Interview: Ted Mathot

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing none other than Pixar story supervisor and comic book artist/creator, Ted Mathot, on making comics, drawing and E-Ville Press. I hope you enjoy it.

Click Here to read….

————————————————————————-

Upcoming Pixar: What is your earliest memory of being into the whole drawing things scene?

Ted Mathot:What I remember most was all the artwork that was hanging around our house when I was growing up. Both my parents went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. My dad was an ID major and my mom an illustrator. They had a ton of art books around the house and artwork was all over. I was always looking at their portfolios when I was small, and it had quite an impact on me. My brother’s an artist as well, so we would bounce stuff off each other a lot.

UP: What was your favourite comic book as a kid, and what is your favourite comic now?

TM: I was a Spiderman fan all the way.

I have a lot of favorite books now, but there isn’t really one that I could name as being the top favorite. I loved Hellboy when Mike Mignola was writing and drawing it; those are some of my favorite books of all time. I will buy anything that the Bros. Hernandez put out. Paul Pope’s stuff is really inspiring, as is Sam Hiti’s. I’m also into Gipi and Darwyn Cooke, and pretty much everything that Dave Stewart colors.

UP: Can you explain the process you go through in creating a panel for your comics?

TM: A panel is just part of the whole page…in comics the pages must work as a whole, so when I design panels, I try to think how they all work together. I approach my comic storytelling in a similar way to storyboarding. I think about camera angles, continuity, “cutting”, stuff like that, but also how it applies to a comic medium where there is freedom to mix up panel sizes and shapes to create emphasis. Economy in storytelling is important to me; how can I tell my story efficiently but without panels and pages getting crammed with information. There is also the flip side to this when I want to take a moment and blow it open and really slow down the pace of things.

UP: Is most of your work on photoshop these days, and do you still enjoy going back to drawing with a pencil and paper?

TM: All of my comics work is done in photoshop, but I try to make it less digital looking by freehanding panels, balloons, and sound effects. Occasionally I draw in my sketchbook with pencil or ball point pen, but that’s just for warm up and exploration.

UP: How many brushes in photoshop do you most often use? Do you create new ones depending on what your doing? What’s your favourite macro?

TM: I did a lot of testing with custom brushes, but in the end I always keep going back to the trusty old round brush. Less is more. By saying macros, do you mean photoshop actions? If so, then it’s one I made that creates a new white layer at 85% opacity; it has the effect of putting a piece of animation paper over your drawing, also called onion skin. I use it all the time in storyboarding, so I can see the pose underneath and I use it for comics as well when I change drawings or clean up layouts.

UP: Your interested in the Civil War from what I gather, and during this period in time is when Rose and Isabel is set. Where did the idea for R&I come from and why set it during the Civil War?

TM: I always liked the idea of a strong independent female character as a lead; there isn’t a lot of that in the industry that I work, so I wanted to do something with that. I’ve been interested in the woman warrior theme too, and to give the characters real depth, which is often lacking in female characters of this type. I wanted them to feel like real people. The family aspect of it was important to me as well.

I already had an interest in the American Civil War, so I figured why not do something radical and mash the two ideas together? The Civil War was interesting in that modern weapons were being introduced into an antiquated fighting style, so why not throw bow and arrow and swordplay into that mix? It’s what the ancient warriors were trained with and at the beginning of the story Rose and Isabel are faithful to that. It isn’t until later that Rose starts to embrace firearms, to the dismay of her sister.

UP: You work at Pixar during the day as a story artist, how do you manage to find time to have created 2 comics, working on a few more in your spare time?

TM: When you love something, you make time for it. I couldn’t wait to get started on R&I after the work day had ended. The hours were ridiculous; 7 nights a week and both weekend days for months.

UP: Do you find some days after coming home from work and drawing all day that you just don’t feel like drawing at all?

TM: Absolutely. If I’m not feeling it I don’t push it either. I do a lot of my thinking visually so if it’s not happening, I just have to be be content to not draw, knowing it will return with a vengeance and I’ll make up any time that I lost.

UP: How different is it to go from story boarding to drawing comics? Are there any differences at all?

TM: I have a similar approach, except I’m more economical with the storytelling in the comics. I also get to mix up panel sizes and shapes, which you can’t do with film (well you can, but it’s not too common).

UP: >What are you personally working on right now?

TM: I’m working on a sequel to Rose and Isabel, which is titled CORA. It’s set 18 years after the Rose and Isabel story ends, and will take place right as the American frontier in the West is closing (1888) so it’s not going to be a typical “wild west” story.

UP: What was the driving factor behind starting up E-Ville Press?

TM: It came about after being inspired by co-workers Ronnie del Carmen and Enrico Casarosa. They had been producing self published comics and art books, exhibiting at Comic Con and having a great time. A bunch of us thought “hey, why don’t we do that”? So with their guidance, we were off and running.

UP: We have had Afterworks 1 and 2 so far. Are there any plans for an Afterworks 3?

TM: Yep, we’re working on it right now.

UP: When working on a project like Afterworks, do you all get together and have chats about what your all going to do etc?

TM: For the first AW, the group was very small and we would have periodic meetings at someone’s house. We’d order food and drink beer and basically do show and tell to keep everyone motivated. Now the group is much larger so we’ll do 2 or 3 check-ins over a year’s time.

UP: Did you always want to create comic books before E-Ville Press came along, or is this just an offshoot of that?

TM: I’ve always liked comics, and I drew many of them as a kid and in high school and college, but didn’t realize until much later that they would be the best way to get my ideas out relatively quickly. I had always wanted to produce my own animated shorts for that purpose but they would take years and years to complete.

UP: What lays ahead in the future for you in comics? You work at Pixar as a story supervisor, a highly desirable position for those on the outside, would you ever go into creating and publishing comic books full time or is always going to be a bit of a part-time hobby?

TM: It’s just a hobby for now.

UP: Thank you Ted for your time 🙂

TM: Thanks for inviting me to do the interview!

——————————————————————————————————————

You can check out Ted’s blog, Rose and Isabel, where you can see updates on Rose and Isabel, CORA and anything else Ted is up too. You can also find the links to purchase Rose and Isabel parts 1 and 2 there. R&I is also available for purchase at the following locations; The Beguiling (Toronto, Canada), Impact Comics (Canberra, Australia), Jim Hanley’s Universe (NYC), Meltdown(LA), Super7 (San Francisco), Isotope (San Francisco), Comic Relief (Berkeley). If your into comics, I highly recommend R&I.

Visit the E-Ville Press website to find out more about them. You can also purchase Afterworks Vol 1 and 2 at Amazon.com.

Thanks again Ted!