5 Questions with a Hypersmash Artist: Jeremiah Goldson

This is the third and final installment in a series of snapshot interviews with the artists of Hypersmash Studios. (You can catch up on the first two here and here.) Taking the time to answer our questions is the artist on Rogue Agent Zed, Jeremiah Goldson. We hope you enjoy his responses.

1) Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where do you live?
What do you do for a living? And what is your artistic background?

I was born in Columbia, South Carolina. Currently I reside in Missoula,
Montana, with my wife Robin, after spending a year or so in Calgary,
Alberta, drinking copious amounts in a vain attempt to stay warm. Am
currently working as tech support at a webhosting/design company called
Modwest.

I spent most of my school years drawing, in lieu of schoolwork, social
interaction, girlfriends, etc. Started drawing around the time I
discovered I could pick up pencils. My original influences were the Star
Wars films, as well as Transformers and G.I. Joe; pretty much anything
with guns or robots, as they were my primary area of study while growing
up. In the 7th grade, I discovered Todd McFarlane (who is from Calgary,
hence all of the hockey toys, I suppose) and Spider-Man, and haven't
looked back.

I'm about 95% self taught, mostly due to my near-complete inability to
listen to anyone, ever.

2) Who are your artistic influences? Could you name a couple of your
favorite comic books and comic characters?

Alongside the aforementioned Mr. McFarlane, I had also discovered Marc
Silvestri and Uncanny X-Men, followed by Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld (oh what,
like YOU didn't like his art before you knew better?), all of whom I
copied endlessly, so all of my bad (artistic) habits, I blame on them.

My illustration influences fall mostly outside the realm of comics these
days. Visually, Bladerunner, David Fincher films and anime by Production
I.G. fill me with a desire to create. As does the music of Underworld and
Chemlab, Burial and a few others, and books by William Gibson, Bruce
Sterling, and Neil Stephenson, which have always filled my head with
imagery and are big influences. Anything with edge, that conjures images
of rain and skyscrapers.

As I've not picked up many comic books recently, I am not so familiar with
comicdom's current landscape, though I am really enjoying Jae Lee's work
on The Dark Tower. Warren Ellis's Transmet/Planetary/Authority work is
pretty brilliant, too. I'm also a fan of Bryan Hitch and Frank Quitely
and their cinematic "widescreen" panels, and Katsuhiro Otomo's
storytelling makes the hair on my arms stand on end.

3) What were your first impressions when you saw the art of the other
Hypersmash artists?

I dig both these guy's work. Scott's style is expressive, dynamic, and
cool. He brings a lot of energy to the page, which I think will be a
great compliment to a title like Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy. Jason
has a classic style; it reminds me a lot of guys like George Perez. His
character sketches are badass, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he
brings to Battle Team Omega.

4) How would you describe the title you are working on? What is the
most appealing part of working on the title? And are you working on any other projects?

I would describe the title I'm working on as a fast-forward freefall, dark
and slick, towers of luminous black mirrored glass disappearing into low
clouds. Which is also the project's most appealing part, to me. Roel's
script is grimy, darkly funny and cool, a dingy warren of cyberpunk
dystopia. I'm chomping at the bit to get started on it.

5) Is there anything you would like to say to the readers of the blog?

It's entirely possible that I've already said too much, so I'll just say,
listen to Burial if you don't already, and stick around. I forsee great
things happening with Hypersmash, and it's going to be fun!

5 Questions with a Hypersmash Artist: Jason Hoagland

This is the second in a series of snapshot interviews with the artists of Hypersmash Studios. (If you missed the first one with Scott Arnold, you can check it out here.) Taking the time to answer our questions is the artist on Battle Team Omega, Jason Hoagland. We hope you enjoy his responses.

1) Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where do you live? What do you do for a living? And what is your artistic background?

Jason Hoagland - My full name is Jason Dean Hoagland. I was born on October 31, 1976 in Norwich, Connecticut, where I also spent my first 17 years, and I'm the oldest of my parents' three children. I currently live in Somerville, Ma, right across from Tufts University, and I work for a small company called Avian Securities where I do what I like to call "investment research", even though I really just eat fake sushi and surf the net all day. As for my artistic background, my high school had several excellent art teachers, and I attended the Massachusetts College of Art, majoring in illustration.

2) Who are your artistic influences? Could you name a couple of your favorite comic books and comic characters?
Jason Hoagland - I've had lots of favorite comics artists over the years and I love to talk about them all, but I'll try to keep this short.

I'm proud to say that my very first comic was Master of Kung-Fu #117, which was extremely well drawn (and inked) by Gene Day. I think very highly of issues #114 through #118.

Michael Golden's stuff has always been on top of my desk, especially the first issue of the Micronauts, Doc Strange #55, his early issues of The 'Nam, and several of his stories that appeared in Batman Family.

I loved the Fantastic Four as a kid and so most of the artists associated with that comic were a big deal to me, particularly Jack Kirby and Keith Pollard. I used to get pissed if Joe Sinnott wasn't the inker on my FFs.

John Romita Jr's issues of Daredevil were a big influence on me when they came out in the late eighties. I look at his dad's Spider-Man stuff all the time. Steranko's pop-art/psychedelic imagery resonates with me. Issues 22 and 25 of the original Nova series with art by Carmine Infantino, and only those two. Batman and the Outsiders #26- art by Alan Davis.

In recent years some of my favorite artists have been Chris Sprouse on Tom Strong, Frank Quitely on X-men, Takishi Miyazawa on Mary Jane (the comic), Adrian Alphona on Runaways, Alberto Dose's issues of The Flash, Kevin Maguire's Justice League stuff. Seth Fisher's Flash, Green Lantern, and Doom Patrol stories are cool and wierd. I recently discovered that I had really underappreciated how awesome Curt Swan was. Kurt Schaffenberger too. I'd love to get a hold of CC Beck's Captain Marvel stories from the forties. The collision of National Geographic with the newspaper cartoon in TinTin always makes me feel like I'm reading something worthwhile. I'm thumbing through Jesse Hamm's "Good as Lily" right now. My misremembered idea of what Saturday Morning Cartoons of the early eighties were like kinda inspires me. I also feel really intellectually stimulated after watching spaghetti westerns. Musically, Stevie Wonder, Arthur Lee, and The Kinks.

3) What were your first impressions when you saw the art of the other Hypersmash artists?

Jason Hoagland - Jeremiah looks like he will add a really cool atmosphere and a lot of cinematic verve to Rogue Agent Zed. Scott's style is perfect for Lightning Girl loves Rocket Boy in that his art is so in tune with the modern youth culture that those characters live in. And yeah, that Doctor Straightjacket would perform brain surgery on himself is an awesome idea.

4) How would you describe the title you are working on? What is the most appealing part of working on the title? And are you working on any other projects?
Jason Hoagland - I would describe Battleteam Omega as being about an elite team of superheroes who collectively adopt a teenage girl, not realizing that stewarding a teenager to maturity is a lot more demanding than fighting robots or aliens. What makes the comic interesting to me is that there is this huge divide between our teenage protagonist, who is trying to assert her own individuality and make her own mistakes, and our heroes, who desperately want to reign her in and provide her with some direction but who have widely divergent ideas about how to do that. Hijinks ensue. So, I think there's this interesting dynamic where the reader will be able to subjectively relate with both sides of the teen/adult rift in a way that he or she couldn't when they themselves were teenagers. And all of this drama is set against the popart backdrop of alien invasions, robot uprisings, and zombie outbreaks. I'm not currently working on any other projects except for this, as I want to make this a success.

5) Is there anything you would like to say to the readers of the blog?
Jason Hoagland - Red Sox rule, Yankees Drool? Also: Let There Be Lasers!! Plus, Don't Eat Yellow Snow. P.S. I Love You.

5 Questions with a Hypersmash Artist: Scott Arnold

I started this blog in order to promote the comic book projects that are scheduled to be published in 2008. I wanted to showcase the talented people involved, and maybe build some positive buzz. That was the idea.

One of the amusing, unintended consequences of the blog was that each of the artists I work with suddenly realized that there were other people out there drawing my scripts. This blog was their first opportunity to learn about one another and to be exposed to each other's work.

When I asked them for suggestions on how to improve the blog, Scott said:

"One other thing that could make for interesting reading would be a brief
bio on each of the artists, or a "5 Questions" - you send us each 5
questions and get the answers up from each of us. Just a thought... I know
I'm always curious about background on artists (years drawing etc, other
projects etc)..."

I thought that sounded like a swell idea. So I pieced together 5 pretty standard questions for our art crew, and gave them the option of writing as much or as little as they chose.

Providing us with our first set of answers is the artist for Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy, Scott Arnold. Strap yourselves in, and here we go:

1) Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where do you live? What do you do for a living? And what is your artistic background?
Scott Arnold - artist since I was old enough to stand (literally). I live in the frozen tundra that is Toronto (it's not really frozen - and I don't own a dog sled... honest!). I'm a graphic designer for a living, but have done everything from managing a record store to technical writing to an interesting four years as a staff ad designer and illustrator for a small community newspaper. Artistically I'm a mutt. I've been reading comics since I was 9 (with fervor, anyways) and have been influenced by that. I have a BFA from the University of Toronto and a diploma (specializing in photography and illustration) from Sheridan College. I've been doing professional work in any form I could since high school - and continue to be inspired by the art I consume - from gallery shows, to newspaper work to (obviously) comics of all sorts - with an emphasis lately on indie stuff.

2) Who are your artistic influences? Could you name a couple of your favorite comic books and comic characters?

Scott Arnold - I'm influenced by everything from newspaper strips I read as a kid to the music I listen to. Influences range from everywhere - early New York graffitti to modern comics... my cat's named after Walt Kelly's Pogo so that's something of a touchstone, I guess... erm... Fav books? My list probably looks like a lot of peoples, so I'll mention a few oddities that are well worth people checking out... most recently has been Jeff Lemire's Essex County series. He's 2 volumes into a trilogy of graphic novels, and his work is mind-blowingly good. I also recently read (and really dug) Sentences - the auto-biography of hard core hip hop MC MF GRIMM. He wrote it, Ronald Wimberly drew it - and it's a great story. Takes a lot to make me genuinely sympathize with a gangster... GRIMM did it. I'm also a sucker for some of the mainstream stuff and have been really enjoying Runaways lately (those little portable trades are so hard to pass over).

3) What were your first impressions when you saw the art of the other Hypersmash artists?

Scott Arnold - Surprise. I had no idea there WERE other Hypersmash artists... LOL! Seriously, though, I thought it was nice to see diverse styles, and people doing interesting things WITH their styles. I'll be curious to see how the shared world we're playing in unfolds (and what happens when one of us first has to draw the characters created by the others).

[Roel says: the Hypersmash titles don't actually exist in a shared universe, but you can't blame Scott for not knowing that because I certainly didn't make it clear.]

4) How would you describe the title you are working on? What is the most appealing part of working on the title? And are you working on any other projects?
Scott Arnold - Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy pretty much describes itself... A John Hughes film with super powers. And robots. Madbots, in fact. As for other projects... I do a weekly political cartoon, regular illustration for a horse-racing magazine and freelance where I can find it (having recently done some design and art for a Spanish drum group from Chicago). I draw constantly, and spent some time this summer working on the start of what may turn into a long form auto-biographical series of vignettes.

5) Is there anything you would like to say to the readers of the blog?

Scott Arnold - Enjoy the work - there's a great mix of stuff here, and if you (the readers) want to know anything - post questions. This is a promotion for a series of books we're all throwing ourselves into 100% - so if you want to know more... just ask!

--And there you have it! I want to thank Scott for coming up with the 5 Questions idea, and also for taking the time to share his answers with us. I have to confess, I actually learned a lot about him myself. For example, it turns out he doesn't own a dogsled. Huh. My bad.

I told Jason and Jeremiah that I'd welcome responses from them as well. If they take the time to write some thoughts down, you can be sure that I'll pass them along to everyone courtesy of this blog. Keep your fingers crossed!