BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO Artist Rafael Kayanan first worked on Conan when Marvel was doing the Conan The Adventurer series. Now, he's returning to the character for a single issue, this April's # 39. He got the gig at the recommendation of writer Kurt Busiek and enjoyed the challenge of working on this character again after spending so much time working on the John Carter of Mars film.
THE PULSE: When you have the chance to work on a fill in issue here or there, do you prefer to take a job if you can be the penciler, inker and colorist; or are you just interested in working on something that you like?
RAFAEL KAYANAN: I work on characters or in genres that I enjoy. However, I prefer to ink my own work because I want to get as much of my own linework in there. I feel that I haven't been able to show what I can do when I ink myself. Most folks know of my pencil work. There's many excellent colorists these days so I often wonder how someone would color my work these days. When I first worked on Marvel's CONAN THE ADVENTURER, the company was barely in the digital coloring stage, so the book didn't get a chance to take advantage of it. I'd be open to doing pencils and having that digitally painted.
THE PULSE: How did you come to work on this upcoming issue # 39 of Conan? We don't see a lot of your comic work, but mostly see your name attached to concept art for films and the like ....
KAYANAN: Kurt Busiek recommended me to editor Scott Alllie and we just had to find a slot in my schedule to work on it. I was working on the JOHN CARTER of MARS film as sword master and pre-viz artist under director Kerry Conran's crew at the time. I was a fan of what Kurt and DH was doing with the book and was honored to be asked.
THE PULSE: So many people have drawn Conan - who are some of the ones who influence your work on the character past and present?
KAYANAN: When I first got the Conan gig at Marvel, they were planning to do a sequel to Red Nails the classic REH adaptation by Barry Windsor Smith and Roy Thomas. The editor at Marvel at the time had seen my ink samples of Dante's Inferno when I was shopping it around to all the major publishers in the early 90's. It had an attention to detail and that built up ink look and so the editor asked me to draw Conan, but come as close to the style of BWS as I could without outright imitation so that the if the two stories were printed together there would not be that drastic a stylistic difference. I wasn't that aware of how those things worked at the time and if one looked closely enough - I really didn't think my work was like Barry's, but it was an opportunity to work on a character I wanted to draw ever since I read the Lancer books so I gave it a shot. I didn't think it would be picked up as a regular monthly book. I thought I would do Red Nails Part 2 and be done. I was a huge fan of BWS and John Buscema, but I am a larger fan of Frank Frazetta's work on the character. I feel Frazetta's approach is more of the warrior mindset that Robert E. Howard wrote about.
THE PULSE: How do you take a character that others have worked on and expect to see in a certain way and add your own take to the character in a way that makes him just as recognizable for both who he is and your art on it?
KAYANAN: This relates back to the previous question, I would add that the largest influence is my hands on experience with actual sword work and having had the opportunity to meet many real life warriors through the military CQC training we do with them. They share a common inner confidence that Conan exudes. An ability to turn the switch on when they had to. To me that was Conan. So I try to depict that in the smallest of gestures, and actions. When I teach edged weapons, it is basically breaking down what the average person sees as pure chaos and frenzy into a sense of order with it's own rules and formulas. Therefore, I apply order to a very emotional situation. I try to look at how any character is portrayed and break down the essence of that character and of the world the writer created. Sometimes, it could be as simple as drawing a character so that he/she is not portrayed acting in "default" mode. You know...the panels where not much is going on, so it is easy for the character to be drawn moving and acting like any character. In Conan's case, I would try to figure out what he's thinking at the moment, how he would want another character to react to him, his body mannerisms compared to another - anything that would complement what the writer had written within the script. It could even be an action that refers to something several pages back or foreshadow what is to come.
THE PULSE: What are some of the challenges of working on just one issue?
KAYANAN: Mainly it was transitioning to doing comics style storytelling again after being away for awhile. I was doing storyboards and concept design, very loose work since much is behind the scenes stuff. It is not intended for print. Storyboarding is NOT the same as comics. Not when one really understands and works in both disciplines. So I had to get up to speed rather quickly since I don't have several issues to warm up to the book. You have to be a better world builder when you draw a comic, in storyboarding you want to give something so that the director can springboard from it. In comics, you ARE the camera man, director, cinematographer, props master, etc. So it wasn't the issue per se, but the switch back to another medium entirely. You also realise right away how labor intensive comics is. I was used to the monthly grind for many years but once you take a breather for awhile, it gives you a refreshing look at how dedicated and skilled your contemporaries are. It certainly tells you how great the previous generations of comic artists were.
THE PULSE: How does being responsible for all the art affect your creative process?
KAYANAN: I like to get a few days or more to prep for a project, so that I don't have to be looking for references of lose focus on the book halfway through. It's really a great feeling to tell you the truth, since it is one of the only forms of entertainment where you can choose to do as much as you want if you desire to do so. I was more concerned in how Kurt was going to interpret what I drew, whether my way of doing things fit into his routine. It turned out that it was a very smooth process. Thank god for emails!
THE PULSE: What is your Conan story about?
KAYANAN: There's tons of mayhem, the undead, animated skeletons with swords and all kinds of Hyborian pests that want to rip our heroes apart. Kurt wanted to utilize my interest in fight choreography and swordsmanship so it is basically an all action issue involving Conan and Janissa facing numerous antagonists of varying sword shapes and sorcery. It shows off the differences in how they would approach a similar problem or task... and then there's more mayhem.
THE PULSE: What was the collaboration with Kurt Busiek like?
KAYANAN: It was great. He wanted to get my perspective on the action, and he was very open to ideas. He pretty much wrote Conan and Janissa into situations and we tried to get out them out of it. I was also reliant in his knowledge of THIS Conan and of the other characters. So he answered LOTS of questions in the beginning...heh.
THE PULSE: What's next for you after this April issue of Conan?
KAYANAN: I'm working on sketch cards for a sci-fi card set that TOPPS is putting out this summer. Besides film choreography related work, I have continued pursuing on getting an adaptation of Dante's Inferno (with Lovern Kindzierski) out there as a full color graphic novel. I'm also writing a script based on Magellan and his demise in the Philippines. It would be cool to try my hand at a science fiction or martial arts genre comic... we'll see.
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