Sean Phillips' Comics 2000

By Craig Lemon

Sean Phillips is approaching his eleventh year in American comics, starting with Hellblazer #31 in early 1990, and continuing on almost a monthly basis since then, right up to this week's release of Wildcats #19 and User #1. He was one of the Brit-pack of writers and artists who crossed the Atlantic at the end of the 80s, and has been ever-present at DC since then.

An occasional foray outside of the Vertigo/Wildstorm skewed view of the superhero and non-superhero universes (the odd Legends of the Dark Knight, Marvel's X-Men #1 in their "Marvel published in the Marvel Universe", the upcoming Batman: Gotham Noir), Sean has a distinctive and unique style, always willing to experiment in his art (see the "straight to inks" approach of his Hellblazer, computer involvement in User as examples).

Proud owner of Sean's Comics 2000 original, Craig Lemon chatted with him over a couple of weeks...

Craig Lemon: Before we get this interview started, can you tell us something personal about yourself? Your family life, where you were born and raised, what schools you attended?

Sean Phillips: I was born in Cambridge in 1965. I've two younger brothers and a sister. I did my O and A Levels at Castle Manor Upper School in Haverhill, Suffolk.

CL: What was the first comic book you ever read?

SP: I started getting the British Marvel reprint comics when they began in 1971, but I'd already been reading DC comics for a while before then,

CL: Your first job in comics was a three-pager in a Judy Annual, for DC Thompson. Do you remember much about that story, and how did your fellow classmates treat you after it was published?

SP: I pencilled that story in 1980 when I was 15. It was about a girl wanting to join a pony club, but her horse wasn't good enough. It was inked by a man called Ken Houghton who drew a lot of stories for IPC and DC Thompson girls’ comics in the '70s and '80s. He ran an evening class in comics and figure drawing at my school in the late '70s. Up until meeting him, I only wanted to draw superheroes and barbarians. He was a very big influence on me and really helped me a lot. All the work I had while at school was through him. He was a very underrated artist although he sadly died in 1988.

CL: You must have been taken on by Fleetway pretty soon after this, how did this come about?

SP: That was all thanks to Bryan Talbot. I studied Graphic Design in Preston, which was where he studied a few years earlier. A supportive lecturer arranged for me to go around his house to meet Bryan and show him my stuff. He was drawing Nemesis for 2000AD at the time and rang the writer, Pat Mills while I was there to let him know about me. It took a couple more years for anything to happen, though. Crisis magazine was just starting up when I left college. Because all the art was painted, the artists where already falling behind their deadlines, so they needed fill-in artists. Pat remembered me from a couple of years before and I got to paint a couple of episodes of New Statesmen. After that I was pretty much solidly working for Fleetway for a couple of years.

CL: Fast forward a few years, DC came a-calling, as they did with a number of Fleetway contributors, how did it feel to have such a big name come after you?

SP: Originally, I went after them. The writer John Smith and I arranged a meeting with Karen Berger at UKCAC in 1989 and we worked up a half dozen pages of a painted Joker graphic novel. We thought it was great and DC would jump at the chance (oh, the folly of youth). We didn't know Karen had nothing to do with mainstream superheroes anymore, she was editing stuff like Sandman and Hellblazer at the time. She wasn't interested in that project, but she did liked my stuff in general. Six months later she called to ask if I'd like to do an issue of Hellblazer. I'd never read it but of course I said yes and went and bought all the back issues I could find. I thought I'd really made it then, drawing an actual American comic book!

CL: You are probably best known at the moment for your extended runs on Hellblazer - you did a few issues towards the end of Delano's run, returned for John Smith's fill-in issue #51, then a gap and a solid run from the Delano fill-in #84, through much of Paul Jenkins' stint (ending with a smile and wave in #120). How did the return after such a gap come about?

SP: It happened the same way most jobs come about, the editor called and asked if I'd like to do it. I'd just finished on Kid Eternity and Heart of the Beast for Vertigo, and was in the middle of a few issues of Shade. Next I was meant to be drawing Egypt with Pete Milligan, and had signed my contract and started on character sketches when I was offered Hellblazer instead. I took it because I'd enjoyed drawing it in the past, and also it offered the security of a monthly comic. Although I can draw fast it always takes me a while to get into a new project, so I prefer longer projects to shorter ones. Also, drawing the character before meant it should of been easier to get back into it.

CL: Was it easy to recapture the character after those three or so years away?

SP: Unfortunately, the style I'd developed since last drawing Hellblazer didn't really fit the comic so I had to totally change the way I drew, and quickly... I was still drawing Shade when I started back on Hellblazer.

CL: And then after three years on the one title, I presume you finally thought "enough was enough" and looked for a new challenge?

SP: Exactly, I'd drawn more issues of Hellblazer than anyone else, and done a reasonable job on it that I thought that I was getting just a little too comfortable and starting to repeat myself.

CL: Which of the four writers you drew Hellblazer for (Delano, Smith, Campbell, Jenkins) wrote scripts you found the most pleasure in drawing, and why?

SP: Luckily, Hellblazer hasn't had a bad writer yet, so all the ones I worked with did some great stuff. None of the stories I drew were stinkers, but my favourites were 'Dead Boy's Heart' (#35) by Jamie Delano and 'Riding the Green Lanes' (#91) by Paul Jenkins. They both were small, quiet stories without all the demons and magic normally present in the comic. They showed that John is such a strong character that he doesn't need all that stuff, and that he's flexible enough to accommodate different sorts of stories.

CL: So, Wildcats. A tough act to follow, fan-favourite Travis Charest, even if he was a little slow, to say the least. How did you approach these unfamiliar characters?

SP: I'd only read a few previous issues, the Adam Hughes X-Men/Wildcats team-up and Travis's issues of V.#2, and those only for the art, so I really knew next to nothing about the characters. Hopefully Joe would fill me in along the way...Anyway, both Joe and I aren't interested in looking back on the past continuity, milking it dry. Comics have got to become more forward looking if they want to survive. We can't go on catering to a dwindling, ageing readership of continuity obsessed superhero fanboys. I like a good superhero comic as much as the next person, but I don't want to read a story I can only understand if I've read years of previous issues. Comics need to be accessible to kids again.

Following Travis was only slightly daunting. It was a good idea on Joe's part to want an artist who wasn't just an inferior clone of Travis. I could never draw as tightly nor as detailed as him, not on a monthly comic, but I think telling the story well is more important than a drawing of a well rendered elbow. Anyway, once it was announced I was taking over, all his devoted fans were going to drop the comic anyway, so they'll never know if I did a good job or not.

CL: Your twelve issues are up with the conclusion of “Serial Boxes” in a few months' time, is that it for Sean Phillips and Wildcats? How do you feel the 12 issues have gone?

SP: I'm having two months off while the excellent Steve Dillon fills in, then I'm back for the foreseeable future. I'm pleased with what I've produced on Wildcats in the past year. Joe has taken the tired concept of team books and taken it in interesting directions. I'm glad to help him accomplish this.

CL: What is it with characters you draw and drinking and smoking!?! Maybe you've been typecast!

SP: Of course kids, it's not cool to smoke, it just looks like it is! Drinking on the other hand is a good way to get back into the real world after a hard day drawing funny books.

CL: Next up is the Batman GN, which I guess has been finished for a little while, is that right? How was it going "all mainstream" with one of DC's big guns?

SP: I've drawn Batman before, in a two parter written by Paul Jenkins for Legends of the Dark Knight (“Steps” in issues 98 and 99). In Batman: Gotham Noir, Batman is more in the background, a shadowy, almost mythical figure. Jim Gordon is the main character, an alcoholic private eye in a corrupt Gotham of the 1940's. Ed Brubaker has written a dark noir murder mystery. I've nearly finished pencilling it and hope to have it finished by the end of the year. It's a 64 page prestige book and should be out in March 2001.

CL: Would a regular gig on one of the so-called big hitters appeal to you - say Superman, or Bats, or Spidey?

SP: I have drawn all those characters before, but a regular run on Spider-Man would be my dream job. Batman would be good too, but I don't think my style would suit a regular Superman comic.

CL: Which comics character (or characters) would you absolutely love to draw, that you haven't yet done so?

SP: I would love to have a go at the Fantastic Four or the Sub Mariner. (Are you reading this, Joe?)

CL: Early next year we will see the three-issue prestige series, User, where I think you'll be sharing the art chores with John Bolton - you on the real world stuff, him on the virtual reality side of things. How did that work, did you have separate pages, or was there some crossover between artists on the same page?

SP: Almost all the pages dealt separately with the two 'worlds', although there was a cross over on a few pages. Because I was producing my pages digitally, it would have been easy to drop John's painted figures into my pages or vice versa. I did suggest it, but unfortunately it didn't happen. We just painted each others characters instead on the pages we needed to.

CL: How did you two agree on the depiction of the central character?

SP: The central character doesn't appear in John's scenes, apart from a couple of pages. I designed her, based on suggestions from the writer Devin Grayson, and John just based his version on mine. I did the same with the characters he designed.

CL: Do you have much input into the storylines on anything you've drawn, do you even want to?

SP: I don't have any input on the stories, nor do I have much desire to. I like getting a script and not knowing what's going to happen in the story before I read it. I don't have sketchbooks filled with ideas for superheroes that I'm dying to see in print

CL: Ever fancied self publishing, or at least writing and drawing a piece of work?

SP: Self publishing doesn't really appeal. Lots of publishers are in interested in putting out less mainstream stuff, so there's always someway to get it out there.

I did adapt a story for a Ray Bradbury Chronicle a few years back, and that was an interesting job to do. I've worked with loads of great writers, and as long as they want to continue working with me, I'll probably never make the effort to write my own stuff.

CL: What is coming up in 2001 for Mr Phillips, beyond Batman and User?

SP: Nothing else is definite yet, except for more Wildcats. I like to keep my options open. All interesting offers will of course be considered...

CL: How is the Hell Eternal movie coming along, is there anything you can tell us about this - are you getting involved?

SP: I think it's still in development hell. I'm not involved, but Jamie Delano is hard at work on the screenplay.

CL: How about three to five years time, where do you see yourself?

SP: I'd still like to be drawing comics, hopefully in a healthier and broader medium. Comics have so much potential and it would be good to contribute to that in some small way. Movies can now do superheroics as well as comics, so something else has to become the new mainstream. Hopefully, not only one genre will dominate the medium as it does now. Any type of story can be told in comics. It would be nice to see as diverse a range of stories as are available in Europe or Japan.

CL: Do you have a website, is there a way for someone to contact you?

SP: I don't have a website, but people can email me at spphillips@aol.com.

CL: Do you sell the original art for your books?

SP: I do sell my artwork. My painted covers are for sale through www.comicbookart.com, (hurry, hurry, only a few left!!) but you can just email me if there's anything else you may want.

CL: Which comic books do you read on a regular or semi-regular basis?

SP: Who has time to actually read the things? I've got stuff that's been laying around for a year that I haven't got to read yet. Comics I look at the pictures of include Hellboy, The Sentry, 100 Bullets, Static Shock,and anything by Kent Williams, Duncan Fegredo, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes or Kevin Nowlan.

CL: Who is doing work out there that you'd like to collaborate with?

SP: Most people I've worked with before I'd like to work with again, but for people I haven't worked with before, top of the list would be Dan Clowes or Peter Bagge. They're both such great writers.

CL: Whose pencils would you love to have chance to ink over?

SP: Duncan Fegredo inked me earlier this year on an X-Men comic, so I'd like to get my own back and ink him. Just so I could study the pencils, I'd love to ink Mignola or John Paul Leon or Kent Williams. I'd also love to ink Kirby for a cover for Jack Kirby Collector if I had the chance.

CL: Your thoughts on the comic industry?

SP: As I said before, the potential is there for more great, varied work, but if the industry continues to be dominated by backwards looking creators and publishers, then it's going to become a smaller and smaller niche market and eventually implode. I know that sounds hypocritical coming from someone drawing a lot of superheroes at the moment, but it's not that there's anything wrong with them... For a healthy medium, comics need to be just one of many flourishing genres, easily available to the general public from a variety of places, not just comic shops.

CL: Finally, did you ever manage to get that Stormtrooper's outfit for your lad?

SP: To perfectly illustrate what's wrong with the industry, such things are only available in adult sizes!

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