Frank Candiloro
What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
It’s been a big year for me comics wise – I’ve managed
to put out 4 books ranging from 30-70 pages each, had a number of interviews
and positive write-ups of my work, was involved in Big Arse 2, got featured in Best Art
Ever on Comics Alliance a few times, Brian Michael Bendis bought one of my books.…
it’s been very encouraging to say the least :P
But
if I had to name one major highlight, it would be
finally putting out Behind The Crooked Cross; it was something that I
wanted to
do for a long time and was reluctant to do so since it was a World War
II story
and it being so different to the comics I usually make. I'm glad that I
stepped out of my comfort zone and made something that was very
difficult and emotionally exhausting to create. In the long run, I think
it
paid off. I think it’s my best work to date.
Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the
first time in 2012?
It’s been a big year for Image Comics, and in
particular their reboot of Prophet was something of an eye-opener for me; it
made me discover the work of Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon
Roy. They each have different and unique styles but also work quite well
together, delivering an awesome, dream-like sci-fi environment, reminiscent of
Moebius. Another highlight was discovering some of the old stories that Steve
Ditko wrote and drew, such as Mr A, the H. Series and Avenging World, reflecting
his objectivist views. It just re-affirmed how great of an artist the man is.
Regarding the local comic scene I discovered a lot of
great artists who I had known of for a while but had never sought out their
comics until this year. People like Tim Molloy, Scarlette Baccini, Peter Foster, Fil Barlow, Matt Kyme and Matt Nicholls did some superb work this year,
among many others, and it’s pretty inspiring.
What is something non-comics that you have
enjoyed in 2012?
I went on a trip to the US in July, and stayed a while
in New York. I had always been interested and influenced by New York culture
and it was an amazing, stimulating city, with so much character and history.
The Museum of Modern Art, Greenwich Village, Grand Central, Broadway, Little
Italy, I could have stayed there for a year and not get enough of the place; it
made me think about a new direction for my future comics.
It’s inspired me to make a story about it, which should be out at the end of
2013.
Have you implemented any significant changes
to your working methods this year?
I realised that if I wanted to make at least 4 comics
a year, I’d have to get a lot more stringent about my creative process. So I
decided that I’d draw for 6 hours each night, whether it be comic pages or just
random artwork if I’ve completed a comic. It’s important that you’re always
making art no matter what it is or how terrible you believe it may be.
I also decided that I’d begin writing the next comic
while finishing the current comic I’d be doing. It’s not because I want to
speed up the creative process, but simply that I have a lot of ideas for future
books, and writing them down in script form ensures that I’ll get around to
making them.
What are you looking forward to in 2013?
Naturally I’m looking forward to putting out more
books, and also to see how much more the local comic scene grows. It’s still
fairly small but the overall quality of the books is vastly improving, so I
think there are bright days ahead. Here’s to many more great comics.
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