EXCLUSIVE: Sina Grace talks BURN THE ORPHANAGE

While attending this year’s Amazing Arizona Comic Con I was able to sit down with outstanding illustrator Sina Grace. We discussed style and the inevitably awesome series Burn the Orphanage!

UTF: So can you tell our listeners a little bit about Burn The Orphanage: Born To Lose?

Sina Grace: Yeah, so Burn The Orphanage is a series that is a love letter to video games. Born To Lose is the first story arc. It follows an orphan named Rock who’s left for dead in a burning orphanage and fights his way through the mean streets trying to find out who did it and lots of silly action goes from there.

UTF: Definitely lots of over-the-top violence and excellent, excellent references, so I have to ask where did your inspiration for your art style come from?

Sina Grace: For the art style, I just felt like drawing something that was more fun than emotional and I wanted to do a kind of crazy action book that wouldn’t stress me out as much as the slice-of-life stuff does. So it was cool to look at Ryan Ottley on Invincible, Sean Murphy in The Wake, a lot of the old comic books I had growing up in the ’90’s. Just trying to get that fun energy that you see in a lot of really cool modern action comics. I was trying to vibe with that.

UTF: As a fellow gamer that grew up in the late ’80’s early ’90’s, oppose to the modern consumer that has never played old school beat ’em ups how would you go about pitching this title to them?

Sina Grace: I would call it a fun-action romp, blood-soaked, because at the end of the day, yeah, it’s just silliness, but it’s got a sense of humor and heart. It’s just a fun book with bruisers and dudes.

UTF: So how did you end up working with Daniel Freedman on this title?

Sina Grace: Daniel [Freedman] and I actually went to high school and middle school together and we were not really friends back then. We re-connected a couple of years later when I was working for Skybound and he was doing Undying Love with Tomm Coker. We realized that as young adults we had a lot more in common than we did in high school, so we would start working together and working next to each other, him writing movies and comics, and me drawing comic books.

The concept came from our love of the band, Sleigh Bells, and this era of artwork and sort of 8-bit styles and it just came from our friendship.

I want to take the time to thank Mr. Sina Grace for chatting with me. It was a pleasure, and I can’t wait to see what the talent accomplishes in 2014!

So what did you think of the interview my fellow fanboys and fangirls?

Sound off with your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!