How did you get the job as inker on
X-Men 2099?
Harry:
I was the inker on X-force over Greg Capullo up until issue
#23 and when that ended I was looking for other steady work.
I liked what Ron Lim was doing on the book so I proceeded to
beg the editor to let me have a crack at it.
He gave me a cover to do (Spider-man 2099) to see how I
looked over Ron, and he liked what he saw, so he started me
on issue #12
What do you recall about working with
Ron Lim?
Harry: A few things. He's
probably one of the nicest guys I've ever spoken to. We've
never actually met, but we spoke on the phone all the
time. His work was very easy to ink - at least it was for me.
FAST!! Boy was he fast. We never missed a deadline (that I
can remember) because he was a machine. I didn’t ink
anywhere near as fast as he penciled. Also he was
artistically generous, what I mean is, we would talk about
art/drawing/inking and he would try to make my job easier by
drawing stuff that I liked to do or wanted to try doing.
Other sometimes we would discuss other artists we both
admired and the next few pages would reflect that. For
example: if we were talking about Mark Silvestri’s work on
Wolverine, the next few pages kinda reflected what we were
discussing, whether he did that on purpose or not, I don’t
know, but I gotta tell you, it was fun.
Together you worked a total of 20
issues on the series. Was there a learning curve in the
beginning where you two had to get used to each other’s styles?
Do you think the long stint on the series helped you guys
perfect a certain series style?
Harry:
I think it took longer for me to get in sync with him than
the other way around. He would tell me what he liked and
didn't like and I would try to comply. In fact I don't think
that's accurate. He never told me what he didn't like, he
just told we what I was doing right. Like I said before - A
really nice guy!
What do you think his strengths are as
a penciler, and what do you think your inks brought to his
pencils?
Harry:
This is just my opinion but his strengths were:
He knew what he wanted to put down on the paper. He had a
fast and solid technique with just the right amount of
detail. Not too much and not too little. Ron wasn't trying
to emulate anyone else. He admired many artists but wasn't
trying to be any of them and by doing so had his own nice
unique style. He penciled for inkers, that's a big plus.
Many pencillers don't do that. They like to draw pretty
pictures but not think about how it's going to be inked. The
other great thing about Ron was, he never took any
shortcuts. He drew everything that was needed and never said
stuff like – “I didn’t feel like drawing a car but could you
fix that”. He drew every background just as carefully as the
characters.
My inks:
I always thought Ron's art was "pretty" (which I happen to
like) so I always tried to keep it that way and not "muddy"
it up with too much line-work or superfluous detail. Ron's
female faces were especially sweet and I would try to
capture that in the inks. I also liked getting into the
minute details of the larger backgrounds that Ron did every
so often.
He would make a vast room filled with junk or computers or
anything else and I made sure I didn't skimp on any of it.
What do you recall about working with
editor Joey Cavalieri?
Harry:
Joey was an even tempered boss. As long as we got the work
in on time he just left us to our own devices.
In fact I think I spoke to him just a handful of times and
it wasn't even about work.
What do you recall about designing the
many villains from series? Shadow Dancer, Halloween Jack, the
Free Radicals, Graverobber and the Undead, etc.
Harry:
I had nothing to do with the designing of any of those. I do
remember that they were fun to ink, especially the Undead. I
recall inking some huge character in one of the Halloween
Jack issues (#19) and to my regret I think I did a poor job
getting across what Ron and I originally intended. I mean
Ron got it right, I messed up.
Why did you leave the book?
Harry:
Hmmm.. that was when Marvel was downsizing (1996-97) Joe
Cavalieri got let go and so did a whole mess of other
people. So Joeys books were handed to another editor who
didn't like Ron Lim's artwork. So he gave the pencilling
duties to one of his friends, I don't recall whom. I tried
inking one issue but he wasn't that good of an artist and it
felt like punishment after a few pages. I tried to follow
Ron when he went to DC but they had their own inkers to
hire.
Do you have a favorite cover or issue?
Favorite character from the series?
Harry:
I like quite a few of them but for different reasons. I
liked "La Lunatica" best. Ron for some reason would draw her
"curvier" than usual and I just loved inking that. I also
liked the Doom/Junkpile – SHEILD issue. I had a ball inking
those 2 characters I did like the cover for #29 - that's the
one that mimicked Neal Adams X-men #56 and John Byrne's
X-men #135.
