Coloring Challenge #21 with Mike Norton!

Our recent celebration of 20 Coloring Challenges brought us one of our most entertaining and challenging piece of line art to date.  Scott Wegener’s artwork is phenomenal and I was proud to have the HiFi Color Challenge stamp on that baby.  Now it’s time once again to unveil a new HiFi Coloring Challenge! And we’re not letting up on the awesome!

DC exclusive artist Mike Norton is a long time comic book professional who has worked on some amazing titles.  I’ve been a fan of Mike’s energetic style since I first discovered it several years ago.  Thanks to Mike, our Coloring Challenge #21 features art from the cover of Billy Batson & The Magic of Shazam! issues number 14!!  It’s a great piece!!!  We took a few minutes of Mike’s time to speak with him about his work.

Tribal Council: I like to start my interviews with the really hard-hitting question, what is your favorite color and why?

Mike Norton: Blue. I’m not sure why. Always been my favorite since I was a kid. It’s soothing and dramatic.

TC: For those of you who might not know you or your work, tell us a little about yourself and what you do.

MN: Hmmmm… That’s a lot to answer. I’m Mike, I like drawing & comics and I happen to draw comics for a living.

(Mike is very humble. His comics resume is phenomenal. Don’t believe me? Get the full run down at comicbookDB.)

TC: How did you get your start in comics?

MN: I submitted penciling samples for years when I was in college and was handily rejected at every turn. I got my first job from Mike Baron who I met through mail correspondence. I was a huge fan of Nexus and Badger and sent him the samples I was doing to get his input. Years later, he hired me to draw the new Badger series

TC: You recently switched over to a digital process for creating your work.  How has that transition been?

MN: It’s been a lot less painless than expected. I’ve always been a fan of technology but not necessarily an adopter of it. I’ve never really been able to pick up on the skills it takes to color digitally. I was intrigued by the Wacom Cintiq and decided to buy one years ago but was very trepidatious about incorporating it into my work out fear of the learning curve. It was bordering on superstitious. I finally dipped my toe into the pool by doing layouts for some of the books I was drawing on it and then eventually started doing finishes. I love the freedom it’s allowed me to not be afraid of trying new things.

TC: Any advise for someone that might be thinking about moving from a traditional ink & paper process to a digital one?

MN: I recommend it. Don’t be afraid. It’s just another tool like a pen or a marker. There ARE people out there that think that working on the computer is some way cheating, but I see it as a way of giving me an edge in areas I’m not always strongest at.

TC: How does color affect your work?

MN: I used to not think about how color affects my final artwork. Now I’m much better at balancing the black/white balance in my lineart to make it easier for a colorist to have fun and put their best into the final product.

TC: Right now you’re working on Billy Batson & The Magic of Shazam! How awesome has that been??

MN: It’s been really fun. It’s been an opportunity to be very free with how I work and to do everything digitally. Art and Franco are also very fun and beyond easy to work with.

TC: I know you’re a (relatively) long time veteran of the pod casting community with shows like Around Comics and The Crankcast. How, if at all, has that affected your work?

MN: I don’t think it’s affected my work at all. I HAS affected how I see the readership of the books I work on and how we as creators can communicate with them.  As far as the actual making of the art, though… There’s no connection.

TC: I would be doing my audience a disservice if I didn’t ask about your Battle Pug.

MN: I wish I had a deeper answer than “I like pugs and I thought it was funny”, but honestly, that’s all it boils down to iFanboy asked for a tshirt design and it was the first thing that popped in my head. I’m weird.

TC: What else do you have coming up?? Anything we should be looking for?

MN: Shazam is monthly. I’m working on my own creator-owned book called The Answer, but it has no home or future plan at this time. There’s lots of other odds and ends that may spring up, so we’ll see!

____________________________________________________________________________________

HUGE thanks to Mike for the art and for taking time to speak with us.  Be sure you check out his work monthly in your LCS on Billy Baston & The Magic of Shazam!  You can also hear Mike regularly on The Crankcast, and from time-to-time on Around Comics and from iFanboy.  You can own an original piece of Mike Norton art by purchasing it through Cadence Comic Art.  But, of course, the best place to find ALL things Mike Norton is to either just show up at his house or the preferred method of going to his website, www.ihatemike.com.  Right now he has a great video posted show him work though digital inks on our pal Shazam!

On a side note, you probably notices that our forums at www.huedoo.com have been a little flakey as of late.  As I stated in my previous column the powers that be were working on a site upgrade.  They tell me that the site is up and running at about 90% right now.  There are still some issues with avatars and a few minor things like that but the site as a whole is running and you’ll notice that the pages are loading much faster than before.  If you have any issues with the site let me know and I’ll do my best to help get the problem solved ASAP.

Thanks again!!