Recently, Comicbookinterviews.com publisher John Michael Helmer had the chance to catch up with Abede Lovelace, artist and creator for City of Walls. Abede gave CBI the inside scoop about the talented creator, his current project, and what’s on the horizon…
JMH: Where were you born and raised?
AL: I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens. It was a rather eclectic evolution because I moved around a lot in the early part of my life and went to high school in Manhattan so I ended up growing up in a lot of different areas with some very diverse dynamics. Now I’m back in Brooklyn.
JMH: Tell CBI about yourself…
AL: Well I was born in and have spent my entire life living in New York (although that might change sooner then later). I realized pretty early on I wanted to draw for a living and soon after, that I wanted to draw comic books. Like most kids I had no idea how a comic was actually made but I Loved to draw and already displayed a talent for it. Also I was lucky in that my parents supported my pursuit of being an artist; even if they too had no idea of exactly how one made a living drawing things. I’m not sure it’s any different now, but back then the only job perceived to be found, doing drawings, was as an architect. It never ceases to amaze me the common ignorance to art, its possibilities and how very large a part of our every day lives it is. Anyway, fast forward to now and I have dedicated the better part of my life working at being a great artist; specifically in the art of storytelling which is my passion. I have been publishing my own comic, City of Walls, over the last few years as well as working in the mainstream; primarily as an assistant inker. Also doing freelance gigs here and there for this or that project, sometimes comics other times fine arts other times graphic design. For a time I created and ran a few comic art programs in various schools in NY. More recently I hooked up with Raphael Moran, an old comrade from college. He gave me the opportunity to do some work on some books he’s working on. One in particular called Dream Reavers has been a lot of fun. It’s been a great experience I’m excited to see the finished product. Also I am a HUGE fan of Film and Animation.
JMH: How long have you been drawing comics?
AL: Professionally for a few years. As an amateur, since the summer before 8th grade. This might sound kinda dumb but it really was one of those lightning strike moments. Me and a good friend at that point in my life went hunting for a comic shop we heard was in our neighborhood. We found it and for whatever reason the experience was so charged and inspired that we had this revelation of sorts that we could draw our own comic books (up until then it was all pin up style stuff and mainly copies of pre-existing material). Again it sounds dumb but for any number of reasons, it never occurred to us, that we could try to create our own; until that moment! We literally raced home grabbed a stack of Xerox paper and went about creating our comic books. My friend would later give up (art period not just creating his comic) but for me, that was the big bang; for me that was the moment. From then on I never stopped creating characters and drawing comics. It would be years before I would actually finish one though.
JMH: How did you break into the industry drawing comic books?
AL: It was a long and unclear process. In many ways I still consider myself to be breaking in! I guess the big event, was getting an internship at Marvel. The internship itself wasn’t the thing per say but one day I happened to go hang out at one of the drafting tables they had in the office (1 of the famous bull pens) and there was a guy putting the last touches on some pages he was about to turn in (the pages happened to be for my favorite book of that time so immediately I was frozen in a dead stare). It was a deadline situation (as is always the case in this biz) and he was visibility frantic. He asked if I knew how to use a micron pen I said hell yeah! He passed me a page and said fill this and that in and I did (I will never forget the mixture of terror and holy shit excitement of this moment). When we were done he checked what I did, figured I did a good enough job to offer me a position as his assistant. About a month later he called me and a week later I was an assistant inker. The inker was Mark Morales. He has come to be a great friend, more or less family, as well as a mentor; and I still work for him. It is impossible to calculate what I have learned under his iron fist! I’m still trying to get to the 36th chamber!
JMH: Do you have any formal art training?
AL: Yes, again I was lucky in that I was single minded enough that before I finished junior high I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to draw comic books. So every decision I made going forward was in pursuit of this goal. So I went to Art and Design High School, from there I went to SVA. Along the way I took various art classes. A couple which stick out were a 2 semester Saturday class I took during HS, at Cooper Union and later on (during college), countless Friday night figure drawing sessions at the Art Students League. I would say that both were real turning points for me because both were things that demanded a lot from me and both were situations where the only person or factor enforcing any type of obligation or dedication was myself. They were real turning points in terms of self control and hunger. Giving up your Saturdays, every Saturday, from morning till late afternoon, for a year, is a BIG deal to a kid n High School. To me they were real moments of truth. As time went on, and I grew, it really became more incumbent on me to train on my own as oppose to being in a class. I would say one of the single biggest turning points in my life as an artist was an impromptu trip to Italy. The Sistine Chapel, David and Caravagio changed my ideas and aspirations on art and drawing, on a fundamental level; forever!
JMH: Who are your artistic influences?
AL: Wow many! As I have grown they have changed but in no particular order I would say some of the heavy hitters are:
Lyendecker
Michelangelo
Caravagio
Mignola
BWS
Frazzeta
Wrightson
Eisner
Knowlan
Mark Morales
Moebius
Sergio Leoni
Ridley Sott
Miyazaki
—to name a few. There are many more.
JMH: How do you focus when drawing?
AL: I am a big music person. I usually listen to music while working, but I go through phases. Sometimes I’ll go through a long period where I listen to director’s commentary tracks while I work. Other times I’ll work in complete silence. I enjoy all three. But a lot of the time a play music.
JMH: What types of technology do you use to draw?
AL: I am a fairly integrated artist. The actual drawing and inking is done traditionally, pencils n paper, pen, ink n brushes. That being said, I have fully implemented computers and tech into my process. I start with my sketch book. I work out all my layouts and panel designs in there. Once I have designed a given page I then scan the panels into my computer and put the page together in Photoshop following the design/composition I created in my sketchbook. I then print out the finished layout on the paper I do my finished boards on. I can then draw and ink directly on top of this blue print. Depending on a given page, sometimes I add a step or two. Photoshop, a wide format scanner and printer have proving invaluable to me. They really allow for a lot of freedom editing and designing; they can make correcting problems much less disastrous. I also use Illustrator and InDesign.
JMH: Tell CBI about City of Walls…
AL: City of Walls follows the journey of three children growing up in an industrial super complex who are intent on escape. The name of this city is Kowloon. It was loosely based on a real city which once existed in a very similar fashion, where you had a super complex of conjoined buildings forming a giant Project. Within these buildings, apartments and hall ways was an entirely self sustained community which had schools, doctors, restaurants and merchants of all sorts. It also had rampant drug problems and was at one point run by Triads. Our Kowloon more or less took this reality and expanded on it. Our Kowloon is also run by triads but we introduced the concept of the triads being partnered up with what we call the “nobles”, a powerful class of outsiders who have entered into an uneasy partnership with the triads. Also our Kowloon is much larger. The original was a few city blocks in width; our Kowloon is roughly the size of Manhattan. We increased the factor of isolation, the original Kowloon was in Hong Kong, and ours is in a desert in Asia.
Our characters are basically stranded by birth, growing up in a hyper realized ghetto; with a hardwired class structure and dark back drop of inescapable poverty and oppression. They are witness to, surrounded by, and sometimes victims of, all the common things which go along with such an environment including the violence. The idea of being born into a situation and having no hope of bettering that situation and fighting anyway in spite of this crushing reality is the real heart of the story. The idea that you have no choice, that, it is what it is and if your on the bottom that’s just the way it goes. Your ideas are irrelevant, your dreams are irrelevant. You are irrelevant. Our characters refuse to surrender to this fate and with luck, inherent brilliance and a whole lot of grit are determined to escape. With mountains on one side and a desert on the other this is a seemingly fantastical notion to say the least and a solution by nature of the problem has to be bold and probably extreme. Their solution is to build a plane and fly.
City of Walls is a gritty and fairly grounded story with some spectacular elements and events but the sense of realism is very prevalent.
JMH: Where can readers purchase issues of City of Walls?
AL: Right now the best place to buy City of Walls is at the Comixpress website. Here is the direct link.
Readers can also always visit the website cityofwalls.com
After that it depends on if you happen to live in NYC and go to some of big shops in Manhattan or catch us at a Con. We’re still figuring out distribution.
JMH: Are there future stories in the works for City of Walls?
AL: The original series is slated as 7 issues (a mini series) the first 4 of which are on the shelves. We have lots of ideas for new stories. We have a fully functioning city, for which we have really worked out how it functions socially, economically and geographically. So there are literally millions of stories we could tell. I would really love to put together a “Tales of Kowloon” where I could have guest artists and writers weave their own tale of a citizen(s) of Kowloon. But that’s for later; right now we have to finish the City of Walls.
JMH: Does City of Walls carry a message to the readers?
AL: No. At least not on purpose. I’m not a real fan of trying to communicate to people in this fashion. Not that it can’t be done and done well, it’s just not my goal. I certainly have my ideas, philosophies and opinions even, on the situations our characters are in, their world and definitely some very powerful ones about ours too. But I don’t think it’s my job to promote or campaign those feelings in the book. I created this world so there’s already an inherent amount of my point of view that is inescapable, no need to consciously sit down and push the issue. I think a big test of this, is the fact that I can truthfully say, that I do not necessarily agree with all of my characters choices or ideas. But they are fully formed creations, so what we try to do is allow them to do what is theoretically in their nature to do in a given situation. My job is to tell a powerful and excellent story and that’s what my partner and I are working at.
JMH: Talk about collaborating with Shaun Noel.
AL: Working with Shaun has been and is one of the greatest creative experiences I have partaken in. The art of collaboration is extraordinarily hard in my opinion. The delicate balance of ego, motivation/passion, hard work, talent, confidence and honesty needed to have a successful and fruitful colab is almost mystical to me. I say mystical because I really have no idea how I managed to luck into forming this relationship with Shaun. I have made many attempts with many other people. Most were miserable failures and not because I’m a @#%$ (I swear!!! and I’m not by the way!) It’s just everybody is different and it’s hard to line up your goals with someone else’s, especially when it’s a situation where you are working WITH someone and not FOR someone or vice versa.
Working with Shaun is awesome. We respect each others roles and trust each others decisions and that goes a long way! And we feed each other in that respect cause he will write a great script, I’ll feed on and expand off of that and then, when we go in to finish it off, he’ll ratchet up and tighten the dialogue, so that the final product is dope! It’s been a really amazing experience and I have learned A LOT. The script to book 5 is amazing; Shaun’s best yet! Seeing him grow has been additional motivation and added demand, for me to be a better artist.
JMH: What other genre or medium have you worked in?
AL: I have also done biographical stuff as well as an early colab with Shaun that was a more fantasy inspired thing. This is the biggest undertaking I have taken on thus far. My next creation will debut my first full fledged go at a super hero. I really excited about that.
JMH: Can you tell the readers about any new projects on the horizon?
AL: The next project for me is my Super hero project. But I’m keeping mum about it. Least until I’ve secured the copyright stuff. Lot a theiven’ bastards out there, ya know. I am planning on debuting it as a bonus feature in City of Walls, though. So it will be revealed sooner then later. I will say that strictly speaking in terms of archetypes, it is a Superman type character but only in the sense that his power set is god or demi-god like. Beyond that he’s a great deal far from Superman.
JMH: Do you have any words of advice for aspiring artists?
AL: Wow! that’s tough. I’m pretty humble and hesitant to preach. I will say that in terms of comic art you must be stead fast in your discipline to be a great artist. Never stop trying to learn and become better at your craft. Study the masters try to understand what some of the great painters and illustrators, were trying to do and how they were trying to do it. Watch great film directors and try to realize how they tell stories visually. What makes this or that particular director unique? What makes bad movies bad? I think that’s a pretty good place to start.
JMH: Abede, thanks for your time. All the best!
AL: Ciao
About the interviewer –
John Michael Helmer is the Publisher and CEO of Red Leaf Media, LLC. Red Leaf Media operates www.ComicBookInterviews.com, www.RedLeafComics.com, and www.ArmorGuardians.com.
John’s creator-owned properties include: The Leaf, Canada’s Greatest Hero, Sky Watcher, The Armor Guardians, NorthForce, MacSorly R.C.M.P, and many others.
John can be reached at: jhelmer@comicbookinterviews.com and redleafcomics@gmail.com
