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Monday, October 3, 2005
Catching up with Tom Derenick
By
Rik Offenberger
Tom Derenick's run
on JLA starts in two weeks on October 12th with issue #120, the
first part of "World Without a Justice League" written by Bob Harras. In
between thos issues, he's also got an issue of Superman
that he's filling in on. But so goes the career of Derenick - a litlte
of this, a little of that, resulting ultimately, in a lot of everything.
Btween penciling sessions, Derenick was able to fit in a few questions
with Newsarama.
Newsarama:
I first noticed your work on the Ferret from Malibu, was that
your first regular job?
Tom Derenick:
Actually, my
first assignment was for Cry for Dawn Productions on a book called
Subtle Violents I drew a 14 page story titled Ahryssia for
Joe Linsner and Joe Monks back in 1990 I believe, although I think it
was published in '91. In '91 I was hired by Malibu Comics to draw a six
issue Protectors miniseries. Then I drew the Ferret one
shot. It was publish right around the time of Protectors #1
though which is probably the reason you saw it first.
NRAMA: How
did you get that job?
TD:
Chris Ulm, the Editor-In-Chief of Malibu at
the time was actively looking for new talent and I was lucky enough to
have Beau Smith from Eclipse comics pass my samples along to him. He saw
some potential there I guess and gave me a call to see if I’d like to do
a tryout page for the Protectors. I did, and after passing it
around to the other guys at Malibu as well as R.A. Jones, the writer of
the series, I was hired.
NRAMA: You
were at Malibu for quite some time working on various Protectors
related comics, were you at all familiar with the golden age Centaur
Comics, before starting on the Protectors?
TD: They
sent me some photocopies of some of the books but other than that I
wasn’t really aware that they even existed until they filled me in on
them.
Even so, I’ll
always have a place in my heart for those characters. It was my first
superhero gig in comics, I’ve been a superhero geek since I was a kid
watching the old 60’s Spider-Man cartoon in reruns after school
so getting a chance to draw superheroes was a thrill even if I didn’t
know who they were at the time.
Also, it
introduced me to R.A. who has been a close friend ever since.
NRAMA:
After that you moved to DC to work on a few issues of Star Trek.
Are you a trekker/trekkee?
TD:
Actually I was bouncing between DC and Marvel for a few years doing fill
ins on Nightthrasher, Venom, Star Trek and
Marvel Team-up. Star Trek was the first thing I did that was
known by the general public though, which was kinda cool. You could go
up to just about anyone on the street and say, "I draw the Star Trek
comic." And they knew what you were talking about.
As far as being a
fan, I was a casual fan. I enjoyed the show when I saw it and I went to
see all the movies up to "Insurrection" when I just sort of lost
interest. I was never really a fanatic about the franchise. It was just
something fun to watch.
NRAMA: Is
it harder to work on a comic like that where it a licensed property and
the characters aren’t as open to interpretation and paramount has to
approve everything?
TD: It
really depends on the property. Sometimes, like in the case of Star
Trek, it’s overwhelmingly restrictive because everyone and his
mother have to approve every panel so you end up redrawing things over
and over again until the actors and producers are happy. It can be very
tedious in a case like that. I did half an issue of a comic adapting Pam
Anderson’s VIP television series once and it was the same thing
but then Smallville, years later, was never any major problem and
was fun most of the time.
NRAMA: Did
everything go smoothly or did you have to redraw scenes?
TD: Never
entire scenes, but a head here and a head there. Usually it would be
complaints about the likenesses.
NRAMA:
After Star Trek, you left DC for Marvel, was this intentional or
is that just the way things worked out?
TD: Just
the way it worked out. Star Trek was really just sort of them
trying me out for the series at the time and I had a somewhat
antagonistic relationship with the editor on the book, which is rare for
me, I get along pretty well with most of the people I work with so it
was really frustrating but it mostly centered around the actors not
being happy with the likenesses. So it just sort of ended after one
storyline.
We were in a time
period back then when there were just far too many artists looking for
work and not enough work to go around so when Star Trek fell
apart I just went looking and found the occasional assignment to get me
by.
NRAMA: At
Marvel you got to draw Spider-Man and the X-Men, did you
feel like you had finally made it as a comic artist?
TD: Yeah,
that was a pretty cool time for me. The colorist Tom Smith helped put me
in touch with Mike Marts back when he was taking over some of the
X-books. Mike a really cool guy and used me as much as he could.
Then I started
helping out Mark Powers occasionally on the core X-titles as well as
Cable as well. So I was kept quite busy on some of the top books of
the time for a couple of years there.
Yeah, I really
started to feel more like a pro then. Which is kind of strange because
I’d been in the business for almost ten years by this point. I guess it
came down to being trusted with the big franchises for the first time
even if it was just as a regular fill in artist.
NRAMA: You
did a lot of X-Men related single issues and fill ins, did you
want a regular series or did you prefer the freedom of working on a
variety of projects?
TD: The
goal was always to land an ongoing but there’s a lot of competition for
ongoing titles and it really comes down to being either really popular
with fans or being at the right place at the right time. I worked pretty
steady most of the time though so I never really had a reason to
complain.
The big advantage
of ongoing though is that you don’t have to search every month or two
for the next assignment which really appeals to me so hopefully one day
you’ll see me locked down on something.
NRAMA: You
had worked with Robert Weinberg on Cable a few times, how did
that collaboration lead to the Nightside miniseries?
TD: You
know, I really don’t remember the specifics for some reason. I think we
were corresponding while I helped out on Cable a couple of times
and we sort of decided we wanted to do something else together. Bob was
pitching Nightside and Mark Powers was aware of this shaded
pencil style I was becoming known for on the internet so they had me
work up character designs for the proposal and I think I took it on
myself to do an elaborate pinup in my shaded pencils. Mark asked me to
mix in some Photoshop techniques I was playing with and the pinup kind
of grabbed a lot of attention at Marvel. Then we decided to do the
interiors in that shaded style as well. It was a fun book and gave me a
chance to stretch myself a little.
NRAMA: You
also did a Captain America/Wolverine mini-series, how did that
come about?
TD: I had
noticed that Marvel at the time was trying all sorts of new things so I
called my friend R.A. and asked him if he’d like to pitch to Marvel.
Years back I read Uncanny X-men #268 and I loved the chemistry
between Wolvie and Cap and figured what did we have to lose. So we
pitched a two part WWII story involving them again with some shaded
pencil preview art like Nightside. Marvel came back to us when I
pitched it on a trip to the offices and said they’d prefer something
modern day and four issues in length. On the bus trip home I came up
with the basic premise and when I talked to R.A. on the phone we fleshed
it out together. Marvel approved the plot and we were off and running.
NRAMA: What
was it like working with R.A. Jones again
TD:
Excellent. We’d done other things besides the Protectors like a
Scimidar miniseries for CFD Productions and a oneshot for
Silverline called Cybertrash and the Dog but working together for
Marvel with one of you friends is a kick.
NRAMA:
After that you went back to DC and started working on Superman
related projects, why did you leave after finishing two mini-series at
Marvel?
TD: It was
getting a little trickier finding work. I only knew a couple of editors
reasonably well and one ended up leaving the company. In the meantime I
started becoming friendly with Chuck Austen and we wanted to try and
find something to work together on. He had been starting to do some work
for DC on the Superman books with Eddie Berganza and asked Eddie
if I could pencil one of the issues and that got the ball rolling.
NRAMA: When
you worked on Robin, you worked with Bill Willingham. Is it
easier working with a writer who is also an artist?
TD: Only in
that they tend to have a slightly better feel for what will comfortably
fit on a page. Some writers that aren’t also artists have this sense as
well but it does seem more common with the writer/artist. Other than
that, there really isn’t much of a difference.
NRAMA:
While at DC you started working on Smallville. This was a TV show
but it was also a DC property and you said it was easier then Star
Trek. How so?
TD: The
production company was very involved. Everyone wanted the comic to fit
cohesively with the television series. The writers for the most part
worked in some capacity on the show itself so we were more able the sync
up. Everything flowed more smoothly than other licensed properties I’ve
worked on. The scripts came in late though because we were dealing with
last minute changes on the show but Adam Dekraker, the inker, and I are
reasonably fast so it wasn’t a huge problem most of the time. I don’t
think the book ever released late, at least no more than a week or two.
NRAMA: Did
you run into situations where the actors or their agents had to approve
the look of the characters?
TD: See
now, on Smallville this never became a problem. What we did with
them was before an artist was approved for the book you had to do
character sheets of the show’s characters. The actors would either
approve or reject you right there so there weren’t any redraws in the
pencil stage. I’m not sure the actors even saw the interior art until
after the books were published. Plus I was told by people involved with
the show that the actors were very happy with what I was doing when they
did see it so that made any inconveniences well worth it.
NRAMA: Now
you are just beginning a run on JLA. How did you get involved
with this project?
TD: I had
just finished a two issue arc of Birds of Prey and had fallen
into what I like to refer to as the winter lull. When you work mainly on
fill ins there seems to be a stretch right after Christmas where there
isn’t much work available so if you haven’t lined something up before
then it could be a couple of months before you find anything new. I
don’t know that this is the case with everyone but this has been my
experience over the years. It’s not a big deal if you plan for it but
you basically have a lot of free time on your hands. So anyway I decided
to use this time to reinvent my style, I basically just went back to my
original influences, John Bryne, Alan Davis, Adam Hughes, etc. etc. and
found I was much more satisfied with the finished pencils. They look
slicker than what I was doing in the past.
So I had this new
look I was proud of and start emailing my samples week after week to the
editors just basically asking them to check them out and Mike Carlin
emailed me back to tell me how much he liked what I was doing. Another
sample set later and after he locked down the writer he offered me a six
issue arc on JLA. Well obviously I was floored and didn’t even
have to think twice.
I think it was
only like a month later and I had the first script.
NRAMA: It
must be a thrill to work on a title with this much history?
TD: HELLO!
Superhero geek here, remember. This is getting to play with the royal
family of superheroes. Batman alone is enough to get me to bang
my head on the ceiling from jumping up and down. Yeah, it’s a blast.
NRAMA: Bob
Harris had been an Editor-In-Chief when you worked at Marvel, how is it
working with him as the writer?
TD: Bob’s
kicking butt on this. I’ve been really enjoying Breach and what
can I say, the guy knows how to write. He was the EIC the first time I
work for Marvel so I didn’t have any direct contact with him. He’s also
a really cool guy, don’t tell him I said that though, we don’t want him
to get a big head. Just kidding Bob.
NRAMA: What is the story about?
TD: Well by now you know the JLA is having some serious
problems, but some members aren’t so willing to let it die without a
fight. A threat emerges and there’s this little, oh I don’t know, I
guess you’d call it a CRISIS getting in the way.
Batman locks his keys in the Batmobile, Flash slips on a
banana peel, Black Canary gets a run in her stocking, dogs and
cats living together, you know, stuff like that. Let just say you won’t
believe it until you see it.
NRAMA: Er,
yeah. With the second stringers trying to form a new team do you get to
draw the big guns at some point in the story?
TD: Some of
them are still there, I’m not saying who or what they’re up to because
Dan D would come to my house and break all my pencils but yeah I get to
draw a lot of characters including first stringers.
NRAMA:
There are a lot of heroes running around in this arc, is it fun or is it
challenging to draw that many different characters in the same series?
TD: The
only time it gets a little crazy is when you’re drawing battle scenes
because you have to choreograph so many things but otherwise it’s a
blast. I’ve been drawing Superteams most of my career, Protectors,
X-men, Outsiders. It’s just something you get used to.
NRAMA: You
are well known for drawing female characters, it must be fun getting a
crack at Supergirl?
TD:
Definitely. The best part is the reactions I’ve been getting from people
who have seen my versions of some of these characters. Some of the best
comments have been on Supergirl, Batman, Green Arrow,
and Red Tornado. It’s all been very flattering.
NRAMA: With
the Omac appearance you are guaranteed a larger audience just
from the Infinite Crisis tie in as well as reader following the
Identity Crisis aftermath. Does this put more pressure on you?
TD: The
story doesn’t put added pressure on my so much as the title does. Mike
and DC are trusting me with the art chores on the JLA for six
issues. The JLA has had some of the best artists in the industry
working on it over the years and to top it off I’m following Chris
Batista’s amazing run. So yes, there’s a lot of added pressure but I’m
determined to prove that I’m worthy of drawing these characters. In the
end it’s up to the readers to decide whether I was or wasn’t and I’m
hoping they’ll respond as well to what I’ve done as DC has. Fingers
crossed.
NRAMA:
What’s next after JLA?
TD: I’m
filling in on Superman #224 which comes out in
the middle of my JLA arc and after that I can’t go in to details
but it’s JLA and JSA related and it’s going to be
a lot of fun. |
