Jamal Igle on Nightwing
Posted by pimpernel - 01-21-2007 - at http://www.dc-kingdom.com
This February Jamal Igle will join writer Marv Wolfman as the new regular artist on Nightwing. We were fortunate enough to be able to speak to him about the former boy wonder.
Pimp: It would be safe to say you are a fan of Nightwing right? Getting this job must be a dream come true.
Jamal: Absolutely. Nightwing has been on my short list of books I’ve wanted to draw for a long long time. I’ve collected every single issue since it started, which if you know me is a big deal because I’m not much of a collector.
Pimp: How exactly did the job come about?
Jamal: Well, I was the series penciller of Firestorm: the Nuclear Man for about 2 years. I was informed that Stuart Moore the series writer was planning on leaving. At the same time, I also found out that our editor Michael Siglain was leaving to take over the editorial duties on 52. So I decided that it was time for me to move on as well. I’d already gone through 3 editors and two writers and didn’t want to have to break in a whole new team. So I talked to Mike and Peter Tomasi about my options and I had planned to join the 52-art rotation. However a few days afterwards I got the call to take over Nightwing and I jumped on it immediately
Pimp: As a fan how does it feel to be working with Marv Wolfman, the guy who co-created the character?
Jamal: It’s really cool. It’s always a kick to work with someone you’ve already admired, then to find out that they’re a nice person on top of it.
Pimp: Do you feel any extra pressure to deliver?
Jamal: After a fashion, I guess. There’s a little pressure because Nightwing is a really popular character, with an extremely loyal fan base. The fans seem to have this very uniformed vision of who Dick Grayson is. So the pressure for me is to meet that image yet put my own stamp on the book. As far as Marv goes I treat his scripts like I would any other writer. If it’s in the script, I try to get it into the artwork.
Pimp: How collaborative has the process been so far? Obviously Marv knows the character inside out, but does that make him more or less receptive to your ideas and opinions?
Jamal: Marv has been really open to my ideas and very communicative. We’ve been discussing the direction of the book and some elements we want to get back into the series that seem to have gone to the wayside over the last few years.
Pimp: Visually Nightwing is a very different type of book than Firestorm. As such how are you approaching it?
Jamal: I’m trying to ground it a bit more that what I was doing in Firestorm. It’s going to be a much darker book than Firestorm, both visually and tonally. You’re also talking about two different types of staging in terms of action scenes also. With Firestorm, he’s all about high-speed flights and fusion and transmutation blasts. In Nightwing you’re going for a more visceral, in your face type of fighting, a more hands on type of action.
Pimp: Have you had to do much research or do you work mostly intuitively?
Jamal: Well there’s a lot of research involved because we’re dealing with real settings, real weapons, realistic characters. Since the book takes place in New York I’m going out of my way to make it look like New York City.
Pimp: Can you give us an insight into the character? How do you interpret him? What makes him tick?
Jamal: Nightwing is the best friend a guy could have. He’s the guy that everyone can’t help but stare at because there’s this presence about him. Dick Grayson has all of the skills and training of Batman, without the emotional baggage that drags Bruce down. There’s no guilt involved with why he fights crime. He does it because it’s the right thing to do. In terms of being Dick Grayson the person, he's sort of like John F. Kennedy Jr. Whereas he comes from a rich background, keep in mind that he is the adopted son of a billionaire industrialist, so he has this public face that he can’t hide from. At the same time, he’s this down to earth guy who almost anyone can relate to. He also happens to be the world’s greatest acrobat and one of the best martial artist and detectives on the planet.
Pimp: And how do you convey all that visually in terms of his expressions or his mannerisms or how he moves?
Jamal: As a character he should move with confidence, steady strides always looking like he’s in control of the situation. Dick is all about movement so he’s never standing still, he’s always doing some thing even when he talks to someone he’s doing things with his hands.
Pimp: You are something of a martial artist yourself right? I assume that will come in handy on this book?
Jamal: I hope so. I don’t practice anymore because I became a pacifist in my personal life, but you don’t forget the moves. I’d like to bring a little more realism to the fighting but at the same time, it’s Nightwing, a superhero series, so there still needs to be a certain level of fantasy. So it’s going to be more of a Hong Kong Martial arts movie level of combat mixed with a lot of free running acrobatics mixed in.
Pimp: You have an uncanny knack for creating realistic, distinct, expressive faces. Do you think your time as an aspiring actor helped you become more aware of how to convey character and thought and emotion through facial expressions?
Jamal: Yes, Definitely. A lot of acting, or good acting is being able to convey emotions with out saying a word, which is the basis of sequential art as well. I’ve always been really good with drawing expressions as well as emotions, and it’s something that I’ve worked really hard on. I have to be honest that I wish I did it as well as say Steve Rude or Kevin Maguire but I keep pushing to improve.
Pimp: You are just coming off a two-year run on Firestorm and now you are going straight into what promises to be a long run on Nightwing. Are you fine with doing mostly one project for such long periods of time or is there a part of you that is itching to do some smaller projects?
Jamal: It doesn’t bother me. I’m good either way. I spent many years doing miniseries and fill-in issues and the like. Firestorm was my first ongoing project and I hadn’t realized how much work it takes to really do something long term. It takes time to be comfortable on a book, unless you design all the characters from the outset. Working on an ongoing series gives you an opportunity to put your stamp on established characters. I do like the job security of working on an ongoing monthly, however.
Pimp: How do you keep yourself creatively fresh and interested with something long term like this?
Jamal: Fear of unemployment, LOL. Actually, I try to find a challenge for each issue, a personal benchmark to reach creatively. You take it one day at a time, but it does require a lot of self-motivation to work on a monthly. There are good days and bad days, and then there are days were you want to say screw it and get a job at a bookstore or join the police department. In the end though I really don’t have a problem being motivated. I’m very blessed to have worked in comics for the last 17 years, my entire adult life. I could still be working at the Ad agency, bored out of my mind
Pimp: Given such a relentless schedule I have to ask the dreaded delay question. Are delays something you are concerned about?
Jamal: Always. Working on a monthly comic is a tightrope even when you have sufficient lead-time, because of the way things work some times that time gets eroded away. So I try to make sure I stay on point with my schedule. I haven’t missed a deadline in 7 years. I’m very proud of that.
Pimp: What are your thoughts on delays in the industry generally?
Jamal: It’s an incredibly demanding job, and I’ve been around long enough to see so many changes that nothing surprises me anymore. We’re not as healthy as we could be and there are so many factors involved in it, from the types of product available to the lack of proper marketing outside of the industry, but things have gotten better in the last ten years.
Pimp: Bringing things back to Nightwing: he was slated to die in Infinite Crisis but got a last minute reprieve. Why do you think things got to the point where Nightwing was considered expendable?
Jamal: I don’t know if he was ever seen as expendable, but I think had Dick been killed as Dan (Didio) had planned it would have been a shocking enough event to drive sales up and create some interesting storyline possibilities. Sometimes it’s more about a story idea than anything else. However like I’ve said before, Nightwing has a very loyal and vocal fan base.
Pimp: In your opinion why should people care about Nightwing? What sets him apart from all the other masked vigilantes and Batman wannabes?
Jamal: He’s just a cool guy. He’s smart, handsome, talented and just a good person. You rarely have a character who seems to enjoy being a hero. He does, he doesn’t brood, and he isn’t angst filled. He does the right thing because he can.
Pimp: Can you give us a few hints as to what the fans can look forward to in the next few months?
Jamal: We’re really building Dick’s Rogues gallery starting with Bride and Groom, a pair of metahuman spree killers leaving a trail of bodies behind them. We’re also going to be making some changes in Dick’s life; building up his cast of characters, and Dick finally gets a job.
Nightwing #129 is Jamal's first issue, and is due out on february 7th. You can see more of his work over at JamalIgle.com.
