Bill Sienkiewicz

“I want to say 90% of stuff out there is just crap that got made. The main point is that it got produced.”

“You're telling the story, creating the sets, doing the lighting, the designing, and establishing the pace.”

“I didn't want to feel constrained, so I took on the Mutants.”

“After that I jumped, especially being in art school, to the illustrators.”

“I was lucky enough to be given books that weren't top sellers; books that were kind of under the radar.”

“I wanted to be complete, because I figured that, visually, there was an avenue to explore with painted stuff.”

“Comics are really my life blood in a lot of respects.”

“I wanted to learn how to paint rather than just doing black-and-white work.”

“But I'm aware of the fact that I'm working in a commercial venue where I'm producing something that I wouldn't normally be approaching the way I'm doing it.”

“To me, the technique was almost irrelevant; it was what was coming across.”

“People who can pull you in and take you on a journey, as opposed to simply adding flash. Again, that feels very clinical, and I don't respond to that the way I used to.”

“For a while I felt very alone; sort of out there in the world of comics, especially here in the States.”

“There is a whole generation of people who are going to see movies or watch TV who don't want to work.”

“So I look at a lot of stuff now that I did and some of it looks tame to me, but my interest in terms of what I want to say with it is a little different.”

“And that, to me, is the main attraction to comics. It's an avenue to say what you want to say.”

“Like Godfather, you look at a movie like that, or something that James Gray has directed, a film with minimal or pin lighting as opposed to everything being lit bright and flat, where everything is evident.”

“But there's still an avenue for smaller comics and personal expression.”

“Do the story in the way it really demands to be done, which may mean using several different styles or only one style; but it's still about respecting the story.”

“Kyle Baker's work is really funny, but it's also got a very clear vision.”

“Nothing is really media driven or committee driven, so you can actually just produce something.”