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JAN DUURSEMA INTERVIEW PART 1

Accomplished artist Jan Duursema has been drawing professionally for over 20 years. She is probably the most popular (and prolific) Star Wars comic artists today having co-created the Jedi Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura. Jan has illustrated in the Star Wars Ongoing arcs, Twilight and Darkness, the Darth Maul and Chewbacca miniseries, the Episode II Comic Adaptation, and Star Wars Tales. Along with popular comic scribe, John Ostrander, Jan has helmed the Jedi series as well as several Republic issues chronicling the Clone Wars.

Jan's other credits include Marvel's The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine, X-Factor and The Uncanny X-Men.

Visit her official website at www.janduursema.com.

TUCWS: First, thank you for doing this interview with us. It's always great to see how everything works from your view. How is it working on the Star Wars comics?

Jan Duursema: You're welcome--it's great to be talking with you. Working on the Star Wars comics is amazing and a longtime fan’s dream come true!

TUCWS: How long have you been working as a professional artist?

JD: I've been working as an artist in comics since about 1981.

TUCWS: Who are some the comic book creators that inspired you the most?

JD: Joe Kubert. I learned so much from him about storytelling and drawing. Others are Al Williamson, Bernie Wrightson, Mike Kaluta, Barry Smith, Frank Frazetta and Richard Corben.

TUCWS: How did you get to work for Dark Horse doing the current line of Star Wars comics?

JD: I started working for Dark Horse in 1999 shortly after Episode I came out. After seeing Episode I, I started drawing page samples featuring Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon and Episode I settings. I just had to try to work for Dark Horse drawing Star Wars. I submitted samples and was given a story in the Chewbacca series that Darko Macan wrote, then a couple of illos for the Dark Empire Handbook and a short story for Star Wars Tales called ‘Deal with a Demon’ written by John Ostrander. My first arc in the Star Wars Ongoing book was Twilight which was also written by John and was about a Jedi Knight named Quinlan Vos who has lost his memory and his search for his Twi’lek padawan, Aayla Secura.

TUCWS: But you had worked on Star Wars once before, right?

JD: I worked on one issue for Marvel in the 80’s—issue 92. It was a scheduled fill-in issue and they liked what they had seen me do on either Arion Lord of Atlantis or Warlord and knew I was a Star Wars fan. It was fun to get to do it. I was pretty new to the industry and didn't feel like I could measure up to the other people who were drawing the book at the time. I remember thinking that I wished it had more Darth Vader and Han Solo in it!

TUCWS: Where you a fan of Star Wars before you got paid to draw the comics?

JD: I've been a Star Wars fan since the moment I saw the words "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" appear on the screen. I was in a theater which had surround sound and when those first ships appeared and that engine rumble came from behind and around us in the theater the whole audience started to cheer. I think we all knew we were in for an incredible experience. I haven't seen this happen very often in theaters lately--even when people love a movie--but when Star Wars was over everyone in the theater was standing and clapping and cheering loudly. This was a totally new experience--there'd never been anything like it!! I think I went back to see it 30 or 40 times in the next couple of months!

TUCWS: Everyone starts off somewhere before working in the Star Wars Universe. What are some of your previous non-Star Wars works?

JD: My first work (while I was still at the Joe Kubert School) was some short stories and 'Battle Albums'--one or two page stories highlighting war machines or battles--for the Sgt. Rock book. I think working on those then has actually served me well in portraying the Clone Wars now. A lot of the ‘war story’ training that Joe helped me learn stayed with me. After that I worked on Arion Lord of Atlantis—first as an 8 page ‘back-up’ story in Warlord and then as it’s own book. [I worked on] Warlord, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Hawkworld and Hawkman [for DC Comics]. For Marvel, I worked on Star Wars, The Hulk, Spiderman, Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, X-Men Unlimited: Magneto, Knight of Terra--which was a Wolverine and Rahne story, Professor X and the X-men. For Acclaim I worked on Eternal Warrior and Troublemakers. I also drew Elric for First Comics.

TUCWS: You and John Ostrander created Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura. Vos is this renegade Jedi Master who has touched the dark side and sports some funky-looking dreadlocks. Aayla is this super-hot Twi'lek chick that happens to be a butt-kicking Jedi Knight whose gone through quite a lot in her young life. When creating them, what influences or real-life personalities did you pull from if any?

JD: When John and I were working on presenting Twilight to Dark Horse, we asked if we could develop a new Jedi from a character who appeared in The Phantom Menace. So John and I went to see the movie and find a 'Jedi'. I spotted this interesting looking guy sitting in the outdoor cantina on Tatooine wearing what I thought resembled Jedi robes and talking earnestly to a podracer mechanic in a blue uniform. When Anakin came by to rescue Jar-Jar from Sebulba, the guy kind of shifted in his chair--almost like he was about to help, but then settled back to watch when Qui-Gon walked over. He just stood out from the rest to me--and then I started seeing him in the DK Episode I book and in a couple of stills on the CD-ROM of The Phantom Menace. John let me have my way and Quinlan Vos was created. (John named both him and Aayla.)

Initially, Aayla was only supposed to appear briefly in a flashback when Quin is remembering who he is and who his padawan was. Her treacherous Uncle Pol was going to do away with her before Quin ever found her again. When my daughter found out Aayla was going to 'die'--she was pretty mad at both John and me. She couldn't figure out why we were killing one of the coolest female Jedi she had seen. I said it was ok with me that she survived as long as it was ok with John--after all, he was writing this and certain things needed to happen in the story to make it work. At first he said there was no way to save her, but as she looked at him with great big eyes in a determined face, he totally melted and promised her that he would find a way to make the story work without killing off Aayla.

Quin and Aayla are characters who have largely written themselves. John and I have both been both delighted and amazed how their personalities have evolved over the course of the stories we have told. It has been a wonderful experience to be allowed to tell their stories within the Star Wars universe. I guess both characters are a little of both John’s and my own life experiences and things both good and bad we’ve seen people do and have experienced ourselves.

TUCWS: What was it like working with John years after your short-lived collaboration on Hawkman? Had the way you two work with each other changed?

JD: Working with John again is great! I think we do work together differently now. I know that I tell stories differently than I did back then on Hawkman. My page and panel breakdowns were more straightforward. Now I try to move in and out of a scene in a little less of a straight line. Even when I get a full script from a great writer like John, I rethink the scene through and see if there is any way to pull more from it by breaking the panels down differently or changing the angles or something. John is always willing to let a scene happen organically—that is, if I think of a cool storytelling device, he’s willing to incorporate that into the story as long as it doesn’t change the basic outcome he was looking for or needs to make the story work.

TUCWS: Who are your favorite Star Wars characters to work with?

JD: First I have to say Darth Maul! He’s got to be one of my favorite characters of all time to watch and to draw. He’s got this inner explosive power which is such a pleasure to illustrate. I also really enjoy drawing Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura. Since I helped to create them with John Ostrander it's been fun watching them develop and change over time in the stories. Aayla also changed a lot when she appeared in Attack of the Clones--so I altered her look accordingly. I was told I didn't have to change her look--that I could keep her lekku tattooed with the patterns I had established, but I loved the look that Lucasfilm's designers had given Amy Allen who played Aayla in the movie and wanted to honor that. But I enjoy drawing all the characters in these stories as each character's personality and look is so different. Each one presents a new challenge--how they walk and gesture--what their facial expressions are--do they look best against white or black. For instance, Yoda, Palpatine and Dooku work well against a black background since Dan can accentuate their white hair into the black area. Anakin is fun to draw with his face very shadowed, foreshadowing the dark future of this troubled young Jedi. Shaak Ti offered a real challenge to our team. Her headtail markings were such that Dan and I agreed it looked odd on the original to leave them white because it left us with no shading or structure, so I shaded them for ink, but when Brad colored them--there was too much black and not enough blue which really brightens and identifies the character. So Brad developed a way of adding the blue into the black shading and the combination appeared really dimensional and rich. Other favorites to draw are Mace Windu whose character always makes me think of iron wrapped in silk. Kit Fisto because of those headtails and smile. Saesee Tinn because he looks like the essence of a Samurai. Agen Kolar because he fights with such fluidity. Obi-Wan simply because he is Obi-Wan and Dooku because he is so subtly, wickedly evil.

TUCWS: Do you have a favorite issue of Republic that you've drawn? Are there any that you felt particularly attached to?

JD: Twilight will always remain a favorite because of it being the genesis of Quin and Aayla and the first arc I did for the Star Wars books. Issue 49 rocked because it marked the beginning of the Clone Wars after Geonosis and it was just a fun story to do--dark and full of foreboding. But all of them are my favorites for various reasons and it would be tough to choose an absolute favorite.

TUCWS: What do you refer to when drawing scenes for the Star Wars books? Do you refer to the novels or movies to get ideas?

JD: I refer to everything and anything! I have a ‘catalogue’ in my mind of movies, shows, magazines, books, comics I have seen. I have reference books on all variety of subjects--not just Star Wars books-- though they are the core of my reference library and I refer to and use so much from them. The Star Wars Encyclopedia is an invaluable resource and I especially like the 'art of' books since it's so much fun to see where the designers and artists who worked on the films get their influences from. There's so much wonderful material from which to draw references! Star Wars is influenced by so many things both societal and historical and I like to utilize those sources as well. I might have books out on Mayan ruins and Samurai. At the same time there is a book about westerns on my table. When creating alien societies, I try to find a base source and build the look from there. Sometimes a scene just pops into my head and plays like a little movie. Then it's an interesting challenge to get it all down on paper so it works in the panels and the page. I also watch a lot of movies with a sketchpad nearby and sometimes take notes if a particular angle or lighting works for a scene I'm thinking about.

TUCWS: Can you explain your role in drawing the comics?

JD: Penciling really involves a couple of aspects of creativity. There is the actual drawing so everyone and everything looks like it should. I use a lot of reference on characters and settings for that. But that is the final step and really the ‘icing’.

Before I get to that there is a lot of structure that goes underneath. The first step in the process is storytelling--that is figuring out how I want to present the scene and the characters walking through it. Choices here become interesting--seeing things from a distance is going to give a different feeling to the scene than seeing a character in close up. I try to mix camera angles, sort of placing the figures in the scene in my mind and moving around them with a mental 'camera'. I try to draw as much emotion from the characters as possible so the viewer can understand their state of mind. But that doesn't always mean a close up of them. Volumes about mood and character can be said with a silhouette or a long shot. One of the most important aspects is that the angles I choose convey the drama of the story. If there is a quiet scene, I might make the ‘camera’ angle very straight and play up the shadows. But for a fight scene I like to tilt the camera and take the reader on a more dramatic visual ride.

I usually sketch a bunch of angles for many panels before I find one that works for me. Then the whole page has to hang together as a piece of art. Once the breakdowns are done, then it's onto figure structure and background reference as needed. I usually try to think about the lighting ahead of time. Adding directional lighting is one of my favorite parts of the finishes. I work a lot with environment and atmosphere. I ask myself—is the environment hot or cold, dry or wet? Is there mist coming from the ground? What kinds of clouds would be in that particular sky? Dealing with the alien worlds in Star Wars, I get to decide if the sky is blue, sulfurous yellow, red, green—Do I want one moon? Ten? Is there an asteroid belt around this world? I enjoy playing with different kinds of weather patterns within the same story. I drew one story which starts at pre-dawn in a forest and in the space of 6 pages progresses to a forest fire and then a torrential rainstorm. As I’m working along I’m also thinking about color and I usually make notes for the colorist if I want something specific. This one will go from blues to reds and then to ashen grays. It should make for a very dramatic progression. I think taking the reader from a gloomy, dark scene to a scene viewed in bright daylight can be very dramatic and keeps the visual interest in the story.

After that is done, Dan Parsons, who is the inker, works on the page from my pencils amplifying detail and honing structure and shadows, adding effects like spattering or dry brush for smoke or fog. Then Brad Anderson applies the color with the computer, pulling it all together and adding a third layer to the art. We all talk together about mood and lighting and color to get the effect we are after with a scene.

TUCWS: How long does it take you to draw them?

JD: It takes about a month for me to draw an issue. I can do roughly a page a day--some pages take longer, depending on the amount of detail in the figures and the backgrounds.

TUCWS: How is penciling panel art different from illustrating cover art?

JD: The cover art is as much of a team effort as the interiors are. I usually pencil the piece and then a painter or colorist paints the final cover with a computer. I've worked a lot with Brad Anderson and Dave McCaig on these projects.

TUCWS: Do you have any curious 'antics' when working--for example, always drinking a bottle of champaign after finishing the last page of a comic?

JD: Ha! Usually when I finish a book I have to begin an archaeological dig to re-organize all my reference and find my table so I can start on the next project. I also like to play video games when I get a rare, spare moment (right now I’m playing Star Wars: Jedi Academy where I’ve gotten totally sidetracked since finding Aayla Secura and Quinlan Vos skins to download and play) and I like to get in a long run or work out. It’s tough to sit still all the time if I don’t. No champagne—Gizer ale or Blue Milk for me…

TUCWS: How does it feel to go into a bookstore and see your work on a comic rack?

JD: Seeing my work on a comic store rack or in bookstores is still a major thrill! I don't think that will ever change.

TUCWS: You've said that your work on some of the recent one-shots differs from the usual style. Could you describe the different processes your art underwent in comparison to the 'usual' technique?

JD: Usually when a penciller, inker and colorist are working on a book the type of work is pretty well defined. It’s just like it sounds—I do the pencil art, Dan does the ink art and Brad colors it. This is the way Enemy Lines, Jedi Mace, Aayla and Shaak Ti were done. It’s a great process because you know pretty much exactly what you are going to get when you lay down a line or a shadow and the black line defines the color areas for the colorist.
Sacrifice was done differently in that it was colored directly from my pencils by Brad. I tightened my pencils even more than usual—really darkened the black areas to get the range of shading I wanted to see. It’s still a very simple process, but it took me longer to draw because I am really doing the finishes. It’s like penciling and inking a book yourself. This technique gives an overall softer look—more painting-like I think.

With Dooku the process was the most different. Each page is a mixed media piece. It’s not that it hasn’t been done before, but it was different for the Jedi series and certainly a first for our team. The idea was to make the edges of things harder or softer—depending on the type of rendering to achieve each look we were after. Some panels are entirely pencil for a softer look and some are inked for a harder edge and grimmer mood. The ones that took a bit more thinking were the ones where Dan and I would mix the media up. I might do tight pencils for a foreground figure then Dan would come in and render backgrounds in ink. Or Dan would do backgrounds in ink washes (which gives a transparency) added to some backgrounds I’d already done in pencils. That same panel might have inked figures that Dan would finish. It was kind of a wild process—very organic. We really didn’t have any ‘rules’ we stuck by—we were kind of making it up as we went along depending on the kind of mood we were trying to convey. Since this approach was so out of the norm for us, Brad and I talked about many of the pages before he colored them. It seemed like each scene took place on a world which had never been seen before or that we were making up new. Dan and I both agreed that the color was the final step in bringing these pages all together. It was very exciting to work with both Dan and Brad on this project. There was the incredible energy we all contributed to it and I think it’s some of our best work on these books so far.

TUCWS: How would you try to convince a person who has never read comics and thinks of them as 'kiddie' stuff that comics are an art form and can appeal to adults as well? If you could get that person to try only one comic, which one would you recommend?

JD: One of the main complaints I’ve heard about comics is that there aren’t enough words in them to make a worthwhile read. I would suggest to them that they are not just reading the words in a comic to get the story, but that reading a comic is like viewing a film. They have to consider the pictures as a large part of the emotional content of the story . The reader has to take the time to read the pictures was well as the words. It’s as if the story had two writers—one to write the story’s dialogue and one to write the story’s descriptions. Instead of describing the scenes with words, I am describing them with pictures. Instead of saying—‘His black hair was worn long and his face was scarred from recent battles…”—I’m showing it and instead of reading it word-by-word, the picture allows the brain to process the concept very quickly. This tends to make a comic book or graphic novel seem to be a fast read. But there is so much there! I love to read novels because I get pictures from the words and I love comics because I can put words to the pictures. Comics use our creative minds in a way that neither books nor films can take advantage of by asking us to tell part of the story to ourselves.

If the person I was trying to convince was a Star Wars fan, I’d recommend Jedi: Count Dooku. Hopefully there would be enough in there to get him hooked on comics and want to read more.

TUCWS: Are there many other women drawing comic books these days or are you in the vast minority?

JD: I think women who draw comics are still in the minority in a mostly male dominated business. But I do see more women getting into drawing comics than when I started. I hope that trend will continue.

TUCWS: Being a woman in the comic book industry, were there any difficult challenges you had to face to get recognition or respect before you got your foot in the door? Has your gender ever been an issue (in getting jobs) since you've been drawing professionally?

JD: I can’t say that I faced any different challenges than my male friends who were trying to get work at the same time as I was. We all had to work equally hard and keep trying to improve our art in order to get a job. And we all spent many hours pounding the pavement and ‘warming the bench’ in the reception areas of the comic book companies waiting to see if any editors would have time to look through our portfolios that day.

If they haven’t met me, many readers still think I’m a man and I’ve been told that I ‘draw like a guy’. That always brings a smile to my face. I know this would upset some women and you may wonder why I don’t mind it. I think it’s funny because getting into this art form and industry I never even thought about ‘drawing like’ a man or woman—the concept simply never occurred to me. I just wanted to DRAW and tell stories.

It's probably not that bad in the comic book industry, but as you know, America can be quite sexist and discriminatory. I was just sitting here thinking about that and wondered if one of the greatest comic book artists I've ever seen (who happens to be a female) had to endure the same crap countless other women have to unfairly endure.

TUCWS: You are one of the few EU creators/influencers that actively interacts with the fans (via message boards). What keeps you so motivated in dealing with fans and our quirks about everything that's good or amiss regarding our favorite sci-fi series?

JD: I was a Star Wars fan long before I was working on the books so it's fun for me to get on the boards and talk with everyone about Star Wars. I really enjoy the fan fic and the fan art as well. It's inspiring to see so much creative talent given to the Star Wars mythos. Before the internet there were a lot of years when I didn't talk to anyone about Star Wars. It's amazing to me now that I can talk to people all over the world about it in the blink of an eye!

Check back soon for PART 2 where Jan discusses more of the Clone Wars, her work on the Attack of the Clones comic book adaptation, Star Wars: Clone Wars the animated micro-series, the future of Aayla Secura and Quinlan Vos, and Episode III!

Discuss this interview at The Galactic Senate.

Conducted by Andrew Liptak, TUCWS Staff, and Florian from The Senatorial Gazette, January 2004.

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