Cho's MeadowsFrank Choby Jennifer M. ContinoFrank Cho is a lifelong comics fan who started creating his own comic strips in college. One of his works was the basis for the widely-popular Liberty Meadows series. A while ago, Cho chose to stop syndicating Liberty Meadows and publish it through Image Comics. Sequential Tart caught up with Cho to discuss how that deal was working out and some of his future projects. Sequential Tart: When you first began drawing as a child, what did you like to create? Frank Cho: The usual little boy stuff. I drew airplanes, tanks, army men, and cars. ST: When did you first start reading and collecting comics? Which ones were early favorites? FC: I seriously started collecting comic books when I was in the 5th grade. I have so many early favorites — Fantastic Four #250, Uncanny X-Men #166, Amazing Spider-Man with the first appearance of the Hobgoblin, the great Marv Wolfman and George Perez run on the Teen Titans. Detective Comics #509 by Don Newton was one of the biggest inspiration to become a comic book artist. ST: When did you first start thinking that you might want to draw comics? FC: Around the same time I started collecting comics. ST: What were the events that made you realize you wanted to work in comics for a living?
FC: I don't know. There was no epiphany or anything. It was a gradual process. I started drawing comics as a kid and while other kids stopped, I kept going and never looked back. ST: What inspired you to create University Squared? FC: My college roommates and Bloom County. ST: How is the cast of Liberty Meadows different from their incarnations in University Squared? FC: Liberty Meadows is tamer since it's more geared toward the general public instead of college students. ST: Why are they different? FC: My damn syndicate editors made me tone them down for family newspapers. Grrr. ST: What were some of the challenges to getting a deal with the Creators Syndicate? FC: Getting censored constantly. When I say "constantly", I mean I was getting censored almost on a weekly basis. ST: What were the pros and cons to working with the Syndicate? FC: Pro: More exposure and certain amount of prestige. Cons: Censorship and daily deadlines. ST: Why did you stop running Liberty Meadows in the newspapers? FC: Got tired of getting censored and the daily deadlines. I was miserable and started to get burned out. Also the newspapers don't pay too well. When my wife got pregnant, I decided to seek a more lucrative avenue in comic books. ST: How does this make Liberty Meadows a stronger comic? FC: No censorship. My comic strip is no longer dictated by a few vocal humorless newspaper readers. ST: What was collected in Liberty Meadows Eden? FC: Liberty Meadows comic book #1 - 9. It's 144 pages of animal madness and some love stories for the ladies. ST: Why bring Liberty Meadows to Image? FC: More money and exposure. Also complete control in production and promotion of my strip. ST: Why do you redraw and rewrite your newspaper strips before presenting them in comic book form? What are you editing in or editing out? FC: Roughly half the story. Many of the storylines and jokes were cut out in the original newspaper run. I'm just going back and creating new strips to fill in the gaps and fixing all the strips that were altered or toned down. ST: What's ahead for Liberty Meadows? FC: Brandy and Frank's relationship heats up while an old character from the past comes back to wreak havoc at Liberty Meadows. ST: Who are some of your artistic influences?
FC: Gosh. Who isn't my artistic influence? Many illustrators and artists have influenced me one way or another. Here are my cartoon influences: Walt Kelly, Al Capp, Berke Breathed, and Wally Wood. As for straight illustrations, my influences and inspirations are: Norman Rockwell, Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta, N.C. Wyeth, Gil Elvgren, Franklin Booth, John Singer Sargent, Michelangelo, and countless others, mostly Golden Age illustrators. ST: I was looking through IS: The Art of Insight Studios and really impressed with your paintings. How did you develop your painting style? What factors influence how you present a painted piece? FC: I really don't know how to paint. It's all done by instinct. I learn from my mistakes as I go along. And believe me, I make many mistakes. I think of two people when I paint: John Singer Sargent and N.C. Wyeth. I love the dramatic boldness of N.C. Wyeth and the creamy elegant brush stokes of John Singer Sargent. ST: What do you enjoy the most about painting? FC: I love how the brush feels on canvas and how the paint mixes together. It's very soothing for me. I enjoy the whole process of creating and the end results equally. ST: If you had the time, what would you like to present as an all painted comic? FC: I don't know if I want to do a painted comic book. I prefer to do an illustrated novel. To be honest, my dream project would be an illustrated King Kong novel like those old great illustrated novels by N. C. Wyeth — Kidnapped and Treasure Island. I would love to do like 50 oil paintings and 100 black and white spot illustrations for it. ST: Besides painting, it's impressive how almost everything you draw from talking ducks to humans to giant apes can look so realistic, yet, when needed, also have that cartoon aspect to it. How important is it for you as a creator to have realism in your artistic works? FC: It's very important. Without basic knowledge of anatomy and perspective, all drawing suffers. The key to good cartooning is good drawing. ST: Who are some of your writing influences? FC: Gee, I don't know. I've always written by instinct. When I write a story, I write to please me not some targeted audience. When I write a cartoon, I write what I think is funny. ST: Whom would you like to work with on a project, if you had the time and were able to do anything you wanted? What would the project be? FC: I would love to work with Peter Jackson on a King Kong movie. ST: What other projects are you working on now?
FC: I just finished a Hellboy cover for Dark Horse. If everything goes right, my schedule is full for the next 4 - 6 years. After my Marvel contract expires, I have several creator owned comic book projects lined up. Here's a partial list:
Whew. I need a nap. | |||
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