Exclusive Interview with Hal Hefner



Adria, a main character of Gates.

Hal Hefner, the writer and illustrator of Gates (a digital comic launching in January 1st, 2011 through Heavy Metal Magazine), reveals to us what happened exactly during his childhood that drove him to forever record his passion and talent into his wonderful pieces of work. He was only three years old when he began recreating on paper scenarios of  his favorite characters in action. His naturally flowing relationship with writing and art has kept Hal Hefner reflecting an  appealing and professionally elevating image throughout these years. After learning about his new project, a great curiosity drove me to ask him what  exactly took him to be able to handle all by himself this production. 

Hal took his passion with him from NY to LA.

1. You have a very impressive and solid educational background in Fine Art, Illustration, and Graphic design. However, I'm still unsure of how this passion grew into you. How did you become so attached to drawing and painting while being so young and what eventually drove you into becoming particularly a comic artist?

 HH: In all honesty I can only remember being an artist. It's all I've ever known and it definitely started to blossom when I was a child. I had great support from my family--even though they admittedly had no artistic talent or understanding of what art was. When I was three I made my first comic in blue marker on yellow lined paper—retelling the story of King Kong. Pretty soon I was writing and drawing my own Star Wars stories and this is where it all started.

When I was eight I discovered G.I.Joe and it was here that I really became obsessed with comics. Shortly thereafter I had a real artistic moment of "awareness" in 1984--when Spider-Man got his black costume. For me this was the turning point in which I became serious about learning to draw the human figure. I was so fascinated by this black costume because it was new and it had an element of rebellion to it I was beginning to identify with.

As a teen in the 90’s I became a little disillusioned and bored with comics, particularly Marvel & DC. For a few years, I abandoned comics and focused on fine art (painting/drawing), school and expanding my mind with authors like George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, HG Wells and more. In 1993 I stumbled into the French animated film Fantastic Planet and it blew my mind. Stylistically it reminded me of a comic book that utilized Terry Gilliam-like animation that had a Pink Floyd-meets-disco soundtrack. This was a defining moment, because after I saw Fantastic Planet, I knew that I was destined to tell stories with my art, some way somehow.

Then a few college professors, whom taught me at RIT in Rochester NY, took notice of my passion for the Sci-Fi genre and encouraged me to push the storytelling in my work. My creativity began to blossom subsequently as I went on a rampage of learning, drawing, painting, reading and writing. It was also at RIT during my senior year that I met indie comic legend Mat Nastos. He had just finished working on a long run of the comic Elfquest and he was a judge in an art contest I entered at a Role Playing Game convention. I took first place in the contest and afterward we talked for a bit and began a friendship that has lasted until this day. Mat has taught me a lot about making comics and he encouraged me to make Gates a comic series—and I did!

I've always been an artist drawing comics and sci-fi related themes and with Gates I'm now coming full circle.

2. Tons of people have been eagerly anticipating Gates, which will launch on January 1st, 2011. How long did it take you to complete this project and how much effort and commitment did it imply since you worked on it all by yourself?

 I originally came up with the rough idea for the story shortly after my father passed away in the late 90’s. It has been about a twelve year commitment to Gates in order for it to actually take shape. Originally I had planned to make it a hybrid comic book / role playing game book, then it evolved into a script, then I planned to make it into something like Doug Chiang's movie book Robota, but it eventually developed back into a comic again.  I had been fighting it for a while but making a comic out of the story seemed to be the most organic thing due to my design, illustration background and my passion and love for comics.

The commitment it took to bring Gates to fruition has been tough at times, but mostly extremely rewarding. The most time consuming aspect is creating the comic book itself. Every panel is painted so it takes some time to complete. I've been responsible for 100% of the production on the comic, including the writing, art, layout and lettering. I've been fortunate enough to have some great people pitch in and help out with things like marketing, video production, website production and more. Since there is a soundtrack, finding new musical talent has been a challenge as well, but also very fun. There are lots of moving parts to Gates.

Since this is an ongoing series and essentially Heavy Metal's newest franchise, the project is far from complete, rather evolving with each issue.  There is no end in sight--which is a good thing. With Gates, I've created a rich world filled with potential and loaded with unlimited options, back story and future stories to be told. I'm looking forward to a nice, long run for this comic franchise in various transmedia forms.

An image of Soloman capturing Adria.

3. What was your main inspiration in creating both characters Gates and Soloman?

Gates is a character clearly inspired by the frustration people have with society, religion, politics and the philosophy of mankind in general. It’s becoming increasingly clear that there is a dark cloud of egotism, terrorism, socialism, communism, bigotry, distorted nationalism and fear that hangs over our heads as human beings right now. Throughout human history there has been a consistent use of fear, religion and hate mongering used to generate control over the weak. Gates was born from this observation.

I imagined what if the last remnants of society were “maintained” by a corrupt government that is philosophically based in science as a religious tool to control people but create them as well? Imagine a world where there was no sexual intercourse, no love for another human, no free thinking, just love for your government—A government that provides for your every need in exchange for your blood, sweat, tears—and your soul.

From this dystopian nightmare I created a hero that was different from all the other people because he was not created from a test tube. He was born naturally. He was created to fight the system as a symbol of evolutionary perseverance and a reminder that even in the bleakest of times, hope always exists.

Soloman reflects issues facing our society.

Soloman on the other hand symbolizes the ultimate marriage of science and technology gone incredibly wrong. Without giving away too much, Soloman is also a reflection of the direction of technology in modern times. It seems that as a society we are becoming more self-centered in a world of our own technology. Smart phones have particularly played a huge part in this transformation. The next time you go into a restaurant, pay attention to the people sitting next to you not talking to each other while eating, yet texting on their smart phones. Look at how many people are in their own little technological world the next time you go to an airport and have to be subjected to some annoying girl’s loud conversation with her friend, while she plays with her iPad or portable video game system. Technology seems to be making us care less about the people and things around us by creating a world of distraction that keeps us from paying attention to the real issues facing our society.

In creating this character of Soloman I struggled mightily to create the ultimate villain, that from a certain point of view, actually was not a villain. Soloman is the sum of all of humanity’s carelessness with science and technology and the product of our culture’s laziness and constant search for an “easy way to do things”.

 4.This is something that captured my attention: Is there any particular reason or purpose that you can reveal to us as to why Soloman uses an organic plant based technology to exterminate mankind in this story?

Philosophically, the fact that Soloman is the sum of all of humanity’s carelessness with science and technology and the product of our culture’s laziness is really the motivating factor for this. I will eventually reveal the details to this question in the comic story so I’m not spilling the beans on how and why it happens.

An image of a Learnsleep lesson .

 5. According to the descriptions I've read, I'm assuming that "learnsleep" is a propaganda created by the government to control the society and is exactly the process that we see reflected on the trailer of Gates. Can you tell us more about the type of information (and its intensity) that was being integrated in the minds of the members of the society during that process?

I have been working in the advertising industry for many years and it fascinates me what an impact a commercial, jingle or catch phrase can be. Learnsleep is an example of the most penetrating and diabolical form of advertising ever created by mankind. Somewhere between sleep and consciousness a child listens as the propaganda of the ConGenement conditions him/her to become a productive and upstanding member of society. 

The messages projected in a Learnsleep lesson educate the child in various forms of science, mathematics, and other essential tools needed for the child to develop into a particular social class. Children born of higher intelligence and higher class are genetically predetermined to receive more information.  The lessons also educate the children on life, the dangers of disobeying the ConGenement and the perils of the “mythical” outside world.

Kevin Eastman - Credits: ugo.com

6.You will be pretty much leaving a footprint in the history of Heavy Metal Magazine (owned by Kevin Eastman) as you will be their first digital comic creator. How do you personally feel about achieving this milestone and how do you think it will impact your career?

It’s an honor to be working with Kevin Eastman and Heavy Metal Magazine. He is an amazing person creatively and personally.  As a long time fan of the magazine and the movie, I can honestly say this is a dream come true. Heavy Metal Magazine forged a path for many of us to be what we are today by pushing the boundaries of creativity, story and social acceptance. My favorite thing about Heavy Metal has always been the fact that it is raw, ballsy and loud and never apologizes for being real.

Gates is really just the beginning of Heavy Metal’s online presence. I am honored and very humbled by being the first comic to break the digital barrier. But without such greats as Richard Corbin, Moebius and more before me, I could not do what I’m doing today.

As for how it will impact my career, that’s something I’ll leave to the universe to decide. I’m very proud of Gates but there is a lot of work to be done and lots of story left to tell.  My long term goals are to see Gates thrive into a franchise full of transmedia options including animation, live action, video comics and more. I do however know one thing, that the day I finally hold an action figure of Soloman in my hand will be one glorious feeling.

 

Exclusive interview with Daniel Quantz and R.J. Ryan

Daniel Quantz and RJ Ryan

RJ Ryan was working for West Coast Writers  when he recruited Daniel Quantz to script the first six issues of Marvel Age-Spider Man. Their collaboration in this Marvel project further expanded their interest in remaining a unit! So they teamed up along with David Marquez and Blake Leibel to develop, polish, and publish: SYNDROME: a graphic novel that transforms and broadens a theory according to Dr. Wolfe, a character in the novel driven by the true nature of serial killers. Is the killing behavior pattern already an instinct  traced by the human brain? You'll have to read the novel to find out!



Art by David Marquez





1. How did both of you, such talented gentlemen, discover that you could do so much more professionally and artistically together than just collaborating for Marvel Age-Spider Man?

Daniel Quantz:  We’ve been friends for a long time and share a certain sensibility so we knew that we’d work well together.  I think we realized we could be more productive together than individually.  Plus we found that the stuff we were writing had a quality that neither of us could come up with alone and that was fun.

RJ Ryan: That's really nice of you to say. We've written and sold other stuff together but SYNDROME was something of a leap of faith for us, spending a year writing something that is a genuine departure from the kind of stories you typically see in mainstream comics. The big bet we made with SYNDROME is that readers would be interested in a story that questions the nature of evil as opposed to taking it for granted. That's the big idea we brought to the table and I fell fairly happy with the way we were able to execute it. I should say that the book would really suck without the amazing work our artist David Marquez did. You can find him at www.davidmarquez.com, and he was really someone we talked to almost every single day for a year as we put the book together and he is as much an author of the piece as we are.



Concept Art: Karen and Wolfe

2. How was the character of Wolfe of SYNDROME born?  Was he inspired by someone else?

Daniel Quantz: Once we came up with the idea of the facility and this wild over-the-top experiment he’d be conducting, then we had to consider what type of person would do something like this, and that filled the character in with his psychology and personality.
RJ Ryan: We've said before in interviews that we looked at a lot of real life giants of psychiatry and psychology and the physical sciences to arrive at how we portray Wolfe. We loved the archetype of a classical mad scientist but because our story is rooted in a lot of real life research into psychiatry the treatment of sociopathy, Wolfe had to be a lot more than just a Frankestein knock-off, and his behavior in the story had to be strongly and believably motivated. What we came up with was that what he perceives as his own failures as a psychiatrist early in his career took a real human toll -- people died on his watch. This part of the story makes for some of the darkest and most violent moments of the book, but they were essential to make the story click.

3. Can you tell us what is the base or foundation of the illustration used for the cover of the novel? Who helped you in the design and why one like that in particular?
Daniel Quantz:  We had the idea of doing a photo cover as a way of trying to merchandise the book more like a "regular" novel than a graphic novel. We needed an image that leaped off the shelf. A good friend of ours, Michael Dahan, is a tremendously talented photographer and we enlisted his help in coming up with the concept and then let him do his thing in the execution.

RJ Ryan: You kind find more of Michael's work at his website, www.studiodahan.com. He is a brilliant guy with a strong design vision that I think goes far beyond what you typically see on comic book covers. Everyone involved with this book knew doing a cover like that was going to be risky, not to mention expensive. But the overwhelming reaction to it was incredibly positive, especially when we debuted the book in San Diego Comic-Con this past summer, and it's continued as we've gotten the book into stores this fall. Almost every time we talk to someone about the book, the subject of the cover comes up and we're really proud of it, as well as the design work our partners at Archaia and Fantasy Prone did to pull it off.

4. What is next for RJ Ryan and Daniel Quantz?

Daniel Quantz:  I’m writing another comic now which has not yet been announced.  The two of us will probably work together again sometime in the future, but for now we’re both taking the time after SYNDROME to explore other projects we’ve been sitting on.

RJ Ryan: We both love the format of SYNDROME: the longform, serious comic book story cued to a more mature readership, and hopefully something that can be re-read a couple of times and really enjoyed on a deeper level than, say, a $2.99 comic book about super-heroes. We both intend to work in that space again, as soon as we can. But the big challenge, of course, is that producing a thick, substantial graphic novel can take almost two years, especially when you're like us and like to be very detail oriented about the artwork and presentation. It should go without saying that both of us are very excited about working with our publisher Archaia (www.archaia.com) again. I love that they see comic books as more than the rather limited superhero genre; they love to tell all kinds of stories, and make beautiful books, and I think that gives them an edge in the marketplace.



 Watch another interview made by Comic Vine Videos:



Jason Craig Unlimited!

I am very glad to see my old friend Jason Craig step up to another level in his career. He is not just widely known as a  comic book artist  like he was a few years ago . I recently learned that he is the co-writer of Dead Moon, and that he has some upcoming interesting projects that will delight his fans in the near future.

He always has ongoing appearances and loves to keep his fans happy, despite his multiple work commitments.
This video provides good memories of one of his best known projects, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash.

In a recent  phone conversation he told me that he is currently working on a project with John Carpenter that will roll into film, comics and video games, which by the way, is already very much anticipated by horror film fans. However, I'm looking forward to see Jason one day working on different types of art and writing projects, other than those related to horror. This is not too much to ask for Jason! We want to see more, we will never get enough of your great work.