CREEPS: AN INTERVIEW WITH LAITH

As with most British comicbook artists, Liam Sharp broke into the scene via 2000 AD during the 1980s. After the sucess of Death's Head II in the early 90s, he worked on X-Men, Hulk, Spider-Man, Superman and Batman. Setting up his own publishing company, Mam Tor in 2004 saw the launch of the critically acclaimed and award winning, Event Horizon - an anthology that has featured the work of comic book veterans Glenn Fabry, Simon Bisley and Alan Grant, to name a few.

EC: Welcome to Erth Chronicles Liam.

LS: Thanks to Erth Chronicles for having me!

EC: Complete this sentence: Three cavemen are sitting round a fire, one says to the other…

LS: "You know, it's alright getting your face warm, but my arse is still freezing."

So the second says "well why don't you turn around?"

"I can think of at least three good reasons..." says the third.

EC: Where were you brought up and how do you feel this may have imprinted on your visual style?

LS: I was raised in Derby (UK) until I was 11, and that most certainly had an imprint. My dad loved Aubrey Beardsley and that kind of decorative nouveaux line-work, and I stumbled across a book about Michaelangelo, which blew me away. Those two very much inform my art.

Add to that the various biker-slash-rocker types, with names like "chick" and "Black Moggy", that drifted through our house in the 70's, and the fact that Derby is a Viking town (I'm certain I'm at least partly in communication with the collective ancestral consciousness of my hairy forebears) and the picture is pretty complete!


EC: You have worked for some of the biggest names in comic book publishing - how has this experience helped or maybe even hindered your career?

LS: I would say it's both helped AND hindered, though generally that's more down to the melding of all the associated people and talent involved in the production of any given book. It's a collaboration, and a happy and creative collaboration will yield better work than one whose creative forces are in conflict. But generally, working in comics has completely hindered my career in other areas - which was a big and surprising blow to me. I couldn't, during one lean period, get any illustration agency to put me on their books, or take me seriously, purely because my background was comics. They couldn't see past the subject matter to the mechanics of what I'm capable of - not that the subject matter should have had any bearing on it at all! We're most certainly looked down upon, along with sci-fi and fantasy artists. Tattooists get it even worse!

EC: Who have been and continue to be your main inspiration as an artist?

LS: The list is too long, but most enduring would be the affore-mentioned Michelangelo, and in comics; Moebius, Don Lawrence, Boland, Fabry, Bizley, Jim Lee, Manara, Druillet, Corben, Frazetta, and others I'll kick myself for not mentioning...

EC: The 80s was responsible for a dramatic shift in the way comics were perceived – was this something that excited you at the time? What were you reading back then?

LS: Oh lord, yes! Dark Knight, Watchmen, Moon Knight, Heavy Metal magazine, Ronin, Electra Assassin, Killing Joke... it was an amazing time! What was particularly wonderful about it too was the fact that it wasn't just about how great the writing was becoming. The art was breaking down barriers and being astonishingly innovative in ways we now take for granted. Very inspiring times!

EC: Explain your process of working.

LS: There is none. I'm completely intuitive in my approach. I do what feels right mostly! Sorry, that's a bit crap, but I'm not very technical, and I'm such a restless creative that I've worked in more mediums than I can really pin down into a technique I could easily explain.

EC: What is it you learn each time from working on a new project?

LS: That life's short and it's nearly impossible to really do what you would like to do. Fashion, sadly, changes regularly and impacts - more than I would care for it to - upon the industry. I'm a 70's throwback artistically! New projects are always fun to start, so you just hope they continue to be fun as the projects develop. With Testament I'm glad to say I learnt a lot intellectually, whereas you might say I learnt more spiritually - or at least more ABOUT spirituality - working with DeMatteis on the Manthing series. But lots of books you work on might only further your technique through repetition - that, or bludgeon it into hackdom with inanity!

EC: Your Eagle Award nominated anthology Event Horizon has been gaining quite a reputation. What were the contributing factors that made you want to hit the independent scene?

LS: Lack of regular work for a while - the industry is at it's most competitive point in my career thus far - and I had spent several years drawing myself into an artistic corner in a quest to create a style for myself as iconic as a Boland, Bisley, Corben, McKean or Lawrence. There also seemed to be fewer outlets for less mainstream work, and having produced my own artbook - Sharpenings: the art of Liam Sharp - I had some knowledge of what it might take to publish such a book. I also knew a lot of great under-rated artists not getting their dues, like Dave Kendal, Kev Crossley, Lee Carter, Emily Hare and Emma Simcock-Tooth, and still others with big names that had their own itches to scratch. So it kind of evolved after one Bristol comic convention into the book we know and love today called Event Horizon.

EC: What other projects are you currently working on?

LS: All my time is currently being eaten up with a six issue mini for DC, Lord Havok and the Extremists - which is fantastic fun. A real throwback to my mainstream days on Death's Head II. I'm cutting a swath back into the higher profile scene! Got to say I've missed it really, and there's only so many monsters, barbarians and breasts you can draw before people start thinking you're obsessed... LOL!

EC: What’s the first film you remember seeing that had an influence on you?

LS: Jason and the Argonaughts would have to be one, but more palpably Star Wars, and more forcefully, 2001: a Space Odyssey.

EC: Tell us more about your film project, Viking Zombie Elvis.

LS: Ha! The Zombie! It really grew out of Event Horizon. Kev Crossley created the visual which became our mascot, having initially been a miss-reading of a post on my messageboard - Viking Zombie Elves from a Kev Crossley story in EH1 became Viking Zombie Elvis, and the character was born! The film was made initially with the intention of it being a internet viral to support the book and help us sell it. It never actually did that, but instead kept growing it's own legs and becoming its own thing. Who knows when and where it will ever stop...

The music written for it by Ali Powers is bloody hilarious too.

EC: Research is an integral part of the art and design process – do you feel that this helps inform us as individuals and therefore the work we produce? What would you use as an example of ill informed art and/or design?

LS: Most likely. We learn almost everything by copying and assimilating - though this has become almost taboo in comics! I'm not really in the business of picking up on bad design - but lord knows how they came to the conclusion that the logo for the upcoming London Olympics was a good'un. Whatever informed that work, and whatever research they did to arrive at that conclusion needs some serious reconsideration! It's a vile 80's pop-zine logo for pre-teens, not an icon for our age! What happened there?

EC: What do you feel is the common trait we all share as creatives?

LS: Creatives are always one - or more - of the following (in my experience): Dyslexic, Autistic (on the scale of), Restless, Non-drivers (mostly comic artists), Smokers, Drinkers, Musicians, Writers, Ponderers, Depressives, Self-indulgent, fragile-egoed, Hedonistic, Idealistic, Oblivious, Questing, Philosophical, Intellectual, Socially inept/inadequate/unskilled, Self-hating, Self-Taught.

EC: In your experience so far, specifically the comic book industry - how important is art direction? How has it helped push your own vision further and even the work of others on your own publications?

LS: I think it can blind you to your genuine skills. In my quest for an artistic direction I failed to establish what I was actually good at for years! But I may be labouring under the false illusion that what I'm good at is what I can sell easiest, and the work I've done that I could never get published or seen or find an audience for is not my best for those very reasons. It's hard to be objective in this very materialistic age!

EC: What is the process of creating your own publication like? The concept, the editing and fine-tuning - the overall development?

LS: A seriously vast, overwhelmingly labour intensive and mostly thankless chore which yields incredible rewards. I would never undertake to produce something of that scale and complexity again - at least not unless I had 10 staff members actually doing most of it! Future Mamtor publications will be far less monumental in scale...

EC: Do you think digital art has affected traditional techniques - if so, in what way?

LS: I think a good tool is a good tool, but drawing skills are the ESSENTIAL basis for all illustrative work. I love working in 3D, and Photoshop, but neither are effective without a basic understanding of form, scale, perspective, lighting and colour.

EC: Fantasy and Science Fiction has grown tremendously the past ten years, thanks to the likes of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, continuing to inspire many fellow artists. How do you see this genre changing and developing over the next few years?

LS: I HOPE it can evolve, and shed it's (wrongly reinforced) mantle of being all about wizards, Elves, magic and quests - much as I think prog rock is misrepresented in the media. Great work is great work, whatever the genre, and should be regarded as such. It's about people using their brains and not being lazy ultimately. As for how it may change, I'm seeing that in the written work of people like China Miéville and M.John Harrison. Art, though, is still awaiting a sci-fi and fantasy revolution, a brave new direction - outside of Hollywood and computer games at any rate. It'll be a long time before, if ever, 'serious' critics and Art wags take the imaginative creative fields into their hearts and extol their virtues with appropriate gusto!

EC: The ‘Hero’s Journey’ is synonymous with mythical story telling - how integral do you feel this is to any story?

LS: It's the original story isn't it? Through Gilgamesh, The Illiad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Beowulf, Pilgrim's Progress, The Lord of the Rings... it's painted on cave walls and played on computer games. It's what drove us across the oceans, up mountains and into space. It's the symbol of our questing soul, and unbelievably sacred to us for that very reason. We should be cherishing it, not ridiculing it.

EC: What advice would you give to artists at Erth Chronicles in continuing to effectively bring someone else’s vision to life?

LS: Dig deep, be brave, and try to think beyond the clichés! Make it beautiful, make it real, and make it Art. Feed into what is written, and build on it. Believe it. There's nothing more amazing that we do as humans than make that which is not real believable. You're creating genuine wonders each time you do this, so don't forget that!

EC: What’s the most important professional advice you would give a prospective artist?

LS: Make time in the real world, and never let anybody tell you something is fact unless you've tested the truth of it yourself - be it art, politics, or faith. An open mind and open eyes are your greatest tools!

Very best, and thanks,

Liam.

You can view more of Liam's work and publications by visting:

www.mamtor.com

www.liamsharp.deviantart.com

Testament trade paperbacks are currently available from DC Vertigo.

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