Brian Bolland, Bernie Wrightson, John Byrne, Todd McFarlane, my friends who started drawing comics the same time I did, etc.  All of them were helpful in some way.  They each helped me define my own approach to drawing.

3)  How would you describe your style or your intentions within that style?

I don't know how I'd describe it, but I think I mean to take extraordinary things and make them look believable, without becoming photorealistic.  It's a fine line.  I find photorealism to be boring, in most cases.  But the drawings have to look alive. Detail, unique expressions, careful acting, that's all a part of what I'm trying to accomplish.  Also, I put a lot of thought into what I call subliminal storytelling, where using certain shapes, camera angles, and hidden images, I try to impress a feeling on the reader without being blunt.  It gives the storytelling a little more 'oomph', and when you're working in 2 dimensional frames, you need all you can get.

4)  What projects are you currently working on?

GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH, a six part miniseries with writer Geoff Johns, after which I will continue on to the regular GREEN LANTERN series in 4 issue arcs here and there.

5)  What, if anything, do you have planned for the future?

It's good to have plans.  I have lots of plans.  But things change, new opportunities emerge, and it'd be unwise to set anything in stone.  However, I'm looking forward to a chance to work on Wonder Woman in some capacity.  And the Flash.

6)  What has been the proudest moment of your career to date?

I think this, right here, GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #1's remarkable success, both commercially and critically.  It's a nice peak to have reached.

7)  What are the most interesting characters, to you, that you have worked on?

I enjoyed creating a villain called Murmur, back in 2001's FLASH: IRON HEIGHTS prestige one shot, also with Geoff Johns.  The two of us had a nice little phone conversation one afternoon, trying to come up with the most disturbing, creepy villain the DC universe has ever seen.  The end result, a serial killer who compulsively confesses his own crimes and decides to cut out his own tongue and sew his lips closed, remains one of my favorite things I've ever been involved with.  I love giving fans all over the world the shivers every now and then.

8)  When you eventually leave this field, what would you like to leave as your lasting impression on the public?

Well, I don't hope to ever leave this field.  I want it to be my life's work.  But if I do disappear somehow from the comics scene, I hope people remember some of my better efforts, and I hope they get reprinted in a cool hardcover volume called "The Best of Ethan Van Sciver" or something like that.  You have to reach the absolute top to get something like that made, like Jim Lee or John Byrne.  But those guys did it.  Maybe I can too.

9)  Do you have any shameless plugs?

Not really.  I hope people look out for future projects from me, but there's no shame in asking that, and there's nothing coming up that I haven't mentioned.

10)  If you had one sage piece of advice to try to break into the business…what would it be?

Make sure this is something you want to do for a long time, because if it is, you've already been doing it on your own, and you'd do it anyway for free.  It's a tough, competetive business with peaks and valleys, and it takes a lot of nerve to hang in there.  But it's worth it.

 

Exclusive Interview by……………Ken Anthony II
                        With Jason Franks

1)      How did you get into the comics industry?

I dunno if you’d say I’m ‘in’ the industry, exactly, with only one or two mini-comics under my belt, but I got into indie publishing through mucking around on the internet.  Long story short, Marc Schmidt expressed the desire to draw a short story for someone on a message board and I had a script lying around.  When the art came back I was hooked—I had to write another, and another, and suddenly I found myself with enough material to produce a book of short stories.  Once I realized that, I focused on writing a variety of pieces in different genres and finding artists.  Now I’m almost ready to go to the printers.

2)      Who do you feel are your biggest influences?

As far as comics writing goes, I’d have to say that Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis and Alan Moore.  Garth’s storytelling craft, sharp dialog and comic timing are second to none.  Warren’s general nastiness… his ability to make unsympathetic characters compelling… is also something else that I admire.  And Alan Moore is just the king, you know?  His stories are always layered and thought –provoking and perfectly executed.  I’ve stolen numerous ideas from Brian Bendis’ work, too, although I don’t think I could (or would want to) work in that style.

I’m not much of an artist, but as far as that goes, Frank Miller’s Daredevil work, as well as his chiaroscuro Sin City stuff is a big influence.  Leonardo Manco’s dirty, textured art looks _exactly_ the way I wish a lot of my art looked.  Steven Pugh is justly renowned for his cheesecake art, but I think he actually does ugly people and madmen better than anyone else.  Simon Bisley’s bodacious figures are still the primary influence on the way I draw action.  Learned a lot about visual storytelling from Steve Dillon.

3)      How would you describe your style or your intentions within that       

style?
Writing wise, I try to be cinematic and natural.  Humor is important, too, because I write pretty dark most of the time.  I try to keep things moving, but I feel that it’s important to know how and when to vary the pacing throughout any given work.

Artwise, I value storytelling above draftsmanship or polish.  I try to draw regular people, rather than steroid-freaks or stick figures.  I like to use fast, broad brushstrokes for my inks, or sometimes heavily textured shading on top of tighter blacks and clearer detail.  I’ve been trying to develop a smoother pen style as well.  I think there’s a lot of interesting things you can do by varying inking styles within a piece and I’ll be playing with that a lot more in the future.




4)      What projects are you currently working on?

1)      A 32 page anthology of short stories called One More Bullet, containing a variety of stories in different genres: a holocaust story, a horror story, science fiction, and a war story.  Art is by J, Marc Schmidt (Egg Story), Nathan Wiedemer (Same Old Story), David Richardson  (Atomic Age Adventures) and myself.  All stories were written by me, except for the 3 page Same Old Story short by Steve Mangold and Nathan Wiedemer.

This may blow out to 48 pages and include a travel story, a samurai piece and domestic drama/crime piece, depending on how quickly the art comes in (I had planned these latter stories for a second volume, but if they’re going to be done in time, hey!).

               

2)      A pitch for the After Hours anthology called ‘Gavotte’ with Steve

Mangold. 

       
                3) A lot of prose fiction and a couple of screenplays.

5)      What, if anything, do you have planned for the future?

1)      A second volume of comic short stories.  A big, badass multi-genre action graphic novel called ‘The Badman’.  I’m also thinking of adapting one of my screenplays to comics and pitching it to Tokyopop, if I can find a manga artist with the right style.

 

2)      Lots more prose work.




6)      What has been the proudest moment of your career to date?

Getting that first story back from Marc Schmidt.  Seeing an artist to invest that much time and effort into visualizing a bunch of words I slapped together and ask for more is a massive deal to me.  Any time an artist gives me back work is a huge validation for me: they believed in what I’ve written enough to invest hours of blood, sweat and tears without payment.  Their effort means more to me than any monetary reward (this may change when my books start selling a million copies apieceJ.

7)      What are the most interesting characters, to you, that you have

worked on?
I’ve only ever worked on my own characters, so this is … I kinda like all of them!

I always preferred villains and monsters and losers to heroes.  Stein, from ‘One More Bullet’, gets a lot of people talking.  Otherwise, I guess my favorite character that I’ve created for comics (and one of the few I hope to revisist in other stories) is Netsure, the samurai who’ll do and/or pull any kind of underhanded tricks necessary in order to preserve the appearance of being honorable.  (He may not appear until the second volume of my short stories book, though).

8)      When you eventually leave this field, what would you like to leave as your lasting impression on the public?

I’d love to have an audience!  I don’t have any work generally available yet and I’d love to have a bunch of people who read it.  Otherwise, I’d like to be remembered as someone who wrote interesting and original stories.

9)      Do you have any shameless plugs?

My book One More Bullet, which should (hopefull!) be available in January.

My buddy Marc Schmidt’s graphic novel Egg Story, out now from Slave Labor Graphics.

Steven Mangold and Nathan Weidermer’s ‘Same Old Story’ mini-comics, available from www.bluerosestudios.net.

10)If you had one sage piece of advice to try to break into the

business …what would it be?
Well, I dunno if you’d consider me someone who has broken in, but my advice is: do the work you want to do, then find the right venue and sell the hell out of it.  Keep trying to sell and keep working on more stuff—you’ll only improve your abilities and your chances.  Self-publish something as a showcase for your abilities; it’s the only way to get invited to pitch it to big publishers unless you are a rock star or a Hollywood personality.

 

Member of the Small Press Syndicate and Tampa Bay Comic Colleagues.