Everybody has said or done the wrong thing and regretted it later, but at the time, you really couldn't help it! As you get older, you're more guarded, but that's a really tough process of learning, to be brutally honest, about some things and keeping your mouth shut about others.
Each book requires a different look. Sometimes I get to take a personal direction that's appropriate for the story. I try to push things within a range. Some are rougher, some more expressionistic, some are slicker graphically and call for a prettier drawing style that I can do. Some have a more classical vibe, and some are in between.
If the reader doesn't care or relate to the characters, all that visual spectacle is pretty but feels empty.
After a couple of years at Vertigo, I realized that if I was going to be a professional artist, I'd have to devote myself to it full time, so I ended up leaving my job there and went freelance.
I've always preferred comics that really rely on visual storytelling. It's what makes comics special. Otherwise, you're better off reading a novel.
I do all my coloring on PhotoShop - it's good and bad: It helped refine my color, but I do miss the texture and organic quality of the traditional.
'Human Target' was probably one of the best projects I ever worked on - that and 'Dr.Thirteen.' I just appreciated how smart Peter Milligan's writing is. It was smart and entertaining.
Something like 'Dr. Thirteen,' which features no big characters, was probably the most fun thing I've worked on because the story was so great, and it was written so well.
Really, subtlety is what is really important to me and my work.
Wonder Woman feels like she's been put on a pedestal for so long, and it's hard to write that character because they're perfect and they can't do anything wrong.
Ditko isn't a direct influence, but I really admire his work and how his personality always comes through the drawing. There's a honest and quirky humanity to it, and you always feel the artist behind the comic. That's really rare.
The New Gods really need to be larger than life. There's an operatic quality to them, and they need to be handled pretty carefully, or else you'll go too far and be almost like a caricature.