This year, the critically acclaimed web comic, High Moon, celebrates its three year anniversary. The comic, created by David Gallaher and Steve Ellis, debuted in 2007 as part of Zuda Comics (DC Comics web comic imprint) initial launch. Since then, the comic has only gotten more and more popular as each season has brought new action and adventure to comic book fans everywhere. The first arc of the comic even made its way to print, giving a new flavor to what has quickly become a classic. Now there is even talk of a High Moon video game (quiet talk). Gallaher and Ellis teamed up again to bring the worlds first comic developed specifically for a handheld device, Box13. The completely free series, published first on the iPhone by Comixology, has further catapulted its creators into the spotlight.
Both Ellis and Gallaher have been in and around the comic book industry for quite some time, but the success of the last three years have surely marked them as innovators and a force to be reckoned with from here on out. Recently, Steve Ellis took time out of his busy schedule to talk with me about some of this success and his process. What follows is the Q. and A. that I did with him. Sit down with a nice cup of coffee and enjoy the interview!
Guerrilla Geek: Steve, you have created breathtaking art for a variety of companies for a variety of projects. Tell us a little about how you got into comic books, specifically.
Steve Ellis: Well, when I was five or six I made a drawing of Tony the Tiger that impressed my older sister, who loved art. Since I was far more used to fighting with her, her compliment really impressed me. I’ve been carrying around a sketchbook ever since. When I was 13, my friends and I begged my mom to drive us to the comic book store each weekend. Why she put up with me and my two geeky friends yelling in the backseat, I’ll never know; maybe it was the dead silence in the car on the way back from the shop as we all read our new acquisitions.
As far as art goes, I was always interested in telling stories, and comics and film seemed just right for that goal. I wrote and drew my first comic book when I was twelve and have been doing it ever since. Along the way, I’ve been lucky to have a great supporting group of friends with similar goals. We’ve worked together, challenged each other, threw each other work when things were good, commiserated when things looked bleak. We were all dedicated to become top-notch comics pros. I wish I could go back in time to the noisy Brooklyn apartment over Frank’s Chicken House that I shared with Fred Van Lente and Jamal Igle, and tell our 24-year-old selves that we would all achieve our dreams and then some.
Guerrilla Geek: Box13, which you co-created with David Gallaher, quite possibly could have been the start of the comic-rush on handheld devices. Could you tell us a little about Box13? Was your creative process different making a comic intended for a smaller than normal medium?
Steve Ellis: Not possibly, it was the start. Box13 is the first comic to ever be created specifically for a handheld device. David and I spent a lot of time carefully considering the nature of sequential art and how it would be different from a typical printed comic book.
Instead of composing differently shaped panels of a page we chose to take full advantage of the iPhone dimensions, while still creating something that could be printed in a traditional format. This meant restricting the panels, which forced me to consider each panel as its own scene instead of being part of a grid or a whole. As a result, Box13 has more of a cinematic effect. The iPhone enabled me to think about another dimension in comics – adding the consideration of user interface and not just panel time but actual time.
In terms of working smaller, we didn’t really think of it that way. We thought in terms of individual panels, which are not so different in size. Also there’s and interesting psychology of someone interfacing with a handheld device. People hold it close and allow it the tiny screen to become the complete focus of their attention – it’s the reason it’s possible to watch videos on such a small screen. It creates an interesting sense of intimacy.
Guerrilla Geek: Box13 came hot on the heels of the Harvey Award-winning High Moon, which you also co-created with David Gallaher. Thanks to DC’s web comic imprint, Zuda Comics, High Moon seemed like almost an instant success. Can you tell us a little about High Moon? How did you and Mr. Gallaher get together to come up with the series?
Steve Ellis: HM is a werewolf western web comic (say that 3x fast!). It’s the story of man’s struggle with the beast within. It’s steeped in history, but in a very subtle way. We wanted the story to have as its underpinnings some key historical events in the West and we took pains to make the book historically accurate down to the smallest details, but in no way did we want the history overtake or dull the crazy action.
David conceived of the initial concept about 7 or 8 years ago and brought it to me in 2006 at the New York Comic Con. From there, we spent months growing the world together. It wasn’t an instant success, we had to go through the grueling Zuda comics contest. Some of the magic of that book comes from our highly collaborative process. Instead of the usual comic process where an artist is handed a completed script, in this case David and I worked back and forth writing and doing layouts together. David influenced the art, and my visual storytelling altered the script. In High Moon, the line between artist and writer is blurred, and for me, that’s far more satisfying than being a hired gun.
Guerrilla Geek: You have been working in the comic book industry in some capacity since the early nineties. How has the success of High Moon changed your life?
Steve Ellis: I worked on a lot of projects for a lot of other companies, but working on my own project, bring able to control the look and control every step of the visual process really allowed me to showcase what I could do. Being my own artist allowed me to stretch my legs and be the artist I always knew I could be.
I feel like before I was an okay comic book artist, but being allowed to let my vision come through on the pencils, inks, and colors catapulted me. In a typical comic, I would have been hired to do just the pencils. That means my vision for the art could never be fulfilled as it was always a shared process with an inker and colorist adding their own vision. This is not necessarily bad, but it does mean no one comic ever had what I felt was my unique look.
Luckily, my background doing gaming artwork has trained me to use ink and color very well. What doesn’t show in a typical comic project where I’ve done the pencils is that I love pen and ink work. Some of the best pieces I have ever done as an artist are ink drawings for gaming and fantasy. I am particularly proud of my ink work for a project I did with fantasy legend Michael Moorcock on Random House’s reissue of the Elric series.
This year I was nominated for a Harvey for best inker based on my work in High Moon. It still amazes me that my name was up there with the likes of Mark Morales and Klaus Jansen. HM showcased the full range of my talents, and apparently when you do what you love, and do it to the full extent of your artistic vision, something great is born and others recognize it.
I only hope that HM will set me on a path of being an artist like the Frank Millers and Mike Mignolas of the world – where one artistic vision carries through a whole story.
Guerrilla Geek: High Moon Volume 1 came out in late 2009. What was it like seeing that first season finally printed all together? Can we expect to see more seasons printed in coming years?
Steve Ellis: Holding the first HM book in my hand was wonderful. The Internet experience is amazing – the ability to zoom and pan reinvigorate the comics experience, but I’m still a bit old-fashioned and love the feel of a book in my hands. I really think that’s the way comics will be going – we’ll read online, but the stories we love we’ll want to own. It’s kind of like owning the DVD of a movie – sure you can rent or stream movie anytime you want, but when you love it, you want it on your shelf.
Guerrilla Geek: If we could sidetrack for just a minute, I am a big fan of table top RPGs and can’t help but notice you have done some work with companies the likes of Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf (I play in a Mage game ever week). Was your work with these companies any result of your own fandom? In other words, are you a big nerd like me?
Steve Ellis: I don’t know if you’re any more of a nerd for playing games than reading comics, but I’m right there with you. I’ve been playing RPGs on and off since I was a teenager, and to this day, I still do. I love being GM and creating worlds. RPGs allow you to throw out a story idea and test it thoroughly. With a good group of gamers, the characters take on lives of their own and will find every hole in your plot.
Because I gamed with writers, artists, and other comics and fantasy pros, we were always testing out story ideas through the course of gaming. Van Lente was my primary collaborator for many years and one of our graphic novel projects, Absolute Zero, a story about a dystopic tribal future after a worldwide calamity, was worked out as a long-running RPG based on the GURPS platform. We had a blast and I have to say, you haven’t gamed until you’ve had a guy who makes his living crafting stories as your GM.
Not everything that came out of that gaming group was as serious. We also created and produced a hilarious RPG called Stuperpowers: The First Rate Game For Third Rate Heroes.
Guerrilla Geek: Box13 has just started a new arc. What can we expect in this new series?
Steve Ellis: Wow, the new series is full of all kinds of ups and downs. Expect international intrigue, new mysterious characters, old enemies who finally catch up to Dan and Olivia. We learn more about the boxes and the mysterious purpose that Dan was made for. This one is more action, more intense than the first, we set up a lot of pins in the first book in this one we knock a lot of them down.
Guerrilla Geek: How does your process differ when it comes to Box13, High Moon, and some of your printed work? As “co-creator” do you get directly involved in story lines and character development?
Steve Ellis: As co-creators, David and I work together on the storylines. David and I will throw out some ideas, David will go to the writing desk and refine those down, and then we’ll start laying out pages from a tight outline. The scripting and refined plotting is in David’s hands, while I’m putting together layouts and designs and getting into character.
I find drawing comics a lot like acting. My characters have emotions and actions and I like to work those through my drawings. Since most of my comics have been for other people’s projects, it’s harder to get as into the heads of the characters. Also, the usual comics business model is to separate the artist and the writer (for speed mostly), but I find it detaches me from the work and I have trouble being as inventive with the artwork. That’s why working with David has been such a pleasure and why I feel it brings out the best in me as an artist.
Guerrilla Geek: What are some of your favorite comic books and series to read?
Steve Ellis: I’ve always been a fan of Hellboy, BPRD, Frank Millers’ work on Sin City and 300, As for current titles, I find myself leaning toward more horror and fantastic stories, or ones that have a bent that isn’t the usual take on an established character.
Guerrilla Geek: When you aren’t slaving away at the drawing board, what kind of trouble do you like to get up to?
Steve Ellis: Lately, my trouble has been restricted to hanging out with the former Zuda guys at a bar on the west side. I like to go to gallery openings for the pop surrealist art movement and have even had a few shows of my paintings, most recently at world-famous Tattoo artist Paul Booth’s art gallery “Last Rites.” Most of my free time though, is spent with my fantastic wife, Yamila, and our two kids.
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I would like to thank Mr. Ellis for his time, once again. In a world wide web filled with thousands of comic blogs, we appreciate these swell gents thinking of Guerrilla Geek! You can follow both David Gallaher and Steve Ellis on Twitter for all the latest on their current projects! Keep an eye out for more on the High Moon video game as progress gets underway on that leg of these brilliant creators journey together.
What a great interview! Thoroughly enjoyable to read :D