Behind-The-Scenes

Words and Pictures with Marcos Martín!
By Scott Beatty

In the short time I've been associated with Marcos Martín, I've come to know a man of sly wit and sublime artistic skills. I've also made a good friend and a creative partner in the forthcoming BATGIRL: YEAR ONE. Marcos commits himself utterly to his collaboration, even when co-writer Chuck Dixon and I bombard him with archaic American fashion vernacular. And he also demonstrates extreme patience with editor Matt Idelson and myself when we make anarchic and confusing conference calls to Marcos from DC Comics' New York City Offices. Somehow, we've become close despite the distance between us-he in Barcelona, Spain and me in the wilds of Eastern Pennsylvania-often times trading barbs and discussing the nuances of BATGIRL: YO via e-mail. With the chronicle of Batgirl's formative year debuting next month, I forced Marcos to sit down with me and answer a few questions so that comics readers might get to know a creator whom I'm sure will be comics next artistic superstar:

Okay, Marcos… let's start with an obvious question: What was your first comic book experience?

I've been reading comic books since I was three. My first memory is of Herge's TINTIN IN AMERICA and of Disney's comic books. My first exposure to the superhero world came when I was five because my sister-who was four years older-used to read FANTASTIC FOUR. Then when I was six came "Superman: The Movie." And my life was f***ed up forevermore.

Me too. I mean, come on… Margot Kidder as Lois Lane?!
But the real shocker is that you were reading at three. What kind of super-babies are they breeding over there in Spain?!
In America, we're still messing our diapers and drooling at three.
So I'm wondering… given your accelerated development and all, when did you know that you wanted to be a comic book artist?
And watch the potty language, okay? This is a family website.

I seem to recall my father himself taught me how to read, probably so I would stop destroying his PLAYBOY collection and could start reading the articles instead...

Oh, so in Spain, "reading" means something completely different. Tee-hee!

What?! What did I say?!

Nothing, please go on.

Anyway, I was thirteen and at the time I wanted to become a writer. But I had been REALLY getting into comic books for the last couple of years. So I decided that what I really wanted to write were comic books. However, it seemed to me that it'd be much easier to break into the field if I became an artist first. So, there you go.

I hear that.
Man, if I could draw… the last few years of my life would no longer be labeled "The Dark Period."
What training did you undergo to become a penciler? Where did you study?

I majored in Painting at the University of Fine Arts in Barcelona.

In college I painted my dorm room (a single, baby!) electric purple! It looked like you were inside Grimace… y'know, that big purple dude who hangs out with Ronald McDonald!

[SILENCE]

Um… okay then… who would you consider to be your artistic influences?

[David] Mazzucchelli has remained a constant point of reference since I first discovered him back when I was fifteen. It always amazes me how little I've been able to learn from his work in all these years.
Frank Miller's work is ALWAYS incredible.
The classics: Alex Raymond, Jack Kirby, Milton Caniff, Gene Colan, John Romita, Sr. Although it pains me to admit I've only recently (and greatly due to Javier [Pulido's] influence) discovered such monsters as Alex Toth or Bernie Krigstein.
Mike Mignola, Steve Rude, John Romita, Jr., John Watkiss, Bruce Timm, Kevin Nowlan, Rick Leonardi, Paul Pope. John Byrne was a huge influence during my adolescence. It has taken me years to start shaking off the influence of his style.
On the European side: Hergè, Moebius, Hugo Pratt, Daniel Torres, Jordi Bernet.
I'm not much into Manga but these books are truly amazing: Osamu Tezuka's ADOLF, Suehiro Maruo's THE VAMPIRE'S SMILE, Taiyo Matsumoto's BLACK & WHITE and Hiroaki Samura's BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL.
Obviously, my friends and colleagues, too. People like Javier Pulido, Germán García or Javier Rodriguez.
And lastly, these days I'll read anything by Frank Quitely, a genius storyteller.

Whoa, I didn't ask for your life story, Marcos… internet pixels cost money! But great great artists one and all. Now tell me, what was your first comic book credit?

Oops!
I'm so sorry, Scott!
Didn't mean to get carried away…
By the way, could you add Kyle Baker up there? I can't believe I forgot about him.
To answer your question, I had been drawing covers and pin-up illustrations for the Spanish editions of Marvel Comics for a few years, I consider my first comic-book credit to be BATMAN CHRONICLES #12. I successfully managed to destroy Devin Grayson's story "The Contract." Sorry about that, Devin.

I find that hard to believe. You Spaniards and your creative humility…
What titles have you rendered since?

Hmm… JSA #6, GOTHAM CITY SECRET FILES #1, ROBIN #81, ROBIN: YEAR ONE #4 (19 pages), THE JOKER: LAST LAUGH #2, BIRDS OF PREY #37. And hopefully, BATGIRL: YEAR ONE #1-9.

"Hopefully"?! We've got you under contract! No welching! Don't make Chuck and I fly to Barcelona!
Anyway, of your previous work, what do you consider to be your favorites… or perhaps definitive of your "style"?

*Pfft!* I've just started working on this. They say it takes about five hundred pages before you start developing your own style and I'm still FAR from reaching that mark. So, I'm afraid I'm not especially proud of any of my work… yet.

What is it with you Spaniards? You read at three… yet nothing is ever good enough! You guys draw all day and then tear up the pages and start over!
Crazy crazy CRAZY!
Now… who's your favorite comic book character of all time?

Hmm, I guess I'd have to say Spider-Man.

Spider-Who?

Spider-Man.

Spider-Whu'?

I think, as a character, he's probably one of the best developed and well-rounded. However, this is an almost impossible question to answer since there are just thousands of valid options.

Spoken like a true freelancer unwilling to burn bridges.
I salute you, sir.
Now then… favorite comic title?

Same thing again. I guess I could say Quino's Mafalda. You can always find a quote from Mafalda for almost every situation of life. And they're all funny.
But I could also choose Goscinny and Uderzo's Asterix, Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four, Lee and Ditko's Spider-Man…

Marcos, what are "slacks"?

A fine piece of clothing, specially suitable for strangling funny comic-book writers.

Oh-kay…
Finish this sentence: When drawing, I like to…

Draw?

Ah… that keen Spanish wit!
Let's see you wield your rapier retort and discuss what it's like working with BATGIRL: YEAR ONE co-writers Scott Beatty and Chuck Dixon?

HA! I want to answer this question on neutral ground!
Seriously, it's a pleasure working with you guys. On the professional side, the scripts are candy for any artist. The pacing, the amount of information given on each page… everything is perfectly laid out in the scripts. There's really almost no storytelling effort to be done on my part. Plus, you've got great dialogue and characterization and fun things to draw! There's really not much more to ask for.

Aw, shucks… *sniff!*… you're making me all misty-eyed, Marcos!

On the personal side, you've both been willing to be in touch with me during the whole project, which is great. I consider communication with the writers to be essential.
And you've been enthusiastically supportive of my work which is very important for an artist when you're working for a long time without actually getting to see anything published. Every time Chuck tells me he loves the way the pages are turning out, it's unbelievably satisfying for me. I mean, this guy has worked with the best. He's worked with John Romita, Jr. for crying out loud!
Scott's opinion I don't care much about…

Asked and answered.
Moving right along… if you weren't drawing comic books, you would be:

Miserable.

Your motto:

"F*** YOU, that's the inker's fault!"

If you were marooned on a desert island and you could have only one comic book, one CD, and one food item, what would each be?

If I was marooned in a desert island I'd like to die as soon as possible! So I guess any record by Phil Collins, Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey or Celine Dion would make me want to end my life right away. A cyanide pill would probably do the trick. And KINGDOM COME would certainly help me sleep through my last moments.

Bryan Adams! YEAH!
Let's sing his duet with Tina Turner! I'll be Bryan, you be Tina!
When the feeling is endin', there ain't no use pretendin', doncha know… it's only looovvve…

[SILENCE]

Well, I'm sure you have a wonderful singing voice anyway. Tell us, what celebrity do you most resemble?

I'd like to say Paul Newman, but my friends-for some reason that escapes me-seem to think I bear some kind of resemblance to Ben Stiller.

Franks and beans? Tee-hee!
Seriously, Marcos… I wouldn't be spreading that around after "Zoolander."
Two words: Craptacular.

If you were an action figure, your accessory would be…

Big.

Remember what I said about Spanish humility? Ixnay.
So…uh… you're a close personal friend of ROBIN: YEAR ONE artist Javier Pulido. You guys must be pretty popular in Spain. Are you considered "national treasures"?

If by "treasure" you mean "buried six feet under in a remote desert island"… yes, I guess you could say that's our current public status in Spain.

I hear that. I'm a bit of a rapscallion myself… but the Federales will never take me alive!
NEVER!!!
*Ahem*… Weirdest comic convention moment?

I was at a comic convention up in Northern Spain in 1997 where Steve Rude had been invited. A friend of mine was interviewing him for a magazine he was working for at the time and asked me to be the translator. Javier (Pulido) and Germán (García), big fans of Rude's work, were also there.
Anyway, Rude was very nice, as usual. Throughout the interview we soon became aware of his admiration for Jack Kirby's work and persona. And he made very clear he was determined to dedicate his life to keeping the flame of Kirby's work alive. But at that moment he was at a tough professional juncture since NEXUS wasn't selling well enough and he was trying to decide on his next project.
Working for Marvel seemed to us to be the obvious solution since Rude had some offers and loved the characters. He even mentioned how Marvel had offered him the opportunity to draw the X-Men years ago and how he rejected them because of the whole feud with Kirby and the way they had treated him.
Rude was adamant about never working for Marvel. And at that point I remember how we all looked at each other in disbelief. So, I turned around and asked him if it had ever occurred to him that-taking into account his passion for Kirby's work-working for one of the big companies would always be a better way of making sure his legacy reached the widest possible audience.
And that if he had taken the X-Men job, perhaps (just perhaps) we would've never had to suffer through [Rob] Liefeld and the likes of him.
And maybe the millions of X-Men fans would now be much more familiar with Kirby's work and style. So then there was this dramatic pause during which we all thought he was going to yell out something like: "Of course, I thought about it but I didn't care, you stupid Spaniards!"
But instead he just said in a very serious voice: "No, I had never looked at it that way. This is something I must think about."
Months later, we saw that Rude was working for Marvel once again. And we all wondered if it had anything to do with our conversation.
And apparently, it did, since he recalled it in an interview a couple of years later as the reason he'd decided to work for Marvel again. Of course, in his memory we had all become Dickens characters: "Poor boys stuttering in their broken accents"?
Damn him!
But as it turned out we were partly responsible of his coming back to mainstream comics.

My fondest convention memory is of Carmine Infantino yelling at me because I worked for DC, which hadn't sent him his latest comps. I became the focus of Carmine's ire, despite my protestations that I was merely a freelancer.
Must not have had his coffee that morning.
So, before sitting down to pencil each morning, you must first…

Wake up and smell the coffee.

Wiseguy.
How are European comics different from American comics? And no, you can't answer that the two are in different languages…

Well, it depends on the countries. In Spain, for example, the industry is nonexistent. France and Italy are the main producers of comic albums right now. And, of course, there are several differences like format, number of pages, not having a monthly schedule, working methods (both artistically and editorial), deadlines…
But if we talk about the work we can't make such a quick distinction. What I mean is that the fact that we are Europeans doesn't immediately give us a special or distinct quality. Most of the Spanish artists working on the U.S right now come from a purely American comic book background. It always has to come down to individual artists and the references that show up in their work.

After BATGIRL: YO, what are you tackling next?

I have no idea. I'm still halfway through the project, though, so it's still early for me. I just hope someone will want me to tackle something. Does this sound kind of dirty in English?

Dirty and disturbing.
What's your "dream project"… or what character or title would you most like to draw?

I know it'll sound like a cliché, but I really don't care much about specific characters or titles. I'd rather work on stories that I consider worth telling for whatever reasons. I know it's a boring answer, but it's true.
I mean, what's the use of getting to draw Spider-Man if the story is "Maximum Carnage" or "The Clone Saga"?

Ouch! First Stan Lee sues Marvel… and then you deliver the Barcelona Smackdown! Baa-BAMMM!

BATGIRL: YO could very well be my dream project since I've been allowed to work with a creative team of my choice and under an extremely understanding and flexible editorial direction that has given me the rare privilege of working at my pace without time constraints of any kind.

Right back atcha, amigo!
Let's address that last statement: When you're working at your own pace, what five items other than artistic implements would we find on your drawing table?

Let me see… there's a pile of different comic books, a couple of books about Glasgow, the "Lagoon Blues" CD by The Bathers, an empty bottle of Arizona's Strawberry Banana Colada cocktail and Nunzilla, the nun who spits fire through her mouth!

I retract another of my former statements.
Nunzilla is the dirtiest and most disturbing thing you've described today.
Let's say we wrap this up before you make any more blasphemous statements.
What one thing would you like American comic book fans to know about you?

I'm tall.

Nunzilla hates liars, Marcos.

Hey readers, check out Marcos's creative process on BATGIRL: YEAR ONE in his own words:

I first draw thumbnail sketches of the pages (usually several). Once I'm happy with the result, I scan them and scale them up to board size. I then print them and trace them to produce a final sketch. This is a much tighter sketch that I ink it with pen and markers. At this point I sometimes decide to change things from the preliminary sketch. And when I'm finally satisfied, I trace it again onto the final board and do the finished pencils. Simple, right? Oh, and I always sketch at least one whole scene at a time (a minimum of three pages and no more than seven at a time).

For a closer look at the two preview pages from BATGIRL: YEAR ONE #2, click on any of the thumbnails below for a full-scale image!

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