New Blood

GUILLERMO DEL TOROopens the fle on his new vampirenovel,THE STRAIN, and discusses what it’s like or theawardwinning director to move rom flm to prose…

WORDS AND PICTURES: JOEL MEADOWS

original lettering. The drawing, the story, the colouring; every aspect o what’scoming out as much as I can control it. Ido it because I eel that what I’m creatingas ar as story and drawing is concernedshould be judged on the basis that this isall my work. Deadlines are a constant thateverybody lives with in this business, so it’snecessary under those circumstances very oten to get one person to do the pencilling,another person to do the inking, someoneelse to do the colour and so on and so orth.But I eel very strongly that this dissipates the one direction that a piece o artworkshould be taking.

TW: How has your speed changed over the years in terms for example of how long it would take you to draw an issue? JK:

That’s an interesting question becauseI don’t set a time slot when I sit down to work. My eeling, my sense is however thatI eel a little bit more secure about what I’mdoing now than when I was younger andso I believe that the work goes a little aster.I have gained a certain amount o surenesand commitment. I do barrel ahead on my work. I have no compunctions and no earsabout what I’m doing. I don’t second-guessmysel at this stage o the game. I eel quitecertain about what I want to do, or good oror bad. I’m pretty certain about what I want to put down on the paper, what I want tocommunicate and I think because o that, Idon’t think it’s a matter o physically work-ing aster, I think it’s a matter o being able to make decisions a little aster that enablesme to get the work done.

TW: But I presume that the

Tor

pages were hand-drawn by yourself and thenscanned in? JK:

I know what I’m trying to do. I’m notquite sure how it communicates to others butnevertheless I know what I’m trying to do.

TW: Why do you think Tarzan andadventure still resonate,in light of thefact it’s the eightieth anniversary of thecharacter in comic strip, ? JK:

I don’t know. To me I can only gaugemy personal reaction to old characters likeTarzan. As I said beore a man I’d nevermet or even talked to, Hal Foster, was able to do things in his work that communicated

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