Mr. Miracle's Freddie E. Williams II Performs A Resurrection
Freddie E. Williams II is a busy man in the industry, working on such titles as Lonebow, Wargod, & Project EON (Speakeasy Comics), Chance of a Lifetime (Cellar Door Publishing), Noble Causes (Image Comics) and whole batch more. Recently Freddie has been chosen to pencil the remainder of Grant Morrison’s DC epic, Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle. Freddie took a few minutes to sit with SBC and give us the run down on Mister Miracle, his other works and more!
Mike Storniolo: Well, first off, how did your working relationship with DC come about?
Freddie Williams: At San Diego Comic-con 2005, I was selected for the “DC talent search” (which is their portfolio review process). I reviewed primarily with Richard Bruning (Senior VP – Creative Director). He was really encouraging, and seemed impressed with my art, and a nice guy to boot!
A few months later, and after a few follow up emails with him, I got a call from Peter Tomasi (DC comics editor). He asked me if I’d be interested in finishing off the Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle mini series… after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I eagerly agreed.
MS: Seven Soldiers is a pretty high profile DC project, especially being your first work for them, how’s that feel? Any pressure, excitement…?
FW: Working on Mister Miracle feels great! Pressure? Sure! Though it didn’t stem from performance anxiety; in fact Peter Tomasi and Michael Siglain (Associate Editor) made me feel quite comfortable right away. They communicated their trust in my artistic abilities and seemed happy with the first batch of pages I finished for them. If they had taken issue with the work I was turning in, that would have been intimidating and probably would have added some stress, cause I would have felt like I was blowing it, but it wasn’t like that at all. We all seem to be on the same page.
The only pressure came from the time frame for these books. Issue 2 was pretty far behind so I was scrambling to finish up that book, and get issue 3 done before the printers went on holiday vacation. I penciled and inked 33 pages in 28 days!
MS: Grant Morrison has been known to come up with some of the most innovative and lucrative ideas in comics. Have you found any difficulty in translating his scripts?
FW: No difficulty at all, he’s great at breaking the descriptions down in a way I understand. Everything he wants to see on the page is right there in the script. Everything was very straightforward and clear. In fact I had the feeling that we are on the same wavelength… I have really enjoyed working from his scripts!
MS: How about some of the pleasures working with him, is he real involved in the process, any notes from him etc.?
FW: I had no direct contact with Mr. Morrison, but then everything I needed to know was in the script, or if I had questions Peter Tomasi was there to help out. I have to say that Mr. Morrison is pretty fond of using profanity in his panel descriptions, I get a real kick out of that, and it add some humor in what can be a pretty heavy and solitary workload.
It adds a level of irony, because in the description he may have wrote “Shilo’s really fucking scared practically shitting himself” then the dialogue accompanying the character will be something much more PG-13 like “Oh shoot.”
That cracks me up!
MS: Pasqual Ferry was the original series artist then he signed Marvel exclusive and Billy Dallas Patton was said to be taking over the book, but his leaving was unannounced. Do you know, or can you say, why he left the book?
FW: Honestly, I don’t know what happened with, or to, Billy Dallas Patton or anything about his involvement with the book. I just know the book was late… significantly late, and that I have been called in to finish it up, and I gladly accepted!
MS: How has the experience of working for DC been compared to other publishers that you’ve worked for?
FW: Well the experience has been fantastic!
Within my sphere of influence (the work I am producing), there is little difference. For the last 2-3 years I have maintained a very strict (self-imposed) regiment of production, keeping what would amount to a monthly schedule (working on one-shots, pitches, anthologies and pinups)in addition to a full time job. So other that being able to work on established DC characters, it doesn’t feel much different in that (workload) respect.
Though there are PLENTY of other differences! Having a page rate and dependable payment is the first big difference that comes to mind. Since DC Comics have been doing this for a million years, they have support systems in place to keep things in line, and when I have questions about anything, they give straight and fast answers, so I am not left hanging. And obviously there is a great difference in visibility; these books are much higher profile, than the independent books I have illustrated.
MS: I understand that you’re doing a fill-in issue on Aquaman, #39, any other DC work lined up that you can talk about?
FW: Just finished that fill-in issue of Aquaman up yesterday, which is why I have the time to get to this interview now. This week, I’ll be illustrating 6 flashback pages for Noble Causes #17. Then I’ll be jumping right onto finishing up Mister Miracle #4. After that, I am unsure. I’ll POUNCE on anything they place in front of me though!
MS: Who would you cite as some of your artistic influences?
FW: Early on, Jim Lee was my idol. I wanted to be a Jim Lee clone (like millions of other comic artist). Eventually I started looking at Travis Charest, then graduating to Mike Mignola and Frank Miller and Alex Ross.
Though I am sure there are some residual influences from those artists on my structure and storytelling, I have been making a deliberate effort to ignore outside influences. I just want to become the artist I am, and find my own creative voice.
MS: You’re a pretty busy guy with quite a few smaller books under your belt; care to talk a little about your other projects?
FW: I’d like to mention Chance of a Lifetime (from Cellar Door publishing). It’s definitely the favorite of the four “one-shots” I have illustrated this year. It is a melancholy book, very introspective, it's a period piece (1930's), and it's an emotional superhero story! Chance of a Lifetime has everything I want in a comic book!
Don't get me wrong, I have really enjoyed the other one-shots, but Chance of a Lifetime stands out to me.
MS: And wrapping up, anything else you’d like to let our readers know?
FW: The four one-shots I have illustrated this year are Chance of a Lifetime (Cellar Door publishing) Wargod, Lonebow, Project EON (Speakeasy comics).
Lonebow and Project EON were delayed due to some sort of printing problems (that I am completely out of the loop about). It’s hard enough trying to promote an independent book, without them coming out late, but this has been completely out of my control. I have heard that they are supposed to be out on shelves the next week or two (December 14 or 21). I’d like to encourage readers to take a look at each of these books; all four are diverse in tone and mood, so there should be a little something for everyone.
And finally, feel free to check out my website: http://freddieart.homeip.net I need to make some updates to it, but it should have some preview art on it soon.
Thanks again!
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