One of the first things everyone at Dark Horse learned upon working with Daniel is that he keeps himself extremely busy. When he's not finishing one comic-book project, he's drawing another, flying to Los Angeles to meet with movie-type people, and developing plans for his next twenty or so comic-book series. Daniel is not only ambitious, he's also responsible for creating some of the most dynamic and popular comics on the market today. Dark Horse spokesgirl Ivana Fanboy was able to track down Daniel for a few minutes to speak with him about Silke, his myriad other comics projects, and the ever-broadening world that is Tony Daniel's future. Read on to see what makes this young superstar tick:
Ivana Fanboy: What inspired you to move from Image to Dark Horse?
Tony Daniel: Part of it was the fact that I outgrew Image Central. When I started to expand from The Tenth (with titles such as Adrenalynn and F5), I really needed to be part of a studio as opposed to being on my own at Image Central. I want to put out another book while I'm working on Silke, like The Tenth for instance next spring, and that would've been very hard to do on my own.
IF: Your first project for Dark Horse is called Silke...what's the series about?
TD: Silke is about man's tampering with nature for the advancement of humankind. In Silke, we see what happens when we have too much information. It's our nature to want to play God, and very bad things can happen. The series is named after the lead character, Sandra Silke, who discovers not only that her genes have been re-coded, but that the people behind it have a secret plot to assassinate the President of the United States.
IF: So there's intrigue and murder right off the bat. How do you see Silke in comparison to your other work, like The Tenth or Adrenalynn? Is it riskier? More serious?
TD: Silke will be a lot more of everything. I try to implement things or techniques I've discovered on my other projects. I think Silke will have more mood, more action, and more horrific craziness than even The Tenth had. It's based a little more in the real world, so I can't go too crazy, but I plan to take the art to another level.
IF: What I've seen so far looks great. Have you made plans to do more with Dark Horse after Silke launches?
TD: For now the new Tenth series entitled The Tenth: Resurrected should debut in April with Dutch artist Romano, who kicks serious butt. After that, possibly a new Adrenalynn series.
IF: I want to talk more about Adrenalynn in a minute. But first, what's with you and the foxy lady heroines? Are they just fun to draw, or do you also have a good time creating stories based on strong female characters?
TD: Both. I love to draw women, but I like to portray them as strong-natured women. I never feel that I've been exploitative in the past; I just think it makes the stories more intense when you have a female character who kicks butt and more than takes care of herself. That's cool!
IF: I couldn't agree more! You've been getting a lot of attention lately from non-comics sources, like Hollywood...do you have any cool news you'd like to share? I thought I heard something about an Adrenalynn movie...
TD: Other than selling Adrenalynn to Joel Silver and Warner Brothers (with Christina Ricci to play the lead), there's no new news. F5 is currently being shopped around Hollywood right now for the motion picture rights. My agent, Marc Finkel, at ICM, is doing a tremendous job. I'm working on the Silke screenplay, which should be ready to be seen in Hollywood by January or February. I have a few other little things up my sleeve, but I prefer to talk about things when they're already done.
IF: You seem like a natural fit in the world of TV and film... Why did you choose comics as a career path? What is it that you like about the medium?
TD: I've always wanted to share my stories. It was more than just drawing for me. I wanted people to experience my art and not just see it.
IF: I'm betting you take inspiration from a variety of sources outside of comics... Are there any favorite film directors or movies that you turn to for inspiration? What about other comics or comics creators?
TD: Well, as a youngster, I loved old monster movies. Even though I love to draw and write action and horror stories, those are not the types of movies I like to watch. I think a good action movie is hard to come by. I prefer more serious movies that have a lot of substance. I think John Woo is great --a real master. I don't know if I'm inspired anymore by comics. I prefer to look to the European market for inspiration. At least I get to see a wide variety of styles of art there. Is that pretentious?
IF: I don't think so -- just open-minded. What do you think you'd be doing if you weren't drawing comics right now?
TD: I'd be doing something with film or TV, or at least trying to break into that field. Something creative definitely.
Don't miss the exciting debut of Tony Daniel's Silke, coming this January from Dark Horse. And stay tuned to the Dark Horse website for additional announcements about Daniel's upcoming projects.