Our Creator Interview series is back this week with veteran animator and creator of Steamroller Man, Matt Schofield. With a stunning background in animation with well-known films like Prince of Egypt and The Iron Giant, T.V. shows like The Simpsons, Matt has so much knowledge to share about visual narrative. I am so excited to share this interview about his career and storytelling, let's go ahead and get to the good part.
GlobalComix: For those new to your work, can you tell us a little bit about your career so far and some of your favorite projects?
Matthew Schofield: Sure thing! I’ve spent my career in the animation industry. I started back in the animation boom of the mid-90s. I worked on some animated feature films, among them Prince of Egypt and The Iron Giant, both of which I think pushed the boundaries of what animation could do, and the type of stories it could tell. I’m very grateful that I got to be a part of both of those films. I currently work on The Simpsons, where I’ve happily spent the last 25 years(!) working in a variety of different roles such as animator, storyboard artist and director.
GlobalComix: What drew you to animation, and how has it impacted your work making comics?
Matt: I love being able to tell stories with pictures and especially with drawings. It’s one of humanity’s oldest forms of communication, predating the written word! I think we all have a primal connection to storytelling at a deep level. I grew up in Australia wanting to draw comics for a living but I had no idea how I could actually make that happen. There were no comic book publishers in Australia back then, but there were animation studios. So I decided that was the closest career to cartooning that I would be able to have.
The skills I’ve learned over the course of my career as an animator and storyboard artist have been invaluable to the practice of comic-making. Apart from just improving at drawing by getting to do it every day as my job, drawing characters in motion gives you an awareness of how bodies move, and how to pose and stage them in a way that clearly communicates an action or emotion. I’ve also learned a ton about how to compose an image and how to guide a viewer’s eye, which is essential in comics.
GlobalComix: Are there any existing IPs or publishers in comics that you’d like to work with?
Matt: Not really. While Marvel and DC superheroes were my inspiration to pursue an artistic career, and I still enjoy reading their comics, I’d honestly rather spend my time building my own IP with Steamroller Man and fleshing out his world. I have a TON of my own characters and stories that I’d like to get out there! I’m also too much of a control freak, I think - I would need to both write and draw the story. As I’ve gotten older I’ve gained an appreciation for how hard it must be for writers to come up with original stories for Marvel and DC characters, some of which are almost 100 years old! So the idea of trying to do a story that hasn’t been done before with an existing IP is quite intimidating, in that sense. But… never say never, you know? When I was a kid it was something I REALLY wanted to do. So if it was offered to me, maybe I would do it, just to check off that bucket list item. It’s not something I’m actively seeking out, at this point, though.
GlobalComix: Where did the idea for Steamroller Man come from and how did you come up with Steve’s design?
Matt: When my kids were much younger, we were around the dinner table coming up with “cool superhero names” for fun. My youngest son said “what about STEAMROLLER MAN?” I immediately got an image in my mind of a guy with a huge roller for a head, and drew him on a napkin. So the basic design just popped into my head, and I’ve just refined it over the years, as I’ve drawn him more. The design for his alter-ego, Steve Rollerman - with the big glasses on his face - was one of the first gags I came up with when I started the comic. As I started thinking about what the funny implications of a superhero with a giant head would be, I immediately went to the secret identity. How could he go incognito with that huge head? There’s a well-worn, somewhat absurd convention about Superman (which I love, BTW) that a simple pair of glasses can conceal his identity. So I riffed off of that, not only giving him huge glasses to fit his head, but also naming his secret identity Steve Rollerman, which sounds very close to “Steamroller Man”. So his secret identity becomes absurd at that point, and that's exactly the kind of humor that permeates the comic.
Another aspect of Steamroller Man’s design, his chest symbol, was also the result of an early gag. I was basically designing on the page, as I drew, and thought it would be funny if the symbol on his chest was a silhouetted version of how he was posed in the panel.
GlobalComix: How do you balance keeping your art style distinctive while also fitting the tone and style of different animations and Steamroller Man?
Matt: I started drawing Steamroller Man comics after work because I had reached a point in my career where the only things I had been drawing, literally for years, were Simpsons characters. So the comic was a deliberate attempt to find, or rediscover, my own style, and draw exactly what I wanted, however I wanted. I switched from drawing on paper to working entirely in Clip Studio Paint quite soon after I started the comic, and I think my style continues to evolve as I get more comfortable working in CSP and experimenting with its tools. If you read through my entire body of work you will definitely see a progression and evolution of my style over time. I still don’t see myself as having a “style”, per se. I’m just trying to make my drawings look cool, and draw as well as I possibly can, with each successive page. It just comes out how it comes out!
GlobalComix: How do you manage the pressures and deadlines that come with working in animation with the demanding work of making comics?
Matt: I’m not gonna lie, sometimes it does seem like I’m working two jobs! I try to always be mindful of the fact that I started the comic for fun, as a stress-release from my day job. When I first started publishing it online as a webcomic, I researched what kind of posting schedule was best and the consensus seemed to be one page per week. People also stressed that maintaining a regular schedule was the biggest key to building an audience. So I tried to do that, at first. I even started with a three-month buffer of pages! But I found that as my art evolved, my pages got more complex, taking longer to draw, so my once-a-week schedule became a once-every-two-weeks schedule for a while. Like most webcomic creators, I was doing the comic in my spare time, while still working a demanding full-time job and being a husband and father. So, of course “real” life had to come first, and I was getting really anxious about letting my readers down because I was posting pages later and later.
The pressure I put on myself got very stressful and I began to question why I was even doing the comic if it was no longer fun. So at that point I realized that I had to prioritize the enjoyment over the schedule. Since then, I still work on the comic every day, but I let each page take as long as it needs to. I find this means I’m only releasing each page when I’m satisfied it’s my best work. I think this is the key to maintaining enthusiasm for it - not forcing it into being, but letting it flow. Fortunately my audience has stuck with the comic, despite the erratic schedule, which I’m incredibly grateful for, always.
GlobalComix: Can you share a moment in your career that was particularly challenging and how you overcame it?
Matt: When I was directing my first episode of The Simpsons, I was very nervous - this was a big career opportunity and I didn’t want to screw it up. I think this made me hyper-focused on any little detail that wasn’t looking or working exactly how I pictured it in my mind. So, feeling stressed, I would vent and complain about this or that detail being terrible, or not working, whatever - why me, it’s all so hard, etc. One of the more senior directors gave me a great piece of advice - “complaining doesn’t move you forward”. In other words, just having a negative outlook on a problem - complaining about it - doesn’t help solve the problem. Adopting an attitude of “it sucks but I can deal with it” instead helps you move forward towards the finish line. So from that point on, I’ve tried to see obstacles as challenges to be overcome rather than “problems”.
GlobalComix: In the first chapter of Steamroller Man, Steve sings his way through Kurtzberg. Have you ever thought about animating that, or making an actual song to go with it?
Matt: Yes, and yes! I’d love to have the time to animate a Steamroller Man short film, but you know, I’ve got this comic to make!! I animated a run cycle with Steamroller Man for my Kickstarter campaign video, earlier this year, and it was really fun! One of my amazing readers, David Gueringer, wrote me a Steamroller Man theme song, and he has said he wants to compose music to go with my lyrics from issue one. So hopefully one day we’ll both find the time to work together on that!
GlobalComix: You recently had an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign raising almost $9000 for your first ever crowdfunding project. Congratulations on that success, and meeting all of your stretch goals. What do you think made this so incredibly successful?
Matt: Thank you! I was blown away by the response to the campaign! I think the success was a combination of factors. First, it definitely helped that I had already built an audience for the comic by posting it online at GlobalComix and elsewhere. It’s called “crowdfunding” but it makes it easier if you can bring your own crowd! Second, having the pages already done and ready to print makes a difference, I think. Backers are a lot more willing to commit to your campaign when they know the book is already done. Third, I did a LOT of research and preparation (about a year’s worth) before actually launching, to give myself the best possible chance of success, which included making a video and designing an eye-catching campaign page. Fourth, promote, promote, promote!
Before I launched I was plugging the upcoming campaign for a couple of months on social media, and every time I would post a new comic page online, I would also plug the campaign. Then, once you launch, the Kickstarter algorithm helps direct people to your campaign, too.
GlobalComix: Has there been a title in particular that you’ve worked on in the past that still influences your work with Steamroller Man a lot to this day?
Matt: Not really one in particular, though I think everything I’ve worked on has contributed to my skill set and knowledge base in one way or another. It all goes into my art and writing.
GlobalComix: Comedy is something that can be hit or miss among readers. Any advice on how creators can plan jokes and comedic bits to be more effective?
Matt: I think clarity is key. If a reader doesn’t understand what is happening in a drawing, they’re already a step behind in terms of getting the joke. So make your drawings clear in terms of posing, expression and any details that are needed for the joke to come across. For example, if your joke involves a prop, draw enough detail on that prop so we know what it is, at a glance. Also, a lot of, maybe all, comedy works by creating an expectation (the setup) and then subverting the expectation in a clever, or unexpected, or ridiculous way (the payoff).
Let’s say your setup involves a normal premise - a man waiting for his doctor in the exam room. You want to have the payoff be something other than what would normally happen in that situation - so maybe the doctor walks in dressed like a giant baby. Maybe a duck walks in with a stethoscope. Maybe a barbershop quartet walks in, singing. It could be anything but a doctor acting like a doctor would normally act.
GlobalComix: With so much experience in creating artwork of different publishers, industries, styles, and titles, what advice would you give to someone wanting to get into visual narrative careers like animation, comics, etc?
Matt: Even with the growing influence of technology in art, I think fundamental drawing skills are still the most important thing you can have under your belt. I’ve been asked this question a lot and my answer is always the same - practice, practice, practice your drawing! Learn how perspective works, and how to draw basic shapes - balls, cylinders, prisms - solidly. Then learn how to break any subject into those shapes. That’s the foundation of good drawing, that all other drawing and art skills will rest upon. Perhaps most importantly, draw every day, don’t give up, and don’t let yourself get discouraged. Realize that there will always be someone more skilled than you, and someone less skilled. Even the greatest artists see things about their art that they want to improve. You are not competing with anyone but the artist you were yesterday. Just try and be better than yesterday.
A huge thank you to Matt Schofield for answering my questions and provide us with all this amazing artwork!
If you would like to keep up with Matt Schofield and all his amazing work online, here's a list of links for all of his social media profiles and website: