Dean Trippe loves superheroes. That much is obvious by his website where one can see row after row of brightly colored images beautifully and clearly rendered in a style clearly influenced by the bold, streamlined linework reminiscent of Bruce Timm’s groundbreaking work on Batman:The Animated Series and its related spin-offs and sister shows. He colors his pieces - ranging from commisions by a growing number of dedicated fans to labors of love and inspiration - with a sensitive hand, putting as much thought into the pallete as he deos to the design and layout of each and every piece. With the help of various high-profile web projects and his upcoming gig on the MY NAME IS EARL series of comics by Oni Press, Trippe’s career is slowly, deservedly, kicking into high gear. Dean was kind enough to take some time out of his day to answer five questions that shed some light as to why he’s a kickass comic book creator you should know:

KLEID: Recently a thread ran at the Bendis Boards devoted to the amazitude that is you, your art and why the hell aren’t you working for Oni Press? Since I know that you ARE, actually in line to do some work for Oni (and others) why not give the kind folks out there some kind of background on who you are and what you do?

TRIPPE: I guess early on in life, I pretty much made superheroes the standard by which I valued everything else. When I was a teenager, a lot of my friends had WWJD bracelets, but I pretty much lived by “What would Batman do?” I grew up in pretty rural part of North Georgia that had no comic shops, so in my early teens I had to get mine almost exclusively from pharmacies and grocery stores. I drew comics all through highschool, and eventually ended up graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a degree in comics of all things. Now I make a living chained to my drawing table.

KLEID: You have an artistic style that most shepherd in with Bruce Timm, Mike Oeming and the late Mike Parobeck. Have any of them influenced what you do? What other outside factors have shaped the way you create?

TRIPPE: I’d say Timm’s work on the various animated series projects had the most impact on my style than any other artist, especially his Batman: Gotham Knights era stuff and Batman Beyond. In college I also fell in love with other “cartoonier” artists like Mike Mignola, Darwyn Cooke, Steve Rude, Javier Pulido, Cliff Chiang, Marcos Martin, Bryan Lee O’Malley, and Marcelo Frusin. For a while, when I was studying anatomy heavily, I tried to go the Alex Ross or Bryan Hitch sort of route, but my tendency towards simplified forms always left me with a bizarrely hybridized style. Eventually simplification won out. I should also say that Lee Loughridge’s coloring is my main coloring influence, especially his work on the Robin: Year One miniseries.

KLEID: Since I am such an industry insider and people are literally throwing information at me, I knew about Oni’s MY NAME IS EARL project literally months before it was announced. That being said, aren’t you freaked out just a little? I mean, this is a major television adaptation - playing with other folks’ toys and/or likenesses. How are you approaching the process of adaptation and tell us a little about the ups and downs involved.

TRIPPE: Well, as far as I know, it’s been pushed back to the Spring. I’m a huge fan of the show, though, so the waiting is not easy. I was really excited when I heard Jason Lee was getting a TV show, and then when it debuted, it was brilliant. I’ve never missed an episode. It’s lit and shot so well, and the comedic timing is near perfect. Trying to emulate that in the comics should be a fun challenge. I think I’d be more freaked out if I didn’t know the show so well. The characters are easy to fall in love with, so I feel more like I’m drawing friends of mine. I’ve also been wanting to work with Oni on something for years, and it’s awesome that it’s finally coming together.

KLEID: Recently, I was talking with an editor who offhandedly mentioned that you tend to steer clear of projects that aren’t all ages. In a day and age when everyone and their grandmother want to write gritty, cursing, blood drenched books for Vertigo, why this choice?

TRIPPE: Well, I’ll tell ya. Most “mature” comics seem anything but that to me. I get a lot of pitches based on the deconstruction of the superhero, and yeah I loved Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and The Authority, but those books already did deconstruction at its best. I still enjoy some mainstream titles that are completely invested in this idea, but these days I’d rather be on the reconstructionist side with books like All-Star Superman, Astonishing X-Men, and my Tom Strong back issues.

I’m also a fan of really well-written, mature dramas (like HBO’s The Wire) that have something to say, but most of the time I tend to think the mature elements in stories feel tacked on for the sake of mature cred or reaching a particular frat boy audience. I think Spongebob Squarepants and Homestar Runner are as funny if not funnier than South Park, though I can enjoy them all. Chappelle’s Show had something to say as well as sometimes shocking humor. But a lot of shows that have tried to fill the void since Chappelle’s Show ended have only been able to be shocking, which after a while, doesn’t.
I also don’t want all comics to be just for kids, but I do want all ages books to be worth reading, the way the Batman: Gotham Adventures series was, or the way the Marvel’s Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane is today. If we want the next generation of artists and writers to be great, we need to invest in the books aimed at them now. That said, if the right mature project came along, something that had artistic merit and had something important to say, I’d certainly be interested.

KLEID: Dean, from talking to dozens of folks who know you and wanna work with you, I know your schedule’s getting busy. What are the next five years like for Dean Trippe?

TRIPPE: Well, five years is considerably further down the road than I tend to worry about. I’ve got projects in the planning stages with writers A. Hunt, Chris Arrant, Heather Hogan, and John Campbell, a small gig with new publisher General Jinjur, the My Name Is Earl comic with Oni Press, and my online work like Butterfly and Project Rooftop. I’m doing some inks for a friend this week, and talking to children’s book publishers next week. It sounds like I’m busier than I am, since most of these are pretty spaced out on the schedule. I’m mostly doing commissions and pinups day to day.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 16th, 2006 at 10:04 am and is filed under Creators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.