Well, I promised a full week of greatness and I feel that I fulfilled my promise to you, especially with the last post I have in store for you. You know what they say, saving the best for last. I have shared the artwork of this talented illustrator before, but today we get to see what process goes into creating these wonderful works of art. Today I am truly honored to share my interview with the talented Mike Mahle and showcase some of his work. Be sure to check out his pages after reading the interview to get a better sense of this incredible talent. Nerds and Nerdettes, my interview with Mike Mahle.
1. Who are you and where are you from?
My name is Mike Mahle and I’m from a small town in central Illinois just outside of Peoria.
2. Your artwork is just amazing! How did you discover your style?
I’m a professional graphic designer and had been doing traditional pen and ink drawings on the side forever, without ever really merging the two. The things I was working on I wanted to keep in a solid illustrated form. After I had my fill of the black and white work I was dying to inject some color and typography into my work. Making things more informed by design than simply a beautiful illustration. As it is now I think my design makes my illustration work better, and my illustrations make my designs better. Merging the two into one just makes sense.
3. I absolutely love your Justice League series. My favorites in the set are Dr. Fate, Hawkman, and Aquaman. Are there any plans to make more?
Oh yeah, absolutely, I love doing a series-one just isn’t enough. I recently retired my popular 007 series and knew that I wanted to do something in the same vein. I toyed with a couple of ideas, but finally settled on the Justice League. Probably because it includes some of my favorite DC characters, plus there are so many to choose from. You’ve got your big guns such as Batman and Superman, but you also can throw in some more obscure characters like the Phantom Stranger and Booster Gold. I have eight completed now, but there will be 25 total. Green Lantern’s next, he’s in progress right now
4. Where do your wonderful ideas come from? Do they just pop in your head or do you sketch several ideas until one pops out at you?
For the most part I’d say, yeah they just pop into my head, but that’s just the idea. Some of those ideas just suck and never amount to anything. It’s really the process that builds them into something worth creating.
I always start off with a bunch of thumbnails, about the size of a business card. I do this to wrap my brain around what it is I want, what elements should be included, and the layout, which to me is the most important aspect. If you don’t have a solid foundation or concept, no amount of detail is going to save it. After I settle on a design I’ll do a more detailed sketch about twice the size of my thumbnails. This is still really loose as I’ve learning that if I nail it down too much at this stage I end up becoming slave to it. I much prefer finding the smaller elements as I’m actually building it. I then scan the sketch into Illustrator and just hunker down and build the sucker.
5. Where can my readers see your art?
The main hub for all my work online is MikeMahle.com. However I’m very active on deviantart at MikeMahle.deviantart.com and have an extensive gallery of a lot of my work. I also try and update my Facebook and Twitter pages as often as I can with new work.
6. Do you have anything you would like to promote right now?
Right now I’m knee deep in trying to complete a whole slew of covers for Rock Paper Books classics. We closed a very successful Kickstarter in May and are now up to a total of 24 classic books such as War of the Worlds, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and The Time Machine. I’m about halfway done with those so I’ve still got quiet a few to do. I try and sneak in a new Justice League member or personal piece in between covers though.
I’m also hoping to publish my first solo art book before the end of the year.
7. What is your favorite project that you have done?
I’ve done a lot of cool projects that I’m proud of, but I’d have to say my favorite thing to work on is anything to do with my fictional Empire City setting. Think of a hard-boiled noir world with dash of sci-fi and fantasy mixed in, all wrapped in a stylized art deco skin. A little DecoPunk if you get me. I have nearly an entire book full of sketches and ideas that I will get to at some point or another.
8. What are your plans for the future?
Oh, all sorts of stuff, seriously I have a list.
9. If you were not an artist, what do you think you would be doing for a living?
It would have to be something creative. I’ve learned that if I’m not engaged in doing something creative I might as well just go take a nap or something.
10. Going back to your Justice League series, are there any plans to create a Firestorm one, not just any Firestorm, but the original of course.
You bet. I’ve pretty much got my roster set for the Justice League series. I won’t tell you all of them here. You’ll just have to wait and see. However, Firestorm is definitely on the list. And yes he will be the original Firestorm, is there really any other?
