Snowblinds Psycho Circus Review: Exclusive Interveiw With Kevin Conrad
Snowblinds Psycho Circus Review was at the New
Jersey Kiss Expo on 4/26/98 and we got a chance to
sit down and do an interveiw with Kevin Conrad, the
man who does the inks for Psycho Circus. Well here it
is :
Kevin Conrad and myself
Snowblind-How did you get the job of inker on the
Psycho Circus comic?
Kevin Conrad- Well I worked for
Todd for about a year
working on Spawn, Todd new I was a big kiss fan so he
asked me first.
Snowblind- so, him knowing you were a kiss fan
helped?
Kevin Conrad- Yeah
Snowblind- You do the inks for psycho circus, what
does that entail, my understanding is that you
basically trace over angels, adding your own touches
here and there, is that basically how it goes?
Kevin Conrad- Trace is a very bad
word...(Laughing)
Snowblind- Well not trace, but go over darker...
Kevin Conrad- Well in simplest
form, Yeah , what you do is go
over the pencil with black ink, but there is a lot
of tehnique involved, there is a lot of textures
involved, ya wanna make sure the page balances,
balances well with blacks and whites, if theres not
enough black on the page I will add black, solid
black, I'll add a lot of textures, I'll change
textures angel puts on the page, so its pretty
much... yeah Angel creats the image and does the
story telling and that kinda thing with the initial
image but, once I m finished with it no pencils exist
anymore, its all inks. If ya wanna know a ratio, its
probably 65% / 35% in regards to actual input.
Snowblind- Can you breifly go over the complete
process of making the comic book, I belive I heard
you say earlier there are three stages---
Kevin Conrad- Well yeah, it starts
out with the writer. The
writer will send the plot to the penciler, I get the
plot also so I know whats going on when I get the
pencils, and once Angel has the plothe will do the
actual pencils, tell the story, make sure every thing
flows and from there I get the pages usualy federal
express , a page a day, I finish the page send the
page off to the colorist, the colorist scans the art
work into the computer, then he colors it on disk and
so the actual art work stays black and white. The
actual art work is much larger, its reduced 65% in
the comic. Then the letters, all the letters are done
by computer also, and then it goes to the colorist
again and the colorist scans it in on top of the art
work all on a disk, he fowards the disk to the
printer and thats it. The physical art work never
comes back for this particular book, Gene Simmons
buys all of it.
Snowblind- Brian Holguin wasnt the
original writer for the comic...
Kevin Conrad- they bounced it back
and forth, ya know,
Origanally, I think the original guy was supposed to
be Roy Thomas and things didnt work out, then it went
to a guy named Beau Smith, who actually writes comics
for Image, he works for Tod, hes Tods promotional
director, and that didnt work out, then they got, the
colorist is good freinds with Brian Holguin who is
presently doing the book, and he clicked and hes got
it down, and I guess Brian will be writting spawn as
of issue 75, so he will be doing both books.
Snowblind- There seems to be some delays with some of
the issues, i think three of the issues have been
delayed longer than the five weeks
Kevin Conrad- Some times, well for
instance, issue 8 was supposed to be out last
wednsday, but it got bumped
because it wasnt risking returns, it is comming out
this wednsday. It got bumped because Spawn was
risking returns, if it came into stores a week later
the retailer would be able to send it back, so thats
what happened this time around. There was one
ocassion where Angel had a hernia that he had to have
taken care of, wich set the book back about a week .
All in all I think its one of the more regular comics
out there. The first issue came out in August of 97,
by August of this year our goal is to have the 11
issue out. In regards to having one a month we are
shy one issue.
Snowblind- One last Question- can you give any
insight
into whats comming up?
Kevin Conrad- Theres a four part
story art thats comming up
starting with issue #10, called "Destroyer"..where
did that name come from(laughing), and each cover,
much like the insert posters from the solo albums,
will make up one big poster when put together. The
first one will be Peter criss by himself with a
little hint of Paul stanley around one of the edges,
the second issue is Paul Stanley, the third is Gene
Simmons, fourth is Ace Frehley, so when you put em
all together it makes one peice of art work, thats a
nice thing commin up. outside of that , off hand I
really dont know much else... i'm havin the time of
my life, I have been a kiss fan since I was 14 years
old.
Snowblind- Yes I have heard that, I was surprised
that they actually have kiss fans doing the comic,
thats awesome.
Kevin Conrad- Brian Holguin, I
havnt talked with him but, I
hear he is even more of a kiss nut than I am. If ya
read it you can really tell...
Snowblind- Yeah There is a lot of hidden stuff in
there...
Kevin Conrad- Yeah there is
actually alot of stuff
in the actual text.
Snowblind- in closing I would like to say you guys do
a hell of a job, and i think that you and Angel
should do the covers more often though.
Kevin Conrad- Well we started doing
the covers since
issue six...
Snowblind- That Micheal Golden guy...
Kevin Conrad- Ya well hes out of
the picture now,
he's a great guy but... Ya know , if were good enough
to do the interior then we are good enough to do the
covers.
Snowblind- Thank you for the intereiw.
Kevin Conrad- Your welcome, any
time.
Kevin was very nice, he was giving out to every fan
that came to his table a #5 issue of psycho circus,
and a color glossy promo flyer for the new action
figures both autographed by him. He talked to every
one all day and signed anything ya had for him to
sign, and dont forget he was also gracious enough to
give me an interview. This interview was also video
taped for my freinds cable tv show about kiss, so it
will be on tv in Rhode Island some time this week.
Back to Center Ring
Email: snowblind4@webtv.net
