BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO Artist Steve Uy has worked on a bunch of different projects over the past few months. He's one busy guy, but we caught up with him just before he left for vacation to find out about his work with Avengers: The Initiative.
THE PULSE: You seem to be working on a lot of team books lately. What intrigued you the most about working on Avengers: The Initiative?
STEVE UY: I guess a number of things. For starters, it was the right project at the right time. I finished up JSA Classified #28 for Mike Marts and DC and had a few weeks of vacation in May. I was itching to get back to doing some intensive work, then Chris Allo of Marvel just called me up and asked me to do Avengers Initiative #6 and #7. (I would ultimately only have enough time to do #6 however). Since Mike didn't have anything for me at DC at the moment, since Dan Slott is a little bit popular these days, since I hadn't worked on Marvel interiors since 2002, and since Avengers Initiative was a top-10 book back in May, how could I refuse?
There was a caveat, however: It was late May when I got the call, and I had plans to go to the Philippines and Taiwan in August for 3 weeks. That left me with 2 months to do the pencils, inks, and colors, typically enough time for me, but the script didn't even exist yet! There was no time to do character designs or prep work, since I didn't even know what the issue was about, I just had to dive in and attack the page the moment I got the script . We worked something out so that Dan was feeding me the script one page at a time as he was writing it-- I didn't get to read the whole thing until I was about 8 pages into the art! It was an interesting process that kept me on my toes and kept my concentration on one page at a time, so maybe my early pages look better than the later ones, who knows?
THE PULSE: For our readers unfamiliar with this series, just who are members of this group of Avengers?
UY: This particular issue centers around the New Warriors crop of characters. Justice, Ultragirl, Slapstick, Rage, and so on. When Gauntlet gets blindsided by an unknown attacker and has NW spraypainted on his chest, the New Warriors become suspect and the capekillers come into town looking for answers. It's a good character piece, easy to get into, and especially good for me since I had no prior experience with the story in any way. I guess I'm about as fill-in as a fill-in gets.
I never read Avengers when I was a comic "reader" this issue is my first real exposure to the team.
THE PULSE: Which artists influence you the most when you're working on these heroes?
UY: Since this is a new book, and I had a very limited deadline to do all the art, I was given the first two issues (the 3rd wasn't out yet) as reference. Molly Lazer was good about getting me any extra ref I needed when I needed it. I just had to take what I could from those and hope I made the characters recognizable. Jim Cheung did some excellent covers so I tried to use his designs as a starting on point for how I would draw them in my own way. The first issue had a cover with ALL the characters on it, so of course I'm gonna use that to my advantage!
THE PULSE: What is it about The Avengers in this group that you think really set them apart from the other superteams in the Marvel Universe?
UY: Ouch, I dunno, I've only read the first 3 issues so far as of this writing, and skipped over #4 and #5 to draw #6. I don't know if the team has found its legs yet. Judging from issue #6 which I just finished illustrating as of yesterday, they're still all over the place in terms of motivation or a whole unifying factor. Maybe this is the case for many other marvel teams, but I wouldn't know. I'd be tempted to ask Dan, but why spoil it for myself right? I'm still in the dark about what's gonna happen, and I don't really mind keeping myself there for the moment.
THE PULSE: When you're working on characters like this, how do you make sure each member of the team gets equal "face time" on the panels and that you're not favoring personal favorites?
UY: There are certain characters that I prefer drawing over others, despite the fact that this is the first time I've ever drawn any of them before. However, I don't think I've ever had a panel where I felt I've favored one character over another. I've never really thought about it until now. I just followed Dan's panel description as much as I could, and if I did make any changes to it, it was probably due to laziness on my part, the need to omit some details that I just didn't wanna draw.
I think for a 23 page story, most characters get relatively good face time in this issue. At least, as far as the New Warriors are concerned.
THE PULSE: Speaking of favorites, which member of the team do you enjoy drawing the most? Why?
UY: Probably Rage. He's a simple, 4 color design. White, yellow, brown, and black. No hair. Very expressive, doesn't take himself seriously so I can draw him a little silly at times. I like his nose.
THE PULSE: Which member of the team is the toughest to draw? What makes it such a challenge?
UY: I definitely didn't like my design for Ultragirl this issue. I don't know why, her design is just bland and uninteresting to me. I had trouble with the hair and the orange on her costume. She only has a few panels, so I never had a chance to really get used to her. If I had more time this issue, I would have worked on her design a bit more, as well as Gyrich, Yellowjacket sans mask, and the Nazi scientist (but he only has three panels this issue so no big deal).
THE PULSE: What's it like collaborating with Dan Slott? How's he stack up to some of the other writers you've worked with lately?
UY: Well, I've done a book with Fabian Nicieza and Christine Boylan, but that's it. Dan was the first I've ever actually "collaborated" with, in that he called me up and we actually talked. The others I just knew from their scripts. I asked Dan to stay away from crowd scenes, so there are no crowd scenes. Huzzah! Dan seems to have a good sense of where he's leading this story, and definitely enough enthusiasm to get it done. The script he gave me had no dialogue in place, so this was the first time I've ever drawn anything based on panel descriptions alone. So either her trusts my storytelling sensibilities, had no time to figure out the dialogue yet, or I just drew my very first silent issue. We'll find out in September.
THE PULSE: What's happened in the first few issues so far to set things up?
UY: In regards to issue #6, the only thing you have to know is that Gauntlet has been badmouthing the New Warriors since issue #1, and this time someone actually does something about it. Er... 'nuff said?
THE PULSE: What other projects are you working on?
UY: I just finished up the last page and sent it to Marvel yesterday. So I finished with about 2 weeks to spare. As for my next gig, it's too early to tell just now, so we'll see...
Shameless plug time: I started up a comicspace site for myself, which I'll try to keep updated, unlike my website: http://www.comicspace.com/steveuy/
Also, Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #4, and JSA Classified #28 should be out now, both of which I did full interiors for as well.
Posts: 21381 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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Dan Slott usually writes the dialogue only after seeing the artwork... Steve Uy's not getting special treatment here Posts: 474 | From: England | Registered: Aug 2001
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