I first met Joel Gomez about 2 years ago at Long Beach Comic Con. He had his own table and he was selling his art prints. My friend and I wanted the same print so Gomez hooked it up and gave us a great deal on the prints. Ever since then I started checking out his deviant art and noticed how awesome his work is. At almost all the cons I attend, I always see his table and stop by. Even if it’s just a quick “Hello!”
Gomez is a comic art veteran working for companies such as DC and Wildstorm. Currently Gomez is working on WarHawks, which has a pretty emotional story behind it.
Just like most artists at cons, he loves talking art! He has given me advices on my art project. Gomez is very easygoing but when it comes to drawing, it’s badass!
I chatted with him and we discussed his current project, the challenges of independent publishing and his most anticipated movie of the summer:
NERDSociety: Your work is superb, when did you start drawing?
Joel Gomez: I started drawing as a young kid, I think I was 5-6. It was a great way to entertain myself and make scenarios I’d imagine about my favorite characters from television and movies.
NS: Who are your favorite artists?
JG: I’m all over the map on favorite artist…but here’s a couple of random ones: Paul Grist- love his page layouts. R.M. Guerra- fantastically cinematic storytelling style. Tonci Zonjic-elegant, deceptively simple style.
NS: For beginners, what should they do if they’re not happy with their work?
JG: My advice to young aspiring artists is build from what you love. Find what is it that attracts you to the creative process and work on developing your own understanding of this process you find so appealing. Don’t worry so much about style as much as sound fundamentals. When the pace picks up, and it will, you can always fall back on your fundamentals.
NS: Your favorite character to draw?
JG: I think my favorite character to draw always varies…sometimes it’s an approach I’m using. Sometimes it’s a character’s new look, or what mood I’m in that day. But at the moment, I’m really into drawing characters with clean silhouettes. Characters such as Nightwing, Batman Beyond, Spider-Man, Daredevil and Captain Marvel all have pretty simple, clean silhouettes and costumes.
NS: My favorite piece from yours is Gotham Nights, can you tell us about your process?
JG: The Gotham Nights Prints are a blast to do, I really get a kick out of designing imagined places like Gotham City. I’ve always been a huge fan of well done establishing shots…they can really set the tone or mood of a story. I think I spent a couple of days on each of the Gotham Nights environment shots.
NS: What’s the most bizarre sketch request you’ve been asked to do?
JG: Batman overseeing a wedding with approval…it was such a strange/interesting request I posted it on my DeviantArt page:)
Even though it’s a bit out there…the composition is still awesome!
NS: I saw a vid about your involvement with WarHawks, how did you get involved?
JG: Billy Tan, was hired as the Cover Artist. He recommended me to the awesome folks behind the successfully funded KickStarter project- Jason Coffee’s WarHawks.
NS: Where can we get the comic?
JG: I know WarHawks is going to be shopped around to publishers for a home, but for now, I think WarHawks is available to those who have supported the KickStarter.
NS: With an independent comic like WarHawks, is it pretty hard to get it into comic shops?
JG: A lot of thought, hard work, time and money have been put into making WarHawks the best product we can put together. Everyone working behind the scenes on WarHawks firmly believes it’s a comic that can stand on it’s own. Our aim is to get into every local comic book store we can. Our goal has always been to put together a great book and shop it around to potential publishers.
NS: Besides drawing, what else are you into?
JG: I’m really into football, cooking & hanging out with my wife- colorist extraordinaire Beth Sotelo & and my Dachshund Colonel Mustard.
NS: Speaking of the great Beth Sotelo, how did you guys meet?
JG: Beth Sotelo and I met while in Junior College, we were attending the same figure drawing class with aspirations of becoming ‘working artists’. Beth had interests in animation and I was still trying to break into comics.
Collaborative work from Joel & Beth
NS: What’s your most anticipated movie of the summer?
JG: The summer movie I’m most looking forward to is Elysium by Neill Blomkamp. I really enjoyed District 9 and look forward to what Neill does with this new film.
NS: Oh yeah, one more thing, I know you love the Alien franchise, what did you think of Prometheus?
JG: I enjoyed Prometheus, if only because I was kind of over the ‘space marine-action adventure’ type of Alien movie. I love the atmosphere and strangeness of the original film and enjoy the idea of exploring it in Prometheus.
I want to thank Joel for the interview.
Check him out at your local cons (this guy travels all over the place) and give him some love.
You can also follow him on Twitter!
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