Predator: Bad Blood (Issues 1-4)
title:Penciller, Cover Artist I had drawn the Predator a lot during high school, when I first saw the
film. I thought the creature design was cool and spent many hours trying
to figure out how to get the mandibles right and so on. Chris Warner had
drawn the first comic spinoff for Dark Horse, and had moved on to editing
the Predator books in 1992 when I first met him. I was middway through art
school at the time.
I was at the San Diego ComicCon with sample pages I'd drawn of the Predator
fighting some creatures. In fact, Brian Mc'Donald and I had been putting
together artwork and pitches for a Predator book for some time. Chris really
liked how I drew the Predator, and quickly introduced me to Evan Dorkin.
He'd been pitching a story to Chris about a rabid, psychotic, cannibal Predator
running amok in a paintball camp, taking on a crew of ex-military types,
all the while being chased by another Predator and the CIA ... it was full
tilt. I was pretty much hired there at the Con, and then went back to school
wondering what to do about it. Now that I'd be getting paid to draw a comic,
did I need to stay in art school? Fortunately I decided to stay enrolled
and drew Predator in as much of my spare time as I could, which wasn't much.
I had nine classes a week, and worked as a Teaching Assistant in two drawing
classes. I was also a RA at the dorm, to help with finances, so needless
to say it was rough going.
Meanwhile, Dark Horse had me fill in and pencil a fourteen page story for
their 'Comics Greatest World' superhero launch. I pencilled 'Monster' in
two weeks, and then got rolling into Predator. I had a bunch of friends
from school model for the main characters, which was fun. Wayne Cash gestured
for both Predators. It took 14 monsths to pencil 120 pages and paint 5 covers.
I had numerous inkers before I inked the last few pages mysef. I felt Chris
Warner did the best with my pencils, which were not easy to ink at times.
I learned a great deal on this job, from the importance of clarity in layout,
to the value of drawn mileage...
