Sandy McMurray: You drew the first appearance of Ghost back in the summer of 1993. Do you feel like this is your character?
Adam Hughes: I don't feel like I own her, but I feel like, you know, we're engaged at least. Chris Warner designed the character visually -- as he did, I think, virtually all the Dark Horse heroes -- and Chris has a very definitive style. Here at the studio we like to joke that Chris Warner draws "the manliest men in comics." He uses real human testosterone in his ink brush! When it comes to women, that's cool for characters like Barb Wire, but... I looked at his design for Ghost, and I didn't change it; I reinterpreted it. I made it a little more art nouveau, a little more feminine. I thought the character didn't need to be very brash, you know, the way he had designed her. He draws his women the way he draws his men: very thick, very powerful.
SM: Tell me what you like best about the character of Ghost.
AH: Ghost is a vast, untapped, platinum mine, and I think that there's room for a lot of good playing around. A lot of good comics can be made around this character. Ghost has given me a chance to draw a lot of the things I haven't had an opportunity for up until now.
SM: When you draw the Ghost series, you will be drawing the murky city of Arcadia. When I think of your art style, it seems more suited to Golden City than to Arcadia.
AH: I would be the first person to admit that my style would be perfectly suited for that kind of thing, so that's why I'm making an active attempt to try something else. That's me playing against my reputation. Hopefully, I'm not changing my style any; I'm just attacking the subject matter in the way it needs to be attacked.
SM: Do you think you've been typecast as a "babe" artist?
AH: Sure. That's all people ask me to draw. It doesn't bother me because, when I can, I try to balance the scales a little bit. When you draw "good girl" art, the majority of people who come up to you at conventions are guys. I am going to make an active attempt to draw the sexiest men in comics in an attempt to get more women to stop by my table and crowd around it and make me look cool!
SM: Let's talk about the new Ghost series. What is Ghost about?
AH: The story so far: "Our heroine is the ghost of Elisa Cameron, an investigative journalist who was whacked by the mob because she discovered something she shouldn't ought to know." Basically Ghost is trying to figure out why she was killed and who did it, and when she finds out, she's gonna put a hole in them big enough to throw a cat through. Fortunately, Ghost has only had three appearances so far, which will be available in a trade paperback the week before Ghost #1 arrives. The fans are lucky in that there's not a heck of a lot of backstory. Since Ghost is a bit of a quest for identity and revenge -- and the story is being told from the point of view of Ghost, who doesn't know the answers to why or who or how -- there is not a lot I can tell you. I can't tell you the secrets or the big payoff, because that's part of the whole drama of the book.
SM: How much of the plot of Ghost has been worked out so far?
AH: We had a plotting session a couple of months ago, and we roughed out up to issue #15! The first half of that run is pretty concrete as to where we're going, and the second half is more of a rough idea of what's going to be in each issue. We know what will be resolved in each issue. The job will be to decide how to get there. When we get there it's not going to seem like "Twin Peaks," like "They're makin' this up as they go along." I want people to look at the ultimate issue of Ghost, the issue where the questions are answered, and I want them to go, "Wow! That's what that meant back in issue #2!" and "Oh man! That funny look on her face back in issue #7... that meant something!" I really like it when a story falls together like that, 'cause people go back and they re-read it over and over again. People start to notice things; they start to notice the clues that have been dropped. To me, the best example of that ever in comics has to be Watchmen. Every time you re-read Watchmen you discover some other little nuance that means something. I remember the thirtieth time I read Watchmen I realized that The Comedian killed JFK. I would love to accomplish one-tenth of the scale of that.
SM: Have you made a specific commitment of time to the Ghost series?
AH: I'm sticking with this book until we resolve the first 15-issue storyline, and I'm hoping that I'll have such a great time doing it that I'll want to stick around for another whole story. I have what Brian Stelfreeze calls "a Sesame Street attention span." I can remain interested in something about as long as the common housefly. Inspiration really fuels my daily work, and I've really gotta be into what I'm doing. It's either that or fear of the gun that makes me get it done, and I want to work on a project that will basically provide me with years of inspiration.
SM: You worked with the writer, Eric Luke, to come up with the story so far?
AH: Eric and I have bounced a lot of ideas off each other. We had a lot of different ideas and we were able to mix them all together. There were times when he said, "I want to do this" and I said, "Hey, I want to do this... and this is how we could make them work together and make a better story together!" It was really neat because there was a lot of serendipitous plotting; a lot of ideas that just sort of happened. I think that everybody working on Ghost is happy with everybody else, and is comfortable enough with them to compromise. I feel like I'm part of the team, and I can contribute on a creative level and not just draw Ghost and her 38s.
SM: Are you pleased to be working with Mark Farmer? Is he a good inker for you?
AH: Mark is a god! Mark is amazing. I am so happy that he was willing to work on Ghost, that I would pay him out of my own pocket to stay on the book.
SM: Don't tell Dark Horse.
AH: I've been really lucky that I've had a lot of great inkers work on me, but Mark Farmer... The two or three times we've worked together he has done some amazing things with my pencils.
SM: The Ghost team includes Matt Haley and Tom Simmons, who will draw every fourth issue to help you stay on schedule. How is that going to work?
AH: Every three issues I do will be a story arc that is resolved in three issues, then there is the Matt Haley "breather" issue for me. I want them to explore the subplots in Matt's fill-in issues, the ones that really don't need to be explored in the three issues that I'm doing, but they need to be addressed concisely in one issue. I'm happy to be working with Matt, and we'll see what we can pull off. Hey man, if you've gotta have a pinch hitter, Matt's the guy to do it. He's doing some really cool stuff.
SM: If you could pick a few guest stars for Ghost, what other Dark Horse heroes would you like to draw?
AH: Barb Wire, because she's got bigger guns than Ghost; X, of course, because he's the anti-hero that is Ghost's major foil. We've got King Tiger in issues #2 and #3 and I'm very happy for him to be there. I don't want any of the steroid and spandex set muscling their way into Arcadia unless we have to have them there. I love superheroes -- I love them when they're done well -- but when I think of superheroes I think of people in tights saving the world and moving the great pyramids of Egypt out of the way in case there's a flood and that kind of stuff. I don't want any of that to happen in Ghost. I don't consider Ghost to be a superhero comic. I consider it to be more of a supernatural crime comic.
SM: It's more in the dead-female-journalists-with-guns genre.
AH: I think it's a genre that hasn't been tapped.
SM: What other projects are you working on?
AH: I'm not working on anything but Ghost. I want to totally clear my dance card of stuff. As much as I love working for every company in the world at the same time, for the sake of getting this book done and remaining sane I'm going to stick to one editor a month yelling at me, and that's it.