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Greg Horn: Horn O' Plenty

World renowned comic book cover artist Greg Horn gives a one on one exclusive with SBC's Adam Volk, and discusses the future of comics, superhero babes, Janet Reno, and of course… beer.

Greg Horn is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific and talented comic book cover artists working in the industry today. Though largely self-taught, Greg also attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale before beginning his career in the late 80’s as an illustrator for AC comics. His first official work appeared in AC’s Fem Force #19 and he subsequently worked as an illustrator on the Malibu Comics series ESPers. From there Greg went on to partner with Image comics, leading to the creation of J.U.D.G.E, a series which he created, wrote and illustrated.

In 2001 Greg’s career continued to develop when he was taken under the wing of legendary Marvel editor, Joe Quesada. This led to a series of highly successful covers for Marvel, including work on the Elektra, Mystique and Emma Frost series’. In recent months Greg has continued to develop as an artist, with his work appearing in numerous advertising campaigns, comic book covers, and video games (including the cover design for the recent Lord of the Rings XBOX game). His latest project is the much-anticipated The Art of Greg Horn, an illustrated book featuring a variety of samples from Greg’s celebrated work.

Adam Volk: Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat. To begin with, your new book The Art of Greg Horn is in its third printing and is about to be released in a soft cover format. Can you tell us a little about the book?

Greg Horn: Sure thing! The Art of Greg Horn is the first ever collection of my painted art work. The contents include my best-known stuff on Marvel Comics characters (like Elektra, Spider-Man, Emma Frost, and Wolverine). But, a majority of the art book showcases my work in advertising, editorial, and video game markets. Over the past few years, I’ve been commissioned to illustrate paintings for many software developers and producers like Universal, Blizzard Entertainment (for StarCraft), and Sony (for Everquest 2). I was also the regular artist at XBOX, Playstation, and PCGamer magazines for about a year and a half, so you could say I’ve been fairly prolific with painting the most popular video games of the past two years. There is another section in the art book dedicated to six or seven advertising campaigns I’ve worked on— I also managed to squeeze my Olympic Basketball poster (which is my pride and joy) in at the last moment!

AV: So the fan response has been pretty good then?

GH: The first print run of the art book sold out in a few days after shipping, so that was a relief! I wasn’t sure how people would react to a book that is largely non-comics, but I’ve been told that after actually seeing the book’s production values and design, retailers were inspired to order more! Soon after, we did a second print run of the hard covers, and this week we are on a third printing of softcovers, which was featured in the February issue of Previews. The softcover gives a less expensive option for buying my art book but personally, I think this is the best art book ever in the history of mankind, and people should beg to pay through the nose for it.

AV: Sounds like you’re pretty happy with how things have turned out.

GH: The thing I am most happy about is the fan reaction to the features I’ve included. There is a feature about my creator-owned book called J.U.D.G.E., another section showing my old comic book called “The Justifiers” I used to make when I was about 11 years old, a checklist of everything I’ve worked on since 1989, a few spreads of my favorite pencil illustrations, a step-by-step tutorial on how I accomplish my paintings, and finally some photos of the models who have helped me bring the characters to life. Many people have told me they enjoyed the last 20 pages as much as the first 124!

AV: The last 20 pages are pretty damn cool. I enjoyed the fact that The Art of Greg Horn includes some explanatory notes on your artistic techniques. Realistically, what are new artists chances of breaking into the biz these days?

GH: Comic companies are always looking for new talent, and I think that is one of the things that should give budding artists a lot of hope. The fact that a lot of comic fans are also aspiring artists and writers themselves is well recognized, so I think the chances of breaking in are pretty good. Being successful is a whole other matter! Somehow, you have to stand out from the crowd of other artists who are also trying to make their mark. It takes a lot of discipline to get up every single day and perform at the level of the best. You gotta have the FIRE! That’s why I respect the guys who have been around a long time—this is hard work!

AV: Speaking of work, you often use digital manipulation to enhance your art. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you utilize this technology?

GH: Well, it’s more like digital painting actually. I’m still painting all the strokes I used to on paper, it’s just a different medium. I try to utilize the technology as little as possible. That is one of the trappings of digital art—it’s always luring you to take its shortcuts, but you have to resist! I always want to give the art an organic feel, so it won’t look digitized (like so many other digital painters). Early in my career at Marvel, nobody knew I was working digitally until I started mentioning the fact on web sites. Back when I was doing Elektra, most people thought it was airbrush/watercolor on paper. So, I think the best way to utilize the technology is to make sure the art retains a human quality to it, because this is what people react more to.

AV: It definitely got a reaction out of me. The artwork is freaking brilliant, plus you have Brian Michael Bendis writing the intro for the book. How did he get involved?

GH: Purely for the publicity… I’m kidding. Brian and I have known each other for almost a decade. In the early days we toured together across California and Nevada— some of the signings were abysmal and nobody gave a flying turd about either of us. We have seen each other at the bottom of the ladder AND at the top. So, I knew that Brian would have the best perspective on my career and accomplishments to write this foreword. I’m extremely proud of this book as it is the culmination of my life’s work all collected into one nifty package. I’m doing really great now with work in many different industries, but the road getting here was long fought over 10 years. I knew that I wanted someone to write my foreword who had personally witnessed or been a part of this struggle. Don’t ask me how Brian typed the intro with his penis, we’re not THAT good of friends!

AV: [laughing] Well, he IS an extremely talented man. Apparently in more ways than one! Speaking of talent, you’re primarily known for being a cover artist. Are there any similarities between illustrating covers and doing interior artwork?

GH: They are extremely different. Being recognized as "the cover guy" has been a great opportunity for me. Being an airbrush artist by nature—which is a work intensive technique—the single image has always been my strength… and it is always good to play to your strengths. Cover illustration allows me to do this: I can pour all my energy, and all my tricks and knowledge into one great image, and really get my creative juices flowing.

With interior art, there is a lot more opportunities with telling the story, of course. All the great nuances of character development and interaction with others. It’s whole different ball of wax. I've done a lot of sequential art in the past, but unfortunately it was not helping me advance in the industry back then. So, I turned to improving my single illustrative skills and was able to "break through" finally, about 4 years ago! More recently, I've done a few short interior tales at Marvel Comics with the Spider-Man story in Daredevil #65, and the Elektra 10-pager which is printed in the second Elektra TPB. I enjoyed these interior projects immensely, but it is extremely tough to commit to anything longer: A full-length mini-series can take years for a painter to complete, and it is a tough decision to make. In the end, creating comic books is something I have been doing since I was 11 years old-- its one of my true loves in this world, and something I definitely want to work on in the future.

AV: Your illustrations feature some very appealing and very curvaceous female superheroes, including the Emma Frost and Elektra covers. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy drooling over hot superhero chicks as much as the next guy, but do you think these kind of images negatively portray women? Can female superheroes remain strong and still make guys drool?

GH: Strong women always make men drool—back in the 90s, I used to drool every time I saw Janet Reno. As far as the images portraying women negatively or positively, that is really the opinion of the viewer. I can tell you that I have received 861 requests from people who want to use my artwork to make PSP art tutorials and MSN avatars for newsgroups. AND… they are all women!! 861 Women who absolutely adore my paintings of Emma Frost and Elektra! I call them my “Sig Army” and I can unleash this League of Ladies on any dumb shit stain who wants to pull out this tired argument. For the most part, I’m just drawing what I enjoy—beautiful women. There’s nothing sinister about it.

AV: Damn rights! Bring on the scantily clad superhero babes…or Janet Reno. Speaking of vicious women, I’m told your costume design for the Elektra series provided a great deal of inspiration for both the Daredevil and Elektra flicks. Can you tell us a little about that?

GH: In the middle of painting the Elektra covers (22 issues total) Marvel Comics asked me if I wouldn’t mind doing a more contemporary version of Elektra in black leather. I said sure and came up with two different versions. One was used as the cover to Elektra #5 and the other was used heavily as a merchandising image. At the time I had no idea there was a movie planned, but people have told me my art was used conceptually and as inspiration. About a year later, Wizard published an interview with the director of Daredevil. He said he liked my artwork and that my leather outfits were the inspiration for the final outfit.

AV: Cool. It just goes to show what an impact comics are having on the film industry these days. But let's get back to your cover work. Your work on the Emma Frost covers was quite different from the usual superhero cover poses. What were you trying to accomplish there?

GH: I illustrated these covers before we knew what the storyline was going to be. So, I went for very iconic images of Emma that could cover any situation. At one point, we thought the series would launch on Valentine’s day and that’s why two of the covers have that subject matter. I had no idea the storyline would be about!

AV: Speaking of storylines. More and more artists are starting to take matters into their own hands and writing their own books. Do you feel that artists can do both?

GH: I think it is great for artists to write (as long as they are not dreadfully terrible). Who better to show the writer’s story, than the writer himself? Mike Mignola is an excellent example of an artist who started writing his own books and has really excelled at both. Hellboy is one of my favorite titles.

AV: Mignola definitely kicks ass as both a writer and an artist. And he's had a hell of a career doing it! Which brings me to my next question: over the course of your career you’ve worked for a variety of comic book publishers from the big boys like Image and Marvel to smaller presses. How has the industry changed since you first started?

GH: I’d say the big change since I started is the fact that it is next to impossible to start an independent company and sustain it for very long (if at all). The comics market used to be very good when I first got into the comics scene, and there were many successful indy books. But now, it is really, really rough out there. This puts pressure on the whole industry as there are only so many jobs to go around, and new talents coming in all the time. Fortunately, for some guys, they can land an exclusive deal which I’m pretty sure guarantees a full plate of work. It's definitely a more competitive market place right now, but that’s a good thing in the long-run—in tough times, the cream will rise to the top (or something like that).

AV: There are definitely some pretty talented people working in the industry today. And it seems like there is a learning curve for a lot of artists, writers and editors. What did you learn from working on J.U.D.G.E. as an interior artist?

GH: I found out that painting interiors is hard, hard work. I have 10 times more respect for anyone who paints a whole comic book.

AV: I can't imagine the amount of time it takes to complete an issue as a painter. For your own painting, you’ve done a lot of work for a variety of industries from commercial advertising, video games, sports, and comics. Do you approach each industry differently with your work, or at the end of the day is it the same process?

GH: No, they're completely different. In advertising particularly, there are a lot of people to please. In some cases you have to go through three completely different approval processes. The 2 Fast 2 Furious piece for Universal Vivendi was exceptionally rough. The art had to go through approvals at the editorial phase, then it went to the guys working on the video game, and then it had to go past the movie’s brand manager. One time, I waited six weeks for editorial direction!

AV: The powers that be are slow to move I guess. Before we go, are there any new projects on the horizon? Feel free to plug shamelessly here, we don't mind.

GH: Well, let’s start with my number one shameless plug: The Art of Greg Horn is on its third printing (a soft cover version) and that is available in the February issue of Previews! For projects in the near future, you’ll be seeing She-Hulk, Superman, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic the Gathering, Zombies, and… beer.

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