Awesome 'Possum Volume 4, the natural science comics anthology, edited by Angela Boyle, contains "Saliva & Skin," a story about Komodo dragons written by Steve Bissette and drawn by me. Here are my answers to some questions from Angela:
How did you pick your topic for
Awesome ‘Possum?
I
have been fascinated by Komodo dragons ever since I was a child. As a
dinosaur-loving kid, I was thrilled that there were still a few giant
reptiles inhabiting the earth. At age 10, I named one of my pet
anoles “Komodo.” More recently, I learned from a Youtube video by
the “Hybrid Librarian” (Kevin Garattoni) that until the 1920s,
Americans had regarded Komodo dragons as cryptids, like the Loch Ness
Monster or Bigfoot. In 1926, American naturalist W. Douglas Burden
led an expedition to Komodo Island to verify the existence of the
“dragon lizards.” In 1933, filmmaker Merian C. Cooper directed a
blockbuster horror movie, largely based on Burden’s voyage. The
movie, King Kong,
is still popular 85 years later. Knowing that my collaborator for
this project, Steve Bissette, is a wizard of dinosaur comics and
expert on monster movies, I suspected that Komodo dragons would be a
topic well-suited to his writing style. After I chose our reptilian
subject matter, Bissette wrote a script (resembling a film script)
and I created the comics pages based on said script.
What is your favorite animal or
plant?
In
recent years, I have been especially fascinated by spadefoot toads,
denizens of the arid southwestern U.S. These amphibians stay quietly
buried underground for most of their lives (up to three years at a
stretch in the case of Couch’s spadefoot), until summer rain storms
summon them to the surface. They engage in a frenzy of eating and
mating, using the ephemeral pools, then return to their burrows for a
long wait until the next “monsoon.” When I visited my friend
Lesley, who was a park ranger at Colorado National Monument, we
happened to strike it lucky and meet live spadefoot toads in the
desert streams. Behind the huge cat-like eyes of the spadefoots,
there seems to be an alien mind, one that does not object to hanging
out alone in a hole in the ground for 1,000 or more consecutive days
and nights.
Why do you think talking about
nature is important?
We
humans ought to preserve the earth’s remarkable diversity of life,
what Charles Darwin described as “endless forms most beautiful and
most wonderful.” Considering that we’re in the midst of the sixth
mass extinction, it is fair to say that we’ve been doing a poor job
at this task so far. People will care more about protecting creatures
that they know and like. Telling the stories of wild creatures is a
way of getting people to know and like them.
What are your favorite drawing
tools?
I remain attached to drawing comics in
the traditional way—first I sketch the images in pencil on bristol
board, then I make the final drawing with india ink on top of the
pencils. Then I scan the pages, make some edits and do the lettering
digitally. I’m especially fond of liner brushes, which I use
primarily for inking the contour lines around foreground figures and
objects. My main liner brushes for the Komodo story were a Grumbacher
#4 and a Princeton #4, which are very different in size. (The numbers
are not at all consistent across the different brands.)
The topmost picture is my self-portrait with Komodo dragons, inspired by Frank
Frazetta’s painting “Conan the Barbarian.”
To get in the mindset of a naturalist-explorer, I read Burden's first-hand account.
I warmed up for drawing “Saliva
& Skin” by visiting the ABQ Biopark Zoo and sketching (and photographing) live
Komodo dragons.
Back at the studio, I posed for
selfies and used them as reference material for many of the panels
featuring human figures. In this one, I’m reenacting the
experience of Maen, the Indonesian park ranger who survived a Komodo
dragon attack. Below, the drawn scene as it appears in AP4.
My studio while I was working on
“Saliva & Skin.” The floor is scattered with reference photos
I printed from all over the web, as well as drawing tools and scraps
of carbon paper.
If all this intrigues you, you ain't seen nothing yet! Awesome 'Possum Volume 4 is 229 pages long, and contains nonfiction comics about science and nature by over 30 creators. The tales are both educational and entertaining, and feature a broad range of plants and animals, including sphinx moths, lemurs, and Rafflesia. The tome is all-ages friendly and especially good for ages 9-12. The great American author of nonfiction graphic novels about science Jim Ottaviani said,
"You'll witness love of the natural world with every story, and your own love for it will grow with every page. You'll learn stuff, too, and learning stuff is awesome."
But to bring this book to life, we still need some backers on Kickstarter! Do you know anyone who likes nature or science or comics or learning stuff? This book will make them smile.
Book cover ©Kessinger Legacy Reprints. All other pictures ©R.W.S.
