Grady Klein Interview

The Comics Reporter had a long interview with Grady Klein, the newcomer in First Second’s new line.

SPURGEON: Something I think will leap out at many people when reading your book is the layered backgrounds, a look that people might be more familiar with in animation. How did you develop that look?

KLEIN: One thing that was explicit is I wanted to use black thoughtfully. I wanted it basically to be a foreground element. The characters and any items that are in the story and relevant are done in black, while everything else is in color layers.

SPURGEON: That puts a lot of pressure on the way you’re staging the “actors.”

KLEIN: Yeah. In my opinion, they’re character-driven stories. The foreground story is of vital, vital importance. The gestures of each character in every panel, the thought of each character in every panel, that’s where the magic happens in comics. That’s definitely what I’ve strived to achieve. Once I had decided that, I keep an eye towards woodcut kind of artwork — which I’d like to study more, and I’m trying to develop my work — ways to make the shapes work and suggest detail that complement all of the foreground elements and characters and whatnot, but also look appealing and beautiful. And that I can do in a day so I can stay on schedule. [laughs]

The more I hear about it, the more I am looking forward to this book. I love the idea of a transposition of the bande dessinee album series into the American comics milieu.

Tags: colorscheme, composition

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