Colin Wilson
What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
Undoubtedly, for me the highlight of my year was attending the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany during October, along with Dylan Horrocks, Ben Stenbeck, Greg Broadmore, and Roger Langridge. Who would have thought that such a gang of comic reprobates would be included in the Official New Zealand Delegation to the biggest Book Fair in the world? NZ comics were invisible 35 years ago when I published the first issue of Strips, and look where we've got to now! If things carries on like this, in another 30 years we'll probably be considered part of mainstream publishing.........
Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?
For a variety of reasons, I don't actually read a lot of comics these days, but thanks to the internet I recently discovered a couple of European artists that have both really impressed me a lot. At a recent Supernova Con here in Australia Greg Gates introduced me to the work of Italian artist Corrado Mastantuono, who's work on Tex and other Italian comic stories I was completely unaware of, and, while i guess he is not strictly speaking a comic artists, everything I find by Marcos Mateu-Mestre just blows me away. He's an Spanish artist who has worked for, amongst other, Dreamworks and Sony Pictures Animation in the States.... check out his website at http://marcosmateu.net/.
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?
There's life outside of comics?
Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?
The biggest change to my working method this year is that I've finally had the chance to slow down a little. Most of my comic work from the last few years has been for mainstream US Comic Publishers, and while it has been a lot of fun, I've found the constant deadlines really started to wear me down. About 12 months ago I decided that I needed to step off that runaway train, at least for a while, and started to accept more offers for European work. It is where my comic heart lies anyway, and my recent book signing tour of France, Germany and Belgium convinced me that I've made the right decision. The quality of comic work being produced over there these days is really impressive, and it was refreshing to discover that their biggest problem appears to be the sheer volume of books being published each year.
What are you looking forward to in 2013?
World peace? Well, clearly that ain't gonna to happen, so I guess the highlight for me in 2013 will be starting work on my new series for Delcourt in France. Over the last couple of years I've worked on a couple of Jour J books for Delcourt, and I've recently signed on for a completely new project that is currently being written for me by the two writers of that series, Fred Duval and Jean-Pierre Pécau. I haven't had the chance to work on something entirely original for France for about 20 years, and so this is going to be a real challenge for me. I can't wait to get started.....
