Illustrating nightmares

Tim Bradstreet

By Mary Borsellino
April 1, 2007

It's trite to suggest that an artist of any type needs no introduction, but if there was ever a comics artist that an interviewer might be able to get away with introduction like that about, it would be Tim Bradstreet.

Sequential Tart: Your work appears in an increasingly wide variety of contexts. Do you think of yourself as working primarily through a specific medium — such as comics covers — or as more of a free agent for different media?

Tim Bradstreet: Oh yeah, I'm a free agent for sure. I'd describe myself as an illustrator (not necessarily a comic book artist) that happens to work in comics. I'm an illustrator first and foremost. With book covers, film work, and other commercial stuff there is less of the illustration. It may be hand drawn but with that type of work they really want the hyper real stuff so it's a matter of simplifying my line. Because I have been working more and more in that arena, this style has filtered its way into my comics work. Subsequently, I've been experimenting with that look on my regular gigs over the last two years, a direct result of that film/movie poster and commercial work. Right now, I'm kind of getting back to basics with my comics work. I've discovered that the experimentation was fun and a nice evolution but I want to get back to a more illustrated look as far as comics covers go. I enjoy being able to go back and forth with the styles. A little variety really does help keep things fresh, and it keeps me on my toes.

ST: What was your favorite myth/story growing up (or currently) and why?

TB: Well I've always been a sucker for a good revenge story, which is likely why I love doing The Punisher so much. It's like one big revenge saga. Films like The Outlaw Josey Wales, Mad Max, The Road Warrior, Death Wish, Point Blank, Walking Tall (the original), The Killer Elite, and High Plains Drifter were big influences on me. There's just something about the idea of a person who has lost everything, focusing their rage and loss on the person/persons responsible. It strikes a chord in me emotionally because it's so easy to put myself in their place and imagine how I would feel if, for example, someone killed my wife and daughter. After getting through a bit of the emotional Hell of that loss, I'd want to start collecting the souls of those responsible. Sorry if that's a dark answer. ;)

ST: Are there any stories you especially want the chance to explore in your work in the future?

TB: I'm open to all kinds of things as long as it's good. A good script and good dialogue are what attract me to any project. One thing in particular I want to explore is this story that has been gestating inside me for 15 years, the story of Red Sky Diary. It's a bit of a revenge saga, but it's bigger than that. The overall story is rather epic in scale, but the main storyline is a smaller revenge thing. The main story ties everything else together into the real climax. It's not something I'd do sequentially. That is for someone else to do for me. It's too big for me to do. I'll write it. I've done dozens of illustrations of the character and have been thinking about doing a coffee table, hard cover, heavily illustrated book version with the story. But I'd like to adapt it for comics too.

ST: Can you talk a little about Criminal Macabre? What's your experience on that project like been so far?

TB: It's as cool as it gets. I've been aware of Cal's world since Niles and I were relative newlings in the industry back in the early 90's. Steve was trying to get me to do the very first Cal story but it never worked out (a matter of the publisher if I recall). I loved the script though. Then years later I was a huge fan of Savage Membrane, and Guns, Drugs, And Monsters, the prose novels. Things picked back up when Niles called me to do a cover for Dial "M" For Monster, the third book in the series. I was officially stuck in Cal's world right then and there. When the opportunity presented itself to take on monthly cover chores for the new ongoing series at Dark Horse I literally leapt at the chance. I was fresh off a seven year run on Hellblazer, and I was looking to stay in the world of the Supernatural but really needed a change of pace. Both books are strong on black humor, which is something I enjoy trying to convey in the covers, but I have way more latitude to achieve that on Criminal Macabre. I love doing ironical stuff and bizarre juxtapositions, so that type of thing will permeate my concepts. The coolest thing aside from getting to work on material I love is getting to work with my pals as models for the characters. Thomas Jane plays Cal. If we ever make a movie, Tom will be Cal. He's a lot of fun to work with for many reasons but mostly because he is completely uninhibited. He can climb inside Cal's skin by snapping his fingers. It's very easy to get what you need from a model when he is also an extremely talented actor. And the fucker will do practically anything we ask him to do. "Hey Tom, can you climb inside that garbage can and act like someone just stuffed you in it?" There he goes, head first into the trashcan full of spent coffee grounds and rotten banana peels. Then we got Christopher Nelson as Mo' Lock. You may remember Chris from his turn as Uma Thurman's doomed husband in Kill Bill. Besides being an actor, Chris spent a lot of his formative years doing special effects make-up for top FX companies like KNB. So with Chris I have an actor, a model, and I guy that can do his own undead make-up. That's just cool. So Tom, Steve, Chris, and I will get together for 3-4 hours, shoot a bunch of concepts and then all go out for dinner and drinks. Does it get any better than that?

ST: To move to the Wildstorm horror line specifically, I'd really like to hear a little about how you became involved as the cover artist for that project.

TB: Well, one thing you try to do when you get into a business like this is to cultivate relationships with editors and art directors. I'd done some work for Editor Ben Abernathy in the past when he was at Dark Horse. Now Ben is picking his talent at Wildstorm, and based on past jobs we've done together, he knows he can count on me. I'd go the extra mile for Ben 'cause I like him as a person. So when Ben began looking for names to attach to the new Horror stuff, he threw me a call and I was only to happy to oblige. How can you say no to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? I also have a lot of experience with licensed material having worked on everything from Star Wars to The Shadow. I know the kind of approval hoops you have to jump through. When you do work like that it's important to be a team player first but still try and get a part of yourself through to the final product. In a sense give them what they want and still make it your own. With Supernatural it was much the same. I have to work with certain references and concepts that are not my own; they are someone else's. So I have to try and take that material and do what they need, and put my own personal stamp on it at the same time. It's pretty challenging and also fun as hell.

ST: What goes into creating a cover featuring an iconic character from a film medium? Does it differ greatly from working off photographs you've posed and shot yourself?

TB: It doesn't differ much because, in my experience so far, it's been important enough to the studio or the producer that I be involved at the early stages that I'm either shooting it myself or I'm directing the photographer, lighting the set-up, and so forth. In the latter, even if I'm not the one shooting, there is still a great deal of control. For smaller scale things like working with licensed material in comic book format, I'm usually working with screen captures or existing photo ref shot by the still photographer or existing studio test shots. That's a little bit more difficult because sometimes you are forced to work with material that may not have the right ingredients for something I can use to my advantage, to play to my strengths. I just do my best. It's funny; you'd think it would be in the studio's best interest to make sure they provide the licensor with the best reference available for a given project. But in my experience, it can sometimes be like pulling healthy teeth to get quality options. Sometimes it's all low resolution 72 dpi tiny stuff and thumbnails. Virtually unusable for my purposes. There have been times when I've had to take matters into my own hands, whether it's making a few calls and introducing myself to the still photographer, or making direct contact with someone in the publicity department who is more willing to help. There have even been cases where we got so little help from the studio that I've had to use shots from magazines to get a better option. That always baffles me.

ST: Do you get much of a chance to watch television? Have you seen Supernatural?

TB: I'm of a Television generation so I certainly make the time to watch stuff that interests me. I'll DVR a whole season of something so I can watch all the episodes back to back or sometimes wait for the DVD. I just find it hard to abide commercials. Still, there are a few night dates I like to take off and watch something with my wife like Medium or 24. Rome is my favorite show, period. I've seen sporadic episodes of Supernatural, and I dig what I've seen. I just got the DVD for Season One and am excited to sit down and take it all in from start to finish. I wish I'd have had more exposure to the series before I was asked to do this cover, not because I needed to know certain things to accomplish what they asked of me, but because I like to immerse myself into the source material so I can pick up on the vibe better. I truly think it makes a difference in what you produce if it means more to you than just a cool horror cover job.

ST: Supernatural has always carried a strong thread of Vertigo influence in its mythology, particularly the "blue collar mystic" aesthetic of Hellblazer. Does it ever feel strange to be working on projects that were partly inspired by earlier work in your career?

TB: With The Punisher movie, it felt very strange to have the director and the star of the movie tell me that they weren't that interested in the project until they saw my illustrations. When they saw my take with the covers, they did a 180. It made the character real to them. They both really pushed to have me involved in the movie poster and the succession of teaser images I did. Tom was really the one that made that happen.

That meant the world to me in so many ways. Seeing the look I'd established for The Punisher in comics actually end up on the big screen was a huge thrill for me. With Constantine, I'm not sure how much they were inspired since they changed the character so much, visually. The overall tone of the film feels in-part like my stuff though. I really wanted to work preproduction on Constantine, even made a few calls. But that was early in the game, before Francis Lawrence came onboard. Then I was wrapped up in The Punisher film promotion and didn't follow up. Yeah, it's definitely bizarre. I do feel like I've played a part, however small. You can't help getting wrapped up in a character when you've drawn them for so long so I think it's very cool that the two big projects of my career so far have been turned into films recently. The scary thing is yes, it does feel strange to be working on projects in this vein because when I think about it and realize that I'm 40 years old and have been doing this for 20 years, I also realize that many of these young filmmakers have been seeing this stuff and it's had an impact. And I'm not just talking about me. I'm talking about guys like Adam Hughs, Tony Harris, John Cassiday, whoever. This work we've all been doing is out there in the public consciousness. So at least in some small way we are inspiring all kinds of fans, even directors. It's a nice fraternity to be a member of.

ST: Similarly — to digress from Supernatural for a moment — did your body of Star Wars-related work play a role in you doing one of the covers for the Serenity miniseries? I've read that you're a fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek; have you also become a part of the sacred order of Firefly/Serenity fans?

TB: I can see how you might make that connection, but no, Star Wars as far as I'm aware had nothing to do with it. Getting the opportunity was the direct result of Joss Whedon hand picking me to specifically handle the character of Shepherd Book. He pretty much chose all the artists and decided what characters he would give them. That's the power you wield when you are Joss ;) He's a huge comics fan, but I'm not exactly sure where or when he became aware of my work. Or, for that matter, why he chose me for Shepherd Book. When I got the call and found out which character I'd be doing, I was ecstatic because I am a long time fan of Ron Glass. And yes, I am most certainly and definitively a card carrying member of the "Sacred Order of Firefly/Serenity" fans. I missed it on TV (thankfully since they showed them out of sequence) but I was lucky enough to be able to see all the episodes of Firefly back to back with no commercials. I got to take it in all in at once in one big dose. I love the mythology and language, I love the characters and their interaction and relationships, and I love that the only guy that really evolves into something he wasn't when the show began is the big, dumb, selfish, simple-minded muscle head. The guy whose character you'd least expect to grow beyond "Who do I have to kill, and when do I get paid?" ends up having a heart and, as it turns out, maybe even a brain. It's the subtle touches, like giving the big tough guy a girl's name.

You just gotta love Jayne. Adam Baldwin pulls it off to perfection. I'm so incredibly glad Joss was able to finish it off with a film and do it the right way. Yeah, I'm a fan all right.

ST: The cover for the first issue of Supernatural: Origins reworks one of the series' cornerstone scenes, but after that pivotal jumping-off point the comic is going to cover very different ground from the television show. Can you tell us anything about upcoming cover images for the series?

TB: Well I hope I'm not disappointing you (or anyone else) when I say that's probably a better question for Ben Abernathy. My involvement was limited (so far) to that first issue. I wish I had time to devote to another ongoing series right now but I'm actually working for a living. By working I mean that I'm currently inking a six issue series called Bad Planet. So in addition to keeping up my schedule with The Punisher, Criminal Macabre, and a series of novel covers called Rogue Angel, I have to work my tail off everyday inking these interiors. It's a full time job in and of itself. I know that Ben has told me pretty much what you said, after the first issue it kind of goes off in its own direction. Sam and Dean strike out on their own (in the '67 Impala) to search out, investigate, and combat various paranormal creepiness and so forth.

It's the kind of story I'd love to do covers for on a regular basis, not unlike Hellblazer, or Criminal Macabre. The possibilities are endless. You've got two lead characters, a cool as shit car, and the entire landscape of the horror genre to mine for content. I know what I'd try to do with it if I was editing. It's a very cool concept. Hopefully, Ben and I can come up with a reason for me to do covers for a particular story arc in the near future. Now that I would dig.

TimBradstreet.com — Tim Bradstreet's official site