Michael Avon Oeming is the artist behind the huge success of Powers, the superhero-crime series for Image created together with writer Brian Michael Bendis.

With his cartoony style he has captured readers and critics.
Apart the ongoing Powers, it is a very busy time for him: the recent epic saga Hammer of The Gods, upcoming projects as collaboration with Clerks director Kevin Smith and contributes to Marvel's Ultimate line, on line strips and movie opportunities.

Recently he has received the Eisner Award nomination for 2001.

More info on Michael Avon Oeming at:

http://pmayhem.com/oeming (his home page)

http://www.chopra.com/monk.htm (his Bulletproof Monk book)

http://www.jinxworld.com (info on Powers)

http://www.omegaodd.com/powers/ (Powers Unofficial Website)

http://www.ocpstudios.com/pages/pe2issue01intro.html (Powers: Earth 2 Online Strip written by Pat Garrahy)

http://www.popimage.com/picomics/powers1.html (A Powers story!)

http://www.wfcomics.com/doctorcyborg (Dr. Cyborg Online strips)

http://www.SunnyFundays.com (comic strip version of Hammer of The Gods)

If you want to get on the Oeming mailing list just ask him at oeming@aol.com

FIRST STEPS

Is it true you started working in the comics market at the tender age of 14?

Yep! it was only one issue of a book called Newstralia, but that was my start. I had some fan pieces in AMAZING HEROES from time to time too.

Did you attend an Art School or are you a complete autodidact?

Well, I've never tried any autodidact, but I'm sure it tastes fine. The only art school I did was a correspondence art school. Drew a turtle, won some lessons. They were helpful. We couldn't afford the lessons, so my uncle paid for it. The ART INSTRUCTION SCHOOLS OF MINNISOTA. I should contact them sometime to let them know I made something of myself!

In your style I see a perfect mix of the lessons of Alex Toth, Mike Mignola and Bruce Timm. But the final result is very personal. Which have been your influences - both in comics and visual art and in other media such as cinema and literature?

Well, those guys you mentioned for sure! My biggest influences may have been the artist I know- Neil Vokes (who showed me Mignola, Toth and Eisner's work) Adam Hughes (we're old pals, he taught me lots!) and film influences I mostly picked up working with Brian Bendis. That, and my basic need to escape reality.

On your homepage, I have discovered with a little surprise some version of famous Frazetta's paintings rendered in your distinctive cartoony trademark.

Is Frazetta - an artist that seems so distant from your sensibility - an other input in your art?

Sure, he has POWER in his compositions and body language. I did those to sell on ebay when comics weren't bringing in the bread anymore!

Black and white versus color: which is your choice?

Oh, black and white. But aren't those colors anyway?

Let start talking of your comics production. I first see you on Foot Soldiers and on the crazy space opera Ship of Fools. What do you remember of those books?

They were fun! Greatly personal to me too, not huge successes, but man, I love those books. I learned a lot during that time too. We hope to revamp Ship of Fools in the future.

Then your line became more angular and straight. And I found you again on a Image miniseries titled Buttletproof Monk, a very action packed story. Is it true director Jon Woo bought it for a future movie?

Yes it is true! Lets hope it gets made. That style was a choice for that particular book. Lots of fun doing that style, I may visit it again, but not as my mainstay style. Although I will use some of the same design approaches in future books I do.

POWERS OF GODS

And now your big hit, Powers (I LOVE it!) with supreme writer Brian Michael Bendis. Could you try a promotional spot for the Italian audience describing the book?

It's a detective book, but it's more involved in the human psyche than Sherlock Holmes' style clues and suspects. It's noir on paper. An Italian filmmaker is a big influence on my art: Mario Bava!

How is the collaboration with Bendis? Which are your contributes to the stories? Bendis is also a good penciler himself, does he suggest something about page composition or character design?

We work closely together. Especially early on, Brian walked me through his style of storytelling, I picked up on it, and now we just bang the pages out. My input is mostly in visual impact. Other than the script, it's really both of us telling the story. Pat Garrahy does a huge amount not only in coloring but in production, such as rearranging my panels, dropping in pre drawn backgrounds and fixing crooked faces I draw.

Do you expect a success so huge for Powers?

NO! We were hoping to break event and maybe get a film option, but that's it! We are very grateful.

What can you tell us about a possible Powers movie? Do you have any favorite picks for the actors?

Well, it's out of our hands. But it's in the good hands of Mace Nuefeld, producer extraordinaire. As far as actors, I would want George Clooney as Walker. I'd like to see John Leguizamo (in his actor mode, not funny guy mode), and Deena - I don't really have a pick.

Recently you have lunched Hammer of The Gods, a black and white 4-issue miniseries for Insight Studios, with writer Mark Wheatley. Somewhere I read you defined it as "a mix of Viking mythology and Led Zeppelin's music ". Because I am a big fan of the Zep, could you clarify this statement?

Songs that were done in the early years have a huge impact on me. When I listen to stuff like FOUR STICKS, IMMIGRANT SONG, NO QUARTER, BATTLE OF EVERMORE ect., I get imagery in my head I just can't stop. The Celtic/Pagan imagery of Europe is projected behind the lyrics and music. Eventually, the imagery from IMMIGRANT SONG overcame me, and I started doing all these Norse drawings, and stories started in my head based on the lyrics. In fact, it was the following words that made me do Hammer:

"We come from the land of the ice and snow,

From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.

The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,

To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!"

We snuck a few lyrics in as dialogue as well! I'm such a geek. If we do a compilation, I'd love to try and get Plant to do the intro. I think he studied Celtic Mythology in collage.

In the near future your projects will be:

- a collaboration with director and comics writer Kevin Smith on Bluntman and Chronic, a book based on his Clerks characters. How do you feel working with Smith and on his crazy heroes?

Blessed! I finished the first issue, and it's a blast. I also think it's his most refined comedy writing yet.

- a brief story on this summer Oni Press Color Special. It is a crossover of Powers with Mike Allred's Madman. Do you like Madman? I LOVE him. I think is the perfect pop comics icon!

Yep, it's fun stuff! We turn it into an issue of Mad Magazine!

- an issue of Marvel's Ultimate Team Up, with Bendis of course. Which character and why will you draw?

I'll be doing Captain America! He's a fascinating character. A throwback to American pride, yet he is a man fresh from the horrors of WW2.

Do you think the Ultimate line can help to escape the crisis and to rise a new generation of young readers?

Lets hope, but who knows? Honestly, I've given up trying to figure out when comics are going to die. I just draw, keep my eye on the future and have fun.

Do you have any dream project?

I'm doing it! The economic and commercial freedom to work on projects I love and are creatively enriching. I'm doing it now, and pray I can continue to do so for the rest of my life! But I know all things must pass, so I am enjoying it while I can and I'm grateful for what I have.

WHAT IS COMIC ART?

Let turn again talking about style. It is a provocative argument. How do you fell seeing Alex Ross's paintings or Dave McKean and Ashley Wood digital art?

Completely jealous! I can't do that stuff, painted or digital. I do some watercolor, but with little success. I have no color palette.

Do you think a cartoony approach - as you do - is more functional to tell a comics story?

Yes. It's simple and iconic, it takes your eye and mind a nanosecond to know what you are looking at. There are artists whom I greatly admire, but sometimes I look at their pages and I have to spend time figuring out where to go next or what the hell is on the page because all those lines and style I admire get in the way. But I don't knock that stuff, its just not for me. Like I said, I admire a lot of that, but I don't think it's practical.

Do you think readers could have their eyes distracted by those images loosing the narrative flow?

Exactly. It's distracting to the point of a fault. I'm amazed at how many people read books, yet don't UNDERSTAND THEM! Yet they still love it! No matter how much I love the art, if the story is bad, I'll stop reading it and just look at the art. Yet the art without a story is never as satisfying, because you look at it only for a second, with no context and then move on. Story and art should be one, not separate, equally important.

Would you like to draw in that style?

I used to, and I think my art suffered because of it.

COMICS ON THE WEB

You do an on line daily strip called Dr. Cyborg. Do you like the experience?

Yes, but sadly, I have been slacking off. I'm in deadline hell. Its very satisfying and the artistic freedom is great. I look forward to doing more.

Which is your felling about on line comics? Someone thinks that in the future comics will be only in volume format, with the death of the thin classic comic book replaced by a great variety of on line strips. Do you agree with this scenario?

Well, if it is, no one will be making money or a living on it. It's very hard to do that. I see internet comics as a GREAT ad for your next book or project. That's why we did a month of dailies for Hammer. It was great press, and I'll continue to do that for my other projects.

Name three comics a real fan should read...

Man, that's tough. Off hand, I say Hellboy, Dark Knight and Kabuki. It's a wide range of style and content.

Thanks for your time and long life to comic art!

Thanks man!

All the characters and trademarks reproduced in this page are © of the respective owners

and are used only for journalistic, preview and review purposes.

All the images are © of Michael Avon Oeming