Yesterday we brought you part one of our interview with the creative team behind indie comic series ‘Snow: The Dawn’.
Between them writer Nick Goode and artist Harry Hughes have created a future dystopian London that many creators would be jealous of. A fully formed and dysfunctional city in a bleak future that as of now contains very little hope. What’s not to enjoy?
Well, for one the series not just great writing but also some stunning artwork to back it up. In an industry filled with people trying to make it these guys are taking a serious shot at making it big with a series that doesn’t scrimp on ideas or scope.
Today in part two of our exclusive interview with the guys artist Harry tells us a little about his creative process and his background!
Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started in drawing comics?
Harry (H) – My name is Harry, and I’m an alcoholic (waves).
Nick (N) – Hi Harry (waves back).
H – Yeh, aside from that I too have no idea how best to answer that! I guess art has always been a bit of an addiction of mine, so I can’t help but get involved in an interesting creative endeavour when one presents itself to me. Comic art in particular is something that I find I can really sink my teeth into, kind of like a drawing exercise without any rules. Always feels like stretching an old muscle whenever I revisit Snow. It’s a graphic style of drawing that has always appealed to me so it was only a matter of time before I committed myself to something.
What attracted you to work on this series in particular?
N – If I can jump in here, i’m going to say pity.
H – Yeh, mostly pity. We have known each other for a long time so Nick came up with the Idea of a comic series and I’ve just ran with it all.
How did you go about defining the look of the world and its characters? Was the script particularly descriptive or did your visuals develop organically after reading the words?
H – I’ve been given a lot of wiggle room on the visual direction. We did a bunch of concepts early on but there hasn’t really been a strict format. Nick occasionally comes to me with references for certain aspects but beyond a few atmospheric notes in the scripts it’s pretty much whatever I lay down. We work on all the storyboards together before I finalise the pages so usually we make the majority of decisions there.
Do you prefer drawing the big actions sequences or the quieter moments when you can really focus on the characters and their expressions?
H – It’s all good fun. I think I look forward to action when I’m working on long intimate parts, and I look forward to the intimate parts when I’ve been drawing action long heavy parts. So I,m easy to please really. Having said that everything so far has been pretty steady, so Im looking forward to things kicking off right now.
N – And they do…
What made you take the decision to change from the full colour of issue 1 to the black and white of subsequent issues?
H – Oh I love this question… Mostly, it has to be said; to save time. But also I’m a big fan of strong contrasting visuals, I think the monotone is a great touch when working on a consistently dark narrative like this one. Nick and I have discussed revisiting the colour at some point for specific issues, but for now its staying black and white.
Your work is unlike anything that’s currently in mainstream comics, do you take inspiration from any other artists? If so who are some of your favourites working in comics right now?
H – Wow, interesting! I’ve not heard that before! I struggle to count all of the artists that influence my work, but if I narrow it to comic artists alone I guess some of my favourites would include; John Romita Jr, Adam Hughes, Tony Moore and Frank Miller. My full list of artists would be massive.
What else are you working on at the moment?
H – Mostly commissions, and a few personal projects. Aside from Snow theres no other comic work, its all paintings!
Check back tomorrow for our review of issues #1 and #2 of the series! You can purchase all four issues released so far at Comixology!
