ARMANDO GIL.COM

CATCHING UP WITH Armando Gil

By Michael Tierney

Drawing on the walls leads back to comics. Artist Armando Gil goes from the cafe to the comics page

Remember how Michelangelo, famed portrait painter and sculptor, left those endeavors to spend years creating lavish art for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? More prosaically, a comic-book artist recently worked in a larger format.

Armando Gil may be best known for illustrating What If? Vol. 2 #50 (Jun 1993), "What If The Hulk Had Killed Wolverine?"

"That was a surprisingly good year for me," Gil told CBG. "I'd just finished off the Predator: Big Game for Dark Horse and had started on Satan's Six for Topps. I was scheduled to ink Jack Kirby just before his death. Not getting to work with the founding father of modern-day comic art was really disappointing. The King had all the dynamics." Gil already had a fan base at this time, from work he'd done 10 years earlier. "People still come up to me today and tell me how much they like my work on Ka-Zar." He worked on many titles, including Jurassic Park, but eventually left comics

to work in the animation field. Over the years, his credits included Rusty and Big Guy, Godzilla, Courage The Cowardly Dog, and Stan Lee Media's Internet feature Southern Portal. "Working in animation really improved my sense of storytelling," he said. "You've got to draw with a lot more emotion for animation than you do with comics. You've got to learn all the dynamics."

Returning to the comics industry in 2002, he pencilled Force Majeure: Prairie Bay. The influence of his years spent within the animation industry showed. His style had changed dramatically, featuring highly refined characterizations and extreme three-point perspectives.

Another challenge presented itself, when Gil recently redecorated the interior of the Cleveland Grill in Cleveland, Ohio, by painting murals with wall paint. "It really revived my love for art again. This didn't feel like a job. It was exciting to work on a large scale with color and in a more traditional manner."

He followed that project with a return to his comics roots. As a teen-ager in the late '70s, Gil had entered the field along with fellow artist Dave Simons. They worked together without credit on the black-and-white Howard the Duck magazine and separately on The Savage Sword of Conan. Gil is currently inking Simon's pencils for the Hulk story in Marvel's ACTOR Presents Spider-Man & The Incredible Hulk one-shot, scheduled for a January release. Gil's next project will be the second chapter of the Force Majeure trilogy and fans will soon be able to see whether his recent wall-mural project has brought changes to his ever-evolving style.

COMIC BUYER'S GUIDE #1573 JANUARY 9, 2004