Billy Martin of Good Charlotte - Interview

Billy Martin of Good Charlotte - Interview
Exclusive on his new comic book, Damius McDreary
By:stacilayne
Updated: 08-10-2007

Staci Layne Wilson / Horror.com: What is this latest project here?  It looks like you’ve got quite a lot of people interested in it. [interview conducted at his booth signing at Gentle Giant for Comic-Con 2007]

 

Billy Martin:  It’s a children’s book that I wrote and illustrated.  It’s something that I started and I’ve probably been working on it for the last two years or something like that.

 

I’ve always grown up thinking I would do comic books or animation or something, but the whole music thing just kind of worked for me.  So now I’m trying to go back, and you know, get into art and these guys [Gentle Giant] liked the idea of doing the book and the toy together.  Really, they’re primarily a toy company and this is the toy right here for the book.

 

I had the idea of packaging them together and selling the book and the toy at the same time.  It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and you know sort of gone for it.

 

SLW: What’s the response been here at Comic-Con?

 

Billy Martin:  It’s been good, you know, a lot of people came because you know they knew I would be here signing and a lot of people came up and had they don’t even know I’m in a band they don’t know anything about that yet so they just come up and say “Oh?” you know, “This looks cool, tell me about it”. You know that’s kind of the reason to come here is to show it to people who don’t necessarily you know

 

SLW: Have you been to Comic-Con before?

 

Billy Martin:  Yeah, probably maybe the last four or five years I’ve come.  I love it.  One day is good enough for me. I can’t come for the whole weekend.

 

SLW: Have you come for the movies or the comic books?

 

Billy Martin:  A little of both,   I collect comics, I collect a lot of toys.  Mostly it’s the artists you know I like just going and meeting other artists and I like buying.  A lot of times I’ll do the exclusive sketch books just for Comic-Con and stuff like that.  Usually, you know, that’s why I come.

 

SLW: What’s your basic process as an artist?

 

Billy Martin:  This idea I came up with the story first.  It was really the first book I’ve ever written so I just kind of had the idea and wrote the story and purposefully wrote certain characters in because I could see characters in my head and I said Okay, so I know I want to draw a zombie and I know I want to draw a vampire, so I sort of specifically wrote those characters in but this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this, so I kind of just sat down said let’s see what happens.

 

SLW: So what do you think of the final result of this?  Is it something that you want to continue, like as a series of books?

 

Billy Martin:  Absolutely. I hope.  I don’t know if I’ll keep it the same character or just other things, but maybe a series. I love the process; it’s really rewarding. It’s every artists dream.  Hearing your song on the radio is one thing, your CD, and the different thing here is that when we do a guitar it’s like a collective group thing where we’re all putting music together.  But this is just me, all by myself.  I’ve stepped out of my head.  So, it’s very rewarding for sure.

 

SLW: Who are some of the artists that have influenced you over the years?

 

Billy Martin:  You know, I like a lot of comic book artists you know, guys like Todd McFarland who I used to read when I was a kid.  Sean Galloway. Gris Grimly, he’s a great illustrator.  Gris is one of my friends he kind of you know taught me a lot of stuff and you know I would always ask him questions “How do you do this, and how do I do this?” and it’s cool to have someone I really look up to be so helpful. So, I love Gris.  You know those are a couple of my favorite guys that are cool.

 

SLW: Do you know Darren Frydendall? 

 

Billy Martin:  Yeah. Darren’s awesome.  He’s really good. I did a big group art show a couple months ago you know and Darren was in it and Gris was in it and we all had a bunch of stuff. Yeah, so those guys were awesome.

 

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For more info on Damius McDreary, visit the official website: bloodzilla.com

 

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