Charlie Adlard Answers 7 Questions with Sina Grace

Welcome back from the holiday, Skybound fans!

In this week’s installment of “Seven Questions with Sina Grace,” I got to take a break from asking Charlie the same questions about deadlines, and spend some time discussing more light-hearted topics.

Take a read, and make sure to head to your local comic shop this Wednesday to pick up The Walking Dead #98!

1- Easiest question: did you really think when you started on The Walking Dead that you would be drawing the same series almost ten years later?

Of course not!

To be honest, I didn’t think I’d last the first 6 issues. When I first got offered the book, I simultaneously got offered Warlock from Marvel. Foolishly I believed that “obviously” Warlock would be the one that would last and consequentially got in touch with Robert and Eric to say that I’d do the 6 issue arc of TWD and then carry on with the Marvel book. If it wasn’t for VERY persuasive e-mails back from them asking for me to stay, I’d have finished TWD and then have Warlock cancelled from under me 4 issues in. Thankfully, I decided to do both at the same time – Warlock was cancelled – which left the way forward for TWD.

Can you imagine what I’d be feeling now if I’d have done what I’d originally planned?

2- Fans should know by now that you’re one of the most prompt and professional artists in the industry, surpassing all expectations month in and month out.  How do you do it- work quickly and efficiently?

Well, I’d like to think I’m quite good as well!

To be honest, I’m not sure “how” I do it… I just do. I’ve always had really good self motivation, and – even before kids – I’d get up and get to work for 9am and work through to around 5.30/6pm – a regular 9-5 job. And, in that time, I get a lot done. I rarely work weekends either.

I don’t really over think stuff either. A lot of my friends and contemporaries have to “warm up” etc and do a lot of soul searching whilst drawing a page – I just start from top left and work down to bottom right. I guess I’m mentally “right” for this kind of job – I just feel very natural doing it.

3- If you could take a break and switch art duties with another Skybound title, which one would you work on?

I guess it’d be Thief of Thieves… It’s stylistically right up my street. I love Shawn Martinbrough’s art as well – I think we share similar artistic goals and influences.

4- Which artists are influencing your art currently?

Ooh – so many. Where do I start? I LOVE 60’s/70’s American lifestyle/film poster illustration – and its influence seems to infuse my work more and more every year. I’m proud to own an original Bernie Fuchs and Robert McGuiness on my wall. Comic-wise I’m proud to say that a couple of my best friends in the industry are also my favourite artists – Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo. I also love the work of Tommy Lee Edwards and John Paul Leon. Sean Murphy and Chris Samnee are amazing!

When I see that list – I think you can see there’s a distinct thread running through those artists that links back to the aforementioned illustration work, which links back to classic artists such as Eisner and Toth as well.

I’m also seriously in love with European comic book art too. Anyone from the more obvious like Moebius and Uderzo, through to Prado, Hugo Pratt, and Munoz, finishing with the likes of Baru and DeCrecy.

5- You love music, I love music.  What are the last five albums you played?

I do LOVE music, it’s true. I still – at the tender age of 45 – like to seek out new bands and artists. I don’t like to dwell on stuff I liked in my youth like so many people of my age.

The last 5 albums I brought…? The Maccabees, Pepe Delux, the Go! Team, 3 Trapped Tigers, and John Grant.

6- If you couldn’t work in comic books and the entertainment industry, where would you be?

Never really entered my mind, to be honest, since I have no skill in anything else! I can drum and have played in bands since I was 16 – so I could say that. But that’s still the entertainment industry… So, I guess, I’d probably do something totally opposite to what I do now. So it’d be outside and involve lots of exercise. God knows what, though…

7- Characters in The Walking Dead come and go pretty fast… as the series artist, which one would you have liked to stick around a bit longer?

Thankfully my two favourite characters are still around – Michonne and Andrea. I guess Alice would’ve been nice to have kept for a bit longer… She was cute!