self-taught. My early influences were various realistic fine artists, commercial artists, and comics artists. John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla and Velázquez come to mind. In my early comics work, my figures had decently realistic proportions. When I began Top 10, I began experimenting with elongated proportions. I just wanted to see if I could do it. El Greco and fashion illustration were big influences. One of my art school instructors told me that, in commercial art, you can never make the legs too long. I'll add this caveat: stretch the lower legs more than the upper legs. I'm pleased that you like my storytelling! I've always striven to respect the script. In retrospect, some of the early scripts I got didn't ask for any respect. click to enlarge But an Alan Moore script asks for as much care and thought as you can supply. sm: You defined your 12 issue run on Top 10 as the most important work of your career. Can you tell us how everything started. GH: Alex Ross was doing covers for Alan Moore's Awesome comics. I told Alex Ross that I wished I could work with Alan Moore too. So he told me to 'get off my ass' and try. I contacted Awesome and Wildstorm. Eventually, Scott Dunbier at Wildstorm showed interest. I sent him a package of samples to send to Alan. Alan liked my work and I became one of the founding members of America's Best Comics. [continues]