Artists Only: Chris Bachalo

By Jason Brice

Jason Brice: Thanks again for agreeing to do this interview, it is a real thrill when I get to interview someone whose work I enjoy so much. SBC staffer Michael Franzoni assisted with some questions, so thanks to him too! Let's get started, shall we? Since this interview is for SBC's "Artists Only" series, I thought I might start out by asking you some questions that pertain generally to you work. Firstly, what is it that attracted you specifically to the role of a penciller in the comics business?
Chris Bachalo: You mean besides the fast cars, rock'n'roll, booze and women? Being a penciller in comics provided me the opportunity to be my own boss which means I can commence with work any time of the day that I prefer, play my Doors CD's as loud as I want, get paid to draw funny pictures and tell stories of the fantastic. What else is there to do in life? Did I mention the women?

JB: Yeah, you did... more than once! What tools/equipment do you prefer to use? Or can you whip out a masterpiece using a blunt HB on tissue paper?
CB: Once upon a time way back when I was a student working on my degree in illustration at Long Beach State (that's in California, USA) an instructor of mine requested of us, aspiring creators of the fantastic, to mosey on outside, pluck a branch from a tree and use that rather blunt object to draw with. What was remarkable was that my work bordered on the decent that day.

MMM? Maybe the next issue of Steam I should give the old twig a try?

An enlightening experience to say the least and should you ever find yourself on that particular Long Beach city campus of higher learning and wonder as to why the trees are devoid of branches you now know why. What I normally prefer to illustrate with is a lead holder with, of course, a drawing lead, usually of the Staedtler Mars HB variety. I prefer the Staedtler Mars plastic eraser, a kneader eraser, or rubber, as I like to call it, and a variety of inks and pens that would fill this page if I were to mention all of them. Every situation I find requires different needs. The twig is never to far away. Recently, as witnessed in The Witching Hour and to a lesser extent in Steampunk, I've found myself using Adobe Photoshop as well.

JB: What does a typical day in the studio consist of? What sorts of goals do you set yourself for that day?
CB: When I'm able to pry myself away from the women ... (Okay, I'll stop with the women. When my wife, Helen, finds out I'm going to be doing time on the porch!) I usually like to start my day at around 7-8 AM. I listen to classical music in the morning session of drawing, followed by a little talk radio, and then when I'm finally awake in the late afternoon I crank up the R@R as I wrap up the page of Steam that I started early in the day with my helping of Beethoven.

That's the goal for my day if everything works out well. That is if Richard Friend hasn't called and to discuss Rock'nRoll and inking, if Jim Lee hasn't jumped on to tell me about the flash animation class that he is taking, if I hadn't had to proof the colors for the cover of Steampunk #6 with Alex and Rob at Badass, if I hadn't discussed the fine lettering on Steampunk #4 with Sir Richard Starkings and if I hadn't had a chat with Joe Kelly on whether or not Laslo should stop Faust from killing Nixon. Phew!

JB: Are you willing to "break the rules" and throw out a writer's suggested layout for a page, and just do it your way?
CB: The only writer that I've ever worked with that suggested page layout was Neil Gaiman and that was on Sandman #12, the first comic I ever worked on. If you're talking about page breakdown in the script then yes I do take liberties at times in how I tell the story. Sometimes I add panels, other times I take them out. I may add a splash page or make scenes a little longer, others a little shorter. The most important part is that with whatever I do it's important the message that the writer is selling doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

JB: When you pass on a finished job to an inker, what do you expect them to do for your pencils?
CB: I expect them to do the best job possible, to pay attention to the details, to be themselves and most important of all to have fun. If any of these requirements aren't happening then the work usually suffers.

JB: Have you ever been really disappointed in an inking job?
CB: Yes. 'nuff said.

JB: Conversely, who's inking have you been absolutely thrilled to see over your pencils?
CB: I was thrilled when Buckingham inked my work on Death, when Vey inked me on Gen X, when Townsend inked me on The X-Men, when Thibert inked me on the Witching Hour and with Friend on Steampunk.

JB: Are there any writers that you'd kill to work with?
CB: The only person I'd KILL to be with is Jennifer Lopez and...err.. hi Helen. What's that? I'd kill for you too, Baby. Out on the porch? OK. GAAA! At this time I've had the opportunity to work with the best including Loeb, Lobdell and Kelly. If I had my druthers the guy that I think would be sweet to work with would be Garth Ennis. Check out his take on Punisher. It's a hoot. Not to mention Hitman. I'm still laughing over the Cat signal Gag. BWAH HA!

JB: Who would you consider to be your major influences? Is there anyone working in comics currently that you look to for inspiration?
CB: I don't know. After the Guinness they all look the same to me. Let's see... Growing up a kid I was a humble follower of Michael Golden and Bill Sienkiewicz , as a person in my twenties my eyeballs found the work of Michael Golden and everyone else you can image very attractive, and my influences today, a mild mannered gent in my 30's sitting on the porch, include Michael Golden and my Cliff dwelling Bros. Campbell, Ramos and MAD [Joe Maduiera].

JB: Are there any of your past projects that you look back on as career, highlights?
CB: I'm copping out , but I would say that every gig I've had from Sandman to Shade to Death, Ghost Rider 2099, the Incredible Hulk, the Children's Crusade, Gen X, The X-Men, Witching Hour to Steampunk have all been great experiences with each having their own unique high and, in some cases, low points.

JB: Shade was an unusual book for someone to break into the comics industry with. How did your involvement with it begin?
CB: I'll keep a long story short: Sent in samples of work. DC called. I auditioned. I got gig.

JB: Your run on Shade (almost 50 issues complete) is quite remarkable for it's length and consistent high quality. What kept you on the book so long?
CB: I confess that I probably stayed on the book too long. When I took a hiatus from the title after issue 27 to work on High Cost of Living, I probably should have taken on another challenge somewhere else. I enjoyed working with Karen Berger, who gave me my break, and Pete Milligan and thought that the magic on the title would continue. However, I didn't think that the quality of material on the latter run was at the same level as the first run with maybe the exception of the "A Season in Hell" storyline at the end. I enjoyed the book creatively, as the subject matter allowed me to do almost anything that I wanted, enjoyed working with the crew, and in being a part of what was to become the Vertigo line at DC.

JB: Were there any characters in Shade, or any of your other work for that matter, that you've felt a particular affinity for?
CB: Over at Shade set it was Kathy, I love the death character (she's arguably the only happy, together character in the Vertigo universe), probably Jubilee and Emplate at in the GenX camp, I would pick Rogue, much to my surprise, over at the X-men (I thought that I would dread the character. The costume switch made the difference), Ms. White over at WH and am enjoying no one over the other at the Steampunk club at this time. Stay tuned.

JB: In past interviews you have indicated you let Peter Milligan take the driving seat as far as setting the direction for Shade. With some of your more recent projects (going as far back as Generation X, even) your voice seems to have come through more strongly in the tone and style of these books. What brought about this change?
CB: Confidence, experience and my level of involvement in the creation of the series and characters.

JB: How would you describe your style has changed since you began with Shade?
CB: Refined.

JB: Working on the two Death mini-series, did you realize that the books and the character cause such a buzz in the industry?
CB: Yes. Great character. My biggest worry was in trying not to screw up the project as much as I thought I would.

JB: Do you have any plans to return to the Endless at all? Is it something you would consider?
CB: I told people at San Diego con two years ago that I had no plans to work over at Vertigo. A year later I was at the Con talking about my new Vertigo series, The Witching Hour. I'll never say never though at this time I have no plan to go back.

JB: In creating Generation X with Scott Lobdell what did you "bring to the party" as far as creating those characters? Did they spring from your pen fully formed or was there a lot of time spent in the development process?
CB: I never see a character as being fully developed, that they are always in a state of transition in one form or another. I came up with the original concepts for M, and Skin and Scott gave me thumbnails for the rest of the gang. From there it's a real mish-mash as to who did what. Scott, of course, gave the crew most of
their voices and I created most of the visuals.

JB: Did you find it difficult having to dovetail into the Age of Apocalypse story-line after just 4 issues? Do you think it would've been better if the event had not touched Generation X at such an early stage in it's run?
CB: It was debated. Scott and I did not what to join the party. In hindsight I think that it was the best work we did together.

JB: You chose to use a style that I can only describe as reminiscent of fairy tales and storybooks for some of the issues in your run with Gen X, if that a fair description?
CB: Yes. And before that on Shade and the Children's Crusade. Comics are a visual medium and as the artist it's my job it to make the visuals as dynamic and interesting as possible. In doing so I try to explore the many ways there are to tell a story. One of the options is to design layouts that are similar to that of children's storybooks. What makes comics unique is that unlike the movies, where the picture is limited to a square shape, in comics the artist has the free reign to break the boundaries and create new shapes. It's a huge reason I enjoy this particular medium.

JB: How do you / did you feel about the Generation X TV-movie?
CB: I'd give it a C. I thought that they should've made the movie similar to that of Buffy. Less super hero, more teen relationship type of stuff. Thought that the casting could've been better. Wanted to see an asian Jubilee.

JB: Did you have any regrets leaving Gen X to step up to the main X-teams? Were you as free to follow you own artistic inclinations working on Uncanny?
CB: A few. I had one more story that I would've like to have told involving the White Queen and Nightmare as well as giving a proper wrap up to the origins of M. However the opportunity to work on Uncanny was there and I felt that it was in my best interests to take on that gig. Uncanny is an editorial driven book, which means that the editorial staff takes a hands on approach to the development of the storylines and look of the book. And that's OK. It's a very important book to Marvel and they want to be involved as much as possible in the creation of the material. As a creator it's a little difficult in that type of environment in that you don't always get to do what you want to do

JB: Is there anything that stands out as something you enjoyed doing with the X-Men?
CB: At the end of the day what stands out is being able to have had the opportunity to work with the greatest cast of characters in the biz. It would be fun to work with them again someday.

JB: Some issues of Uncanny (#360 in particular) had whole teams of inkers over your pencils. Was that frustrating to you at all?
CB: The most frustrating part was in having to turn the book around in about three weeks. Which is why we had to have all those inkers.

JB: Another notable thing about Uncanny #360 was that you utilized a nine-panel grid for the first few pages of that story. What made you choose that layout?
CB: I used the grids quite often in Death, Gen X and in my more recent works as well. I usually use them in scenes where characters are having a conversation or, as in the case of Uncanny #360, where I need to pack a lot of info into a small space.

JB: Moving onto Steampunk but keeping with questions of style, why have you chosen to employ visual elements from Victorian England while retaining a quasi-fantastic motif?
CB: Steampunk is a genre that incorporates two time periods into one, usually the turn of the century industrial age and the Victorian age, and has been written about in a few novels including The Difference Engine and the Steampunk Trilogy. I'm afraid I don't have the names of the authors available at this time. Maybe someone out there can help me out. A friend told me about the genre and I was instantly sold on the style and idea. It's truly a place where I can explore the fantastic. Joe and I immediately set upon creating an origin for this world from which a story sprang. The rest is history.

JB: Was your decision to work with Joe Kelly on Steampunk motivated by the fact that you had both worked for the X-Office at the same time?
CB: Yes. And that he was young, new, had a twisted POV, and enjoyed video games.

JB: What are you hoping to achieve in the long term with Steampunk?
CB: Our goals? To create a successful property and to produce toys, games, books, movies, cartoons, etc. based on it. Thanks for the chat. Now, to find a way to get off of the porch. Hmmm?