Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: avatar, boundless, Comics, entertainment, Hannah Means-Shannon, interview, lady death, Marc Bostel

Visual Ballet – Talking With Lady Death's Marc Borsel About The New Series

Published Tue, 02 Dec 2014 10:00:00 -0600

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Tue, 02 Dec 2014 10:29:21 -0600

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Lady Death is returning to comics from Boundless, via an already-funded-at-200% Kickstarter (with three days to go).

Bleeding Cool Editor-In-Chief, Hannah Means-Shannon talked to the comic's artist Marc Bostel about the return of Lady Death, and got a look at the process of creation in the… well, process.

Here is that interview, as well as examples of the digital means of production, at the hands of Bostel. Enjoy…

Hannah Means-Shannon: What inspired you to become a comic book artist and what kind of stories do you most enjoy drawing?

Marc Borstel: Since my childhood, I always loved to tell stories, sometimes writing, sometimes drawing. At some point of my life, when I was ending high school, I discovered comic book art. I've been in love with it ever since.

HMS: When you sat down to begin drawing Lady Death, how did you choose your take on her appearance and movement? Did you find yourself having to look at several versions to decide on your own?

MB: My first take was to follow the previous artists as reference in order to get some sense of continuity, but, since the character was missing (in the current arc story) from her reality for a long period, I also tried to take a leap forward in order to show some evolution, visually speaking.

HMS: What do you think the most important elements are in drawing an interesting action scene?

MB: I think clean storytelling is the most important thing to consider; you can play with the panel display on the grid of the page, but I always try to get the story flowing swiftly. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. But with that as my focus, then the battles are visual ballet.

HMS: Do you draw on real life to come up with the appearances of characters? Or are there particular artists who have influenced you and you like to refer to for inspiration?

MB: I use all kind of reference when I work on a comic page, everything from photographs to 3D renders. In my early years as comic artist, I found inspiration in very different styles from very different artists: my main influences were Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Travis Charest and Jim Lee, but there were other names too: Moebius, Katsuhiro Otomo, Adam Hughes, Phillipe Vuillemin, Jeff Smith, Peter Bagge, Juan Gimenez, Scott McCloud, Frank Miller, Brian Bolland, and a very long list of others!

HMS: Can you walk us through the steps you usually go through for creating a comics page?

MB: In the beginning, I start by reading the script and translate it in very rough thumbnails on paper. Then, I fit those sketches in the page grid in order to get fluid storytelling. When I get all the pages storyboarded, I start the real page on the computer: The panels go first, then I sketch the story on a layer, and render the real drawing in line art on another layer. When the page is approved, I do the color flats and later I color it. In the final stage, I add all the "SFX".

HMS: What has been your favorite part of drawing Lady Death: Apocalypse so far?

MB: I really enjoyed working with some of the characters, and there are very interesting backgrounds and agendas to follow in future episodes. I also enjoyed some of the intense action sequences. I think I delivered some nice shots in the story.

Boundless is a sibling company to Avatar Press, the owners of Bleeding Cool.