From The Scoop: Seeing Sights Unseen with Bo Hampton
From the February 17 issue of Gemstone Publishing's The
Scoop:
Bo Hampton has done some truly beautiful work in comics. It's just been a while since we have seen anything new from the versatile craftsman. Other than the Image Comics expanded edition of his seminal adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, it's been years between his last comic work an his new projects.
Hampton, who also has Book of Shadows coming out from Desperado and Image, has teamed up with writer Robert Tinnell (The Black Forest, The Wicked West) for a new modern horror-suspense story, Sight Unseen, which is featured in the current Previews and received a 25-page sneak peak on Newsarama.
The original graphic novel is due out from Image in April. Scoop talked with him about the project.
Scoop: Other than the Image Comics re-release of your The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, your name has been largely absent from comics for a number of years. What have you been up to?
Bo Hampton: In '98 I took time off from comics to work on storyboards for The Extreme Ghostbusters animated TV series. That segued into work for the Cartoon Network (if you've seen the Batman/Two-face spot where they leap off a roof and the Cartoon Network logo comes up-that's my animation and background art). From there I started doing storyboard work for TV commercials all over the country. I still do a good bit of that but have time to do creator-owned projects in comics now. And occasionally for publishers.
Scoop: And now you're showing up this month with not one, but two projects?
BH: Yep. Sight Unseen with Bob Tinnell for Image and Book of Shadows with Mark Chadbourne for Desperado/Image.
Scoop: How did you get to know Bob Tinnell?
BH: We met at the Phlly con in 2004 and at the time I was writing and drawing a horror graphic novel called Those Who Wait. My first love is comic art but I also want to see my stuff on the big screen. Bob is well connected in both fields and after reading his graphic novel The Black Forest I wanted to work with him on a story that could work equally well as both. Our sensibilities are similar in that stories need to "Be friggin' sensible" and when I found myself seeing the logic of the Frankenstein monster terrorizing foxholes in WWI Europe I knew he was an extraordinary writer.
Scoop: How did Sight Unseen come about?
BH: Bob suggested we cobble a story together and on the plane ride home I came up with four concepts. One of them with a working title of "Blind" was about a neuron-physicist who is blinded in a lab accident which also kills his wife. His 19-year-old daughter blames him for her mom's death. He acquires a seeing-eye dog who sees ghosts, and he develops optic technology based on that ability. So now the poor bastard can see again but only the dead. I wrote what I call the “camper sequence” so I could get started while Bob got freed up from other projects. He loved it all and brought a crucial second part to the plot which involved the house and its diabolical history. His opening for Sight was completely removed from what I expected and so much better! Eighteen months later the 140 page story was done. Whew!
Scoop: What did you think of the subject matter?
BH: I'm drawn to it. Heh heh.
Scoop: Is the style we're seeing from you on this tailored to the project or is it your standard approach now?
BH: It's standard now. I spent many years approaching comic art from a more illustrative perspective. The beauty of the linework or paint took center stage so much that it lessened the impact of the story. I now find that using a simpler “graphic” style with linework and computer coloring I'm able to give the story a more visceral, dramatic urgency perfect for the subject matter. Less detailed rendering gives me more time for staging. That's why I was able to work out the basement sequence to such an extent. Bob allowed me the luxury of writing that bit, although there is no dialogue. I just wanted to slow down events and create tension with the apple and the apparition to a degree that hasn't, to my knowledge, been done before. My storyboard experience with TV animation helped tremendously with that.
Scoop: Once you and Bob had talked it over and you had read the script, how long did it take you to form your visual concepts for the story?
BH: I sketched the sequences in scenes as I would for TV or film and depending on difficulty each scene would take three days to three weeks to bring to final art, lettered. Of course commercial work always provided much needed interruptions (it pays better than comics) and that slowed me down.
Scoop: There's a lot of work in a 140- page graphic novel. How long did it take?
BH: Eighteen months but I only worked full time on it the last three months.
Scoop: To you as an artist, what is the difference between working on an original graphic novel that comes out in one big package like Sight Unseen?
BH: I just love being able to tell a big, complete story.
Scoop: Was there an "average work day" for you on the project, and if so what was it like?
BH: I worked on sketches sometimes all day, other days I would ink and color a page, which took about a day. Sometimes I'd pencil 2-3 pages in one day; it was a mess.
Scoop: What gets ignored when you're deep into a project?
BH: Food...spouses...children. But not necessarily in that order.
Scoop: What never gets ignored?
BH: Coffee.
Scoop: Did you read comics while you weren't working in the business? If so, what have been your recent favorites?
BH: I re-read old stuff quite a bit. I enjoyed Bob and Neil [Vokes]'s The Black Forest. I need to pick up Eisner's The Plot. I hear Persepolis is very good and will probably read it. My brother Scott's Spookhouse 2 is great.
Scoop: What's your next project?
BH: Probably that ghost story I've been kicking around for three years called Those Who Wait... Bob may co-write with me if I return his children safely.
Scoop: Anything else you'd like to add?
BH: Just this -- I set up a mystery with Sight Unseen and Bob resolved it.-the resolution is the hairy part. That's why I enjoyed the process of working with him. He's determined to make it conform to its own logic. I love Peter Weir's movie Picnic at Hanging Rock so I can appreciate mysteries for their own sake. But as such, they play upon the already established resonance of an unknowable event with all the surreal ramifications inherent within it and although they work well it doesn't alter the fact that a satisfying resolution is the most difficult road to take. And to that extent a mystery with a resolution that works is more worthy of respect.
• Produced for the benefit of all who enjoy the hobby of collecting, Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop is available free of charge to anyone who wishes to receive it. To view the latest edition, or to sign up, visit The Scoop online by at http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com.
Bo Hampton has done some truly beautiful work in comics. It's just been a while since we have seen anything new from the versatile craftsman. Other than the Image Comics expanded edition of his seminal adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, it's been years between his last comic work an his new projects.
Hampton, who also has Book of Shadows coming out from Desperado and Image, has teamed up with writer Robert Tinnell (The Black Forest, The Wicked West) for a new modern horror-suspense story, Sight Unseen, which is featured in the current Previews and received a 25-page sneak peak on Newsarama.
The original graphic novel is due out from Image in April. Scoop talked with him about the project.
Scoop: Other than the Image Comics re-release of your The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, your name has been largely absent from comics for a number of years. What have you been up to?
Bo Hampton: In '98 I took time off from comics to work on storyboards for The Extreme Ghostbusters animated TV series. That segued into work for the Cartoon Network (if you've seen the Batman/Two-face spot where they leap off a roof and the Cartoon Network logo comes up-that's my animation and background art). From there I started doing storyboard work for TV commercials all over the country. I still do a good bit of that but have time to do creator-owned projects in comics now. And occasionally for publishers.
Scoop: And now you're showing up this month with not one, but two projects?
BH: Yep. Sight Unseen with Bob Tinnell for Image and Book of Shadows with Mark Chadbourne for Desperado/Image.
Scoop: How did you get to know Bob Tinnell?
BH: We met at the Phlly con in 2004 and at the time I was writing and drawing a horror graphic novel called Those Who Wait. My first love is comic art but I also want to see my stuff on the big screen. Bob is well connected in both fields and after reading his graphic novel The Black Forest I wanted to work with him on a story that could work equally well as both. Our sensibilities are similar in that stories need to "Be friggin' sensible" and when I found myself seeing the logic of the Frankenstein monster terrorizing foxholes in WWI Europe I knew he was an extraordinary writer.
Scoop: How did Sight Unseen come about?
BH: Bob suggested we cobble a story together and on the plane ride home I came up with four concepts. One of them with a working title of "Blind" was about a neuron-physicist who is blinded in a lab accident which also kills his wife. His 19-year-old daughter blames him for her mom's death. He acquires a seeing-eye dog who sees ghosts, and he develops optic technology based on that ability. So now the poor bastard can see again but only the dead. I wrote what I call the “camper sequence” so I could get started while Bob got freed up from other projects. He loved it all and brought a crucial second part to the plot which involved the house and its diabolical history. His opening for Sight was completely removed from what I expected and so much better! Eighteen months later the 140 page story was done. Whew!
Scoop: What did you think of the subject matter?
BH: I'm drawn to it. Heh heh.
Scoop: Is the style we're seeing from you on this tailored to the project or is it your standard approach now?
BH: It's standard now. I spent many years approaching comic art from a more illustrative perspective. The beauty of the linework or paint took center stage so much that it lessened the impact of the story. I now find that using a simpler “graphic” style with linework and computer coloring I'm able to give the story a more visceral, dramatic urgency perfect for the subject matter. Less detailed rendering gives me more time for staging. That's why I was able to work out the basement sequence to such an extent. Bob allowed me the luxury of writing that bit, although there is no dialogue. I just wanted to slow down events and create tension with the apple and the apparition to a degree that hasn't, to my knowledge, been done before. My storyboard experience with TV animation helped tremendously with that.
Scoop: Once you and Bob had talked it over and you had read the script, how long did it take you to form your visual concepts for the story?
BH: I sketched the sequences in scenes as I would for TV or film and depending on difficulty each scene would take three days to three weeks to bring to final art, lettered. Of course commercial work always provided much needed interruptions (it pays better than comics) and that slowed me down.
Scoop: There's a lot of work in a 140- page graphic novel. How long did it take?
BH: Eighteen months but I only worked full time on it the last three months.
Scoop: To you as an artist, what is the difference between working on an original graphic novel that comes out in one big package like Sight Unseen?
BH: I just love being able to tell a big, complete story.
Scoop: Was there an "average work day" for you on the project, and if so what was it like?
BH: I worked on sketches sometimes all day, other days I would ink and color a page, which took about a day. Sometimes I'd pencil 2-3 pages in one day; it was a mess.
Scoop: What gets ignored when you're deep into a project?
BH: Food...spouses...children. But not necessarily in that order.
Scoop: What never gets ignored?
BH: Coffee.
Scoop: Did you read comics while you weren't working in the business? If so, what have been your recent favorites?
BH: I re-read old stuff quite a bit. I enjoyed Bob and Neil [Vokes]'s The Black Forest. I need to pick up Eisner's The Plot. I hear Persepolis is very good and will probably read it. My brother Scott's Spookhouse 2 is great.
Scoop: What's your next project?
BH: Probably that ghost story I've been kicking around for three years called Those Who Wait... Bob may co-write with me if I return his children safely.
Scoop: Anything else you'd like to add?
BH: Just this -- I set up a mystery with Sight Unseen and Bob resolved it.-the resolution is the hairy part. That's why I enjoyed the process of working with him. He's determined to make it conform to its own logic. I love Peter Weir's movie Picnic at Hanging Rock so I can appreciate mysteries for their own sake. But as such, they play upon the already established resonance of an unknowable event with all the surreal ramifications inherent within it and although they work well it doesn't alter the fact that a satisfying resolution is the most difficult road to take. And to that extent a mystery with a resolution that works is more worthy of respect.
• Produced for the benefit of all who enjoy the hobby of collecting, Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop is available free of charge to anyone who wishes to receive it. To view the latest edition, or to sign up, visit The Scoop online by at http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com.
