Broken Frontier

For the second part of our interview with Norm Breyfogle, we dive right into his work and discuss his influences and how he feels about art and the comics world.

Broken Frontier: It’s hard for me - looking at your work - to pin down where you get your inspiration from. I can see some Neal Adams and Kirby in your compositions and movements of the figures but whom do you admire in comics?

NB: That would be a long list. Neal Adams was my first, biggest inspiration in comics, but I determined very early on that I’d not copy anyone’s style, so I learned to draw by inspiration from studying all my favorite artists, but I also learned from studying life. I maintain that the best way to learn to draw is from live models and actual objects.

A list of my favorite comics artists would include (in no particular order): Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, Nick Cardy, Burne Hogarth, Curt Swan, P. Craig Russell, Frank Frazetta, Bernie Wrightson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Frank Miller, Robert Crumb, Dick Giordano, Jim Aparo, Klaus Janson, Murphy Anderson, Alex Nino, Rudy Nebres, Richard Corben, Jack Kirby, and many, many more. And of course there are many artists from outside of comics that have influenced me, as well.

BF: When looking at your page layouts, you get a real sense of rhythm and speed that imbues the page that reminds me very much of cinema. Do you have any cinematic influences that you try to emulate on the flat page?

NB: Sure; every movie that’s impressed me would be such an influence, I suppose.

Sergio Leone’s films may be the biggest and best example in that regard. His use of extreme close-ups and his comprehensive sense of storytelling continuity would be two examples of inspiration I gleaned from film.

Then there was the martial arts craze of the seventies, which really inspired me in my depiction of fight scenes in my comics work.
But I have to say that cinematic influences were almost never direct in my case. Because comics is so very different from film (though similar in some respects), cinema influenced me more as an overall kinetic impression and inspiration which I tried to translate into the static images of comics, and I was always such an active and athletic person that injecting my love of motion and physical grace into comics and other art has always been a passion of mine.

BF: In your page layouts, you seldom stick to a 4 or 6 panel grid. You always look for the most dynamic layout. Does a panel grid bore you or do you have a specific theory in your head about your page composition?

NB: Both are true. Yes, I have a theory or a modus operandi when designing a comics page, and yes, it is all about making the page as dynamic as possible. I've found that even a talking heads scene can be made more dynamic by effective use of all of the tools in a comics artist's bag. This is why I consider the thumbnail or layout to be the most important part of drawing comics. In a sense, the layout is the most important part of comics, period, because that's where the story and the visuals first come together, and comics are by definition primarily about the wedding of these two modes of expression.

Because I consider the layout so important, I typically work mine over a bit before I settle on a page design, so my thumbnail layouts tend to be a combination of cuttings and pastings, tracings, erasures, whiteouts, re-dos, and even - sometimes - photo collage. They’re messy, but they get the job done; they solve all or most of the problems of the page on a small and swift scale so that the final page of original art will be as neat and clean as possible.  

BF:  Debutart.com has some art examples of you online employing a style that is very different from your comic drawings. It tacks more into classical illustration like Tom McNeely and even some Robert McGinnis. This side of your art fascinates me. Are these commissioned pieces and who are some of your inspirations in the world of arts and illustration?

NB: Yes, all my artwork on the Debut Art site consists of commissioned pieces and other published work.

Since childhood I was always looking at illustration and fine art as well as at comics art. For instance, when I was 14 and taking private art lessons with the late Andrew Benson I had a subscription to American Artist magazine. A list of some of my favorite artists outside of comics would include Wayne Barlowe, Frederick Remington and all the western cowboy painters, N. C. Wyeth, Ralph Steadman, Norman Rockwell, Escher and Dali and all the surrealists, Degas, Monet, and the impressionists, Greek classical art, Audrey Beardsley, Maxfield Parrish, Winslow Homer, J.C. Leyendecker, and so many, many more.

Basically, outside of the most famous ones, I don’t remember names very well. And I tend to appreciate painterly or impressionistic techniques that are more or less grounded in representation ... but not always. 

BF: By perusing your biography on  normbreyfogle.com, it seems that you had some setbacks but you never seemed to drift far away from a career in the arts. Do you adhere to  Nietzsche  who says that art is not just a form of human activity but is rather the highest expression of the human spirit? Do you still get that sense of achievement after being in the business for so long?

NB: I’ve read some Nietzsche (just as I‘ve read some - very little - Wittgenstein), but I don’t recall that quote. But in any case, since “art” boasts such an indeterminate definition it’d be very easy to agree with Nietzsche ... but I won’t. Instead, I’d say that if words really are to mean something, I’d have to assert that reason, love, and virtue are equally important, so that science, mutual respect and reverence, and true morality are at least as important as is art. In fact, they’re more important.

And yes, I still live by my ideals and I still feel the same sense of achievement with almost every job. 

BF: It must be said here that, like  Schopenhauer, Nietzsche was not the most optimistic of the great philosophers. But the one thing that redeemed humankind was art. The aspiration to create something timeless and of higher morals than man itself. If Schopenhauer and Nietzsche were alive today, it would be interesting to see what they thought of modern art and art installations like Jeff Koontz and the like. They probably wouldn't like it very much to say the least.

NB: Probably not, at least not all of it. But of course there exists vast variation in modern art. I'm sure they'd appreciate some of it.

BF: Just out of personal curiosity, do you have anything creator-owned lined up at A First Salvo?

NB: Not at this time, no.

BF: And last of all, what has life in comics taught you?

NB: That the comics world is a small and insular marketplace providing little to no financial security for most, and it's plagued by fierce, back-biting competition and ruled by ruthless mainstream publishers ... and yet I absolutely love the artform and the vast majority of the fans, creators, and pros.

BF: Thank you very much for your time and the best of luck with your future endeavors.

NB: Thank you, Bart!

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Visit Norm Breyfogle's website for more information on his upcoming projects and check out the immense gallery of original drawings.