Openers

Brandon Dayton, Video Game concept artist by day, comic book author/illustrator by night, clues us in on his process, cultural impact of comic and the fact that it “turns out creative stuff takes a ton of discipline, but I didn’t find that out until long after I’d set out on my path.”

[Dust] Brandon.  Thanks for helping with the blog – in many ways.  You’ve been a big inspiration to me and a big help to me in getting this off the ground.  In writing back story stinks (IMHO) but in this case it’s what we want.  Please start by telling us a bit about what got you to this point?

[BD] I’ve had the desire to do something creative with my life from a pretty early age. I’ve always loved animation, film and comics, and I also didn’t really think I had the discipline to do anything other than something really fun. Turns out creative stuff takes a ton of discipline, but I didn’t find that out until long after I’d set out on my path. I went to school at BYU where I studied film, and tried to sneak into as many illustration classes as possible. I happened to be there at a really great time. I studied with a group of kids that were ambitious, intelligent and very talented, and it pushed me to want to do big things.

After school I was pretty uncertain about what path to take. I knew I wanted to do something with art, something with storytelling, but nothing seemed to click. I worked as an illustrator for a souvenir company, and for a couple of years for a jack-of-all-trades production studio called 8fish. I did everything there; video editing, sound editing, illustration, design, writing, animation. It was a great place to learn discipline and speed, and I great place to figure out what things I didn’t want to do.

After that I started with EA, and I’ve been working as a concept artist since then.

[Dust] As a concept artist at EA, you get to flex your creative muscle working on a diverse collection of games and content.  How has that helped you in your personal work?

[BD] It certainly presents me with unexpected challenges. With my own work I can pretty much avoid the stuff that scares me, but working at EA I get all sorts of stuff thrown at me that’s way outside my comfort zone. When I first started, I was doing a ton of technical drawing. I had no idea what I was doing, but I dove into it studied what I could, and I think I ended up having some nice successes.

Of course, now I have these new areas of confidence that I can explore with my personal work.

[Dust] Tell us a bit about your day job.  It sounds fascinating.

[BD] I work at the front end of development. I’m one of the first guys to actually start creating images about how a game might look. I do a lot of sketching, and lot of quick digital painting, just to explore possibilities. As development progresses my work will be much tighter, more technical and specific. More like a blue print for the artists creating actual in-game assets. Sometimes I go to meetings.

[Dust] Yeah, but when you go to meeting you bring a sketchbook and keep working.  I’ve seen you.

[Dust] When I started my first novel, I had a clear image in my mind, a picture that haunted me until I put it down on paper.  It was the catalyst that started me on the path to writing seriously.  Tell me about your process for beginning The Green Monk.  How did it start?

[BD] It started several years ago with the idea of a blade of grass as a weapon. My initial ideas were about a mouse fighting with a blade of grass; somehow I ended up with a monk. I’m fascinated by ascetic lifestyles, I’m Mormon, so I’ve experienced a bit of that, and it resonates with me. I like the idea of a character that is passionate even if naïve and idealistic, and the monk represents all of those things to me. He has a longing for a pure, noble life, but his world is more complicated than that.

[Dust] Is that your usual process?  Do you always start with an image or vision? Or does the proverbial muse come in other forms?

[BD] Generally, my best ideas come from out of the blue, although I’ve also had some good ideas through more intentional processes. It’s an intuitive process for me, and I let myself have fun. I don’t put many boundaries on myself at that stage.

[Dust] You and I have swapped a few books over the years.  You turned me on to World War Z and I’m forever grateful.  You also lead me to The War of Art. While not everything in there is for everyone, I found it to be an inspirational and important work.  What have you taken from this book and how did it impact you starting/finishing your comic?

[BD] War of Art had a huge impact on me. I have a special thanks to Stephen Pressfield at the beginning of Green Monk because of it. It was helpful for two reasons: First, it was a story of a guy that struggled for a long time, then finally got it. I had been feeling discouraged for many years about creating, and it was good to see that you didn’t have to be a genius right out of the gates to be successful. Second, and most importantly, the book is a pragmatic, down-to-earth guide on how to be an artist. There’s no wishy-washy bullshit. It basically tells you to quit making things so complicated and just get to work, but it says it much more eloquently. It’s a real treasure trove of wisdom. It sounds cheezy and maybe a bit pretentious, but it’s a sacred book for me.

[Dust] What other sources do you draw from?  What inspires you?

[BD] I try to stay curious about everything. There can be a temptation to just study things that exist in your sphere-for a comic book artist to just read comics, or a writer to just read about writing.

I love reading about psychology, sociology, economics, history, science. I like movies, comics, books, the old stuff and the new stuff. I’ve been reading Moby Dick, I absolutely love the language in that book. It’s more clever than a Coen Brothers film. The world is just a really fascinating place, there’s always something new to discover. I try to be open to that.

[Dust] What are you reading now?  What games are you playing?

[BD] I’m totally immersed in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series and I just finished a compilation of the complete works by Brother’s Grimm. It’s been the best stuff to read while I was putting together dialogue for Green Monk. Brother’s Grimm stories always talk about adventurers going out into “the wide world”. That’s one many little phrases and situations that ended up in Green Monk.

As for games I tend to get obsessed with a game and stick to it for a long time, it literally verges on addiction. I’m in rehab right now (not literally) for Team Fortress 2, and I’ve been playing a bit of Left 4 Dead. Don’t tell anyone, but actually try really hard to spend as little time as possible playing video games. I don’t have the healthiest relationship with gaming, and there are a lot of other things I want to do with my time.

[Dust] You self published The Green Monk.  Tell me about that decision and a bit about the process?

[BD] For me, Green Monk has been all about artistic freedom, and I think self publishing was a natural extension of that. I was drawing it in a really odd, arbitrary format that wouldn’t work with print-on-demand. I’m basically a nobody as far as comics go, and the story I’m telling is pretty unconventional, so I don’t think I really had any other choice.

The process was pretty simple, although it did take some hustling (mostly done by my wife.) She called up a list of printers, and found one that offered us a good price. After that there was quite a bit of communication to describe what we wanted to do, and to figure out all the printing lingo.

[Dust] Without a publisher, the burden of self promoting falls on your shoulders.  Is that exciting to you?  Do you enjoy that part or would you rather sit in the dark, leaning against your desk with pencil in hand. (go ahead and put in your twitter info, your facebook follow page, your website, whatever you want to put in here to get more people to check you out)

[BD] It’s exciting and scary. I like that promoting my book allows me to meet people, and can kind of be an excuse to get past my comfort zone, but I’d like it if I got more bang for my buck. It can be a lot of work, and it can be expensive, especially when you start going to comic conventions and such. But I think in general I like it, because I believe in what I’m promoting.

If people are interested in knowing more about my work they can read my blog at brandondayton.com or follow me on twitter. My username is brandondayton. I try to be good about engaging those that are thoughtful enough to comment on my work. I respond to almost everyone that contacts me.

[Dust] We all know what makes comics unique, but not a lot of people know the high quality of writing because we are distracted by the all the pretty pictures.  What about that that structure makes them an important story telling medium?

[BD] Sheesh that could be a whole discussion in and off itself. I actually just listened to a two hour series of podcasts that discussed that very topic (Big Illustration Party Time and Art and Story). In general I think it’s the ability of comics to crystalize moments. There isn’t this constant flow like with film, its more about a series of impressions. It’s a very writerly medium, by which I mean to say that it empowers the reader. You can read a comic in a very contemplative analytical way, or you can fly through it. You also do a lot of filling-in-the-blanks. It than sense I think reading comics is more similar to reading books than watching film or animation.

[Dust] Lately, comics have made better in roads into the mainstream, mostly thanks to Hollywood.  What do you think the potential is for these becoming a more acceptable form of mainstream literature?

[BD] I think comic book properties have made in roads into the mainstream, but I don’t know if comics themselves are really more widely consumed than they used to be. The potential for comics is boundless, its hurdles are purely cultural. I don’t see too many things changing that right now.

[Dust] Romance seems to be the ignored genre in comics?  It seems like there is a huge potential in this area, especially if you can draw muscular guys with open blouses and long flowing hair.  Am I missing something here?

[BD] That’s a good example of the cultural issue. If romance was done in comics, they’d probably be more popular among woman. Comics in our country has arisen from a specific cultural background that has pushed them into certain areas. It’s certainly not universal. My mother-in-law, who is Japanese has been reading a romance manga series for years. In our neck of the woods they’ve been considered lowbrow art, and even sinful. I think this has tilted the types of stories told in them to marginal topics like fantasy and horror. It’s a total stigma thing that we haven’t totally come out of, although some people are trying to change that.

I was just in the comic shop the other day, and it looks like Marvel is releasing a series of Pride and Prejudice comics, which seems like a good place to start if you want to make inroads into the female populous. Supposedly the art is beautiful. I’ll probably buy a copy for my wife.

[Dust] So, what’s next?  I’m sure you are working away at your next book.  Can you give us a sneak peek into what we can expect to see coming from you in the future?

[BD] My wife has asked me to take a break for a bit, so I’m going to be working on something completely different than Green Monk, for at least a month. I’ll probably start thumb-nailing the next issue starting in January.

[Dust]  Sounds like she needs a bit of Brandon time.  Believe me, my wife can empathize, the blight of an artist wife.  Well, tell her I appreciate her sharing you with us.  Once again, thanks for cluing us in and I hope you find this as rewarding as I have.

[BD] My pleasure and thank you in return.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 12:19 am and is filed under Author Interview, Game Developer Interview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.