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Walter Sablotny III is an American illustrator born in the Midwest in 1974. Largely self-taught, Walter has been a newspaper cartoonist, writer, poet, comic book artist and self-proclaimed "half-assed web designer". His interests include horror movies, martial history, comedy, art, and comics. He is one half of Psychoholic Studios, which he helped form with David Harris in 1994. He currently lives in Lincoln, Illinois with his wife, three kids, and a damnable beagle/dalmation mix named Sadie.
"I'm a larger-than-life, curmudgeonly malcontent. If I like what you're doing, I'm balls-to-the-wall for it. If what you're doing isn't for me and mine, I don't care enough to be polite more than once, and you'd best leave me alone about it."
Interview with Walter Sablotny III:
1. So how did you get bit by the comic book industry bug in the first place?
The earliest exposure to comics I can remember was an old Charlton Blue Beetle comic when I was 2 or 3. The image of Ted Kord flying around swinging out of that mechanical bug to this day is tops in my book.
2. Do you remember when you started reading comic books, and if so
what were the first things you read?
I started seriously reading comics when I was in sixth grade. The local convenience store in the armpit town I grew up in had a small magazine rack and Blue Beetle #3 caught my attention. I was buying after that. I loved (and to this day still love) the Marvel Universe Handbooks, DC's Who's Who, Marvel Saga, Uncanny X-Men, Warlord, and Elvira's House of Mystery.
3. Did you have your family’s support to work in comics or was
it something that had to grow on them?
My family let me have my space to just do what I wanted, which was of course a blessing and curse. On the plus side, I could devote as much time as I wanted to develop my craft...and to my detriment I was working in a cultural vacuum that afforded me little to no exposure to other forms of art. To this day, my family asks me if I'm still drawing, and that's about it.
4. Do you have any traditional training or education?
I had art training in high school and a little college correspondence through high school.
5. What's your working process like?
For comics pages, I sit and read the script twice. Then I make notes and thumbnails on the actual script pages...sometimes as many as three or four per sheet of script. I then pick and choose what I like and go to the art board, where I draw panel borders and block in the figures and action. From there its just a matter of puttingthe graphite on the paper and making sure the art doesn't come out too hateful to the eye. For pinups I usually just look at art for 20 minutes or so until something strikes my fancy...a pose in perspective, lighting...it could be anything. I'll take that idea to the art board, black in the figures and action, then flesh it out till I'm happy with it.
6. Describe what it is you do that is your style.
Hell, I have no style. I've become an amalgym all the 'hot creators' of my youth, the legends from the past century of comics and illustration, and my own eye. I guess I'm a guerilla artist...whatever works whenever you need it.
7. What are some of the challenges for you as an artist?
On the technical side of things, right now I'm really trying to not become a slave to linear perspective. And I'm trying to get more textures into my pencil work. On the business side, I feel challenged by how high the bar has been raised in regards to the level of execution these younger guys are displaying. It's daunting. Additionally, I'm a little technologically challenged...the industry has developed a new work mode that is still a little alien to me.
8. Do you prefer drawing superheroes, or do you like to do the darker stuff?
In all honesty, I don't care for drawing many superheroes.
Characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Superman, and Green Lantern are fun to read, but I think they are a real
bore to draw. I definitely go in for darker material...in my mind a good story is about conflict. Conflict is dirty and bloody and dangerous and the idea of having these brightly colored do-gooders flipflopping
about is about appealing as a shot of Ipecac. Give it to me raw and wriggling to cut open so that we can see the gooey inner-working of a thing.
9. Do you ever do your own writing along with art?
I wrote and drew a title called Thrall many moons ago. Ive been in the process of revamping it over and over for at least a decade.
10. Do you prefer to work mostly from plots or full-script?
I prefer a loose fuller script. When a plot is presented to me my mind compartmentalizes the story on the page and then looks for ways to add ideas to the story...which can be hazardous. By the same token I don't like a script where EVERY shot is described in minute detail....from shot selection to blocking on panel. When the story gets like this, you've lost your artistic autonomy and you're just a robot hand.
11. How much impact does the writer have on the look of what you pencil?
Does the added input, if any, speed the process up or bog it down?
The writer has definite impact on my work. I want to make sure that I'm telling the story they WANT to see on the page, as long as they realize that if they want everything the EXACT way they want it, then they can pickup a pencil their own damn selves. I think if both parties involved are cool with the story a little writer's input can definitely speed up the process.
12. When you look back at older art, how do you think it holds up
compared to what you're doing now or with where you want to be?
I was going through some older pages recently...I think about 80% of the storytelling holds up nicely, but in a few places I have 'loosened up' in my mid-30's and would have pushed the boundaries of panel design a little more. Overall, I think it holds up all right, but neither my old work or newer works are quite where I need to be.
13. Have you developed a favorite character?
Favorite characters that others have created in current comics include Moon Knight, Batman, Lobo, The Goon, The Ghoul, and Michonne from Robert Kirkman's excellent series, The Walking Dead. I used to like Wolverine, until the Big M turned him into a corporate bitch.
14. Do you have an idea of where you want to take any
particular title that you guys have created?
Tons. I have ideas on top of ideas.
Not all of them are good, or safe, or sane, or even normal....but they're mine nonetheless.
15. Do you have any thoughts on the state of the comics industry these days?
Do I! Too many characters are overexposed, and that's never a good thing because it ends up that continuities get jacked with and the work of some other talented people in the past get totally stepped on and negated and that's completely against the spirit of the medium (in my mind anyway). Also, companies have to stop with all the multi-title, sequel-spawning crossover 'events' that run in 30 comics over a three-month period. A crossover event like Crisis on Infinite Earths was truly an event because it changed the way continuity was viewed and no one came back in next fiscal quarter and messed with it.
16. It seems like the comic book industry is very ripe for filmmaking.
Hollywood studios swoop in and they lock up comic franchises as
quickly as they can. Do you feel that, in general, that’s
a very good thing for the comic industry?
Its a double-edged sword...for the industry that's focused on trying to move books, I'd say its advantageous. For the creator who had a story he crafted with his heart and soul, fought over editors about, made money to support himself with, added to the rich tapestry of creators that came before, it can be rather unappealing. To have someone in a studio system take his work, pervert it from its pure form, and present it in a much wider medium while missing the spirit of the work would just suck.
17. If you were wanting to do a particular story
idea as a film project, do you think about doing
that as a comic first just to show it to people and say,
"Here's what I'm thinking of?"
Not a comic per se...but a series of storyboards and perhaps animatics, you bet.
All material, unless otherwise noted, is copyright Psychoholic Studios and may not be reprinted, copied, transferred, or otherwise used without expressed written consent of Psychoholic Studios.
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