GKO: MADHOUSE
Here you will find our rambalings on all area's of Batman, interviews and speical features!
CBR News: Derek, you've done some work in the industry before this gig, including a lot of inking, a few pencils and one or two stories here and there in Annuals and the Halloween special, but how did you first break into comics?
Derek Fridolfs: I broke in at the tail end of the '90s. I had been going the route of mailing submission samples to companies and going to convention portfolio reviews and doing that pretty regularly for a good four or five year stretch. It was one of those situations where everything sort of all happened at the same time. I had tested to ink Chris Bachalo for the new "Steampunk" series launching at Wildstorm, but they rightfully decided to go with someone that was more well known and proven. I hadn't really had any credits at that point, so that was understandable. Then I was one of a small group that made it to the final round of testing to get a job at CrossGen, but ultimately failed - or bullet dodged. [Laughs] I was pretty disappointed as it felt like I had come so close twice but still couldn't get work. Fellow inker extraordinaire Tim Townsend heard about my troubles and, out of the goodness of his heart, took pity. He offered to pass along my samples to the editor he was working for at Marvel. No guarantee of anything to come out of it, other than it would get in the hands of his editor rather than just the normal submissions pile. Jumping at that chance, I sent him some photocopies, and within a week I heard back from editor Mark Powers who gave me a gig inking half an issue of "Wolverine." At the same time, I got contacted by Wildstorm who somehow pulled my samples from a huge submission stack and wanted to give me some work. So yeah, I feel very fortunate having broke in two separate ways at the same time through networking and through the wonder of post office submissions mailing.
As far as DC, after a number of years, I had done work for most of the major and minor companies out there, but DC was someone I hadn't had a chance with. I had always heard that they were a great place to work for and they had a tendency, like most companies, to work with their regular stable of workers first and not have much to go around to bring in additional people. That always makes it that much tougher to crack. I would constantly send samples and talk to editors, but I didn't have much luck. Enter Dustin Nguyen, who has worked for them his whole career. We'd always kept in contact, and when the time came when he was going to work on some Batman work, he called and wanted to see if I'd be interested. It was through his exclusivity with the company that he could recommend who he wanted to partner up with and I got the nod. It's been full steam ahead ever since.
You mentioned getting the go ahead through your friend Dustin Nguyen. How did you guys meet?
We both broke in together at the same time. Our first work at Wildstorm was when they launched the Gen Active anthology and I was the first inker they paired him up with. They tried a few inkers over him on other stories, but sort of settled on me when we worked on the "Jet" miniseries for them. After that, they moved Dustin over to "Authority" and decided to go in-house with the inks. It was a crushing blow initially, since it was tough to find work after that, but it made me better in the long run. I had to get out there and pound the pavement. During that time, I was able to work for Marvel and Dark Horse and just develop better technique over other artists. When it came time to work with Dustin again, I could bring some of that newfound experience with me. So yeah, it's weird to think that the first guy I got to work with early in my career is the one I've gotten to continue a long stretch with. I always admired the penciller/inker teams that really established themselves over long careers - Jim Lee/Scott Williams, Joe Quesada/Jimmy Palmiotti - and I just wanted to have that same type of career. It makes it that much better that Dustin is a great guy. We share a lot of the same enjoyment in comics and animation, he has a fantastic family. It's always great to travel with him to various conventions and get a chance to hang out.
As mentioned, you moved from inks to pencils to now writing. What made you want to write comics as opposed to the other creative tasks? Is there a preference at all for one over the other?
I stumbled into inking. It was a situation where there was a local group of people wanting to make comics and all of them were pencilers and they needed an inker. So I sort of fell into it, not knowing anything about it. It's cringe inducing to think I started inking with Sharpies before learning the proper tools. I just sort of grew to love it. Penciling I've dabbled at here or there, mainly just for my own amusement. As far as writing, it's something I've always loved and wanted to do more with. I went to college, taking a lot of creative writing classes and graduating with a Bachelors Degree in English, but it was sort of getting my foot in the door of comics on the art end that I thought I would take advantage of any opportunities to stretch out and do other things - including writing. As most would attest, it's tough to break in as a writer since most companies can hire new artists on sight, art being visual, but writing they shy away from taking the time to read any novice submissions and just go with people who have published credits.
Check out the entire interview here.
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