BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO Artist Steve Uy tells us what it's like working with the heroes in training featured throughout the pages of Avengers Initiative. He told THE PULSE, "This is one of the only books I can think of where I can allow my art to evolve as the story does, with the least amount of pressure."
THE PULSE: You've been working on a lot of different projects lately. What was it about Avengers Initiative that interested you in taking on a few issues of that series?
STEVE UY: It was back in June when Chris Allo first contacted me about doing an issue or Avengers Initiative. It was a new book at the time, and pretty high profile so of course no one would refuse an offer such as that. It pretty much came at the right time, when I just finished up JSA #28 for DC. And being a new book, the Initiative characters hadn't been established too much, so as far as jumping onto a top ten (at the time) book, it didn't feel as overwhelming. Now that I've had more experience with the series and how it has evolved, it's been a great learning experience, a chance for me to tackle characters I've never heard of before and to see what works and what doesn't as I do my art. The leeway for errors is quite a ways larger on a book like this than it would be for a long running series like Spider-Man or Fantastic Four. If I screw up doing Ultra Girl here, the fans just whine, but screw up on Spidey, I get crucified. So this is one of the only books I can think of where I can allow my art to evolve as the story does, with the least amount of pressure. Or so I think, anyways...
THE PULSE: How was working on a team like this different than some of the other recent projects you've illustrated in the past year?
UY: The biggest difference is simply the AMOUNT of characters I'm doing. Not just for the first time, but the number of them in a single panel. I just finished up issue #13 with Christos Gage back in December (I am currently working on #12 now, which I just received the script for back in mid-January... so it's been rather interesting illustrating "past events") and it brought in a new cast of characters, most of which are all in a single panel at any given time. This current issue #12 has quite a few panels with a huge roster doing their thing as well, so it was a bit overwhelming at first. I had never used reference before in my previous works, having done fantasy for so long, but I had to start with these issues, if only to keep my mind from having to think up all new poses on the fly. I thought it would slow down production but it actually sped things up quite a ways, much to my surprise. And the end result looks a lot more natural than my previous Initiative issues, which, to be honest, I can barely stand to look at now.
THE PULSE: Which heroes in these pages were you getting to draw for the first time?
UY: With issue #13, pretty much everybody was new to me, with the exception of Yellowjacket and Gyrich. With this current issue, #12, I had a list of almost 30 characters I needed reference for before I could start on the issue. I guess since I'm doing issues half a year apart, I get stuck with a new roster every time, but it keeps things fresh so it feels like a new series every time, which keeps things from getting stale but prevents me from really attaching myself to any particular character.
THE PULSE: When you are working on a character for the first time, what are some of the things you do so you'll feel comfortable illustrating him or her?
UY: Because of the sheer amount of characters in these issues, not to mention the fact that I'm drawing and coloring them all on my own as usual, I've had to just jump into the pages and draw them straight up. No warming up, no sketching, what you see on the page is my first attempt. I have no idea if any character is going to show up again, ever, so it would take twice as long to design them just for a particular issue. And when you're a fill in artist, speed takes top priority. I am usually given one or two pics for reference, and I just go from there. Again, because of the amount of characters, it must be quite a hassle for Molly Lazer to dig up ref for all the characters I need so I consider myself lucky to have as much as I do.
THE PULSE: About how long does it take you to really get your groove going and feel at ease working on a new project?
UY: It usually takes me 2 or 3 issues of a particular series before I feel at ease on a project. For Avengers, however, each issue has had a new cast and I'm pretty much in the dark as to what has happened 3-4 issues before. ( I still don't know what happened in issues 10 and 11 as of this writing, and I'm halfway done with #12-- I just illustrated a flashback scene to something in #11 that Stefano hadn't gotten around to drawing yet). So each issue thus far is like the first issue of a new book. It's a great learning experience, and pretty exciting, but it does make some of my character designs look wonky, inaccurate, or inconsistent a lot of the times.
THE PULSE: How are you approaching the art for these issues? What storytelling technique are you utilizing?
UY: When I saw the final printed pages for Avengers Initiative #6 and the Annual, I noticed they printed out quite desaturated as compared to my DC work, which looked a bit oversaturated. I have no control of the printer so for these pages I tried to make the colors a bit brighter, use more primaries like red and brighter blues and greens to make up for the loss in color. I also noticed a slight blurriness to the printing so to compensate for that I'm putting a slight shadow around the linework. It gives the figures a bit of a pastel and more rounded look, so hopefully it'll print out ok and the softness in printing will look intentional.
THE PULSE: Who or what is influencing your Avengers art the most right now?
UY: Pretty much the ref dictates how the characters will look. Some ref dates back to the old four color days, and some are from Wikepedia and it may be all I have to work with so I just go from there and hope for the best. Readers of issue #6 might have noticed that some of the characters that were supposed to be wearing camo pants were not, and that was mostly because the ref I had gotten of them weren't from the Initiative and I wasn't familiar enough with the series at the time to notice my mistake in time.
THE PULSE: How, if at all, are your influences for this book different from the ones you had when you were working on other Marvel heroes?
UY: Well, I haven't worked on other marvel heroes since 2002, and I've only worked on Avengers Initiative since then so I've just been feeling my way through on this series thus far. I still haven't figured out the style which works best yet, usually I alter my style a bit after each issue to make up for my mistakes, but since I finished #13 before I got the script for #12 this time, I can't really make my art look noticeably different with this current issue, or risk giving the impression that I'm devolving my art. Hopefully the right style will come to me in the near future.
THE PULSE: You're working on the series when a lot is going on in the Marvel Universe. What do you think of all this Skrull business?
UY: I've only had to draw one Skrull so far (as far as I know), so it hasn't bothered me too much yet.
If they replace the characters I don't like to draw, all the more power to them.
THE PULSE: If you were a Skrull which hero's life would you want to take over? Why?
UY: None. The heroes in the Marvel Universe live sucky lives full of drama. I'd rather be a boring background character with lots of money and a nice house.
THE PULSE: What's the collaboration with Christos Gage and Dan Slott been like?
UY: It's been great. Chris came in with issue #13 with a great one shot story and now he's co-writing the series with Dan. Everything I need to know, between Dan and Molly and Chris, I've got a Marvel Encyclopedia in them. What could be better for an artist?
THE PULSE: What are you enjoying the most about drawing these characters?
UY: The newness in each issue, getting to draw all these characters I've never heard of before, and knowing I won't get mauled by the fans for screwing up most of them since most of them have never heard of them before (thanks to Christos for that!)
THE PULSE: What's next for you after these two Avengers The Initiative issues?
UY: Hopefully more!
Posts: 20777 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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I don't buy Avengers but I'll definitely give it a look based on the strength of Steve's samples here. Great looking line work. (Is the artwork done by the same Steve Uy in this forum?)
-------------------- "Superman was born Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. He's weak... he's unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race”.
Kill Bill, Vol. 2 Posts: 39 | From: Near reels, fields and deals | Registered: Nov 2004
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