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Realm of the Damned Artist Pye Parr Speaks
Pye Parr Enters The Realm of The Damned
♦Realm of The Damned: Tenebrios Deos has been running for three months in the Judge Dredd Megazine now. Its artist, Pye Parr (2000AD) spoke about illustrating this new eagerly-awaited horror saga
TW: How did you get involved with Realm of The Damned?
PYE PARR: originally Steve from PHD got in touch with me to redesign some classic horror characters for a range of horror t-shirts, which I went away and started, but somewhere along the line decided that rather than make the art look like it was taken from a comic, why not just make the actual comic? That attitude is completely awesome, but was quite a surpriSe to me when I went back in to show him the roughs! So we went from there…
TW: How different was it working on a graphic novel rather than a strip series?
PP: I couldn’t tell you to be honest, as comic-wise previous to this I’d only really drawn a 4-page Future Shock and a load of comic and book covers, so it was a pretty steep learning curve. That said I don’t think the way we approached it was that different to something designed to be serialised: It’s broken up into multiple parts within the book, so there’s definite breaks/milestones, which was very helpful when feeling slightly overwhelmed by it! I suppose the thing that was tough is having to do so much work before seeing anything in print.
TW: You have worked extensively on 2000AD over the past few years. How different was it working on Realm of The Damned?
PP: Well, for 2000ad I mainly did design work, and only the occasional bit of drawing, whereas here I’m exclusively doing the art. You can’t help but pick up a few things just by osmosis though, seeing the way the 2000AD artists, writers and letterers go about their business, and learning what it takes to get something from nothing to a final product. Knowing the practical parts of the production chain was very useful, but nothing quite prepared me for the relentless amount of work you have to get done, on your own, to a deadline. It was tough, and I’ve a new appreciation for anyone doing this.
TW: Artistically did you deliberately tailor your work to suit the series?
PP: Yeah. I try not to do the same thing too often, and approach every project differently, but I’d been experimenting with a very scribbly way of drawing stuff on a few book covers I’d done at Rebellion, and Steve and I thought it would be cool to see if I could make it shift to a comic. I naturally lean towards a slightly more ‘cartoony’ (urgh) way of doing things, which definitely wouldn’t have worked on this.
TW: How closely did you work with writer Alec Worley?
PP: Really closely, and it was great. We had loads of back and forth, so it evolved and (hopefully!) improved as we worked on it – making changes if we thought of better ways to tell the story as it came together, adding or changing dialogue and art depending on how well it read. I think it’s quite important to be kind of egoless with this, and trust each other’s judgement about things. It was ace, and I really enjoyed it. Also, towards the end he acted like a bit of a crutch for me, as I was properly running out of steam! Never underestimate the usefulness of having someone to phone up and dump on at random intervals.
TW: Horror is such a well-mined subject. What do you think marks ROTD out as something new and fresh?
PP: The black metal angle is cool I think. I wasn’t 100% sold at first, more cos I’m not into that stuff myself rather than thinking it was a bad idea, but the whole aesthetic works really well. The themes, nihilism and gore fit brilliantly with the type of story that Steve wanted. It also makes it a comic for a very specific market. It’s done for fans of that genre, and we were keen to make it feel as authentic as possible.
TW: The first graphic novel is out this May. Will we be seeing future stories featuring the characters in comics?
PP: Yeah man. And I’m really looking forward to that. This first book was very much Steve’s baby, he knew what he wanted and although he basically just wound us up and let us go, it still feels like his. The second book will feel much more like ‘ours’, as we can take what went before and expand on it in weird directions we couldn’t have done the first time round. Can’t wait!
Realm of The Damned: Tenebrios Deos began in the Judge Dredd Megazine in February. Visit http://www.werewolfpress.co.uk/ for more information.
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