WALRUS COMIX PRESENTS: An Exclusive Interview with Simon Fraser

Simon Fraser is one busy guy! Between drawing the superlative title Nikolai Dante for 2000AD (which he co-created), working on his own title Lilly Mackenzie and the Mines of Charybdis released through ACT-I-VATE, and jamming in other online projects, we are pleased as punch that he could find some time to fit in an interview with us! For a long time we’ve been big fans of his. In addition to his recent work on Nikolai Dante and Lilly Mackenzie, he’s also done a lovely job on the titles Judge Dredd, Shimura, and Family (co-created) all for 2000AD. For more information and a terrific gallery of his work, check out his website at www.simonfraser.net.

 

Your line is fantastically fluid, and I feel you are unique in that you are equally masterful at  'illustration' as well as 'comic art', which I feel are pretty separate as far as competencies go.

That's does seem to be true, in that I've seen some wonderful Illustrators come a cropper when they tried their hands at Comics. Comics are a very demanding discipline, both technically and the sheer amount and quality of drawing required. By the same token I don't feel that I'm a particularly remarkable straight Illustrator, I can do it , but I'll always feel that there's something missing.

In your illustration work I see some Will Elder; in your comic art, I can see a bit of John Byrne, Berni Wrightson, and maybe a tad of Bob Layton. Were any of these guys influences, and if not, who would you say impacted on your work starting out?

Both Byrne and Layton are probably stuck somewhere in my Comics DNA, I loved their comics when I was a kid. More consciously I feel very much of the British school, where I've learned a massive amount from people like Brian Bolland, Mike McMahon, Brendan McCarthy, Steve Dillon, David Lloyd and Alan Davis. Most of these guys did their formative work when I was at an impressionable age, in 2000AD, Captain Britain, Dr Who Weekly and Warrior. Latterly I discovered the amazing Bande Dessinée artists like Möebius, Paul Schuiten,  Enki Bilal and Sergio Toppi. I learned a lot from Jaime Hernandez too.

Which do you enjoy more, illustration or your comic work?

I’m a storyteller, so it's Comics all the way.

You are very active in the webcomics community. You're a member of the group ACT-I-VATE and you release the incredible serial comic Lilly Mackenzie and the Mines of Charybdis through their auspices. How did you get hooked up with those guys?

I've always been very active online, mostly because I've moved about so much and lived in so many different countries and cultures it was always important to keep some continuity with my readership and my friends in the industry. I'd only really toyed with the idea of a webcomic up until I moved to Brooklyn last year. I met Dean Haspiel and then the rest of the ACT-I-VATE crew through a mutual friend and hanging out with them really sold me on the idea that webcomics were a really vital and
powerful way of self-publishing. Being a print guy I had the usual snobbery about such things, but doing Lilly from week to week has been a real revelation for me. I don't think I've ever enjoyed making a comic as much as I enjoy making this one.

If you've been in the comics industry for a while it becomes obvious that giving up the copyright to your ideas just so you can get work, pretty much sucks. You find yourself, after the initial excitement of being hired has passed, as an interchangeable part on a production-line, servicing other peoples Intellectual Property. Webcomics give you near total autonomy while at the same time a huge distribution reach, it's very much an artists medium. Working as part of a collective, especially one as eclectic in style as ACT-I-VATE, provides the impetus and the friendly rivalry that you need when you're not getting paid.

Do you believe something intrinsic is lost going from page to screen, or is it an advance in the world of  comic art?

I get very passionate about books, I have thousands of the sodding things that I carry from house to house. I'm doing Lilly quite deliberately in a form that suits print as well as online publishing, because one day I'd like to see it bound and in a Bookshop or a Library. However the fact of being able to publish a full colour comic, weekly, internationally and almost without cost is a truly wonderful thing. It's allowing me to build an audience for my stuff here in the US and getting their feedback really helps keep the energy in the work. Online Comics give voice to so many unique and interesting artist and lets them find their audience, that the medium as a whole has got to benefit from that.

In addition to your webcomics work, you've also illustrated the titles Nikolai Dante and Family (as well as others) for 2000AD. What was the origin of that relationship? Are they easy to work with?

For a British comics artist starting out, 2000AD is really the only game in town. Against all the odds it has managed to be a very creatively liberal and dynamic environment for new talent. So while I got my  start elsewhere, it was 2000AD that really let me develop my style. I still feel a certain obligation to 'up my game' on 2000AD, to give a bit extra because I'm following in the footsteps of so many great creators that have come before. I've also been blessed to have very easy relations with the Editorial staff over the years. There's a level of trust there that I really appreciate.

You do a lot in the 'futuristic space' genre, it's always fascinating  to me how artists can come up with such highly detailed architecture and design for structure that doesn't actually exist! Where do you get the inspiration? Do you do a lot of research to make things look like they could actually work?

The great secret of drawing Sci-Fi is that it's actually much more fun to invent everything on the page than to do all the meticulous research required to get say a 17th Century costume epic to look right. Photo referencing everything is a very dull chore for me . Cities and Spaceships are all based on very basic engineering principles and you can do a lot of noodling and elaborating on those if you feel inspired. I chose to do Lilly as a kind of rustic Space Opera because I'm a huge space travel geek. I've read books compulsively about NASA and the Russian Space programs. These events are so comprehensively documented from nearly all the main protagonist’s points of view now, through Biographies, Autobiographies, Films and TV documentaries. I love the seat-of-the-pants excitement of it. How enormous the challenges of those missions were and how they were always just a burnt-out wire away from catastrophe  It was the kind of endeavor that brings out real greatness in people. I hate the fact that we gave all that up and would now rather spend billions of dollars and thousands of lives killing poor people,rather than giving them something to dream about.

Which instruments do you prefer when you draw? Any specific type of  pencil? Do you use a nib pen, and if so which brand?

Pentel Automatic Pencils 0.7mm, Maru or G Pen nibs ( Zebra or Tashikawa are good ) with Pelikan Indian Ink. Using nibs on anything but the best paper can be frustrating, so I use Schoellershammer lineboard if I can get it.

Are there any artists out there that you're excited by? Anyone we should be looking out for?

I just came back from France with a case bulging with Bande Dessinée. I bought François Bouq, Baru and Dino Battaglia. I'm now working in a studio with Leland Purvis, so I'm getting a lot of Alex Toth shoved in front of my face ( which I'm grateful for ). I also really enjoy Darwyn Cooke's work.

What's next on the horizon for you? Are you currently working on any new projects?

There's a new Dante story arc 'Amerika', which is likely to be as political a story as we'll ever do in Dante. Lilly and Cosmo will be continuing their exploits on ACT-I-VATE and I'm in the process of writing another story to follow on from 'The Mines of Charybdis'. There should be some smaller online writing/drawing projects that I'll be trying to shoehorn around that, but there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do right now.

Finally, do you have any advice to the kids out there that have dreams of growing up just like you??

Don't eat cheese before you go to sleep!

Working in comics can be enormously challenging and satisfying. Working freelance however requires a good deal of self discipline and a tolerant family for the late nights and weekends you can and up working. Get a good education is something complementary to comics, Film is a popular choice for comics people, which is what I did. Marry someone who has a good job...that's an important one. Smoking and Red Meat are apparently bad for you...which is a shame.