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Barry Kitson has been around in the comic industry
for a long while. He's worked on such titles are
Judge Dredd, L.E.G.I.O.N., Batgirl, Empire and now
Legion of Superheroes. I ran into Barry Kitson at
Wizard World Texas and asked him about his past
and current projects. I was amazed at the passion
he has when he speaks about his current work on
Legion of Superheroes. Read on to find out for
yourself how much Barry Kitson loves his job and loves
working on Legion of Superheroes.
Sidra:
Where are you from and how do you think that influences your art?
Barry Kitson:
Well, I was born and brought up in
England, and I don't really think it's that great
an influence on my artwork because my inspiration,
what started me drawing, was really American comic
books. A lot of people are actually surprised
that I am English. In fact, a lot of English
artists when they meet me say, "Oh we thought you
were American." So, I guess it hasn't influenced
me very much.
Sidra:
Did you always like to draw?
Barry:
I think I started drawing when I was
seven or eight, immediately after I got my first
superhero comic, and that was literally what made
me want to draw. I started copying or tracing Jack
Kirby drawings and when I was eleven I was
producing a superhero comic for my school. It was
literally all I wanted to do, except for a few teenage
years when I wanted to be a rock and roll star,
but that didn't really come to anything. But
really, it's a dream come true to draw comic books.
Sidra:
How did you start working for DC?
Barry:
The DC connection came about when I
was working on 2000 AD, and I was drawing Judge
Dredd at the time. Alan Grant and John Wagner and
a few other British people were working at DC and
they recommended me for it. I got a call one
evening from Denny O'Neil asking if I would be
interested in drawing Batgirl. I said yes and
immediately after I put the phone down, I realized
I hadn't actually asked if they were going to pay
me or anything. So that was my first DC work.
Sidra:
What made you leave L.E.G.I.O.N.?
Barry:
At the time there were a lot of
different things going on and Marvel had offered
me a couple of number one issues. I was due to be
drawing War Machine and another book for them. DC
just said "Do you want to draw Superman?" and
that's one of those offers you can't refuse. I
semi-reluctantly said goodbye to L.E.G.I.O.N. and
moved onto Superman, but you know, I've missed it
ever since, to be honest.
Sidra:
That actually leads into my next question.
In the intervening years, had you missed working
on the L.E.G.I.O.N. characters so much that when
DC asked you to draw Legion of Superheroes were
you thrilled?
Barry:
One of the great things about
working on L.E.G.I.O.N. was I felt I really knew a
lot of the readers and the characters felt very
much like people that I knew. For a long time I
wanted to go back to a regular monthly book. So
it was the dream offer, really.
Sidra:
What is the best thing about working on a
Legion book and what is the worst thing about
working on a Legion book?
Barry:
The best thing is obviously the
characters. The worst thing, everything that
you're asked to do, especially on a restart like
we've done where you're having to re-imagine a
whole world. Absolutely everything I'm asked to
draw I have to think, what would it look like? If
you're doing a period piece like the JSA piece I
originally did, I can find pictures to get
reference for that, or if you're drawing everyday
things, I know what a telephone looks like, I know
what a car looks like, but whatever I have to draw
I have to design, so everything takes a long
time.
Sidra:
How much input do you have into what goes
In to the book? What are we going to look at and
say, "That's purely Barry Kitson"?
Barry:
I don't think you could say, other
than the actual artwork, that it's purely me. The
way Mark and I do the story is very collaborative.
I don't think you can quantify it really, because
we talk everything though all the time. We throw
ideas backwards and forwards and change things.
We kind of bounce things off of one another which
is what we did on Empire. That's really one of
the fun things about working with Mark. I
certainly wouldn't say anything other than the
actual artwork is me. There are a lot of visual
things that I put in the backgrounds, hints,
things that Mark doesn't know about until he sees
it but I wouldn't say they're purely me because I
often put them in knowing that he's going to pick
up on them.
Sidra:
Any hopes of seeing Bouncing Boy or
Kinetix in this new Legion?
Barry:
I would say wait and see. I know
Mark dearly loves Bouncing Boy. So I'm sure he'll
twist my arm into it at some point, maybe in year
five. I don't know. At the moment we haven't
ruled either of them in or out.
Sidra:
Why should old readers give the new Legion book a try?
Barry:
I would say if you ever loved
Legion, then we honestly believe you will love
this. I know how fanatic Legion fans are because
I am one myself. One of the things we try to
stress is that we're not doing this to disrespect
Legion. What we're trying to do is encapsulate
and capture the heart of what makes Legion special
to people. A lot of people were up in arms when
they heard it was coming, but once they saw what
we were doing, nearly everyone seems to be won
over. Our hearts are in the right place. Even if
you hate it, I think you'll be able to tell that
we're doing it because we love Legion. If you love
Legion it's at least worth giving it a shot.
Sidra:
Anything else you would like to add?
Barry:
I can't really think of anything off
the top of my head. Only really to stress, this
is so much fun and it's so great all the
enthusiasm everyone's had for it. I don't think
any of us have worked on a book where we've had so
much energy coming from everyone around us,
everyone who's seen it. It's just been wonderful.
The more people we get to look at it the happier
we'll be, even if people don't like it. I'm happy
to discuss anything with any Legion fans anytime,
and we really want it to feel like a community
again. For the Legion fans to feel like it's
their book. We're trying to be there to talk to
people. Even if they just want to yell at us
we'll still try to be there. I guess that's it.
That's all I can think of to add.
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