Scott Morse: Champion of Many TalesBy Tim O'Shea  Scott Morse is a talent that wiser people have been telling me about for the past few years. But it took Top Shelf’s own Chris Staros thrusting a copy of Morse’s inaugural work for Top Shelf, The Barefoot Serpent, into my hands for me to finally fully understand the talent that many have enjoyed for years. At present, Morse has two new works (among his many, mind you), the aforementioned Barefoot Serpent and Southpaw, which is being published by AdHouse Books.
SBC recently questioned Morse about his current, as well as his upcoming work for DC, Oni, Top Shelf and elsewhere. Before delving into the interview, here’s some background on Morse:
“California native Scott Morse likes to confuse the comics world by sometimes adding a ‘C" at the beginning of his name. His other dirty tricks include the Eisner and Ignatz Award nominated Soulwind, as well as the graphic novels Visitations, Volcanic Revolver, and Magic Pickle for Oni Press, and Ancient Joe for Dark Horse. In animation, Morse has worked as a character designer, storyboard artist, and art director for studios including Disney, Universal, and Cartoon Network.”
Tim O’Shea: Your inaugural work for Top Shelf, The Barefoot Serpent, is a story of two levels, the story of a family vacation in Hawaii (and the secrets hidden underneath the surface there) and the homage to the work of director Akira Kurosawa. Which came first, the basic plot or the decision to do a story paying tribute to Kurosawa?
 Scott Morse: I think both came at the same time. I always try to mix up different things when I'm writing in my head, usually ideas that have no business being together. I always find it to be a fun challenge to see if I can fit things together, to find connections and patterns in things. Soulwind was a lot like that, blending genres, etc. But I think with Barefoot Serpent, it sort of all came together near the beginning, then fleshed out as I went.
TO: Have you gotten any feedback from new fans of your work, who may have not read graphic novels before, but rather came to your work via a love of Kurosawa?
SM: Hmmm...I've gotten feedback from folks I've never heard from before, which is always nice. I think a lot of people who have never read my other books but do indeed know of and like Kurosawa decided to try this out and then luckily enjoyed it. I have gotten a few comments along those lines. So I guess that did happen to some extent! Either way, I'm glad people are enjoying the story. It's just as gratifying to hear that a long-time graphic novel reader picked it up and liked it, simply because there are so many good books out there these days to take a chance on. It's great to hear mine is the one they tried.
TO: How ever did you get such high profile blurbs for the book, such as the praise from actor Don Cheadle?
 SM: I've worked with Don on a project he'll be directing, something in the early stages. Working with him has been a real treat, as we share a lot of the same interests, we discovered early on, Kurosawa's work being one of them. When I asked if he'd be kind enough to give it a read, he said he'd be happy to, and he got a me a quote to use within a couple of days. He's really an extraordinary person.
Scott Mosier and I have been pals for a bit now, and we've also talked about our common interests in the past, again with Kurosawa being a big one. Mark Andrews is a good friend from college and we're always talking film. Brian Azzarello is one of the most clever storytellers out there these days, and I thought it'd be great to get his views on the book since he's so good at playing different elements off of each other, something I attempted in Barefoot Serpent.
Stan Sakai was about the only person I could've asked to write the intro, simply because as a person he echoes so many of the elements of the book: he's an amazing storyteller, like Kurosawa...he's Japanese-American, having grown up in Hawaii...his own work echoes many of Kurosawa's themes. Stan is an extremely kind person, and I'm just so fortunate to know him.
TO: Would you ever consider doing another book along these lines, that might pay homage to another favorite film-maker of yours, or is this a one-time deal?
 SM: I honestly don't know. I have lots of ideas for projects catalogued in my head, and when one's ready, I do my best to produce it. I think if I did something in the same sort of format it'd feel like I was rehashing, and I really want to avoid that. I try to change up everything every time I do a new story so I get to learn as I go, to experience new things in the process. If I were to do another project stemming from a film-maker, I'd more than likely approach it differently.
TO: Some of your current/upcoming work is published at Top Shelf, while Southpaw is published by AdHouse Books. Was it a matter of Top Shelf expressed interest in particular projects, or do you pitch your work to different publishers, depending on the kind of tale you want to tell?
SM: I've been trying to do different types of books with different publishers, weighing how the publisher in question is best suited to market the book/produce the book. Top Shelf has garnered a certain fanbase, Oni has garnered a certain fanbase. AdHouse is on the verge of becoming big, I think, and I wanted to be a part of something as it was growing. Everyone I work with is top notch in every regard, and friendly, or I wouldn't deal with them. It's that simple. I like working with people I know and feel I can trust to do the best job possible with a given project. I'm just lucky these guys all want to work with me!
TO: Given how your work is published, with the elevated attention to quality and logistical nuances , I would think your collaborative relationship with publishers would be a major concern. With that in mind, what is it that you most appreciate about the back and forth editorial communication between your various publishers (Top Shelf, Ad House, Oni…)?
SM: The main thing with what I try to get out of my creator-owned work is the opportunity to be me. I really love that I can completely envision every aspect of a project myself, from design to style to content to execution. What I get out working with these amazing publishers is that they LET me do my thing and support me when and where I ask for it. With AdHouse, Chris Pitzer came up with some amazing design ideas. Top Shelf as well, with Brett Warnock, helping out with design aesthetics. Top Shelf is great because they let me do my thing and then still questioned my thinking on the final product, playing devil's advocate, really, to make sure we were committing to doing the right things in regards to design and marketing. They're amazing guys, both Brett and Chris, very accessible and very smart about what works and what doesn't. With Oni, it's a matter of knowing I'll have a strong support structure all along the way, as well. They're great about hearing me out on everything from paper stock to design, story content, etc. The great thing is NONE of these guys are scared to tell you what they think, and compromise is an extremely important aspect of production. The best ideas win, always. It's nice to know these guys will hear out EVERY idea and it's great to know their ideas are always going to "plus" a project, no matter what stage.
TO: Awhile back I interviewed Lawrence Marvit. At one point, we discussed the influence that Maurice Noble had on his work. Marvit mentioned that you also had studied under Noble. What skills or wisdom/perspective did you gain from working under Noble? What other creators help educate and inform your current style?
SM: Geez, that's a huge question! Maurice was my mentor. I left CalArts during my Sophomore year as I was working with Maurice. I knew I would learn more from him that I could in school, and I'm so thankful to have worked with him. He hand-picked a crew of maybe five or six of us to work with at Chuck Jones Film Productions. We'd sit and go over drawings, paintings, color ideas, watch old films, discuss storyboards and writing, just everything. It was invaluable to hear him talk. We're talking about a man who worked for Disney BEFORE they were doing features, a guy who worked on SNOW WHITE, DUMBO, FANTASIA, BAMBI, and PINOCCHIO...he worked with Chuck and Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) on the Frank Capra Film Unit in WWII. He worked with Walt Kelley at Disney, not to mention Ty Wong and everyone else. He went to school with Mary Blair. The stories he told were just as important as hearing his say what shade of purple to use where. I miss him.
As for other influences, I look to everything. It's something Maurice and a lot of other people have taught me to do: find inspiration everywhere. I appreciate, or try to appreciate, something in everything I see and do my best to find what I can take away from that experience. I try not to be influenced by any one artist or storyteller. Some of the best material is what you hear in line for a movie, not what was IN the movie.
 TO: How important was it that Southpaw was printed with orange (Tiger) ink on orange paper? Do you think the work would be as striking/effective if it was in gray tones on stark white paper? Also, was there any significance to the fact that some of the dialogue boxes (not all), featured white backgrounds? Was this an effort to add more urgency/emphasis to those lines?
SM: It was an early design decision to do it in orange ink. I don't think it would've worked as well any other way. Chris Pitzer came up with the idea to have the gradations change as the time of day within the story changed, so you get darker pages at night and lighter pages in the day. It's all actually one color of orange ink on white paper, with different percentages of the ink in different areas. It gives the book a two-to-three color feel as opposed to one. I think every word balloon is white...unless we missed a couple! (SBC Note: Morse is correct, as I was mistaken, only the story’s sound effects lacked white backgrounds) That was just to punch up the dialogue on the page, really.
TO: Would I be correct in assuming you have an abiding respect for the power (and ability to properly ration its use) of color when contrasted against black & white storytelling, given the design choices made in Southpaw, as well as more noticeably in Barefoot Serpent (where the book opens and closes in full color [and with a completely different paper stock])?
SM: Oh yeah, definitely. My background in animation as an art director is all about color choices, so when it comes to my own work in literature, I do my best to art direct every aspect in regards to how it might help strengthen the story. Some things need to be in color to help contrast points, or to emphasize a specific point. Mood and atmosphere are key ingredients in these decisions, too. With Barefoot Serpent, I wanted the sections about Kurosawa, about "real life", to be as vivid as possible to contrast the feel of his films (ie, black and white, atmospheric, "widescreen", subtitled). The paper stock change helped lend to this, as well as subliminally emphasize a connection to Manga, where different paper stocks often appear in the same book. It was another echo of the over-all Japanese/American theme.
TO: This may be an ignorant question to you (and to many readers), but what does the fight of the animal versus a robot mean in terms of the book's underlying symbolism?
SM: Southpaw's animal/robot theme is really a sort of commentary on the common man versus society. It's an attempt to make the animals (or specifically Southpaw) a throwback to the working man of the 30's and 40's, from Hemingway and Steinbeck and films like Sturges' SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS to what bled into the Beat Generation eventually. The robots are society, "modern progress", etc. It's about the spirit of man carrying on form generation to generation in the face of adversity.
TO: With the arrival of November brings Oni Press' release of The Complete Soulwind (nearly three years after the last of the five graphic novels in the series was released). With the passage of time and the subsequent gained perspective, what are the strongest elements of the 520-page epic?
SM: I think the fact that I got to produce a huge zen tale in comics form is the real trick with Soulwind. It's not what it seems, but it's everything that it seems at the same time. It started out as a device to play with different genres and different types of storytelling in one place, and became a big riddle about existence. I'm happy that I was able to produce something that I feel is truly unlike anything else on the comics market while still playing with conventions and tools that are familiar to every comics reader. That's a broad answer to a specific question, but I think it fits with the overall theme of the book...;)
 TO: As mentioned in the announcement of the collected Soulwind edition, you "tried on several different art styles, all of which return for specific sections of the finale" How challenging was it to shift from the varying styles throughout the work?
SM: Changing styles is something I've always had to do in animation, as every project has a slightly different look. I try not to stagnate when it comes to artistic delivery, and with Soulwind, I gave myself the opportunity to play on purpose. So I guess it wasn't so much hard for me to change form style to style, but to decide what the next style would be based on the content of the story elements in question. I wanted a more classic style, more detail of line, on the "sci-fi" sequences, as that's a style employed by the sci-fi greats, from Alex Raymond on. I wanted a more dated line, reminiscent of the illustrative styles of the 30's, for the "noir" sequences. I wanted a rougher, more organic style for the Arthurian sequences, and something a bit more "storybook" for the sequence about the faeries. And of course the Chinese brush style for the bookending sequences.
TO: What prompted you to provide an overview of your creative process at your website?
SM: A lot of e-mails from fans asking "what kind of paint do you use?" and "what's your process?" It's the best answer I could give.
TO: How does your animation work influence your comics work and vice versa?
SM: I think in terms of storytelling, they're both visual mediums, so they have many things in common. I try to bring over my animation influences into comics because comics fans don't get to hear about many of the unsung greats of animation. Film language is a great tool in comics storytelling, though it's got to be remembered that it's just a tool...comics are NOT storyboards. They've got other language elements that film doesn't, and different challenges when it comes to design aesthetic and pacing. Comics, I've found, are a huge influence on animation and film in that they're a blatant example of how style can dictate tone and atmosphere in drastic ways. How many people in film have you heard citing Mignola as an influence? A ton, and with good reason. It's his drastic, clear, effective storytelling. The two mediums have so much in common, but so many things are unique to each that you can't help but separate and love both.
TO: How did the Hellboy short in Weird Tales #5 come about?
SM: In the past I've always bugged Mike about letting me do a Hellboy story, and he's always been interested in other people's takes, but ultimately it's been left up to Scott Allie and Dark Horse to figure out the best way to make that happen. When Weird Tales came around, I called Scott and forced myself on him, reminding him of all the times Mike and I had discussed me doing something with Hellboy. They were gracious enough to let me play!
TO: It's been recently announced (as detailed at your message board message board) that you'll be working on a prestige project for DC--Batman: Roomful of Strangers, a 64-page painted mystery starring Jim Gordon. Would it be fair to say this is a major departure for you? What inspired you to take a spin with one of the major characters of Gotham?
 SM: Bob Schreck and I had talked in the past of working together at DC. We worked up this idea for a Gordon story, using the excuse of his absence from Gotham as the key element. I wanted to have a story that showed Gordon as a strong individual, as someone who can still kick ass with or without Batman as a crutch. It harkens back to old films and stories like KEY LARGO, playing up our hero thrown into a situation where he's the only one with enough gumption to resolve. The deeper elements play with his connections to Batman, how they're forever destined to be entwined by their views of the world. On a project like this, once you get past the "oh man, I'm working on a Batman book!" feeling, you just start to make it your own, to find your own voice in the context of the larger picture. I'm lucky to get to work with people like Bob and the good folks at DC.
TO: In addition, I was wondering, could you elaborate on this teaser yet (again from your board):"I'm currently working on a fully painted fill-in issue of a new DC title, too...can't say what yet, but it's FUN FUN FUN."
SM: Nope, not yet. I'll get busted. It is the most fun I've had in awhile working on a comic, though. It's an absolute joy to go in and paint pages for this thing...this weekend will be my last few pages, and I'm sort of sad to see it ending! It should be announced relatively soon, I hope...sorry I can't say more!
TO: Looking ahead at Top Shelf's publishing schedule, your Lyrical Whales project is slated to be released in June 2004. Am I correct in thinking that I read this was originally planned as a live-action project? Or is that project still in the pipeline, and in the interim it has also evolved into a graphic novel?
SM: It's evolved, and may evolve back at some point, but they'll be pretty different. The book details the friendship between a struggling children's book writer and his neighbor, and elderly woman with Alzheimer's who used to work in the theatre. It's another very poetic outing for me, and the flow of the story while I write this as a graphic novel is much more pleasing to me than when I wrote it as a screenplay. It's just so much more specific to what I want to accomplish as a storyteller...and I'm finding the more I do comics and graphic novels, the less I want to do film and animation!
TO: What can you tell folks about your upcoming Spaghetti Western project for Oni?
SM: It's my next graphic novel after Lyrical Whales...another idea I had for a film that'll make a much better graphic novel. Spaghetti Western will detail the fictional events of a modern-day bank robbery by three individuals. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that the way in which the story plays out is unconventional. The story starts during the robbery, and you'll learn about these guys as events unfold. It's a pretty big challenge for me, and I'm looking forward to people's reactions. We're shooting for a mid-2004 release. More on this one soon...
Update 11/14/03: Additional Batman/Gordon graphics courtesy of DC's Adam Philips
 
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