(Awesome Con)
Comic book artists are busy people. Their entire day is spent at the drafting table, churning out page after page of imaginative escapism. Not wanting to get between a man and his canvas, DCist was a little nervous about interrupting Greg Capullo to discuss his upcoming appearance at Awesome Con. But once he picked up the phone, it was clear the magic was flowing just fine.
“I’m just laying out a page that has some dinosaurs on it!” Capullo shared.
The artist who first made a name for himself on Marvel’s X-Force and Image’s Spawn in the 90s is in the middle of a well-deserved career resurgence. He’s currently hard at work on DC Comics’ next big event Dark Nights: Metal, an insane new title that reunites him with writer Scott Snyder. The two previously collaborated on the best selling 51-issue run on Batman that made Capullo a big name in the four-color world again.
While plot specifics are still scant, Snyder has called the book what would happen “if Frazetta and Kirby had a baby to a heavy metal soundtrack.” It’s a universe spanning epic that’s got more in store than just Batman and dinosaurs.
“I swore after X-Force I’d never do a team book, because it’s so labor intensive,” Capullo explained. ” So, that’s the downside, but the upside to that is I get to draw all these characters in the DCU. There’s just appearances from so many of the heroes.” Listening to Capullo explain how excited he is to be drawing a hero like Hawkman, his enthusiasm is infectious.
He’s getting to leave his mark on all the different toys in the DC sandbox, which is a big 180 from the last book he was on, Reborn with Mark Millar. While Capullo is quick to clarify that he’s having a ball working on a corporate cape comic, there’s something special about doing your own world building.
“There’s nothing you can do that is considered wrong, because it hasn’t existed before you. No one can say, ‘oh no you didn’t draw that quite right.’ Yes I did!”
Though he’s one of the biggest artists in mainstream comics right now, his appearance at Awesome Con this weekend is a new experience for Capullo, who spent much of his early career missing out on comic conventions.
“When I was on Spawn, I didn’t go to very many cons—Todd McFarlane [who had a huge hit with Marvel’s Spider-Man comics in the ’80s and ’90s] cast a pretty big shadow. When I took over on the book, people hated my guts. I was determined to never be off the book, because I wanted to be in their faces non-stop until I converted them, which I did.”
That moderately petty scheme may have worked wonders, but Capullo’s not without his regrets.
“As a result, I never did shows back then, and I missed the opportunity to travel the world. Now that I’m back in the spotlight, I don’t want to make that mistake again.”
Capullo isn’t a convention-circuit mainstay like some creators. He’s can only really commit to about six shows a year, which makes his presence at this year’s Awesome Con a unique treat.
His reasoning is sound. “When I go to a show, obviously I’m not working and this is a very deadline driven business, so when you come home, you’ve got to work doubly hard,” Capullo explained. “But the great thing is meeting the people who are reading your material and they pour so much love on you that it kind of recharges you and reminds you you’re not just this lonely guy working at your drafting table. At all times you’re connected to this whole world of people.”
For fans heading to their first con, it can be nerve wracking to meet your heroes, but Capullo stresses that getting to meet his fans is just as nourishing for him as it is to his readers.
“They come up to me at a show and ask, are you having a good con? I say, see this line of people? They all like me. Of course I’m having a good con! They’re the lifeblood of what I do.”
Greg Capullo will be attending Awesome Con on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt Vernon Pl NW. $10-&379. Buy tickets here.
