STGCC 2015: JIM CHEUNG
INTERVIEW
by Jedd Jong
British
comic book artist Jim Cheung is in Singapore for the first time as a special
guest of the Singapore Toy, Games and Comics Convention. Cheung has drawn for
Marvel and CrossGen and has risen as one of Marvel’s superstar artists, having
been named a “young gun”, a potential superstar, by Editor-in-chief Joe Quesada in 2005.
Cheung is
probably best known for pencilling Young Avengers.
Alongside writer Allan Heinberg, Cheung created characters such as Iron Lad,
Hulkling, Wiccan, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) and Speed.
At CrossGen,
Cheung pencilled Scion and has gone
on to draw such titles as New Avengers:
Illuminati, Avengers: The Children’s
Crusade and X-Force for Marvel. He
has also done cover art for Avengers vs.
X-Men and World War Hulk: Warbound.
Speaking to
other journalists and I, Cheung looks back on his career, shares his
inspirations and influences, weighs in on the aesthetics of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe and talks about his persistence in getting a page right.
It has been ten years since you were
named one of Marvel’s “young guns”.
Oh, don’t
remind me! [Laughs]
What was that like and looking back
over your career, what has the journey been like so far?
It’s been a
hell of a journey, I would see. It was definitely a surprise to be named a “young
gun” back in 2004…2005, because I’d already been in the business a good ten
years, so to be named a “young gun” was definitely unusual. It was definitely
an honour, definitely a privilege to be amongst so many artists and such
enormous talent. I guess it did in some ways further my career a lot. Thanks to
that book, Young Avengers, it really helped my career a long way, because that
was my big return to Marvel because before that, I went to work for CrossGen
for a few years. It was an unusual point to jump in, the fact that it became a
hit was definitely a big bonus.
What are the main inspirations for
your current art style?
Current art
style? It’s really like a bastardized style of a lot of my favourite artists. I
kind of look at artists that I like and critically break it down, take different
elements of what I like and try to incorporate it into my work and then it just
becomes natural, that’s just the way it’s always been. I’m more an assimilator
in a way, because if you look at my early work, you can see it’s very crude but
then it gets more and more refined, because I’m looking at other people’s work
and getting influenced by it. That’s why when I went to CrossGen, I was able to
be in a studio with a whole bunch of artists for the very first time, and I was
able to “steal” from them quite comprehensively.
Who were some of these artists who
inspired you?
At CrossGen,
there was a whole bunch of people. I worked very simply back in the day. When I
was in London, I never worked with a lightbox before, then when I went to
CrossGen, I saw people working with lightboxes so I got very curious. I
developed a style where I started doing layouts very roughly and placed them
underneath the finished board, whereas before I used to draw everything
straight and I didn’t think about moving it over, once I started doing that,
pieces started becoming starting much tighter. And looking at other artists’
work, like Greg Land who was also in the studio, seeing how much photo
reference he was using, how he was using it, how Steve Epting was using the
blacks in his pages, things like that were adding to my work.
What went into creating the
characters who formed the Young Avengers, alongside Allan Heinberg?
Basically, I
was just given the descriptions from Allan and from Tom Brevoort, the editor,
and I just went away and did some rough designs. I kept doing multiple designs
until I was comfortable with something to hand in to show them. A lot of them
were very crude to begin with because they just basically said “do younger
versions of the Hulk, of the Avengers
characters.” So I was trying to give it a more modern twist while retaining a
lot of those classic elements in making those characters, so it was a lot of
trial and error, a lot of playing around, a lot of moving things around.
Is there a project you’ve worked on
that you’d like to tackle?
I haven’t done
any DC stuff in a long time and I’m very curious about that. I’d love to do
some Batman stuff, some Justice League, although I really should be shying away
from doing team books because it takes me forever to do them. For some reason,
they keep hiring me to do team books, like Axis and certain characters.
As an artist, what are your thoughts
on the visual style of the films that form the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
I love the
fact that they kind of look like superheroes, although in some ways, I’m less
keen on some of the complicated outfits because I like things clean, simple,
visually arresting. With the movies, sometimes they can get overly complicated
with their designs, I think it takes away…it kind of gets generic after a
while. If there are rivets and buttons everywhere, then there isn’t that much
colour, it can look very samey-samey. That’s some of the issues I’ve had with
the movies, some of the characters could be interchangeable and it wouldn’t
even matter. I understand that, because they have to make it sophisticated for
the movie audience, but at the same time, it can be overdone. The good thing
with the Marvel movies is that at least they still somewhat resemble the comic
book versions, they’re still very distinctive.
How do you overcome artist’s block?
Partly why I’m
so slow is because I’m constantly struggling to get things right, that’s why
when people ask me to video myself and put it up on YouTube, my process and how
I draw, I’d be like “70% of the time will be erasing what I’ve just drawn so it
will be a very, very boring video.” I get artist’s block, unfortunately, I’m
too stupid to walk away, I just keep hammering at it. Sometimes I will switch
to other pages and they’ll come easier.
What do you struggle in getting
right, is it the composition?
The
composition, the way I draw a face, it can never come out right sometimes.
Sometimes I think it’s important to have a different perspective on things, which
is why with the lightbox it lets you switch things over, so you turn the page
over, everything’s completely different, so sometimes that helps as well.
If you had a chance to work on a
movie or television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, would you be
willing to do it?
I don’t
think I’m really suited to it. I’d certainly be interested; it’s a whole
different field.
Which series would you be interested
in?
I want to do
a Young Avengers series, yes
[laughs].
Is there a character in particular
that you enjoy drawing the most?
I really
enjoy drawing Thor, I kind of like the Thor eras that I grew up with. I don’t
think I’m the best at drawing Spider-Man [but] I do enjoy drawing Spider-Man. I’ve
become very comfortable drawing Captain America, even though his costume just
becomes more and more complicated. Favourite character…default characters are
usually those guys. I’m so used to drawing Marvel characters, that’s the
problem, when I’m finally asked to draw DC characters, I’m like “how do you
draw Batman again?” [Laughs]
How much leeway to you get to
re-interpret a character? When you’re assigned to a book, do you get a chance
to redesign the characters’ costumes?
Sometimes.
If I’m asked to redesign a costume, then I will try to stay faithful to…I grew
up in the 80s so I have a certain image of those characters, so if I’m asked to
redesign those characters, I often refer to those as a starting point in a way.
Some of the costumes have deviated so much, they look so different than how
they used to look that it’s a completely different character with a totally
different costume. So I like to bring it back sometimes with more familiar
elements. I try to play around with that.
What was your gateway into reading
comics?
Very early on,
it was Spider-Man. In the UK, they
used to reprint all the comics, the weeklies, so I used to come home, after
lunch, and read it.
So it was always superheroes rather
than war or horror comics?
I did read
some of that stuff, but I didn’t really take to it. I read 2000 AD, but I
always went back to Marvel characters. I just like the Spider-Man character,
maybe it’s because with 2000 AD the stories progressed too slowly, they were
always too short, six pages, there was never enough story and by the next week
it was another six pages. It just didn’t flow as well.
Most British creators cut their teeth
on 2000 AD, how did you break into comics?
I just didn’t
start like I was “supposed” to. Back in the 90s, I didn’t really know how to
break in. I didn’t know you had to do samples, you had to show them to the
right people, so that’s what I did, it just happened to be that the people I
showed them to were from Marvel, so I was lucky enough to get my foot in the
door there.
What would you say is the hardest
part of working in comics?
The hardest
part is keeping your game up, I would say. The quality of the artwork these
days is amazing. There are kids coming out of high school with better Photoshop
skills than I can achieve right now. There’s a level of technology that I never
had, they’re so comfortable with those programs, it’s a challenge to try and
keep growing.
Does your process involve any digital
work?
It does,
yes. Nowadays, I do a little fumbling, I scan them in and I play around with
them a little bit, I move around elements until I’m happy.
If you were tasked with reimagining
the Young Avengers as they are now, what changes would you make?
The way it
currently is? I would probably bring it back to the old team. No disrespect to
what Jamie McKelvie and Kieron Gillen did, it’s just wasn’t the same team for
me, because they were introducing all these new characters and for me, it didn’t
quite come across the same way. Maybe it’s the writer; Allan had a certain way
with the characters as well. I enjoyed those core characters that I helped
design, it’s very personal.
What was it like creating the
Comic-Con promotional poster for the new season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and would you like to see movie posters
return towards hand-drawn art, as unlikely as that may be?
It was
actually quite an honour to do that poster for Comic-Con. I don’t think I’m the
strongest guy when it comes to likenesses, so I try to shy away from that as
much as possible, but when I was asked to do it, I thought it would be a great
opportunity to try and do something that was like the movie posters, James
Bond-style, all the elements, like similar to the old classic James Bond
movies. That’s what I wanted to do. Luckily it turned out okay, I think. There’s
a few things I would change, but there are always things I would change.
Are there any things in geek culture
that you’re looking forward to, be it movies, TV or other media?
I’m trying
to stay away as much as I can from the Star
Wars stuff, you can’t escape it unfortunately. I’m kind of looking forward
to seeing how that turns out. I’m also curious to see how the Marvel movies
progress, to show the Infinity War. Like everybody else, I’m excited just the
same, even though we all have a rough idea of what the story’s going to be like
from the comics. It’s always cool to see on the big screen.
In your opinion, what is the most
important component of visual storytelling?
The most
important element is just clarity of storytelling, making sure the reader can
follow everything that’s moving along. One of my rules when I’m laying out a
book is that every issue can be somebody’s first, so you’ve got to make sure
that it’s clear enough for somebody to pick up, or they aren’t going to be able
to follow the story. I’ve picked up books where I’ve tried to read the story,
but it’s so confusing because things are bouncing around all the time, it’s
lost me even as a seasoned comic book reader. When I see that, I think that’s
just missed opportunities – but again, that’s just me being very, very
critical. It’s always easy being critical of other people’s work, failing to
notice your own flaws.
What do you feel is the reason behind
Marvel putting you on a lot of event books?
I don’t
know, I think maybe they think I can handle the multiple characters, that’s why
they give it to me. I also consider it a privilege, they think that I’m worthy
to work on those tentpole events. I don’t question it too much, I just enjoy
the opportunity.
Are you involved much with the
planning of events?
Not at all,
not at all. They just bring me in and show me the script.
Has there been a moment in the
industry where you geeked out on a meeting a hero of yours?
I tried to
avoid meeting my heroes as far as I can. Sometimes, it can affect your
perception of the way you read it, I don’t know if you’ve ever met your heroes,
sometimes if they give you a disappointing [first] impression, it affects
everything you see from them afterwards. In some ways, I try and avoid that,
but the people that I have met are great.
Thanks for an excellent interview Jim!
