11 + 1 Questions with David Wachter of Scar Tissue

Once again I’ve been given the opportunity to have an interview with another artist. This time it’s David Wachter who is the artist on the comic Scar Tissue. After you’ve finished reading all about his projects feel free to go over and grab all of the books so far!

Trust me… you’ll love it!

What initiated your interest in comics?
Like every red blooded American child, I loved cartoons. When very young, one of my favorites was the 60’s Spider-man that used to come on in the morning before I went to school. This didn’t translate to comics until later, about 3rd grade I believe. My best friend at the time, Tim, was big into comics and got me hooked instantly. Those were the days of Secret Wars, so naturally Marvel was my bag. The first issue I ever bought was Captain America 297, in which Cap is forced to relive the death of Bucky. Anyone who is reading that title now will understand why I love what Brubaker has been doing with Cap. I devoured comics until the early nineties, when I was in high school and other interests began to take precedence. In 2001, I was at the Osco pharmacy down the street and I noticed a rack of comics. More importantly, I noticed Amazing Spider-man with art by John Romita Jr.. I started picking them up on a regular basis. Then, when my brother moved up here to Chicago, for my birthday he got me a subscription to ASM and Daredevil, with Bendis and Maleev at the helm. I was hooked again, after a while I found a great comic shop close to me and began my weekly habit.

Was it always your dream to draw comics or did you somehow ‘fall into it’?
I was drawing since before I can remember, and I was always good at it. I drew all the time as kid. So, when comics came along it was perfect. I only owned one comic when I first tried to draw my own, which was basically a rip-off of that first Captain America. I would draw issues of my favorite cartoons, like Transformers and Thundercats. We didn’t have a VCR back then, so I would have to have my pencil ready every afternoon when the shows were broadcast so I could get Optimus’s head right, or the Cat’s Lair. I wrote a few series too, most of which were based on some sort of conflict with the Soviet Union. Can you tell I grew up in the Reagan 80s? I got out of comics for a while. When I came back a few years ago, I was out of college, but still with no real direction as to what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to “be an artist” but in what capacity? And how could I make a living at it? One day, I received a very unexpected email. It was from my grade school headmaster Dr. Paul Dawson. He had since retired, but was reaching out through the internet to find out how I was doing after all these years.

I was gifted as a child, full of potential and he reminded me of that. It forced me to look at my life and realize that I wasn’t really headed anywhere. I was living fine day to day, but I had no recognizable goals for my future. I hadn’t “found my passion” as Oprah says. I was actually pretty disappointed in myself. He mentioned to me a book I had written and illustrated when I was at school. It was a children’s book about a kid on a family trip in the car who gets bored and begins to imagine things in the clouds. He told me he was always very impressed with the book and that I should seek to have it published. I did a lot of research into children’s book publishing, but I could never find a copy of that book. It’s probably still in my parents attic somewhere. The more research I did, the more I realized that I didn’t know much about the competitive field of children’s book publishing, and that I wasn’t really that interested. But what I was interested in, since childhood and again as an adult, was comic books. I got the bug to draw comics again, and I got it bad. I did a boat load of research, found a few scripts online from different publishers and got to work.

Who do you look up to as influences?
Too many to name, really. I can pick up a new book drawn by somebody I never heard of and be influenced. As for comic artists, Art Adams was the first guy I was able to recognize and spot his style whenever I saw it, which was rarely, unfortunately. John Romita Jr. was also an early favorite. He was great at the big action scenes, but I was always inpressed with his ability to make everyday people really interesting, especially in a book like Daredevil. Barry Windsor Smith is another one, just beautiful work.

I try to let my influences spread beyond comic art. I was always a fan and student of fine art: impressionism, Degas and Seurat; surrealism, Magritte; symbolism, Klimt, Japanese printmaking, Hiroshi Yoshida; Chinese painting; even pop art and post modernism. So I try to let that inform my work in some way.

The film medium acts as a strong influence as well. I studied film production and filmmaking for a few years, so I’m always looking at framing techniques, pacing, the use of light and shadow. I really love old black and white movies because they hold on the scenes longer, less fast editing, so a viewer really has the chance to absorb what going on within the frame. And the black and white allows for a better analysis of how different lighting techniques are utilized. Influencial filmmakers include Orson Welles, Terry Gilliam, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock.

Recently, I’ve also been looking at a lot of book cover art, especially from the pulp stories of the 30s 40s and 50s. There’s some really impressive art on the covers of these cheaply printed dime novels, and I’ve been using them to help me in my own cover work.

Can you give the outlining plot for Scar Tissue?

The quick pitch: A teenager receives a heart transplant and begins to display strange powers. It turns out that the heart came from a murdered supervillain!
Want more? Okay. Ben is our transplant recipient. His parents have passed away and he lives with his two older brothers, Carl and the bread-winner Donny. Ben has been sick all his life and has wanted nothing more than to be a normal, healthy kid. When he finally gets the new heart, he thinks that this is his chance. But, it doesn’t work out that way for him when his hands can suddenly melt steel and there are some very strange thoughts running through his head that he’s pretty sure aren’t his own. Of course, with great power comes… other people who want that power for themselves.
Other characters include the patriotic super hero The Compatriot, who is up on murder charges for the killing of the heart donor, the villainous Grundoom, in a devastating downtown battle. The evil Sorceress Savisuthra, Grundoom’s former lover, thirsts for the power for herself. She has created a race of monstrous minions to help her achieve that goal. That can only mean trouble for Ben and his brothers!

Who came up with the idea for Scar Tissue? What drew you to the characters?
The writer, J. Andrew Clark, had the idea and the first issue scripted when I came on board. I immediately thought it was a great concept. I always enjoyed super heroes and was excited by this twist on the genre, a story that showed some of the reactions and consequences on real life people. So, you’ve got realism on the ground level, then you’ve got another level with the heroes and villains, which are larger than life. It creates an interesting tension and it lets me flex all different kinds of artistic muscles, from talking head scenes to all out destructive bam pow action.

How has the reaction been to the book so far?
We’ve gotten a lot of positive response, from readers and critics alike. Everybody who reads the book seems to really like it. The tough part is getting it into people’s hands in the first place. Comics aren’t cheap and there’s a lot vying for the reader’s attention. It can be difficult for self publishers like us, but I think we’ve got a top quality product and when somebody does take a chance on us they’re glad that they did.

Will we see a return of Scar Tissue after the mini has finished?
We’ll have to wait and see. I would certainly like to. Self publishing is a tricky business. When this first arc is done with issue 5, we’ll be compiling it into trade paperback format and soliciting it to publishers.

How did you, and J. Andrew Clark come together to work on Scar Tissue?
When I decided I wanted to start drawing comics again, after about an 8 year hiatus away from even reading them, I found a few scripts online, drew them and posted them on a few comic art message boards. Nathan Patton from Ronin Studios contacted me and invited me to look around and post my art to see if any writers were interested. Almost immediately he came to me with Jim’s script, telling me he had shown interest in a single page of mine that was posted. I thought the script was great, something really original while giving a nod to the classics. We got in touch and got to work. It’s been a really nice working relationship and friendship as well, even being 2000 miles apart. I live in the greatest city in the world, Chicago, while Jim lives with all those weird West-coasters in California. We only first met face to face in San Diego 2005 when the second issue came out. It was love at first site and we lived happily ever after.

What other projects are you currently working on?
I did a lot of work on a horror anthology called Fiendish Fables with my friend and Dial R Studios comrade John Schlim Jr.. I illustrated a short story called Feeding Pigeons, written by John and based on an illustration of mine. I also did the grey tones on two more stories and just finished a painted cover. Originally, it was to be published by Narwain until they went under, or whatever happened to them. Who knows? It was even in the June Previews with a “Certified Cool” rating. This was the first work for either of us to be in Previews and we were both really excited about it. When the Narwain deal fell through it was a real let down, but we’re not giving up. It’s a great looking book with some really fun and spooky stories in it. John’s been shopping it around to other publishers and it will be out there again soon, you have my word on that.

If you were able to be on any book what would it be?
I’ve always said that my dream project has original characters and story, is creator owned, experiments and takes risks, affords me a good page rate and creative control.
If I had to pick an existing book, it would be tough to narrow down. Probably Daredevil, for all the dark alleys and the variety of criminals and secondary characters. It’s superhero, but it’s noir as well. Although books like Fear Agent or Hip Flask would be really cool, being able to create weird aliens, futuristic cities and landscapes, and I like animal people.

What other work have you done?
Scar Tissue, Fiendish Fables, pinups in the back of a few books (like issue #4 of Wasteland from Oni Press), and a bunch of commission work. Also, I just finished the painted cover to Roninfinity, a sci-fi anthology from Ronin Studios.

Do you do Commissions or Sketches for people and how can they contact you?
Yes, I am available for commissions, time permitting. Folks can contact me, and check out previous commissions and sketches at: www.davedrawscomics.com
I’ve also got my own forum at the Dial R Studios site. Everybody should check out that site anyway to see what some other great up and coming talents are putting out: www.dialrstudios.com
And for the latest news on Scar Tissue, as well as previews of the book check out: www.scartissue-comic.com