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From the cover to the inner artist - Simone di Meo Comicon Napoli Interview
At the Comicon 25 in Naples we caught up with the young but already quite prominent Italian comic artist, who had a lot to share about his own Li Troviamo Solo Quando Sono Morti and about his personal touch to Marvel, Disney, or Power Rangers.
Audio transcription
"Hi friends, I'm at the 25th Comicon in Napoli and I'm here joined by Simone.
Thank you so much for joining us.
I want to pronounce the title of your work perfectly fine, so let me try in Italian."
"Please.
Li troviamo solo, solo? Solo?
Solo quando sono morte.
Yes, perfect.
Alright, so I wanted to ask you first and foremost about that work, which is, if I'm correct, more personal to you."
"So what can you tell me about that one?
So this is like the project that I did, I started like five years ago.
And it's my first creative series for the US market with an amazing writer.
The name is Al Ewing, he's an English writer."
"And he's like a crazy big sci-fi story with like gods and ships and a lot of different things to do.
And I created a new like universe.
It's something that for an artist is really important and it's more like art.
It's like you can create something new."
"And for me, it's like I work for usually for the US market.
So usually I work with famous characters, something like that, and create something new.
For me, it's like an important experience.
And of course, just for the reasons you just mentioned, I wanted to ask you first about this work."
"Also for you to tell me about your style.
What can you tell me about your technique, the way you work?
If you are more digital, more a traditional artist?
So usually I start my career as an inker."
"So a traditional inker with brush and other nibs and something like that.
But right now I work usually in digital for layouts and color.
Sometimes when I try something physically, I put the inks in a traditional.
And I create a fusion of my traditional work and digital work."
"And it's something that it's helped me to stay with paper and pens.
And don't lose a lot of information for my mind about traditional art.
So I really love the mix of the media.
That's good."
"How do you deal with time?
I know this is very important for you guys as artists to be able to estimate how much time it's going to take you.
And to calculate sort of the work you can put on a full week, for example.
So how do you save time?
Is there any sort of tip that you would like to share with other artists?
How do you deal with all this?
I don't save a lot of time for my life usually."
"No, I just try in the last two years to change a little my normal workflow.
Just because after more than 10 years of this type of work, my back is completely destroyed.
And I try to push myself in the gym every two days.
I try just to stay up because I need my body to do this work as all the other work."
"So I work seven days for a week usually.
But I just try to have sometimes a half day off.
Sometimes a day off if I need to do normal things in my life.
But I don't think I'm the right person."
"In terms of technique, is there something that you sort of discovered recently that made you save some time when trying to be faster when producing?
No.
You just get faster naturally."
"You work with Marvel.
Yeah.
So for those who don't know you, what can you tell me are the works that you are most proud of working for Marvel and for other partners such as Disney, for example?
Okay."
"So for now, right now I'm working in a secret project for Marvel.
You can tell me.
You can tell me.
No, I can't.
I can't."
"Sorry.
This is on the record.
But I do a lot of covers for Marvel every month.
But right now I think the most important for me is an Amazing Spider-Man cover for the new series issue one."
"So it's something for me really important as an artist.
It's not just because I'm the fan of the character, but because it's Amazing Spider-Man.
So it's an important character in the U.S. market, my market.
So I'm really proud of this and I'm really happy to start working again with Marvel after years."
"So I'm just proud of this.
And you just mentioned something of my interest, which is cover artists.
You were recognized as such recently.
How do you feel about the figure of the cover artist?
It's something that we were very related to or very acquainted with like 10, 20 years ago."
"Yeah.
But perhaps as of late it's not as recognizable or acknowledged.
Yeah.
No.
Like the cover artist right now is like a different position from the past 10 years."
"Just because right now sometimes in the U.S. market the artist of the interior art is the cover artist.
Yeah.
So it changed a lot of this type of thing.
And sometimes I prefer when a cover artist is out of the project because he has like a new vision of the things."
"It's not like just doing the same of interior art.
But I know sometimes people prefer to see the same on the cover that you can find inside.
So maybe it's something.
Yeah."
"Perhaps it can be contradictory to have a different message on the cover than what you are getting then.
Yeah.
Did that happen to you?
No."
"No?
Okay.
We've mentioned Marvel.
You also worked with Disney, I mentioned.
Yeah."
"And also with Power Rangers.
Yeah.
What can you tell me about the styles, the colors, the way you work with such different source material?
So you ask me about like reference?
How do you change your way of sort of understanding the source material and the way you have to work with drawing and with colors for these different IPs?
So usually I try to have my solid vision."
"So because if like a brand asks me to do something, it's important for me that is recognizable work.
As yours, of course.
But I need to like understand very well the property that I work on.
And I just try to understand very well, study the property and try to, okay, maybe I can do something like that."
"But with your own trademark.
Yes.
And it's the most difficult part for sure.
Because so when you have like a famous character like Marvel or DC or Disney and you have like 80 years of artists that draw in different way every time, it's hard to find your spot inside the story of the character."
"But it's one of the most important challenges for an artist that work in an industry like this.
So I'm happy to try to find the right way every time.
All right.
Final one."
"I asked you about the cover artists and how they are changing.
Perhaps in some media such as, for example, video games, they are being replaced by renders of the actual game used inside the game, right?
So perhaps that's a case that's happening.
But also one recurrent question that I will be having here in Napoli this standard weekend is about AI."
"Of course, that question was going to come.
So how do you feel about it?
Is it going to be for you as an artist?
Is it going to be a tool?
Is it going to be something useful?
Is it going to be a threat?
How do you feel currently about it?
So for me, right now, it's hard to have a good reply for this."
"But just because the AI don't respect the rights of the artist.
Of course.
And for me, I can pay my bills with the rights.
So it's hard to understand something that don't respect my work and don't respect the work of a lot of artists."
"Because right now, the AI just like a randomical, like things from other artists and put all together.
So it's for sure the future for a lot of different things.
Maybe not for like comic book.
Maybe not for like the human intelligence about tell some stories in some way."
"But right now, for me, it's like something illegal.
Just something illegal.
Fair enough.
Thank you so much for your time."
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