For over thirty years illustrator David Lloyd has brought superb detail and ingenuity of design to titles ranging from Logan’s Run Annual ’78 to Hellblazer, Spider Man to V for Vendetta, Dr Who Monthly to Asterix et Ses Amis. Recently he showed some of his originals at the New End Gallery in London. Sarah Lightman had the opportunity to ask about his technique and the experience of writing his first graphic novel, Kickback.
You initially worked in advertising. What did you learn and what drew you to a career in comics? I learnt the skill of effective communication – a really valuable tool if you want to attract people to your work. Advertising as a business is a whole different thing and I’m no champion. But if you’re the kind of artist who wants to communicate with others as well as your own internal spirit, it’s useful to learn some of advertising’s tricks.
I always had a flair for telling stories via sequential art and loved much of what I’d seen in the medium, but a career as a strip artist was not my exclusive goal. I had no idea things would turn out so well, I just knew things would be ok once I’d established a reputation and a following. In a reasonably prosperous industry, those two things are all you need to form a career.
In Kickback, your drawing of the Grandfather, Carlo, was very real, detailed and sensitive. Can you talk about your drawing techniques? I never use photographs or internet references unless I need a dumper truck or something, which I can’t, or shouldn’t, just bring to life through the use of my memory or imagination.
The reason for the ‘reality’ of a face or character I draw is because those are important for me to depict as believable. These people I’m telling a story about, they’re all real to me, even though they’re not all as detailed in their facial construction as the grandfather.
My drawing techniques on Kickback were not much different to the techniques I’ve used on black-and-white line artwork since I began my career. The art is drawn in rough pencil first then finished in India Ink – with black crayon added sometimes for various tonal effects. The art is then scanned into my computer and printed out.
The printouts are coloured with colour pencils and then they too are scanned into my computer. In the computer graphics programme this colour is manipulated into varying degrees of textured or flat tone whilst preserving and strengthening the black line of the original black-and-white art.
Left:The Horrorist; Right: Night Raven
Viewing the originals, You can see where you’ve used white paint and various inks quite thickly in places. How do you feel about showing your originals? The white paint is there either because mistakes have been made or because I’m reconsidering the work and think a line I’ve drawn is superfluous or distracting. Or sometimes it’s there because the work was done quickly and roughly in its inking stage because of a need to make a deadline.
Areas of white paint can make originals less attractive but they’re as much a part of the creative process as anything else. I like showing my original art at exhibitions and at conventions. The response I get from people is never less than positive.
Kickback is the first work you’ve written as well as drawn. How was this experience? Creating a story entirely by yourself is not comparable to collaborating with a writer, or simply illustrating a script you’ve been given. It is work born of total freedom of expression and control; the other situations are just partnerships in an enterprise, however well they may turn out.
Creating Kickback has been the best working experience of my career. Though I’ve worked with some great writers in the past and am working with great writers still, my next big project will be another graphic novel of my own.
What general advice would you give to a graphic artist starting out today? It’s tougher to enter this business now than it was for me. There’s much more competition. Despite the fact that comic books aren’t selling as they used to, there’s no apparent reduction in the number of people who want to work in the field. I think this is because sequential art is something that people fall in love with and want passionately to work at.
I’d advise any artist trying to get into the mainstream business to study as hard as they can and attain a degree of skill that a publisher is almost 99% likely to employ them.
They shouldn’t get sidetracked into self-publishing or working for small press publishers because in those situations no one is pushing you to reach the highest standard you can achieve. You’ll get compliments from readers and distracting praise and your art can cease to develop in such conditions. It doesn’t have to become a stagnation point for an artist, but it is a danger for anyone working in those areas of publishing. 
David Lloyd’s site, L For Lloyd
David Lloyd at the New End Gallery
www.newendgallery.com/gallery_194111.html
Sarah Lightman’s solo show, In Memoriam, featuring drawings from her ongoing autobiographical graphic novel, opens this September at the Another Roadside Attraction Gallery in London. The exhibition moves to The New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College at Cambridge University for October and November
Interview © 2009 Wheel Me Out. No part can be used for any purpose without prior consent. Please contact editorial@wheelmeout.com
