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DF INTERVIEW: TIM BRADSTREET
By Toney Tapia Eisner Award nominated illustrator ,Tim Bradstreet, was born February 16, 1967 in Cheverly, Maryland. Primarily a self-taught illustrator, he has been working professionally since graduating from high school in 1985. Forgoing institutional art instruction, Tim joined Fantasmagraphics in 1986, where he worked for two years with fellow illustrator Steve Venters. Under the guidance of Venters, Tim began illustrating role-playing games, honing his skills while pursuing his lifelong ambition to draw comics. In 1990 he hit the ground running with industry legend Tim Truman on Dragon Chiang, and never looked back. Over the last seventeen years Tim Bradstreet has illustrated everything from trading cards to comic books to book covers. He began illustrating role-playing games with GDW’s Twilight 2000 and FASA’s Shadowrun. Tim’s ground-breaking work on White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade established him as a critical and counter-culture favorite, and it wasn’t long before he began illustrating for major comic publishers. Tim has since drawn for hundreds of comic and game related projects including FPG’s Dark Age, Myrmidon’s Armageddon, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for Topps, Dark Horse’s Hard Looks, Another Chance to Get It Right, X-Wing Rogue Squadron, and Lost in Space, Clive Barker’s Age of Desire, Marvel's The Punisher and Blade, and Vertigo’s Gangland, Unknown Soldier, Human Target and Hellblazer. In 1997 Tim was voted Best Artist By the Horror Writers Guild of America. In 2001 Tim joined director Guillermo Del Toro as a conceptual artist to help visualize the film "Blade 2. Bradstreet currently has his sights set on taking his character Gallows and the story of Red Sky Diary to the silver screen.
1. What brought you to the world of comics? I read a ton of them when I was a kid. We’d go on vacation and I’d hit the comic rack before leaving town and grab a bunch of reading material. Stuff like X-Men (which was my favorite), Captain America and the Falcon, Steel, Captain Marvel, etc. Marvel was my publisher of choice. I didn’t get into DC until later. I just started collecting, then buying friend’s collections. I drew all the time even before I got into comics but at the time it was mostly combat, cars, and Dinosaurs. Comics gave me a new direction. I used to copy panels and figures like Gulacy’s Master Of Kung Fu, Byrne and Austin’s X-Men, Kirby’s Black Panther, Captain America, Pat Broderick’s Captain Marvel, all kinds of stuff. That’s how I really learned to draw superheroes, the school of look at the picture and draw it. Reading comics as a kid along with wanting to draw everything inside them is what gave me my love for comics. 2. You have been the main Punisher cover artist for a few years now. Is there another certain character or team book that you would love to work on? I just did the math a few days ago and I think I’ve actually been doing Punisher covers for 7 years now. That boggles my mind. I’ve now been on Punisher longer than I worked on Hellblazer. As far as other books go, sure, there are lots of other books I’d love to do. I’d love to do Deathlok, Nick Fury, Morbius, I’d love it if Marvel started doing Blade again. I was having a ball with that when it was abruptly cancelled. I’d love to do a Batman book for a run, Master Of Kung Fu, maybe Captain America. Established characters would be fun because that is what gets you the most exposure. But what I really love doing is creating my own stuff or working with another writer on original concepts. Right now I’m having the time of my life doing Criminal Macabre over at Dark Horse. Steve Niles and our editor are letting me run wild with the concepts and this gig is literally a scream.
3. What are your hobbies? What type of music do you like to listen to while you’re working on your masterpieces? Well the two go hand in hand for me. Collecting film scores is a hobby of mine brought about by the fact that I love to listen to them while I work. A lot of guys in the industry collect toys which is cool but somewhere along the line I kind of outgrew that. I don’t know why I lost interest because I was about the biggest toy nut on the planet when I was a kid and into my later teens. And their even cooler now! But scores are what excite me especially when it’s something really special. Right now the Master And Commander score is one of my favorites and it’s been in heavy rotation on my Itunes for a good long while. Good music is music that never grows old. I just finally stumbled upon Francis Monkman’s score for “The Long Good Friday” in a used CD shop down in Ocean Beach and I’m loving that. Other favorites are John Barry’s score for “The Ipcress File”, Jerry Fielding’s “Outlaw Josey Wales” and “Wild Bunch” scores. I am a huge fan of Jerry Goldsmith and a lot of my favorites are the more obscure scores like “Wind And The Lion”, “Islands In The Stream”, and “The Illustrated Man”. I’m also a huge fan of Miklos Rozsa, Morricone, Roy Budd, Angelo Badalamenti, Elmer Bernstein, I could go on all day. Most kids are into the Hans Zimmer action score stuff and his work is cool when it isn’t rehashed stuff of things he’s done before. I’ve really been enjoying the older composers for the last few years. I love exploring and discovering older composers that I previously dismissed because I just didn’t know any better. And there are always talented new guys showing up too like Brian Tyler who I think is wonderful. Aside from scores I listen to a wide range of music but mostly harder stuff like classic Monster Magnet, Helmet, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Black Sabbath, Rollinsband . . . But I also have moments where I’m perfectly content to cue up Stephen Stills “Manassas”, or Bowie “Space Oddity”, The Who, Johnny Lydon, some old Punk or some classic rock. I keep listening to “Peace Frog” lately by The Doors. That’s pretty much my life, watching films, listening to music, and cranking art on the drawing table. 4. If you were stranded on a deserted island, with a portable DVDplayer that had enough power to watch one last film, what would that filmbe and why? One last film. What a death sentence. Good God what a horrible thought. I guess normally people would automatically pick their favorite film here. But if I could only watch one last movie I think it would be THX 1138
It’s definitely one of my favorites but the real reason I’d pick it is because every time I watch it I get something new out of it that I never picked up on before. The new director’s cut is OK but I think I’d prefer the original version digitally remastered. I really think ‘ol George should just leave his old work alone and let it stand on it’s own. It was a masterpiece to begin with, why adorn it with more candy? If he’s trying to make it more accessible to a new and younger audience than he’s just plain guilty of trying to force it. When the younger audience evolves into the more discerning audience they will discover it when they are ready to. 5. You have worked on the Blade Movie franchise before. Are you also working on the television series? Nope. My involvement with Blade was due to my association with the second film’s director, Guillermo Del Toro. Guillermo and I wanted to work together and he believed that the first film borrowed liberally from a lot of the Vampire images I’d done for the old White Wolf game stuff. He told me, “This time I’m going to make sure you get paid!” And working with Guillermo on Blade was an experience I’ll never forget. As for the TV show, I’m sure they were thinking why hire established guys who might be expensive when they can just borrow from them and pay younger guys a lot less money to do conceptual. Hey, I could be wrong but I’ve seen it happen time and time again. Never assume people. Sometimes we do it for the fun, not the check. 6. Speaking of movies, word is you’re working on one now. Any chance in you giving us a few details about that project? There are several things going on right now but in all cases it’s really too early in the game for me to be letting the cat out of the bag. I know that is a sucky answer but I’ve made the mistake before of jumping the gun and it seems never to work out well. So as excited as I am about the projects I have to keep my lips tight. This stuff will come to light soon enough.
7. Last but not least, What's your best advice that you can give to a starving artist who wants to get in the biz and do you recommend any books that he/she should read on how to become a comic book artist? I recommend looking at anything that inspires you. Whether you want to be a cover artist or you want to do sequential or both. If you feel you have a talent then you have to dedicate yourself to it. Read, go to school to get a better grasp on the technical aspects or sit at home and let your imagination seep out through your pencil. You don’t really need a formal education to do what we do (but it never hurts). All you really need is to have a vision, some focus, and a goal. You take those ingredients and combine them with tenacity and the dedication to your craft and I really don’t see how you could fail. There is no surefire way to do what we do, everyone is different, from Richard Corben, to Ashley Wood to, Paul Pope. Find a style you love and make it your own. Get feedback from people who know the craft and apply the comments you feel ring true to your vision.
The whole trip, from nascent artist and fan to working professional is a major gas.
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