Broken Frontier

Since graduating from the School of Art and Design at Syracuse University, Jon Rea has put his considerable artistic and design skills to every form imaginable including websites, magazines, newspapers and more. With his own design firm as well as keeping busy as an Adjunct Professor in graphic design and illustration, Rea also managed to create an impressive comic mini-series with writer Jason Becker and publisher Archaia. Killing Pickman's debut in late 2007 was widely praised as a dark thriller with suitably creepy visuals from Rea to match Becker’s dangerous script. Thanks to the return of Archaia, Killing Pickman is now available once more.

For Broken Frontier's recent interview with Killing Pickman's writer Jason Becker click here.

BROKEN FRONTIER: How did you approach each page, as a comic artist or a graphic designer, or both?

JON REA: The two seem to be inextricable to me. Both start with a story to tell and a white rectangle in which to tell it. Both involve the ordering of information to assign importance, emphasis, and emotion on a surface level, and then the arranging of details to reward the more engaged reader. Just like my favorite comics, my favorite design pieces convey an emotional message and a strong sense of the artist's hand, whether it's a perfectly timed facial expression or a surprising typeface, each should require a visceral response for the viewer that seems a natural extension of the maker.

BF: It seems Bill Sienkiewicz is an influence on your comics work. What other artists inspire you?

JR: As with most artists the list of things I look at is long. Bill Sienkiewicz certainly is certainly a pioneer that I consider highly. I even have some of his Dune mini-series. In the expressionist vein as well, I love looking at Ashley Wood things, and Dave McKean's work. I keep Violent Cases and Arkham Asylum by my drawing table more than on the bookshelf. I love the dynamism of Tommy Lee Edwards, and the bold confidence of the graphic ink slashes of John Paul Leon. As a graphic designer I am always delighted at each page of Mike Mignola's books with the constant play with the division of space and great comic beats. I also admire David Mack, Sean Phillips, P. Craig Russell, Chris Bachalo. Stuart Immonen (especially Superman: Secret Identity), Jae Lee and Eddie Campbell. Things from the non-comics world that I love to look at are the fathers of American illustration, such as N.C. Wyeth, and Howard Pyle. I also like turn of the century European artists such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and Alphonse Mucha and from the miscellaneous category; Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, designer Chip Kidd and El Greco.

BF: Are you reading any particular comics at the moment?

JR: I've recently slowed my comics consumption quite a bit, and have started reading more trades and taking few trips to the shop but here's what’s going down on my shelf and in my longbox: Criminal, Walking Dead, The Winter Men Special, Whiteout TPB, Hellboy, The Savage (David Almond and Dave McKean: a beautiful and touching story artfully told).

BF: How did you and Jason Becker come to work together, and was it a steep learning curve for you both?

JR: Jason and I met at a Chicago convention seminar for creators looking for creative partners with which to work. We talked about some of his scripts and decided upon the project that we though would be the most successful. I drew up the first 8 pages and tried to shop it around to some publishers. Jason is great to work with because he almost never says no! For the most part he leaves the page design up to me and lets me scribble all manner of odd ruminations in the margins. I like leaving him and the reader funny (or disturbing) inner thoughts of the characters or sub textual references. It's another layer that I appreciate as a reader myself. The real fun for me in reading a comic book is not racing through a 22 page floppy to find out which villain is being retooled this arc, but in seeking out the details and bread crumbs that the writer and artist leave for the attentive reader.

BF: What tools did you use for Killing Pickman?

JR: Whatever is closest to my hands. I try to vary the surfaces in some scenes to give different moods and subtexts to the moments depicted and I also try to consider how loose to play the drawing and which media to utilize, such as pencils, colored pencils, acrylics, inks, fingers, toothbrushes, sponges, chalks pastels, tape, collaged materials, actual objects or scanned objects, and sometimes nails and nibs for scratching. I’d like the reader to feel my exploration as I try to get to the desired effect.

BF: Would you like to create comics full-time, or are you busy enough with your teaching and design work?

JR: I'd love to paint and draw all day, but that's not what’s happening right now. I love my day job as a designer and I feel a lot of satisfaction from the work that I get to do there, but my training and my passion lie at the drawing table. Like everyone else, I've got two or three story ideas of my own that I'd love to put some work into, but for now they'll marinate in my sketchbooks.

The double-sized Killing Pickman #3 and #4 (of 6) is available in September.