How did you get the job as artist on Doom 2099?
Pat: I had just returned to Marvel
from DC Comics. I had been working on Alpha Flight for about
a year. Joey Cavalieri had also crossed over to Marvel maybe
prior to me, but not too much. So they had this expansion in
mind, I was approached by Joey to do the book and rapidly
accepted the offer.
When it came to designing the look of the characters,
locations, technology, etc. what were your inspirations?
Pat: I had to keep the basics of
Doom’s iconic look, at least in the beginning and cover it
for the second armor. The first design, if memory serves me
correct, I had submitted designs to Joey and John. They
looked them over. John submitted a sketch to me. I took
elements from that and combined it and came up with the
armor for the first run.
The architecture, the world, and the urban environment
however was a much different approach to that. I felt I was
very lucky in actually having to visualize Doom’s world with
the pre-history set that a lot of the architecture would
still exist. For the simple fact that they had not pushed it
that far into the future. They had not given any guidelines
that there had been any world-wide events that would have changed
it. It was nice to take some of the existing architecture
and add a more retro-modern look to some of the buildings
and design work. That’s how I approached it.
Which of the two armors did you like best?
Pat: I really like the second
armor, a lot. I think it’s because Doom had seen a good run
in the original armor. I liked the original armor. I didn’t
want to abandon it. But they decided that maybe it was time
to change the armor in order to keep the interest going in
the character. Perhaps John felt that it seemed a natural
direction in the development of the story. I was open to it.
I didn’t mind.
From your run, is there a specific issue that you’re
particularly proud of? Or a favorite cover?
Pat: I think the first 3 with John
Beatty were my strongest. The beginning of the series I put
in a lot of energy. Issue one by itself I think took about 6
weeks to complete from beginning to end. Then there was the
matter of concentrating on the pencils and becoming
comfortable with Beatty as an inker again. Just seeing where
the inspiration was going to take me. As far as favorite
stories, I really did enjoy the Savage Land sequence because
I always had a love of drawing dinosaurs. That was an opportunity to
do so. I really enjoyed the whole storyline. The first 12
issues was extremely well planned by John. It was something
new for me. I was getting to comfortable doing the
super-hero stuff at the time. I needed a good change. It was
nice to cross over to the sci-fi realm again. With a
character like Doom, his personality, the approach of doing
a series from a villain’s point of view was refreshing to
me.
I enjoyed doing all the covers for Doom. It was a series
where I felt like I was really beginning to hit my stride
artistically. The character was so close to me as far as
investment of energy that I really enjoyed all the covers.
The Radian ones I was pulling more of a Kirby influence into
the character design. I felt those covers came out very
well.
Favorite character?
Pat: Of the secondary
characters, I have to say Wire was my favorite. Doom was
definitely the main character that had garnished all my love
and interest. But from the group of secondary characters
that Johnny created, Wire was by far my second favorite.
I saw that #28, the issue where the country neighboring
Latveria gets Necro-Toxified, had two covers.
Pat: Yeah, nano-toxins were
introduced into the village. They rejected the cover
out-right at the time. I think the cover was probably a few
years too early. Had zombies been as popular then as they
became later, I don’t think there would have been a problem
at all with that cover.
What recollections do you have about working with writer John
Francis Moore?
Pat: Only wonderful ones. I really
enjoyed working with him. His writing was refreshing. He
really knows how to construct a story well. His whole
structure method with the plots was extremely enjoyable for
me to interpret. In working in this industry you do a lot of
reading in the process of doing the work. Sometimes one gets
the opportunity to read for enjoyment. So when John’s plots
and scripts came in, it became a pleasurable read. It was
fun, I enjoyed it tremendously.
With Warren Ellis?
Pat: The term with Warren was very
short. Warren’s plots were very different from Johns. They
played up the darker side of things. Much more in your face.
When Warren came on the book he had definite plans on the
direction he wanted to take the story to. Involved in those
plans was eliminating characters that he thought were
roadblocks in developing that. So we did the sudden demise
of and departure of a lot of characters in that transition.
I myself was caught up in it, not quite in agreement with the
direction they wanted to go. I thought there was still a
good deal of plot
threads that had been established and needed to be dealt with and were certainly
viable good storylines. So a lot of the changes happened
quickly. Then they had a change of artist afterwards. It
probably would have been better if when John had decided to
leave if I had made my exit at that time and allowed a fresh
new team to take over. Yeah, that probably would have been a
better decision.
With Joey Cavalieri?
Pat: Loved it. Loved working with
Joey. I know at times I was a pain in the butt for him. I
did call a lot to talk with him. But I did truly enjoy
working with Joey a great deal. He’s one of the best editors
I have ever worked under. All of his assistants were
wonderful to me. They really bent over backwards to be
professional and as accommodating as they could. Every time
I called I was always able to get a hold of him. Anytime I
needed anything, he was always there. Joey was a great
editor.
What do you think made Doom 2099 stand apart from the other
2099 books?
Pat: I thought what was unique was
that they taking all these characters out of the Marvel
Universe and out of all of them Doom was the only one that
was connected to the original character during the time of
the heroes. I’ve always been a huge sci-fi fan. So I liked
the heavy sci-fi influence that was woven into the
super-hero genre for that line. I had certainly hoped it had
been stronger. It would have lasted much longer had not the
market thrust itself into such a bad time.
