JOSEPH WIGHT
Creator of Twilight X

Joe is the creator of Antarctic Press' cult hit Twilight X. He has also done stories and artwork for several of their other titles such as Mangazine, Shotgun Mary, and Ninja High School. Plus, he has provided art for such titles as Gen 13 and the Star Wars manga series.

JOE'S CREDITS

Gigantor(comic), Gold Digger, How To Draw Manga, Ninja High School, Shotgun Mary, Star Wars(manga), Twilight X, Warrior Nun Areala, World War II: 1946

Interview taken over the internet, October 2001.

• HOW DID YOU FIRST GET STARTED AS A COMIC ARTIST?
  Back in 1989, there were lots of independent black and white books, and lots of translated manga being released. There were about twice as many comic stores as there are now, and tons of distributors, so it was much easier to get an independent comic on the shelves. I had stories in my head and I liked to draw, so I thought it might be fun. Turns out I was right!
  
  
• WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO ADOPT THE MANGA-STYLE OF COMIC ART?
  I couldn't wrap my head around the American/Euro style of artwork I'd grown up reading(Heavy Metal, GI Combat, Creepy, Eerie, The Rook, etc.). Anime like Galaxy Express and Star Blazers made a huge impressions on me, and later Dark Horse released Johji Manabe's OUTLANDERS. More than any other single influence, Manabe's simplified characters and highly detailed backgrounds inspired me to try manga-styled character designs, although I think my approach to storytelling still has a more cinematic Euro feel to it.
  
  
• WHICH COMICS HAVE YOU WORKED ON?
  Twulight X-creator/writer/artist
  Star Wars Trilogy manga-cover artist(with Adam Warren)
  Shotgun Mary-writer/artist
  Gen 13-backgrounds/color
  Ninja High School-contributing artist
  Gold Digger-contributing artist
  World War II: 1946-contributing artist
  Warrior Nun Areala-contributing artist
  How To Draw Manga-contributing writer/artist
  How To Draw Color Comics-contributing artist
  Gigantor-cover artist
  Mangazine-designer, cover artist, contributing artist
  Manga EX-editor, designer, cover artist, contributing artist
  
  
• WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR TWILIGHT X?
  There was an old role-playing game called Twilight 2000 that I played for a couple of weeks in 1988. The two other guys were Neal Gleaton and Steve Kratochvil, who eventually wrote the first Twilight X three-issue mini-series with me. We'd play a session, and the next week I'd bring in extremely crude comic paged re-telling a scene or two from the previous week, mostly for a good laugh. Now the Twilight X storyline has pretty much nothing to do with the original game storyline we played.
  
  
• THERE IS ALOT OF TWILIGHT X THAT REMAINS UNPUBLISHED. ARE THEIR PLANS TO REPRINT THIS SOMETIME?
  I assume you're referring to the Twilight X roadmap, which describes several episodes as 'not published'. I've been drawing these unpublished episodes and printing them in Manga EX this year, in preparation for the giant Twilight X compilation coming out next year, which will print all 600 pages of the Twilight X story so far, in chronological order!
  
  
• WHAT TITLES ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
  At this moment, I'm working on Twilight X: Episode 3, another Treadhead tutorial for How To Draw Manga, a cover for the Cybertonian TRG Transformers book, and a Mangazine cover.
  
  
• WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW MANGA EX COMIC?
  I had high hopes for Manga EX, but a 96 page black and white anthology with no real known talent except for myself(and I'm barely known), coupled with a high cover price($6.95), made EX a tough sell to retailers. We're sticking out the year on EX, six issues total, then we're going to stop. We;ve got some fantastic artists and writers on deck, and I'd like to revive an anthology(maybe a couple)that has a higher focus on theme. I've been talking with the AP crew about it, and we all agree that there needs to be a book to showcase some of the great new artists, who's dedication and talent deserves to be seen, and for now, some of these artists might make it into Mangazine. The 'EX' stands for 'Experimental', and while I wouldn't call Manga EX a failed experiment, the current format/incarnation of our anthology just isn't cost effective. We need to drop the cover price(and subsequently the page count), and go monthly. To all potential EX contributors: Don't get discouraged, do send in your submissions, we'll do all we can for you! I want to contribute too and get involved with a new anthology, but I personally cannot take the role of editor again, I have toomuch of my own work that needs my attention. Manga EX 5 will include 'Twilight X: Episode 3', and EX 6 will have 'Twilight X: Eps. 4'.
  
  
• WHAT ROLE DO YOU PLAY AT ANTARCTIC PRESS?
  I guess I'm mostly known as a cover artist for AP these days, but I try to contribute to whatever projects want or need from me. I designed most of the new logos(Gold Digger, Mangazine, Manga EX, WW2:1946, and the AP logo for that matter), and for a while I was involved in constructing the ads for Diamond, but the production crew has taken that responsibility away from me(thankfully), so I can devote more time to sequential art, primarily Twilight X. I just try to make myself useful at AP.
  
  
• WHAT FUTURE PLANS DO YOU HAVE?
  I'm going to assemble Twilight X: Book One to be released next year. Then I'd like to get on the schedule with a regular Twilight X book again. My goal is to get faster without sacrificing quality so I can put more work on the shelves. I'd still like to do covers and logos, etc., and I've been talking to AP about a few other projects, but it's still a little early to announce anything yet.
  
  

ANTARCTIC PRESS
JOE'S EMAIL