Interview with Tom Mandrake
First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com!
My name is Jen, and I'll be your server toda...oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking
time out of your drawing schedule--which I'm sure is busy!--and answering a few questions for your
readers and fans.
Let's get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be an artist?
I always wanted to be an artist. Of course there were times when I toyed with other, less likely careers
like UFO/paranormal investigator, but being a freelance artist is definitely my best destiny.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I started out professionally by doing background art for various comic book inkers as well as any little
jobs I could pick up at DC and Marvel Comics while I made a little money on the side as art director of
Modern Drummer magazine. Tenacity in the comic book field paid off for me and I've worked for all the
major comic book companies on many projects including Batman, Swamp Thing and the X-Men titles. I
work in book and magazine illustration on projects including GRRM: The George RR Martin
Rretrospective, The Forest King: Woodlark's Shadow (!), and Subterranean Press magazine. Last year I
was the Art Director for Comic Book Illustrations on the award winning independent film adaptation of the
off-Broadway musical Zombie Prom.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
The Forest King: Woodlark's Shadow is the kind of dark, exciting thing I always wanted to happen to
me--except for the life threatening, might not make it back alive part.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
I think the Brandywine school of painters, artists like Howard Pyle and NC Wyeth, are my biggest
inspirations. They blur the line between fine art and commercial work, creating masterpieces while they
illustrated classic books. I like to go down to the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford PA every
once in a while to see their work again and recharge my artistic batteries.
Let's hear about your family, who I'm sure are thrilled to have a such a great artist among them!
My wife, Jan Duursema, is a great artist herself who currently draws Star Wars comics. Yes, we are a
two-freelancer household!
Now for some fun facts. What's your greatest comfort food?
Hagen Daz chocolate ice cream with Hershey's chocolate syrup--the key word is chocolate!
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Coffee.
Coffee.
Feed the cat.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what's the one thing that would
surprise me the most?
There are monsters in my garage--really. Frankenstein, the mummy, the Crypt-keeper, a couple random
skull-headed things. I like to build life size monsters for Halloween but they are tough to store, so they
hang out in the garage all year and have been known to startle the occasional houseguest!
Everyone asks the question about "if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?" so I want to know:
If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Clear, so my organs would show like The Visible Man plastic model.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
Invader Zim is my favorite! I'm a mix of Mr. Peabody and Robot Chicken.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world ("Beam me up, Scotty!"), during any time in history,
where and when would it be--and why?
It's a tie! Either I'd go to December 27, 1964 to watch the Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts
27-0 in the NFL championship game--or Roswell, New Mexico on July 2, 1947 so I could see what
REALLY happened; was there a UFO crash or not?
So what's your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you're drawing?
I sometimes listen to music while I work. It can help me focus on those days when I can't keep my butt in
the chair. But I never answer that question the same way twice. I can't, because today my favorite artist
is Southern Culture on the Skids but tomorrow it will be Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Today I'll say
Screamin' Jay Hawkins because I'm in the mood to listen to Alligator Wine.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
TV (I know, most of these are off the air, I just watch them over and over again on DVD) -
-The X-Files
-Heroes
-Carnivale
Movies-
I can always watch the old Universal monster movies, Frankenstein, Bride of, The Wolfman etc. I confess
to being more of a "wait till it's out on DVD" type of person.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Read as much as you can then draw images from the books you've read. Next, write your own stories
and illustrate them! After that, get some exercise...does all that count as one piece of advice?
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
Currently I'm drawing Batman, and right now my Batman Grotesk 4 part story is on the stands!
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
My name is Jen, and I'll be your server toda...oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking
time out of your drawing schedule--which I'm sure is busy!--and answering a few questions for your
readers and fans.
Let's get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be an artist?
I always wanted to be an artist. Of course there were times when I toyed with other, less likely careers
like UFO/paranormal investigator, but being a freelance artist is definitely my best destiny.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I started out professionally by doing background art for various comic book inkers as well as any little
jobs I could pick up at DC and Marvel Comics while I made a little money on the side as art director of
Modern Drummer magazine. Tenacity in the comic book field paid off for me and I've worked for all the
major comic book companies on many projects including Batman, Swamp Thing and the X-Men titles. I
work in book and magazine illustration on projects including GRRM: The George RR Martin
Rretrospective, The Forest King: Woodlark's Shadow (!), and Subterranean Press magazine. Last year I
was the Art Director for Comic Book Illustrations on the award winning independent film adaptation of the
off-Broadway musical Zombie Prom.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
The Forest King: Woodlark's Shadow is the kind of dark, exciting thing I always wanted to happen to
me--except for the life threatening, might not make it back alive part.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
I think the Brandywine school of painters, artists like Howard Pyle and NC Wyeth, are my biggest
inspirations. They blur the line between fine art and commercial work, creating masterpieces while they
illustrated classic books. I like to go down to the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford PA every
once in a while to see their work again and recharge my artistic batteries.
Let's hear about your family, who I'm sure are thrilled to have a such a great artist among them!
My wife, Jan Duursema, is a great artist herself who currently draws Star Wars comics. Yes, we are a
two-freelancer household!
Now for some fun facts. What's your greatest comfort food?
Hagen Daz chocolate ice cream with Hershey's chocolate syrup--the key word is chocolate!
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Coffee.
Coffee.
Feed the cat.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what's the one thing that would
surprise me the most?
There are monsters in my garage--really. Frankenstein, the mummy, the Crypt-keeper, a couple random
skull-headed things. I like to build life size monsters for Halloween but they are tough to store, so they
hang out in the garage all year and have been known to startle the occasional houseguest!
Everyone asks the question about "if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?" so I want to know:
If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Clear, so my organs would show like The Visible Man plastic model.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
Invader Zim is my favorite! I'm a mix of Mr. Peabody and Robot Chicken.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world ("Beam me up, Scotty!"), during any time in history,
where and when would it be--and why?
It's a tie! Either I'd go to December 27, 1964 to watch the Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts
27-0 in the NFL championship game--or Roswell, New Mexico on July 2, 1947 so I could see what
REALLY happened; was there a UFO crash or not?
So what's your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you're drawing?
I sometimes listen to music while I work. It can help me focus on those days when I can't keep my butt in
the chair. But I never answer that question the same way twice. I can't, because today my favorite artist
is Southern Culture on the Skids but tomorrow it will be Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Today I'll say
Screamin' Jay Hawkins because I'm in the mood to listen to Alligator Wine.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
TV (I know, most of these are off the air, I just watch them over and over again on DVD) -
-The X-Files
-Heroes
-Carnivale
Movies-
I can always watch the old Universal monster movies, Frankenstein, Bride of, The Wolfman etc. I confess
to being more of a "wait till it's out on DVD" type of person.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Read as much as you can then draw images from the books you've read. Next, write your own stories
and illustrate them! After that, get some exercise...does all that count as one piece of advice?
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
Currently I'm drawing Batman, and right now my Batman Grotesk 4 part story is on the stands!
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!