Rival Comics

For this week’s edition of Rival Radar, we interviewed Mike Powell, creator of the webcomic Revenger, and commission artist.  At first glance, I was hooked on Mike’s artwork, as it is such a throwback to comic art of yesteryear, and guaranteed to incite infinite amounts of nostalgia, which grows more and more with every piece of his art that you take a gander at.  I already had a great impression of this man through his amazing artwork alone, but throughout the course of the interview I was shown a very interesting person, artwork aside, with a lot of drive, determination, and great personality.  Continue reading for the full interview!

Rival Comics: First off, tell Rival readers a little about yourself.  Not just the you that we’ve seen through your artwork, but what makes Mike Powell tick?

Mike Powell: When  I was a kid I got hooked on things like Super Friends, The Incredible Hulk, Spiderman, and Transformers.  I discovered comics at about 8 years old, and I knew then that that’s what I wanted to spend my life doing.

But as much as I love comics and drawing, I’m into a lot more than that. I’ve studied several different foreign languages (though I don’t call myself fluent in anything but English). I love Spanish, French, and italian music. I’m a huge opera fan (you couldn’t make this stuff up, I know, lol). And I have a strong interest in metaphysics.  Not psychic phenomena and ghosts, but things like syncronicity and the power of intention, law of attraction.

So, to give you an idea of what’s on my bookshelf:

Watching The Watchmen by Dave Gibbons, Kirby Five-Oh, from Two Morrows publishing, John Byrne’s  Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. !, Savage Dragon Archives vols 1 and 2, The Complete Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch, Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling by Dr. Wayne Dyer, The Law of Attraction, by Jerry and Esther Hicks, and some French and Spanish Dictionaries. What a cluster!

RC: When it comes to your artwork, which is fantastic, are you self-taught, or have you had any formal training or schooling?

MP: I’m completely self-taught.

RC: From reading your blogs, you have a lot going on.  You update new pieces of art pretty much everyday and seem to have a lot of commissions going on.  How do you keep up with putting out so much art?  Are your commissions your bread and butter?

MP: It’s supplemental income.  I hope to be able to make it a full time job as time goes on. But I still have a way to go.

RC: From the commission work you have published on your site, it seems that you can draw any character from any genre.  Do you know most of these characters because you are a fan of…everything, or do you do a lot of research on a character before doing a commission?

MP: No, I’m terrible at remembering character designs. Most of the time I always have to look online for reference, if it isn’t already provided to me by a buyer.

RC: Are you ever approached with a request for a commission that you feel you simply cannot do?  Is there anything that you refuse to do?

MP: Most of the time I’m up for anything. I have no problem drawing nudity or tasteful erotic pieces, but there are some potential buyers who email me wanting me to draw things that should be illegal in 48 states, lol.

RC: You seem to have a lot of fun with your commissions.  What are your most requested commissions?  What are your favorites?

MP: Lately my most requested commissions are of Power Girl and Supergirl. I’ve done quite a few Mary Marvel and Lara Croft as well.

RC: We’ve seen a lot of your art and your original characters, although we are not quite sure if they are all connected to a comic or story.  Your characters all seem interesting and original, while still maintaining the classic super-hero vibe that I remember from comics when I was younger.  How do you come up with your characters?  In a world saturated with super-heroes that have been around for decades, do you find it difficult to create new super-heroes that don’t seem like something that’s been done in a super hero comic before?  How do you keep things interesting?

MP: While it’s true that most every kind of superhero has been done before, the same can’t be said for the situations and plot twists.  Take my principle character,

Sovereign. He’s essentially the Superman analogue of my comic universe.  I came up with his story by asking myself what would happen if Superman and Wonder Woman had a child? And what if Wonder Woman never told anyone, but retired from hero work and raised the child in secret? I obviously couldn’t tell that story with established DC characters, and I doubt very seriously that they would ever tell such a strory.  That’s why I came up with Sovereign and Lady Victory.

RC: We noticed you through your new webcomic Revenger.  Tell readers a little about the title.  Who is the Revenger?

MP: During the time period in which the webcomic takes place, Revenger is in his mid-twenties.

While in his teens his younger sister was brutally assaulted by a street gang, and he decided then and there that he would follow in the footsteps of those costumed heroes he had come to idolize, including the bronze age Sovereign and Ominus (the

“dark knight” of my superhero universe.  He made a costume and struck out on his own.  He, of course, was overzealous and overconfident, and he nearly got himself killed one night .  Ominus came to David’s aid and saved his life, but the crime fighter recognized heart and determination in the boy. So he took the boy under his wing. Not as a sidekick, but as a student.  He also provided David with an arsenal of crime-fighting tools. The Revenger webcomic takes place about six years into David’s superhero education.

RC: Revenger really stands out in the world of webcomics with it’s visual flair.  The pencils and inks are phenomenal and are a real throwback to comics of yesteryear.  What would you say were your biggest influences when it comes to the art and style of the comic?

MP: They’re too numerous to count! Let’s see…earlier on I was obsessed with the work of Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, and the rest of the image founders, but I eventually branched out to many others.  Jim Lee, John Byrne, Erik Larsen, Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Mike Wieringo, Ryan Ottley, Bruce Timm, Norm Breyfogle and many many more.

RC: What would you say is your target audience with Revenger?

MP: Anyone who likes fun superhero comics.

RC: What can we expect in the future from the title?  Do you plan on running Revenger for a long period of time?

MP: I want to feature a few of Revenger’s adventures, but I plan on doing the same thing with some of my other characters as well.  Revenger will taking a hiatus after a while, but there will be another character featured in its place.

RC: Do you have any other webcomics that you’ve worked on or are currently working on?

MP: No this is the only webcomic I’m working on right now. In the past I contributed a few fill-in pages for a webcomic called “Golden”.

RC: We read on your Myspace page that you are working on a project called “The Arcadia Comics Collective Anthology“, what is that?

MP: The Arcadia Comics Collective Anthology is a comic book organized by a good friend of mine name Eric Lamont (http://myspace.com/legacyherocomics). It’s basically a group of comic-loving friends from Myspace who contribute five pages installments of their original characters.

RC: I saw the pinup for the first issue of this project and the artwork is fantastic.  Are you doing writing for this project as well?  Who else is involved in this project?

MP: Besides Eric Lamont  (creator of  “The Blue Bug” and myself there’s  Malacai Brown (http://www.myspace.com/malacaibrown), cover artists, Kyle Chaney, Jr. (http://www.myspace.com/kylechaneyjr), creator of “Z”, Michael Hall (http://www.myspace.com/capstanmedia), creator of “Cyprus” and Sean Harley http://seanvharley.daportfolio.com/, creator of “Lucero”.

RC: We also read that you’ve written a novel, and will possibly write one to self publish in the future.  Tell us about that.  What was the title of the novel that you’ve written?  What is it about?  Is it available online or in print anywhere?

MP: It was a vampire novel called Vitality, and I don’t consider it fit to see the light of day since I was still figuring out how to write. It rests on my hard drive, just as a reminder that I set out to write a story and did it. The second attempt was a different vampire story, but it’s barely half finished. My vampire obsession has cooled over the last couple of years (in part due to saturation of the market which I blame of the Twilight “saga”), but one of these days I plan on writing a novel about superheroes, and it’ll have an illustration at the beginning of every chapter.

RC: When it comes to writing, how would you describe your style?  Who are your biggest influences or favorite writers?

MP: My main influences are Elaine Bergstrom, Anne Rice, and Dean Koontz. So I imagine you’d see subtle phrasings and attitudes that would reflect the works of those authors.

RC: What is Halcyon comics?  Are you the only one involved with Halcyon, or do you have other artists and writers working with you?  Have you published anything under the Halcyon label that we can check out?

MP: Halcyon is the tentative name of my own comics label that I planned on using for the launch of Sovereign and my other characters. It’s just me, but in the future, who knows? I’d love to write some stories to have other artists illustrate. It’s a great way to build a universe.

RC: What are your ultimate goals or plans?  Is comic art a career or a hobby?

MP: Creating is my life. Whether with words or with a pen and some ink.  I can’t promise that I won’t take a break from drawing in the focus on writing, but in the foreseeable future it’s not going to happen.

RC: What can we expect to see from Mike Powell in the future?

MP: Lots and lots of art and some kick ass superhero comics!

RC: We don’t doubt that at all, Mike!  Well, thank you, sir, for taking the time to do an interview with us!  I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you taking the time out of your obviously busy schedule to talk about your work.

For any Rival readers interested in checking out Mike Powell’s work, you can do so from any of the following links:

Mike Powell

www.michaelpowellart.blogspot.com

www.powguero.deviantart.com

www.twitter.com/Mpowelljr

www.facebook.com/Mpowelljr