Q & A With Gary Lister!

This just in!!  Over on HueDoo.com the HiFi Color Challenge #18 has just been posted.  This time around there is a great piece of art by Gary Lister of Morganna from the webcomic Morganna of the Borgs.  Gary also took some time out to speak with the Tribal Council this week.

Tribal Council: As always I like to start out with the hard hitting questions: What’s your favorite color and why?

Gary Lister: I would say black with red a close second.  As a designer, black helps make weak colors pop. Its dramatic, its bold and black never goes out of style. Everyone looks good in black. Red because of its aggression and boldness. Its used to warn, to excite and to tempt.

TC: What got you into comics and art?

GL: Drawing and creating images is as natural to me as breathing. My mom has drawings stashed away that I did when I was three and four years old. My parents were pretty decent with a pencil, so it comes natural. Comics and superheroes were around me for just as long. I had an original Spider-Man MEGO doll, action figures, Underoos, etc. My love of comics and art together go way way back. 80′s Saturday morning cartoons was also a big influence on my creativity. Many hours spent in front of the TV watching cartoon after cartoon.

TC: For the folks out there that may not be familiar with your work, tell us a little bit about you and your body of work.

GL: Academically speaking, I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design and have spent the last 12 years working in the design industry while doing custom illustration work and freelancing on the side. You can see quite a bit of my stuff at my website, Listerart.com. Much of the custom illustration & design work that I’ve done is showcased here. Everything from product labels to various print/publication pieces to logo design and promotional products. When I’m not busy with all of that, I do find time to produce my webcomic ‘Morganna Of The Borgs’ which is also at Listerart.com.

TC: Tell us about Morgana of the Borgs.

GL: ‘Morganna Of The Borgs’ (MOTB) is the story of a girl named Emily who is your average, awkward, lonely young woman. She wishes she could do something meaningful with her life, to be important, to maybe make a difference. Little does she know, she will soon become the most important person in the survival of the human race! I can’t say too much much more because the story is in its infancy online. The whole thing started as reoccurring doodles of the main character, Morganna. She didn’t have a name or a story — nothing like that. I just kept drawing this particular girl and eventually the imagination takes over and out comes and idea, which turns into a plot, then to a story and so on.

TC: How does color effect your work?

GL: Color is everything, especially in telling stories in a comics-styled format. Colors catch and lead the eye so you have to do some pre-planning for the page layout and subject placement. Color dictates so many aspects of the finished drawing, At least for me it does since I do every bit of work on MOTB. Lineart, coloring, lettering, etc. I have to plan as much as I can ahead of time because its very easy being a one-man-show to paint myself into a corner. Colors and coloring has as much importance in my work as does the quality of the lineart or the quality of the dialog.

TC: In what way do you think color effects a web comic differently than it does in print.?

GL: Since a webcomic is an RGB color format, the vividness and saturation are much different than in print. There is much more to play with in terms of value and tones, when transfered to a print medium, are lost or get dull and muddy. If you know your webcomic will eventally be printed, you need to keep tabs on your colors and how well they will translate to print.

TC: What process or technology do you use to create your comics?

GL: Currently, I hand draw and ink everything old school. Bristol board, pencils, inks, sable brushes, etc. Then it all gets scanned, cleaned up, colored and edited in Adobe Photoshop, then composited with all the text in Adobe Illustrator. Finally, its exported out to jpg format for the web. I just recently purchased an Axiotron Modbook which will allow me to do all of the work digitally and hopefully save some time. I would like to be producing MOTB 100% digitally by January.

TC: What else can we look forward to from you in the near future?

GL: Hopefully, more of the same — I have LOTS to tell of Morganna and her adventures. This is just the beginning for MOTB!

Big thanks to Gary for the artwork for out coloring challenge and for taking some time out to speak with us.  Be sure to check out his site and comic over at www.listerart.com. Then you gotta get over to the Pixel Shrine over at www.huedoo.com and take a crack at the HiFi Coloring Challenge #18!  See you there!!