“Deadline? No problem. I mean it, Alex why do you keep asking me?”
Blue_Panther, who illustrated the story “From a Darker Place” in HC Vol. 2, is a thoroughly European artist who brings a stark, almost clinical aesthetic to his work. Inspired by numerous artists from Hergé, Franquin and Guarnido as far as Koenig, he values clean colours and almost iconic compositions. In real life, B_P is a trained typographical designer beyond his twenties who does graphics and artwork for the internet and conventions as a second income. Most of these online projects are related to anthropomorphic illustrations and renders of animals.
“The first Heathen City impressed me very much. As soon as I saw the first previews bouncing about the net, I was very interested in the designs and the story of this graphic novel. You can’t imagine what a thrill it was when I was contacted to contribute to the project. The artistic approach to the comic and the illustrations is very varied, with the artists bringing a lot of their own panache to the story. The first issue drew influences from both American and European comics, with the underlying consistency being the driving story and tight plot.”
“Well… the project was kinda like a hike in the Swiss Alps – a huge amount of sweat and the constant fear of not reaching the next mountain hut in time. I got a lot of it done at my office. Basically I had to wait until I had nothing on at work, and then do all the inking, colouring and layout-work all at once. Working in professional surroundings greatly helped me get the project done on time, though I would have liked an hour or two to spare rather than biting my nails asking myself if my pages transfer in time.
It helped a lot that I had a very detailed sketch-phase and strong support from Alex with ideas, references and script reviews. The main challenge was to keep a consistent look over 11 pages, as I usually only work on one illustration or a series of pictures over a long period of time. I tried to keep true to my Blotchy-Ink-to-Digital concept, which pays tribute to the heavily inked comics we Europeans know from the US. The strict schedule of the project forced me to new artistic decisions and stretched the limits of both myself and my art tools.
Blue_Panther, who illustrated the story “From a Darker Place” in HC Vol. 2, is a thoroughly European artist who brings a stark, almost clinical aesthetic to his work. Inspired by numerous artists from Hergé, Franquin and Guarnido as far as Koenig, he values clean colours and almost iconic compositions. In real life, B_P is a trained typographical designer beyond his twenties who does graphics and artwork for the internet and conventions as a second income. Most of these online projects are related to anthropomorphic illustrations and renders of animals.
