10 QUESTIONS WITH INKER, ARTIST & WRITER MARK McKENNA

This edition of IndieCreator covers a man who has literally “done it all” – from coming up the ranks with the Big Boys (DC, Marvel) to pursuing his passion of self publishing an inventive children’s series inspired by his father with the wonderful message – “It’s OK to be different – in fact, our uniqueness makes us all special!”

Speaking about being “unique”, Mark McKenna is indeed in a class by himself. Here’s a snippet of his bio from his “Mark McKenna Art” website:

“There are more than 425 comics that list my name in the credits and 7,000 pages that bear my ink lines on them. I created the concepts for “Banana Tail” along with my dear old departed Dad …  Here we are 10+ years later with 2 books under my belt, a third in the works, a computer generated movie being created completely based on my first storybook, and now an affiliation with the world’s largest bookseller, Barnes and Noble. Things are moving in the right direction for me. I've just reached the milestone of the one millionth hit on my website for the year, for the first time in the three years that I've had this site.”

For the rest of Mark’s story, read on …

1. You are pretty much a comic "jack-of-all-trades" - inker, artist and writer. Which is your favorite of the three ... and where did you get your training?

(MM:)  To be honest, I'm a pretty good inker and an OK writer and a so-so "artist". Although haven't you ever heard the dispute that inkers ARE artists too?

We're supposed to be annoyed by the thought that comic art is separated by artist and inker, and should be denoted by penciller and inker, but I understand the angles here and find it all amusing.

I have to say that writing my Banana Tail stories is becoming a natural fit for me, and has become something I really enjoy doing now.

My inking training came directly from working at Marvel Comics on staff in 1985 for a year and a half.

2. You've spent 25 years working on various titles at Marvel and DC. But, as a father of two little girls, one title that caught my eye is your Banana Tail children's series. Tell us about the premise and characters. And what was the inspiration?

(MM:)  Banana Tail was co-created by my father John (who I dedicated the 1st book to). When things got a bit dicey as comic sales started to plummet in mid 90's, I came up with the idea that I am in publishing, I am creative and also there was a lot of talent that was out of work. I was directly affected by work drop off and inconsistent income.

Having a newborn and a 4-year old, I knew how I loved to spoil my kids and buy books and toys for them. Me and the Missus also read to our kids from the time they could comprehend the stories, so I put 2 and 2 together and thought I should create something for them that they would enjoy.

I enlisted my father who was a great "idea man" but lacked a broader vision for finishing things. He came up with the idea for a monkey who had a banana for a tail. After Banana Tail was born and altered to have a banana-colored tail vs. a banana for a tail, Dad came up with a supporting cast and an island for them to have their adventures on.

(Note: Also helping out with writing some of the early material was Michael Marts, DC Editor on the Batman books and a good personal friend.)

3. Banana Tail was a self-published venture. Why did you decide to on the DIY approach, and how did you market to educators?

(MM:)  I decided to self publish the 1st Banana Tail when my father passed away in 2002. I was on the verge of having success selling Banana Tail to Goldenbooks in the late 90's, but they went bankrupt and put a halt to all new projects. I went to Simon and Schuster with it and they seemed to be interested in doing it, but after it got close, bailed. So I knew I had "something" but was falling short of finding a publisher.

When my father died, I spoke to my wife and we decided that we should get the ball rolling with self publishing under the Banana Tale Press banner and grass root efforts ensued.

I wanted to make the story important, yet fun. Having a unique cast of characters, it kind of wrote itself with the message that we are all unique and it’s OK to be different. This played big with the education market and I quickly sold 2000 books through schools and comic cons in 4 months.

4. Back to the meat and potatoes - you've illustrated some of the biggest brands in the business from X-Men, Spider Man, The Hulk, Wolverine, The Justice League, Wonder Woman to (most recently) Batman. Which was the hardest character for you to draw/ink? And whom (Wonder Woman excluded) do you have a secret "man crush" on?

(MM:)  Interesting question ... There is really not a character that's hard to ink. It's really more about the artist who's drawing them and if he's inspired and drawing the character well. If I'm doing a con sketch and am asked to draw Superman, actually I find him a bit difficult because he has no mask to hide his features. Also The Hulk is a challenge because of his proportions.

My "Man Crush" would be on the Silver Surfer. Always dug the character!

5. What do you admire most in other artists' work? What new "breakout artists" have impressed you the most?

(MM:)  I just did a Top 10 inkers for Wizard #225. Those guys impress the Hell out of me because they show that they can add and draw and take a pencillers work to another level. I am not in tune with what new talent is out there, quite honestly, because I don't get monthly comics. I'm in upstate NY and there's not a comic shop around me for many a mile.

6. What's the toughest thing about inking – besides getting black fingernails – which most fans don’t realize?

(MM:)  Actually, I've never had black fingernails. LOL, a misconception! I think most of us inkers have given ourselves dot tattoos, from jabbing ourselves with a pen-point deep enough that they don't go away.

I can give you a short list of things that frustrate us. Paper quality is HIGH on the list. If the paper quality is poor, the inks will tend to spread out on its own accord and change what we thought was going to be a true line. Humidity affects the paper and tends to "wet" the paper – that then causes line work "free styling". Ink needs to be a consistent performer and older ink doesn't flow well and can gunk up ink tools. Lighting needs to be consistent for inkers, because cast shadows from arms and hands can make the pencils look unclear. Soft, smudgy pencils are an issue too. Pencillers who apply too much graphite to the page can get smudged quite easily when an inker starts to ink over them if not careful because of the oil on our hands or the simple rubbing against the pencils. These, I would say are the biggest hazards for inkers.

7. You've done super hero and sci-fi comics. Have you ever had a hankering to do horror?

(MM:)  I would LOVE to do a B&W horror book. I am a huge fan of the old EC Tales of the Crypt genre. LOVE IT! Let me go at it with a plethora of ink techniques. Would be fun!

8. You've worked on nearly 500 titles. What are you all-time "five fave" and why?

(MM:)  Never been asked this one in-depth... OK, counting backwards a la David Letterman...

#5- Doom Patrol #36 with Grant Morrison and Kelley Jones

#4- The Batman Annual #27 with Fabian Nicieza and Jim Calafiore

#3- X-Men Unlimited #3 with Fabian and Mike Mckone

#2- JLA: World Without Grown Ups with Todd DeZago and Mckone

(SFX: Kettle drum)

and the #1 is ...Final Night: Parallax one shot with Ron Marz and Mike Mckone.

All these books had important storylines that help create either new books or new directions in the comics universe, except I think for the Doom Patrol, which was more because it’s the 1st time I got to work with Morrison and Jones, both of whom I admire greatly.

9. Best writer you ever worked with?

(MM:)  Hmm, loaded question... best writer or my personal fave? Let’s go with Fabian Nicieza, who was a roommate of mine for a few years and I have an extensive body of work with. Certainly Grant Morrison and Kurt Busiek are right there.

10. Please tell us where we can go to keep up on your works and, of course, buy them!

(MM:)  My new Banana Tail's Colorful Adventures ships from Image Books on June 30th through comic shops and July 27th(-ish) through major book store chains and  I'm also currently working on the Star Wars web comic, Blood of the Empire, for Dark Horse (see inked artwork panel above).

Look for info for both and any other upcoming projects at www.markmckennart.com and www.bananatail.com .

Thanks Mark!