Meet the crew - Artist, Jonathan Rector

There will be more from Jonathan as the campaign goes on, but I wanted to post his round of answers to the five standard questions we've been asking the team here.

Jonathan and I came together through a mutual love of comics and the podcast, Art and Story. I commissioned Jonathan to work on a promotional piece for a later Hero Code story - The Theatre of War (which at one point was going to be the series opener). He did such a great job that I knew I wanted him on board for more, if not all the series.

The Theatre of War - Promo piece - art by Jonathan Rector

Everything he has produced for the book has been simply amazing, and I hope to keep him around forever!

1. What is your process for working?

The mighty PROCESS!

Well, for the better part of this year, I've been working pretty much 100% digitally in Photoshop. The process I follow, it's very close to the book "The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics" - By Freddie Williams II.

That book can be found here:
http://www.amazon.ca/DC-Comics-Guide-Digitally-Drawing/dp/0823099237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309740465&sr=8-1

I wish I could go into details, but I feel like I would be basically giving away the book ha ha. But, as for a "general" breakdown, I do all the thumbnails for a given script, and send them to the editor/writer for approval. Once I get the feedback, I try to break it down into weeks. On the Monday of that week, I do all the pages I will be doing that week in rough form. Usually about 5-6 pages. Over the next couple of days, I draw/ink the pages. Usually working 7 days a week. Good stuff :)

2. How long have you been creating?
Since I was a be-beh! I remember cutting out Ninja Turtles from the colouring books, taking them to my dad's work, photocopying them and making my own books. 

But in a "serious" manner, since 2000-2002. My first published work was in an anthology Horror book by Ronin Studios. I learned a lot, and it felt great seeing it in print. Ever since then, I've been hooked. I've been continually trying to find better clients, and getting excellent scripts. In 2010, I started self publishing some work. Actually, at the time of this interview, I just finished my first Mini comic "Jesop King, The Hunger." It's an all ages comic which can be found here:

http://jonathanrectorart.blogspot.com/2011/07/jesop-king-hunger-entire-mini-comic-for.html

I had a blast on that. Learned a lot about making comics 100% myself. Very exciting!

3. Who or what are your biggest influences?
Huge, huge, HUGE fan of Joe Madueria. Greg Capullo, Ryan Ottley, Arthur Adams, Ed McGuiness are some others. Non-comic artists? Man, way too many to name. Frazetta, all of the Capcom guys for sure...I could keep going.

Outside of comics, I'm a big video game fan. I have not had a lot of time to keep playing as much as I grew up playing, but some games really grab my attention. Mass Effect for instance. When I get a chance to play some fighting games with my brother, that's always a blast. Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat are always good times.

4. What else are you currently working on?

Well, like I said earlier, I just recently finished my first mini comic. It's left me wanting more out of creating my own books. In the coming weeks, I'll be sitting down to scratch out a script and go for there.

I'm also working with a great writter (John Lees) on a project called "The Standard." At the time of this interview, I'll be starting issue 3 this week. Fantastic book. With each new script John sends me, I'm floored. Outside of Ther Hero Code, The Standard is the other project I'm most honored to be a part of. 

The Standard - issue #2 cover - art by Jonathan Rector

The Standard can be found here as well:

http://thestandardcomic.com/

5. Finally, If you were a superhero, what would your power be?
Love this question. All the normal answers would be awesome. Flight, Super Strength...heck, to be able to "Hulk-Out" would be mind-blowing! But, i think mind control would be the most fun. I would use it for good....I really would :)

Jonathan Rector
www.jonathanrector.com

The Art of Jonathan Rector Volume 1 is now available!

Trans Morphic Occultism

This is a copy and paste from an posting from my own blog, http://www.jamiegambell.com - 

"Good morning all.

Today is the first day of my Christmas break from work. I have just over two weeks to wallow in the wonderful mud of humanizing relaxation.

But first...

I've been working on the idea for The Hero Code for several years now. At the start of this year I began working on character designs.

I began working with Dan Smith in March to create a world of some twenty-three characters, and began to really map out the series. I always had it down as a big series, a contained universe built from the ground up. A history spanning series.

It was also to be an organic series, adapting and changing as time went on. I had a start point. I have an ending point. The middle would take care of itself.

One of the characters who I saw being in the series from the start was The Occultist. I kind of Steve Ditko style mystic, part Doctor Fate, part Doctor Strange.

I have 22 pages of this characters origin completed, art wise, and a further 48 pages of script. It was a story which was great fun working on.

An early sketch of the Occultist, art by Karl Altstaetter, from January 16th, 2010

I had an unused Omnitarium logo which I was going to have Bernie Lee re-work (something we had emailed about a while ago) to become the character's logo.

Logo design by Bernie Lee (2009)

A month or two ago I was flicking through Previews magazine. I saw that Dark Horse Comics was releasing a one-shot entitled The Occultist, written by Tim Seeley, with art by Victor Drujiniu and Jason Gorder.

A little searching on the web told me that this one shot was announced by Mike Richardson at a panel in San Diego this year.

They are very different characters.

I am a believer in transmorphic resonance, and in collective telepathy when it comes to information - we register more than just perceived visible spectrum and aural wave-lengths.

I really do think that this is just a coincidence - a synchronicity. Ideas are powerful things, they give off a lot of unperceived energy, which is shared in the collective information field.

It has made me re-think the formatting and release of The Hero Code, though. I am working from a limited budget, after all.

The Coming of the Occultist, set just before World War II, will probably now be released as a web-comic serial, to be collected in print at a later date.

The Theatre of War, set during World War II, will also probably fit into this format, or even be released as a complete graphic novel.

Both of these stories were part of the stand alone pre-history of the series, which filled in some details about the Hero Code universe and the character of the Occultist.

The series will now start at a time when the new heroes in the series are beginning to emerge. The Occultist, as a character in this world, has been missing, presumed dead for some 60 something years.

It does move release dates back a little. I will probably aim to release the first issue in the summer of 2011, and the web-series will start around this time, perhaps a little before.

Good luck to Dark Horse with their book. If anyone from that company wishes to contact me, I am always available."

Stories as far as the eye can see!

Good morning everyone.

Plans are coming together for the series very nicely. At the moment we have no less than three story lines in the Hero Code Universe being worked on.

Firstly, a web series, The Coming of the Occultist - with art by J.C. Grande, is nearly a third of the way complete. This will kick off the web comic story lines, focussing more on the past of the Hero Code Universe.

Secondly, the ongoing series' first story arc, The Menace of the Mannequin - with art by Jonathan Rector, is starting to be worked upon. The script for issue one is with Jonathan, and he is starting to plot out the first section of this story as I write.

Finally (for now), a mini-series, The Theatre of War - with art by Dan Smith - has the first script complete and with the artist, with work hopefully starting up on this soon. Telling the story of the first recognised Super Hero team in the universe.

Last weekend I was in attendance at the Long Beach Comic Con, with copies of my first series Omnitarium. It was a great weekend, and I met lots of new and cool people, so thank you to everyone who came by to visit, and especially to those who complimented and picked up the book.

The next convention I'll be at is the Amazing Arizona Comic Con. I'll be there with a whole group of fellow creators, and co-creators from the new Samurai OGN series, which premiers at the show. Details about that book can be found here.

At Arizona, I will be hoping to have preview copies of the Hero Code available. The plan at present is to have the book contain the first 22 pages of The Coming of the Occultist, a 6 page preview of The Menace of the Mannequin and a 3 page preview of The Theatre of War.

Theatre of War - promo piece process

Attached is the process, from thumbs to final piece, for a promo piece done by Jonathan Rector. The piece is for the Theatre of War story line in the series.

Thumbs (x4 options):

Thumbs (tighter version of the pick):

Pencils:

Inks:

Colours: