ME: Usually, how do you work on a standard comic? Do you rought the whole thing, page after page, scene after scene and then come back to pencil tighly and then one last time to ink the whole thing or perhaps do you work piece by piece, finishing parts you have most interest in or which are more challenging?
ERNIE: I just draw from one panel to the next
after lightly sketching in the whole page.
-Does this process has evolved
during the years or have you mostly kept the same "routine"?
-The routine for drawing "Casper
the Friendly Ghost" and Richie Rich" was the same day after
year. I bought paper by the ton and used a template for the
character's heads, which were all the same shape.
I love experimentation. I got the
chance to do that at Marvel, where I drew "John Carter" in
pencil only on acetate and it printed as if it were inked.
Jim Warren encouraged creative
approaches on his magazines, "Creepy" and "Eerie".
For many years now, I've worked with computers, which have given me
great flexibility in how I approach any project. I haven't used paper
for about three years, for example.
-One caracteritic of your work is that you play a lot with panels borders: there is always somewhere (more or less, depending on the project) a head, a hand or something else that is jutting out on other panels. Does it comes from somebody in particular (Neal Adams?) or was it something you were always inclined to do?
-It's a common device to give the panels
a three dimensional look. I was not original in doing that nor was I
copying anyone else. It goes back to "Little Nemo in
Slumberland."
-Your panels/page
construction is often adventurous, yet always clear. At the beginning
of the 90's, the norm was to completly disconstruct the panel
structure, with very often a disastrous result. What would you say
are the keys, when somebody wants to play a lot with panels
structure?
-Will Eisner played with panel structure
and he was a master at it. His secret--and the only rule to
follow--is that there be no confusion as to the continuity of the
story or the dialogue.
-I think you mostly don't keep your original art pages and that you have given a lot of them and only keep what you are really proud of, isn't it? Have you been supportive/active in the fight for copyrigths or to have original art back in the days?
-I've given all my work away--regardless
of what I thought of it.
I'm embarrassed to say that I did not
join in the good fight for either necessity. I'm simply not a joiner.
My chagrin is even harder to bear when I confess that I've benefited
from others' struggle.
-You worked as an editor at DC on such titles as Flash, Blackhawk, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern for a little more than 1 year. I think you hold this assignment as a bitter and a wonderful experience at the same time (you would be responsible for Dave Gibbons first work in the US, working with Alex Toth on a story that was, helas, butchered by somebody else in the office), isn't it?
-My one year, two weeks and three days
at DC were a mix of elation and disappointment. Helas, indeed. Yes,
the pages were cut up and reassembled by a fellow editor who deemed
himself authorized to wreak such havoc without consulting me or the
artist. The story was some of the best work I'd ever seen from Alex.
As to Dave Gibbons, who was ecstatic when I called him in England, he
never stopped by to say hello.
-During your tenure as an
editor, you were especially caring on communication with fans: you
would answer every letter, even calling people who would send you
negative letters, and giving advice on portfolios you would receive.
In fact, you would wrote a "thank you"note in the Medusa
Chain introduction to all the people who wrote to you during that
time. Is communication with readers really important for you?
-It was then. As an editor, representing
DC, I didn't want to disappoint readers and fans.
-Once your editing days were gone (fall 1984-first days of 1985 I presume), you would still work for DC for some years until the beginning of 1988. But after that, nothing. You would never work for them ever again, switching to Marvel. Was it a backfire from your editing days or was there another reason behind it?
-Backfire.
- What was it like, working for
Marvel during the 90's, compared to the lates 70's or the 80's. Was
there a big difference in the way they treat you? (I know some others
long-term artists said that the young guys incharge back then had no
respect or knowledge for "ancient" people, was it the
case?)
-Marvel--for me--was very much like
DC in that it held great promise, then didn't deliver on that
promise. Jim Shooter was chief editor and he had great, sweeping
concepts for the entire line. Jim was incredibly, cinematically
creative. The young guys you mention not only had little respect for
the ancients--they actively sabotaged the project. As with any
corporate structure, there are always factions, envy and power plays.
For a hermit monk illuminator like me--I just want to be left alone
to do my work.
-1996 seems to mark a big change for
you, professionnaly: from now on (until your "renaissance"
10 years later after the 9/11 books), your published production per
year will be very limited. I found that you worked on 3 issues of
"Powers that be" for Broadway in 1996, on a Spirit Jam
anthology in 1998, a Scooby doo Spooky Spectacular in 1999, but
that's almost it. What happened? Was it the market crushing down,
leaving no opportunity for non "young red-hot" artists like
you? What is that you were bored by the propositions you received?
-When my wife and I bought our house, we
had hardly set foot across the threshold, when the comics market fell
off a cliff. It was a tough winter and everyone said it was the bad
weather, that in the spring sales would pick up. They didn't.
That was a tough ten year period for
comics people. But I worked in multi-media with a school chum who was
a pioneer in the business and that kept us in mortgage money. Scooby
and a few other projects were sporadic. Now, with the success of the
9/11 book and our recent completion of the Anne Frank biography, we
seem to have re-invented ourselves, Sid and I.
- You also illustrate a Alice in
Wonderland book and Bruce Voville Strange worlds around that time.
Have you done a lot of others illustrations work for books and do
you enjoy this kind of pure illustration works?
-Yes--I like to be a little pretentious
sometimes by doing straight illustration as if I knew what the hell I
was doing. But I'm really no illustrator.
- in your Comic book artists
interviews (CBA 16 & 19) in 2001-2002, you sounded pretty
convinced that your comics carrier was almost over and that you were
almost retired. At what time did you feel that something was
happening and that you would have the opportunity to return,
producing so much graphic novels? Was it just after reaction to the
9/11 books release?
-No idea where even the whisper of
retiring came from. My youngest, Becky, is at Cornell. Just finished
her first year. I can't pronounce or spell retirement. Also--why
would I retire from the thing I love?
-
What can you tell us about your next projects, like your soon to be released paperkutz GN ?
-It's based on the stories in the old radio show
"Inner Sanctum". I used to listen to it when I was a kid--with the lights out.
It spooked the hell out of me--just what a kid wants.
-
Have you been pleasantly surprised by any recent comic ?
-Ah! The work of Jacques Tardi. Especially "It
was the War in the Trenches". Fantastic work by an absolute master. I read it
again and again--each time with a sense of humility at seeing work far
superior to my own and with a sense of awe at its
mastery
TO BE CONTINUED...
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