PBR Interviews
Interview with Rags Morales
by Colin Solan At the end of June I had the opportunity to
sit down with DC superstar Rags Morales at Larry’s Comic Show in Chelmsford,
MA. With credits like JSA, Identity Crisis, Countdown and Wonder
Woman to his name, Rags is quickly becoming the most prolific artists in the industry.
He gave me a few moments to discuss his work.
Paperback Reader: So what kind of training did you have?
Rags Morales: I rubbed a magic lamp to get where I am. No, I’m a graduate
of the Joe Kubert School. Aside from some vocational commercial art classes I’d
taken, that was the only formal training I had. If you have the talent, it’s just a
matter of refining and focusing your skills. Learning the do’s and don’ts and
becoming aware.
PBR: How did you original break into the industry?
Rags Morales: With a crowbar. Being a Kubert grad is like having a pedigree in
comics. There’re plenty of us littered throughout the business. But when I first got
out of school, in 1988, I was working for a silkscreen company in Linden, N.J. Then he got
arrested for copyright infringement and I found myself unemployed at Christmas. I was
working at a Subway sandwich shop before I went to N.Y.C., there I met Barbara Kesel. She
was headed out to Wisconsin to talk with the TSR people and when she got back she said
they thought I’d be perfect for the DC/TSR book Forgotten Realms book. I did
nineteen issues of that before I started on Black Condor.
 PBR: What do feel your strengths and weaknesses are as an
artist?
Rags Morales: Hmm, my strengths and weaknesses? I’ll start with weaknesses.
The thing I was never good at is stock poses. I was never really interested in having
superheroes standing around looking iconic. I prefer conversational pieces, exploring the
communicative process. Something about two people wearing masks interacting with one
another really interests me. Also, things like the Kents sitting around the breakfast
table like in issue one of Identity Crisis.
Which is probably one of the things helped me land Identity Crisis. It was
written like a thriller, so I got to use a lot of close ups. We are all caught up in old
school comic book structure and Brad (Meltzer) broke all of the rules but it worked. I
like stories that are about human intricacies that occur naturally. For some reason other
artists find this difficult, I guess I’m just a weird hybrid. I have to find a
balance between the outlandish action that’s very dramatic in an almost Shakespearean
way. But sometimes I just nail it.
PBR: Now you’ve worked on two projects that had some large scale deaths,
specifically Sue Dibny, Firestorm and Blue Beetle. Are you like DC’s new character
hitman? Should we be worrying about anyone in Wonder Woman?
Rags Morales: You should worry about everyone… But no, I’m not
the guy that gets sent in to kill off people; it’s just the direction DC is going in.
It’s not meant to be ugly or brutal, it’s just mature. It’s real. It’s
natural, common problems that people deal with. We’ve puts this icons on such a high
pedestal that we’ve forgotten the humanity that’s underneath. It’s all
cyclical. Eventually we’ll see things get lighter again. That’s life.
 What you’ve seen from
Identity Crisis is just the first salvo. People will be betrayed and you’ll see the
"big shots" get knocked down a few pegs while the second tier characters get a
boost. There’s a reason why titles like Flash, Green Arrow and Hawkman
are so successful. They are all great characters. They’re part of the stable and
they’re never going away, so they should be treated with respect. And the supporting
cast is just as important as the main characters.
PBR: You recently started selling your original pages for the first time, any
reason why?
Rags Morales: Personal reasons. I never intended to sell my artwork because
that’s my legacy to my children but sometimes things happen and you have use every
asset available to you and this is mine.
PBR: What kind of extras can we expect to see in the Identity Crisis trade?
Rags Morales: Ah! Now that’s a good question. There’s going be a lot
of Brad Meltzer talking about the process of coming with the story and tying all the ends
together. They’re going to display the thumbnail sketches that I worked off of. I
used cold and warm Prismacolor markers for full washes in order to help solidify the mood,
lighting and color of a scene. It was kind of like being a painter and fleshing out
everything in greytones before doing the final piece. It was a means to communicate with
Alex Sinclair for the book. He said that it made Identity Crisis the easiest book
he’d ever worked on. Not that Alex needs the help, but it was a great tool to show my
intent towards a scene. Also, Bob Greenberg wants me to talk about which people I used as
templates for the characters.
PBR: Any favorite moments?
 Rags Morales: Issue five
when Batman and Robin are racing to save Jack Drake in time. That was a very rewarding
sequence. There’s a bunch of great scenes throughout the series. Chances are, if
it’s your favorite scene, then I enjoyed working on it. Something like that really
shows through. And every artist wants to have people enjoying their work.
PBR: Alright, for my last question, there’s been a lot of hype about
something big going down in Wonder Woman #219. Is there anything you can tell us?
Rags Morales: They should really call it OMAC #3.5. There is a serious
throwdown between Superman and Wonder Woman. Obviously, you can’t do everything
completely realistically but this is a really brutal fight. I think I even had Wonder
Woman give him a purple nurple. All of the implications from OMAC show through
here. Very heavy issue and very cool.
PBR: Awesome. Well, thanks for talking with me and keep up the good work!! |
