1) Tell us about your background in art...where did you
study and do you have any other professional credits?
Well, I've been big in art for as long as I can remember.
High school is when I really started getting more into it. I would go to the art rooms as often as I
could, whether I had a study hall or I went after school. I even dropped
Orchestra and Foreign Language to take extra art classes. From there I went to
The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, NY where I studied Cartooning and
Illustration. The only big freelance thing I've really done was for TROMA Film
Company. I did an illustration for a
Film Festival flyer. I was quite proud
of it.
2) Who are some of your major artistic influences, within
and outside of the comic field?
Hmmmm, there are so many I could say. I would have to say that Craig Thompson, Nate
Powell, Farel Dalrymple, Mike Mignola and James Jean are the main ones for
me. They're all just so amazing and I
look at their stuff constantly when I work. It's very inspiring.
3) Besides artists, are there any writers, musicians,
directors, etc. that influence your art in any way?
To be honest, not really.
I've never really thought that deep into those kinds of things. I'm sure I've watched a movie or two, or even
read a book that may have possibly given me ideas for my own stories, but I
can't recall those specifically.
4) After reading a script page, how do you tackle drawing that particular page? Walk us through the process of doing a page from start to finish...
It was really great to work on someone else's story. The most difficult part for me is just
reading the script and sketching out how I want it to look. I see how many panels the page requires and
try to figure out where I want them, how big each one is, and what angel I'm
going for. Once I've kinda figured that
out, I very roughly doodle it. I've
changed my pages many times due to either not leaving enough space for dialogue
to happen, or because I thought of a better way to display that scene. Once the
rough is EXACTLY how I want it, I lay out the real page and start getting to
work!
5) What attracted you to working on "Simon
Says"?
As I've gotten older, I've kind of lost interest in
Superhero comics. They just all seemed
too similar to me. I like stories about
regular people and their lives. The
things they go through on a daily basis.
I read the script and Simon Says just seemed like something I'd really
enjoy doing. I knew it'd also be a great way to get me back into doing comics.
I've never been very confident in my comic book skills, so I wanted to prove to
myself I could do it and that it would come out great.
6) Since you helped design several of the characters from
"Simon Says", which character was the most fun to develop?
I would actually have to say Eddie. He looks exactly like my
Uncle John. And it's funny because he
was actually the one who got me into reading comics in the first place. When I showed him the comic he just laughed
and said, "Hey, that guy looks like me!”
7) Your husband, Jason Pittman, is also a comic artist.
He assisted you with the inking and supplied the cover for this issue (and will
be doing the interior artwork for issue 6!). What's it like working with your
spouse on a project like this?
It is so much fun working with him. It's really nice because
our desks are next to each other, so we can constantly glance over to see each
other’s progress or make suggestions if we think something should be fixed or
added. He also made sure he made fun of
me every time he saw something I drew that was a little off. Like not drawing the right amount of
lines on the
football field. He
also liked making fun of the music I'd have playing while we
worked. I can't even begin to tell you
how much we laughed. I just loved it so much.
He's just awesome.
8) What are some comic titles you enjoy, either current
or all-time favorites?
I used to be big into "Cry For Dawn" and
"X-Men", but not so much anymore.
Any "Hellboy" comics I love, and I'm really big into "The
Walking Dead" series at the moment.
"Swallow Me Whole" by Nate Powell is really awesome. And I'd have to say that my favorite book
ever is "Blankets" by Craig Thompson.
I've read that book so many times that it's finally starting to fall
apart. I will probably have to go buy a
new one soon just so I can have a nice copy.
9) What are your hobbies/interests?
Well, art of course, which of course was obvious. But I do love baking. Nothing is better than homemade Toll House
Chocolate Chip Cookies and cupcakes.
Mmmmmmmm. I want some now just
thinking about it. I'm also a fan of
video games. I used to call myself The
Guitar Hero because of how good I was at the game. Then I stopped playing it for awhile and I
sucked again. I like Halo, the few times I played it. I just could never grasp the whole concept of
shooting and running at the same time.
Oh, and sneaking up on Jason while he's playing a scary game on his
computer. That is always a good laugh.
10) What can we next expect to see from you and where can
we find you online?
Working on this book has really inspired me go through with
my own comic book ideas. So I'm hoping to
have my own story "Girl In Orbit" out in time for SPX
2012. It's going to be a bunch of
autobiographical stories, both long and short.
I plan to start working on that this fall. I actually just had a really nice site made, www.dezpittman.com.
You can also find me on Deviant Art, http://xdezx.deviantart.com/. Not
all my stuff is on both sites, but I'll be adding more work to both soon.
Til next time,
Matthew
Til next time,
Matthew
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