Alexandria Native Wins Comic Book Idol

A few days ago, it was announced that Jon Reed of Alexandria, VA (about a half an hour away from me) won this year's Comic Book Idol at Comic Book Resources. They still haven't run their Q and A with Jon yet (though they did run one with the contest's runner-up here), but I'm putting up the transcript--pure, unmodified, unprettified text. I'll touch it up a bit when I'm further along, but may have to take it down later, depending on the policies of the paper I'm selling the final product story to.
Q: What was your first comic book?
A: You know what, I can't remember the first comic I had but I can say that the first comic that really had an impact on me—that was like the holy grail of comic books—was the Hulk vs. Wolverine comic book, it was an issue of The Hulk where Todd McFarlane drew it—that was like, even as a kid I would obsess over getting that comic book. I did eventually and still have it.
Q: How long have you been drawing comics?
A: As early as I've been in organized school, from kindergarten on. Started as pictures of superheroes and evolved from there—I must have at times tried to put a couple images together to create some kind of narrative but it was mostly just poses.
Q: Is drawing sequential art harder than just still images?
A: Yes, it is a different skillset and no, in that I think each panel should have a design scheme or each panel should be—at least the way I look at comics, the way I want them to be, each panel should be composed so that your eye can look around the panel in a very nice way, in a very logical way. But you know, pin-up stuff is meant to be really flash and catch the eye, in my opinion. It's more about design than storytelling. Both are trying to communicate something.
Q: Do you draw outside of the normal genres, or just superhero stuff?

A: The stories I imagine in my head, that I'll probably never get to in decades, incorporate all kinds of stuff. Regular life, characters that actually wear clothes and don't just wear spandex, but I think comics should exploit what they can, what they can be, and that's really fantastic, over-the-top situation, but I like to give it a grounding in real life. Over the top situations, grounded in some kind of realistic scenario.
Q: What are you reading these days?
A: I don't read them as much as I should, which is stupid, but I'm kind of a strange guy. I've noticed, talking with other comic book guys, cause I don't really exist that much in the community at all. I just put my head down and draw as much as possible. I'm finding that other people have this vast amount of knowledge, and I find the few artists that I like and try to buy everything they do. I should do more of that but I find that I can just buy a couple of things and slowly digest that over a long period of time. I only have one box of comic books, but each one I think is just a fantastic piece of art so I can't lose.
Q: What creators do you follow?
A: Bill Sieknewicz, Mike Mignola, Simon Bisley, Art Adams, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, I'd like to get more Moebius stuff, Frank Miller. Silvestri. This guy's pretty cool: Richard Corbin, Bachalo. It's weird, with most of those guys if not all of them, it's a period of their career that I enjoy the most and I'm always trying to find something from that period.
Q: What do you think about Frank Miller's jump to film?
A: That freaked me out; I remember I loved the movie RoboCop, I just loved the satire and it was so over-the-top and so making fun of itself but I've noticed that Miller cowrote RoboCop 3, so I guess he's been doing that a while.
Q: On Sienkevicz...?
A: Elektra: Assassin is one of the best, if not the best, comics ever made. I love the Internet for finding this stuff. Something like Superman: Day of Doom or Elektra: Assassin on the Web for $4—it should be on a wall someplace, but it's like $4.
Q: Do you know the details of any assignments yet?
A: None. I just got the e-mail from Jay, the organizer, for the contact info for the other guys, for the editors or whatever from the companies, and they told me that the assignments could be a pin-up, could be four pages, could be a book. I'm trying to take it easy and really look toward the New York trip as the main gift of winning Comic Book Idol 3.
Q: What would be your dream job in comics?

A: Pencilling for a book that I find that's really creative and a great story with great imagery, great iconic imagery, and one that can work off of my strengths
Q: Favorite characters?
A: No, no, I'm at a state now. When I say iconic, I think pulp—pulp covers, pulp magazines, Frank Frazetta. Just real imaginative, you know, you can really get sucked in just by the images themselves. I'd say at this point, if I thought I was really good, yeah, I'd want to draw the biggest books, I guess, but I always gravitated towards smaller characters, you know? Something that rang true was when McFarlane said how great it would be to take a smaller character and do something great with them, like Sienkewicz with Moon Knight. They're not going to give some new guy who doesn't know the ropes the X-Men. Maybe that's it, they allow people to take chances with the smaller characters and the bigger characters, they're like "we can't do that with Wolverine or with Superman," but with the other guys you can relaly blow their heads back with something imaginative."
Q: Is there one particular book that you can pull out and get inspired by?
A: Again, I wish I could say I had more stuff, it's so stupid; I buy the same books and I just look at the same books over and over again. I really look at Hellboy as great, and I love the whole story, because it's kind of—it has an underlying premise and I love the dichotomy between how huge the story is and how simply the character approaches the scenario.
Q: When is the New York Con, and is it your idea that you'll have some work to show there?
A: Yes. It's coming up in April, and I'll have work to show one way or another, because I can't say when the assignments are going to come to me, I could do them in two months but maybe they won't get published. My main goal is I'm taking a little bit of a break now and just hit the drawing table harder and smarter than ever before.
Q: Do you think you could do a monthly book?

A: I am shooting to be a good, functioning penciler, that's my goal is to work and work quickly because that will bring me more work. But yeah, I'd like to sit back and just work on one thing for quite a long period of time, but you know I mean—my work, I think, what some people say, is detail heavy. Obviously not like Geoff Darrow or something like that, but a lot of the guys kind of gave off a feel that they were drawing quickly. They probably weren't, but I look at a lot of the Silvestri stuff and some things he was obviously drawing quickly. Long story short, yes I want to draw quick and I want to be able to deliver—there's always going to be a fine line. It will always be my point of view that I have stuff to work on.
You know what looks good? Eric Canate—all I saw was four pages, but it was insane. It looked a little manga-influenced but it looked really insane.