Alle Artikel in: Interviews in English

„We do not matter“ – Interview with Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon

Brazil was the Guest of Honour of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2013. Among the many writers and artists from the country who were invited to the book fair were brazilian twin-brothes Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon. They are working primarily on American comic books, as writers and artists, separately and together as a team. Their Vertigo series Daytripper from 2011 has won multiple awards. Stefan Svik met the twins at the fair for an interview.

Interview with Luke Pearson

Hildafolk, the first comic book by cartoonist and illustrator Luke Pearson, published in 2010 through the small British publisher Nowbrow Press, was a surprising success. Its protagonist, a little girl who lives very naturally in a world full of trolls, giants and other fantasy creatures, doesn’t have to go on a classic hero’s journey but rather has some accidental, very charming little adventures which appeal to readers of all ages. This debut was followed by a series of hardcover books with two volumes so far. Aside from Hilda, Pearson draws illustrations for magazines and short comics for various anthologies, and in 2011 Nobrow published Everything We Miss, a dark story about relationships, loneliness and loss.

When German publisher Reprodukt published the first Hilda album in German in spring 2013, it earned much praise from critics. In summer 2013, Luke Pearson visited some events in Germany like the Comicfestival in Munich, where we met him for an interview. Björn Wederhake (BW) and Thomas Kögel (TK) talked with Luke not only about Hilda and her world, but also about his other work, vinyl toys and his fear of „being found out“.

Interview with Colin Wilson

Colin Wilson is a comic book artist connecting continents. He was born in New Zealand, lived in England an France in the 1980s and 1990s and moved to Australia in 1997. His first professional comics appeared in the British anthology 2000 AD, since then he made comic books for both sides of the anthology: He worked for Frech and Belgian publishers (The Young Blueberry, Bullet in the Head) as well as American publishers (Point Blank, Star Wars: Invasion). When New Zealand was guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2012, he was invited by German publisher Panini to do some signings in Germany. We met him at a comics store in Hanover for the following interview.

Interview with Greg Capullo

Greg Capullo is best known for his 80-issue run on Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. After spending some years working primarilly for the video game industry, he returned to comics full-time last year. Since DC’s „New 52“ relaunch he’s the regular artist on Batman, written by Scott Snyder, which is the best-selling title of the New 52. This October, Greg Capullo did a signing tour in Germany. At his signing in Hannover, Stefan Svik met him for our interview.

Against Pussiness: An Interview with Howard Chaykin

altBorn in New Jersey in 1950, Howard Chaykin likes to draw good-looking action heroes, preferably of Jewish descent, with a soft spot for guns, women and snappy one-liners – and he’s been at it for more than 30 years, at this juncture. At Comic-Salon Erlangen 2010, Marc-Oliver Frisch sat down with a good-humored Howard Chaykin to talk about art, ego and hip-hop – and some grown-up stuff, as well.

Interview with Robert Kirkman

[Hier geht’s zur deutschen Version.] Robert Kirkman first entered the North American comics industry with his own publishing house, Funk-O-Tron. In addition to titles such as Take, which among others included Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard’s „Codeflesh,“ Funk-O-Tron also published Kirkman’s own Battle Pope series. In 2002, Kirkman moved his projects to Image Comics. Starting out with lukewarm initial sales, both of Kirkman’s ongoing series – the superhero epic Invincible and the zombie title The Walking Dead – began to buck the trend in 2003 and have been steadily climbing the sales charts ever since. Through his success at Image, Kirkman attracted the attention of Marvel Comics. At Marvel, he wrote for company-owned projects such as „Sleepwalker“ (released in Epic Anthology #1), a four-part Captain America story, the X-Men spin-off Jubilee and the fifth-week event Marvel Knights 2099, but most of those projects lacked the critical and financial success of his own creations. Kirkman’s ongoing title Marvel Team-Up has been said to continue until mid-2006, despite mediocre sales. Other upcoming Marvel publications written by Kirkman …

Interview with Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele

The movie The Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis, will be shown in Germany at the beginning of next year. It is based on the comic of the same title. The single issues were collected and released as a TPB in the States in 2006 while the foreign editions have been published not until this year. The German publisher, Cross Cult (which is also licensee of the German issues of comics such as Sin City, Hellboy, The Walking Dead, and The Umbrella Academy), invited writer Robert Venditti and artist Brett Weldele to the Frankfurt Book Fair and a short signing tour. On October, 16th, Comicgate’s Andreas Völlinger and Frauke Pfeiffer had the pleasure to interview the two gents who have never been to Europe before … [Hier geht es zur deutschen Version.] Andreas: Okay, Robert and Brett, let’s start this interview. Is it kind of strange to promote a book that is … how old? Four years? Robert: Yes, the single issues came out in 2005. AV: So, that was the first time you had to talk …

Interview with Scott Tipton and David Messina

US writer Scott Tipton is known for several Star Trek, Angel and Spike comic books as well as for his website comics101.com, where he publishes comments on the history of American comics. His frequent collaborator, the Italian David Messina, is a fan favorite Star Trek artist. Together they worked on comics like Star Trek: Mirror Images [Spiegelbilder] und Star Trek – The Next Generation: Intelligence Gathering [Tor zur Apokalypse], published in Germany by Crosscult. David Messina is also the artist of Countdown, the official prequel of the new Star Trek movie. Andreas Völlinger interviewed the two comic book artists in November at the Fantasydays in Düsseldorf while a wild cosplay show took place in the hall right below the press room. [Hier geht’s zur deutschen Version.]   Comicgate: Alright, I’m here with Scott Tipton [right on photo] and David Messina [left on photo]. Scott, you are from the United States, but which part exactly? Scott Tipton: From Los Angeles. CG: And David, where in Italy do you live? David Messina: Rome. CG: How was the …

„Because You Have To“: An Interview with James Sturm

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James Sturm, award-winnig cartoonist and co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, has finally arrived on the German market with his graphic novel Market Day, the first of his works to be published in a German transaltion. Following an invitiation by his German publisher Reprodukt, he was a guest at Comicfestival München in June, where he met Comicgate’s Marc-Oliver Frisch for an interview.

Interview with Rob Guillory

Coinciding with the german release of Chew, we did not only chat with writer John Layman, but also with artist and co-creator Rob Guillory. Talking to Thomas Koegel via Instant Messenger, Rob told us how he got the job, how an issue of Chew is made and why he likes creator-owned comics so much more than company-owned superhero books.