“Criminal Week” continues at MySpace Comic Books as Daredevil artist Michael Lark talks with Criminal artist Sean Phillips about page structure, style, influences, and work process:
ML: Do you ever find yourself feeling painted into a corner by these rules you make for yourself? Do you read the script for a page and think “Man, I wish for just this one page I could use a four-row grid”?
SP: No, never. Ed might find it hard to write for a three-tier grid sometimes, but once he’s figured it out, the rest comes easy for me. In the new story, we actually open on a full-page splash, that felt really weird, to have all that space to fill.
In the case of Marvel Zombies, that was all based on a 3 or 4-panel grid and sometimes it was a little difficult to give everything enough space. There was a lot of characters to fit in though.
ML: I think I told you, back when I read the first issue of Criminal, that I liked the layout you were using, because it reminded me of old EC crime comics. Did that play any role, at all, in your decision? Or was it just a happy accident?
SP: Happy accident, I think. The only EC crime comics I’d seen were some Bernie Krigstein ones in that book that came out about him. That Master Race story of his is a classic though, especially the first panel which was used on the cover of that Fantagraphics book. Subconscious influence I’d say…
Criminal #6, the first issue of the “Lawless” story arc, is also available for free at MySpace.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I finally got around to reading Coward yesterday. I found it quite compelling and beautifully illustrated.
So, yay Criminal, is the thing.
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