Long Story Short ★ MARC LAMING
How Dedication to Story Craft Make You Undeniable
An ocean away has done nothing to deter the limitless skills that MARC LAMING has honed like a fine blade. His draftsmanship turns heads and keeps both audiences and editors coming back for more.
BTP: Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you decided to pursue your career as a creative storyteller.
LAMING: I'm Marc Laming a UK based Illustrator and cartoonist. I've also been a course leader and lecturer on Illustration and Graphic Design Degrees. I've been working in the comics industry since 2000 with a short stint self-publishing in the 90s before being picked up by DC/Vertigo in May 2000 and going exclusive with them later that year for a further two years.
BTP: You’re an absolutely solid draftsman and I know how difficult it is to get to your level (I’ve been trying for years). Who was your biggest influence in this regard and where did that persistence for quality came from?
LAMING: The persistence came from knowing I had a long way to go to be as good as the artists I admired, and it wasn't going to be talent that got me there it would be hard work and application.
In terms of influence, it would be [Howard] Chaykin's American Flagg, the work of Barry Windsor-Smith and the other Studio artists [NOTE: In the 1970s The Studio was made up of creatives Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jeffrey Jones, and Bernie Wrightson. Charles Vess would join much later.], Steve Dillon, Garry Leach, Dave McKean, Bill Sienkiewicz, Brian Bolland, Hergé, Will Eisner, Frank Bellamy & Frank Hampson.
BTP: Who was your first advocate or earliest mentor that helped in your pursuits?
LAMING: There were several in my early years. I was lucky to be taken under the wing of Peter Hogan in the early 90s when he was editor of the monthly comic anthology REVOLVER at Fleetway Publications. Peter was hugely encouraging and supportive and gave me my first professional assignments as a comic book artist. Equally Dez Skinn was great for useful advice and would always steer me towards the right industry professionals to see with my portfolio of sample pages. And while at DC Shelly Bond (then Roeberg) and Howard Chaykin gave me a great crash course in making comics and I pretty much learnt how to really do my job thanks to their patronage.
BTP: That’s some amazing DNA to be interacting with. Did you travel to the U.S. to get in touch with people or did you do it from London? What was your first American comics work, and how did it go?
LAMING: From the early 1995-2003 I would go portfolio in hand to San Diego and do the rounds of all the editors I could get to see over the weekend. Mostly that was DC Editors and I struck up relationships with several of them due to them seeing me every year - it can pay to be a squeaky wheel!
My first work in the US was issue 55 of the Dreaming with Bill Willingham which led to me getting the job on Howard Chaykin & David Tischman's American Century for a few years and being exclusive with DC.
BTP: When you originally set out to study and learn, when did your learning take place and what resources did you have available to you?
LAMING: I did the usual UK art education of a one-year Foundation course where we were introduced to the major art disciplines later specializing in Illustration. I then Went to Camberwell School Of Art & Design in London to do a three-year Graphic Design & Illustration degree. It was a multidisciplinary Art School so we could use all the facilities we wanted including the school's print department where we could get books typeset, printed and bound. Being the late 80s we had a grand total of one Apple Mac running PageMaker, Freehand and Photoshop 1! As you can imagine, getting any real time on that Mac was really hard and you'd have to come in very early or stay late to get any time to work.
BTP: Sounds like we’re about the same age. I was graduating when Aldus Pagemaker was being installed on Apple IIe systems of which there may have been seven. If I’m not mistaken you’re primarily digital in your comics work, right? How did that come about and how did that choice win out over traditional or hybrid methods?
LAMING: The decision to move to digital was working on a video game based graphic novel where the software company kept making changes to the characters that were going to be featured in the game. This meant a lot of redrawing and crying so I moved to digital to make that process less horrific.
BTP: When compared to your early work experience do you feel like you were well-educated to step into a role or was there a larger divide between school and actual pipeline production?
LAMING: Art School didn't prepare me for work at all! With the exception of being well versed in idea generation I had no idea about presentation, preparing illustration for being shot for camera (as it used to be) or managing my time.
When I later ran Design & Illustration courses myself, I made sure that my students were prepared for the world of work and able to present, pitch and turn in professional work to deadline.
BTP: That is not terribly different than the U.S., though it is getting better. Business courses should be absolutely mandatory with so much at stake these days. Have you always been a freelance artist, or did you ever work in a studio situation?
LAMING: I've always been freelance.
BTP: As creatives we tend to have personal goals or aspirations for ourselves. What are yours and what does achieving that look like in the next 5 to 10 years?
LAMING: After doing almost 20 years of work for hire comics I decided that I wanted to concentrate on creating work that I either owned or had a stake in. It has also meant that I can plan much further ahead than waiting to be approached for my next WFH project at the Big Two. I love their characters and Universes but they don't love creators back.
BTP: How do you go about figuring out what projects to commit to outside of stuff that you find particularly fascinating? Is it about the market, a collaborator you want to work with or something else?
LAMING: It would be daft to not think about the marketplace but to a large extent it's "who do I want to work with?" and "I do love the story?".
BTP: What are your biggest fears in your career currently and what are you doing to keep those in check?
LAMING: During Covid I lost many thousands of dollars’ worth of freelance WFH jobs when the major publishers went 'pencils down'. It was at that point I decided that this wouldn't happen again, so I have at least the next three years’ worth of work planned in advance.
BTP: That’s solid advice. While it’s a lot more work in some ways, it’s yours at the end of the day. How have you found a way to keep publishers interested in these projects and how do you keep them and your audience hungry?
LAMING: Keeping publishers interested is down to periodically letting friendly and interested editorial teams know what I'm working on or that I'm free and sharing recent samples. In terms of the audience, it's down to sharing as much process and final non-spoilery pages with them on my social media.
BTP: Describe the perfect day for yourself. Comparatively, what would be the perfect workday?
LAMING: To be working on projects I own or have stake in and producing quality work that I'm proud of.
BTP: Simple and straightforward. What do you do to keep the fire in your belly and keep pushing you pushing to do your best work? It certainly doesn’t get any easier as we age.
LAMING: I still love comics. I read a huge amount of them and I'm always looking for my next favourite artist or series. Feeding yourself good stuff really keeps the fire in the belly.
BTP: What advice would you give to your younger self regarding your life’s path thus far?
LAMING: To draw every day and get started quicker! I've never been the talented kid at art. Everything I can do now has been through super hard work and application - I wish I had realized this was how to do it a bit earlier. ;)
BTP: It shows in the work, Marc. Just wonderful stuff. You’re leaving a lot of us in the dust.
BTP: Thanks for joining us today and sharing your insights. If you have any new projects you’d like to plug what are they and where can people find more of your work?
LAMING: EDEN from Humanoids came out a month ago and I would ask readers to find that as I think it's some of my best work and the story by Christopher Sebela is pretty brilliant, as is Lee Loughridge's colours and Tom Napolitano's lettering. I'm working on another couple of long form stories right now, but they've not been announced yet - watch the skies for news!!
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