Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Blackhand Comics, Comics, Deadly Class, entertainment, NYCC, rick remender, Wes Craig

Wes Craig on Deadly Class and Blackhand Comics

While at the New York Comic Con, June Vigants caught up with comic creator Wes Craig to talk about Deadly Class and Blackhand Comics.

JUNE VIGANTS: So what'd you tell me earlier about how you were brought in on Deadly Class, something about how Remender was hanging out and saw someone coloring your stuff?

WES CRAIG: Yeah, I've been a fan of Lee's [Loughridge] and I was bugging editors for a while to let me work with him, I thought we'd make a good team. Finally after bugging them long enough they put me and him together on this Batman project and Rick and Lee were, at the time, living down the street from one another.

I guess Rick and Lee were hanging out one night and Lee was coloring my stuff as he was hanging out and Rick saw it on the computer screen and just asked if Rick had never seen my stuff before and he just looked at the computer screen and asked "Oh, who's that?" He had Deadly Class, the basic concept, kicking around in his mind and I guess he was just looking for an artist who would suit the material and thought "Oh that's it, right there." He got my contact from Lee and he e-mailed me and I've been a big fan of his since Strange Girl and Fear Agent and all that stuff so I was ready and was like "Whatever you wanna do, I'm up for it."

JV: You just wrapped up your first volume of Deadly Class; has working on this story for so long affected the art? Has it made you change something or helped you get a better feel for it?

WG: Yeah, for sure. Slowly but surely. Marcus I can draw with my eyes closed now. Sometimes you get them a little off in the first few issues – you haven't quite solidified them in your mind yet, but it's always working y'know. I never feel like I make it 1980's enough – I have a giant file of reference that I pull up whenever I'm working on it.

JV: I really love the Goth, New Wave, Punk culture in the book and it's not just in the references to music and movies but also it's totally evident in the characters. You see them in their school outfits but then you also get to see them in their own clothes. Also in the different gangs and crime organizations the students come from. It's very impressive and really pulled me in as a reader.

WG: Thanks. I live in a really hipster-y neighborhood so it's kind of like 1980's anyways. It's important to not make everything have shoulder pads and pink and make it this fake version of the 80's – nothing in the 80's was that 80's…but I still wanna make it suitable to that era. Make the cars fit and make it all feel real.

JV: Can you tell me a bit about the Blackhand book that just got released?

WG: Yeah, that's a web comic that I've been doing for about as long as I've been doing Deadly Class. It comes a bit slower because I tend to do that on the weekends and in between issues of Deadly Class.

There's three short stories that are in this first hardcover. One is called "The Gravedigger's Union," which is about a bunch of grave diggers that have to bury the dead and make sure that they stay buried at night, like vampires, zombies, and all that kind of stuff. One is called "Circus Day" and that's about these kids' adventures in the backlots of a circus in the 1930's, and the third one is called "The Seed" and it's this H.P. Lovecraft, pulpy kind of thing about a man on the run from a cult. There's two other stories online at Blackhandcomics.com right now.

JV: So this is a thing you're going to keep doing?

WG: I want to keep doing it for sure. This is just a thing that's kind of slow going so it's only like a once a year thing, while Deadly Class is something that has to come out monthly – it gets done when it's get done.

JV: Is Blackhand kind of your personal project?

WG: Yeah, it's my baby. I write it, draw it, letter it, and color it and everything. It's all me. It's the type of thing I've been doing since I was a kid but this is the first time it's gotten out there in the world like this.

JV: And is it all self-contained?

WG: Yes.

JV: Are there any characters that appear throughout – reoccurring in the background?

WG: There is this one guy called the Carnie, and he's just kind of like the Crypt Keeper for E.C. comics or Rod Serling for Twilight Zone. He kind of just steps in and introduces the stories so he's the only linking aspect between the three but besides that they're all stand-alone. The grave diggers thing was originally a pitch so it ends on a bit of a to-be-continued unfortunately, but I might do another Gravedigger's Union short story. We'll see.

JV: Alright. Thank you very much!

Craig's first volume of Blackhand Comics is out now! Check it out at http://www.blackhandcomics.com

Also a tumblr: http://wescraigcomics.tumblr.com

And Craig's twitter @WesCraigComics

The first trade paperback for Deadly Class by Rick Remender and Wes Craig (Colored by Lee Loughridge) is out now, with its second series already underway!

June Vigants is a comics writer and artist based in Connecticut. Follow her on twitter @JuneRevolver

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!