I talked a lot about what Chris Spouse brought to Supreme, especially in issue #50, but I had never heard of him before that, so it's probably worth talking more about him.
Sprouse was an artist who was working his way up through the industry when he came to work on Supreme. He had done some work for DC comics, bouncing around from a Two-Face story to the Hammerlocke series to the Legionnaires series featuring teenaged versions of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
After illustrating a Star Wars mini-series, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, for Dark Horse Comics, he was looking to return to superhero comics.(The following interview came from Modern Masters volume 21: Chris Sprouse by Todd Dezago and Eric Nolen-Weathington. It's a great book, which you can purchase here.)
"MM: Following Splinter of the Mind's Eye, what came next?"
"CHRIS: I don't remember the exact details, but someone from Rob Liefeld's company called me--I don't remember what it was called at that point, maybe it was already Maximum Press--and offered me work doing a Youngblood Annual. I was itching to draw super-heroes again after a bit of a break from them, so I jumped in and drew about 3/4 of the annual before being asked to stop. The annual's writer, Eric Stephenson, was also the writer and editor of New Men, a young-mutant team book kind of series, and he asked me to work on that series with him and put off the annual for a while. He wanted to change the direction of New Men a little, so we had lots of character and plot discussions, and I even redesigned the cast and all of their costumes, something I always enjoy. I love designing characters and working out all the little details, something I hadn't done very much since Legionnaires.
"A lot of friends and peers kind of scratched their heads, wondering why I was going from Star Wars to some virtually unknown book for a smallish company. Well, the phone just wasn't ringing with offers, and I'd rather work on a book where I was instrumental in the design and overall look than work as just another guy in a long line of fill-in artists on JLA Annuals or Wolverine one-shots anyway. Plus, if it was good enough for the likes of Alan Moore and Rick Veitch, then it was good enough for me."
"MM: This is Eric Stephenson who is now the guy keeping the ship running at Image Comics?"
"CHRIS: The same guy, and I have to say I enjoyed my time working with and for him."
"MM: And so you re-designed and relaunched New Men, and you did several issues of that. Is that when they tapped you to take over the art chores on Supreme?"
"CHRIS: I did three issues in all, plus loads of pin-ups and character designs and even a cover for an issue that we never got to do. I think Eric may have mentioned me drawing Supreme before New Men ended, but I can't remember for sure."
"MM: Were you personally chosen by Alan Moore, or do you know how that came about?"
"CHRIS: Once poor sales finally killed New Men, Eric hired me to draw one issue of Supreme--the 50th issue--as well as a pinup. By the end of the issue, Eric had asked me if I wanted to take over the series as the regular artist, so I guess he and Rob liked what they were seeing, and presumably Alan did as well. This was a very intimidating idea for me: Alan had worked with some fantastically good artists on some really big comics, and I didn't want to screw up! I actually had to think about it because I was so nervous! I did say "yes" though, in the end.
"Anyway, before I could start Supreme regularly, I had to finish that Youngblood Annual, so I went back and resumed work on that. The finished product was kind of weird and inconsistent visually, because I had actually improved quite a bit since I drew the first chunk of pages, and that chunk wasn't in sequential order. To make matters worse, a different inker did the new pages. Control freak that I am, I did some patches and corrections to try to make things a little more consistent, but you can still tell which pages were done later. The book was later published as the Youngblood Super Special.
"As soon as that was finished, I drew a couple of covers for two issues of Supreme that someone else drew to buy me a little lead time, and then it was on to Supreme #53, my first regular issue, and still my favorite--visually--of the half-dozen or so I eventually drew."
"MM: I love those Supreme stories that Alan did and re-read them every couple of years or so. They were Alan re-visiting the Superman that he grew up with as a kid--those wild Mort Weisinger stories that were so light and fanciful. And though these stories operated on other levels, they maintained that whimsy and fun. Did you approach these stories in any way differently than you did, say, your Legionnaires?"
"CHRIS: I rarely have a conscious plan of attack, visually speaking, when starting a story, with some exceptions, like the early Timmy Turbo parts of Tom Strong, or our later attempt at injecting a little "Kirby FF" feel into later Tom Strong. I wish everything I did was planned and carefully executed, but it's not. It's usually just me reacting to the script and trying to give the writer everything he or she wants. So I suppose Alan's more light-hearted approach to his Supreme scripts dictated how I handled the art, but I didn't consciously try to do something different than what I did on Legionnaires other than attempt to be better.
"After we moved on to other things later, I wondered if having me on the book was a liability at times, in that Alan was often trying to contrast the then-current comic art style, the stereotypical Image style of that time, with styles from various periods throughout comics history, and my style has just never looked "current" and never less so than then! I always try to do my best, but I'm just not the guy anyone should go to when emulating someone else's style is called for-for better or worse, it always just end up looking like my stuff. I tried to do really cartoony styles a couple of times on Tom Strong and tried to darken my style for my Midnighter work, but I don't think anyone noticed a difference."
"MM: How was your working relationship with Alan? Did you communicate other than via his scripts? Did you get notes from him on your art?"
"CHRIS: I don't know all the details, so I apologize to anyone involved if I'm getting it all wrong, but Alan was very far ahead of me when I began drawing the book. I've heard that he was completely finished with his run, but I've also heard that he had more Supreme stories planned. Whatever the case, we didn't communicate at all while I was working on Supreme. I know that sounds bizarre to some people--how could I waste such an opportunity?
"Well, I'm a very shy person and very easily intimidated, especially when around people I admire, so I was afraid I'd just stammer and say stupid things. I just wanted Alan to appreciate the artwork instead of being put off by another awkward fan boy experience.
"As for notes, well, as I've stated above and many times before, one of my goals is to give the writer what they want. Alan's scripts were so detailed and what he wanted was so clearly defined that it made giving him what he wanted on the page very, very easy. He never asked for changes in the finished art on anything we ever did together, and I'm very proud of that. Anyway, we didn't talk while working on Supreme--Eric just sent me the scripts and I drew the pages and mailed them in."
"MM: It would appear that you both enjoyed working together well enough to then flow right into Tom Strong. Do you recall how the subject of this new project came up?"
"CHRIS: I enjoyed working on Supreme immensely, but when Rob's company folded, I just assumed that that was it. I felt unbelievably lucky to have gotten to work with Alan at all, let alone so early in my career. I just assumed I'd be moving on, looking for something at DC or Marvel. Then I came home a few days after it all ended to find a message on my answering machine from a very deep-voiced Englishman, something like: 'Hello, Chris, this is Alan Moore and I have an idea for a new series...'"
That series, of course, became Tom Strong. But I plan to talk about Tom Strong and ABC a lot more at a later date.
Here's a second interview with Sprouse by George Khoury from the Jack Kirby Collector # 30 (which I stole from Greg Williams' wonderful Supreme website, here):
The Strong and Supreme: Artist Chris Sprouse on his collaborations with Alan Moore
How did you become part of Supreme? Was #50 a try-out issue or did you pretty much know you were going to join the book?
Chris: I had been working on New Men for three issues with Extreme Studios, whatever the company was called back then—Awesome, Maximum, I don’t remember—and that was getting cancelled. They said, "We don’t know what else we've got for you, but in the meantime, do you want to do an issue of Supreme?" I thought, “Well, okay.” I was a little reluctant at first because Alan seemed to be contrasting old-fashioned comic art styles with the modern style, and I didn't really think my style looked like what was modem or popular at that time, which was Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. I did it not thinking I would do the regular series, because I thought I wouldn’t look right for the sort of stuff Alan was trying to get across. But it was so much fun and the strip was so good I was grateful they offered it to me again, this time as a regular assignment. To that, I said, "Yes!"
CBA: You came back with #53. Was there a reason for that interval? Did you just need to catch up?
Chris: I needed to catch up. Maybe #51 and 52 were already under way, so I’m not really sure how it happened. It's been so long. I don't remember if somebody else was originally supposed to draw it and dropped out, but I remember the situation was sort of, "Hurry up and get this done,” because it was already late by the time I started.
CBA: But those books were always late, weren't they?
Chris: Well, #53 was my first regular one, so I really didn't know.
CBA: How did Al Gordon end up the inker on Supreme? Was he inking New Men?
Chris: Yes, he was. He had inked me on my very first published job, which was the Secret Origins story I mentioned earlier. … So, when we were working on Secret Origins, Al and I struck up a friendship, so if I would have a job coming up, either I would ask for him or he'd beat me to it for he inker's assignment. He'd call up and keep asking me what I was up to. I requested Al Gordon and Karl Story for different jobs because those are the two guys I like to work with the most. I also enjoyed working with Terry Austin—very much so.
CBA: What was your reaction when you were reading the script for Supreme? Were you a big Alan Moore fan before that?
Chris: Yes. I was. I never thought I'd be working with Alan Moore. I felt lucky enough to have worked on Star Wars and Legion of Super-Heroes, but my God, Alan Moore? I just didn't think I was that serious an artist. You know, Alan's always doing these big name jobs with top-notch collaborators, so I didn't think I was up there yet. Frank Miller and guys like that, yeah, they work with Alan Moore, but me? And there I was doing it!
CBA: Were you happy with your work on Supreme?
Chris: Oh, yes. I think with just about everything I’ve done, with a few exceptions, it’s been the best that I could do at the time. I look back at it now and cringe, even if it seems like it’s not that long ago. But, at the time, yes, it was the best I could do. To look at the work now is sort of painful.
CBA: What exactly happened in Supreme #56?
Chris: I don’t know the full story, but I heard stuff through the grapevine.
CBA: When it happened, were you still drawing the series?
Chris: Yes, I had turned in the final page of #57, which became Supreme: The Return #1. We had pretty much just gotten through #57 and Rob Liefeld called up and said something like, “We’re going out of business” basically. They were still putting out books after that, so I always wondered what the heck happened. Nobody ever told us. A year later, what was Supreme #57 finally got published as issue #1 of Supreme: The Return. I still don’t know the full story. It’s been published, we got the art back, so as far as I’m concerned, that’s that. It’s done. It would have been nice to do more Supreme stories.
CBA: Did you get as far as #58?
Chris: Yes. I had gotten the script, which featured a whole legion of alternate Darius Dax characters, but Jim Starlin actually ended up drawing the issue, though I’d actually started to design the characters for that, and I think that’s what I was working on when Rob called and said it was over. I have no pages of actual finished work.
CBA: What happened after Supreme ended? Did Alan contact you again? Did you two talk about doing something else together?
Chris: I went a week without doing anything, if even that long. I hadn’t talked to Alan in that whole time because I thought he was actually done with Awesome. I think he’d pretty much finished what he was doing with them anyway. I didn’t know if he’d found something else or what, but I hadn’t talked with him the entire time. So I called him up after I’d finished #57 just to tell him that it had been a lot of fun to work with him and that I really enjoyed it—I was just calling to be a fanboy, honestly—and Alan just said he had enjoyed it too, and had just come up with some characters he thought I might be good for, one character in particular. All he had at the moment were names, and one was Tom Strong.
One more small interview from The Ivory Informer fanzine:
Zine Supreme: When you were approached to start pencilling Supreme, what was your idea on how you wanted to draw the character? In other words what did you hope to bring to the character.
Chris Sprouse: Actually, I didn't want to draw Supreme regularly at all -- I was avidly following Alan's run on the book, and I didn't feel I was the right artist for the job. It seemed to me that in his scripts Alan was commenting on the difference between the comics that inspired him as a kid and the current state of comics. The "Image"-style art used in the first eight(?) issues of Alan's Supreme was perfect for setting up this contrast. I was originally only hired to draw issue #50, the romance issue, and even if my style didn't fit the "Image" mold, I couldn't pass up working on an Alan Moore story...But after I read the script, I wanted to be the regular penciller. Now, to answer your question, on that issue my goal was to make Supreme (Ethan) seem real. I wanted to make the reader feel for the poor guy who had no real life, even though he could knock planets around. And that's pretty much how I tried to portray Supreme through the rest of my time on the book -- incredibly self-assured and powerful as Supreme, but awkward and out of place as Ethan Crane. Since I've never worked on Superman, this stuff was all new to me!
ZS: What are some of your fondest moments on your Supreme run?
CS: My fondest memories...Reading Alan's scripts, especially #50 and #53 -- also, reading Supreme #53 out loud (twice) to my nephew over Thanksgiving. It's nice to know comics still appeal to young kids.
ZS: Who was your favorite character to draw, and who was your least favorite?
CS: Supreme was my favorite character to draw; Achilles from the League of Infinity was my least favorite--never could make his costume look right...
ZS: What do you think of Alex Ross' redesign of Supreme?
CS: I love Alex's work, and I especially like his new Suprema! (On a side note-- I never got Alan's original notes on the characters, excerpted in that Handbook that just came out, so I never knew she was supposed to have "the body of Madonna." I was just drawing her as a sixteen-year-old super hero.)
In the Modern Masters book, in addition to the interviews, Chris gave the authors access to a lot of published and unpublished artwork, including commissions he had done. One such commission, of the family Supreme, caught my eye. Even though it was still only in pencils, there's so much going on that it felt like a quintessential Supreme piece. You can see the page below.
I loved it so much, I had it inked:
And colored:
