One question that I’ve got a lot at conventions when I’ve gone to them or other comics gatherings is ‘why haven’t you worked for Vertigo yet?’.

Well, it’s not for lack of trying. Certainly, I’ve always felt that on the professional side of my schizoid creative personality, particularly in my fist 5 years in the biz, that out of the commercial market in the 90's Vertigo was the publisher I’m most stylistically in line with and puts out the closest to the sort of stories I wanted to do when I started out.

I’ve come close twice, but timing and circumstances have kept me out. I’m scanning the assorted bits of test art I did between 91 & 95 for them, which gives me an excuse to tell these stories now.

To start, when I first decided to make a try for professional work, around mid 1992, I sent my stuff to a whole lot of editors at DC, 15 or so I recall, including Karen Berger, Lou Stathis and Stuart Moore who were the editors on my favourite books. I also sent ONE sample pack to Marvel. I called up a few weeks latter and talked to Karen. I got a very positive response from her about my work and was asked to do some samples. One thing really cool about this at the time was, if they ask you to do samples [vs. volunteering], they pay for them, or so I was told. Which made these samples my first paid up front comics work! Happy days indeed. I was sent was samples of scripts from Sandman and Shade the Changing Man, both from issues that were in production at the time.

I did 5 pages, around the same time I was working on Armageddon Blues [Note the use of the facade from the Rivoli in the Shade page here and in Armageddon Blues. A Queen St bar that I was spending a lot of time at then], and sent them off. Shortly after I talked to Karen on the phone about the work.

Turned out she was not 100% happy with them. She told me that they had asked me to do the wrong pages, felt they were thin on story telling, and wanted me to do some more. Something about getting a wider range of scenes. I was ok with that 'cus that meant a few more paid bits of work.

But also she seem to be lukewarm about the art, and this disturbed me because I thought they were some of my best pages at the time. In particular the hatching I had done, especially in the sandman pages, was turning her off. I really like hatching as a technique so I didn’t take this so well and moped for a few days about it. Also there was a comparison to Vince Lockes' inking. I knew Vince a bit, from Caliber, where my first book Nature of the Beast had been published, and I was quite familiar with his work. I liked his stuff at the time - more so now - but it was implied that I should look at his work for examples of how to do what she thought I was trying to, which really irked me, as it was not at all. I didn’t like that aspect of his technique at the time. Loose & organic lines rater than sharp ones [ironically now....] Grumble….

But I sucked it up and was about to take a second whirl at it when I got a call from Marvel, and was hired to fill in for an issue of Night Breed, right off the bat, no tests.

My one pack of samples sent to Marvel, mailed to Bobby Chase, made there way to Marc McLaurin, and he needed a pinch hitter tout suite. And the rest of that story is history.

Hindsight being 20/20, Should have done the DC tests pages too...

About a year latter, just as I was deciding to leave Saint Sinner I got a call one morning and was asked if I’d like to take up Animal Man! I loved that book!

Steve Pugh was just leaving I think, and they were seriously asking me if I wanted to take over the book. For the first 15 min of the conversation I remember being totally into it, talking with the editor about timetables, trying to work out when I could start. I didn’t want to leave marvel in the lurch so this was going to take some finagling to wrap up things and get started. But as I thought about it, the reality of what it would involve sank in. An big ensemble cast book, lots of scenes with multiple characters interacting, lots of interesting and challenging stuff to draw, lots of different animals, all monthly.

And I got to thinking about how burnt out Saint Sinner made me feel, and another 15min later I ended up talking my self out of it by the end of the phone call. Very bummed after that for a while. :(

It was probably for the best, I dont know if the way i was feeling, i'd have been ablt to do the job justcie or for long. But I didn’t think so at the time, i was not happy at all. Thing is, if you’re not sure your ready, then your not. Got to feel it in your gut.

My next swing at Vertigo, before I quite doing comics for a few years around 95’, would have been a dream come true.

The last monthly title I kept buying, right up until a few moths ago when I resolved to stop buying periodical comics for a while, was Hellblazer. And in around when Rake at the Gates of Hell was wrapping up I got a call from Lou Stathis, with whom I had started to foster a positive professional relationship with, and had grown to like quite a lot as well - a class act. He asked me if I’d be interested in drawing the book. “are you kidding?!” I stammered. He was very strait up about where I stood, telling me that their first choice had been Sean Phillips but he was apparently committed to Kid Eternity and couldn’t do it. Lucky day for me!



For almost exactly two weeks I walked about in a glow and renewed optimism about working in comics, finally getting the chance to work on something I was really really into and new had the stories that I felt confident I could do justice – not just a good book, My favorite! I had none of the doubts I had about Animal Man, this was a nice small cast of players, with simple mood oriented settings the name of the game. I did a few warm up drawings including the one posted here, and awaited the first script in bliss. And waited and waited....

Well if you're a Constantine aficionado you probably can guess what happened. When no script showed up as promised, I called to see what the hang up was, and was told apologetically that Kid Eternity was cancelled, Sean had become available. :(

C’est la vie.

In terms of personal interest I’ve broadened out quite a bit from the genre of adventure/horror books that Vertigo publishes, but they still can call to me. If I were to do a title of that sort I’d consider Vertigo’s titles my first choice, given the chance. And I’d jump to do a Constantine story. Something I tell Will Dennis every time I get the opportunity. As of late I’ve been trying to interest Vertigo in The rise and fall of it all, I thought it would fit in well with the Vertigo Visions line. But so far I’m still waiting to hear from Karen.

Update: been asked why I don’t pitch my own Constantine story idea. I’ve thought about it, had one that I started doing a few pages for once, but it didn’t gel well as I went on with it so I put it aside. Still think about it, but so far, I’ve not thought of something that really does the character justice. We’ll see...