images//the birth of venus words//keiko makishima

Andrew Makishima and Matthew JLD Rice have spent over two years developing their comic series, “The Birth of Venus.” Juggling day-jobs, mortgages, and an onslaught of other distractions, they are finally close to completing issue #1. They have pitched their comic on kickstarter.com HERE, a website devoted to helping artists fund their creative endeavors. The site offers a platform for people to donate money and become a project “backer.” Every project must be fully funded by a specific deadline in order to make the cut. Andrew and Matt are trying to raise enough money to hire a colorist (to finish the first issue), print a limited run, and travel to Wondercon in San Francisco to pitch their comic and find a distributor. If they reach their goal by March 1st, they are well on their way to fulfilling their dream.

“The Birth of Venus” is the story of Mara Mercury, a heroine who develops superpowers after being impregnated by a super-villain. Andrew wrote the story and Matt created the artwork. They have spent most of their lives reading comics, and admiring the work of other artists, and now they’ve channeled that inspiration into something of their own. Their collaborative efforts and unwavering devotion to the project has brought them this far, but they are really just at the beginning…

How and when did the idea of a pregnant superhero come about? Did the story change significantly from earlier drafts? What is your creative process? What was your biggest challenge as a writer?

Andy: I was at a baby shower. Matt’s wife Chris was pregnant with their son (Xander, now 2). I believe Chris was talking to some of the other guests about how she felt strangely energized from the pregnancy. I tried to make a funny by saying she was a super-mom or something like that. Of course I would be the nerd making superhero references at a baby shower. I started thinking about it and I was really taken with the idea. A woman who gains superpowers from her pregnancy. It hadn’t been done before to my knowledge. There have been horror stories involving pregnancy (Rosemary’s Baby) but not superhero stories. A lot of questions raced through my head and that’s a good sign because it means I have a lot of stuff to explore when writing the story. It is a uniquely female origin story, which I liked as well. This wasn’t the girl version of some male superhero.

The story has not changed too much in terms of the structure of events. It’s been planned as nine issues from the beginning, emulating the nine months of pregnancy. There aren’t earlier drafts of the whole story because I’m writing it issue by issue. So it’s still evolving and new ideas are still being added. The process for writing the comic started with me just brainstorming the ideas and characters I wanted in the story, little moments etc. I had a lot of discussions with Matt about what I wanted to do and got his input. I then wrote a very general sentence on what each issue would be about. The story has three arcs, three issues a piece. I’m currently writing the first arc and what I did was write a description of what happens on each page of this arc (roughly 75 pages). From this blueprint I now fill in the action and dialogue on each page for one issue in the arc. I don’t get too specific with the panel descriptions because I like to see how Matt interprets the action. He gives me notes and I’ll rewrite the script to incorporate his feedback. Matt will then thumbnail the pages and get my feedback. Then he’s off to the drawing table and I will do another revision of the dialogue, usually trying to be as concise as possible. Then it’s on to the next issue.

The biggest challenge as a writer for me is starting to write. I will procrastinate and justify not starting for as long as possible until I have no choice but to do it. I’m trying to become more disciplined about this because I want to be more productive in the amount of material I put out. But sometimes it’s the hardest thing in the world to just write a sentence on that blank page. Once you start it’s a lot easier to get going. Hopefully that doesn’t sound stupid…

How did you develop the visual style of ‘Venus’? Did your character designs change significantly over time? What is your creative process? What was your biggest artistic challenge when drawing this comic?

Matt: My visual style was tweaked a bit for this series. I knew that we needed a more “mainstream superhero” look and really took note of styles that I’ve admired—styles that stood out as being beautifully detailed but not overly cluttered (being as I love to heap on the detail, yet too much detail without definition ends up looking muddled. This was an area of improvement I was looking for in my own work.) I started to experiment with contour line in my work (bold lines around detailed images/figures) and that seemed to really make a big difference.

We needed Vanguard City to be a place of bright lights and detailed architecture—think Metropolis as opposed to Gotham City. My previous work on “Helen Killer” was all about dark alleyways and heaping ink onto my pages. “Venus” has been much more of a discipline for me than I had thought it would be! I have a newfound respect for good cityscape background artists because they take FOREVER to make halfway believable and the work gets taken for granted as the superheroes trade fisticuffs in the foreground.

One of my biggest challenges thus far has been keeping the characters looking consistent from page to page. I keep going back and revising panels if my gag reflex is triggered! But the designs themselves haven’t changed too drastically once we both agree on the costume. Finding THAT has been pretty challenging though. The hardest character to nail was our Superman knock-off named “Guardian.” We needed to capture that “savior of the city” aspect without treading too closely on all the familiar visual traits. There have been so many Superman rip-offs and we needed Guardian to feel familiar in character but unique in appearance. Once I experimented with a gladiator-like body armor look, things started to click.

Finding a decent slot of time to get some work done is a must for me. I used to bring my pages to work on during lunch breaks but I found it too distracting and difficult to break away from a good creative streak. When sketching and composing page layouts, I like some good inspirational film score music to drive my imagination. I rely on podcasts and background noise from TV shows and films to push me through the more tedious areas of the page.

When did you two first meet and start working together? Describe your individual roles in the project, and how working together has shaped the story.

Matt: Andy and I first met in 1999 when we both entered the introductory Video Workshop course in the O.C.C. Film/Video program. Since then we’ve done several film and video projects together, at times me doing storyboards for Andy’s solo film projects. This is our first time tackling a comic book project but it isn’t all that different from our filmmaking shorthand, which has all helped paved the way toward “Venus.”

We pretty much break the general plot together and then Andy cranks out the first draft of the script, figuring out the structure and pacing. I’ll do the page layouts in thumbnail form (basically a shrunken down version of the pages) in pencil. We then do a little back and forth with both the script and thumbnails and get them to an amicable point before I start tearing into the full-sized penciled pages. As Andy polishes the script and approves my penciled pages, I slap on the inks. The pages are scanned into Photoshop where I’ll do any necessary cleaning up, then Andy provides the lettering in Illustrator. Boom. Done. (Now all we need is a colorist!)

Andy: Don’t have much to add. I believe our first collaboration was a short film called “The Bag Boy Interrogation.” I played a cop interrogating a bag boy character from one of Matt’s other short films. It was not very good.

Is there give and take, or do you guys tend to be on the same page when it comes to creative decisions?

Matt: Over a decade of collaboration has us seeing basically the same vision once we start talking seriously about certain ideas. But there have been instances of me going WAY off-track with certain ideas. I tend to explore possibilities all too thoroughly. And I’ve been known to strongly critique some of Andy’s dialogue when I feel it necessary. But I’ve learned to also not step too heavily on his toes and leave the writing decisions up to him. Likewise, if he sees the potential in a certain artistic vision different to what he initially conceived, Andy lets me run with it.

Andy: There is a short hand between us after all this time. We butted heads more early on than we do now. I think we both look at it as what will produce the best story at the end of the day. What’s great about our roles on the comic is that we’re complementing each other creatively rather than both trying to fill the same role. If we don’t like an idea we can be honest with each other and not worry about hurting each other’s feelings, which is invaluable to improving the work.

Which comic book writers and artists did you find most inspirational while working on ‘Venus’?

Matt: There’s definitely an element of Brian Michael Bendis’ “Powers” in our detective portions of the story. We also like how the superhero mystique is captured in “Supreme Power” and “The Ultimates”. These have a very “real-world” approach to them that we felt we needed in order for readers to take our pregnancy concept seriously. Robert Kirkman’s “Invincible” is another favorite of ours that is a good portrait of how to take bizarre elements and properly mix them into the over-arching drama.

I look to a lot of different artists for different elements. Paul Pope is a shot of adrenaline to comics. When needing to capture energy on pages, I tend to draw inspiration from his works. To adapt the aforementioned heavy-contour superhero style to my work, I looked at what Ryan Ottley and Corey Walker have done with “Invincible”. Mike Mignola is a constant inspiration when it comes to figuring out shadow and contrast issues. Doug TenNapel also inspires a good mix of all these things. I really like the graceful super-heroine element in The Luna Brothers’ “Ultra” mini-series. And I’m always learning how to get my females looking hotter from the masterful Frank Cho.

Andy: Matt pretty much nailed the influences. I’d also mention Brian K. Vaughan and Alan Moore.

You guys are attempting to break into the comic book industry, what hurdles have you experienced thus far? What tools or advice have you found useful?

Matt: Lack of time is MY biggest hurdle. My wife, 2-year-old son, a mortgage and a day-job make finding free time not the easiest of things to do. I tend to sacrifice sleep and socializing to get comic projects done. I believe the motto I’ve come to adapt is that if you’re not having fun doing it then there is no point. I’m not hoping for a giant pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with “Venus” … but if I could find a way to make a living from my drawing, I think my life would feel a bit more on-track with my goals.

Andy: It’s a marathon not a sprint. Things take a long time, especially when you’re working on it during your time off. You have to be patient and set realistic goals. If you go somewhere like the San Diego Comic Con to pitch your story, keep it concise and to the point. Practice your pitch ahead of time and be prepared for rejection and honest criticism. Comic book people are usually very approachable and willing to talk to you, which is a good thing. They can’t do the work for you though. You have to be prepared.

The story is broken up into 9 issues, each covering one month of Mara Mercer’s pregnancy. Do you ever see yourselves exploring what happens afterward? Super baby, perhaps?

Matt: I think if enough folks take to “The Birth of Venus” then there will definitely be a follow-up. (“Son of Mercury” possibly?) We’ve already had several interesting concepts thrown into the “save that for the sequel” basket! But we’re realistic about it. In case that doesn’t happen, we don’t plan to dangle too much out there unresolved at the end of the 9th issue. This will be a COMPLETE story.

Andy: Exactly. We are definitely wrapping this story up in 9 issues but could there be a new story in this world? Certainly.

Are any of the character’s personality traits or looks inspired by or based on actual people?

Matt: The look of Mara (and her twin sister Madge) is inspired by a certain young television actress that Andy and I have both taken a shine to. I don’t want to say who it is, but if a film version of “Birth of Venus” were ever green-lit, her agent would be called immediately! Clay McCoy has kind of a Dirty Harry thing going on, but Andy’s brother commented that earlier sketches of him looked a bit like Denis Leary… so I took that to heart. But I don’t do much drawing from photographs. I prefer to capture the same spirit of certain actors, yet rendering it into my own style.

Do you have other ideas for comics that you would like to one day write/draw?

Matt: I have shelves and filing cabinets full of story ideas I hope to one day tell. If I could but make comics a semi-profitable career—just enough money to cover the essentials in life—then I will be a very rich man indeed. I am a storyteller by nature and comics are the best representation of my best ideas. I plan to do this until I die.

Andy: I just recently thought of a new idea about children assassins called “Playing With Guns.” I’ll probably get to it once this story wraps up. I’d like to try my hand at drawing a comic down the line but not for the time being.

You guys have put a lot of time and effort into this project and you still have a ways to go. What motivates you to keep at it?

Matt: Sometimes it can be quite challenging keeping the whip cracking on my own back. Reading some amazing comics or watching an amazing film can spur me on at times. Having an upcoming convention or a special event to produce material for will FORCE us to make progress. Probably the best motivator is just seeing the work that Andy produces, which will in turn get me to produce more work to inspire him: metal sharpening metal.

But just slowly moving the marker forward on our project one day at a time has its own reward. When you keep your nose to the grindstone and look back at what you’ve accomplished, THAT sense of seeing the dream become reality keeps me going.

Andy: Ditto. I can’t wait until I can walk into a comic book store and see a book I wrote on the shelf. That would be a geek fantasy come true.

On top of writing/drawing comics, you guys happen to be avid comic readers. What is the comic book industry doing right these days? Is there anything that you think today’s popular comic books lack? What distinguishes ‘Venus’ from other comics out there?

Matt: I don’t think I’ve EVER seen pregnancy handled in comics the way we are attempting to with “The Birth of Venus.” Sue Storm (of the Fantastic Four) had a child but she was sidelined during her nine months while the other Fantastic Three filled her position with countless guest-stars. This is more or less what brought on our idea in the first place!

It does seem that everything under the Sun is being done in comics these days. With the advent of online comics, you don’t need a printer to get your work out there. But just like YouTube shows us, just because you CAN make a video it doesn’t mean you are GOOD at doing it. Telling a good story takes years and years of doing it poorly until you figure out how to do it well. I guess my point illustrates that there are TONS of comics out there these days, which means that there are tons of BAD comics alongside the good ones. And that means it’s all that much harder for us little guys to make a dent in the industry. Having a superhero with a big pregnant belly on the cover of our comic will help grab some eyeballs (we hope) but it is the power of the story where we ultimately hope to make a connection with our readers. If we do our jobs right, the term “pregnant superhero” will no longer illicit a smirk.

Andy: I think that the industry is going to embrace the digital format in a bigger way. You’ll have a reader similar to the Kindle that will be for comics and you’ll download your comics on iTunes or Amazon. That’s the only way I see the monthly ongoing series continuing because it’s too expensive otherwise. This could be bad for comic stores unfortunately. I think graphic novels will still be popular and that’ll be the only printed version of the story.

I hope that the lady comic fans really dig it.

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Andrew Makishima and Matthew JLD Rice are aspiring filmmakers/writers/artists living and working in Southern California. More information about this project is available here. Please help support these artists by becoming a backer.

If you would like to contact Andrew or Matt directly, you can do so by emailing: birthofvenuscomic@gmail.com