"STAPLE! was phenomenal,
a first year show that acted like a precocious mutant baby genius."
Brian O'Malley Quick QuestionsSTAPLE!: What was your first work in comics? BRYAN: Lettering the Image series LAST SHOT in 2001 for some friends I was staying with at the time. I got into Wizard World Chicago by showing them my name in the credits, and that felt good. Probably the last time I ever felt good about comics! STAPLE!: In what ways does your life influence your art? BRYAN: My art is really just a way of processing and organizing the things I experience in my life, so they're kind of inexorably intertwined. STAPLE!: To what extent do you use digital tools in your art? BRYAN: I use a digital tablet for colouring and shading and I usually use Adobe Illustrator for lettering and designing. The actual art is drawn on paper with pencils and ink, but the process is a combination of traditional and digital means and I wouldn't have it any other way. STAPLE!: What new artists or works (whether in comics or otherwise) excite you? BRYAN: I am very much looking forward to Kevin Huizenga's CURSES, Gabrielle Bell's collected LUCKY, and the new collection of Tove Jansson's MOOMINTROLL strip, so Drawn & Quarterly has my fall reading schedule sewn up. I love the manga GANTZ and I wish someone would translate it to English so I could buy every volume. I'm also currently obsessed with the soon-to-be-complete English translations of Osamu Tezuka's seminal PHOENIX. The publication of Rebecca Kraatz's collected HOUSE OF SUGAR (by Hope Larson's Tulip Tree Press) is very exciting to me. It's happening in my house! The books came in from the printer this week, and Diamond agreed to take it on, so it should be solicited to retailers very soon. I've been reading mostly older stuff and scholarly books about manga lately, so that's all I can come up with. STAPLE!: Have you got a good convention or show story you can tell us? BRYAN: At my release party for Scott Pilgrim Vol 3 this spring, a fan who worked in a bakery brought a loaf of challah, which was the best gift ever! I shared it with all my friends. I kind of forced it on everyone, actually, because by the time I got up from signing books and stuff I was pretty drunk and totally raving about the challah. |
About Bryan O'MalleySTAPLE! 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! Our latest interviewee is Bryan Lee O'Malley, writer and artist of Oni Press's Scott Pilgrim. |