August saw a new Egmont artist making his debut for the Scandinavian publication. Janusz Ordon is from Poland and mainly known for his work on Clive Barker's Hellraiser, but soon will be known as a Phantom artist for the amazing work in his debut issue. There is no word yet if or when Frew will publish the story in Australia.
Janusz has another Phantom connection, as he worked on the comic series Iron Dragon, written by Fantomen writer Philip Madden.
Today, ChronicleChamber is lucky enough to sit down with Janusz and find out a little more about the newest contributor to the Phantom universe.
Chronicle Chamber: Thank you for joining us Janusz. Can you tell us a little about yourself? How old are you, and where are you located?
Janusz Ordon: Hello! Thank you for the opportunity to share a few words with you guys! It is a pleasure. Starting form begining... I'm 36, and I'm located in Warsaw, Poland. For the last 10 years I have been mostly involved in animation, film, 3D, commercial illustration and visuals.
CC: Did you study art at school, or would you say you are self taught?
JO: Yes, I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw at the Multimedia Faculty. But there is a saying "if you are not self taught you are not taught at all"!
CC: How would you describe your style? Who are your biggest influences, past and present?
JO: It is not up to me to describe my style yet. Besides I think that renaissance, baroque, classic, abstractionism, cubism or comic book is a style. The rest is just the way to show things. So my style is a comic book style, simple as this. If I do concept design for animation I work in concept design style including photo-bashing, using 3D models and so on.
Speaking of influences, that's another story. I'm under the influence of all the Warren Publishing artists Jose Ortiz, Rudy Nebres, Alfredo Alcala, Alex Nino just to name a few. Besides I really like the art done by Argentinian comic book artists.
CC: Did you read comics as a child? Did you read or know of The Phantom?
JO: Absolutely! I was exposed to comics at the age of around 10. Mostly western European comics. I knew the Phantom character from early on too.
CC: You had some past experiences in working with Phillip Madden... how was that?
JO: That was great! I remember I redrew the comic a couple of times, just to find the right look for the story. He was patient enough and he liked the final result. Besides our comic was to be published in Aces Weekly, the magazine published by David Lloyd himself, so it was a pressure.
CC: How did you get the gig for Egmont and Fantomen?
JO: Actually after the story I drew for Philip, he told me that Egmont was looking for an artist for Fantomen. And asked me if I would be interested. After that I was emailed by Egmont with a sample script which I drew and two evenings later I got this gig.
CC: What is your process of creating your art? Do you use the traditional paper and ink or is it always newer school with the computer?
JO: Actually kind of both. Generally I work on computer but I print the pages to see what they look like, and then if necessary I draw and improve details on a paper. Or... I redraw entire picture traditionally. But at the moment I'm in a process of doing more and more work traditionally. You know, it is nice to have the originals to be able to sell them in a future (hopefully).
CC: Many phans would love that of course! And the important follow up question: Do you accept commissions?
JO: Absolutely! (Traditional) I do it since I remember =)
CC: So where can phans check out your other art? JO: The websites are still in the works but you can find more of my comic book pages here:
Thanks to Andreas and the editors of Phantomwiki for the heads up on the new artist & Philip Madden for helping us get in touch with Janusz.
