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@’s by Top Cow Artist
Jeremy Haun!
Hey folks, Ambush Bug here with another interview I took at this years Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) with Top Cow artist extraordinaire Jeremy Haun. Jeremy is exclusive to Top Cow and has quite a few exciting projects coming up on the horizon, but I’ll let Jeremy get into the specifics, that is, if Top Cow publisher and all around great guy Filip Sablik stops harassing him…AMBUSH BUG (BUG): Hey Jeremy. Good to see you.
JEREMY HAUN (JH): (To Top Cow publisher, Filip Sablik) Are you going to stand here the whole time to make sure I don’t blabber something I’m not supposed to? [Jeremy laughs]
FILIP SABLIK: Yes. [laughs]
JH: Please include that in the interview. That scratching sound is the sound of the publisher grinding his junk on my shoulder…
BUG: Ha!
Filip leaves Jeremy alone for the interview.
BUG: So let’s start out by talking about some of the things you have done at Top Cow like BERSERKER…
JH: Yeah, let’s see… Basically about almost two years ago now I did one of their pilot season books, ALIBI, and we really enjoyed the process of working together and it went really well and from there I eventually came on and did the BERSERKER miniseries for them. I did that with Rick Lovard and then Milo Ventimiglia and we just all worked really well together and it was a great experience, kind of something that we really wanted to continue doing and as a lot of those things kind of go you know I was also working for DC at the time and had been for a while and it was just a process of finding the time to work together again. It kind of came down to a point where I was either going to have to not get to work for Top Cow for possibly a year or two or I needed to make some sort of commitment where we would do something exclusive and I would be able to work for them for a good long time without having to worry about any of their commitments. After the New York Comic Con Filip and I talked a lot about the possibilities for the future and stuff and I really liked what they were saying. They came to me and really had an offer that not only allowed me to do creative challenging writing projects, but also developing some of my writing stuff that I’ve wanted to work on for a long time and it was just really too good to pass up.
BUG: So you’re exclusive with Top Cow right now? JH: Yeah.
BUG: How long does that last? What goes into a deal like that?
JH: It’s a two-year contract that I have and I’m going to be with them… (Laughs) It’s going really well, so it’s a minimum of two years and if I don’t suck it up and if things go the way that they look like they are going to it might be a lot longer than that.
BUG: Great. So about BERSERKER, it is a really cool concept with people just going completely nuts and it’s such a violent comic, what kind of research goes into a book where people just go apeshit?
JH: I’m just a sick bastard. No, actually it’s kind of funny. Starting out I tried to do research on certain things, but I think honestly the things that happen to like trauma… You look at like gunshot wounds and people don’t even look like people anymore after some of that stuff. It’s just so strange and gross. It’s like at a point I was like “Well, I understand how the skeletal structure works. I understand how the musculature works. I really get the whole thing, so just run with it and do what you do.” So I had seen some really disturbing things and I watch a lot of horror movies and stuff like that anyways, so it was basically just me being creative and doing what I do.
BUG: Let’s talk about some of your other stuff. I see that you’ve got a lot of BATMAN stuff out here. What was it like doing some of the BATMAN books?
JH: You know I love the Bat office. In your career I think you kind of start out and you work on creating your own projects and try to build your way up and then there’s a point where you really focus on fulfilling those childhood dreams and one of the things that I always wanted to do was draw Batman and so the past two years of my life were just amazing and getting to work for the Bat office… I got to work on Detective for a couple of issues. I did ARKHAM REBORN there… I did the RED HEAD miniseries…. A ton of work really and it was, like I said, one of the best experiences of my career. It’s not a super long career yet, but still… the folks over in the DC offices were really good to me and I really appreciated working in an office that understood my strengths, understood what I could do, and playing to that as opposed to… A lot of guys… For instance I think I have a pretty street level style, and I don’t mind challenges working on other stuff, but it’s like I think a lot of guys that aren’t fitted for a project end up getting on it and it not working out. In the Bat office I was able to really do what I was best at and I go to grow that way.
BUG: I’ve asked this to a couple of the other artists that I’ve talked to. What’s your workstation or work place like at home or your studio? JH: Messy.
[Both Laugh]
BUG: Do you have anything on your desk that stands out or inspires you or anything like that?
JH: I’ve got a pretty crazy studio space. It’s pretty ridiculous… A couple of years ago we bought a really big house in Joplin… I live in Missouri, so it’s pretty cheap to live there, but there’s a carriage house out behind it and I went in and renovated the carriage house and so the entire thing is kind of my space to do what I want, so I’ve got a lot of different stations and everything in there. In the main drawing room there’s couches, a TV, an Xbox, and I’ve got like a pencil station and an ink station and you know I try to make it that nice mix of comfort, but at the same time very, very functional and my desk is just a standard graphing table and I’ve got a ridiculous amount of Post It’s stuck all over it telling me whatever the hell I need to do for that month. Your work spaces is really important and I kind of, aside from the mess, I’ve kind of tailored it to all of those things that I need.
BUG: It sounds like an amazing space.
JH: It’s a lot of fun. A lot of guys… For so long we were living in this tiny house and I had like a ten by ten room that was just overflowing and now I have multiple rooms in the carriage house to do different things. I’ve got a library room where I’ve got all of my comics and reference stuff and I’ve got a room where I can… Any reference I need to shoot or whatever I can actually go in there. I have a life drawing class that I host in that room every other week and then I have like a kitchen… It’s kind of nice to have all of that space so where I can be in there comfortably and my wife doesn’t have to yell at me, because I’ve got… “There’s comics everywhere!” She’s not really like that.
BUG: You’ve got your own little man cave right there. JH: Exactly. It’s like a “man-sion.”
BUG: Or a “man-shed…” So how’s the artist’s alley been like this year?
JH: It’s been amazing. It’s been really good. Last year I think C2E2 was really getting it’s footing with finding what worked and what didn’t and you know this year a lot of people are coming through, people are buying art, they are interested in sketches… I think that it’s always important to make sure that people know that you are coming to these things, so I try to announce it enough ahead of time, but it’s been great. People are coming through; they are super happy about comics, and interested in the medium.
BUG: It’s exciting to see it all go like this, especially today on Saturday it’s really been amazing. It’s been shoulder to shoulder out there.
JH: Absolutely.
BUG: You’re lucky back here to be protected…
JH: I’m busy enough so I’m only getting up to go to the bathroom like twice or something like that, but even those times it’s like you are fighting through the crowds. It’s like “Yeah, I’m just going to stick back here and kind of hide.”
BUG: So what’s coming up from you for Top Cow?
JH: I’m going to be working on ARTIFACTS nine through twelve. It’s going to be huge. A lot of stuff is going on… It’s really going to be a challenge for me to bring everything I want to to the series, but I really think I can do it. I’m going to be doing that, I’ve got a queue of my personal projects with things that I’ve created that I’m going to be doing, one specifically is going to be for pilot season this fall. I’m going to be co-writing that with a long time buddy of mine and I’m going to be drawing it, so it’s going to be great, a lot of fun, and then after all of that I’m going to be taking over THE DARKNESS and I’m going to work on that until they kick me off the book basically.
BUG: So you are going to take it after Phil Hester finishes up?
JH: Yeah, we are still figuring out exactly when I’m going to start, but right in there it’s going to be a pretty exciting time.BUG: Sounds great, well thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to me. I really appreciate it.
JH: Hey, no problem. Thanks for having me.
BUG: Thanks. Look for Jeremy Haun’s work all over Top Cow books for the foreseeable future including THE DARKNESS monthly and ARTFACTS maxiseries, and be sure to check out the excellent trade of BERSERKER.
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/reviewer/co-editor of AICN Comics for over nine years. Support a Bug by checking out his comics (click on the covers to purchase)!
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Special thanks to Muldoon for transcription.
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
