Portrait of a Young Comic Artist

Ever wonder how to get your foot in the door and become a working comic artist? In this interview with James L. Barry he tells you how to do it right!

I met James at a café in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on a lovely New York spring day to discuss the release of his first graphic novel “The Lost Warrior”(Tokyo Pop, available now in bookstores).

C.M.Butzer: “Okay James, just to let you know you’re the first official Rabid Rabbit interview! First of many we hope! You know, actually, I was thinking this today when I was writing up interview questions, there is actually very little that I know about you even though our studios were right next to each other (James and I attended the SVA MFA illustration program together.) So, um, where were you born?

James L. Barry: “I was born in Nashville, Tennessee.”

C.M.Butzer: “Nashville? Really? Did you like it there?”

James L. Barry: “Yeah I like Nashville, I’m always thinking about moving back for more space and to be closer to family and that sort of stuff, but I like it here a lot”.

C.M.Butzer:  “Did you go school, your undergrad, in Nashville?”

James L. Barry: “No, I went to NYU, I studied animation and film”.

C.M.Butzer: “I can see that in your drawing style”

James L. Barry: “Yeah, I studied animation, film, set design, and writing. I kinda decided that I didn’t really want to be involved with film because I didn’t like carrying things (chuckles). And at some point I realized that I really love comics and that I could basically write my own film. Make, direct, cast it, art direct it, do everything on the pages of a comic. So that was the appeal of going to SVA and studying illustration and focusing on that more”.

C.M.Butzer: “ Did you work after you graduated (NYU)?”

James L. Barry: “I worked a year at the Gap”

C.M.Butzer: “Most art degrees are good for working in retail or restaurants”.

James L. Barry: “Yeah, I used my BFA at the Gap and I really wanted to go back to school and study some more”

C.M.Butzer: “How old are you?”

James L. Barry: “27”.

C.M.Butzer: “ wow, you’re young!

James L. Barry: “I finished NYU in three years”

C.M.Butzer: “Wow! That was quick, Impressive! So after you graduated (SVA) you went to work for the children’s book…”

James L. Barry: “Well for six months I worked at Pearl Paint, then I got a gig doing ESL technical illustrations. I was thrilled to be able to quit Pearl Paint and do that. That lasted for about nine months, I think I did four books. I’ve actually never seen the books, they never given me copies yet. I assume they’ve been printed, but they paid me, so it was worth it! Then I got other freelance jobs.. And then I started doing stuff for Tokyo Pop, submitting ideas for different comics and finally this one, I guess I’m getting ahead of myself”.

C.M.Butzer: “Not at all, Tell me a little bit about “The Lost Warrior”, what it’s about?”

James L. Barry: “Okay, “The Warriors”(HarperCollins) is a series of young adult novels written by Erin Hunter, who is actually three different women who live in England and collaborate on the books together. I think there are about a dozen books in the series. They’re really popular and do really well. The way the manga came about is that HarperCollins, who does the novels, was in discussions with Tokyo Pop about a co-publishing deal. So they were trying to decide which project would be the best for their first co-pub. Since so many fans were wondering when there would be a “Warriors” movie or something they decided that one would be a good one to try as a manga comic.”

James L. Barry: “So “The Lost Warrior”, my book picks up where one of the novels leaves off. One of the main characters from the novels “Graystripe” has been captured by some “two-legs”, it’s what they call humans. The Two-legs were tearing down the forests to make way for a road and they were capturing all the cats and… “

C.M.Butzer: “Are these feral cats?”

James L. Barry: “Yes, they are feral cats, they live in clans, sorry I didn’t get to that. In the novels they have all sorts of fights between the clans. So in the comic picks up where he (Graystripe), has just helped free all the captured cats from their cages, but unfortunately Graystripe gets caught. He’s the only one that gets taken to the suburbs to be turned into a kitty pet. From there it’s all about Graystripe trying to escape and finding his way back into the forest.”

C.M.Butzer: “Hence, “The Lost Warrior”. Is this the first in the series?"

James L. Barry: “This is the first manga, there is definitely going to be two more. It’s already doing pretty well, so they are talking about doing more with this character or maybe have some other characters come in. There are lots of cats involved in this.”

C.M.Butzer: “ Have you read the novels?”

James L. Barry: “I’ve read four of them. They’re good”.

C.M.Butzer: “Excellent, I will have to check them out. So tell me about how you went about getting the opportunity to do ‘The lost Warrior’?”

James L. Barry: “I first met Lillian Diaz-Przybyl at SVA. She was doing portfolio reviews for the undergrads. My advisor was a teacher in the cartooning program in the undergrad”.

C.M.Butzer: “Who was your advisor?”

James L. Barry: “ Keith Mayerson. So Keith got me an appointment to meet Lillian to review my portfolio. I met Lillian and kept in touch with her after I graduated and was always sending her Christmas cards, Halloween cards.

C.M.Butzer: “Your own created cards?”

James L. Barry: “Yes, my own promotional pieces. Then she had my stuff on file and we were in touch. The first editor to contact me about a project was a guy called Paul Morrissey. He had a book about Alien Plants during World War II. He asked me to do some illustrations for that so he could pitch the idea. I did character sketches and stuff but it didn’t take off. He said he’d keep in touch. Then, I didn’t hear from them for about nine months. At the New York Comic Con in 2006, I saw Lillian again and made sure to talk to her and say remember me, blah, blah, blah. I showed her some new stuff I was working on. She said ‘I know something that you might be good for and I’ll get in touch with you later’. About a month later another Editor contacted me about another project called ‘Flower for Flowers’. About the backstage antics of a Shakespeare troupe. I submitted character sketches and about six pages for that. As soon as I was done with that they said that they really liked it but they had even a better project for me that Lillian would be editing this and it’s called ‘the Warriors’.

C.M.Butzer: “It sounds like ‘The Warriors’ was the most interesting of all the projects you came across”.

James L. Barry: “Definitely, the others were good. But the best thing about this it’s so high profile because the novels are already out and there is already a fanbase. It did really well immediately. So that’s really nice for me in getting something like this. I feel really lucky."

Finito

A very warm thank you to James L. Barry for being the guinea pig on our first interview! James will be at the MoCCA festival june 23-24th, 2007.

for more information about James check out his website:

http://www.jlbarry.com/