Bill Nichols’ Prescription:
Comics 10ccs of the Process with
Reilly Brown

What inspires you to create and keeps you going?

 I get ideas for characters that I want to read about, and since they’re in my head, no one else is able to tell these stories, so that forces me to do it!
 When Fabian Nicieza was telling me about his early ideas for OUTRAGE, I took out a pencil and just started drawing, telling him “here’s what it needs to look like!”  Next thing we knew, we had a comic!
 That’s for stuff that I have a hand in creating.
 For freelance stuff, like Marvel or DC, in situations where the script is already finished when I come on board the project, that script is kind of like a puzzle that I have to figure out.  How do I make it work, how do I make it good, how do I add something to it that no other artist would add– how do I make it unique.  In a recent Deadpool story I did with Tim Seeley for Marvel comics Presents, we flashback to the 90s, and there was a lot of space to throw in references and gags about that decade, and the types of comics that were popular at the time.  A lot of fun, and a lot of space to flex those, perhaps rather specific, creative wings!

That challenge is a fun one to tackle.
 

And then, the thing that keeps me going, is fear of deadlines!  Nothing keeps me glued to my chair like an editor breathing down my neck!
 Don’t tell them I said that…

Do you have a set routine?
 Yeah, since having kids, it’s been essential to have a routine.  I wake up around 7:30 when my wife brings the kids to daycare, and start working around 9.  Then I work until 3:30 when I pick the kids up.  After dinner, I get back to work, and work until about midnight.
 This usually works fine until the next comic convention, which inevitably throws the whole thing off, but them’s the breaks.

What kind of output do you try to achieve?
 There’s always a balance between timeliness and quality, because there are A LOT of drawings in every comic book, so it’s a lot to get done, and the fans have brutally high standards, so you can’t let them catch you phoning it in.  Every issue I try to make sure to get in a few panels that they’ll remember.  A few images that will help define the character, or at least the story.  Like the first time Deadpool met Shiklah, or Hercules giving Thor a purple nurple.
 To me, that’s the most important thing.
 When OUTRAGE is coming out, we have to turn in about 5-6 pages every week, because a new chapter goes up weekly.  That kind of pressure really gets the pencil burning, let me tell you! 

What inspires you WHEN you create? Music? Noise? Silence?
 Both, either, depending on the day.
 When I’m doing layouts, I usually prefer silence, maybe some music.  I need to be able to get in my head and really focus on how I’m going to tell the story.  Once the layouts are done, I usually binge on podcasts and audiobooks.  They keep my mind engaged and prevent me from being distracted, and also give me a chance to learn a ton of stuff, that I can hopefully apply to future stories.
 Jim Dale reading HARRY POTTER got me through the last couple issues of my CABLE & DEADPOOL run.  I’d draw until 4 or 5 in the morning because I’d want to hear just one more chapter!

Who was the first comic book creator that influenced you to pursue this?
 That’s hard to say, because I liked drawing before I really started reading comics.  When I got into comics around 5th or 6th grade, it just struck me that this was exactly the types of things that I liked to draw– the adventures, the aliens, robots and mutants.  That was the stuff that I liked.  When I got into reading comics, it gave me the direction that I was looking for.
 However, if I have to pick, I’d say it was probably Jim Lee’s X-Men that really grabbed hold of my young mind.  When I look at X-MEN #1-3, to me, that’s simply what a comic is supposed to look like. 

When did you realize you could follow this path yourself?
 Like I said, around 5th or 6th grade is when I started getting into comic books.  Before that I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I didn’t know what kind of art I wanted to do.  The second I saw a Marvel comic, which I got as a party favor at a friend’s birthday party, it was like I was struck by lightning, and I knew what direction I should go. 

What do you find to be a challenge in creating?
 The challenge is always to find the right moment in the story, the right moment on every page, to really focus on to make that page memorable.  To figure out how to give that moment it’s chance– because sometimes that panel is on a page surrounded by seven other panels that are filled with tons of word balloons that I have to make room for, so just finding the physical space can be a challenge.  And then, once I’ve gotten the layout figured out, the challenge becomes pulling the drawing off so that it stands out as much as it needs to. 

What else do you have to learn?
 Everything.  Always everything.
 Better storytelling, more memorable character interactions, more dramatic battle scenes, and doing it all more efficiently in a way that readers feel like every panel is full of life and detail, without actually having to take the time to make every single panel equally detailed.

Everything.

What keeps you motivated to get better?
 Just watching what other comics creators are doing is the biggest motivation.  There’s a major “keeping up with the Joneses” effect!  When I see another artist draw something really cool, I get incredible jealous and think “how did they do that?  How can I use that??”
 Also, the readers.  Seriously, nothing is a better motivator than seeing people show up to read the comics I work on.  That’s one of the great things about working with Webtoon– getting that immediate feedback via the hearts and the comments.  I’ve never seen that kind of feedback from the fans anywhere else, and I love it!

Can you turn your brain (creativity) off (and on)?
 It doesn’t feel like turning it off or on like flipping a switch, but it feels more like jumping on and off of a moving train.  The train’s always going, and I’m either along for the ride or I’m not, and I either have a good grip on it or I don’t.
 If I have a good, creative, productive, rhythm going, it’s the best, and I do whatever I can to keep it going.  Once that rhythm breaks, it can be hard to get it going again– to get a good grip on that train again.  I don’t know if there’s anything to be done about it other than to try to stay productive in those “off” times.  There’s always SOMETHING that needs to get done, so if I’m not feeling the creativity, or not feeling a certain aspect of it, I can work on something else until I slowly get swept back up into it again.  Like, if I’m not able to draw any characters that look good, I can focus on looser page layouts to figure out the story, or if not that, work on something technical like perspective or detailing or something like that.
 I just have to be there and be ready for when the train comes around again.

Booster Shots

What advice do you have for aspiring creators?
 Being artistic and creative is the most important thing for a comic book artist, and it’s very demanding, but don’t neglect the business side of the job.  It’s hard to find good advice about that out there, but it exists.  If you don’t know what you’re worth, people will take advantage of that.  Don’t be the next chump. 

Do you ever worry about running out of ideas?
 Not yet!  I’m mostly worried about running out of time to make good on the ideas I already have.

How do you handle the slow times?
 Working as a freelance artist is really feast or famine.  There are times after a project ends where I have no idea what the next project will be, and all the usual people I call for work don’t seem to have anything for me, and I start to get nervous, but then after a bit of time, maybe a week or two, I suddenly get more job offers than I can handle.
 So I just have to trust in my artistic ability and reputation that eventually the offers will come, and in the times between get by on conventions, commissions, and slowly working on those dream projects that I never have enough time for anyway.

How do you feel about the industry?
 I think the industry is changing right now.  We really see it with OUTRAGE over at webtoon– their audience is HUGE!  And it’s young.  These are the people who, twenty years ago would have been fueling the manga boom, and thirty years ago would have been causing X-Men #1 to break sales records.
 The magazine stand was a Baby Boomer thing.  The direct market was really a Generation X thing.  The graphic novel was a Millennial thing.  Online and on social media is where the younger generation is.  Since Webtoon is so well targeted specifically for that, they’re getting eyeballs.
 Now, this doesn’t mean that the older forms of comics are necessarily hurting or anything– I mean, newspaper comic strips are still around and even though they’re long past their heyday, generally speaking, they’re still probably getting more readers than any other form of comic, as they have for a hundred years– so I’m not one of those people who thinks that the industry or any part of it is on death’s door.  But, it’s important to understand where the growth is, and the growth is always with the younger people who will be reading comics for the rest of their lives.  Right now, from what I see, that growth is in the webtoon format.  When I think about the industry, and how to improve the business, no matter what direction you’re trying to go, I think that’s the most important thing to understand.
 Also, as an artist, getting those younger fans is crucial to keep my career healthy.  Hopefully a 14-year-old fan of OUTRAGE today, will still be a fan of my work in 14 more years when they’re an editor at a comic company, or even just someone with a job who now has enough money to buy his favorite page from his favorite comic from when he was 14.
 So between the younger audience that we’ve found with OUTRAGE, the popularity of Deadpool, which has gotten my artwork onto countless tee-shirts and merchandise, and just working with Fabian Nicieza who’s one of my favorite comic writers from when I was 14 myself, I feel like I’m in a pretty good place in the industry right now. 

And do you have a website you would want to direct folks to?

Find me online at: ReillyBrownArt.com

Follow my news and updates at: Instagram  Tumblr  Facebook

To purchase original artwork, contact my art rep Anthony Snyder

Be sure to check out my creator owned comics Outrage and  Power Play

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed by the above creator are theirs. This interview may not 

be reprinted or reposted without permission.