

I said, "That'd be great."

There wouldn't be a lot of financial return at least right off.

And I'm not really worried about that right now.

So at least that we know it's gonna be in the public eye and we know it's gonna be there with somebody who's reputable.

I mean, I think Aces Weekly's been around for about 15, 16 years now, and Lloyd really believes in this.

He really believes in getting some good digital comic work out there.

It was pretty much through the friendship between Eric and David Lloyd that this came about.

And once Eric presented this whole scenario to me, I thought, "That's fine, that works fine with me."

That takes a lot of anxiety away of, "How are we gonna get this thing out there?"

You know, I've got other projects that are gonna, that are coming to the fore and, you know, I can work these things.

I can sandwich these things together and work on more than one thing.

But the bottom line is there's gonna be, there's original artwork that can be then later on turned into a book.

And I think it'll make a really nice-looking book.

- Val, I'm gonna have to stop us there.

They're telling us that we are out of time.

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

- Oh, thank you.

- I want to thank everyone at home for watching "Comic Culture".

We will see you again soon.

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