In part 3 of our interview series with the creative team behind Monster Forge Halloween Special: gHosts, we had a chance to chat with Emmy Award-nominated director and illustrator David Hartman. Known for work on Transformers Prime, Trese, Phantasm Ravager, and VFX on quite a few movies, horror has a special place in his heart.
In comics, David has done work for Image Comics and has created quite a few covers over the years.
You can start reading gHosts #1 here. Get your downloadable PDF to support the creative team for only $0.99.
GlobalComix: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.
David Hartman: I’m mainly a filmmaker and animation Director but do a ton of stuff including comics, VFX work, illustration, and anything horror genre-related. I’ve directed things like Transformers Prime, Netflix’s Trese, and the live-action film Phantasm Ravager as well as VFX for movies like Bubba Ho-Tep and John Dies at the end. Most recently I’ve been directing on some Zack Snyder animated projects and storyboarding on his upcoming Rebel Moon film.
With Illustration, I mainly work on horror genre stuff and have done a lot for Rob Zombie including a couple of animated music videos. I also did the Steve Niles’ Strange Cases comic series for Image some years back and lots of comic covers. Comics are an early love for me and it's exciting to get back into creating them.
GlobalComix: What drew you to this project? What did you enjoy the most about it?
David Hartman: Comics have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a kid, my parents would take me to flea markets and we would always leave with a box of comics. Even though Spider-Man, Batman, and superhero comics in general are childhood favorites, I realized early on that the books I gravitated toward were the horror ones.
Unexpected, House of Secrets and others like them began a love for monsters and horror in general. My career has mainly been in animation for the last couple of decades and the chance to get back to what made me want to tell stories with art was something I couldn’t pass up.
Shannon Eric Denton, who I’ve worked with on several animated projects over the years, approached me about this book and I immediately fell in love with the concept and the chance to draw monsters and characters with some super-talented creators.
GlobalComix: What would you say is the aspect of creating comics that you enjoy most?
David Hartman: Being able to tell stories through art and sequential storytelling. It's fun to make the layouts, compositions and camera angles to tell a story. The amount of work ahead of you can be overwhelming and daunting but when you finish drawing that comic and have a complete story in your hands, that is the most fulfilling and rewarding feeling. That’s my favorite part!
GlobalComix: Do you have a dream IP that you’d like to do a project for?
David Hartman: HA! There are so many. Tons of horror movies have had an impact on me and I’d love the chance to do some comics based on them. Evil Dead, Return of the Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre to name a few. Jason Voorhees would be so much fun to draw a comic for.
GlobalComix: What about horror comics do you love the most?
David Hartman: MONSTERS! As a kid, what got me hooked right away was the monster and supernatural angles to the stories. Most of the stories in those older comics were short anthology type stories where you could read one or two during math class. They usually involved an everyday human in some impossible situation with some impossible creature that didn’t always go as they planned. I really love that mystery of seeing the story unfold and how the character reacts to absurd and scary situations.
GlobalComix: What inspired the name “Sideshow Monkey”?
David Hartman: That’s my brand name and what I do a lot of my freelance art and business through. During college that name was used to make minicomics to sell at artist alley tables and as a logo for short films I was making. At that time I was doing any freelance art I could get, from bank ads in newspapers to bowling illustrations for local bowling alleys. It was working hard for little money, like a little monkey dancing for peanuts at a carnival sideshow, so that's where the name seemed like the perfect fit and has stuck with me since.
GlobalComix: You’ve worked in a wide variety of creative fields from comics, to films, to even anime! Do you have any projects that you are the most fond of?
David Hartman: Many of the projects I mentioned earlier hold a special place in my career but the one I’m most proud of is the horror film Phantasm Ravager. I have been a fan of the Phantasm film series by Don Coscarelli ever since I was a little kid. I grew up with those films.
So the chance to work with Don and direct part 5 of his ongoing series was a huge honor and a fan-boy dream come true. We brought back the original cast and it was so much fun to create that story with them. We had little money, and little resources, and it was a huge undertaking with many challenges and obstacles but we pulled it off and I’m proud of what we all accomplished.
GlobalComix: How do you feel that your past work in all these different creative fields make you a better comic creator?
David Hartman: I personally feel it has helped me with my storytelling skills as well as my speed for drawing a comic. I worked as a storyboard artist for many years and still do. You have to draw at a break-neck speed to stay on schedule and also compose the shot, the layout, the acting, and so much more.
Storyboarding also forces you to draw characters performing actions you may have never drawn before or odd poses that need to look convincing. That really has helped me feel more comfortable composing a shot and drawing characters quickly
We'd like to thank David for taking the time to answer our questions. His work on gHosts has been stellar, and we can't wait to see more from him in the future!
Check out the links below for social media profiles where you can follow David Hartman and Monster Forge: