Interview: Greg Smallwood

For its annual Halloween celebration, Omaha's Krypton Comics invited Dark Horse and Marvel artist Greg Smallwood to visit the shop and draw some spooky sketches for customers. Smallwood is the current artist of Marvel's Moon Knight, written by Brian Wood, and he is the artist and co-creator of Dream Thief, which is written by Jai Nitz and published through Dark Horse.

During a quiet moment in between sketches, I took the opportunity to talk to Greg about his art, his love of comics and what his next project might be:

Has anyone mentioned the fact that the writer of Moon Knight is Brian Wood and you’re Smallwood.

A few people have talked about it online, I’ve noticed. It didn’t occur to me until a few weeks until after I took the gig, and I thought, ‘Oh, wait a minute, on the cover it’s going to have “Wood” and “Smallwood” on it. That’s really bizarre.’ And then I thought, ‘Maybe my editor, Nick Lowe, maybe he considered that. Maybe he thought that would look good on the cover, a little bit of synergy going there.’

He’s the big wood and I’m the small wood.

Can you tell me a little about how you broke into comics?

The store in Lawrence, Astrokitty Comics, is pretty responsible for my breaking in. I did an entry for Zuda Comics, for one of their last competitions, I think it was December ‘09, if I remember right. I did a bunch of flyers and took them to area shops. And I took some flyers to Astrokitty, I had been there a couple times, and the store owner, Joel, put that flyer in front of Jai Nitz and said, ‘Hey, look at this guy’s work.’ And Jai was like, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta work with him.’ And Jai sent me an email that day and said ‘hey, I have a pitch for you if you’re interested. It’s called Dream Thief. And he sent me a one-page synopsis and I loved it and I said ‘yeah, let’s do it.’

I was wondering if you had known Jai before, prior to Dream Thief …

Yeah, no, we became friends working together. A lot of Leavenworth kids ended up going to Lawrence, just to get out of Leavenworth and go somewhere else. And so I had a lot of friends in Lawrence, and my sister lived there at the time.

I made the move, actually, after our first pitch of Dream Thief, which was not successful, then I moved out there. And I started hanging out with Jai more and we said, ‘let’s give it another shot,’ and so we did a second pitch for Dream Thief and that’s when Dark Horse picked it up. And during that time is when I really got to be friends with Jai.

I think that’s why our second pitch was a lot better, we had a little bit more synergy, we knew each other better. I realized we had similar sensibilities, so we kind of keyed in on that. Where as before Dream Thief was a little more broad, then it became more, kinda like, cultish, because we were making a lot of Miami Vice references and all kinds of crazy stuff, which wasn’t originally part of the plan.

Did you go to school for art or are you more self taught?

I guess you could say I’m self taught. I took art in high school, but they don’t really teach you anything that’s applicable to comic book art. College was the same. I went to community college, took some painting courses. I guess I learned a little bit, but not much. It was pretty much a waste of time. I just knew DC and Marvel, they don’t care whether you go to school or not. And that’s really what I wanted to do, just do comics, I didn’t have any interest in doing any other kind of art.

Where did the interest in comics come from?

It was my dad. My dad collected comics. He was into them for the art. While he was in Arizona in the ‘70s, he walked into a comic shop and he’d read a few comics when he was a kid, like the adaptations of classic novels and stuff like that. I think he got war comics.

Yeah, I just fell in love with the art. Of course that was the time Frazetta and Boris Vallejo were getting pretty big, and the Hildebrandt Brothers. And he kind of passed that love of comics down to me.

What were some of your favorite artists or influences?

When I was younger, my dad put a lot of comics in front of me that become pretty influential, Rocketeer and Xenozoic Tales. Dave Stevens and Mark Schultz were big favorites of mine. I see a lot of their influence in my work.

He was big into EC Comics, so a lot of that stuff was a big influence.

These days, I think Chris Samnee has probably had the most impact on my work, because he was sort of my gateway into Alex Toth. And that kind of changed my approach. Once I discovered that you could just lay down tons and tons of ink on a page and make it work, I really took to it. So guys like Sean Phillips, Chris Samnee are definitely probably big influences. I like Dave Johnson a lot, and Jason LaTour.

I guess a classic artist that I really like for his storytelling is José Luis García-López. Of course I had a lot of his art when I was a kid, because he did all the DC licensed art, so Super Powers action figures was all his art.

You can really see that sort of influence, especially on Moon Knight, and following Declan Shalvey … how did you get on the book?

The editor, Nick Lowe, he had come to Kansas City Planet Comicon one year and Jai and I met with him. It was after Dark Horse picked up Dream Thief, so we showed him a little bit of Dream Thief. He dug it and he said, ‘all right, keep in touch, guys.’

After Dream Thief came out, Nick contacted both of us and said, ‘hey, would you like to do a story in A+X?’ So we did a Dr. Strange/Beast story. And Nick said, ‘hey, I’m gonna keep you guys in mind for anything in the future.’

And I got an email from Nick one day, and he said, ‘hey, I think I’ve got something in mind for you. Give me a call.’ So I called up Nick and he just straight up offered me Moon Knight. He was like, ‘Brian Wood’s writing it, Jordie [Bellaire]’s is staying on for colors, what do you think, do you want to do it?’

Of course I immediately said yes. I got a little bit nervous afterwards. I started talking to people, saying, ‘man, I don’t know if this is the right move.’ I mean, everybody was in love with those first six issues, and following Declan, I knew that was going to be a big challenge. I knew a lot of people were so attached to his art.

They [Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey] kind of streamlined the character to the point where it became very much theirs. And I didn’t know if it was the right move to follow, but I mean, it would have been dumb of me, I’m not going to turn down a Marvel gig like that. Especially working with Brian and Jordie, and Nick is such a great editor. It’s pretty much a dream job. I always thought I’d have to do a lot of fill-in issues or something like that, to work my way up, but right away they just gave me a job on one of their big books and I’m really grateful for it.

DMZ, Demo and Local, those were big for me. That was a big deal when I was younger. His graphic design that he incorporated into his comics, that was a big influence. I love that. Even the Dream Thief logo, there’s a lot of Brian Wood in there. I think that’s definitely a lot of looking at his work. He did that Channel Zero, he did an art book you could download as a PDF from his website … his comics are really special.

What’s working with Brian Wood like?

He communicates mainly through the scripts. I sort of just get exactly what he’s going for. He’s always got some notes in there, to let me know the tone he’s going for. He’ll make references to a movie and say, ‘think of this when you’re drawing it.’

I do my thing and after the issue’s done, he’ll send me an email saying, ‘hey man, great work, thanks.’ He’s great. I like working with him. I love his scripts. I couldn’t be happier with him.

So after Moon Knight, what’s next? More Dream Thief with Jai?

Yeah, we’re working on volume 3 right now. We’re doing it a little bit different, we’re not going to do a miniseries, we’re gonna do some short stories. Dark Horse will probably announce that in a little while. We’ve got a pretty long story in mind. We like the idea of a finite ending, but we have a lot of stories we want to tell before we get to that point.

Have you thought about writing your own thing?

I think doing my own book is in my very near future. I have some stories that I want to tell. That might be next, I don’t know, we’ll see what happens. I’m open to more Marvel work, obviously, but that may not happen immediately. There’s definitely a story that I have in mind that I want to tell and that might be my next project.

--

To check out Greg's work, the first volume of Dream Thief is available now and Volume 2 comes out in January. His Moon Knight arc (issues 7-12) will be collected in a trade in April 2015. You can also find digital editions of Moon Knight via comiXology.com and Dream Thief at digital.darkhorse.com.

Marvelous

Originally written in May 2010 for a grad school magazine writing class

The elevator door slides apart and I step through. The only thing that tells me I've come to the right place is the large cardboard standee for Iron Man 2 sitting in the corner of the otherwise sparse lobby. There are glass double-doors in front of me. I walk up to the door and pull the handle. It doesn't open. I notice the receptionist sitting at her desk on the other side of the door. She waves me back. I release my grip on the handle and the receptionist reaches underneath the desk. I hear a CLICK, pull open the door and step through.

I’m in New York City, my first time, standing in the 11th floor offices of Marvel Comics, which are located in an unassuming building on 5th Avenue, a few blocks from Times Square. From the outside, the building looks like any other that lines this stretch of Manhattan. I probably would have walked right past it had my cousin Adam not been with me. Adam has lived in New York for about 10 years now, and without his guidance I would have been lost as soon as I stepped off the Peter Pan bus at the Port Authority bus terminal.

I’ve come to New York, to Marvel, to interview for a summer internship position, which was the furthest thing from my mind when I applied to go to graduate school at Emerson College in Boston. Hell, it was the furthest thing from my mind up until a few months ago, when I started following one of Marvel’s editors on Twitter.

Her name is Jennifer Grünwald (@jengrunwald) and she’s worked at Marvel since 2002. She was having an “open-question-ask-me-anything” day, and I asked her how a person goes about getting a job at one of the two big comic book companies (the other being DC Comics). Within minutes, she replied, “@oyboy Well, aside from applying as one would do for any job, there's always an internship. (Which is how I got hired!).”

I hadn’t thought about interning at a comic book company while in grad school. As much as I love comic books, and I’ve collected them for about 20 years, it didn’t seem to be a realistic possibility. I had interned at a comic book company once already, in Los Angeles, while an undergrad at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. It was a small company called BOOM! Studios, and I drove across the country to work there during the summer of 2007. It was an enjoyable and educational experience. I had never seen the industry from the publishing perspective before. I was even offered a job, but I had a year left before I received my bachelor’s degree, and that was more important to me at the time.

Grünwald encouraged me to apply for an internship and see how it went from there. So I did. That was on March 18, a Thursday. I filled out the internship application over the weekend and submitted it. On Tuesday, March 23, I sent a tweet out into the ether: “Registered for the fall. Spring might be tough, but the fall should be a breeze. Still hoping for the summer internship. C'mon, @Marvel!”

Someone at Marvel was listening.

Less than an hour after sending that tweet, I received the following response from Ryan Penagos (@Agent_M), Marvel’s website editor: “@oyboy You're a Journalism student? What department did you apply to? I need a good journalism intern for Marvel.com.”

Now, I’ve had an email address for almost 20 years. I’ve been online in some form or another for more than half my life. I’m comfortable with technology in a way that used to worry my parents (especially after my father would receive a $300 bill from AOL). But even I was amazed by the rapidity of Twitter.

I quickly tapped out a response to Ryan on my phone: “@Agent_M I had applied for editorial, but I'm really open for anything. I have a big interest in the industry in general.”

From Ryan, an hour later: “@oyboy Yup, saw your application. We'll see what happens.”

Two days later, on March 25, I received an email from Sara Del Greco, Marvel’s internship coordinator. She asked me when I would be able to schedule an interview.

I was flabbergasted, nearly speechless. In the span of a week I had applied for an internship at Marvel and been asked to come in for an interview. Perhaps not all thanks to Twitter, but I know it helped. My immediate thought was, This wouldn’t have been possible five years ago. Maybe not even two years ago.

My email back to Del Greco basically consisted of, “Whenever you want me to come in for an interview, I’ll be there.” This was Marvel. The big time. I wasn’t about to let a little thing like a class schedule or the 200 miles between Boston and New York get in my way.

The first comics I read as a child were published by Marvel, though I was ignorant of the fact at the time. I was unaware of things like publishing companies and writers and artists. All I knew was the four-color images that popped off the page dazzled me. I just liked the stories. Later, when I realized this was a job, that people sat around writing these stories and drawing these pictures, I hooked. I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to write. And I wanted to write comics.

I’ve never been able to pinpoint what it is about comics that has fascinated me for so many years. It long ago stopped being about the requisite superhero characters. Spider-Man, Superman and Batman were fun when I was younger, but as I got older I didn’t care so much about the characters I was reading as I did about who was writing them. I became enthralled by the process and sought out examples of comic book scripts wherever I could find them. Some I found online, and later a company called Titan Books published two volumes of “Writers on Comic Scriptwriting,” featuring interviews with some of the biggest names in the industry, along with examples of their scripts. Those books became bibles to me, so much so that the spine is cracked on Volume 1 and pages have started falling out of Volume 2.

I learned that some writers write very intricate, detailed scripts, wherein they describe everything from the characters’ facial expressions to the pattern on the wallpaper. Most comic books are 22 pages. One writer, Alan Moore, often wrote 100 pages of script for every 22-page comic book. Other writers are very sparse in their descriptions, sometimes only a paragraph or two per page, entrusting the artist to lay out the pages to best tell the story. It was the process of taking pages of dialogue and description and turning them into coherent, monthly serials that enchanted me, and I wanted in on the magic.

I’ve gone to a number of universities and colleges, lived all over the country, from Los Angeles to Boston, and the one constant throughout all those years has been comic books. I’ve lugged my collection back and forth more times than I care to remember. If there was one opportunity I was going to drop everything for and jump at, it was working at Marvel or DC Comics.

And here I am, April 2, slightly more than two weeks since I first inquired through Twitter about working at Marvel, waiting for an interview. The kid I used to be, the one who sat on his bedroom floor surrounded by stacks of comic books, all perfectly enshrined in their plastic bags and cardboard backings, flipping through stories he’d read countless times before and would read countless times since, he was crazed with excitement, bouncing off the walls inside my chest.

I calmly sit in the waiting area, across from a wall display filled with new comics, the way a doctor’s office has copies of Sports Illustrated and People, and fill out the internship application paperwork. I fight to stifle a grin every time I look up and see the life-size Hulk statue glowering at me from just inside the entrance to the offices.

Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

There have been numerous adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s whimsical fantasy series of Oz books since they became part of the public domain in 1956, including books, television shows, video games and even a film version starring Kermit and the Muppets. Some of these adaptations are good, though many are not. And one of the very best is a comic book published by Marvel: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, faithfully adapted by Eric Shanower and beautifully illustrated by Skottie Young.

Unlike previous adaptations, including the beloved 1939 Judy Garland musical, Shanower’s Oz hews closely to the plot of Baum’s original novel. It begins, of course, with young Dorothy Gale and her little dog Toto being swept up and away by a tornado, house and all, from the colorless Kansas farmland and deposited in the magical world of Oz, whereupon Dorothy discovers the house has landed on and crushed the Wicked Witch of the East.

And there was much rejoicing.

What follows is the well-known adventure as the Good Witch of the North bestows upon Dorothy the magical silver shoes -- not the ruby slippers of the Garland musical; I guess sparkly red looks better on-screen -- the Wicked Witch of the East had been wearing when she died. The Good Witch of the North then sends Dorothy on her way down the yellow-brick road toward the fabled Emerald City, where, Dorothy hopes, the powerful Wizard of Oz will help her return home to her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em.

Along the way, Dorothy meets her beloved companions: the Scarecrow who only wants a brain, the Tin Woodman who wants a heart, and the Cowardly Lion who wants courage. Dorothy convinces each one that the Wizard can help them, and they agree to accompany her on her journey.

I don't remember the last time I watched the 1939 film, let alone read the original books, so I was coming into this adaptation cold, with only a few fleeting images from the movie rattling about inside my head. I had no preconceived notions about the book, save for Young's artwork, which I knew was going to be gorgeous, and I was certainly not disappointed in that assumption.

In fact, the star of Marvel’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is without a doubt Skottie Young, whose imaginative interpretations of these iconic characters are nothing short of masterful. Young has a sketchy cartoon style of artwork that perfectly captures the childlike essence of these 100-year-old characters while updating them for today’s visual medium. He takes these characters and puts his own spin on them while maintaining their charming familiarity.

Dorothy is sweet and innocent, with big, expressive eyes, while the Cowardly Lion is a big ball of cuddly fur, more kitten than king. The Wicked Witch of the West is a creepy old crone, with sickly green skin pulled tight over her boney face. (The coloring by Jean-Francois Beaulieu perfectly compliments and enhances Young's pencils.)

The collection is rounded out with images from Young's sketchbook, allowing insight into his creative process as he tries to get the characters just right for the tone of Shanower's adaptation. Young's initial Cowardly Lion looks more stately and lean, dark and brooding, like something out of The Lion King, while his early Scarecrow design looks like it escaped from a Batman comic, which, now that I think of it, I would love to see Young penciling a Batman series, if for no other reason than to see his interpretations of the villains. I imagine Young's Joker would be particularly frightful.

The story plays out as expected, with Dorothy and her new friends arriving at the Emerald City and being granted an audience with the great and powerful Oz, who promises to grant their wishes, but only if they agree to kill the Wicked Witch of the West for him.

Shanower's script is full of energy and keeps the story moving at a good clip. There's never a dull moment, just the occasional pause for breath and to enjoy more of Young's lush pencils. The Wizard of Oz remains a classic with good reason, and Marvel's adaptation is poised to become a classic in its own right, a fairy tale suited for kids and adults alike.

Originally published as an eight-issue mini-series, Marvel’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is now available in both hardcover and softcover collections. Shanower and Young followed up their delightful first collaboration by adapting Baum’s sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, currently available as a hardcover. Their third volume, Ozma of Oz is due to be released in Sept. 2011.

Social Media Maven Margarita Vaisman

During her time at Emerson College, Newbury Comics was a regular destination for Margarita Vaisman, class of ‘00, though her taste strayed from the superhero adventures of comic book publishers Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and DC Comics.

“I was really into the goth scene in Boston and a lot of those folks were into comics and made regular trips to Newbury Comics and Million Year Picnic,” Vaisman said. “While I didn’t read many comics beyond Sandman and The Crow — both on the goth required reading list — comics were certainly a common interest among many of my friends and acquaintances, along with black clothes and gloomy music.”

When it was time to look for colleges Vaisman zeroed-in on Emerson after reading a listing in The Princeton Review.

“I knew Boston was the ideal location for college, because I wanted to leave New York City, but not venture too far,” Vaisman said. “I also wanted to major in Creative Writing … [Emerson] matched both criteria and was described as ‘a school for freaks and misfits.’ The second I read those words, I knew that would be the school I’d attend.”

At Emerson, Vaisman, 33, majored in creative writing, with a minor in psychology.

“My favorite professor was the late Peter Corea, who I was fortunate enough to have for two psychology courses,” Vaiman said. “He always stressed empathy and kindness and I think he wanted to teach us to be decent human beings above all else. He certainly left a lasting impression on me.”

After four years of clubbing and writing, Vaisman, a 2000 graduate and now a community manager for Google, was unsure what was next for her.

“I think [Emerson] gave me a good foundation in terms of developing my talents and interests, but by the time I graduated, I didn’t know how I wanted to apply those skills.”

Vaisman moved to England after graduation, where she said she was biding her time until her ideal job was invented.

“I always had a feeling that whatever career I was going to have didn’t exist yet,” Vaisman said. “And wouldn’t you know, here I am working in social media.”

Until recently, Vaisman, was the social media manager for Marvel.

Before she started working at Marvel, Vaisman wasn’t very familiar with superhero comics. She had been reading more realistic work by creators like Adrian Tomine and Daniel Clowes, but she wanted to branch out. So when she heard about the job opportunity at Marvel, Vaisman dove right in.

Vaisman was particularly drawn to Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men.

“Someone pointed-out to me that I probably have a fondness for those characters because they are all misfits in some way, and I think that’s true,” Vaisman said. “This also goes back to what drew me to Emerson.”

Check out Margarita’s blog, The Diary Project, at metadiary.wordpress.com

The Marvelous John Cerilli

When Marvel Entertainment, Inc. executive John Cerilli was a boy, he never thought he’d work in the comic book industry.

“To me it was an unreachable goal, like trying to play third base for the Mets,” Cerilli said. “It was beyond my comprehension.”

Still, Cerilli, Emerson College class of ‘89, was a steadfast fan of comic books from a very early age.

“I remember being attracted to them even before I could read them,” he said. “My aunt read a lot of horror-based comics in the early ‘70s and I would flip through them at first looking at the pictures.”

Cerilli, vice president of digital content and programming for Marvel.com, eventually learned to read and began selecting his own titles in his early teens.

“I was a Marvel guy through and through, but I read a ton of DC books, too,” he said. “The X-Men, Spider-Man, The Thing, Conan and Batman were far and away my favorites.”

Cerilli, 44, had never heard of Emerson College before his high school guidance counselor mentioned it to him, but the school’s focus on media and communications immediately piqued his interest.

“I went to visit the school and, simply, I was hooked,” he said. “I loved the fact that our ‘campus’ was the city of Boston.”

In fact, Cerilli was so enamored by Emerson and Boston that he never considered applying anywhere else.

“It really seemed fantastic and felt like home,” he said. “The vibe, it being situated in the heart of a major city, was just perfect.”

Initially, the New York-born and New Jersey-raised Cerilli thought he would have a career in sports writing or commentary when he began his academic career at Emerson in the 1985 fall semester.

Cerilli, an avid Mets fan, said, “Sports, especially baseball, were and still remain an enormous passion of mine … Little did anyone know that the Mets and Red Sox would meet in one of the greatest World Series ever played in 1986, which made the experience of going to school at Emerson all the more amazing.”

At Emerson, Cerilli majored in mass communications, but, encouraged by his teachers, quickly shifted gears.

“[I] decided to switch to writing when professor after professor commented on the quality of my papers,” Cerilli said. “I finally had a chat with one of my professors who seemed to like my writing during my freshman year.”

That professor was Mary Karr, who would later write “The Liars’ Club,” among other award-winning memoirs and volumes of poetry.

“I asked her if she thought I was good enough to pursue a career in writing and she didn’t dissuade me from that,” Cerilli said. “Just the opposite, in fact. For me, that was a major victory as I respected her enormously.”

Cerilli’s history professor was also influential in setting him on his writing career, “even if I didn’t really know how I was going to make a living from it,” he said.

“My favorite professor was Dr. John Coffee,” Cerilli said. “In fact, I achieved the entirety of my history minor by taking classes with him … [he] actually used to have a class called Cartoons and American History. It was brilliant. In fact, I ended up writing a paper on the X-Men – comparing their plight to the civil rights movement that fueled their creation.”

Even in college, comic books remained a part of Cerilli’s life.

“I was a frequent visitor to Newbury Comics on Newbury Street and would often walk back to Fensgate with CDs and comics,” Cerilli said. “I still remember the buzz around ‘The Dark Knight Returns.’ I had to have it.”