Michael Mayne Walks The Plank Part Two

Today is the day folks. Not only are we bringing you the latest and largest collection of digital comics around, we’ve also got the fourth issue of Michael Mayne and Tyler Fluharty’s action packed sea fearing riot Bonnie Lass! Yesterday we began a two part series interviewing Michael the series creator and artist. Today we’ve got part two just in time for the new release. Check it out below:

comiXology: If you got the chance to sail a tall ship across the seven seas today where would you go and what would you do?

Michael Mayne: I’d go to where it’s warm. The rest would just be cake from there…! Also, I’d buy a lot of food. Because I figure if I’ve got the resources to get me a ship and the time off to sail it, I’m doing pretty well. And Coffee Cake sounds really friggin’ good right now.

comiXology: As an illustrator can you name some of your influences?

MM: So many. Mucha, Da Vinci, Rockwell. Jim Lee was probably my first comic book influence. I was trying to emulate his characters’ facial structures back in elementary school.

Pretty much, if you ever had a major hand in some incarnation of Spiderman, you’ve secured a place on this hollowed list. I learn from so many great artists, it’s hard to pin it down to just a few. And I’m always finding new influences every day.

Adam Hughes, Joe Madureira, Sean Galloway, Thomas Perkins, Jeffery ‘Chamba’ Cruz, Nate Simpson (who if you haven’t heard of yet you need to keep an eye out for his upcoming series Nonplayer—truly amazing!) I could prattle on and on. I see so much wonderful art every day, it’s hard to just boil my influences down to these few names! If I’ve seen it, it’s influenced me somehow.

Also, music. Just whatever music I’m listening to at the time has its own peculiar influences on my art. For example, the last, action-packed leg of ‘Bonnie Lass: The Legend’ was fueled by a few days of listening to nothing but the score from ‘The Land Before Time.’ Oddly, the melancholy melody primed me for drawing lots of kinetic energy. Go figure.

comiXology: What about as a writer?

MM: Most of my writing influences I would say are screenwriters—Harold Ramis, Robert Zemekis, The Cohen Brothers, Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio—the kind of guys that write really fun yet well-told stories. Most any writing I do is structured after movie plot progression—translates well into comics, I think; but I can’t write prose for spit. Brian Clevinger writes the exact kind of dialog I love to read. It’s always clever. Each character has their own voice. And it always serves to drive the overall story. Mark Crilley is another comics auteur I respect. He’s got some high-quality series out there. Fun, easy reads, but he’s also his own illustrator, so they’re nice to look at too! Anybody that can write heart into stories where it would otherwise seem impossible to do so is tops, in my book!

comiXology: With all sorts of High Sea’s adventures under way what’s next for both Bonnie and you guys? Got any upcoming projects you could tell us about?

MM: Nothing solid is set in stone with Bonnie beyond her initial arc, but I myself have plenty of ideas. I’ve been wanting to write a new script for just-in-casies, but I’ve been a bit busy lately. I’ll just say that plenty of new plots and characters can arise out of the endgame events of this initial arc, but Bonnie and her crew are easily adapted to practically any kind of scenario, so there’s quite a bit swimming around in my head, waiting for the opportunity to hit the pages!

In the meantime, Tyler and I are both taking on other freelance gigs. Mine are mostly comics-related; Tyler’s working more with video games, currently with the studio Black Ops Entertainment.

I’m currently working on a mini-series/OGN called ‘Massively Effective.’ The creators have a publisher interested, but we can’t say anything else on that for now. I’m providing the layouts and inks on that one. Search for it on Facebook for now, as there are already some early previews of it on the page! I’m also set to get started on some other projects, but I can’t disclose any details yet, so click on over to michaelmayne.com to keep up!

Related posts:

1. Michael Mayne Walks The Plank with Bonnie Lass
2. Kevin Colden Rules the Night: Part One of a Two Part Interview!
3. An Interview With Molly Crabapple: Part One