QUICK QUESTIONS WITH Ciaran Lucas

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT IS YOUR CONNECTION TO COMICS?
I’m Ciaran Lucas and I’m a comic colourist, illustrator and sometimes dabbling writer

WHAT COMIC ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
Agent Mom for MTV, Danger Academy for Kickstart Entertainment
WHAT’S THE BEST PART OF MAKING COMICS?
Getting to read the script before anyone else, and working on cool stories

WHAT’S THE WORST PART OF MAKING COMICS?
Deadlines.
HOW DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER COMICS?
Had tonnes of Garfield and Transformers annuals as a kid, but got into them properly after my friend Alan began plying me with books like V for Vendetta and 100 Bullets.
WHO IS THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR WORK?
Disney films. I did my dissertation on colour in Disney films back in college and everything else has sort of led on from there.
WHAT TOOLS OF THE TRADE DO YOU USE?
Intuos 3, Photoshop CS3.

WHAT IS THE SINGLE WORK OF WHICH YOU ARE MOST PROUD?
It may seem silly, but last Christmas I asked on twitter for suggestions of what to draw. Manor Club Productions chum Tony Lee suggested I draw ourselves and Dan Boultwood atop unicorns fighting a robot horde. I still don’t hate it, which is definitely saying something.
WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU HAVE RECEIVED?
Stop making excuses.
WHAT IS THE WORST ADVICE YOU HAVE EVER RECEIVED?
Quit now, there are no jobs.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE CURRENT IRISH COMIC SCENE?
There are some top quality artists and writers out there. We’re a nation of storytellers, and it’s high time comics had a more prevalent public face in Irish society.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN IN IRISH COMIC IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
Reading comics as part of the Junior Cert art syllabus. Early, structured exposure to the medium will increase understanding and appreciation, sales and raze any negative stereotypes that persist.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN IN COMICS IN GENERAL IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
Digital comics becoming normal. Yes, they’re commonplace enough now, but given another year or two the infrastructure will be more settled allowing for more leaps to be made in the medium- particularly in relation to interactivity and the iPad, than is currently a safe bet.
WHAT WAS THE LAST COMIC THAT MADE AN IMPACT ON YOU?
Blacksad. As I said earlier I pretty much grew up on Disney cartoons, so to intellegently take that kind of design and pump it into a noir storyline really spoke to my visual shorthand. The writing is tight, the drawing seems effortless, but is CLEARLY riding atop years of observational drawing and study. Beautiful watercolours too. Lotta love for it, and more than a little jealousy.

FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU COULD GIVE SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO START MAKING THEIR OWN COMICS? (And don’t say DON’T 🙂 )
Don’t worry about not being good enough, worry about getting better. Learn the basics. Anatomy, posing, storytelling, perspective, architecture, as well as the actual craft of pencilling, inking, colouring and lettering.
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
I should really have checked out everyone else’s answers and just copied them. Hmm.
Ciaran Lucas makes a living scrawling things on a computer somewhere in Meath.
He colours things by day, paints things at night, and sometimes does animation in the early hours of the morning.
His previous colours work includes several covers for Torchwood, Angel: Not Fade Away for IDW and Reed Gunther for Image Comics.