Freddie E. Williams II Interview

by: curvezilla 2 years, 9 months, 1 week, 4 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes ago 3

Freddie E. Williams II may very well be the hardest working man in Comics!  Not only does this Rising Star hold down a 40 hour a week job, he also penciled and inked 28 pages in 33 days!  Freddie took time out of his busy schedule to sit down with us and gave us the 411 on being a comic book artist.



Curvezilla: First off I would like to say I really appreciate you sitting down with us to do this interview.  This will be one of our very first interviews on KomiKazee.com and I am sure the KomiKazee Nation will be jacked about it.

Freddie Williams: No problem, my pleasure.

Curvezilla: Let�??s get into this shall we.  What were your early influences to your art?  Did you go to school or are you self taught?

Freddie Williams: That�??s two questions!

Early Influences: Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, John Byrne. Eventually I started noticing Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, and then Alex Ross.

Education: Nothing formal. I met my best friend, Tyrone Crockett while we were both in high School (I was a Freshman while he was a Senior). Tyrone had a wealth of knowledge on how to draw comics, and he taught me all the basics of figure drawing, roughing out shapes, basic anatomy, etc. He showed me the book �??How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way�?� which was a great help. After Tyrone moved away to College, I hit the books and the art-board teaching myself the rest.

Curvezilla: What was the progression for you as an artist, going from where you started to working for a comic book giant like DC?

Freddie Williams: Way back in 1997, when I was 19 or so, I drew a 3 issue mini series called �??Vendetta�?�, for the now extinct �??Sundragon comics.�?� The art I did for it was just awful, terrible! But I cut my teeth on that stuff. Then back in 1999 I got some work from Palladium Books, a role playing game company, where over the course of the next few years, I became one of their primary illustrators, along with Scott Johnson, Ramon Perez, and Mike Wilson.

In late 2003 I turned my focus back to comics. Started with some portfolio work, posting it around on places like Digital Webbing and Pencil Jack and I got a bunch of positive feedback, and strong critiques, that helped me to hone my talent.

George T. Singley (creator and writer of Image Comics�?? �??Hellhounds�?�) saw my work online, and snagged me up to Illustrate �??Wargod�?� (published by Speakeasy Comics).  That book led me to work on other Chimaera Studios books like �??Lonebow�?� and �??Project EON�?� (also published by Speakeasy Comics) and my favorite, �??Chance of a Lifetime�?� (from Cellar Door publishing). Around the same time I illustrated a short story in the anthology series �??Shocking Gun Tales�?� (also from Cellar Door publishing).

That indy work got me noticed by Jay Faerber (creator and writer of Image Comics�?? �??Noble Causes�?�) who asked me to draw flashback pages for 6 issues (�??Noble Causes�?� issues 13-18). Then that work, along with some newer portfolio work, got me a spot in the DC talent Search (their version of a portfolio review) at San Diego Comic Con 2005. That, in combination with �??Mister Miracle�?� #2 running late got me on at DC Comics.

Curvezilla: What�??s the work pace like on a big time book?  Do you work from home or go to a studio?

Freddie Williams: So far the books I have worked on have been behind schedule, so I am entering into a situation where we are already behind. The pace has been really really fast. I believe the first 28 days I penciled and inked 33 pages! It has been less chaotic since then, but still brisk.

I have a large room in the basement of my House that serves as a studio. Even though I am still a member of Chimaera Studios, they don�??t have a physical base of operations, just a group of guys collaborating online mainly.

Curvezilla: What does your schedule look like on a normal day?

Freddie Williams: At this time, I still have a full time job, yes, I�??m upholding a monthly comic book schedule in addition to a regular 40 hour a week job. So the weekdays I work a full day at my regular job then come home and work about 4-5 hours on comics.

On the weekend I usually get up at 6:30 am, eat some sort of breakfast, answer emails start working around 7:30 and work until about 11:30 pm�?� about 15 hours of work with a few breaks for meals mixed in. Then rinse, and repeat!

Curvezilla: I read where you got your first break with DC by doing a fill in job on Mr. Miracle #2.  Then you ended up doing all of #3 and #4.  What�??s the story?

Freddie Williams: Nope, I was brought on to draw issues 3 and 4 of �??Mister Miracle.�?� DC was originally going to wait for �??Mister Miracle�?� #2 to be completed by it�??s original artist, but that seemed to be taking too long.

I had already started drawing �??Mister Miracle�?� #3, and then a week into it, my Editor called me asking for me to draw 6 fill-in pages for #2�?�.just to get the book completed ASAP. This was at the beginning of the weekend, so I got right to work, and had all 6 pages penciled and inked by Monday morning. Then over the course of the next 2 weeks, I completed the remaining 19 pages due on issue #3.

Curvezilla: What have you liked most about working on Mr. Miracle?

Freddie Williams: Well, to work on anything at DC is a dream come true, so if they had put me on �??the adventures of RUTABAGA MAN�?� I would have still been excited. But I guess working with a big time writer like Grant Morrison would have to be the highlight. His scripts are really cool, allowing for some great opportunities for neat imagery and the name recognition is phenomenal!

Curvezilla: I have heard you are going to be doing some work on Aquaman.  Does this mean you are under contract with DC?  If so, for how long?

Freddie Williams: My Editor asked me if I�??d be available to illustrate a fill-in issue of Aquaman between �??Mister Miracle�?� #3 and #4. I�??ve since finished Aquaman #39, and now it�??s onto MM#4!

Contract? Nope, I�??d love the security of dependable steady work from them, but for the last few months I have worked with them, it�??s been whatever they throw at me. I think they are just getting a feel for me, my work ethics etc, before they would even consider the contract route, if they are even considering it at all.

Curvezilla: How is working for a company as big as DC different than some of the smaller publishing houses you have worked for?

Freddie Williams: Within my sphere of influence (the work I am producing), there has been little difference. For the last 2-3 years I have maintained a very strict (self-imposed) regiment of production, keeping what would amount to a monthly schedule (working on one-shots, pitches, anthologies and pinups) in addition to my full time job. So other that being able to work on established DC characters, it doesn�??t feel much different in that (workload) respect.

There are PLENTY of other differences though! Having a page rate and dependable payment is the first big difference that comes to mind. Since DC Comics have been doing this for a million years, they have support systems in place to keep things in line, and when I have questions about anything, they give straight and fast answers, so I am not left hanging. And obviously there is a great difference in visibility, these books are much higher profile, than the independent books I have illustrated.

Curvezilla: Tell me about the tutorials on your site.  Who are they for?

Freddie Williams: Who are they for? Anyone curious as to how I work I guess. There are 4 different tutorials on my site right now, the �??100% digital workflow�?�, the �??Digital / Pencil workflow�?�, the �??Comparing of my new workflow to the old one�?�, and a �??Perspective tutorial.

Originally, I made them, because I was receiving plenty of email requests on how I worked. For a while I had a bunch of standard answers in a word doc, that I�??d copy / paste in the replies. Then I started creating samples or instructional jpegs to accompany those emails.

At some point I had a free weekend from the comics I was drawing at the time, and just assembled them in Dream-weaver, then put the tutorials up on my site, so curious folk could take a gander, or I could direct email requests there.

I have made a few friends from some of the guys that were interested enough in my process to try it out and then ask me follow up questions, or offer suggestions.

Curvezilla: Before we go we have to know who your favorite superhero is.

Freddie Williams: The original, the greatest, the last son of Krypton, the Superman!.