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THE
COTTON CLUB -- BAG MAN
By
Mike cotton
COTTON:
What sort of illustration jobs were you doing before you broke
into comics? And speaking of that, you broke in on the old
Marvel Try-Out Book, right?
BAGLEY: I think the Marvel Try-Out Book was like a
lightning bolt from god for me. But before I broke in, I wasn't
doing a whole lot of illustration jobs. I was working at Lockheed
Aeronautics, doing technical illustrations for three years.
I got that job after my back had gone out doing carpentry
and stuff, just when I got to the point where I couldn't put
a tool belt on without killing myself, Lockheed popped up.
I had gone to art school in Georgia and studied fine arts,
so I learned how to draw well. But I had no interest in doing
product design or graphic design, that sort of thing. And
for Lockheed, you didn't have to have that many technical
skills, it was basic stuff, exploding stuff out, things didn't
have to be right, they just had to look right. So a mechanic
could look at a tech manual and say, "Oh, Part A goes into
Slot B, or whatever." I was really good at making things look
right. It was a union shop, and you couldn't get promoted
above anyone because of seniority, but I was like four or
five times faster than anybody there, and my stuff would be
better, because I was a little bit gifted art wise.
COTTON:
Did anything you learn at Lockheed help you out in comics?
BAGLEY: I learned a lot of tools of the trade, like
drafting arms. You'd be amazing the number of guys in comics
who never heard of a drafting arm! Just little things like
that. Over the years, I've developed, not artistic shortcuts,
but technical short cuts, because I don't know enough to have
artistic shortcuts. I'm still trying to figure out what the
hell I'm doing.
COTTON:
You haven't missed an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since the
book launched, even when Marvel was shipping two issues a
month; how would you describe your experience working on USM?
BAGLEY: I love being on this project. The stories are
so well written. Brian is terrific. [Inker] Art Thibert does
wonderful work. For me, it's always been about who you're
working with, more so than who you're working on. It'd be
fun to do Ms. Marvel if I was working with the right guys.
I enjoyed the hell out of Thunderbolts; I enjoyed the hell
out of New Warriors, because of who I was working with. Sometimes,
working at this pace, I have to push myself harder than I
like. Sometimes I'd like to spend an extra day or two on a
page, but I'm pretty happy with the quality I'm able to put
out at this pace. I understand it's not Art Adams; hell, I
can't make a living on two projects a year. To me, that's
not comics, that's something else. To me, one of the biggest
draws to this book is that fans pick it up every month and
it's a very consistent looking thing. They look at it and
they don't have to figure out what's going on because there
was a different artist on it last month, two months or three
months ago. That consistency is something that's very under-appreciated
in this industry.
COTTON:
You're going to be out at the Wizard World Chicago convention
this summer, right?
BAGLEY: I'm helping out ACTOR
[A Commitment to Our Roots]. They're flying me out there.
When I'm at a convention, I'm away from my house, and I like
my house a lot. So conventions are a lot of work. But I figure
if I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna be there, you know? In Chicago,
I'm going to have my own table, because I've got some artwork
I want to sell. I'll do sketching and signing at the ACTOR
table, then sell my prepared stuff at my own table. The combination
of sketching and signing can get to be really draining. I've
been in the business long enough, and I'm sort of high profile
enough, that I never have a huge line, but it's always constant.
If I'm sketching really hard, it never goes away. It'll be
fun.
COTTON:
What else should fans be looking forward to from you the rest
of this year?
BAGLEY: We've got Ultimate Spider-Man #50 coming up,
which is a double-sized issue, but that's down the road a
bit. Oh! Ultimate Spider-Man #46 (on sale Sept. 10), it's
a prelude to the Ultimate Six mini-series and we introduce
the Sandman. Thibert killed himself on the inking! I put a
lot of stuff in the pencils, but Thibert took the inks up
three or four notches; it's unbelievable looking, and I hardly
ever react that way to stuff. Issue #46 is gonna knock people's
socks off visually. But I'm also doing something, I can't
go into details, I've actually taken on another job outside
of comics that involves comic characters. And I'm doing a
lot of design work and that sort of thing. So, on top of my
regular 70-80-hour work week, I'm now doing this stuff too.
I'm just a little knackered right now!
Mike
Cotton is a staff writer for Wizard Magazine. For all the
comic book news fit to print, check out Wizard on sale every
month at comic book specialty shops and newsstands everywhere.
Pages:
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The
Cotton Club Archive |
- August
7 , 2003 - HOLLYWOOD RUN DOWN
- July
31, 2003 - SPIDER-MAN 2
- July
24, 2003 - BAG MAN
- July
17, 2003 - Moore or Less
- July
10, 2003 - Ink Test
- July
2, 2003 - HURRICANE WARNING
- June
25, 2003 - BANNER BANTER
- June
10, 2003 - PETER DAVID
- June
3 , 2003 - PAUL JENKINS
- May
28 , 2003 - GEOFF JOHNS
- May
21 , 2003 - BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
- May
14 , 2003 - PHIL JIMENEZ
- May
9 , 2003 - Don't F[l]inch
- April
29 , 2003 - The X-Factors
- April
17 , 2003 - X2 Reviewed
- January
13, 2003 - Game Boy - WizKid’s HeroClix
- January
3, 2003- 2003 Bigger than 2002?
- December
20 , 2002 - Ring Bearer - A two-bit tour for ‘Two Towers’
novices
- December
13 , 2002 - ‘Sine of the Times
- December
6 , 2002 - Killer Read
- November
30, 2002 - Lex's World
- November
23, 2002 - Truth and Consequences
- November
15, 2002 - Triple X
- November
8 , 2002 - Giving the Devil his Due
- October
31, 2002 - Superhero DVD Preview
- October
25, 2002 - Mad Cow
- October
18 , 2002 - 80's a Go-GO
- October
11 , 2002 - Best Bets on Bats
- October
4, 2002 - Hunters & Pray
- September
27 , 2002 - The War Within
- September
19 , 2002 - Lee-Der of the pack.
- September
13 , 2002 - The Next Generation.
- September
6 , 2002 - Marvel Melee.
- August
30, 2002 - Breaking In. Joe Quesada reveals the ins and outs of getting
work at Marvel.
- August
23, 2002 - Painted Into a Corner. An Interview with Greg Hildebrandt.
- August
16, 2002 - X-citing News on X-Men 2!
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