Chris Samnee is a pretty cool sequential artist. I interviewed him about 6 months ago.
I though since his book with Joss and Zack Whedon just came out 2 weeks ago I should post the interview for all.
When I interviewed him Area 10 had just come out.
Chris Samnee is a sequential artist who has worked for Marvel, DC, Oni, and Darkhorse. His latest book is ‘Area 10’, part of the Vertigo Crime series, written by Christos Gage.
1. It has been said that a working comic artist must have at least 2 of the following qualities: 1) fun to work with, 2) fast, 3) really good. Would you say that 2 of these qualities match you, or would you contribute your success as a working comic artist to another factor?
Hope this doesn’t come across as egotistical, but I would say all three actually match me! No doubt, I am a fast artist. It typically takes me 4-5 weeks to pencil and ink a 22 page issue. I think being able to work at this speed has been a real asset in terms of finding work with editors. Once an editor knows that they can depend on you to deliver fairly quickly, they are much more likely to hire you. However, I think most editors want you to not only be timely, but good. I guess it’s subjective, but I like to think that editors keep hiring me because I deliver well-crafted pages on top of being a quick artist. No matter how fast you are, you still need to be good to keep getting work in this industry. And, I like to think I’m fun to work with – but I guess you’d have to ask my collaborators about that!
Aside from these three qualities, I think tenacity is a very important quality to be a working comic book artist. There were many points in my career so far when it would have been much easier to give up and find a different line of work. This business is rife with disappointment, but having the drive to keep going after it really determines your success as a comic book artist.
2. You have worked on black and white books. Would you briefly describe the components you feel lead to successful visual composition when the element of color, and in some cases ‘value’, has been removed, especially when dealing with a realistic art style like what you used on “Area 10”?
When I work in black and white, I don’t even think of color as being removed. A good comic should work just as well, if not better, in black and white than in color. Even though all of my work is being colored now, I approach all my page compositions the same way. The addition or absence of color has no bearing on my compositions since I still used spotted blacks to move the reader’s eye. The only real difference, for me , between working in b&w versus a color book is that I’m conscious of closing my lines when I know it’s being colored. And the longer I work with a colorist, the more comfortable I feel leaving lines open, knowing that they’ll make the right choices when it comes to coloring.
3. As a visual storyteller, what have you learned about working with writers? How much freedom do you have to tell stories in effective ways according to your own tastes?
Well, I haven’t really worked with two writers that have approached it the same way, so a lot of this just depends on who I’m working with. Some writers are very detailed when it comes to camera angles, panel descriptions, etc. Others are very general in their descriptions and leave all of the interpretation to the artist. Personally, I prefer something in between these two extremes. I like enough information to know that I’m going to draw the scene as they intended, but enough freedom to chose my own camera angles or compositions. Truth be told, even if something specific is written into the script, but I don’t feel it works on the page, I’ll deviate a bit from what was written. As long it serves to tell the story better, I’ve never had a writer upset that I changed a bit here or there – most even encourage it.
4. What tools do you use (other than the pentel brush pen…BTW, very cool ‘Swamp Thing demo’ online)?
For pencilling, I use a 4H hard lead for ground work, then tighten a bit with a .9 HB mechanical pencil. To ink, I use a Faber-Castell PITT pen, size M for basic outlines and any straight edge work. Then a Faber-Castell PITT pen size B for fine detail like faces and hair. I also use Raphael brushes between sizes 2 and 6 when I want to do traditional brushwork or for split-brush techniques. Right now I’m using Rapidograph Rapidraw ink with brushes. The other 70% of my ink work is done with the Pentel Color Brush (as seen in the video). I keep two of them on hand, one wet and one halfway dry.
5. What artistic goals have you set for yourself? What do you hope to accomplish next?
Artistically, I’m always trying to improve my craft and get better. For a long time, my goal had been to be the artist (pencils and inks) on my own monthly book. Happily, I’m currently working on my own monthly title (Thor: The Mighty Avenger for Marvel – written by Roger Langridge) as of just a few months ago. As icing on the cake, I’m also doing the covers for this book – which has been another goal of mine. Since I’ve just now accomplished this goal, I haven’t given a whole lot of thought to what is next.
I’d love for Thor: The Mighty Avenger to have a nice long run and a lot of fan and critical support. There are a slew of writers I’d love to work with someday – Ed Brubaker, James Robinson, Sterling Gates, Marv Wolfman, Mike W. Barr, Mike Mignolia, and more. I’ve always dreamed of working with Joss Whedon, which I’m currently doing on the Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale OGN for Dark Horse. There are also a bunch of characters that are on my bucket list to draw for publication – Batman (of course), more Spider-Man, more Daredevil, Captain America, Jimmy Olsen, Fantastic Four, Superman, the list goes on.
I guess my most immediate goals are to get down to one project (I’m currently on two) and to start having normal person work days! I’d love to be at the table for a still respectable 10-12 hours a day, instead of the 18 I’m currently doing. Does taking my wife on a real vacation count as a goal? If so, that’s one too! :)
