I just had the opportunity to interview Adrián Sibar who is an artist in all meaning of the word. He has worked in many different art fields ranging from comic books to painting that are hanging in many different museums. You can check out his website here.
You are from Argentina, how did you get into American comic books? How has your Argentinian roots influenced you when drawing comics? What was your first professional comic art work?
There is a tradition of comic artists here in Argentina that have been expanding thorough generations. I grew up admiring artists that produced from South America to the United States and Europe like Alberto Breccia, Hugo Pratt, Alberto Salinas, Eduardo Risso and many others… One of those great masters, Carlos Meglia, invited me to collaborate at his studio after I won a local contest. There I saw the processes from the inside. I met there the enormous Humberto Ramos who was visiting Argentina. He encouraged me to make samples for the mainstream publishers. Soon, during a convention at Buenos Aires and with a folder with samples under my arm, I meet Dark Horse editor Chris Warner. A few weeks later, other editor of the company (Phil Amara) offered me the first job for U.S.A: It was Planet of the Apes. One issue first, then more came for the ongoing series.
You have worked on Batgirl, how did you get that job as an artist with DC Comics?
In my first trip to San Diego Con, after doing Planet Of The Apes and a Star Wars Tales for Dark Horse, I met DC comics editor in chief for Batman Universe Bob Schreck (in the present he runs Legendary Comics), who asked me for samples of Batgirl. In that first trip I met important people who told me key words about the status of my work at that moment: editors like Axel Alonso, Scott Dunbier, Joey Cavalieri, Scott Allie and Philip Simon.
What did you find to be challenging about drawing the character of Batgirl? What was easy about her character?
It was a great experience, challenging in many levels. The most interesting aspect for me to approach was the psychological aspect of the character. However, I would go with a different emphasis on action scenes if I have to tell that story today. I understand a bit more what readers enjoy of this kind of titles. I would be interesting to get back to DC characters now that some water ran under the bridge.
When drawing the 6 issues of Batgirl that you worked on, did you have much collaboration with the writers of the comic? Did you have any restraints put on you?
Editors Bob Schreck, Michael Wright and writer Dylan Horrocks were an awesome first level team, very supportive and cool to work with.
You had another title while working for DC Comics under their Vertigo brand. How did you get the job for Bang! Tango?
Joe Kelly is a giant writer that has a lot of fans in Latin America. He visited Argentina and I persuaded my friend and great artist Marcelo Frusin to introduce us. Joe told me he was familiar with my work and we started thinking on to “cook” something. I just thought of Bang!Tango as an inspirational title for a comic since it looked like a synthetic concept of action and romance. Joe liked it and built an impressive script with awesome twists and emotional shakes. Plenty of action and music, the story works in many layers that are always about to surprise. Then the challenge was to make justice to the writings with the drawings!
Bang! Tango is a bit more of a racy comic, do you prefer to illustrate racy or conservative comics? Why?
Every work asks for its own “mood”. Emotion and sensuality are powerful forces when used with good administration. I don´t like pornography, in fact, one of the interesting things on B!T is how we tried not to be obvious with cheap solutions on sensitive topics that at the end were substantial for the script line.
Bang! Tango is under Vertigo, did you have more freedom to address adult topics than you would have in DC Comics main line?
The scripts are supposed to be more reckless or bolder in Vertigo. However I am noticed from time to time that this “adult” or “taboo” topics are being touched in Dc Universe titles. See Catwoman, for example: that is an interesting character.
Bang! Tango deals with the topic of transsexuals. Do you feel that there is a lack of sexual minorities represented in comics currently?
At first glance it can look like that, which is great…but when you read the entire story you will find Joe´s script is speaking to everyone. The center of the story is choices, decisions, and the overall reflection is what the real meaning of what we call “consistence” is.
When drawing a comic like Bang! Tango where do you find your inspiration?
Noir movies and comics, of course were the reference. Music also is very important for me to figure out the climax of some scenes.
As an artist, when working on a comic like Bang! Tango! Do you feel that you have a duty to challenge the norm that is currently in the industry?
My only concern, especially with the last version of B!T under Image, was to make justice to the script and allow the readers enjoy the book. Now this is a weird comic, we know that… and in the rare cases is where sometimes the new things take place.
Recently, Bang! Tango was just republished by Image Comics, how do you feel about your artwork being picked up by another company?
Image is a great, prestigious publisher. I feel honored.
There are currently very few books that are similar to Bang! Tango! Another is Black Kiss, are you a fan of that series?
Oh yes! Howard Chaykin is a master hero and he did the great covers of the DC version of Bang! Tango. For the Image version Alex Toth was the main influence, if I have to say a name. His Black Canary, The Zorro and The Fox…and all his books are impressive masterpieces. I also had Jordi Bernet´s Torpedo on eye all the time.
You have worked on Star Wars comics. What are the challenges of working on a comic that is a licensed product? What are the advantages of working on the comic?
I saw the The Return Of The Jedi at the cinema when I was a kid with my father. It made a big impression of course. And when I had the chance to draw those two stories for Dark horse I felt honored. The style I was using at that time was a bit radical and experimental. Now I would like to go again over Star Wars in a more evolved way.
You have also worked on Planet of the Apes comics. How do you prepare to draw and express the characters emotion? Do you have a research method or do you have special reference tools that are used?
I worked with editors Philip Simon and Phil Amara, they provided with all the reference needed to work those comics, which were based on Tim Burton´s movie. The emotion is something very important, most when the characters are apes. You must to direct the characters, like if they were real actors.
Before we transition to your other work, what advice do you have for people who want to get into the comic industry as an artist?
Put “life” into the drawings. They have to establish communication with the reader and make him feel the story. All about storytelling is a learning process that never ends.
You are also a professional painter. How did you discover that you have this skill?
I studied arts in school. While I was learning about the painters and sculptors, and the history of arts, I was reading and drawing comics. So I got the two disciplines linked from the beginning. Probably the evolution became when I found the way to separate them keeping enough of each one in the other…and cleaning them of any aspect that could look confusing. Since I did this, the comics I draw looks more enjoyable, and the paintings fly with no prejudges. Of course mine are comic-styled paintings.
Looking at some of your paintings, they are very bold and colorful, how did you come up with that style?
Thanks to the comics. In fact some of the paintings are black and white. It is the subjacent idea, working in many levels, what makes it an art piece. It also occurs that some of the paintings are panels extracted from the comics I did that I adjust to the new medium, adding and subtracting elements. Those images work in a very different channel of communication when hanging in a wall. They connect with a wide open universal vibration that is beyond me, you or the entertainment canon. With enough logic for you to grasp a sense to the painting, but with enough liberty for you to feel your perception expanded. You end giving the punch line as spectator in this case.
You have a re-occurring theme in many of your paintings, how do you choose your color palate?
It just happens. It is not that logical than in comics since it is not pure narration. Even when a painting requires argument, I search for you to get emotionally stimulated. I think of a painting, like an irradiating sun. You will connect or not with it. If you do, we´ll have an experience in common with an art piece as a dimensional nexus. It is all about energy in the end.
In 2001 you had the opportunity to exhibit some of your work at Casa de Las Condes (Chile) how did you get the opportunity? What inspired you to exhibit your work there?
I was invited by Germán Adriazola who was coordinating events for the Andres Bello University. He was interested in to show Argentinian comic artists. He arranged an exhibition of Eduardo Risso and new talents, I went as one of them.
In recent years your paintings have been more noticed. In particular, the Petite Maison and simple Dream / Dream complex pieces have captured feminine beauty using a pop art twist. What is your inspiration for these pieces?
Women, nature force, urban life and Art itself. We live our lives waving between the masculine and feminine forces. This contrast shapes our Cosmo vision of past, present and future into our urban codes. Eros and Thanatos, Yin and Yang, Black and White; I used these themes to establish dialogue with artists of the past as Roy Litchenstein, Wassily Kandinsky, Gustav Klimt, etc.
In the last five years you have had many pieces displayed in museums. How do viewers react to those pieces when they are on display?
The museum that owns pieces of mine is the Museum of Latin American Contemporary Arts of La Plata, in Argentina. The relation started when I made a donation that was purchased by an architect and art collector. Since then I provided more pieces to their collection and made great friends in that city.
In 2013 you painted a new collection called Deep Symbols that North American collectors avidly sought. Does it inspire you that your work is valued and that collectors want to purchase your work?
Of course! I felt very honored and inspired. I stayed a few weeks in New York in 2013 and felt very inspired by the prevailing mood. I produced a series of paintings in 2014 for an exhibition called “Tango & Jazz (moves the world)” that did take place in the “Association of Judges and Magistrates Of The Nation”, in Argentina. The paintings in this series approach the topic of music as a universal language among humans of different ethnicities. It also takes part in the whole concept an Afro American Statue Of Liberty painting based in the urban legend that you can hear whispered while walking and interacting through the streets of New York.
Do you have a favorite painting that you have done?
It is very hard to answer. The one called “Just what is it that makes our lifestyles so different, so attractive…? ” is one of my favorites. It is part of a private collection now, but I love it visually and because its speech links with a Richard Hamilton collage that was a kick starter for the Pop Art movement.
Who as an artist has inspired you and influenced you as a painter?
I work in permanent interior dialogue with artists of many epochs. Of course Roy Litchenstein is one of them, but also Valerio Adami and even Miró, the symbolists, the impressionists…
What advice would you give to fans that want to get involved in art and painting?
Find your interior voice and listen to it. The capacity of projecting thoughts into images is what makes us humans. Once you start to become clear in your thoughts, you start to become individual. But you also start to communicate with others. And that´s the real deal.
You have worked in other fields beside painting and the mainstream comic industry. One of these areas is Ema, a multimedia comic. Can you describe what a multimedia comic is? How did you come up with the concept of this story and how it spans across different media forms?
Ema is a project I worked on during 2010. It was about a teenage girl that showed her life through a blog and through a comic. Her posts in the blog, the interactivity with the readers through facebook (that influenced the course of her story in the comic) and the press interviews that some newspapers done to the character, defined it as a multimedia comic. A very interesting experiment that throw data about how the young people understood the reality during the urban tribes era.
Outside of the comic industry you were hired to paint 120 different gods for the History Channel. How did you prepare to paint 120 gods? How much research was required to paint each god? Which of the gods that you painted were your favorites? Which was your least favorite to paint?
I done a lot of research and enjoyed all the process. It was very enriching. The most remarkable thing you learn when working on something like this is that all divinities across the earth and history are connected and still have a lot in common. For example: it is a fact that the sun is the primary male divinity, followed by his counterparty the moon, the feminine entity. This worked for the primitive tribes and even works for actual theologies, even when their representation has became anthropomorphic or abstract, like with Jesus or Allah. Also life and death are always there represented in many ways, but death was not always a negative symbol. The Mayas, for example were very humorous about death. I enjoyed all of them, the Romans, the Greeks, Egyptians and Africans..all the gods were a remarkable trip.
In all your work, what are you the most proud of?
The one I´m about to do next!
