The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (43 page)
Read The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy Online
Authors: Bev Vincent
Q:Â Â Â Do you listen to music when you work?
A:Â Â Â I had a four-hour playlist of Ennio Morricone Western movie soundtrack music that I listened to the entire time. That stuff is cool anyway. I listened to a lot of soundtrack music while I was working on it. I ended up listening to some action movie soundtracks while I was working on the last issue.
Q:Â Â Â Do you have any thoughts on a movie adaptation of the Dark Tower series?
A:Â Â Â They should hire me to do all the storyboards! I think it will be cool. I'm looking forward to seeing it. It will be interesting to see how somebody else does a film version of these sets that I've drawn. Robin told me that they'd shown some of the work I did on Sheb's honky-tonk to Ron Howard, so we'll see what they end up doing.
I wish I could say that I'm a big Dark Tower geek, but unfortunately I'm not. I'm a big Stephen King fan, but those are ones that I had not gotten into at the time we started doing this. I like the
first one because it's more like his older, more minimal style than the other ones. My favorite stuff of his is '
Salem's Lot
and
Carrie
and
The Shining
. When they came out, they must have knocked people's socks off. People must not have ever seen anything like that. I get the impression that they're all very personal to him. I really like that about them. I felt that stylistically,
The Gunslinger
was similar to those in writing style.
The Shining
is one of my favorite books of all time. That's just a great novel, period. Forget horror novel. Forget genres. That's just a great novel.
S
TEFANO
G
AUDIANO
Stefano Gaudiano, who inked The Battle of Tull, was born in Milan and lived in Rome until his first year of high school, at which time he moved to the United States. He has no formal art training, describing himself as self-taught. He was introduced to Marvel comics while he was still living in Italy. When he noticed the credits at the beginning of the issues, he realized that people actually drew themâa machine didn't produce them. He was a huge fan of Stan Lee's superhero creations and the atmosphere of communication between the creators and the fans. He started copying pictures out of the comics and decided by the time he was eleven or twelve that drawing comics was what he wanted to do for a living.
He started self-publishing comics in the 1980s, after he moved to the United States. His first paid work was on a book called
Kafka
for Renegade Press. A string of small jobs led him to work for bigger publishers and his childhood dream became reality. Being an inker has given him the opportunity to work on a wide variety of characters, including Batman, Daredevil, Spider-Man, the Mighty Thor, Iron Man, Captain America. As a freelance artist, he also does newspaper illustrations and storyboards for animation and video games.
The following interview was conducted via telephone in October 2011.
Q:Â Â Â How do you describe the job of the inker?
A:Â Â Â The inker is usually either an artist or an apprentice, somebody who, instead of pencilingâdrawing a whole book from a script or writing and drawing his own bookâis assisting another artist to finish the drawings. Originally it was a necessary step for printing because the technology was such that you couldn't reproduce pencil work. Everything had to be done in clean lines that could be reproduced through metal engravings. Inking was developed to
turn sketches into something very clean and crisp that the printer could reproduce.
Now the job of an inker is almost redundant because there are techniques that will allow art to be reproduced from pencil. But Michael Lark, who is the penciler that I worked with on Dark Tower and also my main collaborator on other books for Marvel and DC, likes to work with me because it frees him up to do a little bit more of the design work on the content. He leaves the pencils finished enough that I can tell what he wants, but he saves himself some work by passing the unfinished drawings on to me so that I can add textures, fill in the blacks and clean things up a little bit. It's his choice to work with me to save himself some work on the back end and be able to do a little bit more of the heavy lifting creatively at the outset.
I find inking to be a lot more manageable ever since I had children. It's the sort of job that I can put aside and get back to without having to go through the process of getting back into the creative mode. Some people have an easier time penciling. I was talking to Sean Philips, who did one of the arcs, too, and he's amazing. He can pencil and ink books and he's got a family but somehow he manages to keep his head clear and get all of his work done and it seems to be something that he can handle. I found after I had children that I just could not snap in and out of the drawing mind-set easily at all, so ever since then I've done mostly inks.
Q:Â Â Â Does he send you an electronic image, or do you get a physical pencil sketch?
A:Â Â Â I used to get physical pencil sketches, but ever since I started working with Michael I've been working from just JPGs. I turn them into blue lines and print them out. Then I ink in black and when I scan them, the blue disappears and we're just left with the black lines. It's a great system because it allows me to make little changes that I need to make and it saves me time erasing and cleaning up the pages. After I've scanned the inks, I send them to Marvel and Richard Isanove colors them and they get lettered and that's a book.
Q:Â Â Â Were you familiar with the Dark Tower series before you started working on The Battle of Tull?
A:Â Â Â No, I wasn't. I was of course aware of Stephen King's work but haven't read a lot of his work. I wasn't familiar at all with the Dark
Tower series, so I got
The Gunslinger
book that the episode we illustrated was taken from and read that, but that was the extent of my awareness of it.
Q:Â Â Â Do you have any favorite scenes from The Battle of Tull?
A:Â Â Â I love the whole part of the first book that shows Roland approaching Tull. It's got a great spaghetti Western feel, going through the desert. It's a great atmosphere. I was listening to Sergio Leone movie soundtracks while I was working on the books. Michael did a great job cinematically introducing the sets.
I also enjoyed the scenes of Roland on the mule going through the desert. Richard did a great job on the very last page, creating that atmosphere of moonlight as Roland rides off into the desert with Tull in the distance. That was probably my favorite stuff to work on and visually I think it worked beautifully.
One that gave me a lot of problemsâalmost made it difficult to finish the bookâwas a horrible scene where Roland confronts Sylvia Pittston in her shack. That was brutal. I thought the scene was very powerful and I love what Michael did with it, but it was almost inexplicable to me. I was going through the motions of finishing the art and feeling really uncomfortable with the whole thing. In spite of those negative feelings, that scene with Sylvia Pittston stuck out in my mind as one of the best scenes.
Something that added heaviness to Roland's interaction with Sylvia Pittston is that Michael uses models for some of the characters, and the model that he used was a big fan of the series. But she was diagnosed with cancer while she was working on the book with Michael and that added the pall of heaviness on the series as we finished it up.
I'm not familiar with the Dark Tower series as a whole. After drawing that scene, I just couldn't understand Roland's motivations and the nature of Roland's character. It made it difficult when we got to the end, the massacre at Tull. I couldn't see Roland in any kind of positive light. I'd be curious to see what the character arc is going to work out like. There's obviously more to Roland than what I got to see, so I'm looking forward to exploring that eventually as a reader.
L
AURENCE
C
AMPBELL
Laurence Campbell, artist for The Way Station, started working in graphic design in London at the age of sixteen, before studying illustration at Central Saint Martin's Art College. He continued to tutor at the college for the next decade while drawing comics in his spare time, including work for
2000 AD
, a British weekly comic, and Caliber and Image comics. He joined Marvel in 2006. Before working on Roland, he drew other dark, moody characters like the Punisher, Wolverine and Moon Knight.
The following interview was conducted via e-mail in October 2011.
Q:Â Â Â What is your history with King's Dark Tower series?
A:Â Â Â Marvel approached me about drawing an arc of the Dark Tower as I was finishing
Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine
. I was very excited about this as I had a paperback copy of
The Gunslinger
from years ago and the opportunity to work on the Stephen King graphic novels was something I was very much interested in. I can still remember picking up the book and being very excited by the idea of a cowboy in a fantasy setting. I remember the cover pulling me in. I also remember my friend basing his Dungeons & Dragons character on the gunslinger! I now own all the graphic novels and have really enjoyed them. I've not read any of King's other books, though the TV adaptation of
'Salem's Lot
scared the hell out of me when I was a kid and I still get a chill when I hear tapping on the window.
Q:Â Â Â What are you doing for The Way Station?
A:Â Â Â I'm doing pencils, covers and inks. I'm very excited to be working with Richard. I think his coloring is amazing. In my opinion, he is an essential part of the book. Before starting my arc on The Way Station, I was looking at the other artists who I was going to follow and felt that Sean Phillips and Michael Lark brought a real cowboy essence to the book while Jae Lee, I felt, brought a more fantasy iconic look to the book. I have tried to find a balance between the two styles. It is very flattering to be part of a project with such established artists. I'm loving the way the story has been planned out and am really enjoying the art. It really is a great package.
Q:Â Â Â Do you know how you were selected for The Way Station?
A:Â Â Â Ralph Macchio (the editor of the Dark Tower series) was my editor for
Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine
. I was offered the opportunity to draw the arc as I was coming to the end of my previous strip. I pretty much jumped at the chance.
Q:Â Â Â How much are you influenced by the depictions of the characters created by other artists?
A:Â Â Â I bought all the trade paperbacks and then researched and found reference to get the feel of the story right. Obviously you have to respect how other artists have drawn the characters. Generally, though, I am just drawing what I feel is right for the story. I think a lot of credit goes to the editors who have picked all of the artists, as I think there is a line of similarity between all of us.
Q:Â Â Â How did you approach Jake Chambers, whom you debuted in the graphic novels?
A:Â Â Â When I first read the script, I found Jake Chambers's backstory very touching. I felt that while I wanted to read it, a part of me didn't want to, as it gets pretty dark. I've just tried to make Jake an innocent-looking boy. At this moment I am drawing the point where Jake first appears.
Q: What is your process after you receive the script?
A:Â Â Â The script I've been given is not a full script, more of an old “Marvel style” script, which just gives directions. At first I found this a surprise and a challenge. But now I really enjoy it as I get the chance to pace the book for myself. Because the story is adapted from a book, it does give you the opportunity to be a little bit experimental with page layouts but not to the detriment of the storytellingâthat must always come first.
You don't get too much time when drawing the comic, but you do have to spend time planning and working out layouts, costumes, etc. The more time I spend on this in the beginning, the more time is saved later on, and getting ideas down on paper can confirm thoughts in my head. I'm only on issue one at the moment, but have enjoyed drawing the open scenes of the desert. I also enjoyed Roland fighting the desert dogs.
Q:Â Â Â How much do you interact with Richard Isanove during the creative process?
A:Â Â Â When I send him the pages, I send him my thoughts of how I see the scene and possible color ideas. However, the final product is down to Richard and I have total faith in him. I purposely made the artwork more spacious on The Dark Tower because I think this works to Richard's strengths.
Q:Â Â Â How much do you interact with Robin Furth during the process?
A:Â Â Â I have e-mail contact with Robin and send the artwork to her to be approved. She always has a great knowledge of the Dark Tower, and when I have any questions, she's been incredibly helpful.
Q:Â Â Â Are you at all influenced by
The Punisher
in the way you approach Roland?
A:Â Â Â There is a certain mood and presence that
The Punisher
has that I guess can be seen in Roland, though maybe not as dark. Just to add, I'm really excited about drawing the strip. It's an honor to be part of the team.
ARK
T
OWER
G
UIDE TO
M
ANHATTAN
