—

Your first American role was in Oliver Stone’s Alexander, correct? What made you decide to pursue acting in American productions when you already had an impressive resume in England?

I don’t think that the lure for me was geographical. As an actor I look for the best work, the projects that excite or resonate with me. Also, at the time, I hadn’t done a film and this was a huge production with massive stars attached and a director that I respected and admired. The fact that it was an American production wasn’t a factor in the decision making process for me.

For a little while, you seemed to be playing a lot of villains. Did you ever feel typecast as a “bad guy”?

No, I’ve never felt typecast playing a villain, though I did start to wonder what it was about me that made me seem more antagonist than protagonist. That has since changed, but I still relish the opportunity to play the “baddie.” Their parameters are less defined, meaning that the scope for range in a villain is broader. They live and exist outside of the heroes world and this can be reflected in the performance, which is a lot of fun.

What kind of physical preparation do you have to do for your more action-heavy roles, like those in Blade: The Series, Quantum of Solace and Push?

I train a lot on an every day basis. My belief is that it is easier to stay ready than to get ready, so as long as I maintain a good physical fitness I am always prepared for whatever challenges a role may present. Then, for each individual role, I approach the necessities specific to that character. For Blade, the moment I got the role I started training with a teacher in samurai swords. There was no fight for my character in the scripts as yet, but I knew eventually Blade and Marcus would fight and I wanted to be prepared and to be Blade’s equal in combat. I worked every day with the sword for three months until it came [time] for the final battle scene. And when it came I was ready.

Your current role as Sasha Belov on ABC’s Make It Or Break It isn’t an action-heavy one, but is still centered around sport. Was your past as a gold-winning competitive boxer helpful in preparing for this character?

I think that having an athlete mentality has been really helpful for me as an actor in every sense. I prepare for roles and auditions in the same (psychological) way that I would for fights when I was boxing. Discipline, focus, commitment, hard work.

Do you have a preference between acting in television or film, or does it just depend on the role?

It all depends on the role, the project and the other people involved (director, producers, cast).

In the nineties, before you began acting professionally, you wrote your own musical. You returned to writing in 2006 and 2007, writing the screenplays for the films The Passage and Star Crossed. Are we going to see more writing from you in the future?

I have been writing for eleven years now and, though the two films you mention are the first to be produced, I have three projects in development now and very much hope to see them get financing in the next calendar year.

Your London production company Paper Dragon Productions opened up American offices in Los Angeles just last year. What is the focus of the company?

The focus of the company is to make good films that we are passionate about and to facilitate creative artists to get their voice heard.

I noticed that Paper Dragon Productions was also involved in the launch of the new London Repertory Company. Is theater something that’s still close to your heart?

I was trained in theatre and my first jobs as an actor were in theatre. It is very close to my heart.

What are you working on right now?

I’m currently acting in the second series of Upstairs Downstairs for the BBC.

Any “dream projects” that you’d love to do as an actor or writer, or as both?

Every project is a dream project.  Dreams change.

—

Visit Neil Jackson online at www.neiljackson.info

Learn more about Paper Dragon Productions at www.paperdragonproductions.com

You can also follow Neil on Twitter at @TheNeilJackson

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.

KASSANDRA HELLER (Los Angeles, California)

What are some of your previous and current projects? Past or present employers?

There are not enough hours in a day for an artist! Right now I’m working at an animation studio called Oddbot Inc. I’m currently working on background design on a few different shows, but mainly I work on a super-secret Disney show. I also work on shorts for Mad TV for Cartoon Network. Before that, I worked as a background colorist at 6 Point Harness on a show called Good Vibes that just starting airing on MTV on Thursday nights, after Beavis and Butt-Head. I do Hallmark Ecards on the side and I’ve also done character design work for a handful of animated pilots. Just recently, I did coloring for Boom! comics for a new, yet-to-be-announced title. I’m also in gallery shows around LA with a group called Girls Drawing Girls.

Where did you go to school for art?

I graduated from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan.

What made you decide to pursue a career in art?

Ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I remember watching The Muppet Show and they had a “starving artist” character once… I remember thinking, “I would like to be a starving artist when I grow up.” Well, thankfully I’m not starving, but I am an artist!

Who or what inspires you artistically?

Looking at other artwork is always inspiring. Sometimes I’ll see an artist’s work that just blows me away and inspires me to work harder on my own art. I enjoy hanging out with other artists. It seems like if I hang out with other ambitious people, it motivates me to work harder. I like going to a coffee shop and drawing people I see — cute hipster couples, old people, or ladies with big hats [laughs]. I also like to listen to really epic soundtracks while I draw, or watch movies that make me feel a certain way.

Where can we find you on the web?
kassandraheller.com
kass204.blogspot.com
kass204.tumblr.com

ERIC ORCHARD (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

What are some of your previous and current projects? Past or present employers?

I started out self-publishing minicomics in high school and throughout university, and later started working professionally in picture books. I’ve done work for comics anthologies like Oni’s Yo Gabba Gabba comics and Nursery Rhyme Comics from First Second. I’ve contributed illustrations to genre anthologies like Thackery T. Lambshead’s Cabinet of Curiosity, where I was lucky enough to illustrate a story by Holly Black. I’ve just completed a book with Tor — a comic book version of Jeff Vandermeer’s novella The Situation. We are also collaborating on a second book together.

My work has been featured in The Totoro Project and I’ve been included in the Society of Illustrators exhibition. I’ve won the silver in the Spectrum Awards for Fantastic Art. I’ve also won the Mayor’s Award for Illustration in my home town, Halifax. At the moment my main project is Maddy Kettle, an all-ages series of graphic novels published by Top Shelf that I wrote and am drawing. This is my dream project. It should be out next year.

Where did you go to school for art?

I completed a bachelor of fine arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. I took an interdisciplinary degree but focused on painting, drawing and art history. I think the art history impacted my work as much as any practical instruction I had there.

What made you decide to pursue a career in art?

I wanted to do art because I love comics and illustrated books so much. I also cared about them so much that I just couldn’t conceive of not being a part of that world. My art is driven by stories, it makes me feel connected to stories in a deep way. And I just wanted to make people and places and monsters up. I can’t overemphasize how amazing that is.

Who or what inspires you artistically?

I have so many heroes in art, I always leave some out. But I’ll do my best: Arthur Rackham, George Herriman, Walt Kelly, A. B. Frost, Moebius, Jack Kirby, John Bauer, Paul Pope, Guy Davis, Mike Mignola, Gustave Dore, Jaimie Hernandez, R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, William Joyce, Maurice Sendak, Jim Woodring, The Provensens, J. C. Coll, Howard Pyle, Hayao Miyazaki… I could go on and on so I’d better stop here and risk leaving out some important names.

Where can we find you on the web?

ericorchard.ca
ericorchard.blogspot.com
twitter.com/Inkybat

REBECCA DART (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

What are some of your previous and current projects? Past or present employers?

I’ve worked in the animation industry for about 14 years here in Vancouver, primarily as a background designer and character designer. I’ve worked on a lot of lesser known Canadian shows, but the ones that you may have heard of are: Mission Hill, which came out in 2000 on The WB. It wasn’t given a fair shake by the network, but it has a small cult following. I also did character design on My Little Pony season two, which has a very strong cult following.

In 2006 I published a comic called RabbitHead, which is a wordless comic that branches out into many different narratives, but eventually comes together to end where it began. Currently I’m working on a Battle Kittens graphic novel — a comic about warrior women who ride giant kittens into battle and have crazy sword-and-sorcery adventures. This is basically me returning to what brought me joy as a kid, watching all those monster movies and terrible Conan rip-offs in the eighties. I’m having a blast, and I hope that translates into the work.

Did you go to school for art, or are you self-taught?

I’ve never been to art school or animation school, however, I am loathe to use the term “self-taught.” I feel that you learn the most by hanging out with artists who are more talented than yourself. You also have to never stop learning, and keep your mind open to new things. There’s a great Ukrainian saying: “What good is the world being so wide, if your heart is so narrow?”

What made you decide to pursue a career in art?

When I was six years old I drew a picture of “Animals From Mars,” and on the opposite side of the paper, I drew “Plants From Mars.” From then on I was hooked; the scope of the human imagination is limitless. As a pathologically shy kid, this allowed me to create a world I felt comfortable in, and as I grew into my confidence I had the skill set to make it into a living, although a meager one. Besides, if I wasn’t doing this I’d probably be washing dishes somewhere.

Who or what inspires you artistically?

My husband. We don’t draw the same subject matter, but he draws right next to me and I can always trust his opinion. There is also my “mews” Orson Kittyman, who sits on my lap at the art desk and helps me out with Battle Kitten anatomy.

Where can we find you on the web?

twitter.com/R_Dart
flickr.com/rebeccadart
r-dart.tumblr.com

ALEXIS BARATTIN (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

What are some of your projects? What is your studio space like?

I do my illustration work from home. I’m lucky enough to have a little studio space that I sometimes refer to as “the batcave”. It’s got all my favorite stuff in it (supplies, books, computer) and it’s right beside the kitchen, which means I am just steps away from the coffeemaker at all times. I also work part time as a Junior Designer in an office with some really cool people.

As far as illustration projects go, I just finished a book jacket for a Canadian small press publisher, and right now I’m working on storyboards for a music video. I like to keep myself busy working on my portfolio or sketching or studying something. I’m trying to work on some portfolio pieces that do not have tentacles or fetuses floating in glow-y jars.

Are you going to school for art?

I’m just finishing up a Bachelor of Design degree at OCADU [Ontario College of Art and Design] in the Illustration stream. I feel as if I owe a great deal of my education to people outside of university as well. A lot of my personal learning has come from encouraging and talented people who have been kind enough to dole out advice or kick me in the pants, whatever the occasion calls for.

What made you decide to pursue a career in art?

I’ve always been really into drawing, but I think that must be true of every kid with a pencil. I just kept at it; my science teacher in high school used to confiscate my sketchbook at the door. I remember those classes as being very, very long.

I was actually kind of apprehensive about going into art because it’s not exactly the most practical career path. For a year I waffled between art and doing something “more sensible.” (For some reason I thought this more-sensible thing was history — I have no idea where I got that idea!) Thankfully friends and family intervened, which is great because I would be one miserable historian. The idea of not having gone into art seems ridiculous now.

Who or what inspires you artistically?

So many things! Blank sketchbooks, peeking in other people’s sketchbooks, fresh bottles of ink, drawings of any kind, full bookshelves, those tiny drawers stuffed with pen nibs at the art store; a long list of illustrators, comic artists, painters and other crafty people.

Where can we find you on the web?

www.alexisbarattin.com
www.alexisbarattin.blogspot.com

—

Artwork in header by (left to right) Kassandra Heller, Eric Orchard, Rebecca Dart, Alexis Barattin. All images © their respective artists.

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.

—

I heard someone say that once they thought you were twins, but you’re actually brothers who are two years apart. What was your relationship like growing up? Any fun shenanigans from your childhood years that will make us think, “Yup, those are two boys who will definitely create a cowboy comic one day?”

SHANE (writer): Growing up, we would spend a lot of time outdoors using our imaginations to pass the time. We lived in the country with corn fields on all four sides of the house, so we had lots of landscape to play on. Between swimming in our pond, climbing trees, and running through corn stalks in the fall, me, Chris, and our older brother Peter had plenty of locations to set our imaginary wars, expeditions, and adventures. I’m not sure if there was anything that would definitely define us as future cowboy comic creators, but I do remember a really adorable picture of Chris wearing a cowboy hat and his favorite pair of cowboy boots.

CHRIS (artist): I did have quite the obsession with cowboys and Native Americans as a kid. My favorite toy when I was about five was my pair of black cowboy boots, which I still have, but sadly do not fit my feet anymore. Shane, Pete, and I were always using our imaginations and playing outdoors as kids. We didn’t have cable TV or video games and our parents always encouraged music and art. All three of us spent a lot of time drawing together too. Pete was the one who got me into drawing and I’ve just never stopped. We had a very nurturing childhood that definitely set us each up for a life in the creative field.

How did the concept and characters for Reed Gunther develop? Was it a joint-effort?

CHRIS: I initially created the rough idea of Reed and his bear Sterling — named after our noble family dog when we were kids. I did a short comic with Reed and Sterling but they were very much different characters than you see today. Shane was the one who came in and revamped the characters, breathed new life into them, and took over writing duties. I couldn’t be more happy with that!

SHANE: I loved Chris’s idea of a bear-riding cowboy and tweaked the universe and the characters to make them a bit more friendly and adventurous. Chris was ready to ditch the characters and I wouldn’t have been able to re-invent them if they hadn’t already been invented, so the comic that you see today is definitely a joint-effort. As for new characters and concepts, we do both spend a lot of time collaborating on who everyone/everything is, but the bottom line is fun. Whatever is the most fun for our book usually makes the cut.

You both have some interesting thoughts on the distinction between “all-ages comics” and “kids comics”. Can you talk a little bit about that?

SHANE: Reed Gunther is not a “kiddie” book, or specifically a book targeted at children, but rather an adventurous all-ages book in the vein of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or Indiana Jones. With all of those properties, I’ve met adults who love the characters as much as kids, and yet, those properties aren’t marketed as “kids” material. Sometimes, comic book retailers will put Reed Gunther in the “kids” section instead of with all the other comics, so it is sometimes overlooked. We urge retailers to place Reed next to all their other books, mature and otherwise, and see how it sells. At conventions, we are constantly surprised at who exactly our audience is. We get men in their mid-forties, kids twelve and under, guys in their mid-twenties like us, high school girls, and middle-aged single women who do not have kids. Our book is truly enjoyed by folks of all ages!

CHRIS: I think we also have an additional hill to overcome because my art style is very cartoony, which has a stigma of being for kids. Whoever thinks our series is for kids should read the comic. I’m sure they’ll change their mind. And while kids may definitely enjoy the series, they are not our sole audience, nor are they our targeted audience. Our targeted audience is Shane and myself. We create stories that we want to read.

Reed Gunther began as a self-published comic and was picked up by Image Comics in June of 2011. Can you tell us about Reed‘s transition from a self-published book to an Image title? Was pitching the book to a larger publisher your ultimate intention from the beginning, or was it a possibility that came up later?

SHANE: We enjoyed creating the book a lot more than the business of getting it printed and available in shops. After we came out with three self-published issues, we decided we should at least try submitting to a few companies and see if we could get some assistance. Image was very receptive to Reed and didn’t want to change anything. Chris and I wanted to see the book in color so we went back and colored our previous issues for the Image release.

CHRIS: Yeah, there really wasn’t too much of a change. Image is perfectly set-up for self-publishers. We are used to doing our own promotions and advertising, so to have Image take over some of that has been icing on the cake! However, getting the book to Image was never our initial intention. Our initial intention was to simply complete one issue. After we did that, we thought we’d try and complete another issue. We’ve still got the same mindset, just on a larger scale now. It’s always been about baby steps. If we would have set out to create an ongoing series with one of the biggest comic publishers in the US, it would have simply been too overwhelming.

There’s a cute story about the unusual Reed Gunther submission parcel you sent to Image Comics. Can you tell us about it?

CHRIS: When it came time to put together a submission package for a few publishers, Shane and I really wanted to do something special. So I went to a craft store and bought a few wooden boxes that would fit a few comic books inside perfectly. I stained up the box, roughed it up, and wood-burned our logo on the outside. We then included our three self-published issues and a pitch bible inside the box and shipped it out. I even used excelsior as the packing material around the box so it was an all around Western theme. Since you usually don’t hear back from publishers right away, Shane and I planned to send out a friendly reminder in the form of an old telegram. However, we never needed to because our first choice publisher, Image, got back to us right away. We were happy to take them up on their offer.

What’s the current plotting process for Reed like? Do you work out storylines and new characters together?

SHANE: Normally, I’ll have one or two really good ideas I want to work into a script. It could be a character, or a moment, or a situation, but there’s usually one thing I really like. Then I build a plot around that and find the backbone or theme to the story. But all this vague general talk is kinda boring so I’ll give you an example. Issue #6 is an origin story of sorts for Reed and Sterling. Reed recalls to Starla the first time he and his bear met, which involves us flashing back in time to the Civil War and when Reed was a youngster. Since Reed is not a superhero and never had something as simple as a radioactive bug bite him to make him who he is, this is a story about character, flaws, and fake mustaches. One day I was thinking about what Reed would look like as a kid and I realized he’d HAVE to have a mustache. Without it, he’s like Mickey Mouse without his ears. So I decided he needed to be wearing a fake mustache. But then the problem became WHY? I thought it might be cool if Reed was imitating someone he admired. And suddenly the story became about how Reed Gunther grows into the man he becomes — which is why we titled the story, “From Cowboy to Cowman!” New characters pop up either to service a specific story or because the character is the first cool thing I’m basing the story around. Usually, the really good characters are villains or obstacles for Reed to overcome, like our John Henry zombie or Special Agent Mundy (an evil version of Uncle Sam. Get it? S.A.M.). Both those characters also have roots in American History or folk lore, which I like to pull from.

CHRIS: Shane definitely takes care of the writing portion of the series while I take care of the art side of things. However, we definitely collaborate on the big ideas. I may have some big idea or scene I’d love to see in an issue, but I have no idea how to make it fit or how to write it into a story. Shane’s a fantastic writer and not just because of the stories he writes, but in the fact that he’s willing to listen to my ideas and concerns and what I’d like to draw. He’s constantly aiming to please. I also show him my artwork and get feedback from him, especially on the designs of new characters or monsters. Again, just like me on his writing, he may have a big idea for a design but it’s my job to do my best to visualize it and make it work.

The first Reed Gunther trade paperback, which collects the first five issues, came out on November 9th. What’s next for the book? Can you give us any sneak peeks into the next story arc?

SHANE: Oh man! There’s a pretty good look into issue #6 in the last question, but after that, there’s a really fun and interesting werewolf story in issue #7 that has a twist I’ve never seen done before. In issue #8, Reed takes a backseat as Starla takes the lead in a story where she has an identity crisis while fighting resurrected mummies! The really cool thing about the next three issues of Reed Gunther is that they are all stand alone, or done-in-one stories, which means they have a complete story in each issue. If you’ve never read an issue of Reed before, you can jump in at 6, 7, or 8 without any confusion!

CHRIS: Readers are going to love our new issues!

You both have interesting creative jobs outside of Reed Gunther as well. Can you tell us about the other work that you do?

SHANE: I work as a freelance filmmaker, and just this year I have directed promotional videos for a video game company, was the cinematographer for a Comedy Central webseries featuring Sarah Silverman, Bob Saget, Fred Willard, and Howie Mandell, and my current gig is editing for two reality TV shows on HDNet. I do it all! Write, direct, shoot, edit, dance… Especially dance.

CHRIS: Besides comics, I draw storyboards for Nickelodeon and do the occasional freelance job for clients like MAD Magazine and BOOM! Studios. I’m very happy to be able to work on a variety of projects with some really fantastic people, including my brother. And that’s not just smiley bullshit, I really mean it!

Last year you also collaborated on the short indie comics “Moon Gloom” and “Blood Brothers”. Any other collaborations or projects in the works right now?

SHANE: I really loved “Moon Gloom” and “Blood Brothers,” but Chris and I have been plenty busy this year with making Reed Gunther come out on time every month. We do have four different mini-comics that we give out for free at conventions and signings! Our newest one debuted in San Diego this year. This year I did get hired to write for a few licensed properties which was very exciting! I have a 16-page story in Casper’s Scare School #3 that comes out in December, and I’ll also have a few adapted stories in the new Peanuts series from BOOM! Studios. But of all the video, film, TV, or comic projects I work on, nothing beats collaborating with Chris!

CHRIS: Agreed! Working with Shane is fantastic. We do have a few ideas for other series, one of which may become a reality sooner than later. But I don’t want to give anything away…

—

Buy Reed Gunther Volume 1 at your local comic shop or on Amazon.com
Watch an unusual Reed Gunther video interview with Shane and Chris on YouTube
Follow Reed Gunther news and find extras on reedgunther.com

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.

—

From your seventieth birthday on April 20th, 2009 through April of 2010, you created The 52/50 Project: a story, poem or song every Monday for a full year. What was it like to be so continuously tapped-into your creativity, but with the intention of only creating very short works? It sounds like a fascinating exercise.

It was. [My manager] Connor Cochran talked me into trying it, because he knew how much I had loved writing songs and poetry when I was younger, and he also knew I hadn’t done anything complete for a long time — just fragments that I would put into my stories. He promised me that if I’d write something fresh every week, then he would lay it out, typeset it, write up liner notes from my comments, illustrate it, and send a finished PDF version out to subscribers on a guaranteed schedule. It was a bold promise in both directions, and neither one of us wanting to let the other down is probably why we made it through the year. Coming up with ideas turned out to be surprisingly easy, once I got into the rhythm of it. Some weeks I’d find myself focusing on something I’d always wanted to write in song form, but never had. And sometimes there were things I hadn’t thought about before at all. A few of those were purely for fun, like “The Pirates of the D,” or my song about the search for the perfect beer. But as the run progressed I found myself turning more and more to things that really mattered to me — like wondering, when I used to watch my father as he napped, if he ever dreamed about the wretched little shtetl in Poland where he was born. I was always very proud at pulling off one more Monday, and I still like looking back at these pieces — there are 53, actually; we did an encore — and realizing that I’d said something in a short form that I might never have been able to say at a longer length.

I think people may be surprised to learn about your performing arts history: you have acted — once in the role of Algernon for a University staging of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest — and sung, playing live folk music in Santa Cruz throughout the seventies and eighties. What have been some of your favorite experiences in these avenues outside of writing? Did you ever try your hand at visual art?

Although I’ve loved art all my life — my mother’s brothers were successful fine artists, with work in museums all over the world — I don’t have the tiniest bit of visual talent. Even my stick figures are an embarrassment. But I love singing, particularly. I’ve been writing far too long to react to criticism, even good criticism, even praise, one way or the other, unless it comes completely out of left field and somebody says something nobody ever has before, or it comes from someone whose work I admire greatly. But praise my songs, possibly my singing, and I just roll over on my back with my legs up in the air for my tummy to be scratched. I’m vulnerable on that point.

How about the acting?

That was something I enjoyed doing, even though I don’t have a great deal of trust in myself as an actor because I don’t think I move well on stage. I’ve always wanted to be graceful and I just don’t think I am. I do know I’m good with my voice, and I’d probably be a decent radio announcer or dialog coach if I got the chance. But the stage work I did when going to the University of Pittsburgh. . . well, I let’s put it this way: I loved the experience of it, but I didn’t necessarily love my performances.

You’ve spoken before about your friendship with Robert Nathan — the author of Portrait of Jennie — which began when you were a young novelist and he was a veteran writer. What kind of impact did this special friendship have on your work? I know he is an author you greatly admired.

I learned a great deal from Robert that other people were taught, in school, to learn from Hemingway or other heavyweight novelists, like never using two words where there was one perfectly good one available. Robert was very economical. He was also very gracious. He said something to me once, after we’d been friends for some time and he’d seen a good bit of my work, “I think your writing gets stronger and stronger as it moves further and further away from mine.” By the same token I’ve also learned some things not to do from watching Robert, especially about aging as a writer. Robert was bitter in his last years about having been neglected by his publishers. He’d outlived everyone he’d ever worked with at Knopf, and for all the jokes he made about being forgotten in the world of literary fiction, he hated it. I think about that and for me it’s not a question, really, of whether or not I’m forgotten in my old age, assuming I get that far. I just don’t want to care about being forgotten or not forgotten, the way Robert did. I just want to go ahead and continue my work as long as I can possibly do it.

The Last Unicorn is unarguably the masterpiece that you’re most revered for. Has it ever felt strange to be so closely identified with one particular work when you are the author of many other novels, screenplays, poems and stories?

Robert prepared me for that. The book is dedicated to him, in part, and when I sent the manuscript to him he actually called me from Los Angeles to warn me “You’re going to be stuck with this one the way I’m stuck with Portrait of Jennie. Wait and see. Jennie overshadows everything else I ever did, and sometimes I hate it because I did better books, but nobody knows them, they’re all out of print. But then I think of all the wonderful things that happened to me because of Jennie and I know I can’t possibly hate it after all. And I’ve gone back and forth with it ever since, and you will too with this one.” Then he laughed and said “Ah well, better to be remembered for something than not remembered at all.” And he was right. I don’t dislike The Last Unicorn, because it has brought many joys to my life, but there are books of mine that mean more to me.

You’ve talked about how writing The Last Unicorn was actually a long and difficult struggle. A lot was going on for you at that time — you were a becoming accustomed to being a father, and even though you had completed your cross-country memoir I See By My Outfit, you hadn’t seriously pursued fiction since your second, unpublished novel The Mirror Kingdom was rejected by Viking some years before. What made writing The Last Unicorn and that return to fiction such a challenge?

What made writing The Last Unicorn such a chore was that I really didn’t know what the focus of the book was while I was working, and never had the slightest clue what was going to happen next until I actually wrote it. This meant that the tiniest thing could hang me up and leave me staring at the typewriter for weeks. I wasn’t even entirely certain who the main character was! In my first try at the book, back in 1962, the unicorn’s companion on the road was a two-headed demon on the run from Hell, and after I wrote 85 pages I crashed into a wall because nothing was making any sense to me and I had absolutely no idea where to go with it. It wasn’t until three years later that I picked it up again. I was married now, and living in California with an instant family of three kids. My wife really wanted to know how the unicorn story came out, and while I still didn’t know I’m good at throwing things out and starting over when I have to. So that’s what I did. I tossed all but the first couple of pages and started over. And it was still a struggle, because I truly didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t know where the unicorns were until the book was nearly over — I was just hoping that King Haggard would finally tell me. In those years we were living in a building that really was more of a shack then a house, and sometimes I’d write in the kitchen or the bedroom, and sometimes I’d write in the barn, and on a good day I’d sit out on what my older daughter came to call “Pete’s Hill,” writing with my manual typewriter in my lap and using a rock to keep the pages from blowing away. The whole time I was praying it would all work out in the end, because I didn’t have more than a fraction of a plan and the only parts I remember enjoying were the incidental lyrics and the section with Captain Cully and the outlaws.

The First Last Unicorn and Other Beginnings — which will come out next spring in hardcover from Conlan Press and in trade paperback from Tachyon Publications — collects those first 85 Last Unicorn pages and other unpublished chapters, vignettes, correspondence and commentary. What’s it like to revisit works from earlier in your career that have not yet been seen by the public eye?

A very mixed bag sometimes. As we put the set together I’d sometimes say “Whoa, glad nobody spotted that, glad that was never let out of its cage.” But other times I felt that things were pretty good. I’ll let readers come to their own conclusions about them, because that’s how it should be.

The Last Unicorn comic books that came out from IDW in 2010 were collected into a graphic novel earlier this year. How was the process of bringing this long-awaited project to fruition? Did it take very long to find a writer and artist whom you felt could capture the expectations that both you and your audience had for such an iconic book?

A few years earlier there was one failed attempt at a Last Unicorn graphic novel with Scholastic publishing. They had a fine comic artist lined up, Michael Wm. Kaluta, but the editor’s attitude towards the story was all wrong. She wanted to make the book into something I wasn’t happy with, so we canceled the deal. IDW came along much later, and they were incredibly supportive. They let us pick the adapting writer, Peter Gillis, whom Connor introduced me to in Chicago about five years ago. And they let us turn down four or five suggested artists before the comic’s editor, Mariah Huehner, fortuitously suggested Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon. Peter and Renae and Ray and Mariah all did an amazing job. I’m delighted to say that the same team will be coming back to do a graphic novel version of “Two Hearts,” the sequel story.

The Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfumery is also rolling out a series of Last Unicorn fragrances. Can you tell us how that came about?

Pretty simple, really. A fan of theirs who is also a fan of my books suggested the idea, and after that it happened pretty fast.

Since 2004, you’ve been in a dispute with Granada Media International over their refusal to pay you a large sum of due royalties for many years’ worth of DVD and cable TV sales of The Last Unicorn animated film — for which you also wrote the screenplay. Can you tell us anything about the status of this creative rights injustice? Is it any closer to being rectified?

After eight years it’s finally over, and I’m very pleased with how things have wound up. What happened, basically, is that last summer we finally made contact with the top levels of ITV, the big European media conglomerate that owned Granada, and when they looked into the situation they agreed with us that joining forces would be a lot better for everyone than fighting. So that’s what we’ve done. We settled the dispute, I’m getting what I was always due, and Connor Cochran is busy putting together big new plans for the film that simply weren’t possible before, like getting a thoroughly renovated 30th anniversary edition into theaters all over the world sometime in 2013. And that’s just for starters. It’s a little dizzying for me to believe but the tide has actually turned after all these years in the wilderness, but it has, and I couldn’t be more delighted.

I’ve heard you sing French, and have read that you also speak German and Yiddish? Anyone who’s talked to you marvels at the unending fountain of knowledge you are on literature, mythology, folklore, art and film. Have you always so readily absorbed the creative world around you? Do you think your interest in classic works and your passion for the arts in general helped you as a writer?

I sing songs in French and Spanish, but I’m hardly fluent in those languages — though I do seem to know a lot of French words that were considered dirty back in the ‘50s, but which no one uses any more — and I have completed exactly one grammatical German sentence in my life. As for Yiddish, I’ve got the same smattering as any other Bronx-raised, not terribly observant Jew. So while It’s kind of you to be so complimentary, the truth is that I’ve never felt like an educated person. I know my own limitations. I’m a buff, not a scholar. I tell people that I have a magpie mind, constantly flying around and picking up shiny things that look interesting. Add my memory for things I’ve read or heard, which I will admit is better than most people’s, and I wind up looking much smarter than I actually am.

You began your career in 1960 as a novelist and short fiction writer, then shifted to writing nonfiction and articles until 1965, returned to novel-writing with The Last Unicorn which was published in 1968, and continued to branch out into screenwriting from there. I’m curious how your view of writing changed over the years as you began working in so many different writing industries, and within so many different types of deadlines and editorial attitudes.

I’ve learned new techniques in each field — for example, writing screenplays taught me that if I was stuck on one particular moment or scene I could always skip over it and write the next part of the story, instead of only writing linearly. But the core of writing doesn’t change, no matter what medium you’re working in. You’re still facing a blank page, or screen, armed with only imagination and whatever chutzpah you can muster. And you have to make that do.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

There’s only one piece of advice that matters: show up for work. No matter how hard it may be — and it is hard — you have to clear away distractions, sit down, and invest the hours. Even if nothing comes. . . or nothing good, anyway. It’s just as easy and horribly difficult as that.

—

Learn more about The 52/50 Project at Conlan Press.
Read Peter’s Hugo and Nebula award-winning novelette “Two Hearts” for free online.
Watch a video by the interviewer of a live musical performance by Peter on YouTube.

Photo of Peter S. Beagle with guitar by Rosemary Van Deuren.

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.

—

Early this year you did a “Fashion Week Diary” for Teen Vogue Magazine and started your own style and photography blog, The Fashion Gangster. Who or what inspires you fashion and photography-wise? Can you name some of your favorite photographers and designers?

I find the entire fashion industry intriguing. The Fashion Gangster was just a spur of the moment idea that I had, and I’m so happy it has really taken off! A lot of my inspiration for Fashion Gangster shoots comes from Terry Richardson. The clean white background really lets viewers focus more on the model and the garments they’re wearing. My very favorite designers are Rick Owens and Alexander Wang. There are so many more, but it would take forever to tell you all of them!

Your photos have a bit of a 1970s flair and a crisp but edgy street style, which I love. What kind of camera do you use? Do you do your own lighting for the shoots?

Thank you! I am so inspired by the 1970’s and David Bowie, so I’m glad you can see that. I use a Nikon D5000. I do my own lighting for every shoot but it’s not highly produced at all! I just went to Home Depot and bought a giant construction light and that’s all I use!

What’s coming up next for The Fashion Gangster? It looks like you have a great circle of model friends who mesh well with your style.

Who knows what’s next for The Fashion Gangster? I really enjoy the blog and will continue to do what I am already doing with it! My models are my best friends, so it’s always wonderful shooting them.

You’ve been a working actor for almost half your life. How old were you when you started training at The Actor’s Center in Philadelphia?

I really have always been interested in performing. I was 6 when I started training at The Actor’s Center.

You were twelve when Ugly Betty began and sixteen when the series ended. What was it like growing up on the set? Growing up in the public eye?

Growing up on set was so amazing. I got to grow up around such amazing, driven people and I truly believe it was being around those people constantly that shaped me into the person I am today. The public eye is not always the greatest. Being criticized constantly when you’re in your early teens is not the best for one’s self esteem. But, it’s something that you have to take with a grain of salt and move past, and that’s what I did.

You just had a reunion with the Ugly Betty cast this month. Were you excited to see your former cast members again?

Of course! Since the show ended we have all been on different coasts, so getting together again was so great.

You’re applying to colleges right now. What do you intend to study? Any plans to return to acting after (or during) college?

I plan to study either fashion or journalism. I would love to dabble in the fashion industry and see what happens with that. I plan to act, but college and little more self discovery need to come first!

—

Check out The Fashion Gangster at www.thefashiongangster.typepad.com

Full portrait of Mark by Hanna Marks

All photos ©Mark Indelicato

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.

—

It’s been eighteen months since the launch of Sugarpill, and you’ve been featured in Auxiliary, Papercut, Harlow, Faint, Gothic Beauty, Whore! and Creepy Queen magazines. How has the response to Sugarpill compared to the expectations you had when you first came up with the idea in 2005?

In 2005, I thought it’d be fun to have my own makeup line as a side hobby to mess with when I needed a break from sewing. I honestly did not expect Sugarpill to grow so quickly and consume my life to the point that my sewing would have to take a backseat. I’m definitely not complaining! Just surprised and thrilled that people responded so well to Sugarpill that my life took an unexpected turn.

You have a degree in journalism and a background in fashion design from your eBay / Etsy monster, Shrinkle. With your Shrinkle clothing designs already going strong, what turned your attention to starting your own cosmetics line?

I loved styling photo shoots for my clothing line with the most obnoxious hair and makeup I could find. For years I used theater and clown makeup to create the dramatic effects I was looking for. I wondered why there wasn’t a makeup line that offered the ridiculous and bright colors I loved, in super professional quality and ultra cute packaging. I felt like something needed to be done to make high quality, insanely pigmented cosmetics more accessible to people who don’t frequent clown stores and drag queen bars.

You independently researched, contracted and hand-picked everyone involved with the production of Sugarpill cosmetics, building the brand from the ground up. What’s it been like having such direct involvement with every step of the manufacturing and design, as opposed to stamping your name on a product that was corporate-owned or designed by other people?

I adore the creative process that goes into creating a unique product. My brain is always cluttered with a billion ideas, but there simply aren’t enough hours in a day to bring them all to life. By starting a fresh new brand, I hoped to put as much of my creative vision out there as possible and offer something new and exciting that wasn’t already available.

When I began to promote Sugarpill months before its launch, I was met with a bit of skepticism from people who wondered if Sugarpill would just be the same old shit as every other new makeup brand who repackages pre-made cosmetics and slaps their logo sticker on the lid. I felt like I had a lot to prove because of the horrible reputation that others had given the indie makeup scene. Customers are a lot smarter than these brands gave them credit for, and I had to work twice as hard to prove that I wasn’t going to let them down. I was incredibly antsy and couldn’t wait for everyone to have the product in their hands so they could see for themselves how awesome and one-of-a-kind it is. And they were definitely not disappointed, yay!

Were there challenges you faced in navigating new territory like the cosmetics industry?

Luckily, I was a licensed online retailer of Kryolan cosmetics for several years before I started Sugarpill. So it was a pretty comfortable transition because I had spent years learning what people like and dislike, and what they wished for in cosmetics.

The Sugarpill collection currently consists of 27 loose and pressed eyeshadows. Any plans to add any other types of cosmetics to the brand in the future?

1,000% definitely! The details are top secret though, sorry! I’m not superstitious at all, but I still hate talking about projects until they are ready for launch because I’m afraid to jinx it. All I can say is that we’re working on so much new stuff right now that I feel like my brain is going to explode!

Last year, Sugarpill caught the attention of Island Def Jam recording artist Kerli, who chose the makeup as the official brand for her “Army of Love” video. Did the Sugarpill contests in conjunction with Kerli bring a new audience Sugarpill?

That was nuts! I was a big fan of Kerli for years and admit I was a little intimidated at first by her extreme hotness. Turns out she is the sweetest, most down-to-earth person ever and was very eager to join forces with Sugarpill. We are awesome friends now, and she brings so many creative ideas to the table. She has the best style ever, so you can imagine how honored we are to be her official makeup brand!

Sugarpill was the official makeup brand for Sanrio’s Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Celebration in 2010, and I know you also designed a dress for the fashion show, as well as a new dress for the Hello Kitty mascot! What was it like combining your fashion expertise with your new makeup line at the event?

Everything was sprung on me in small doses, so it all sounded very manageable at the time. First they asked me to design a dress for the fashion show, and I said, “Of course!” All my friends were going to be in the show too, so it sounded like a fun time. Then they asked if Sugarpill would be the official makeup brand for the event, and with slightly less confidence I answered, “Suuuuure!” We hadn’t even launched yet, but I figured I could skip a few nights of sleep and wing some shit. Then just days before the fashion show, they asked, “Oh yeah, and do you want to re-design Hello Kitty’s mascot dress?” That’s when I had my major “HOLY SHIT” moment, but I gulped and responded with an enthusiastic yes even though I was secretly dying on the inside. It was too awesome of an opportunity to turn down. I was absolutely delirious from weeks’ worth of sleep deprivation on the big night, but it was so worth it. Everything went amazingly beyond my wildest dreams. I was so happy that I cried at the end of the fashion show. No lie, my friends took pictures of me sobbing like a big baby in the middle of a party. I felt like such a proud mama!

Aw, that’s so sweet! Any plans to return to fashion design anytime soon?

I would love to, more than anything! I feel sad that I haven’t had time to design or sew since launching Sugarpill. Every week I say, “For real this time, no one bother me this weekend because I’m gonna bust out my sewing machine and make some really cool stuff!” Then the weekend comes and I mysteriously find myself working another Sugarpill event or project. It’s not that I ever wanted to abandon designing clothes in favor of working on the makeup line. But Sugarpill is growing so quickly that I have to do whatever I can to keep up. We are new, so I’m still learning how to balance and manage my time. My ultimate goal is to successfully run both businesses simultaneously.

Sugarpill is a unique product that meets a previously unanswered demand for bold, colorful, artistic makeup for daily wear. But what’s most inspiring to me about Sugarpill’s story is that it was a dream and creation realized by one person as an independent company. Any advice to entrepreneurs like yourself who are making their way in an uphill independent business or creative endeavor?

If you love what you do and are extremely passionate about what you create, then you’re on the right track. A lot of people go where they think there is money to be made, but screw what your parents said about following the money and being “stable!” The happiest people I know are the ones who know are extremely passionate about their hobbies, take risks, and don’t care how many hours a day they have to work or how many years they have to live on Cup O’ Noodles in order to turn their hobby into a fulfilling career and lifestyle. If you can’t imagine yourself doing something for 12 hours a day and being happy, then go find something else before your soul starts to rot!

—

Sugarpill: The official makeup brand for Island Def Jam artist Kerli

Shop Sugarpill Cosmetics at www.sugarpillshop.com

And follow Amy’s adventures on blog.shrinkle.com

Header photo of Amy Doan by Rachael Caballero. Doan’s ring in photo by Bela Koi Designs

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.

My first column for The Idler was “The passions of John Waters”, about Waters’ 2010 memoir Role Models. The nice thing about writing nonfiction articles is that you’re not usually forced to revisit them. It’s easier to plow ahead onto the next piece, unlike novel-writing, where the length and weight of the project forces you to continually rehash over phonebook-sized page-stacks of storytelling, cohesiveness and technique. I don’t normally reread my nonfiction articles, because all I see are things I wish I’d have done better. The thing that stands out to me most in “The passions of John Waters” is a quote from Waters himself, where he said playwright Tennessee Williams “saved his life” by being “joyous, alarming, sexually confusing and dangerously funny.” Waters did much the same thing for me when I first discovered his underground films and writings at age sixteen. In a serendipitous turn of events, I’m preparing right now for a trip to Toronto where I’ll see Waters perform his live, one-man stage show, This Filthy World. Seeing Waters speak live is a life-long dream of mine, and writing here that it’s actually going to happen this month sends butterflies of anticipation teeming through my stomach. When he steps out onto that stage, I might just faint. Or have one of those spontaneous orgasms like you hear about middle-aged women having at Michael Bolton concerts. Whatever I might do, I can rest easy knowing that John Waters is very difficult to offend. Once a man has signed a fan’s used tampon, most other fan-behavior has got to seem positively vanilla.

2. What is your favorite Idler column that you didn’t write?

My recent favorite is Mike Vincent’s “The language of letting go,” which deals with all the little losses that come as rites-of-passage while growing up. The article is about Mike selling some of his vinyl LPs — things he swore he’d never part with, but which he’d come to value less the older his small children became. It’s an interesting, introspective, personalized account of how our values shift as we become adults. And how even when those shifts are completely normal, appropriate and healthy, they can still be a little heartbreaking when we look at the scope of our lives, the things that used to take forefront importance, and the innocence we inevitably trade for the wisdom we gain. A lot of Mike’s columns examine, through music, the little, normal losses of life, and the reality that your life will change whether you want it to or not, and whether you try to help foster that change or whether you fight it tooth and nail. “The language of letting go” talks about daily change and loss in a way that is refined but also strong, and unique but also completely relatable. It also touches on how music relates to our sense of self, both as an artistic identity and as a physical commodity, like a record album.

3. What sort of things do you want to write about in the next year?

This week I was excited to share my interview with award-winning artist and writer, Wayne Barlowe. Wayne is an astounding talent, a fascinating person and a delightful human being, and this interview was a real treat for me to conduct. I’m currently working on an interview with another extraordinary visual artist who creates amazing work, and I’m looking forward to finishing that one soon! I’m also honored to be working up an interview with an incredible fantasy author whom I admire deeply. Other upcoming interviews include a provocative new industrial dance musician, a comic book writing-and-drawing brother duo, and the founder of a small but dynamic new independent cosmetics company. One of my biggest goals with my column “Flipside” is to give readers access to researched interviews with thought-provoking artists, writers and others. Additionally, I hope that “Flipside” interviews provide a place where subjects themselves feel they have the platform to discuss their work in-depth, talk about their experiences and processes, and give a perspective on the industries they work in. One of my newer goals with “Flipside” is also to introduce readers to up-and-coming faces in the arts industries. Creative people who are forging their way with attention-grabbing work, but whom you may not have heard of just yet. On August 17th I debuted “Peeps to watch out for,” an addition to “Flipside” which will highlight up-and-coming creative people with a few questions about who they are and what they do. The first “Peeps” highlighted fresh faces from the performing arts and modeling / fashion circuit, and future installments will include new illustrators, painters, doll-makers and comic artists. In addition to conducting interviews, which I enjoy very much, I’ll also be rotating in a few essay-style pieces like those I’ve done previously for The Idler. Articles that dissect eclectic arts figures and works with an emphasis on valuable but underrepresented angles — things like the thread between sociological and artistic “climate changes,” the fringes of gender and sexuality, and the way aging art compares to the work that’s being produced right now in our changing world.

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.

—

Your parents Sy and Dorothea Barlowe were well-known natural history artists, which I assume laid the groundwork for the refined knowledge you now have of anatomy. Did you spend much time drawing under your parents’ instruction as a child? Drawing animals from life? What were your childhood artistic years like?

My education was, primarily, by osmosis. Growing up with working, professional artists inculcated me with a sense of self-discipline and an appreciation for the degree of hard work that went into doing illustrations and putting books together. It was a slow process and the time-consuming, painstaking effort that went into doing scientifically accurate work was not lost on me. It imbued me with a personal desire to “get it right,” to measure twice and cut once, as the saying goes. And that philosophy layered itself atop my love of biology, anatomy and all things scientific. Okay, so I was an odd child. I drew constantly and my parents were both honest and encouraging. I rarely drew animals from life but we did have a ton of dried specimens and other natural objects which I did enjoy trying to render. But my interests in SF, Fantasy, WWI and ancient Rome skewed the drawings and I veered off from my parents’ work pretty early on. My school notebooks were filled with marginalia and studies of all kinds of things. The freedom was fun. I didn’t really get a handle on paint until I was in my mid teens. I had gone to an art and music camp for a few summers on Long Island and picked up acrylics there. They were a relatively new medium and I learned their attributes pretty quickly. I owe my continued use of them to those summers. My parents worked in gouache and I never really got the hang of it — the fact that you could re-activate the paint beneath annoyed me. But I was very happy with the fast drying speed of acrylics and the greater body. Once I got bitten by the paint bug, I was forever changed. I did a ton of work in my old, cluttered room. I painted a lot of aliens, and robots and Picts and you name it. Eventually, I managed to put a portfolio of paintings together (mostly imaginative stuff) and I was accepted into Cooper Union.

Your first book Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials (1979) was published when you were only twenty-one, and remains an earmark of modern science fiction illustration still today. Since then, you’ve rendered and crafted countless creatures while rotating seamlessly between alien, prehistoric and horror imagery. Are there projects from your career that stand out as more challenging or more rewarding than others?

Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials was the product of a hungry youth with something to prove. I had just left Cooper early and was more than ready to go out and conquer the world. I came up with the idea over a beer with my parents — it was the perfect merging of what they did with what I wanted to do in the world of science fiction. I probably could not come close to producing it as quickly as I did way back then. And, I’m not so keen on the quality of it these days. I was a kid and it was the perfect project for me back in 1979. Expedition was a real challenge. I had been painting covers for quite some time and had gotten into a rut. It was not a comfortable rut either. I realized, luckily, that I was losing touch with myself and simply jumping from one cover to the next without any thoughts other than those of pleasing sometimes arbitrary art directors. It was a dead end. So, I gambled with Expedition. I took the leap and did a painting and put together a proposal and sold it. And then had to spend three years working on it! It was a great, stimulating project and led to many other great projects, but it was pretty taxing. I was doing the artwork (30+ paintings and over a hundred drawings) and the writing (which, at that time, I was even more uncertain of than I am today) and the back/forth was daunting. On a positive note, I learned how the written word could catalyze images and vice versa. All in all, it was a struggle, complete with editorial battles, but very much worth it in the end.

Writing God’s Demon was, in a different way, even more challenging because while I had done some forty or so paintings in the Hell universe, I never considered myself a novelist. I still don’t. But here I was suddenly holding a contract in my hands and tasked with writing the epic story of Hell, of bringing together all of my paintings and eighteen years of thoughts into one comprehensive work. I don’t think a day went by when I didn’t ask myself what new, self-delusional form of hubris had been invented to enable me to think I could do this. It didn’t help that towards the end, when all of my creative juices were urging me on to finish the damned thing, I suddenly got called away to work on AVATAR. I had, insanely, thought I could write on weekends. It never happened. That book was probably the single hardest, creative endeavor to date.

I heard that you used sea life as an inspiration for some of the designs you worked on for Avatar. Can you share a little more about this and about your artistic involvement on the film as creature designer? Your art sensibility seems very well-suited to the production.

Thank you. Actually, only the sweeping lines and curves and detailing of cetaceans made their way into my early, personal design bible for AVATAR. A lot of that got dialed back, too. I was the first person called in on AVATAR and I remember how nervous and excited I was to be in the first wave, along with the three other talented designers under me, on such an ambitious project. It was such a deep, black-ops phase that not even the person who much later wrote the Art Of book was aware of us! Working with Jim was a blast — a true peak experience. After listening carefully to him I went down a path wherein I started to blend the aforementioned cetacean lines with Formula 1 car elements and added a dollop of amphibian skin for good measure. Big air scoops to accommodate and visually convey the denser air, large, flat skin surfaces for bold markings, pinched anatomical curves to suggest speed and power and plain alien-ness. I was doing some pretty strange things to animal forms and Jim liked it but, quite wisely, pulled me back. After all, it was his vision for Pandora and he had a very clear idea of where he wanted to go. I think, in hindsight, my earliest designs might have been too extreme and not relatable to a larger audience. That’s Jim’s genius — to know what will speak to people. AVATAR was a rich and amazing project and will remain, for me, a high-water mark in every way.

You also worked as a concept artist for the films Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. There have never been art books for any of the Harry Potter movies, correct? Are you able to tell us about your design contributions to Harry Potter 3 and 4?

There is a book out now, but sadly, I am not mentioned. That happens. Art Of books come out so long after production that the lines of communication and awareness constrict until only the last few people are there to discuss the projects. It’s a shame because a lot of people deserve a lot of credit for their work but the last men standing simply aren’t aware of their contributions. Anyway, on HP3 I designed the werewolf, made major contributions on the hippogriff, designed the monster books, the Hogwarts ghosts. On HP4 I had a lesser role, but I did work extensively on the Death Eaters’ costumes, the dragons, the shark kid, Mad-eyed Moody’s artificial leg and a few other elements.

Your first novel God’s Demon (2007) was preceded by your art books about Hell (Barlowe’s Inferno [1998] and Brushfire: Illuminations from the Inferno [2001]), as well by as your 2000 screenplay, Inferno: Rebellion in Hell. The novel fleshes out ideas touched upon in all three of these works, which is part of what made it such a rich, ambitious and far-reaching narrative. Did it ever feel daunting to be working up a story based off a larger creative manifesto, rather than working within the confines of a more limited concept or stand-alone novel outline?

Actually, there is no one answer to that question. On the one hand, I had the screenplay which served as a really good underpinning for the writing. And I had all of those annoying paintings and drawings which kept pushing their way into the process. They actually did a fine job of serving as visual touchstones for me. But once I started to get further into the writing, my spit-balled estimate of three pages of manuscript to one page of script started to go away. In other words, the book started to take on a life of its own and the script morphed into becoming a good skeleton to drape the narrative on. The script and the paintings were more of a resource to tap into than a burden. But I did feel the pressure of trying to get as much into the book as I could simply to mark out the territory and make it as real as I could.

One of most chilling attributes of the Hell depicted in your work is the sheer vastness of it, which imbues the place with an other-worldly hopelessness. The idea of a boundless landscape as a prison — where going anywhere leads you nowhere — reinforces notion that the suffering is inescapable because the space it is housed by is infinite. How did you come up with this idea which is a contrast to the typical, finite underworld or leveled Hell we’re accustomed to seeing?

To me, Hell had to be dwarfing in scale, both for physical reasons and psychological. The world of Dante’s Inferno seemed too limiting to me — a series of rings that by definition are constraining. Clearly, that was appealing hundreds of years ago and something that the public could relate to. Later, Milton expanded upon it and made his Hell feel more like a dark region, a world that somehow existed but was vast. I ran with that ball. We live in an era where we are just beginning to understand the vastness of the universe and see it depicted in films. I could not have created a world for Hell that would have been any less expansive. I sometimes played with the idea of layering a temporal element to Hell — a kind of string-theory approach that would have involved multiple Hells that could co-exist but only be joined in certain locations. I had this crazy desire to show what humanity would evolve into and then place them in Hell next to our more familiar form. It was a rough concept but not one that found its way into the story.

You’re an avid reader with an extensive knowledge of traditional literature and classical science fiction. Looking at the text accompaniments in your art books, it’s not surprising that you branched out into writing. Did you write much fiction in your spare time before you began your first screenplay in 1999?

I dabbled. I wrote a treatment for an old college project that people have asked me about for years — Thype. I still have to do something with that. I also tried a couple of short stories but they were small experiments. Nothing more. The screenplay came out of my love for the form. I think it’s particularly well-suited to me because of its obvious visual component. And I love narrative. So it’s a perfect blend. I suspect I will be writing more of them.

People have said that God’s Demon is in good company with classical works like Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno. The characters in God’s Demon have an elevated capacity for humanity — though they are not technically human — which draws the reader to empathize and feel invested in their struggle. Sadness, regret, will, a yearning for redemption, a desensitization to the suffering of others and a wish to feel sympathy — these big themes are as pertinent to worldly suffering as they are to the idea of punishment in eternity. Was this an early part of the narrative, or did it come out organically as you crafted the story? How important was it to you to “humanize” Hell?

I am humbled by anyone who makes a comparison such as you suggest. I tried hard to write something that would last and be engaging for a long time. That’s one of the reasons you find very few references to actual people in Hell, let alone any references to modern touchstones. And that’s also the reason I chose to “humanize” the demons. While I wanted them to be strange and, in some ways, distant, I did not want a reader to completely disassociate from their situation. It’s entertainment and by definition one needs to be able to relate to the struggles a character you are reading and enjoying is undergoing. All of the emotions you listed are, indeed, human but there is no reason to suggest that demons or angels would not feel them. Were I writing about true aliens I would probably have pushed further away from those emotions. But, if you buy the canon, the angels and demons were created by the same hand as we were. So, it makes sense that they would have the same kinds of emotions. And, that is pretty much how Milton, my spiritual muse on this project, envisioned them as well. His characters are the epitome of the emotions they display — nobility becomes Nobility, pride becomes Pride.

Well put. One of the visualizations that carried over from Barlowe’s Inferno to God’s Demon is the image of each of the condemned souls carrying their sins around in a heavy, black sphere, visible as a mobile and tumor-like orb in their form. Did utilizing these and other elements from your visual work make plotting the framework for God’s Demon easier, or was it a challenge to string together the components you wanted to retain for the novel?

The heavy-lifting of plotting was pretty much mapped-out and determined by the screenplay. For the novel, I added scenes as they seemed necessary, recognizing that I had more elbow-room and no real parameters with its length. And, by the time I began to write God’s Demon, I obviously knew I would not have the luxury of the artwork accompanying the text which was a mixed blessing — it forced me to be more descriptive but made the book a bit heavy on the visuals — something today’s readers are not always happy with. Luckily, more people than not enjoyed that degree of description. I very much wanted a reader who had seen my artwork to recognize scenes or elements from the paintings so it was important to make sure that I didn’t miss putting in anything key. That part — sprinkling in bits of from the art — was actually fun. For me, kind of like when you eat a bowl of Lucky Charms and you find a nice little marshmallow in with the cereal. But not all of the art is represented. Some of it was less narrative and just wasn’t appropriate to the greater story.

Creatively, how do your approaches differ between writing and visual art? Do painting and drawing come more easily to you since you’ve done them longer?

Without a doubt, my artwork is much easier to generate. I’ve been doing it since I was a child whereas I have only been writing seriously for six or seven years. I truly labor over the writing and, when I’m really stuck, ponder how real writers do it. Probably with as little effort as I draw. If I say that I draw and paint more easily I’m not actually implying that I am satisfied with it. I can’t look at my artwork a week after I’ve done it. If my self-criticism is bad with art, it’s off the charts when it comes to my writing. As for my methods of writing, I made a lot of small notes on index cards for both the novel and the screenplays I’ve written. They are handy and I can tear them up with impunity if I don’t like the thought or even the way it’s written on the card. My notes are pretty neat and concise. Similar in tone with the thumbnail sketches I do in my notebooks. Though, I will say the thumbnails for my paintings are sometimes pretty sketchy. At this point in my career, I’m pretty practiced at taking a rough thumb and turning it into a painting. And, I also like the many small things that happen if you wing it with paint and are not slavish to a sketch. But, then, there’s the painting I finished that has four paintings beneath it…

Speaking of painting, I’m curious about your process and the types of materials you use. Depending on the needs of the project, do you prefer oils or acrylics? How large do you typically work when painting for yourself or for personal projects?

I only use acrylics. I used to use Lascaux acrylics from Switzerland but I have, in recent years, switched to Golden brand. Domestically produced, easier to find and almost the same quality. I prefer the paint to dry matte and the other brands don’t achieve that. I use Winsor & Newton watercolor brushes for the finer detail and many different brands for the flats. I generally paint on Gessoboard because it’s not hard to get, is archival and relatively tough. I don’t work larger than 24″ X 36” and have been gravitating to 16″ X 20” lately. I will frequently put down a colored ground or go right to blocking in the background and then take pastels and block in the foreground elements. Nothing very unique about that. The acrylics are fairly forgiving and I can erase mistakes easily. As well as paint out big problems. Like entire paintings when I don’t like them!

Can you tell us what you have in the works right now? Any plans for a sequel to God’s Demon in the future?

I am in the midst of rewrites on a major, optioned screenplay — the details of which I cannot elaborate upon just yet. Safe to say, it is not set in Hell or any other universe I have created. I am also under contract to write a screenplay based on God’s Demon as well as a sequel to the novel. That book will be entitled The Heart of Hell and centers around Lilith and the Salamandrines. And, for those who’ve asked, many of the characters from the first book will be reappearing. I’ve gotten a bit into it and it’s giving me the opportunity to further expand Hell and the world-building that I so enjoy.

—

See more of Wayne Barlowe’s work on his website, www.waynebarlowe.com. You can also find Wayne’s complete film resume on The Internet Movie Database and view a live sketching video of him drawing on YouTube.

Header photo of Wayne Barlowe by Laura Hansen.

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.

Apathy Angel, ©Michael Cinquino, CNQ Photography

What are you known for?

As a performer I’m known for my dark, out of the box acts—messy, outrageous, sometimes borderline offensive. I do have my moments of pretty, feminine acts, but on the whole I think I’m more known for pushing boundaries, and if I happen to come across as sexy while doing it, so much the better. My modeling tends to contain that same aesthetic, and I would say my sarcastic, black-humor-tinged outlook on life as well.

I have been seen in short films for Nokia, been featured on Law & Order, have danced with Natalie Portman in Black Swan, posed nude for foreign magazine fashion spreads, worn priceless designer couture with Q Models in fashion videos, walked the runway for impeccable gothic designers, shot fetish films in Newcastle, graced the stages of legendary NYC nightclubs, and so much more! It’s been a wild ride!

What are you working on right now?

I’m always thinking up new acts for my regular burlesque residency with Original Cyn Burlesque at the Lucky 13 Saloon in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I’m also looking forward to getting my foot in the door with new shows and venues — right now I’m excited to be performing with Geek Girl Productions again, for Edification for the first time, and of course with my favorite underground NYC party TRASH! at Webster Hall.

I’ve also been doing a lot of television and film work recently. I just did featured background work on a new show for HBO called Spring/Fall starring Tea Leoni and Sigourney Weaver. You will also be able to catch me on upcoming episodes of Law & Order: CI, How To Make It In America, Men In Black 3 and many more to come.

What made you decide to become a dancer and performer?

I grew up dancing. My mother had been a ballerina and when I was old enough to walk, she decided it was time for me to start ballet lessons. I continued with ballet until well into college, when I took a break to focus on my BFA in Media Arts/Animation at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. A few years after moving to New York I started modeling, and a DJ gave me my first real “start” as a burlesque performer at the infamous Rated X: The Panty Party at Luke & Leroy’s. I didn’t really know that I was doing “burlesque” per se — I had choreographed a dance number and incorporated some strip elements into it. After that I started gogo dancing at various downtown parties for fun, and then in 2008 I was approached by the amazing Fem Appeal who runs Kitty Nights Burlesque every Sunday at Bar on A. She asked me to debut at her show, and from there the ball started rolling. I was very lucky in the sense that people have been willing to give me a shot sight-unseen, or by word of mouth. That’s not always easy to do in this town!

What’s your life philosophy?

“Go big or go home.”
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
“If not now, when?”

Where can we find you on the web?

www.apathyangelnyc.com
Apathy on Facebook
Apathy on Twitter
Apathy’s Tumblr
Apathy on ModelMayhem

Judson Harmon (photo by Jenn Hoffman)

What are you known for?

I moved to New York as a theatrical performer in 2010, having done shows such as bare, The Wild Party, A Few Good Men, Side Show, La Cage aux Folles, and more. I’ve also done drag for almost four years now, and have always had a passion for makeup — I even went to school in full face every day of my sophomore year in high school in conservative Cave Creek, Arizona. I’m 6’5” and both of my parents were models, so I got pushed into that as soon as I was old enough. I’m known for my strange personality, and for being kind while being dressed like a bitch.

What are you working on right now?

Right now I’m working on a few parties that I will be starting, and I’ve been altering and making a lot of my clothes. I have some offers for shows (theatre) lately that I’m juggling and can’t really talk about yet. I’m looking to start working on music more since that’s what I’m the most versed in, and I’m pulling a lot of inspiration from my significant other.

What made you decide to become a performer and model?

I became everything that I am, and that I do, because it gives you a key to open minds and challenge people’s thoughts and beliefs. I like to make people question themselves because if we all plateau intellectually, we might as well be dead. Individuality is not only attainable by some, you just need to tell society to piss off and live life for yourself.

What’s your life philosophy?

I don’t believe in hate, and I believe that “regret is like drinking a glass of poison and waiting for someone else to die.” I believe that if you want something you should go for it. And I believe that if you need to put down others to get to where you want to be, and if you keep hidden agendas and secrets, you don’t deserve to achieve your dreams. Live, love, and keep your chin up.

Where can we find you on the web?

www.judsonharmon.com (Coming soon!)
Judson on Facebook
Judson on Twitter
Judson on ModelMayhem
And Judson’s great-great-grandfather, politician Francis Judson Harmon

Nadia Aboulhosn ©Nadia Aboulhosn

Nadia Aboulhosn’s self-styled photos have been featured on fashion blogs and sites all around the web, including teenvogue.com. Says Nadia:

I am known for pushing limits and breaking barriers. I am known for doing what I want despite society’s views and beliefs.

What are you working on right now?

My creative energy is focused on my fashion blog and my future career in fashion. I am constantly in competition with myself to outdo what I previously did before. I am currently in the process of building a portfolio to apply for fashion school in New York. I am looking to start my own shoe line, style people other than myself, and possibly start modeling. All in all, my desire is to eventually become a fashion icon and inspire people everywhere. I just got done with a photo-shoot for Seventeen Magazine that will be out in November 2011. They used me to model some of their clothes.

What made you decide to pursue fashion?

Designing and styling always came easy to me. Fashion is the only thing that excites me, so making it my career is only right. Through art, people are able to express themselves whether it’s drawing, painting, or music. Fashion, to me, is another form of art. It is a way for me to express myself.

What’s your life philosophy?

Never compromise. Settling is never an option. Dictate your own life while thinking intelligently rather than emotionally.

Where can we find you on the web?

Nadia’s fashion blog
Nadia on Facebook
Nadia on Twitter

Seth Nayes (photo by Mark Anderson, STUN Photography)

What are you known for?

I am known for bending the gender lines in a way no one has done before. My extreme ways of expressing myself are quite delicious to some. Some call me the “Master of Masquerade”, and I like that. I’ve been on the cover of Quest Magazine (Wisconsin’s LGBT Mag) and just recently took an artistic risk in my newest short movie “Angel’s Ashes,” which was just released on YouTube. But most of my success has come from the internet, winning photo contests and such… so far…

What are you working on right now?

I aspire to take over the world. To act, to move people. Continue with photography and creating photos that twist people’s minds into endless questions. I aspire to be on the cover of national magazines and to help people find the courage to run with fire, come into their own and be truly comfortable with who they are.

What made you decide to become a model, performer and artist?

I always felt like I wanted to make the world a better place. I was always the weird, awkward one that everyone was leery about. I scratched the walls of my small town until my nails bled. Now I’m exploring every possible facet of life and entertainment, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What’s your life philosophy?

Eat the brains of life! [laughs] Or:
“Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.” –Josh Billings
“Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, work, play and to look up at the stars.” –Henry Van Dyke

Where can we find you on the web?

Seth’s website
Seth on Facebook
Seth on ModelMayhem
“Angel’s Ashes” trailer

—

Photos in header: Apathy Angel ©Michael Cinquino, CNQ Photography, Judson Harmon by Jory Clay Sutton Photography, Nadia Aboulhosn ©Nadia Aboulhosn, Seth Nayes by Scott E. Detweiler Photography
Individual headshots: Apathy Angel ©Michael Cinquino, CNQ Photography, Judson Harmon by Jenn Hoffman, Nadia Aboulhosn ©Nadia Aboulhosn, Seth Nayes by Mark Anderson, STUN Photography

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.

Dairy damsel: the early years

Like most children, I drank cows’ milk. But growing up in Wisconsin, the land of milk and cheese, I drank it constantly — with meals and in-between. I lived a stone’s-throw from a number of dairy farms, and my local high school ran a yearly “bring your tractor to school day” for the Future Farmers of America students. The dairy farm nearest to my home also had veal cows penned right up against the road, where everyone could see. I saw tethered, baby veal cows most days of my first eighteen years of life.

During my childhood and adolescence, rBGH — also known as “recombinant bovine growth hormone” — was plentiful, unregulated, and pumped into milk at a record rate. I was consuming a great ton of milk then, and now I have a milkmaid figure and endometriosis. Just kidding — I’m sure neither is related. I hope.

A fish called Wanda: the boozy years

I was already a few years into sewing my recreational oats via other substances when something as unremarkable as alcohol began subverting it’s way into my repertoire with increasing rotations. I accessed it by the typical, teenage avenues at my disposal because I was eighteen; an age sometimes quite crudely referred to as “not old enough to drink, but old enough to swallow.” Soon I was chasing the day when I’d be able to down liquor that was not stolen, swindled, or combined from the ends of other people’s discarded drinks. In the meantime, I decided that drinking something I had just picked cigarette butts out of was part of my charm, and became a scavenger-goat for alcohol — a remora and bottom-feeder feasting on the booze scraps that of-age sharks had lost track of or left behind. When I had a choice or had convinced some poor sod to buy the man’s-ruin-fluid on my behalf, I opted for Bud Light, leaving me more calories for food, or Mad Dog, leaving me more money for things like gasoline and film developing. (These were the days before digital cameras.) By the time I moved on to straight vodka, whiskey and rum, I was almost old enough to buy it myself.

Eventually the way that I was drinking became less endearingly ribald and more… abject. So now I buy alcohol only infrequently, and then opt for indie beer with fancy labels, like a good little hipster. Although I will say that Idler music columnist and good buddy Mike Vincent recently turned me on to Dogfish brand beer, which is a slice of beer-heaven.

Working stiff: the retail years

So. Much. Coffee. This is when espresso finally made it to the midwest, so in fueling my lowly bookstore-assistant-manager positions, I graduated from giant, refillable styrofoam McDonald’s coffees to caffeine-loaded froo-froo drinks that came in matte, brown cups with the little corrugated condom-jackets. Somewhere along the way I switched back to plain black coffee again which was 1.) free at the independent bookstore I finally ended up at, and 2.) low-calorie, to correspond with the eating disorder I had developed not long after I stopped drinking like a sad lounge-singer.

In mid-high school, putting sugar and cream in my truck stop coffee like a silly, innocent teenager had been part of the fun in drinking it while I sat across from my friend Kelly Howlett (who is now a painter and teacher), agreeing that being part of a creative community like the Beats would be totally swell. Cream and sugar lost their allure around the same time food did, and even though I now eat like a regular lady, I never really regained my taste for sweetened coffee. I still like my coffee black and bitter like a punch in the face — a reminder of where I came from, and the things I was forced to abandon to survive. Leave me my bitter coffee, oh irresponsiblity and excess, for you have already robbed me of so much.

Today and tonight: the writing years

The combination of a slipshod lifestyle, a slavish debt to old demons, inherited predispositions and a wussy constitution has left me with rather cry-baby adrenals at age 34. I still drink coffee, but it’s a dysfunctional relationship to encourage. If I drink it, I don’t sleep. In fact, it’s 7:45 a.m. as I write this, and I haven’t been to bed yet tonight (uh, this morning?). I even took a little Rx downer at midnight to help motivate me to become tired, but I’m afraid that’s worn off now since it’s only supposed to last about six hours. Staying up all night to work is all too tempting when it’s work you care about, and when the words are coming easily like a new lover who thinks you’re something special.

When I am being responsible, I drink tea. It’s the perfect balance to give me enough pep to avoid passing out into my soup like a blitzed Montgomery Clift, but not so much that I stay up until eight a.m. trying to write my way out of whatever box I imagine I’m in. Fortunately, I love tea. When I was writing my novel Basajaun, I would drink a pot of green tea steadily throughout the day, and it kept me literarily lubricated and balanced, yet muted enough to remain still and produce. I view green tea as magical writing elixir, but for it to function effectively, I have to go into the day fresh, having slept the night before. That’s the bit that’s the stickler. When it gives you temporary results, it’s all too easy to pump your body with delicious, face-punching black coffee all for the sake of accomplishing work or avoiding the night. For Winkin’, Blikin’ and Nod — those rogue denizens of sleep — may not be as friendly when you’re heavily caffeinated.

—

Rosemary Van Deuren is the author of the young adult fantasy novel, Basajaun. View more of her fiction and essays at www.rosemaryvandeuren.com. You can also be Rosemary’s friend on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @rosemaryvan.