COMICS ARTIST HILARY BARTA                                          
                                                                                                                      by Jose Carlos Neves

Working in the field since the 80s, the Chicago-based comic-artist Hilary Barta is famous for his Plastic Man mini-series and, currently for his partnership with the bearded magus Alan moore in Tomorrow Stories title “Splash Brannigan”, a funny and clever super-heroes parodie.

With you, Hilary Barta:

 -First of, Hilary, please let’s begin...

  Let’s. There is nothing we artists like more than talking about ourselves.

  I was born in Chicago, Illinois, where I still live today. 

I briefly attended several schools here until I found that studying the live model and figure drawing outside of school with one of my professors,  Fred Berger,  was the most efficient way to learn.  Of course,  once I started working in a more cartoonier style I forgot most of what I had learned from life drawing.

 -How did you get started?  Why Comics?

It had to be film or comics, and comics was easier.  And I could draw.  Based on the student films I made,  I’m not sure I had any talent there.  In some ways I think that I’m still making films, but on the comics page.

I’ve always loved comics,  though as a child I read the newspaper comic strips ( and paperback collections of them ) more than comic books. I did become a Marvel fan in the early 1960s.  Jack Kirby knocked me out.  The undergrounds and the MAD paperbacks also had a big impact on me.  You can’t imagine the effect of Crumb’s “Joe Blow” on a young and repressed catholic mind.  Later I became a collector and read  as widely as I could.  In high school I discovered Will Eisner’s The Spirit and older american and many european comics,  and I started thinking beyond Marvel and mainstream comics.

I first drew for comic fanzines, and later started at Marvel.  Al Milgrom saw my work at a convention and kindly gave me my first assignments.  I’ll always be indebted to Al and Marvel for sticking with me at the start of my career,  because I was quite awful for quite a long while.  

Later I got my first writing job from Rick Oliver at First Comics,  which led to writing for Carl Potts at Marvel on What The--?!.

-What is it that attracted you to art and drawing? What were your influences? What are your earliest memories as far as that go?

  I can’t remember a time when I was not drawing or creating.  My parents encouraged me and my siblings to be creative, and exposed us to a broad range of culture.  They took us to museums and the theatre, and read to us.  We heard a lot of folk and classical music.  My dad would run about the apartment “conducting” the symphony  on the hi-fi,  ala Danny Kaye. 

My younger brother and I would make up our own games,  and create these elaborate full color boards for them, though I think we spent more time making the boards  than actually playing the games.

One of the first comics that I remember drawing was a one page comic based on the Batman TV show.  I still have it.  

 -As a child, did you spend a lot of time indoors reading? Only comics or mainstream literature also?

  I was outdoors a lot,  though I loved reading too.  And I read books before I dove deeply into comics.  I read non-genre books,  though I had the typical adolescent interest in SF and Fantasy.

-What was the first comic by Alan Moore did you read?

  Possibly it was one of the collections of British stuff,  like Halo Jones,  or  Alan Moore’s Twisted Knickers,  or maybe it was Alan Moore’s Shocking Habits or something… I forget the exact titles.  They were great stories in any case.  I had also tracked down a few 2000 ADs and Warrior magazines.  I read most of the first stories Alan did for DC,  when I could find them.
                        
 -Did it had a special impact on you? Why?

  They British  comics were always interesting stories,  with clever twists and suprises, and there was quite a bit of humor in the shorts as I recall.  And V For Vendetta was quite a memorable series.  I remember the Superman stories drawn by Dave Gibbons  and Curt Swan as quite good, even touching.  Because of that early stuff,  I was looking forward to SwampThing.                                                                                            (Barta and his dog Leo)
                        

-What do you think is his best work to date? Why?
 

I don’t have a hierarchy of favorites.  Recently Jack B. Quick was one of my favorites, as is The League Of Extraordinary Dirty Old Men.  I’ve enjoyed quite a lot of Alan’s work.

  -What do you think about Big Numbers, if you read the two published issues?  Could a graphic-novel comprise all the complexity of human existence, common life, the whole Universe and so on, as an unique, united system, as AM intended to do with Big Numbers?

  I don’t remember too much about Big Numbers except waiting for the next issue. Sorry.  I find Alan’s ability to see the connections between events, the cause and effect of things, and to intricately structure a story around them quite amazing. 

We all affect the world by our behaviour, for good or ill.

-What are your ideas about Watchmen's innovations?

  I think that Watchmen was a great read,  though I share Alan’s problems with the books darker elements having a negative and possibly limiting effect on the business.

Instead of encouraging the publishing of equally daring but entirely different books, it seemed to signal a deluge of bleaker and bleaker copies. 

Another of the side-effects of the book is that a lot of writers who didn’t have the talent thought they should or could write these depressingly dark and needlessly elaborate scripts.  But you can’t blame Alan for that.

My biggest problem with a lot of the writing that came out of this is the attempts by  these writers to “direct” the comic.  I have read scripts where “camera” angles are described,  to no apparent purpose except to exert control over the artist.

Also,  Alan’s ability to envision a unique and all encompassing structure and then carry it out,  can be overdone.  The gimmick in Watchmen of linking every scene transition through a verbal or visual pun or rhyme soon becomes tiresome.  This was old in the era of silent film.  And,  except to add a  general feeling of interconectedness to the various storylines,  was only occasionally  more than merely clever in Watchmen.

  -And for From Hell, do you think it could be considered a history of the cradle to the 20th Century,  with all its paranoia, conspirations and corruption?
                         

Sorry,  haven’t read it.  I’m a bad boy.  I hear they made a movie out of it.

  -What are your considerations about Time? Do you think about it as being "the Fourth Dimension  of space as theorized by Einstein, or what else?

  The main lesson I have learned about time is how we live with the past and that the past lives through us.  I feel that I have a connection to every artist and writer I study, and that they live on in their work.  If this is immortality,  than I believe in immortality.  Creation is an important responsibility,  and you must always give your best.  The artists who turn out crap for a living are doing the future no good.
                         

-What do you think it would be The Fourth Dimension? How you would conceive an object (the so called Tesseract) and a being for the 4th D if it could appear in our tridimensional world?
 

Huh?  I’m still trying to deal with the first  three dimensions…

-What are your impressions on Alan/Sienkiewicz’s Brought to Light and its references to the CIA's covert operations around the world?

Without commenting on Brought To Light specifically,   I’m deeply ashamed and angered at the history of anti-democratic acts commited by our government,  and the disinterest in the historic consequences by the mainstream media and general public. 

This isn’t solely historic,  but continues today  around the world.  Of course, a lot of the critics of the U.S. are hypocrites.  Show me the government and country that hasn’t tried to bury its sins. 

-Do you think that comics can be a political instrument,  that they can reach and appeal to a large audience?

  Comics can teach or express anything,  including politics.  Reaching an audience is a much more complicated subject,  and is much harder to accomplish.

-And AM´s debuting in mainstream literature with Voice of the Fire, do you think it accomplished it´s intention, to tell the history of magic, wichtcraft, shamanism and so on, through the history of Northampton? In a short, how you would review it?

Haven’t read it.

-Tell us how you become involved in these ABC stunning line of comics?

  I was hired by Scott Dunbier to draw Splash Brannigan,  which was intended to rotate with Jack B. Quick in Tomorrow Stories.  I assume Alan said “okay”.

  -Any other projects related to Alan?

I recently did a 2 page tribute to Alan for George Khoury’s book on Alan (The Extraordinary Works Of AM).  I’m sure I only succeded in embarrassing the poor fellow.
                        

-What do you think about Magic and about Alan's lyrics, CDs, The Birth Caul and Snakes and Ladders?

In general,  I haven’t done much reading on magic.  I don’t know what I “believe”. 

Um…I did hear The Sinister Ducks years ago,  but can’t recall it just now.  Haven’t heard the other stuff.

  -Movies and mainly music, can affect us deeply, rousing imprevisible emotions. So it is Poetry. They all can transcend its limitations as a genre. What about comics? Could it have this quality also?

Any art form can be used well,  and can accomplish a variety of effects on it’s audience.  Comics are no exception.  And remember that comics are not a genre, but an art form.  Super-heroes are a genre.  Violent Watchmen inspired super-heroes  is a sub-genre.

-Could you mention examples?

When I think of comics as poetry,  I tend to think of  visual narratives,  where we observe,  rather than are told what to think.  This is seldom done in commercial comics, due to convention and limitations of space.  I think Blankets by Craig Thompson is a recent example where the narrative opens up and breathes and invites us in to be active participants in it.

-Returning to your art and comics, tell us more about them. We know that you did some illustrations for acclaimed Isaac Asimov Magazine. So, what other Sci-Fi Artists do you appreciate and why?

  My work in SF illustation was brief and insignificant.  I was not a success.  I think that Kelly Freas had the most influence on me.  He took his job seriously.  In his illustrations he tried to provide clues to mysteries,  to visua

  -Do you kow the art of John Berkey, Michael Whelan, Jim Burns, for example? What do you think about Berkey´s kind of impressionist space-art?

Sorry,  I don’t follow SF art.

  -As for yourself, what is your best work till now and why?   

  -You have been used as a model to same Alex Ross character for his acclaimed Marvels. -Do you use a lot of photographical references - or prefer to draw by your own ( mainly figures concerning) like the departed Burne Hogarth?

  I make up more than I should.  I use some reference,  but try not to rely on it. The important thing is to create a world that is of a piece.  There are too many examples artists who’s use of photo reference stands out awkwardly from the rest of the art.

  -In my own art studing I have concluded that that ilusion of tridimensionality in drawing art is obtained mostly through a very precise light-and-shade. The figures - the main, under focal point ones, at least - are always iluminated by two source lights at minimum. One stronger from one side and a slender one from another side. Or, at least the unique light source is so strong that causes reflected light to fill in the dark sides of the figures - this apears very clear at the art of the maove mentioned Serpieri.  Am I right? Would you like to better elucidate us about this hard to get technique? It would be great.

  I don’t paint,  so I can’t comment on painting techniques.  In comics,  the use of two light sources,  or “double lighting”,  has a long history.  Wally Wood was a prime exponent of this, using light and shadow to create some of the most striking examples of depth and dimension in comics. 

In recent years, the use of reflected light and not filling in shadows with solid black has been overdone.  It seemed that there was an entire school of artists who were afraid of using black.  This may be partly due to the amount of color detail that is now afforded in computer coloring,  but I fear it also has something to do with a general reliance on detail and noodling.  It also betrays a lack of understanding of the beauty of clarity and simplicity in storytelling.

In terms of light and dark,  I try to think of these as tools of storytelling,  not just picture-making.  A figure can be shadowed to separate it from the the background,  but also to give it dramatic weight,  or to hide a telling detail till a dramatic moment.

I also feel that the grounding of a created world with shadow adds a feeling to the work that is more than simply visual.  When shadows lend that weight to a drawing it creates the suggestion of gravity,  of reality,  of the crushing weight of the physical world.  I am not speaking of photo-realism,  but a kind of expressionism that is the ideal for me.  Light is all we have to view the world,  be it real or in art. There, I can get pretentious with the best of them! 

I also tend to eschew the typical mindless use of varied page composition in comics.  You know,  vary the perspective and angle and use close and long shots just to keep the reader interested.  Or design a page with a pin-up shot so that you can sell the original for more money.  I tend to rely on medium and full figure shots to ground the action in context,  in that reality I mention above.

  -Technically speaking, what material do you use the most, oil, guache, or what? What are the steps you follow from first conceiving to the final painting?

  In my drawing I use india ink,  mostly brush.  I use a lot of inexpensive plastic Japanese brushes.  Pens for the occaisional details.

  -Have you tried also sculpting?

   I dabbled in sculpture when was younger.

--What about 3D CGI Art? Have you tried it? I do not know for you but at my very subjective view it is almost "plastical", or "too much clean", lacking the liveness,the fiery that conventional painting with all that brush-strokes encompass.

  My connection to computers is the coloring of my comics,  which I have little control over.  Sometimes this serves the art,  but too often the computer coloring is a means for a technician to show off their technical skills,  no matter the appropriateness to the story and art.

Computer art can have that “plastic” feel,  and this is certainly apparent in film,  where the images have become choked with clutter and a suffocating inorganic “atmosphere”.  I believe that this is generally the fault of the artists involved,  not the computer.

-Are there any questions about your work on Splash Brannigan (and for AM in general) that no one has ever asked you but that you would like to have been asked because you can provide an interesting/informative answer?

  Were that I was that interesting.  Can’t think of anything just now.  It was a pleasure working with Alan, and I only wish it didn’t cost so much to call England,  or I would probably drive him crazy nagging him to write more for me.

  -What about Alan proverbial hiper-detailed and dense scripts? Did you have any problem with them? (presuming they are  full ellaborated ones, like Watchmen´s)

  Unlike the Moore influenced writers I referred to earlier,  Alan always seems to have a purpose to his descriptions and detail.  A point is being made,  and he is sharing his passion through those details.  And though people seem to assume this,  Alan is not a control freak.  I suspect that he is a perfectionist however,  and simply cares about the work more than most.  I have read interviews with many of his collaborators who all seem to share my experience that Alan is both open to and looking for his collaborators to meet him half way,  to bring their voice to the piece.

-What do you know about Brazilian’s Literature, Comics, Music and way-of-life?
 

Not a lot,  but I love the music and the sound of the language.

-Do you know the comic-art of the famous Brazilian artist Mike Deodato?

  Unfortunately I haven’t seen much of his work.

  Please, what are the three most important events of your life?

  --What do you think happens to consciousness after physical death?

  I can’t say,  but please refer to my earlier comments on immortality.

   -What about drugs? Do you think that acid ( and other kind of drugs, like the mushrooms of Terence McKenna, the DMT) could help us in opening the gates to altered states of counsciousness? For you, this "states" are another reality, a parallel universe, another dimension, an alien landscape, an inner world - like the "Immateria" concept by Alan - , the summ of all this or anything else?

  I have no opinion,  but I tend to stay away from drugs due to observing too many ruined lives when I was young.  I find that art is a much safer and readily available gateway to conciousness,  altered or otherwise.

  -What about nowadays, what is seminal for you now?

  In comics?  I tend to read a few mainstream books by friends,  such as 100 Bullets,  and mostly alternative books to see what is new.  I fear that I have lost touch with most of what is hip.  I think that my dreams are still more haunted with movies than comics.  Alas, I would rather watch Mizoguchi than read most comics today.

Well, Hilary, thank you so much, to share your precious time.

  Thank you, Jose.

CLIC HERE TO VIEW A "SAMPLE" OF ALAN MOORE´S SCRIPT TO "SPLASH BRANNIGAN "