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Monday, October 31, 2005
A Quick
Catch Up with Philip Tan
By
Rik Offenberger
Philip Tan was at a
store signing at Comic Madness, in Chino, Ca. last weekend, I met him
there and he agreed to answer a few questions about his career and his
new assignment on
Spawn. No newcomer, prior to landing the gig as the regular
artist on Spawn, Tan had worked on Uncanny
X-Men, Mutant Earth, and a variety of other titles as he paid
his dues. Now - as you'll read, Tan is a little more relaxed with
himself and his art.
Newsarama:
To begin with Philip, where did you study art?
Philip Tan:
I didn't really have any formal training aside from my bachelor's degree
in architecture from college. I guess the closest thing would be the
training I received under Whilce Portacio, back in the Philippines and
the group of friends and colleagues, that got together back there... but
everything else is research, art books and practice.
NRAMA:
How did you get your first break with Taleweaver for WildStorm in
2001?
PT:
As far as I know it was Brian Haberlin and Whilce Portacio back then who
took the project we did and got an approval from WildStorm.
NRAMA:
After Taleweaver, your next project was Everquest:
Transformation, do you play the game?
PT:
I tried it, but I didn't have the time.
NRAMA:
What was it like working on a gaming comic?
PT:
Lots of pressure to keep what's existing faithful to the game.
NRAMA:
That said, what type of reaction did you get from the gamers?
PT:
[laughs] I didn't remember any.
NRAMA: Did Sony have to approve your art?
PT:
I think WildStorm did that for the comic pages, but didn't remember if
Sony had to approve the designs.
NRAMA:
You followed that with Stan Winston's Mutant Earth, what brought
you to Image?
PT:
Again, Brian Haberlin
NRAMA:
At this point in your career you hadn't done any superheroes; was this
intentional, or had no one asked?
PT:
I don't think it was intentional - it was just what I was doing, when I
was doing it.
NRAMA:
From there, how did you get hired on Uncanny X-Men?
PT:
Brian showed my stuff to Marvel and they wanted me to try doing a few
covers for them, which eventually became 12 covers and then I got on the
book's penciling duties.
NRAMA:
Had you been a fan of the X-Men?
PT:
A huge one.
NRAMA:
Did you feel like you had really made it when you were hired to work on
the X-Men?
PT:
It was my first superhero book! There were no words to describe it,
especially with it being an X-book.
NRAMA:
Was there a lot of pressure working on the X-Men?
PT:
I have to be honest and say yes. People had huge expectations for that
book pressure was pretty heavy. That combined with a double shipping
schedule for the book and inking my own stuff, it was a bit crazy.
That’s why I strongly believe in having an inker from now on.
NRAMA:
From the end of your X-Men days, you'd been fairly quiet - until this
latest gig. How did you end up on Spawn?
PT:
Brian showed Todd some of my Batman samples I did playing around,
and I guess the style and look of what I did there was
good for Spawn and the penciling duties were about to become
free, and Todd liked it enough that I got put on the book.
NRAMA:
Spawn has fallen behind schedule several times during its run,
what are you doing to keep it monthly?
PT:
Ok this is for the record and I hope people do listen to this, I can
assure everyone, that the Spawn team is going beyond 300% of our
efforts to get the book back on track and monthly, and more than
that, 3 months ahead of schedule like all books used to be! As a matter
of fact, I'm doing issue 153 now and 150 just came out last week, with
48pages of pure art and story. So yeah, everyone on the team is very
very determined to get Spawn back on schedule, and hopefully
on people's monthly pull list.
NRAMA:
Do you see Spawn as a super hero comic, or a horror comic?
PT:
It's both and to strictly confine it within only one of those genres is
unfair. But I would say that it seems to be more of a
supernatural/sci-fi/horror than superhero.
NRAMA:
What's it like working with Todd McFarlane?
PT:
Unbelievable! I'm actually learning more in the last few months than
last 3 years combined. The guy's amazing, and like I said few questions
ago, everyone's very determined to get Spawn back on top, so Todd
himself is very much involved in all aspects of the book, especially the
artwork!
NRAMA:
How is the experience working on Spawn different then X-Men?
PT:
Having an inker! Danny Miki is probably the best in the biz right now!
I'm speechless with every page that I see inked, speechless. That and I
can concentrate on one single lead character and its darker art too.
NRAMA:
What else would you like to work on if given the chance?
PT:
Right now I'm too dedicated to Spawn to think of anything else.
But if ever do. Azrael! Ok, so he's gone, Bats then; or
maybe this old X-Factor member called Random... I don't
even know if anyone still remembers him. Anyway. Hopefully I can do my
own creations too, that would be cool. |
