Ricardo Curtis is feeling pretty incredible these days. He's a storyboard artist for The Incredibles movie which was #1 at the box office in its first week of release. He's also the artist on The Incredibles comic, which promptly sold out at comic stores all over the country. In the midst of riding high on the success of everyoneÂ’s favorite new superhero family, Ricardo was kind enough to say a few words on the creative process of both endeavors as well as the similarities and differences of each.

-Tell us a bit about how you came to be a storyboard artist.

I had been working in feature films for a number of years as an animator when Brad Bird asked me to come work on his new picture called The Incredibles at Pixar. I said "Hey Brad, isn't Pixar a CG studio? You selling out on 2D?" Of course I was just kidding. If Brad had asked me to go prairie oyster hunting, I'd be there with fork and a smile. When I got to Pixar, The Incredibles had just barely started so there wasn't any animation to do so I did a short stint on Monster's Inc. then moved into storyboards. I boarded on The Incredibles for about a year and a half then I moved back to Toronto to start my own studio.

-What are the important elements to being a good storyboard artist?

It depends on what you are storyboarding but for feature films you must be able to see the action in your head before you put it down on paper. After that a good sense of how to string shots together so that content is both exciting and clear is necessary. There is a myriad of rules to filmmaking that a storyboard artist must observe. I don't claim to know them all but the ones that I do know I try to use to their fullest. It is also very important to watch lots of films of all kinds. This will broaden your scope for film and allow you to learn from the masters.

-What was it like working with the Pixar team? Did you get to interact much with director Brad Bird?

I have to admit that I had a hard time adjusting to the Pixar environment at first because I was a little jaded because of my experience at some of the other studios. You have to understand that animation studios are not like the laughs and smiles that you see on the making-of dvds. That is except for Pixar. Pixar is a utopia for animation.

Brad likes to have a lot of control in the early stages of the film so a story artist would have contact with him almost every day. We were a small crew and most of us had already worked for Brad on The Iron Giant so we were friends prior to Pixar.

- Is this your first comic work?

This is my first published work in comics. I have been drawing comics as far back as I can remember. I had completed a number of books on my own just for fun.

-How does storytelling in comics differ from storytelling in the storyboard format?

The sequential nature of both is the obvious similarity but the dynamics of trying to get the most impact out of every panel also rings true for both.

Three main differences. The first is panel size. When storyboarding everything must fall within the proportions of the film frame. There is no such limit in comics. The second is staging. There are many rules that a storyboard artist has to follow to not confuse the audience like breaking of the axis and character size within the frame. In comic books, all these rules are generally ignored but yet the reader doesn't get confused. I personally believe that this is because in comic books most of the action happens in the readers imaginations and the pages only lead the story. Thirdly, the amount of information that can be conveyed in every comic panel is far greater than in any storyboard panel. An artist can have ten heroes fighting individual battles with conversations and subtext using thought bubbles all in the same comic book panel. A similar feat in storyboards would be impossible. Though comic books are visual they are still literature so one can read about a character's thought and feeling. In storyboarding you have to show everything.

-What are the challenges in doing an adaptation of an existing work?

I find that you just want to show everybody everything all the time. Unfortunately you can only show little snips of the story because of time constraints. I am also always fighting with my drawing style so that it represents faithfully the movie.

-Are there any comic artists whose work you admire?

I like any artist who understands the classical elements of art and how they relate to comics. I'm not a fan of big flashy splash pages. I admire artists like Chris Sprouse, Michael Lark, Mike Mignola, Mike Zeck, Barry Windsor-Smith and Frank Miller. I am also a huge fan of European artist like Claire Wendling, Yoann, Benoit Springer and Juanjo Guarnido.

-Any advice for aspiring storyboard artists out there?

Watch lots and lots of films. Learn how to draw effortlessly and fast. Understand how film works. Learn how to take rejection.

-What are you thoughts on the final film, were you pleased with the results and its success?

I'm blowing my own horn here but I knew The Incredibles was going to be great film before I even touched the first storyboard.