WEST PORTAL #1 (Kieron Dwyer, Todd Rinker)

[Jack]

Après près de quinze années passées sous le radar, Kieron Dwyer, l’un des artistes les plus révérés des années 90, revient sur le devant de la scène comics avec la série régulière West Portal sur laquelle il collabore avec son ami Todd Rinker.

West Portal suit les aventures de Dexter Allen, un homme banal jusqu’au jour où il découvre qu’il peut voyager à travers les dimensions, chacune basée sur l’imaginaire populaire (ou alors, il est simplement en train de devenir cinglé !). Ces dimensions, appelées Sphères, s’entrecroisent et s’influencent via les genres qu’elles exploitent. Lors des premiers voyages de Dexter, l’auteur promet une dimension pulp « à la » Flash Gordon mais aussi un univers calqué sur les délires évangélistes de l’artiste Jack T. Chick et un autre sur les comic-strips comme Garfield et Dilbert.

La série est actuellement en financement participatif sur le site Kickstarter.

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[quote]I’m definitely not just straight up imitating. A lot of people have done that kind of thing, some to great effect. I’ve always been a fan of Dan Clowes and Eightball, Ivan Brunetti and Schizo, and how some artists are very capable of drawing in the exact style of, say, Charles Schulz or Hank Ketcham. Those things are pretty funny and entertaining, but in West Portal I’m trying to distill the feel and dynamics of those particular things in my own way, without simply lifting someone else’s style.

For instance, our Flash Gordon-type character will clearly be drawing on Alex Raymond’s style, but it’s not me aping Raymond. I don’t know that I could pull that off. As you can see from the artwork, I’m just trying to get the general vibe of Raymond, along with Al Williamson and those types of guys. Those pages and panels will be colored accordingly, but then when we’re within the Garfield-style sphere or Jack Chick-style sphere the coloring and presentation will be very different, as suits the source material.[/quote]

[size=150]INTERVIEW DE L’ARTISTE KIERON DWYER[/size]

[Jim_Laine (Jean-Marc Lainé)]

@Jack!

Après près de quinze années passées sous le radar, Kieron Dwyer, l’un des artistes les plus révérés des années 90, revient sur le devant de la scène comics

Oh, pas quinze ans, quand même. Remains, c’était 2004, Night Mary, c’était 2005, Sea of Red c’était 2005-2006, sa participation à Fear Agent c’était 2008.
Mais c’est clair qu’il est coutumier de longues absences. Il me semble qu’il fait du storyboard et de la pub.
Moi, je suis super fan, je crois sincèrement que c’est l’un des meilleurs dessinateurs de super-héros, et peut-être l’un des meilleurs tout courts.

Jim

[Jack]

@Jim Lainé

Oh, pas quinze ans, quand même. Remains, c’était 2004, Night Mary, c’était 2005, Sea of Red c’était 2005-2006, sa participation à Fear Agent c’était 2008.

Il y a eu XXXombies aussi. Il a fait quelques petits travaux de ci de là, oui. C’est pour ça que j’ai changé « quinze années d’absence » par « sous le radar ».

En aparté (amusant), il fut pendant un temps le beau-fils de John Byrne:

@Dwyer

John was one of my favorite artists leading up to the time when he met my mother at the Chicago Comic Con in early 1980, so it was truly surreal when they married and he moved in with us. As it happened, though, a few months after he moved in, I moved out and went to live with my dad in California, so I didn’t grow up with him and didn’t really have a relationship with him. It wasn’t until after high school was done and I moved in with him and my mom and sister in Connecticut that I got to know him for real. We had a cordial relationship and I’d say a mutually respectful one, but we were not close. I think he respected my drawing ability and he was certainly helpful as I made my way into the comics business, for which I have always been thankful. When he asked me to do the Torch of Liberty stuff in Danger Unlimited, I looked at it as a nice gesture on his part, and I thought it sounded fun to try a new art style more reminiscent of old war comics from EC and DC, like the stuff Toth, Kubert and others had done. I was quite happy with the end result, and he seemed to be as well. But I believe that Torch stuff was our last real connection, because not long after it saw print, he and my mom split (amicably, I should add. They remain close). Since then, we have had virtually no contact and I don’t expect anything to change in that regard.

[Jack]

[quote]« West Portal » is going to be an ongoing monthly comic book series, chronicling the adventures of Dexter Allen, a man whose travels into fictional realms feel as if they’re real – because they are!

Imagine if Calvin from « Calvin & Hobbes » grew up to be a middle-aged man, yet still occasionally became Spaceman Spiff. Imagine that he had no idea when or where it was going to happen, nor any way to control it. Now consider that these sudden episodes weren’t just his imagination at work, they were actually happening. Welcome to the bizarre world of Dex, a modern day Walter Mitty battling to keep his sanity as the boundaries between reality and fiction get blurrier by the day.[/quote]

[size=150]INTERVIEW DE L’ARTISTE KIERON DWYER[/size]