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Stephen Daly On Drawing Ian Rankin's Someone Got To Eddie For CLiNT

As the Guardian talks to Ian Rankin about his short story for CLiNT #6, Bleeding Cool spoke to the as-yet-unnamed artist…

Stephen Daly is a storyboard artist and designer who has worked on projects such as The Count of Monte Cristo, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, and Murphy's Law. He draws the Phlogiston cartoon strip for Frontline and i currently vworking on a graphic novel, Róisín Dubh.

Tell us about the comic!

The story is a very short 4-pager. It's set in a modern criminal underworld about a guy who's sent to bump off a snitch. We don't know anything about the guy or the soon-to-be deceased. Our hero goes about his work with clinical aplomb, and then Mr Rankin delivers us a great twist at the end.

What attracted you to write it?

The attraction to drawing the piece was simple. Mark Millar asked me do it. If Mark Millar asked me jump off the Empire State Building we would not be having this conversation.

How familiar are you with Rankin's work?

I have read a few of Ian's books over the years, but I've never watched any of the TV stuff (sorry Ian). I don't watch much TV – it's a busman's holiday, I suppose. I've been working in film and TV for over 15 years now… A book of his that really stands out in my mind is Witch Hunt – a great chase story.

What kind of audience do you think CLiNT will give you?

CLiNT has great artwork. Guys who are at the top of their game. McNiven, Gross, Edwards, Romita Jr. I have been a HUGE fan of Romita's for years. I collected Romita's Spider-Man and Daredevil stuff when I was younger – it's such a thrill to be between the same covers as these people. [Magazine covers, I mean.]

You've had extensive experience working on TV and movies – can you see this being easily translated into other media?

I've storyboarded and designed for TV shows and movies over the years. There's obviously an enormous similarity between film and comics but it's naive to think they're really that similar. As the artist on a comic, you've got to add quite a lot of visual information to a panel, choose the right angle, worry about speech bubbles and so on, and, something I think extremely important, design the page as a whole piece. On a movie, the storyboard artist merely draws out the scene, shot by shot. The texture of the film is brought about through set design, lighting, camera, acting, direction, costume, you name it. To me, the process of comics is more like animation. By this I mean the animator/comic artist is the last line. The editing is done BEFORE pen hits paper. On a movie, the storyboard artist or designer is merely one more link in the chain, and the editor puts it all together.

Image copyright Stephen Daly, from his The High Way comic

Stephen Daly On Drawing Ian Rankin's Someone Got To Eddie For CLiNT





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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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