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& Eva Interview Part 2
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Dredd
loses his footing |
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Tell us how you
draw as a team, who does what job in? Do you ever have disagree-ments about things
like layouts or the like?
Inaki
I'm the penciller of the team and the writer-penciller when it comes to doing
our own creations.
We really don’t have any disagreements in layouts and
the storytelling, because that's my part. Each of us has our roles nicely distributed,
so we are like a mini-studio and function well this way. We do overlook and make
suggestions on each other's work and that’s great because it means we have
a second view of the work before sending it to the editor. It's very unusual that
we have disagreements (though, when we do, we usually have to call an ambulance),
because we have the same tastes and go in the same direction in what we like to
see in a comic. I love Eva's colouring, so I just have to think what kind of environment
or mood I want in the scene, I just tell her and she does the job. When we see
a film, we discuss things such as the script, acting, timing, storytelling, and
photography, so when we go and do our work we both have in mind the same things
and elements.
Eva
I'm the inker and colourist, although I have to say I really feel comfortable
as a colourist. As for the layout and storytelling, I stand aside because I completely
trust in Inaki’s vision and I love the way he tells a story. To be honest,
in this team, Inaki is the one on the wheel, although I always have an opinion
to add. I mean, neither of us are safe from our mutual critics, and though they
are usually good and constructive, it doesn’t prevent objects from flying
across the studio!
We have worked together for ten years and we have reached a perfectly mutual understanding
as a team.
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Dredd's
interrogation style |
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How did you
get the Dredd job?
Inaki
We went to the Bristol convention and showed our portfolio to Matt Smith; he liked
what he saw and sent us a sample script. We completed it and he was happy, so
some weeks after he sent us the "See Zammy Run" script by Gordon Rennie.
We loved that script, by the way, because it had all the visual elements we love
to work with! Before receiving that script we were saying: "please, let it
have action scenes, and interiors and night streets scenes, please!" So we
know we were lucky to receive that script on our first commission.
Eva
After that job, Dominic Preston asked us to do the Metro strips. Were very excited
to get the offer, because he told us the print run the newspaper had and the number
of daily readers that were going to see our work. It was very nice that they thought
of us for the job.
How does working
on these short strips compare to drawing a full length strip?
Inaki
From the beginning Dominic told us that it had to be done on a bold and simple
style, because of the kind paper on which the strips were going to be printed
on and the size.
In comparison with full length comic pages, it's simpler because
it needs less visual complications, but it's tougher in many ways.
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Straight
into the arms of the law |
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In these short
strips you can't play with any page and panel layout or timing. It's very straight
forward storytelling. This means you have to make sure that you put all the essential
information inside each panel. It's true that the most simple things have more
complications than appears in the final product. The size was also very hard to
work on, because one thing I considered I should do was to make the Judge Dredd
shots imposing and make him occupy as much space as possible in the panel, but
that meant it left little room for the letterer and the supporting characters,
so I had to always come up with the angle shot that fitted better with each action/characters
appearing in the panel. Sometimes, an action that could be divided in two or three
panels in a normal comic page had to be done in a single panel for these short
strips.
Eva
The colour had to be done in a very simple way and because of the paper quality
it couldn't get too dark. I like to put contrasts of light and shadow in my colour,
but in this job I had to restrain myself considerably in that respect. Therefore
I decided to centre my attention in the tones, trying to make them visually attractive.
On average,
how long does it take you to complete a full strip?
Inaki
I pencilled two week's worth of stories (that's ten daily strips) in one week.
Eva
Once it was approved it took me another week to ink and colour them.
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