Posted in: Comics | Tagged: conan

What's Up Doc? Talking To Evan Shaner

Published Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:30:29 -0600

Travis Ellisor writes;

Evan "Doc" Shaner is an up-and-coming cartoonist based in Colorado. I first discovered Evan's art through his deviantART gallery and I was blown away by his talent. Evan's art was also a true highlight of the Comic Twart blog where he more than held his own amongst some of the best artists in the comics industry. When I eventually commissioned Evan to draw something for me, I discovered that, in addition to being such an awesome artist, he is also one of the nicest people on the planet. One day I hope that everyone will know about Evan Shaner's art, but for now he is a talent deserving of wider recognition. This month you can see Evan's work in Eerie Comics #2 from Dark Horse Comics and the Green Hornet: Year One Special from Dynamite Entertainment. Evan took some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions:

Evan, let's start with the most important question, how did you get the nickname "Doc"?

The nickname actually came about when I was in middle school. My dad is a music teacher in the city I grew up in. My middle school band director knew him and for some reason called him "Doctor" Shaner (he's not a doctor of any sort). When I got into the music program, the same teacher started calling me "Doc" (again, for no discernible reason other than it's sort of what he called my Dad) and it just stuck. Eventually I decided to use it online because it seemed to be easier for most folks to remember and spell than Evan, as hard as that may be to believe.

How did you get into comics?
I was very much into newspaper comics when I was young. All the humor strips; Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Dennis the Menace, Foxtrot, Pogo, etc. I'd spend hours copying those drawings. I knew very early on that I wanted to be a cartoonist, though at the time I wanted to draw a humor strip. I was a big fan of the Batman, Spider-Man, and TMNT cartoons at the time but I didn't read comic books. I had no idea they were even comic book characters! It wasn't until many years later after I had drifted away from comics a little that I started reading comic books, and then I think 90% of the stuff I was reading was X-Men related. That's what got me reading comics again, sometime around 2003.

Who are some of your biggest artistic influences, both inside and outside of comics?

Inside comics, a lot of that Charles Schulz and Bill Watterson influence still hangs on. I discovered Joe Kubert's work almost immediately after I got into comic books and that stuff occupies a large part of my brain still. Alex Toth, Mike Wieringo, Jordi Bernet, Frank Robbins, Al Williamson, and Darwyn Cooke are all in there as well. Lately I've really been turning to a lot of European artists I'm just now discovering.

Outside comics, Jim Henson's come to mean a lot to me as an artist lately, both in his work and just the way he lived his life. I suppose there are a number of illustrators who didn't work in comics but I feel are influential to me such as Bob Peak, Al Parker, Robert Fawcett, Coby Whitmore, and Robert McGinnis. Even Noel Sickles who of course did great work in the strips but I've always particularly liked his illustration work.

How did you break into the industry and what was your first published work?
I believe my first published work was drawing a short story for Oni Press' roller derby anthology, JAM! Tales from the World of Roller Derby. I can't even remember now exactly how that came about, which is sad because it wasn't all that long ago. I think it was that somehow or another James Lucas Jones had found my work online and, having a spot to fill in this anthology at the time, asked if I'd like to do it. Matt Kaufenberg colored that one for me, had a lot of fun with it.

Can you tell us about how you got the gig drawing "The Frog Who Became an Emperor" for Archaia's Jim Henson's The Storyteller and what it was like working with Paul Tobin and Nate Cosby?
I had already been developing Buddy Cops with Nate Cosby for Dark Horse Presents at the time, and while we were waiting for things to come together on that, Nate asked if I'd be interested in working on Storyteller which he was editing at Archaia. As I mentioned I'm a big fan of Henson's work, and I loved the Storyteller series, so I said yes without hesitation. I'm a big fan of Paul's and I was really glad Nate paired me up with him. I really think it was a fun story and I hope to work with Paul again sometime.

Can you tell us about your recent gig illustrating a story for Eerie Comics#2?

After I'd finished the three Buddy Cops shorts, editor Brendan Wright approached me about drawing a short story for Eerie Comics. Again, I said yes without hesitation because it was an opportunity to draw something different than what I'm usually offered, and it was a chance to work with Atomic Robo writer Brian Clevinger. Not to mention I've long wanted to do a pure black and white comic, which gave me a chance to try some new things.

Tell us about your preferred art tools of the trade, both digital and traditional.
For anything digital, I've got an iMac, Photoshop CS5, and the smaller Wacom tablet. My traditional tools tend to change every 5-6 months or so as I like to throw some new things in the mix, but right now I ink largely with a combination of the Faber-Castell PITT pens, the Pentel Color Brush, and the Speedball Hunt #108 and S.H. Globe #513EF nibs.

What is your process like in drawing a story?
So far it's largely been: I'll do digital thumbnails and get those approved. I clean those up somewhat and print them out in blueline for inking. Then, depending on the job, I'll do the colors as well in Photoshop. I've lettered on one gig but it's not something I do very often.

What characters (besides your own) would you like to work on someday?
It's funny, I've gotten to a point where I certainly have a list but I try not to pin too much hope on that. Maybe my career just won't head in that direction, where I'm working on licensed characters. Of course I'd love to do something with Captain Marvel, but that character (as I like him) doesn't really exist anymore, and I don't see it reverting soon. Fantastic Four, or anything that lets me draw The Thing. Plastic Man. TMNT. Zorro. Jonah Hex (or any of DC's Western characters). Superman. BPRD. Daredevil. I've been thinking lately that it'd be a lot of fun to work on Thor. Same goes for Conan the Barbarian. Probably a good deal more that I'm just not thinking of at the moment.

What was the last really good comic that you read?
I've just read Blacksad for the first time and really enjoyed that. Gorgeous work. I've also really been enjoying Fury MAX, which I only half expected. I'm a huge fan of the character and Goran Parlov's work but admit I'm not all that familiar with Ennis, and that book's just been all around fantastic.

I see that, while in college, you minored in Music. Do you play a musical instrument? And who are some of your favorite music artists?
Yes, I was two years into a Music degree when I decided to change over to Art. I come from a couple generations of Music educators so it's been a part of my life for a long time now. I play the trumpet and piano, but my focus in college was Jazz and Improvisation. I'm a big fan of Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus to name a few.

Finally, tell us about Buddy Cops.
Buddy Cops was a series of three shorts that I drew for Dark Horse Presents last year, written by Nate Cosby. When I first started talking to Nate a couple years ago he brought this idea he'd been working on that featured an uptight robot and a slacker-type space "hero" who have to work together as partners in the NYPD, and they fight all the weird stuff that attacks New York. We had talked about different kinds of threats, but in the three shorts it was all giant monsters. We were definitely going for that sort of Action/Comedy movie vibe with the shorts. We've got a one-shot coming up in March from Dark Horse that collects the three stories from DHP along with a few extras we just put together.

The Buddy Cops One-Shot is available for preorder this month from Dark Horse Comics. You can see more of Evan's art at http://www.evanshaner.com/, follow him on Tumblr at http://docshaner.tumblr.com/, and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DocShaner. You can also purchase original art from Evan at http://docshanerstore.blogspot.com/.

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