How did you first become involved with
2099?
Mal:
I either ran into Joey Cavalieri in his office or I was
talking to Dwayne Turner out in California. There was this
convention out there. I was hanging out with Mark Texari
We're high school buddies. Myself, Mark, Jimmy Palmiotti,
Denys Cowan...all of us went to Art Design High School.
Somehow I got connected with Joey. I know I gave Dwayne a
call. Dwayne had done some kind of premiere issue of Hulk
2099. It was like a first refusal thing. I wanted to make
sure he wasn't interested in it or that it was ok with him
that I would do it. And he said 'sure.' It was cool with
him. So then I got back to Joey. He also wanted me to do
this thing called "The Public Enemy." I did one issue of that.
I think the writers or creators really wanted me to do that
because Joey got back to me right away saying "they love it,
and they want you on it." That was cool, but it was like
an annual. Once a year. I needed work on a regular basis. [laughs]. We artists are human you know.
[laughs] I agreed to
that one issue. But that was it, that's how I got into Hulk
2099.
What
recollections do you have about designing the villains of the
series?
Mal: I know I wanted to do the
"braniac" character [Draco] different. I didn't get a whole
lot of feedback on that. Things were pretty much rushed as I
got on the Hulk 2099 book. I think the character shows up
full fledged in issue #2. I was told to design the character
like the old one. Little guy, big head, I can do that
[laughs]. But I wanted to do something a bit different.
Something like a regular looking guy but more electronic,
more circuitry, more futuristic without the big dome. I was
kind of designing it like a helmet he could take off. That
was one thing that never came to fruition. The full design
of that character. It wasn't supposed to remain like that.
It wasn't supposed to be his skull, more like a helmet that
he would put on and he would redesign by issue 3 seeing that
it was ridiculous and cumbersome. He would make it into
something more like a headband or something. Almost like a
cross between Dune and [the space jokey from ]Alien. Where
he has tubes going to his skull from his body. It just never
developed to that point. It was just rush, rush, rush. I
think his [Joey's] boss wanted to get it out there. I
believe in the middle of issue one they stopped me and said
'hey we need two preview issues.' Two eight-pagers. That was
a distraction. So we never really got on board with the
development of this character.
Did you work closely with your inker,
Chris Ivy?
Mal:
Sometimes. We would hang out sometimes at each others house.
He was really good. What I like most about Chris is that he
can draw. He didn't have to be an inker. He could be an
illustrator. A good inker like Chris can actually add to
what you're doing. There was time I think he corrected an
arm that I drew. I said "what the heck are you doing?" And
he was like "actually Malcolm the shoulder goes in like
this." So I was like "ok yeah, that's right." Its times like
that you appreciate an inker who can actually draw,
understands anatomy, lighting, and backgrounds. That's when
you have an inker that you can trust with your work. You can
just let him go. You don't have to worry about what he's
going to do.
Favorite
cover or issue?
Mal:
I think my favorite issues were the first and second.
Cover-wise the one where he was in this jungle paint. He had
these other wild looking characters in the background. That
was fun. I have a couple pages here and there that were my
favorites in the last issue. Where there were more robot-type characters, and going up against Doom. It was
interesting.
Why did you leave Hulk 2099 before the
end of the series?
Mal: I knew that it was
coming to a close. I wanted to take a break from it. It just
came at a time when I wanted to take a break from it and do
something different. I said to Joey, I wanted to take a
break for at least an issue. He said it was cool. It was
more like after the fact, 'by the way they're cancelling the
book. Is there anything you think we can do to keep it
going?'
It wasn't really a good time for any publisher. The industry
was so flooded by all kinds of stuff. Image was coming up
with their own characters. It was definitely a big
infringement on DC and Marvel's money. So them flooding the
market too only made things worse for themselves more than
just the little independent guys.
