An interview with Steve Rude: «Nexus is a combination of all the things I love»

This year we went to Comic Con Chile 2016 to know the event and how affects the national market. Among the international guests was Steve Rude, a true legend of the 9th art . With plenty of titles under his arm, like Nexus with Mike Baron, World's Finnest with Dave Gibbons, and the one-shot of The Incredible Hulk vs. Superman and X-Men: Children of the Atom among others. And he has many awards including the Best Artist category at the Kirby awards in 1986, Eisner awards in 1988 and Harvey awards in 1991 .

We went to Comic Con Chile to meet him, talk to him and he was kind enough to give us some time for an interview.

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El Multiverso 52: Who has been your biggest inspiration or influence on your art?

Steve Rude: That would be Jack Kirby, american artist Jack Kirby.

MV52: How was your experience working in Nexus?

SR: Nexus it's a combination of all the things that I love. Since I read comics for the first time at an early age until Nexus was created it. When it came time to create a character for myself i just though of everything that i like and it came together as Nexus.

MV52: The series won a many of awards, as a independent book, how was it like to work with Mike Baron in Nexus?

SR: I consider Mike Baron the best writer I've ever worked with, my true partner and he's a great man to me. We get together and talk every now and then and we meet at conventions, we catch up, and we are still great friends. In fact we are working in Nexus, the news comic strip and it's still Mike Baron and Steve Rude. He's a good partiner.

MV52: Did DC/Marvel approatched to yo to buy the characters in Nexus or the series in general? or to include them in any mainstream series?

SR: They have never done that, but I've tried to sneek in Galatus and Silver Surfer into Nexus a lot, in fact, we are doing it right know [laughs]

MV52: Nexus was close to get an animated adaptation, with designs close to Hanna Barbera, how did you approached the idea?

SR: The idea I had was, if we were to make a cartoon program Nexus, resembling the things I remember, that is, Hanna Barbera cartoon. When I did a pilot for 2 minutes, you can see on Youtube, you will see that looks remarkably cartoons Space Ghost or Jonny Quest. But that was the easy part. So far I have not found a person of a television station to tell me si or give me the money for an extensive animated series . But I think I will meet that person someday. I just hope it's not when I have 90 years old.

MV52: Is that the reason why the project is, so to speak, in pause? Are you waiting for the right person who is willing to give an opportunity to the project?

SR: Yes, that's exactly how I feel about the project. Just wait a turn and keep your name out there and let people know you have that project. a certain amount of advertising and publicity is needed, have public relations work and also need friends talking about your work to people who might be able to say yes to your project someday. So you definitely need to get your name out there all the time.

MV52: You worked with Gibbons in World's Finest. How was the experience working with Superman and Batman, as light and darkness? How did you conceive the idea of opposites working in the same line of justice?

SR: Oh, that's a good way to put it! That is exactly what the series was about. In everything we did from the beginning it was to exploit the differences between someone who likes to live in the dark, and someone who likes to be in the light. It was he [Gibbons] who should write a story about that, but also up to me to draw the story about it and we had a pleasant time together.

World's Finest #001, Dave Gibbons, Steve Rude,1990

MV52: That's great. You started a Kickstarter recently for the Nexus newspaper comic strip. How is it running? It's growing? Are you getting financial help you needed?

SR: We need more subscribers to keep the project going. We only have 5 people working in our team, but they all need to receive payment for their work. The only person who is not getting paid, because I'm the captain of the ship, is Steve Rude. But it's okay, it's my dream, and I who have to make sacrifices for the dream. All the money we can get to support the project is muy bien.

MV52: This comic strip is considered as a limited series?

SR: No, the comic doesn't have a related terminology, what it is, is like a comic strip you can get in the mail every sunday as was done in the US. Every Sunday newspapers came by mail and you could read all the comic strips of newspapers. And this will last 72-74 numbers that will come in the mail when you subscribe.

MV52: You created a character for Dark Horse Comics called The Moth, which is inspired by the character of Jim Mooney of the same name, can you tell me a little about that?

SR: The first thing you can say about The Moth is that when I created it, I wanted to have a justification for someone to wear a suit. Because normal people do not wear suits. So I thought. "If he's in the circus, that's part of his costume, part of his act." So there was more or less where it all began and besides, there are no superheroes who live in the circus, and I like to bring back the old ideas like the circus. So there was the idea and the origin of The Moth. And it was supposed to be a fun but also a bit more serious script. So, when we are done with Nexus in newspaper format, we'll start with The Moth and make many adventures of The Moth.

MV52: Great! On the Internet we used to find many of videos of you as tutorials on "how to draw", but there aren't anymore. Are you interested in having more tutorials?

SR: Ah! Sí. Many times people carry cameras and video cameras and recordedme drawing or painting me and I know there are several [videos] circulating, some where I'm drawing my younger daughter, when she was a small child and others where it is older. And now that is old she has increasingly less desire to paint with Dad. Tired of being with dad, when she grows ... you know how it is. She's 13 years old now and wants nothing to do with Dad.

MV52: You are still working in a traditional way, you don't like working with digital tools. What are the main advantages of traditional work that influence your art in a positive way?

SR: The main thing is that there were no computers anywhere in the time when I grew up. So, I learned to draw and paint using real traditional tools and since I liked working with traditional tools I still want want to work with them. Besides I do not like machines. Me and machines do not get along. So I prefer to stay only with what makes me happy and I want to dedicate my life to traditional tools, and I want to keep telling people that if they ever want to work with traditional tools, is the most wonderful thing in the world, so I try to promote it.

MV52:  How do you feel working in an independent publisher since the 80s?

SR: I like working with independent companies because they tend to be very good people and are very sincere about hiring people you want to work. Sometimes, when working with large companies, you are treated differently than others do. The smaller ones has more intimate treatment, care more, and those are the people with whom I prefer to work, people who care and do not treat you as a number.

MV52: You made several pages of Future Quest # 001, the return of Hanna Barbera characters into a unified universe, which came out a few weeks ago. How did you feel working with these characters? Jonny West, Space Ghost, Birdman.

SR: Those characters ... I'm in great position of having grown up in a time where I could see all these cartoons on television, when they were originally broadcast. So I am very happy to be born in the time I was born. If I were born later I had not seen them on television when they first came out. So being a young kid and watch them at that time influenced my life. So I'm very happy that I was called to make this book because the artist who drew was running late, so they called me to make 8 pages of Jonny Quest co the book didn't miss the deadline and now I have a great relationship with DC and they wanted to continue doing more and more Jonny Quest for them. I'm so happy for that.

MV52: This sets the beginning of a new unified Hanna Barbera universe, are you going to work with other artists, in other series of other characters in the universe, besides Jonny Quest?

SR: The other thing that I was called for is a 11 pages story of Birdman and wanted to draw a cover and I said, "Well, can I paint the cover with my traditional materials?" And they said, "we'd love if you could paint the cover." So as soon as I return to the US I'll start drawing a large cover of Birdman, I'm very excited. I'm not sure what title will be at but I know that is a related Jonny Quest story.

MV52: You know, the Internet is the largest library in the world and everyone can share things. You know there are people who scan comics and put them up to share for free, how do you feel about that?

SR: I think people will always do what you have to do. Some people will always do things like that. If I were a young man, probably do that sort of thing because I did had any money, but I'm not sure what to say. You think people do what they always do, you know? Some would do this sort of thing, others do not. I do not really have an opinion about it, si or no. Because people do what they will do all the time.

MV52: As a last question, what l can tell any beginner? People who are just starting to draw and want to embark on the adventure of being an artist. What can you tell them to encourage them to follow their dreams?

SR: The best I can say is that ... You have to have the courage to do what you want to do, regardless of the odds, that's the only way you will. If you let the little things ... like when a teacher says "I do not like your job ..." I never cared what the teachers said. I would do what I have to do, no matter what the teachers said. Or a group of friends does not like what I do, or even a publisher says "I do not like what you do", I did not care because I knew I was going to go home and just going to work harder on what I like to do . Some people feel devastated by that and not want to continue. I never cared. Because I never cared what they said, I care what I wanted to do and that was the comics, so I kept going, and going, and going.