Earlier this week,
we spoke with artist José Villarrubia about his comics work, both
coloring and creating his own work in collaborations with writer Alan
Moore on books such as The Mirror of Love. Today we dig deeper
and get more personal, talking about his friendships, his teaching and
his own life and early appreciation for comics.
Newsarama: You were born and raised in Spain, as part of a very
artistic family. Can you tell us of what your childhood was like, in
relation to art?
José Villarrubia: My family was very receptive to art. My
mother has always been an artist, and working in advertising, my
father’s best friend while I was growing up was also an artist. My
childhood was pretty happy. I am the oldest of five, in a progressive
family. My father always supported whatever we were interested in, my
mother always encouraged us towards artistic and cultural interests.
None of us were interested in sports, bullfights, or other forms of
entertainment that other families were into. On weekends we went to the
countryside, since we lived in Madrid, usually for day excursions when
the weather was good. In the long summer vacations we traveled all
around Spain, and we got to see a lot of art from all different
regions: a lot of great cathedrals, palaces and castles. Most of the
paintings I saw were in El Prado Museum in Madrid, as well as other
great smaller museums such as the Sorolla Museum. At twelve my art
teacher told me to tell my parents that I should start taking lessons
after class, to prepare for eventually applying to the fine art
academy. So I began by doing a full size copy of Spanish Impressionist
Joaquin Sorolla (whose museum I mentioned earlier), and charcoal
drawings from plaster casts of Greek, Roman and Renaissance statues. I
also learned traditional watercolor techniques from life. This early
training really influenced me, and it was complemented by the “How To”
encyclopedias that my mother had at home. She had painted in oils for a
while and bought several books on technique, which I consumed avidly
and did a lot of the suggested exercises. My family moved around a lot
when I was growing up and I remember in the moving we used to loose a
lot of things that were somehow misplaced. In part because of that I
gave my paternal grandmother, whom I was very close to, a lot of my
work, and then after she passed away a couple years ago, I got the work
back…. I have to tell you, it was not bad at all. They were some pin
ups of Conan and the other Robert E Howard characters that really
caught my eye, since I am currently working on those books, which I
guess is what I was hoping to one day do, anyway. It is funny how
things in life come around…
NRAMA: Can you tell us of all the artists in your family?
JV: My mother who is mostly a portrait photographer and my
brothers Alvaro and Alejandro are both photographers. My mother worked
as a professional ceramist and was an amateur painter for a while, but
then began doing advertising photography, did some fashion and now
concentrates in portraits. Alvaro studied advertising and then became a
fashion and celebrity photographer. Alejandro does mostly portraits of
boxers, and celebrity portraits for Spanish magazines. My other brother
Arturo is mostly a writer but can also draw very well and has done some
illustration and comics. The whole family, in part because of my
father’s job in advertising, has always been very aware of visual
media. I remember all of us discussing ideas for commercials and
slogans when I was growing up.
NRAMA: What was the first comic book you ever read?
JV: When I was little I read many children comics in Spain.
Everybody did… Usually comics published by Editorial Brugera and
reprints of French and Belgian comics. Like everyone I knew I read all
of the Tintin’s and Asterix’s, but also Lucky Lucke, the Vizier Iznogoud, Alix and many others. We also read Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge, Sugar and Spice, The Fox and the Crow, and other American comics. The first superhero American comics I remember reading was an issue of Fantastic Four, a Spanish black and white (and badly retouched) reprint of an early Lee/Kirby issue. I might have seen some Superman or Batman
comics before, but the reprints, although in color, butchered the text
since they reduced the number of words. The Vértice black and white
reprints remounted the panels (pretty horribly) but also allowed for
greater amount of text in the captions, making the stories easier to
follow.
NRAMA: I've read that you fell into superhero comics around the age of twelve with a reprint of X-Men. What was that issue, and what do you think drew you to it?
JV: I am not sure if it was Fantastic Four or X-Men…
I know the art was kind of crude Kirby… I remember what drew me in was
not the art or even the story, it was the continuity… I had never seen
characters appearing in each other series, in a consistent universe,
and that was highly addictive! My brothers and I started to spent our
weekly allowance in comics every week and my grandmother would go to El
Rastro (the legendary Madrid flea market) every Sunday to get us the
back issues that we needed to complete the runs of all the Marvel
series.
NRAMA: In your teenage years, you took part in a comic book club in Madrid called 'El Club Dhin'. Can you tell us about that?
JV: El Club Dhin was a possibly clandestine group of comics
professionals and aficionados that would get together to discuss
artistic and professional issues. Everyone there seemed to be a lot
older than me, but then I was kind of a precocious child and was used
to hanging out older people. It was very hard to meet at that time in
Spain, it was the end of Franco’s dictatorship and I remember the
street being dangerous with revolts and police beating people in the
street, one had to be very careful… If you have seen the movie Goodbye Lenin
that gives you a sense of what the streets were like. The meetings took
place in the back room of a bar, it may have been a seedy bar, I am not
sure since it was mostly empty, kind of like the bar in the movie A Confederacy of Dunces…
But the meetings were really friendly and a lot of people brought great
stuff to share… I discovered Moebius’ work there, when somebody showed
me a copy of The Long Tomorrow and I also discovered Bernie Wrightson through a reprint of the amazing story The Last Hunters”… I traded some comics as well, I got one of the original Elric crossover issues that Barry Windsor Smith did of Conan….
There were no comic book stores, no comic book conventions or any of
the other things we take for granted. At sixteen I met Moebius, who was
my idol by then, and brought all his graphic novels to sign. He was the
guest of a bookstore for Madrid’s “Day of the Book” fair, an open-air
festival that took place every year. Very few people came to see him,
and I must admit I provably was an insufferable fan, I just went there
on three consecutive days and just stood there and talk to him… trying
to speak in my very basic French at first, until he spoke to me in
perfect Spanish! Moebius was the first professional I ever met and he
was kind, patient a very generous to me… I will never forget that since
he really taught me to always be nice to fans, even the ones who are a
little awkward like I was…
NRAMA: You're a very traveled man, and know much in the realm of
comics, art and the marketplace. As a European, a Spaniard, why do you
think European comics haven't worked as well in America as imported
Asian comics?
JV: That is a two part question. One why have European comics never caught on, and then why is Manga making an impact.
Comics in Europe are perceived very differently than comics in America.
As long as I can remember there were a lot of chidren comics. And they
were sold in bookstores next to the children's books; both markets are
very closely linked in Europe. Here, children comics practically don’t
exist. Parents don’t buy them for their kids ‘cause there are almost
none available. There are efforts to change that, but as of right now,
this is the current state of affairs.
The genres that dominate the comics industry are different: in the US
it is clearly superheroes. Once in a while, particular independent
books do well, but it is not a common thing or a market trend. Likewise
European comics are dominated by escapist fantasy series, but not
superheroes. They create Science Fiction and Sword and Sorcery and
Westerns and Historical Adventures, but no superheroes per se. The
Superhero comics that are published there are reprints of American
comics. They do well, but don’t have the cost associated with
commissioning them.
I think that the majority of American Comics readers are males that
have been reading comics for a while and have specific characters and
storylines that they follow. They do not read other genres and that is
what the Europeans have to offer. I think it almost easier to get
someone who does not read comics at all to try a European comic than it
is to get a regular comic reader… Years ago I was getting ready to work
on the Fantastic Four series FF1234
when I ran into an acquaintance that loves comics. He asked me what I
was up to and I told him, I was very excited to be working in the book.
Then he asked me:
-“Who is in the book?”
I answered with pride:
-“Grant Morrison, Jae Lee and I”
to which he responded
”I don’t give a f*ck who’s doing it! Which members of the Fantastic Four are in the book?”
To which I told him I simply had no idea…
I think he put bluntly what a majority of buyers think, and the market
reflects it. Look at the sales numbers and compare the sales by the
same creators when they are doing established characters versus other
creations. I have been coloring Mike Carey’s Crossing Midnight, in my opinion one of the best books in the market, but it did not sell and is being cancelled. However, when Carey writes X-Men, it sells very well…. One notable exception is the Dark Tower comics, which I hope will pave the way for other non-superhero mainstream books with great success.
Manga is a totally different market and culture. Manga readers
generally don’t read comics. They are young, they are largely female,
they watch Anime and tend to be interested in Japanese culture. They
like Cosplay, Visual Kei, Tokusatsu and video games and share these
hobbies with their friends. I think superhero comics addressed largely
male power fantasies that clicked with many young men (including myself
at the time)… some of them still read them… but I think that the
Superhero comics scene, other that the periodic chat in the comic book
store, was never a group activity. Using the title of my friend Mikita
Brottman’s book about reading, they were "The Solitary Vice”. Something
to be enjoyed in your bedroom or bathroom by yourself, and not as part
of a social network. The kids that read Manga are not like that, they
flaunt their taste in a way we never did and have what to me seems like
much more fun social culture: they dress up in outlandish costumes,
tend to playact, ad get completely submersed in their hobby. Also
because the lack of censorship in Manga, they are exposed to all kinds
of things that would make their parents’ heads spin like the Exorcist, but that they will more likely never know about, which is provably for the better…
NRAMA: At the age of 16, you moved to America as an exchange student with the intent of getting a job in comics. How did that go?
JV: I was actually 18.
NRAMA: Sorry about that. Eighteen then… how did that go?
JV: I did a portfolio of sample pages, in pencils, and sent
photocopies of them in two envelopes, one to Marvel and one to DC. They
were both unceremoniously returned with rejection cover letters and I
gave up on the idea of working in comics on the spot… With the years I
come to realize that I doubt that anyone paid much attention to these
photocopies, maybe the submission editors at the time, maybe not even
them… In any case, I did not insist. I felt that if they did not want
me, there were plenty of other things I could do, so I finished my
degree in Fine Arts and then got a Master of Fine Arts Degree in
painting and I became a fine art painter and began to teach college
courses…
NRAMA: Who are some the major touchstones of inspiration that you've had over the course of your artistic career?
JV: There are so many and in several different mediums, not just
comics. I think the first art that I was crazy about, the first art
books that I purchased for myself, were of the Golden Age of Book
Illustration: Edmund Dulac, was the first, but also Arthur Rackham,
Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle and others… The first fine art
photography books that I bought were by David Hamilton, whom I adored
as an adolescent. When I was a teen, the room I shared with my two
brothers was decorated with some key images that formed my taste:
posters by Alphonse Mucha, Neal Adams (the three painted Marvel
Posters), H. R. Giger (the amazing Debbie Harry portrait from
Koo-koo)…. also the great poster to 2001 A Space Odyssey
(Kubrik being my all time favorite director) with the giant glowing
embryo… I also had all the Frazetta books, a large Italian reprint of Little Nemo and just about everything I could get by Richard Corben, (with a very special place for Bloodstar….)
I would also clip photos from ads that I liked and went to the movies
all the time. This was just in my adolescence… it never stopped abut I
think it will be too boring to continue…
NRAMA: The first time I remember seeing your coloring work was in the pages of Jae Lee's Hellshock series. Can you tell us how your friendship and collaboration with Jae came about?
JV: I first met Jae when I curated a show of local comic book
artists for an art center called Maryland Art Place. The people that
worked in the shop where I used to buy comics told me that he lived in
Virginia, so I called him and asked to participate. After that we
quickly became good friends and talked a lot about comics. When he
decided to do his own series, computer coloring was being introduced as
a better way to color comics. Since he knew I was a painter, he asked
me if I could color his art, more in a painted style than a digital
one. We both loved illustrators like Bill Sienkiewicz, Kent Williams
and Jon J Muth and we thought it would be feasible to digitally
integrate hand painted art with ink linework. By the time the second
Hellshock series came about, I had learned Photoshop and was able to
create the look we were both looking for.
NRAMA: Your two works with Alan Moore have been in the field of
illustrated books, not comics. You're quoted as saying you love doing
these types of books, and feel there's a great potential for more. Why
do you think it's been relatively untapped so far?
JV: The illustrated book for adults (as opposed to children’s
books) practically disappeared after World War One. In a sense, at the
end of the twentieth century, graphic novels took up their place. I
know that the Gift Book market was killed by the war for several
reasons: the trend dies out, the price of paper rose, other mediums of
entertainment became available, etc… Now that I think of it is similar
to what happened in this country with comics since their inception… But
despite the fact that it has not been a mass market, there have been
books produced periodically illustrated beautifully. I think in a way
it is something that most illustrators would like to do one day if
there was a market. And I actually think that if they existed, many
readers that like both art and literature would buy them.
NRAMA: In researching this interview, I've read that you're in
talks to possibly do work with two major European writers – Michael
Moorcock and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Is this just a fan's wet dream, or
is there a possibility for this to happen?
JV: Well, it is more wishful thinking that anything. I met both
Michael Moorcock and Alejandro Jodorowsky and had ideas for a possible
collaborations but nothing came of them, mostly because I did not
pursue them. At some point, though, I would love to do something with
them; since they are both geniuses and it would be an honor.
NRAMA: You're also a professor in the Illustration Department of
the Maryland Institute College of Art. Tell us what an average day is
like for you?
JV: I arrive to class a little before nine a.m. and generally we
start the day with a group critique of the new work that the students
did over the week. At MICA studio classes last five hours and because
of that we have time to do group and individual critiques,
demonstrations and also work in class. After work I usually have a
couple of office hours and then I go home and have dinner and work on
comics… I do this three days a week, the rest of the time I am in my
studio at home…
NRAMA: For a long time, comics have been treated by the academic
establishment as a lesser art, at least in America. As a teacher,
professor and comics creator – how do you see it changing over time?
JV: It is definitely changing. When I was a student there were
no comics classes offered in my school. While I have been a teacher at
MICA, the chair of my department, Whitney Sherman, has hired other
comics artists like Brian Ralph, Daniel Krall, Alain Corbel and John
Malloy, as well as brought in Peter Kuper, Ben Katchor and others… We
also hosted an exhibition of Paul Pope and James Jean last year that I
curated… So I think that the lines between fine art and illustration
are blurring and the same thing is happening between illustration and
sequential art.
NRAMA:Before we go, one last question…. As a teacher and
professor, have you noticed more students in the art field aiming for
work in the comics field recently?
JV: Yes and I also noticed a different kind of student. More
female students are interested now… Many years the rare student that
would be interested in comics were always boys that had their own
vigilante characters that they wanted to develop and make a fortune
from (I guess directly or directly influenced by the success of Image
Comics and Todd McFarlane in particular, who made a mint with his
high-school conceived character) These students tended to be extremely
closed minded, even about usage of materials, leave alone learning to
draw… For the most part they fit the “misunderstood artist” kind of
stereotype. They were hard to teach, but they were really very few of
them… one or two a year at the most…
Nowadays the typical student interested in comics is more curious about
the possibilities of the medium that a fan of the characters. Since I
teach in an illustration department I see student now that want to make
comics part of their career, but not the end all be all… they idolize
James Jean and Geoff Darrow and Paul Pope… they love their crossover
success…. That is what they would like for themselves… to be more
multi-media artists than traditional comics artists… I think that this
is the trend right now.
