Richard: How did you join Atomic Basement?

Guy: Well, I met Atomic Basement publisher Mike Wellman when he was working at a comic book store called Geoffrey's Comics, over in Gardena, CA, and this was about 2003-2004, maybe? Anyway, he saw some of my artwork and asked if I would be interested in doing the artwork for issue #2 of his "Gone South" series. After working on that issue, Mike and I started becoming fast friends, and I went on to do issue #3 as well. Of course, this led to my work on other Atomic Basement titles such as doing coloring duties on both "Mac Afro" and "TEX", and inking, coloring AND lettering on our newly released "Z-Blade XX". Just a chance meeting between two hardcore geeks, I suppose.

Richard: Where does the title "Z-Blade XX" come from?

Guy: (Hahaha) Credit for that HAS to go to co-creator Reed Greenfield! Reed was looking for a very manga-like name for our hero, and the name and his eventual look went hand-and-hand. To be honest, I think perhaps the name came first (as a lark, mind you) and we just started to ping-pong back and forth with costume looks, (i.e. first his helmet, then torso, boots, a cape...then NO cape, etc.) until we had such a fun visual to add some meaty back story to. Our writer, Steve J. Palmer, who at first absolutely abhorred the name (sorry Steve, your secret's out, dude), put a humorous history behind the 'XX', as in the Roman numeral twenty, meaning the outfit you see our hero in for the first issue is actually the 20th reincarnation of his suit. We made it so as further issues continue, you'll slowly see through flashbacks what happened to costumes I-XIX. As far the 'Z' in "Z-Blade", it's due to our hero being infected by Z-particles from outer space, which give him his powers.

Richard: What is the story in "Z-Blade XX"?

Guy: Well, the story takes place in the fictional metropolis of Lucidity, where at the start of each issue, we've random citizens serving as narrators to their own experiences with Z-Blade. Our hero's alter ego, Ryan Zillion, is a former Army Lieutenant from the 3rd Infantry Division ala Rock of the Marne (which I actually served in from 1997-2000). In a nutshell, Ryan gets his powers when two teenaged aliens, Zeerd and Rrzyk, do a complete rush job on him as their final Thesis Project for their Abduction 101 class. Ryan, after realizing the pros and cons of these abilities, turns to his best friend, Prof. Claude Bergeron, a French-Canadian scientist, to help contain and harness these powers for good.

It makes for a lot of illustrated action!

Richard: Do you get to draw lots of action?

Guy: Hell Yeah!! Well, certainly in this book I do. It's not that I haven't drawn a lot of action/ fight sequences before, but this is my first straight out superhero series, and it let's me pull from those times I had as a kid of reading books like Green Lantern, Avengers and JLA for the first time. My prior work for companies like Atomic Basement, Viper Comics, Devil's Due, and even Image, had me doing from one or two pin-ups, to entire graphic novels of horror genre characters. And though I absolutely am a child of late 70's to early 80's Fangoria styled movies and books, the change of pace is refreshing! Sure, a zombie and a vampire both have to be active when eating someone limb-to-limb (*haha*), but a superhero has it's own flavor, and believe me, my writer, Steve, has no doubt pushed me with overlapping panels of complete mayhem, as well as shear ridiculousness!!! I think this is my best work, so far...

Richard: How would you describe how you draw the main character?

Guy: Very loose, I don’t stick to the same pattern when I draw him. If you look at one of my panels with a far away shot, I tend to go a bit lighter with my colors. I'm actually not a fan of the profile shot, since my style is meant to look visually "retro flat". 9 times out of 10, though, no matter what the size of the panel is, if Z-Blade's in it, I mold the scene around HIM.

Richard: How do you draw a mutated rabies virus in "The Rabid"?

Guy: I take a normal looking human and make it look like they're having a very bad day. Then I turn them green with a lot of saliva!!

Richard: What is the "Nightlife" about?

Guy: Well, "Gone South's" vampire Victoria returns to New York City in "NightLife," which is going to be a 64-page graphic novel, following immediately where "Gone South" issue #3 ended.

But with Z-Blade XX out, we've put a slight hold on it, at least until the new year.

Richard: Why should we look forward to seeing "Nightlife"?

Guy: Because this one's a LOVE STORY, so bring a blanket!! ...well, that, and perhaps more nudity.

Richard: What comics other than yours would you recommend?

Guy: I'll be blunt and brief here: Savage Dragon. The best comic book out there... that..um, isn't mine? :-D

Richard: What is the attraction of drawing?

Guy: It's just something I've loved to do since I was a boy. But not just drawing... art in general been on my professional pallet for awhile. I used to do miniatures for films in the 90's, working in Art Departments for amazing guys like Stuart Gordon on films like "Space Truckers" and such. Believe it or not, I'm shy as hell in person, and am much more of a visual expressionist. Drawing and inking is just the quickest, easiest way to exercise that creative muscle, without having to sit around and wait for a film to get funding so you can actually go to work.

Richard: What do you feel are your strong and weak points in your art?

Guy: My strong points I think would be my mood and the angles I put my characters in. My weak points? Cars, trucks, and buildings with domed roofs, for whatever damned reason! Curse the stars if you ever ask me to draw the Superdome!!!

Richard: How can someone contact you?

Guy: I can be reached at my e-mail: pinballcomics@yahoo.com or Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.

Richard: Any final words of wisdom?

Guy: I'm not good at last words. Well, not so much finding some obscure literary quote for someone to over analyze. I'll just say this: If you're reading this, and are saying to yourself, "Hey, I wanna draw comics too! How the hell do I start??", my advice would be to get up off your duff, and go attend San Diego Comic Con. Seriously, it's worth saving money for if you live around SoCal. Constantly be honing your craft, drawing, coloring, build yourself a portfolio and lug that sucker around. Go to any convention you can get to if NOT ComicCon San Diego, and meet people. Most of us artists and writers are big geeks like you guys, and if you're polite, do good looking work, and are willing to take constructive criticism, you might just learn a thing or two, and build networking connections for starters. Yeah, it's luck, 99.9% of it is...but all luck actually is in when preparedness meets opportunity.