Mike Collins

British Comics Writer and Artist Mike Collins
by Jose Carlos Neves

An writer and artist in British and American comic books for more than 15 years, Mike Collins has worked on many key characters - (2000AD) SLAINE, JUDGE DREDD, ROGUE TROOPER;(DC) SUPERMAN, BATMAN, WONDER WOMAN, THE FLASH, MARTIAN MANHUNTER, PETER CANNON:THUNDERBOLT,THE TEEN TITANS, LEGION OF SUPERHEROES:(Marvel) X-MEN, SPIDER-MAN, SUB-MARINER, DAREDEVIL; (Eclipse) LASER-ERASER & PRESSBUTTON. He has done also art for many licensed comics properties such as STAR TREK, BABYLON 5, Dr.WHO, TRANSFORMERS, ZOIDS, THUNDERCATS and GHOSTBUSTERS and illustrated for TSR/WIZARDS of the COAST their manuals and magazines - particularily FORGOTTEN REALMS and HARRY POTTER!
Beside Comics, he has also done design work for animation - including the Panel/storyboard work for the rare semi-animated movie, written by Alan Moore 'RAGNAROK', to Never Studios, in 1983 - and advertising and also illustrated for childrens fiction and work on several educational projects and he is also the cover artist on the monthly Simon&Schuster STAR TREK e-books.
Mike Collins is one of the "contributors" to the upcoming homage-book on Alan Moore, Portrait of an Extraordinay Gentleman and promptly accepted our invitation for the Interview that follows.

-Well Mike, let's begin with some background. Your age, where did you born, grow up and lives today? Are you married? Sons? What's your academic record? How did you get started? Have you been to Art School?

Never went to Art School. In fact, my degree is in Politics and Modern History. I went to Brunel University in West London which doesn't even have an Art Department. Ironically, this made me HGWells 'One Eyed Man In The Kingdom Of The Blind'.. any clubs and societies that needed T-Shirts drawn or logos designed soon found out about me and commissioned me to draw for them. It was a valuable lesson in learning to draw for reproduction.
I grew up in West Bromwich - I share a home town with John Byrne. I loved comics and always thought there was no chance of getting to work in the field. West Bromwich is the kind of town you leave, rather than "come from" if that makes sense. When I found out John had come from West Brom I suddenly realized there WAS a chance... ironically, shortly before I had my fateful meeting with Alan (details later) I saw the first episode of 'Skizz' in 20000AD which featured a road sign with an arrow pointing towards West Bromwich!

I am married- have been for 18 years. I have no sons, but three beautiful talented daughters. I was born in 1961, the same day Alan Shepherd made the first sub-orbital flight of an American spacecraft. (May 5th!)

I currently live in Cardiff, Wales where my wife was born and DIDN'T want to leave :-)

-What is it that attracted you to art and drawing? What were your influences?

British newspaper strips -Modesty Blaise, Jeff Hawke, Garth. I loved these. Jim Holdaway's art on Modesty was a grittier, stylish Alex Raymond, Syd Jordan's Jeff Hawke was atmospheric 'real' space fiction and Frank Bellamy's art boiled my brain with its unbeleivably dynamic energized art.

-What about writing? Influences?

British playwrights- Tom Stoppard, Alan Plater, Dennis Potter, Harold Pinter and Peter Shaffer. I love they way they can construct sentences that are imbibed with meaning and resonace beyond the mere moving forward the plot. I actually see Alan Moore as being part of this tradition.
In comics, I've a lot of time for Don McGregor. Amongst the 70s 'New Wave' of creators, I think he took the most chances. Alan Grant, Chuck Dixon and Len Wein are masters of efficient, exciting comics... the antithesis of the Alan Moore school. I love that craftsmanship, though.
Of Alan's 'decendants' I think Mike Carey is the most interesting- again, I see influences and stylings from outside our narrow little world.

-Do you use a lot of photographical references or prefer to draw by your own (mainly figures concerning) like the departed Burne Hogarth?

As a lot of my work is with licenced products (Star trek principally) I've gotten comfortable with referencing faces and settings. It's something I was unsure about early on. However, reading the David Hockney book ' Secret Knowledge' it turns out the 'Great Masters' weren't averse to using 'photo' ref!
I always layout my stories and make sure I'm happy with the storytelling before accumilating reference. That way, it doesn't dictate how my art reads. It's a tool, the trick is to make sure it doesn't become a master.

Sketches to a Babylon 5 'cover

-How did you first become interested in comics? What are your earliest memories as far as that goes?

I got into comics through the DC Thomson weekly humour anthologies The Beano, Dandy and -my favourite- Sparky. I progressed to the beautifully rendered photo-gravure work on TV21 and Countdown.
I came across Marvel comics initially through weekly UK reprints in Fantastic and Terrific, but was too young to 'get' Kirby's work. It wasn't until the early 70s when I became a Marvel Zombie buying everything with their name on it. I loved Colan, Buscema and Gil Kane. The new guys -Brunner, Chaykin, Simonson and Starlin- opened up whole new worlds of storytelling and scale.
...and of course, there was John Byrne! X-Men under him and Chris Claremont was just magnificent.

-What was the first comic you read that had been written by Alan Moore?

Probably 'The Stars My Degredation' in Sounds. Or did he just draw that? I certainly noticed him on some witty short strips in the back of Doctor Who Monthly.

-Did it have a special impact on you? Why?

The wit.... the crafty dialogue -refering back to my comments about British playrights... the sense that you were seeing an intelligence at work, beyond just crafting an interesting story. You were seeing ideas being explored.

-What do you think is his best work, and why?

Watchmen. It did so much to explore the nature of reality, destiny and free will through the medium of a super hero strip. And my favourite issue is #4 'Watchmaker' which is a microcosm of the story as a whole and , for me, links two childhood heroes -Albert Einstein and Kurt Vonnegut- thematically and structurally. Breathtaking stuff.

-If you know it What do you think about Big Numbers? What do you think Alan intended to convey with this very promising story (Big Numbers is, for me, his magnum opus, which has reached the status of a mythic work)?

I wish it had carried on. In some ways, I think it was structurally a similar work to Watchmen - using small moments in individual lives as part of a vast whole. Telling a story through the little incidents, not the grand gestures.

-Do you agree with Chaos theory that our world (and the Universe as a whole, by extension) is ruled by fractals, strange attractors and so on, where a minor alteration in initial conditions can cause major, and irreversible, alterations in final conditions? Could a comic book (or a graphic novel, as some describe them) aspire to detail this 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?

It's there in all his work. Yes, I'm always amazed how things in everyday life resonate. Coincidences power our lives. I've always thought that chaos theory is an expression of that. Comic stories are as valid a way as any of showing the accidental gears and pistons of the Universe's strangeness engine.

-Do you think that one day Alan might change his mind and think about it, again?

Who knew he'd go back to 'superheroes'? Anything is possible.

-What are your thoughts about Watchmen´s innovations in the way it tells it's story?

Well, see above. It was an elegant, finite structure - a hall of mirrors with actions and images resonating and reflecting. I loved the text feature in the back of each issue and how they planted seeds for later story elements. Unique and clever.

THE PHANTON''s cover by Collins

-Do you think From Hell could be considered to be a history of the birth of the 20th Century - with it´s elements of paranoia, conspiracies and corruption?

Well, maybe. I think it also serves to show that nothing is new. It could have been set in Ancient Rome, or the future. The fact that so many themes and incidents within it do inform on how the 20th century shaped up cannot be denied.

-What are your impressions of Brought to Light and it´s denouncements of the illegal C.I.A. operations around the world? Do you think comics can be a political instrument - that they can appeal to a wide audience for this purpose?

Oh yes - Comics is just another medium, another vehicle for telling a story. The use of imagery is a powerful tool in expressing ideas. Look at all the Jack Chick Fundamentalist Christian comics, the Chinese Communist comic strip work. Ideas are communicated quickly and powerfully.
In this sense, Brought To Light was a fantastic peice of work.

-AM´s debut in mainstream literature, Voice of the Fire (it has been just published here in Brazil, if you did not know) - do you think it accomplished it´s intention to tell the history of Magic, witchcraft, shamanism and so on, through the history of Northhampton?

Again, we're at the theme of telling the big stories through the small incidents. It's a very marxist way of approaching history. It works.

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

I'll have to put my hands up and confess the last music I bought by Alan was The Sinister Ducks.

-Returning to your comics and art - tell us what you are doing now.

I'm back at my comics 'home' 2000AD. I love working on an anthology title - the opportunities for experimentation and sheer fun are greater than if you're the sole act on a book. I still do my Trek covers monthly. I also get to indulge my humour side by doing illustrations for SFX magazine.

-What do you think is your best comics work to date, and why? Have you been publishing more over there or internationally?

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Judge Dredd. Back in 1985... still trying to top that! I've been published in Italy, and am shortly to start a graphic novel series for Norway.

-Have you been invited for other project related to Alan Moore?

Apart from the 'Extraordinairy Gentleman' book? No.

-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.

That whole 'more than real' look is very off-putting, isn't it? I'm interested in seing someone doing something strange with it - like Dali maybe.

-As for Animation, teel us all the history of RAGNAROK. It is a hard-to-find piece and we all, Alan Moore's fans, are very interested. How was it's "plot"? How you have been involved with the project? Why it has failed?

I got invited on it, and -with Mark Farmer- ended up doing about a third of the art. It was a fun story -- very much 2000AD meets New Gods meets George Saunders-as-Godzilla.
I think there were problems with the distributors. You know, there are copies out there, but they're PAL. I don't think you can play them on NTSC TVs.

-As for Story-Board, a difficult art in itself, what recomendations would you give to amateur story-boarders concerning figure movement, anatomic perspective, cinematics in general?

There are books on storyboarding - one of the best for cinema storytelling in general is "The 5 Cs of Cinematography" which explains which shots and set ups work, and -more importantly- the ones that DON'T.

-What specifically skills a story-boarder artist must accomplish others than those by a comicartist?

Comics is about the instant, frozen moment. Storyboarding is about communicating movement, suggesting pans and actions. The artwork doesn't need to be as detailed and has very different rules.. they aren't the same in lots of ways, and that's what's caught me out when I've worked in storyboarding.... thinking 'comic art' not movies.

-Do you have a homepage or site in the web? What is it's URL in order our readers to see more of your amazing art?

My website -still under construction- is www.freakhousegraphcis.co.uk.

-Do you know the comic art of the now famous Brazilian Mike Deodato? What are your impressions about it?

Love his stuff- he's an amazingly versatile artist. He can go from very realistic -Lost In Space- to the flashy expressive Image-y art of his Wonder Woman run. Great stuff.

-Finishing, my friend, what guidances would you give to aspiring artists like myself concerning realistically figure drawing and painting? Any book reccomendation? Live models?

Draw, draw, draw. I take sketchpads on vacation with me- buy books on art history and design. I photograph everything... be aware, use models, open your eyes.

-Many Thanks, Mike! It was rewardfull "to talk" - and learn - from you.