Steven Cummings Takes On Deadshot… And Wins
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stayed approximately just long enough to be born before moving on to Texas. By
age three, though, he found himself in Georgia, where he ended up growing up. He
doesn’t particularly remember what the first thing he drew was (“Probably G.I.
Joe, or the Transformers, though, if I had to take a guess,” he said.), but by
high school he knew he wanted to be an artist. A lengthy stint in Japan studying
language gave him the time to hone his craft, and he’s made a big splash in the
field with the DC Comics mini-series Deadshot, on which he’s worked with
Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit writer Christos Gage and all-star
inker Jimmy Palmiotti.
Scoop talked with Cummings about
Deadshot, how he works and his upcoming projects, and we think he’s
someone you should become familiar with. Take a read!
Scoop: Were
comics a part of that or did you just like creating in general?
Steven
Cummings: Comics were the only reason I liked drawing. At the time I probably
couldn’t think of any other reason to be an artist.
Scoop: Being an
artist can be a rough life. Was your family supportive of your pursuits?
SC: I did all of my work on becoming good enough to be employable while
still in Japan, so I don’t think they ever realized I was going to go in this
direction.
Scoop: Are you self-taught or did you have formal
training?
SC: Self-taught. I went to school to study languages and
linguistics.
Scoop: What was your first professional work?
SC:
I did an issue of the green lantern. I remember it well as my wife and I had
only been back in the country for a month or so. I went to Wizard World Chicago
and got employment right away.
Scoop: What’s your drawing area like?
Is it cluttered, organized or what?
SC: I’ll send a picture and you can
decide.
Scoop: Do you like it to be quiet while you work or do you
listen to music or watch TV?
SC: Muzak. I have a large record collection
and a bunch of CD’s to keep me company. Herb Alpert is a good one to draw
to.
Scoop: What’s an average workday like for you (or is there one)?
SC: My workdays are very average. I am usually in the office around 9AM
and work until I get done. 12 hours is pretty normal. At least the commute is
easy.
Scoop: Do you prefer inking your own work or like someone else
doing it better?
SC: I prefer to ink my own stuff. But it is really an
issue of time. If I am given the chance and the extra time, I love to ink my own
work, to see it through from start to (black) finish.
Scoop: How did
your gig on Deadshot come about for you?
SC: I would like to be able to
say that my genius is so readily apparent that my editor in New York was just
looking for the right book for me. In reality, a set of my new samples crossed
his desk at the same time he was looking for an artist for Christos’ book. I
guess I have to say I was in the right place at the right
time…
Scoop: What type of script does Chris Gage start you with?
SC: It is a full script. But due to his background in Hollywood, his
writing style felt more like a TV or movie script than a comic one. It was
fairly liberating. I think for that reason it was an easy series to draw
Scoop: As the series has progressed, has that changed at all?
SC: His writing became more and more comic book-ish. By that I mean that
he figured out the differences of something dynamic like a movie and something
static like a comic book and he quickly learned how to make the most of it.
Probably something that is only apparent to someone who is approaching writing a
comic book after working mostly in movies.
Scoop: Deadshot is a
character who has always been pretty interesting visually, but it seems like in
this mini-series you guys have been more about making the character inside the
costume — and his world — a lot more developed than he was previously. As a
result, you’ve been drawing a lot of regular, everyday people. Is this something
you enjoy as an artist, or would you rather be drawing more fight scenes and
explosions?
SC: I personally enjoy drawing the average “man on the
street” kind of characters more than the super heroes most of the time. I really
like it when I have a street scene, one out in the real world (as real as you
can get in a comic book) when the odd looking character is surrounded by a very
mundane world. I think that kind of a contrast can really help in a story as
well. Back to art, I definitely like normal people more than the super. Almost
all of my personal art revolves around the normal. There is something in that
normalness that makes me want to draw
Scoop: What has been your
favorite part of the series?
SC: The world it took place in. But I have
also really enjoyed getting the chance to draw some of DC’s more notable
characters that I don’t know that I normally would have gotten a chance to use
(Green Arrow, all of those Suicide Squad characters). There wasn’t anything that
I didn’t enjoy drawing in this book.
Scoop: What do you think of
Jimmy Palmiotti’s inks on your pencils?
SC: They were great. I have
never seen my pencils inked so close to the originals. He has an amazing ability
to ink my pencil lines at exactly the same thickness as I drew them, so that
everything comes out looking like I penciled in deep black from the beginning.
Kudos to Jimmy. Superman isn’t as
super as Jimmy.
Scoop: What
else do you have coming up?
SC: I recently finished a couple of issues
for Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight written by Justin Gray. And there
are a few other things going on, but I don’t feel like I am in a position to
really discuss things yet. When I am able to, have no fear, I won’t shut up
about what is going on.
