Dopo il preview di qualche giorno fa, immesso in rete come una slide di tripAdvisor, ed ancora visionabile IN QUESTA PAGINA, presento la seconda incursione di Haifa Adam sul nostro sito con una nuova intervista ad un autore dell’area americana; stavolta risponde alle sue domande Dan Brereton, conosciuto da noi per“The Last Battle”, pubblicato in Italia dalla Disney nel 2005, che il 21 Dicembre verrà finalmente pubblicato in USA dalla Image Comics.
Diamo il bentornato ad Haifa e lasciamo spazio alla parole di Dan Brereton.
Mario Benenati
Interview with Dan Brereton
by Haïfa Adam
It seems like Santa Claus will be very generous this year with our American neighbours, you see The Last Battle, an 80 pages graphic novella by Tito Faraci (Spider-man: The Secret of Glass, Diabolik & Tex) and the Painter Dan Brereton veteran illustrator and creator of Nocturnals. The story happens in midst of the Gallic Wars during Caeser’s campaign against Gaul (attacking Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland & parts of Italy and other areas of Western Europe) where the legendary conquerer dispatches a trusted warrior to take out a traitor who’s joined forces with a barbarian army in opposition to Rome. Unfortunately, Caesar’s General id having second thoughts about his leader, and his mission is made more difficult by the fact that his prey is none other than a man trained and raised as a son, hmmm…
Already a popular comic in Italy, Germany, Spain and Brazil, The Last Battle is now being made available in English, Merry Christmas to you America and to all English Readers!
Follow me in the interview with the Artist Dan Brereton, where he shares with us his world of arts and ambitions in the coming years.
I will keep you posted in December, since Dan will be answering more questions and sharing new stuff about The Last Battle, which i think can be a great Christmas Gift and even a Valentine’s my Ladies ;).
Meet Dan, the Father, the Husband, The Artist:
1.How and why did you first beco me involved with creating comics?
Back in the 1970’s I would create super-hero characters and mail the drawings to the offices of Marvel Comics Group, explaining that they could use them, and if they had any sketches or drawings lying around they weren’t using or could fish out of the wastepaper basket, Id love to have them. I never got a reply any of my letters, but I fostered the dream of being a comic book artist for many years after. Years later, I attended art school in the San Francisco Bay Area and met some professional comics artists through a teacher, and they recommended I show samples of comic book pages to editors at a local convention. One of the artists, Mike Mignola, hired me to create a group of characters for a Marvel graphic novel he was drawing; this was my first paid paid work in the comics field. A few months later I followed the advice to show my portfolio at Wondercon in Oakland, California. This led to my being employed as an artist. First by Eclipse Comics, then DC Comics.
2. As the Owner/Operator of Scary Oak Studios what do you want to achieve in the coming year?
Scary Oak Studios exists more in my head than anywhere else, but basically I am always either actively working on or looking to develop new properties to publish either through Image with my Imaginary Beast imprint or with other companies, as well as working with other professionals to collaborate on either new or established characters in and outside of comic books. Comics isn’t the wide-open field it once was for creators, most of the work in comics that pays is work-made-for-hire, freelancing. So I work on books or covers featuring characters like Vampirella, Red Sonja, the Punisher, Godzilla or others, when I am not working on books featuring my own characters, the Nocturnals or some other project I own. I also work for Blizzard, Hasbro and other non-comics businesses, as well. An illustrator needs to be flexible in this market and I try to be as much as I can and to that end I am an illustrator and a writer. And this also means I’m developing with other illustrators on projects I want to write as well as projects I want to illustrate written by other creators.
3.For “Flesh and Blood” you’re the cover artist, how was it decided which creatures to include and how did you come up with their poses?
My experience with that cover was not typical, actually, as the editor and creators of the title were extremely specific about what they wanted to see, to the point that I was given several rough sketches for composition, and asked specifically to put characters on the cover they needed to be there. It worked out very well. sometimes heavy art-directing can be frustrating, and other times, its a boon to an illustrator. Since Kerry Gammill and the folks at Monsterverse are so talented, it was all very easy to make that cover happen.
4. Why were the Nocturnals such a big hit?
If I knew, Id have hit after hit on my resume, so I cant really tell you. I just did what I wanted to do, for me the book I wanted to write, the characters I wanted to draw and explore and it came together in a comic that was the comic I wanted to read. If there is any success in that formula I was lucky. I did not expect readers to like Evening, AKA Halloween Girl, because when she was introduced to readers, young girl characters were not popular and they were practically non-existent. Female readers were also scarcer then, too. But she turned out to be very popular, and next to the Gunwitch, (an undead character who doesn’t speak, another type of character not seen much when introduced in 1994) she is the most popular in the books. If I had to guess, Id say the combination of horror and crime with a super-heroic bent is a combination readers liked, again, not a typical formula when first introduced in ’94. Since then, you could say these kinds of characters are fairly common, but I think Nocturnals stands out because the characters treat each other like family, and the father-daughter relationship between Doc and Evening, rather than being contentious or strained, is close. And on top of that, their world is very unique and there is a lot of mystery, most of it still waiting to be unfolded, which is fun.
5. What are you looking forward to next in your career?
Keeping it going- continuing to tell stories. Many comics professionals I speak to are struggling, working for a living, rather than feeling like what they are doing is their life’s work, what they got into comics to do. Some are luckier. I want to do more of what I consider my best work on projects that are worthwhile. Not always easy. I have a great many projects I want to explore and not all of them are comic-book stories, either. I would like to put out another Nocturnals book in time for their 20th anniversary in 2014. I’m endeavoring to make that happen when I’m not doing other work. I just finished a new Nocturnals story page the other night, actually.
6. Which do you prefer working on- trading cards, comics or graphics?
Single illustrations like trading cards, pin-up-style illustrations and covers are always very enjoyable to do, great fun. But its the comic book stories I’ve written and/or illustrated which really move people and entertain in a unique way. There is nothing so exciting as having a new book hit the stands. Like many readers, I am hooked on story. And a story exists in the context of a cover illustration just as it does the interior of a comic book.
7. What would you like to say to all your fans out there during this Halloween season?
Halloween was great fun this year, my favorite holiday for sure- which I like to try and extend in spirit at least until Thanksgiving Day. So I hope everyone has a great Halloween Season, at least until its time to carve the bird. Thanks, Haifa!
Thank You Dan,
**You can follow Dan Brereton on facebook and at: www.nocturnals.com
