Peter Snejbjerg, travelling among the stars

In a studio in Copenhagenīs Nørrebro district lies the best known comics studio in Denmark and within itīs walls many great comics have been made though none as well known as that Peter Snejbjerg was working on when I visited him recently which is STARMAN, one of DCīs best books in the DC universe.

Before this Peter was best known for his work on various VERTIGO titles but today he plies his trade in the superhero genre and after some initial difficulties he has hit his stride as STARMAN returns to his beloved Opal City and finds a city on fire.

When did the comic bug get you?

When I was about six years old I guess, reading TIN TIN. That was my big thing then... Later, after having gone to an art school I tried my luck with a couple of albums for the Danish market which let to work from the Swedish SEMIC PUBLISHING drawing all kinds of stuff. When Henning Kure became the editor of their TARZAN project, an old dream of his, he offered me and Teddy Kristiansen - we weīre both his "discoveries" - a job on the "LOVE, LIES AND THE LOST CITY" miniseries which he wrote himself. This was co-published in the US by MALIBU, which led to the pair of us going to San Diego in 1992 I believe, and so on...

How was it working with Teddy Kristiansen?

I found it very exciting to watch Teddy ink my pencils when we made the tarzan album we tried different things. He got so much more out of my pencils in a simpler and easier way where I on the other hand worked hard on them but they were never really good, it was always a bit la-la. I think something happened at this point. I learned that inking...what people usually think of... as to the difference between pencilling and inking is that the penciller is the important one and the inker is a flunky - but that isnīt true, in reality it is the inker who is the artist, it is the inker who completes the picture. For me when I am the penciller I am doing a blueprint and deciding what goes where as opposed to going into details, and it has been difficult for me to come to terms with being the penciller, I would rather be the inker. When I work, the pencilling is just something that needs to be done so I can get on with the real work which is the inking.

At the time I was working with Teddy there was a Croatian artist, Igor Kordey, he was also doing some work on TARZAN which is now being published at DARK HORSE, real good artist, and he was the first real professional artist I saw "live" at work, a real hardcore artist. He was one of the first where I saw this. He did three pencilled pages a day and then took 2 days to ink those three pages and that was a pace he held while working. And this helped me realize that pencils are only important if they contribute to the art, it is unnecessary to pencil things you can just as easily do while inking. But once you have started down that path it is hard to go back to the really nice pencils I did before.

Is that what happened with Keith Champagne and yourself, you just didnīt mesh?

In a way, another problem you can often come across with artists is that you see their pencils and they look really good and then you see their own inks and the whole thing is ruined. That is because if you spend your time making a really good pencil drawing then you have a good pencil drawing, and what you get when you ink it is a tracing of a good pencil drawing, which is not necessarily a good ink drawing. If you on the other hand do a rough pencil drawing and ink it you get a good ink drawing, you donīt just ink a good pencil drawing but you actually do a good ink drawing. There are things you can do with a brush that you canīt do with a pencil. It is also difficult to spot the blacks. I find it very difficult to have a black AREA that only has a contour and then X marks the spot. How can you know what it will look like before it is actually done, it is so very difficult and it is the details that decide wether it works or not,if it is flat or three-dimensional. The most important part of the work is the final stage of the drawing, the minor things you remove from the drawing. I spend a lot of time doing that, I do a lot of things in the inking and then I go over it again and remove what isnīt needed. That is one of the things I missed when I was pencilling for how was I to see what should be taken out? I missed seeing the inked piece and being able to tweak it just that little bit it might need. It was very frustrating, very frustrating. That was maybe part of what you said about Keith and I not meshing well, but the other part of the problem was that it was frustrating for me. I kept pencilling the same over and over again and it didnīt become better, it became boring.

Many have quit reading STARMAN since you took over as artist, has that affected you in any way?

I guess itīs asking for trouble taking over from an artist with such a distinctive style as Tony Harris. He defined the very particular look for the book, and I think a lot of people would have resented a change in that, no matter who came next. Suppose you could call it the evil step artist syndrome. Not that I wouldnīt admit we had a lot of problems in the beginning. As for affecting me... I can only keep doing my work the best I know how. Sure Iīd love to be loved by everyone but hey... You stick your neck out, you get your ass kicked so to speak.

For a time you did BOOKS OF MAGIC, how did that come around?

Same as everything else, with a phonecall one evening. Another very enjoyable job.

Your first international job was the recently republished LORDS OF MISRULE, looking back on that first project is there anything you would have done differently?

Not really, besides correcting a couple of awkward drawings... That was a lof of fun doing.

In the Cap du Nord exhibition, which travelled the Nordic countries, I saw part of a private project you have been working on. How is that coming along?

It was published last year by BOGFABRIKKEN.

So it is out?

Yes, and the latest news on that is that an english translation has been made by John Thomlinson who helped me translate. So I am currently trying to find a publisher. There is a preview you can have a look at.

So you did everything on the book?

Yes, except for the lettering. I swore I would never do lettering.

How long has it taken?

It has been going on for years. I think I wrote it 5-6 years ago and the art has been done in between projects. The problem hasnīt been the art. It has been that without an editor two things happen. First off nothing. The other is that I was always changing it, not the story but rather the art, changing the location or the background and things like that.

That seems to be a common problem for writer/artists.

I also think itīs a problem, I would like to do another album for the Danish market or even the American market and possibly take a co-writer with me on that which would help considerably to tighten things up. Itīs not because I am not satisfied though and the funny thing is that in MARERIDT (the Danish title) I often sat and worked my ass off and then with my other work for the American market where I am working on a deadline, having to do a page a day instead of having 6 years to do 45 pages, I often find the latter work more satisfying. I find that very funny. Itīs very good with the European albums where loads of time is spent on an album but the advantage of the American comics is that there is a different kind of energy to it.

Take Frank Miller, if here were to do it in the European style it would be so dead. SIN CITY is meant to be fast moving where you can see the page is done in the here and now, it is so energetic. The European series often have such a detailed background. Take a Frank Miller background from SIN CITY, totally black with maybe a few bottles to indicate a bar and LIEUTENANT BLUEBERRY where you can see Blueberry walking through the swinging doors into the bar by the reflection in the glasses of the bartender and the bandits in the background. It means more when you read it over and over but in the initial reading I think it is not as important.

So you think the European comics are missing some of the American energy and vice versa?

There are many good European comics and many good American comics and of course many crappy American comics. The American format of serialization has a charm which sometimes is missing in the albums. Usually an album is never a serialized peace unless itīs one of the those epics. They are usually single stories and that is something very different. There are things you can do with serials like the last issue issue of PREACHER, the last one I read at any rate, where Custer opens the door and there is Cassidy. Thatīs something you canīt do with an album. BANG! If you do it with an album you have to wait a year before finding out what happens. There are things in American comics that could be better and 22 pages can be a lot, and there are many artists who would be better if they could work a bit slower. They are haunted by "the show must go on", and so I wish that the market were more open for bi-monthlies. Today you have f.ex. JACK B. QUICK drawn by Kevin Nowlan. I canīt imagine him being able to do a monthly of 22 pages, I think it is impossible for him. I think he is a brilliant artist and it would be really sad if he were never to be publishedjust because his stuff cannot be fitted into the 22 pages a month format. I donīt know where the problem lies with other formats but a bi-monthly arriving on time is better than a monthly that doesnīt.

Speaking of formats, what you think of the idea of original graphic novels?

I think itīs logical, again we are talking about the album format. I just think it should be published in some sort of serial first, there is a charm to it. Like CEREBUS in those phonebook size books you would have to wait for years for each new book. I think it is good for the industry that people can get these works long after they are done, instead of having to search for something that went out of print a few months after it is published. I think people would miss the serials if they were completely replaced by graphic novels/albums. I myself miss the old HEAVY METAL when they had a lot of series within, that was one of the things that got me into comics, they had maybe 10 different stories you could follow. I miss those anthology magazines.

The Danes are among the pioneers of comics libraries with Det Kulørte Bibliotek, what do you think of it?

I think libraries have never hurt anyone, there is a debate going on all the time between the publishers and the artists here and the libraryboards. Here in Denmark you get money for having your work in the library, I donīt know how it is elsewhere. Many have a good deal of their income from the libraries. It could be there would be a better sales turnover if there werenīt any libraries but then again there might be more used comics for sale. One of the debates is why start a library for something that might become fully electronic in ten years which I donīt believe comics will be but if you want to start a library it would be best to have one either for European comics or for TPBīs as single issues would just get worn out too fast. In general when I was an avid reader I borrowed a lot from the library, today I donīt buy as much but then again I donīt borrow as much either so in my opinion there is nothing to be afraid of.

What about this money you receive, how does that work?

The library fee here works from a classification system and for each page of each copy depending on category you get certain points. These are counted together and then this is calculated from the grant from the culture ministry, an x value for each point and then you get a check in the mail. There is a minimum though of so and so much.

One of the arguments against libraries is an example of how things are in Korea where they have reading stores where you pay and read but the people involved in the books get nothing.

That is of course wrong and unethical in my opinion. How you do it though can vary. The library fee here is now called a culture grant but it is only Danes who get this money and so when asking about the other people who have works in the library, which is why it is now called a culture grant for Danish writers and artists. The libraries donīt base what they buy on demand but rather on what they think will be under demand so a project can stand and fall with the libraries sometimes. I donīt think there is a reason to be afraid of libraries. There is a connection between what people buy of comics and what they borrow at the library, if you buy a lot then you also borrow a lot. It isnīt a question of money. The same goes for people who rent a lot of video films, those same people most likely also go to the movies quite frequently.

What about censorship, have you encountered it often?

I can think of only...2 instances and both, weirdly enough, are because of the PREACHER SPECIAL: ONE MANīS WAR. There was this particular image of someone being taken from behind which DC would rather be kept of panel although we werenīt really showing anything. Teddy and Steve Seagle encountered something similar in HOUSE OF SECRETS around that time I think. Once I did a pair of Mickey Mouse images on some clothing, who someone then erased in the production department.

[Laughter]

Thatīs why Mickey Mouse no longer makes appearances in my comics instead I have a mole, a cross between Donald and Uncle Scrooge. I donīt know if DINSNEY owns TIME-WARNER or the other way around but I think it has something to do with a gentlemanīs agreement, you donīt mess with each others trademarks. In STARMAN once, I was to draw a telephone and I thought of doing a Mickey Mouse phone but then I thought of this and didnīt do it. If however I were to do something of my own however I would include it, I mean you can photograph a Mickey Mouse telephone because that is an item and that means you can also draw it. Itīs not a legal problem, it is as I said probably just a policy at DC.

What is your stand on then?

I think itīs generally stupid but still you have to be practical and a bit realistic. Itīs funny for if you were to read the manuscript to that PREACHER there [points to a copy of ONE MANīS WAR] you can see that Ennis knows what itīs all about, it is more fun to try and sabotage the censorship than to insist that in this scene we are to see Starr running around with no pants on. It is much more fun to do something that implies that he doesnīt have pants on. At VERTIGO they are very much afraid of the visual, they donīt mind the stories but they just donīt want the visuals. There are things when you read James [Robinsonīs] script for STARMAN where he implies things and it is hard for you to believe he hasnīt thought it through. So James has thought this through and so if people get the joke they get the joke but itīs not something he throws in their face for fun, if they notice it itīs a lot of fun.

I think the most irritating thing about censorship is if itīs not always the same. If we were to export to Saudi Arabia f.x. we couldnīt show bare breasts, fine so we canīt show bare breasts. But if you get some uncertain signals about what you can and canīt do you start censoring yourself and that is the worst thing that can happen to you

If you didnīt have any censorship that is often because you donīt have an editor of any kind and that sorta thing isnīt always better for it often results in people losing their control of things, there is a reason for the editor. One thing for me that is hard to keep control of is DC continuity. How old is Batman? How many flashbacks can he have? Is this before or after Crisis? That is where I rely on the editor. The old DC universe was a chaotic place, fun but chaotic all the same.

The question of Batmanīs age is a good question seeing as he has gone through quite a few sidekicks yet himself stays the same.

That reminds me of the Pat Mills and Kevin OīNeil story in MARSHALL LAW where they had this Batman type of character who transplanted the organs of his young sidekicks into himself and so kept himself alive.

What are you reading these days?

I get a comp box so...

I love the new Alan Moore books I find them among the funniest books in many years. My favorite has to be TOM STRONG, a real flagship title. Also Warren Ellis, I donīt know how the artists he has keep up. Ellisī things from WILDSTORM is the ultimate superhero series, shitloads of people on each page, a new city blown to pieces in each issue and plots that are bigger than life and bigger than bigger than life. That is how a superhero book should be done. Or like ASTRO CITY. HELLBOY I think is brilliant, it is hysterically funny and something that can only be done in comics. I am looking forward to seeing Igorīs RIVERS OF BLOOD TARZAN book. Another is JERRY FINN. Iīm a very sporadic reader so about every three months I run down to the store and buy what I donīt have and then there is the comp list, I donīt go on a weekly basis. I was sad to see the new SPIRIT series dying, I think that was a great initiative and I certainly wouldnīt have minded doing one of those stories.

How about new writers?

I am not really orientated in that, I donīt buy 7-8 new comics just because they are new. I do get the comp box so but sometimes I donīt even know if they are new or not.

[Laughter]

There is also a limit on how much I manage to read. I was in fact very surprised when I got on the comp list and there are a lot of good writers and artists. As for MARVEL I am not on their list so I donīt know whatīs going on there.

There isnīt so much left of STARMAN, any thoughts on what you might do after that?

Take a long vacation.

[Laughter]

I am getting a feel for things but as of now there are no projects. I am not quite sure how much is left, I donīt think even James knows. There is this grand finale, I think one more Times Past and then maybe a minor storyline. There is always the possiblity of doing more work with James and I would like to do a new album. There are however no definite plans at the moment, Iīm not the kind of person who can plan years in advance. Like STARMAN, I knew it was gonna end which is one of the reasons I took the job.

So you prefer stories that end over the ever continuing?

There are things that happen when you come into a series that has been going on for a while. It is first now that we are back in Opal, after the sci-fi space story which I started on. I love doing STARMAN but if I didnīt know it would end I think I might give up before the end, like running a marathon. I am fixated on deadlines and think they are very important and at the end of the month I can feel it breathing down my neck. If James were to phone me saying he had changed his mind and that we would be continuing till issue 140 I donīt think I would run away screaming but I would certainly stare up at the ceiling as I lay in bed that night.

Arni Gunnarsson is co-interviews editor of PopImage.

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