STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo 2006

Phil Hester Quick Questions

Ryan Yount: Phil, is it true that you placed a loaded gun to Leonard Cohen’s head and that you threatened the Ramones during a recording session?

Andrew Boyd: God-dammit, Ryan! You’re thinking of Phil SPECTOR! Ahem. Dear Mr. Hester, my question is in two parts: A) The Wretch is awesome, and that’s not a question, but there you go. B) Why does Hawkeye suck so bad?

Phil Hester: A) Thank you.

B) He shouldn’t seeing as he’s from Iowa, just like me. Maybe he needs to sleep around more, like my man Ollie.

STAPLE!: What ways do you find your life influences your work?

Phil Hester: Not in art so much as I’ve almost never seen two planet sized entities whaling on each other with comets and asteroids like I do in my favorite funny books. But in terms of writing, all the time. I have a tendency to always look at my life - which is really quite idyllic - and wonder what it would be like to lose the most precious things in it. That’s the basis of all my horror work. Being chased by Freddy Krueger isn’t scary to me, losing my family is.

STAPLE!: To what extent do you use digital tools in your art?

Phil Hester: None. I’m old. These tools frighten me.

STAPLE!: What new artists or works (whether in comics or otherwise) excite you?

Phil Hester: I see them all the time. I’m completely in love with Risso and his legion of apprentices. I follow indie/alternative books pretty closely, things like Project Superior or D&Q, because there will always be someone new in them who puts me on my ass. I really couldn’t list all of them. But honestly, most of my really heavy influences are older guys. In comics- Eisner, Kirby, Krigstein, Wood, Steranko, Staton, Toth, Kurtzman, Wrightson, Miller. In fine art- Rothko, Calder, Bellows, Guston, Rothenberg.

STAPLE!: Have you got a good convention or show story you can tell us?

Phil Hester: I can tell you about my bathroom con sketch, or the all-nighter I pulled on a sample script at a con to get a job, but those are about me, so who can care? Here’s one about Will Eisner.

My career began in the black and white explosion of the mid to late eighties. I was attending my very first San Diego Con as a pro and was completely star struck. I stood within ten feet of Jack Kirby, but could not screw up the courage to even say hello, same with Will Eisner. Instead I simply went to every panel they spoke on and tried to absorb as much as I could.

At one roundtable discussion on the state of the industry, the current comics intelligentsia began to decry the glut of really crappy comic books flooding the market, claiming (probably accurately) that the swell of bad books was drowning the struggling good ones. They wanted to do away with all the amateurish rags clogging up the shelves. Rags to which I had heartily contributed. It was heartbreaking. I knew I wasn’t very good, but I was so excited just to be allowed on the playground with all the great cartoonists of the day, to hear they wanted me and my kind to vacate the industry was a body blow.

Mr. Eisner quietly made the point that maybe those on the panel ought not to judge this new batch of cartoonists too harshly. That this new generation was under more scrutiny than any before it as not since the golden age had so many really young artists had their initial offerings make it into print, and someday soon these creators would probably be collaborators with many on the panel. In essence it was a gentle, graceful, noble, astute smackdown. At this point Will’s halo just about blinded me.

After the panel I retired to the restroom. Just as I finished up, Eisner stood at the urinal right next to mine. I froze. I’d concluded my business already, but kept my station. Only one year into the business and I’m peeing right next to Will Eisner! He turned to his pal who had the next urinal over and asked, “Gee, you think I was too hard on those guys”?

It was all I could do to keep from hugging him.

P.S. - Hung like the legend he is.

About Phil Hester

STAPLE! has extended invites to a variety of creators to answer a series of quick questions about working in comics, and we’ll be updating these questions as the responses come in, so check back often! The questions are four standard questions asked to each participant, and then a fifth question posed to the creator by the previous interviewee.

Our latest interviewee is Phil Hester, artist on DC’s Green Arrow and Nightwing and creator of indy gems like Deep Sleeper and The Coffin, among many other credits. Our first question comes from our previous interviewees, Ryan Yount and Andrew Boyd.