Broken Frontier

At Chicago Comic-Con, Geof Darrow spoke with BF about his projects, comics and Hollywood, and the future of Burlyman Entertainment.

BROKEN FRONTIER: A lot of your early comics work was in the European market. Do you feel that this has influenced your style or sensibilities as an artist?

GEOF DARROW: No (laughs). Well, I was definitely influenced by Moebius but I never set out to be that way. It just sort of happened. Moebius is my artistic father.

BF: Any updates on the status of the Shaolin Cowboy animated feature you were involved with?

GD: No comment!

BF: In terms of comics production, is Burlyman Entertainment basically dead or does it still have projects in the works?

GD: Burlyman’s not dead. It’s still going. Steve Skroce is drawing the new issue of Doc Frankenstein. There’s one more that he’s going to do that will finish the arc and then it will be printed as a graphic novel.

BF: What has it been like working with so many legendary or big name creators like the Wachowski Brothers and Frank Miller and Moebius?

GD: Big question. It’s great. Sometimes it’s not easy. You work for some people and you’re sort of in their shadow. So there are upsides and downsides but creatively speaking, it’s great.

BF: Would you favor doing a project for a European comic publisher over something for the U.S. or do you prefer to take work wherever you find it?

GD: Well, you know, with the way comics are now, you want something that will be printed everywhere so you can make some money.

BF: You’ve done a lot of work in film and television. What’s your perspective on the relationship between comics and Hollywood?

GD: I’ll put it this way: Everyone who works in the movies wants to do comics and everyone I know in comics wants to work in the movies. They each have their pros and their cons. The guys in the movies are sometimes frustrated that you have to do what they want you to do and sometimes you work on the same thing for weeks and weeks. It’s not always as glamorous as most people think. In comics, you can do whatever you want for the most part. Creatively speaking, it’s a lot bigger.

BF: What would you consider to be some of the highlights of your career thus far?

GD: This interview. After this, I’m through, I’m washed up.

BF: (laughs) If you ever got to work on a comic book adaptation of a film or television property, is there anything that you would love to put your own stamp on?

GD: If I could do something like that, I would do either a comic book continuation of Yojimbo or Zatoichi.