Futurama Comics Previews

Once again I have been lucky enough to correspond with the folks responsible for bringing us Futurama Comics. This time Futurama Comics artist John Delaney was nice enough to put up with my incessant questions. John is a really nice guy and you can see his work on the current epic entitled the Time Bender Trilogy. It wraps up next month and John has provided artwork for the last three parts. He has also provided artwork for issues 7, 10, 12, 15 and parts of 9. My questions are in regular type face and John's responses are in bold. I did not have very many follow up remarks as John has given real thorough answers and I thank him for his time and dedication to the fans of Futurama Comics.

What titles have you worked on for Bongo Comics?
The Simpsons, Bart Simpson, Futurama

What other comics have you written and/ or drawn for?
Adventures in the DC Universe (every issue of the complete run)
Scooby Doo
Justice League Adventures
Dexter's Laboratory
Johnny Bravo
JLA (covers)
Superman VS Lobo
Toonami (Herculoids & The Galaxy Trio)
Batman Beyond - (Grounded, Hear No Evil & No Place Like Home) for Golden Books

How did you get your start at Bongo and how did you come about drawing for Futurama Comics? Were you a fan of the show before drawing the comics?
James Lloyd (Penciller on Simpsons & Futurama) and I have been great friends for years. He worked for my animation company "Delaney and Friends" as a storyboard artist and our mutual love of comics created an instant connection and friendship between us. I was working for DC when James got his first Simpsons gig and before long he recommended me to Bill Morrison & Nathan Kane for Futurama. I had met Bill a couple of years before when I was at the San Diego Comic Con with Steve Vance ( Co- creator of Bongo Comics) where we were promoting Adventures in the DC Universe. Steve was the writer on that title & I pencilled.
I was a total fan of the show!!! Still am!(Thank God for the DVD releases and the syndicated reruns) When James first asked if I wanted him to recommend me I jumped at the chance. Since then I've been working for Bongo non-stop as well as doing stuff for DC.

Tell us a little about your animation company and what type of projects you have worked on.
My brother and I are partners in an animation company recently renamed Delaney Brothers Animation. It was previously called Delaney and Friends Cartoon Productions and my brother Chris founded it in 1985. In 1992 I came on as a partner and Designer/ Director. We were responsible for over 300 TV commercials for clients such a "Quik" chocolate milk, Ford Trucks and Lifestream cereal to name only a few. We won many awards for our commercial work but we were also involved with drawing & directing storyboards and model designs for Disney, Universal, Nelvana, Cinar, 20th Century Fox and many many more. We also did TV series work & 3 direct to DVD movies (Littlest Angel 1 & 2 and Legend of the Candy Cane) that sold very well. It was during our two year run on the "Nilus the Sandman" series that I met James Lloyd who we hired to do storyboards. Independantly I have directed & storyboarded numerous Saturday morning shows such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Savage Dragon, Roswell, Caillou, Arthur ect. ect.

What's the deal with Canada? First, James Lloyd, then you, then Ian Boothby - are you guys trying to take over the world?
We already rule the world, we're just too polite to brag about it. Actually it's amazing how many comic book creators are from Canada. Vancouver alone has a very large comic book community. Don't even get me started on Hollywood's Canadian connection.

There has been much talk regarding how difficult it is to do Futurama Comics versus other Bongo titles such as Simpsons Comics because of the detail required in creating all these other worlds and creatures, what has your experience been regarding that aspect?
I think it's very true. The style and detail of the Futurama cartoon is so much an integral part of what Futurama is. With the Simpsons there's a looser style a bit less detailed and overall a bit flatter look while Futurama is heavily detailed (with a cartoon sensibility) and more perspective orientated. You want a lot of depth with the backgrounds because the world of Futurama and especially the city of New New York is so layered and the architectural style is so important. Also generally the Futurama stories tend to be a bit grander in scale and require a lot of establishing shots and multiple life forms. As a result I end up doing a lot more wide angle shots where the characters are quite small in relation to the background. This looks cool in pencil but I think it must be a major pain for the inkers to have to try and do that rather linear Groening ink line and try and keep the lines from getting too thick and too close togther.

I have heard before that drawing Futurama and Simpsons characters is deceptively difficult. What has your experience been in trying to pick up the nuances of each character? What advise would you give other aspiring artists trying to learn the 'Groening' style?
Definitely. As well Bongo is very strict about being on model, and as well they should be. This is their house style and it needs to be respected. The fans very much want it to look exactly like the show so there's a real responsibility to get it right. The characters are simple in design and because of that all the sutble nuances of the model's construction have to be adhered to. A nose even slightly too long looks really too long on a Groening character. Again the relationship between the pencils & the inks has to be so spot on since the characters can change so dramatically with just a slightly thicker or thinner treatment of line. James and I both do really tight pencils to try and give the inkers exactly what we're looking for and hopefully leave out the guess work. What I would suggest for fans is to do what I do when I'm first learning the character and that is to put the model sheet on a light table and trace the character a bunch of times. Focus on how the character is drawn, the shapes used, the weights, how the character is assembled and the contrasting & complimenting lines that show off the style.

You mentioned earlier about the architecture of New New York (I am an architectural candidate here in California by the way), are there rules to follow for buildings and backgrounds similar to those of the characters?
Very much so. Perspective is an integral part of making the unusual shapes of the Futurama architecture look real. Plus, because the world is so populated you need to have a real grasp on the ship styles & designs since they are a constant in the backgrounds. Again the model packs contain all the buildings that that show up regularly in the show but we are often called on to create new areas of the city or different worlds altogether. Obviously studying & understanding the design style is imperative to getting it to look Futurama.

When starting drawing Futurama (or any other comic) how much time do you spend getting familiar with them and getting comfortable drawing the characters?
Before I started on the book I was sent the entire model package for all the Characters & Backgrounds. I practiced getting them down quite a bit before I started pencilling the book but the truth is you tend to get better at drawing the character the more times you do it. The more times you act it or pose it the better understanding of the characters rules, strengths and limitations you get. I found I don't really like alot of my drawings of Fry in the first couple of issues but as I draw him now I'm really finding my groove with Philip J.

How long does it take from your first line to sending it out to Bongo for any given issue?
It really depends on the complexity of the issue and the amount of location shots but generally, I rough it out in about a week or so and then once I get approvals and revisions an average 27 page book of Futurama will generally take about 3 1/2 to 4 weeks. I can do really good quality pages if I have enough time for about a page or two a day. If things get tight I can squeeze in a three page a day schedule but I'm not usually as happy with the results. Comparatively I can do three pages of Justice League or Scooby Doo a day with very little quality loss because of the overall simplicity of the background design. Futurama is much more demanding but I so love the characters and the look it doesn't feel much like work at all.

The Time Bender Trilogy is shaping up to be a monster of a story. What involvement do you have with Ian Boothby (and other writers for that matter) in creating stories?
Well as far as script writing, none. And to be honest Ian Boothby certainly doesn't need my help. The guy's scripts are so great. So funny & clever. Eric Rogers as well, I find myself laughing out loud when I read his scripts. My contribution is in translating the script into it's visual representation. Acting the characters and setting the mood & timing. I've enjoyed immensely working on the Trilogy because it's been so big screen! I've been able to really open up the shots to match the grand scale of the story. There's some really fun big stuff in the 3rd chapter.

What can you tell us about your experience working on the Time Bender Trilogy and what surprises (without giving away too much) can you tell us about the conclusion?
The TBT has been an absolute gas. I got to create a couple of characters that I especially liked. Two of them are in part three so I can't tell you who they are yet but I loved designing Maggot. It was also a lot of fun because Ian is very comfortable letting a visual sell a gag. A great example would be the trench around the world and the Atari Alien ships. I really enjoyed that joke. There is a great way that the whole paradox wraps up that I think the fans will really enjoy but of course that doesn't stop Cubert from still questioning how it could work which is so bang on for the character.

How does the development of a character like Asterisk take place? He reminds me an awful lot of Gunther, how does a new character like Asterisk get created?
I've been designing characters for animation for the better part of 15 years so I really enjoy any opportunity to design in the Groening style. In animation the importance of the shapes and construction rules of the character are as important as the details and when you work from that principle it allows you to be able to shift drawings styles. I've had to design characters in the Bruce Timm style (Justice League Adventures), The Genndy Tartakovsky style (Dexter) as well as Alex Toth and many more. Ian or Eric will usually have a brief description of sorts for the character in the script so I start with that then I try to think of what the amazing designers on the show would do.

How about incidental and crowd characters? Are you free to come up with people for crowd scenes and if so, have you ever put yourself in a crowd?
We are unless of course there is direct reference to a specific episode. I have put myself in many DC comics such as JLAdvs but for Futurama, so far have only included James Lloyd. He's in the News Years Rockin' Evil story. Page 24 panel 2 he's the guy in the top hat.

Who is your favorite character to draw and why?
Leela. I just find her so damn sexy. Plus she always has the most dramatic fight poses which is something I really like drawing.

Beyond the Time Bender Trilogy what other Futurama Comics stories are on your drawing board or next in line?
I'm not sure what the story of the next one I'm doing is, but I do know one is coming up. In the meantime I'm doing a really funny Bart Simpson story & I just finished a hilarious Lenny & Carl story for Simpsons #100 and a couple other Bart Simpson stories.