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If you love Marvel, you probably know who Mark Bagley is. His pencils have
graced the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, New Warriors and currently,
Thunderbolts. This issue we get Mark to reveal his beginnings, weaknesses,
where he swipes from, what offends him, and more!
Coville:
What did you do before you started penciling professionally?
Bagley:
Let's see, I was in the Army for 3 years during which time I had a top
secret code word security clearance. I'd tell you what I did but then, well
you know. I went to art school for a few years, got married, worked
construction for a few years and then got a job at Lockheed doing technical
illustration for about three years. All the while I was trying to break into
comics.
Coville:
When did you know that you wanted a career in drawing comics?
Bagley:
I've wanted to draw comics since I was a kid. I really think that the first
time I picked up a comic I thought, "Man I'd love to do this!" I think I was
around 9 years old. I finally got my first break when I was 27 (I've always
been sorta determined).
Coville:
How did you break into Marvel?
Bagley:
This is kind of an old story, I won the Marvel Try-Out Contest. I was working
at Lockheed at the time and about ready to give up trying to do comics for a
living and get on with my life, when the contest came out. I thought that it
was just a Jim Shooter gimmick and I wasn't going to do it. Luckily, a friend
of mine who owns the Dr. No's comic store, Cliff Biggers, gave me the contest
book and said if I didn't do it, I'd hate myself. Well a few months later, I
got the phone call saying I'd won first place! Marvel flew me to New York and
I met a bunch of editors and one gave me a shot (thanks Mike) and I spent the
next year and a half working at Lockheed during the day and drawing funny
books until 3 or 4 every night. Just about the time Lockheed started laying
people off, I was getting enough work from Marvel to quit and do comics
full time. A scary thing when you've a wife and new baby, to go freelance, but
it's been 16 or so years and I've never regretted it.
Coville:
What title did/do you enjoy penciling the most and why?
Bagley:
It's never been the title so much as the people I happen to be working with.
Doing Spidey was a dream job, my goal since I was a kid. But New Warriors was
a blast with Fabian, and the T-Bolts with Kurt has been awesome fun.
Coville:
What art supplies do you use?
Bagley:
As a penciler my tools are pretty basic. I use drafting pencils, Pink Pearl
erasures, triangles and the like. I think that the only tool I use that may
be out of the ordinary for a penciler is a drafting arm instead of a
T-square. I first used one at Lockheed and realized how much easier it made
life at the board.
Coville:
What is the most difficult thing for you to draw?
Bagley:
I don't think that I do crowd scenes, automobiles or women particularly
well. Plus I've always felt my faces were not very strong. Aw Hell, I think
that I could improve every area of my drawing. I may have a lot of people
fooled but I always think that I need a lot of work. There are so many guys
out there (and I use the term "guys" in it's non-gender specific aspect) who
are so terrific and I see their stuff and go "Man, I wish I could do that". I
don't get jealous or envious (O.K. maybe a little), but it sure does challenge
me to keep working on my craft, and trying to improve my skills.
Coville:
What do you do when you get stuck for drawing ideas?
Bagley:
I swipe from John Buscema or Alan Davis (Heh Heh!)
Coville:
Outside of comics, what are your hobbies?
Bagley:
I like to watch baseball, exercise (lift weights, run, hike), I shoot a pretty
mean game of 8-ball, I love to read and go to the movies. I'm not a big
outdoors type, but I do love rock climbing. Lastly, but not leastly, I enjoy
hanging with my homies (my wife and daughter).
Coville:
I know you like Pro-Wrestling. You keep adding wrestling references into the
Thunderbolts artwork. Which federation do you like the most and who are your
favorite wrestlers?
Bagley:
I'm seriously not sure what your talking about. I do try to throw some
cultural references into my drawing, but I don't really know much about
Pro-Wrestling. Sorry. (though Goldberg is a monster!)
Coville:
How are things going so far with Fabian Nicieza with him taking over Thunderbolts?
Bagley:
I hate him. If he lived near me I'd kill him. As it is, I'm thinking of
sending a couple of my brother-in-laws up to Jersey to rough him up.
Coville:
Is there a copy of the original Hawkeye/Moonstone drawing that you had to
change because it was too raunchy? If so, can you send it our way?
Bagley:
Coville:
With the Thunderbolts, you gave complete makeovers to villains. How did you
come up with the different looks and costumes to those characters?
Bagley:
Costume design is just a lot of fun. Each character was so distinctive that
it wasn't hard to come up with a look, especially given Kurt's pretty clear
ideas on the direction we were heading. Plus, Kurt sent me a sketch of a
possible Citizen V costume which I basically just tweaked a bit.
Coville:
Did you have any input into the who the New Warriors and Thunderbolt members would be?
Bagley:
Really, no. Both books were pretty much established, structure wise by the
time that I came aboard.
Coville:
What is your opinion of the relaunched New Warriors?
Bagley:
Like the old expression goes, If you want my opinion on that subject you'll
have to beat it out of me.
Coville:
Thunderbolts seem to be one of the few new titles launched by Marvel in the
last few years that has succeeded without any nagging cancellation rumors.
What's the secret to launching a successful new title?
Bagley:
Beats me. Kurt's a terrific writer and I'm a solid, consistent penciler who
cares about his craft. T-Bolts was, and continues to be, a very story driven
book with interesting characters and well thought out story's, but I also
thought Heroes For Hire and Kazar were great books. Maybe we manage to keep
our readers because no one is yet sure how these guys are going to end up,
and the journey there is the real hook that keeps the fans buying the book.
Coville:
You were the penciler when the controversial story lines surrounding
Spider-Man started. Those being the Clone Saga and the Death of Aunt May.
At the time, did you feel that mistakes were being made? Was it difficult to
draw those issues?
Bagley:
I thought the clone saga was a gamble, but a good one. I think the results
would have been a lot more satisfying but for a number of editor changes and
some bad decisions upstairs. It lost focus and direction, went on way too
long, and just became a mess (and Aunt May is REALLY dead, damn it!). It did
become less fun to draw those issues, although I think the stories I did with
Mark DeMattais were actually my best drawn issues (damn, but he is good).
Coville:
Your best known for your Marvel work. Did you do anything for other publishers?
Bagley:
Nope, Marvel been very, very good to me.
Coville:
If you had a choice of working a monthly title with any DC character, which
would you choose?
Bagley:
Probably the big cheese, Superman. He and Batman are the icons. I've also
always had a soft spot for The Martian Manhunter. Once again, the most
important ingredients would be my writer and editor.
Coville:
Have you ever thought about breaking away from publishers and doing some
creator owned work? (Why or Why not?)
Bagley:
Nah, I'm a coward. Besides I grew up on mainstream Marvel and DC, I really do
love their universes.
Coville:
I hear you are a Georgia Cracker. Is that true? ;)
Bagley:
A piece of advice: Much like only a black guy can call another black guy the
"N" word and get away with it, so to only one Georgian should call another
Georgian a cracker. I'm an Army brat, and as such I've lived everywhere from
Hawaii to Germany to Korea. But I've lived in Georgia for over half my life
and I call it home.
Coville:
Anything else you would like to add?
Bagley:
Nah, it's 12:35 in the a.m. and I'm getting up at 6:00 a.m. so I'm going to
bed. Will just thank everyone for buying T-bolts and sticking with it, you
are all very appreciated and Fabe and I hope you will continue to enjoy it.
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