Ross Hutchinson
Comic Watch’s own Ross Hutchinson recently got a chance to speak with the talented Patric Reynolds at Comic Con Africa 2019, where they discuss everything from Reynolds’ approach to the craft to what we can be looking forward to from him in the future. Check out the full interview below!
Comic Watch: Welcome to Africa Patric, is this your first time?
Patric Reynolds: It is. It’s my first time out of the States actually too
CW: Wow what’s it been like?
PR: It’s like going to the moon, its a very long flight and I didn’t really sleep on the plane because I was still on Portland time, I looked out the window we were over the ocean, I looked out the window five hours later we were over the ocean, its like a time warp.
CW: It’s a long flight, What have the fans here in South Africa been like?
PR: South African hospitality is definitely a thing here, people are very polite and very respectful asking before touching the stuff (on his table), are very cordial and you feel very welcome which is a very cool thing.
CW: Just for some background where are you actually from originally in the U.S originally and how long have you been drawing professionally?
PR: I’m originally from the state of Utah and I moved to Portland Oregan after attending art school in Georgia. I am actually a recovering High School teacher…
CW: I was going to ask you about that. You left a full career as a teacher to pursue art. You are obviously passionate about art but what gave you that final push to do it and what did your family think about that?
PR: My family were the ones that pushed me to do it. When I got my first degree in illustration in painting and drawing and that kind of thing, my parents were like so what are you going to do with that and I was like well I don’t actually know. They suggested I teach. I really needed health benefits as I have some recurring medical issues and like good parents, they were concerned for me so suggested teaching. Try teaching they said, you can do your art on the side, you’ll get summers off, you can relax…None of that was true. After teaching three years I was miserable. The highlight of my week was going home on the weekend. I wasn’t myself and my parents were aware of this and said try plan A. Try being an artist, we will help you where we can, that’s who you are you, you need to pursue that because right now you are miserable.
Art by Patric Reynolds
I just started drawing a comic, I didn’t know how to do it. It was a comic about my biological father actually, him and I had a lot of things to work out. After school every day I would just draw a page.No matter how tired I was or how much else I had to do, I always went home and drew a page for that comic and I had about 60 or so pages.
I had actually applied to the Savanah college of art and design when I was in high school but I couldn’t go, it was too expensive as I had other brothers and sisters going to school. They somehow found me when I was teaching in Las Vegas, sent me a postcard saying they were recruiting for graduate school would I be interested in going to see what they were all about. I called my parents and laughed and a told them hahaha they want me to draw comics. My mom was like: You need to go! This is who you are. You have a job, you have nothing to lose go see what it’s about. So I did. I took them this comic about my father and they looked at it and said I could probably go there and they ended up giving me a full fellowship and said we would like to have you here.
I walked away from my house. I let it foreclose, I quit my job, sold my car and put all my stuff in a trailer and drove 3000 miles to art school. In art school, I started sending my work to other artists and writers and one of the artists was Duncan Fegredo who was doing Hellboy at the time [at this point Patric affects an English accent and does his Duncan Fegredo impression while fondly describing how much he likes him]. He sent my work to Scott Alley who was Editor in Chief of Dark Horse at the time. Scott Alley called me the next day and said: Do you want a job? I was like you’re damn right I want a job. My mom was like don’t you swear at him, don’t you swear! Be nice! I got an eight-page story and I have been working ever since. that was 2009 so to answer your question from earlier I’ve been doing this professionally for 10 years.
Joe Golem: Occult Detective, Volume 2 – The Outer Dark hardcover art by Dave Palumbo
CW: Of the projects you’ve actually worked on, what’s been your favorite?
PR: Oh Boy. its really a cop-out to say “They’ve all been my favorites” but every project I have gotten to do has been a gift. Some of them are a bit more “favorite” than others. I just finished Joe Golem: Occult Detective and that was the one I think I got to have more of a hand in the world-building. No one had ever seen the Drowning City which is where it all takes place before. So I had to actually build that from scratch whereas when I was doing Aliens even though I had wanted to draw Aliens after seeing the movie when I was 12 and got to do that 20 years later. That world was already built from Hadleys Hope to the way the aliens looked to the guns but with Joe Golem I had to build New York as if it were 1920 but also sunken thirty feet below the sea level but with a city built on top of it but in the 1960s. So I had about four different angles to work with when I was designing this world. So from that respect, I would say Joe Golem. The one I’m working on now The Mask is unlike anything I have ever done before.
Joe Golem: Occult Detective #2 Interior Art by Patric Reynolds & Dave Stewart
CW: I was just about to ask about that. What can you tell us about this new Mask series called “THE MASK: PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE MASK” you’re working on which is coming up. How did it come about?
PR: I was actually in between jobs. I had finished Joe Golem two years ago and I was ready to do a creator-owned series at Darkhorse. The writer and I had the pitch ready, we had the character designs ready. We were really excited about it but it took a very long time to be approved and by the time it did get approved the writer and myself really didn’t have the same vision for the project so we ended up abandoning it for right now. So, my editor who is also a very good friend of mine, Daniel Chabon was like we have to get you on something and I was like let me know if you get something. I just sorta did commissions and spot work for a year actually. Then one day [Daniel] said they were going to do a new Mask series would I be interested? I was like yeah, but are you sure I am a good fit for it? If you think about the original series which was drawn by Doug Mahnke, it’s very beautiful line work, very intricate, focusing on how fluid the lines are. It’s realistic, but it’s very different from the work I do which is more gritty and focused on light and shadow. So there is a pretty big gulf between him and what I do and I asked my editor and he said they wanted something gritty and dark and then I was like OK, you have probably found the right person then. He came back to me a few weeks later and told me the writer was Christopher Cantwell who was the co-creator of Halt and Catch Fire.
Cover art by Patric Reynolds
CW: What’s the basic storyline of this new Mask comic?
PR: It’s going to be the Mask runs for president but it’s not going to be Big Head is a metaphor for Trump. It’s more like how is a person like that able to become that powerful and like why? If I can be honest with you the election in 2016, I wondered how that could happen, how could that person elevate to that position and this story is about that, like how easy it is to get from that one place to another.
CW: How would you describe the book in terms of the genre?
PR: When you open up a Mask comic you expect a certain type of humor, an outlandish over the top violence and mayhem and this is no different in that regard.
CW: Would you say the series new reader-friendly or would you say people should have read the previous series to get some sort of reference?
PR: I think the really unique thing about this series is the writer Christopher Cantwell has put in a lot of flashbacks and dream sequences to that get the reader up to speed because there’s 27 years worth of comics to go through. This series takes place 27 years after the last time we saw two of the main characters. Chris has put in a lot of explanation of things in those sequences which has helped me out as a creator and should make it easy for new fans to jump on, as well as life long fans.
CW: How has your drawing process differed on the Mask project?
PR: There’s a lot of cartoony violence and the stuff I normally do is really based on a lot of photo reference so I have to make a lot more stuff up. To give you an example there’s a scene in one of the issues where someone gets flushed down a toilet head first…I can’t really pose for that although I tried (haha), our family dog was looking at me, like at me the whole time going like what are you doing? So I have to make stuff up but I think it makes it a little more lively and energetic because I am not really married to a posed shot. That’s been the challenge but it has also loosened me up
CW: What’s been the hardest part of the project been from an artistic perspective as well as a collaborative perspective?
PR: From an artistic perspective, it’s trying to marry that more realistic approach with the really cartoony violence. I can’t pose for that. I can’t google “person exploding” so I have to look for other things to fill in the gaps. That means I have to rely more on my imagination and less on photos. So for example, if there’s a scene where a person explodes I need a starting point so I think of movies where I remember a person exploding so there’s a movie called Scanners where a guys head explodes so I would take a screenshot of that and use it as a starting point for how I would draw it and then make up the rest of it.
Patric Working on layouts for one of the issues of the new MASK series at his table Comic-Con Africa 2019
In terms of Chris, he is very supportive and positive and if I am being honest I am busy doing layouts for the fourth issue and whenever I send them to Chris and my editor they don’t give me any notes back. They’re like “Just do the thing” just do what you’re gonna do. This is really the first project where this has happened and it’s great, but at the same time it’s like I am going are you sure I can start and they like yeah. It’s good to know that they have trusted me with this without having to offer too much guidance.
CW: When does the book come out?
PR: First issue comes out October 16, 2019, it’s a four-issue series and will be monthly.
CW: We look forward to its release. Just getting away from your new book for a bit and seeing as we here at a convention. What’s your favorite convention to attend back in the U.S?
PR: Oh that’s an easy one for me Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. They have a separate floor for the artists so they don’t get lost among the vendors. I have found it easy to build relationships at that con. My first time there was 2011 and I have fans that come back to see me year after year there. You build relationships and that’s kind of why I do this. Not to sound too corny but to reach people. They become part of your journey and your progression as an artist.
Art by Patric Reynolds
CW: Any interest in working for the big two?
PR:{laughs} Sure! Just call me, I am ready! The writer I’m working with on the Mask is writing several things for Marvel including Dr.Doom, but yes I would love to do work for Marvel.
Art by Patric Reynolds
CW: Is there any particular character you would like to get your hands on and draw as an artist?
PR: The Punisher or any of the Noir series characters like Spider-Man Noir or Punisher Noir.
CW: We think your style would be great for that!
PR: Yeah. Yeah sometimes people ask me what my favorite thing to draw is and I just say it doesn’t matter what I draw, it matters what I can do with it. It matters how I can approach something. There’s something about Ray Charles that’s interesting but there’s also something about Godzilla that’s interesting. There is an energy to everything and that’s what I try to unlock when I draw something, so when I’m talking about comics I want to draw like Punisher or Spider-Man why not also Dr. Doom or (not that I would ever get to do it) Harley Quinn. I can find something there.
Process shot. Hellboy and the B.P.R.D 1954 page 15. Art by Patric Reynolds, Colors by Dave Stewart
CW: Ok Patric here are some quick-fire questions to finish up the interview…
CW: Favorite Book?
PR: My Favorite Book is Tinkers by Paul Harding. It one won the Pulitzer Prize.
CW: Favorite artist (traditional or comic)?
PR: I Have several. In comics, it’s Jason Shawn Alexander, Michael Lark, John Paul Leon, Dave Mckean, Bill Sienkiewicz
Traditional would be: Jackson Pollock, Van Gogh, and Caravaggio.
CW: Best meal you have ever had?
PR: Meat Loaf at Ms. Deltas in Portland Oregon. It changed my mind and I think I saw God when I ate it.
CW: First comic book you remember reading?
PR: Probably the Dark Horse Presents version of Aliens in 1994. It was printed on black and white newsprint and the cover was done by Bernie Wrightson.
CW: Favorite Movie?
PR: The Iron Giant cause I always cry and I don’t care cause it’s the perfect movie.
And there you have it! You can follow Patric Reynold’s on Twitter @patric_reynolds, check out his Instagram @patricjreynolds
Also, be sure to check out his website murderingink.com where you can see more of his art, arrange a commission and more.
Be sure to keep a lookout for our early none spoiler review of issue one of THE MASK: PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE MASK right here on comic-watch.com!