Comic Book Resources recently had a chance to catch up with the current Batwoman team of Haden Blackman and JH Williams III, where they talk about wrapping their great 17 issue first arc, as well as what they want to do with their next story.
Comic Book Resources: The current Medusa arc is ending and the first long storyline with the missing children is finally coming to a head with issues #16 and #17. How do you feel about wrapping up your first year-and-some-months-long maxi-arc on the book?
JH Williams III: I think it's all coming across pretty well. I was worried about how epic we could make it all feel while still doing character moments and stuff, but I think it's coming across pretty well. I was having trepidation when it came to over-the-top, epic imagery because we see that sort of stuff all the time in superhero comics, and at some point it can easily become passé. For me, its how to make it visually and story-wise interesting to see and stand out from what is typically seen in superhero comics, as far as epic stuff is concerned.
Comic Book Resources: In these last few issues, we've seen a lot of your visual interpretation of Greek mythology with beings like Pegasus, who's drawn scratchier with a lot more crosshatching than your usual art, and Medusa, who looks like she's emanating light. How do you go about designing these mythical foes Batwoman and Wonder Woman are facing?
JH Williams III: I always apply design and style manipulation for stuff like this on what the story is telling me, what the style is telling me, and in my gut, instinctually, what feels right for the characters. Particularly a character like Pegasus, who really only has one scene in this entire story — what can I do stylistically that would say something unique about his character, just on a visual level? By choosing different styles like that with different characters, even if they don't get a lot of screen time, it can say something subliminally about the type of character they're looking at. Pegasus and that entire setting has this kind of rugged sort of look; it says a lot about the character and how isolated he was — he chose the Southwest for a location to stay — all that comes across simply based on the style I chose.
Comic Book Resources: Before we move onto talking about what's coming next in story, JH, at Morrisoncon you spoke a little about your music and album cover artwork for rock and metal bands. Do you get inspiration from your music album covers for "Batwoman" or repurpose images from your work in the musicsphere for the comic?
JH Williams III: The answer to that is pretty simple; I feel art influences art, so basically everything influences everything, even if you're not anticipating it to do so. Influences can come out when you're not thinking about it, and you don't realize it's reared its head until after you do something and you go back and say, "Oh, that reminds me of something else!" That's the beauty of artwork in general, especially when you're doing a lot of it, it how different things can show up unexpectedly in new and interesting ways.
You can check out the full interview over at Comic Book Resources. Batwoman #16 hits stores later this month on January 23rd.
Posted by Dane Haji
