Please read Part 4 of the interview before reading Part 5
Marvel Comics & Image Comics, Inc. continuation
So with the combined years of experience, I wanted to know what was his most memorable moment working at each company? At Marvel, that moment was when he first started working on the Mini Marvel comic strip. Someone told him that Joe Quesada, who is an editor, writer and artist, had a laughed at one of his strips. This was the first time that Giarrusso felt that “‘maybe this will work out after all.’” At Image, a noteworthy experience for him was when his character G- Man met Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon character. “I drew the Dragon into a few strips myself, but that excitement was later trumped by having Erik himself drawing the Dragon on the same art pages I drew G-Man on.” Here’s the best part, Giarrusso was able to keep that artwork!
Please read Part 3 of the interview before reading Part 4
Marvel Comics & Image Comics, Inc.
What is it like working at two known publishing companies? Let’s dive in and find out. As an artist and writer for both companies, he did not have a typical workday because he does a variety of things that involves a little bit of everything. Sometimes he writes, draws, color and does production or design work for books. There are times where he will wake up early and be at his drawing board. However, there are times when he will be working all night and sleeping all day. Then there are moments of interruptions that can take his work off course. “With Marvel, there was a lot of switching gears in response to rejection or approval of scripts or art or corrections. With Image, there is a lot more work to be done for promotion as far as writing solicits and hunting for interviews.”
Please read Part 2 of the interview before reading Part 3
The Work Itself continuation
His other work is G-Man: Cape Crisis, which is a graphic novel comprised of five comic issues/chapters that focus on G-Man’s cape. After reading the book, the story presented in each chapter felt like a complete individualized stories. However, each issue was still linked together to create a longer, more complete whole story. According to Giarrusso, this is a goal that most comic writers try to achieve. “Ideally, each individual issue should be comprehensible and a complete story in itself even if you hadn’t read anything that came before.” He had the bigger story in mind, but when he was “fleshing it out,” Giarrusso identified the “smaller arcs” within the bigger story. These arcs then became the individualized comic books/chapters of the graphic novel.
Please read Part 1 of the interview before reading Part 2
The Work Itself
The one thing that I admire about his artwork is the simplicity of the characters while expressing their emotions. He believes that his artistic style in portraying the emotions was “largely an ongoing organic thing that happens.” It seemed like a natural technique that developed possibly from subconsciously picking up on how other cartoonists have done this. “After reading other cartoonists’ work for years and years, there’s a lot of visual language that just becomes ingrained.”
When I first met Chris Giarrusso, it was at New York Comic Con 2009. He was sitting behind a table at the artist alley promoting his artwork and selling the graphic novel Mini Marvel. After the initial conversation and conclusion of the convention, we continued to communicate outside the venue. Through his website, I discovered the cancellation of Mini Marvel. However, I also learned that he is continuing his creativity at Image Comics with G-Man.
Aimlessly walking through the New York Comic Con 2009 artist alley, I came across something that I have never seen before. I spotted a cover of small Marvel characters and I instantly grabbed the book. First thing that came out of my mouth was "OMG! This is so cute!" I browse through the book while I was contemplating whether or not to purchase it. Again, I do not like buying stuff only to end up being disappointed. It is a horrible consumer moment. So, what did I do again? I took a risk and purchased Mini Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors by Chris Giarrusso.
