The Temple
of
Ben
emplesmith

On a recent vacation to Vancouver with his wife, Ben Templesmith took some time out of his working holiday to visit with me. Not only was I extremely stoked to get a sit down with this amazing artist, I was humbled by how incredibly human he is and to discover that he is not at all a reflection of his art.


Ben Templesmith is an Australian born artists existing in the world of comics and graphic novels. He has horrified fans with his dark and moody imagery in 30 Days of Night with Steve Niles (Image Comics), Fell with Warren Ellis (IDW Publishing), and several of his own solo projects like Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse (2008 International Horror Guild award), Welcome To Hoxford (IDW Publishing, 2008), 30 Days of Night: Red Snow (co-creator & writer/artist, IDW Publishing, 2007) and Singularity 7 (IDW Publishing, 2004). These are just a few of the creator/writer/artist projects that Templesmith has taken on since his first commercial comic in 2002. He had also received a Spike TV Scream Award in 2007.

Me: Getting off topic right away, you were pretty political in the just past presidential election, are you somehow involved in politics or is it just a speaking out thing?

Templesmith: I’m not involved in politics really, I kept getting into talks with people and it wasn’t like I could just let it go. This guy wanted to re-write history to justify his beliefs.  Being from a different country, I see things with an outside prospective. I get to compare governments and I see a lot of bullshit. I just say what needs to be pointed out, the obvious problems with government. We didn’t like the Iraq war either.

Me: Ok that was my personal curiosity question, lets get to it. Obligatory question, when did you first get into art?

Templesmith: When I was born. Just growing as a kid, you either do it or you don’t with art. As a young kid, kind of like any boy who draws and picks up a comic. I knew that was what I wanted to do.

Me: Have you ever done any other type of art rather than the nightmare horror type of work we’ve seen commercially? Like unicorns and rainbows?

(Cover image from 30 Days of Night: Red Snow. courtesy of Ben Templesmith )

Templesmith: I’m a boy, I like boy things. When I was younger, I wanted to be a paleontologist so I used to draw dinosaurs. But then I graduated to monsters.
When I was in high school, I was reading a lot of comics and I was an artist so I thought ‘hey, I could do this’. I don’t have a traumatic story about my parents or anything, I just do it because it’s what I like and I’ve been very lucky so far.

Me: With the changes in the comic industry, movies being produced based on comics, do you notice people running out to read the comic book before the movies are released?

Templesmith: I wish! I would be a lot richer.

Me: Speaking of 30 Days of Night, I had read, before the movie came out, that you were hoping to get in on some post production work. Did you get a chance to do any of that?

Templesmith: No, not a single thing.

Me: They didn’t consult you during the film at all?

Templesmith: Me, No. I’m just the artist. Though, what I think now is that I didn’t have a film (Hollywood) manager. No one looking out for me, telling me what was going on.  But I was in Australia at the time anyway. I actually got a chance to visit the set. (Filmed in New Zealand)
I met the director, who actually turned out to be a fan of mine. I think he did a good job of making the moving look like the book.


Me: And since that movie, you have done other projects, are you hoping to see any of those get make into movies/films?

Templesmith: If you write with that frame of mind then you’re probably going to be a failed writer. If you approach a painting expecting it to be the next Mona Lisa straight off the bat, you’re probably going to be extremely disappointed.  And you defeat the purpose of starting the painting in the first place. It’s about you and your expression.

There are a lot of comic book people I know that purely do certain comics just to try and keep in the industry. Which, you know, for some people it works, but for me, it just do what I love to do.  I do see a lot of ‘options’. An option is not a movie. When something gets optioned, they pay you a little bit of money, not much, then wait and see what happens.



Me: So yeah, welcome to Canada, how do you feel about poutine?

Templesmith: Thanks! Umm, I’m not going to taste it. I don’t like cheesy stuff.
So, Vancouver has a pretty big art scene, yeah?

Me: Yes, definitely. Not as big as say New York or San Francisco.

Templesmith: Well, it’s got to be better than San Diego. Not much of an art scene there, but the music is pretty good.

Me: How was APE this year?

Templesmith: Yeah, we went to that. It was pretty good.

Me: I was hoping to check out a bunch of independent artists down there but I missed it.

Templesmith: I’m usually independent, except for this brief period. I’m a bit corporate right now. I’m employed with IDW Publishing.  I wanted to work in the ground floor with the publishers. I get to see how they (comics) are put together and be a part of that.
 
Me: How much of your art is digital?

Templesmith: Just 20%. I just add some colours. Only a little bit of Photoshop. Most of the work I do work with real paint. Watercolour and acrylic, but I would like to do some proper paintings as well. Something with oils, something you can hang up.

Me: Have you ever put any of your work in a gallery?

Templesmith: Not a proper gallery, comic shop is all. 

Me: The first time I came across your work was in Fell (written by Warren Ellis and published by Image Comics.) I usually cruise the independent section and came across this comic and was immediately taken in by the art.
(Dr. Who image. courtesy of Ben Templesmith )

Templesmith: Fell is really not that small or independent. It sold really well.

Me: And what is going on with Fell? It’s a personal question because I really got into the story and the art but after the novel, there was nothing for a long time, then a friend gave me #12 and said he didn’t know or didn’t think there would be another one.



Templesmith: Well, a book happens when the write sends me a script.  Warren (Ellis) is a really busy guy. He writes for a lot of different people so he’s constantly working on something. His contract with Marvel keeps him really busy.  But he’d tell me if there was never going to be another Fell. So there will be more. I get asked that question an awful lot.  It’s actually one of my most successful books really, outside of the 30 Days of Night original.

Me: How was Welcome to Hoxford for you?


Templesmith: It did really well. It was a one off mini-series thing and it has sold really well. It’s been my most successful thing I’ve done to date on my own.

Me: Are you doing any work with bands, like cover art stuff?

Templesmith: I did a little but I ended up not really like the experience too much. Like I’ll get approached by a band that says they really like my work and ask me to do a cover for them, then I do the work and they change it completely. They invert it or something. Something really ghastly that you as an artist wouldn’t want to be associated with.  The smaller bands are cool but when you’re working with corporate bands that have to go through a label, then you’re really dealing with a bigger company.

Me: And how do you feel about Obama coming out with his love of Spider-Man? Does that do anything for you?

    (page from Wormwood. courtesy of Ben Templesmith )          (page from 30 Days of Night: Red Snow. courtesy of Ben Templesmith )

Templesmith: Well not really. Maybe he’ll give a bail out to the comic industry (laughs).  He talks about a comic that is pretty old and it's a pretty safe bet to say you like Spider-Man. It’s not a safe bet to say you like Channel Zero of Brian Wood, or something like that.  That’s more obscure; that would be great though, wouldn’t it?

Me: I had heard that Brian Wood was someone you’d like to work with, is that right?

Templesmith:  Yeah, I’d probably like to work with him on something more political. I like his work, I grew up with his work as well and I understood that he was rather political.

Me: You must have some pretty messed up dreams. Does your art ever seep into your subconscious and mess with your head at night?

Templesmith:  Nope. I actually rarely ever dream and have never been affected by the work I've actually done or anything. I guess I have a pretty high tolerance level for such things!

Me: Any parting words?

Templesmith:  Beware of marmots. Or something.
I wish more people would appreciate comics as the valid medium they truly can be, even as Hollywood currently strip mines the industry's creativity. Not that that's a bad thing, it's actually the greatest opportunity sequential art has had in decades I think. It's one of my aims to do as much as I can to bring the new audiences from the movies into the books. At least I can try.


Ben is just finishing up a new art book called "PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES" and will be available through your local comic/book store or on Amazon.

Also.. Ben would love it if you would follow him on twitter to hear of his latest baby eating and greasy crotch shenanigans.

(disclaimer..Ben Templesmith would never eat a baby [human] though I can not claim to deny the greasing of any nethers.)


(Images from Presidents of The United States. courtesy of Ben Templesmith )

Huge thanks to Ben and his wife for taking the time to meet with me!


(Images from Presidents of The United States. courtesy of Ben Templesmith )


(Images from Presidents of The United States. courtesy of Ben Templesmith )