Stjepan Šejić talks DEATH VIGIL


Roundin’ up the Herd returns as Unleash the Fanboy revives it’s Top Cow centred editorial bringing new life and a new look. Kicking off this editorial is an interview with Aphrodite IX artist Stjepan Šejić who very kindly took the time to answer a few questions about his new series Death Vigil.

UTF: First of all I’d like to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions and it’s my pleasure to get the opportunity to ask them. How did you get into the comic book industry?

Stjepan Šejić: The same way you get to the Carnegie Hall! Practice! This horrible Last Action Hero reference aside, it was a whole lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. It basically came down to posting a lot of work online and getting noticed. My first gig was on Kade: Sun of Perdition for Arcana Comics written by Sean O’Reilly, fun times. After that I got into Top Cow by recommendation of then Top Cow artist Tyler Kirkham. I colored some of his stuff for fun and he had shown it to Renae Geerlings, who was at time an editor at Top Cow, and then was asked if I could do the paintover coloring for a book they were doing, Darkness/Wolverine. Did that, then soon after I have shown some of my own paintings and drawings to Renae, who was happy to learn I could actually draw, and the rest was history.

DV1

UTF: Having been an artist all your career how’s the transition to writing been?

Stjepan Šejić: There wasn’t really a transition. While it was easy enough to put my foot in the door as an artist, I was well aware that writing was beyond my reach at the time. Oh I did a lot of it, but I knew that no matter how eloquent I may be I was still Croatian. This meant that all the writing I did was in essence , translated thought. So, really it was more of an issue of getting comfortable with writing in English.

UTF: Can you tell us a little bit about Death Vigil and it’s concept?

Stjepan Šejić: Death Vigil is a story about an order of immortal Death Knights lead by a woman they call Bernardette the Reaper. Their mission is to stop people from calling into our universe an ancient malevolent universes devouring force they simply call the Enemy. Think of it somewhere along the lines of X-Men meets Lovecraft-meets the Last Airbender cartoon. By that I mean it is a team book, featuring very Lovecraftian monstrosities with a combination of epic story and fun humor.

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UTF: How did you come up with the concept and story for Death Virgil?

Stjepan Šejić: The same way it happened with Ravine or Sunstone… I drew a character out of boredom and the ungrateful bastard started talking. That is the thing with characters, they are greedy…they want stories. So I had to give him one. Then other characters came….suffice to say I hear voices, okay? Thankfully they only want me to write and draw so I should be fine!

UTF: What have your influences been whilst creating Death Virgil?

Stjepan Šejić: Hard to say really, nothing on a purely conscious level. But on a subconscious one I would say some Lovecraft, some Avatar the Last Airbender (mostly in the way of handling the balance between serious and humor) I have at some point said that his is a team book, so to that one might point at any team book out there. As far as monster design goes , my influences on that were always the works of Stan Winston Studios and the like.

UTF: Do you find it easier or harder to work off your own scripts?

Stjepan Šejić: Much easier. And much more satisfying as I can set the pacing of the scene and can get some great emotional performances from characters by splitting dialogues between multiple panels.

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UTF: What should fans expect from the first couple of issues of Death Virgil?

Stjepan Šejić: Action adventure, humor. Generally a fun book. There be monsters and undead Vikings as well! But there is a bigger story that if all goes well will be told in three 8 issue arcs.

UTF: Has working on your own creator-owned series persuaded you to tackle more writing jobs in the future?

Stjepan Šejić: I am currently up to my eyeballs in creator owned stuff between Ravine, Death Vigil and Sunstone. Depending on the success of Death Vigil I will likely get the Teen Witchblade going at Top Cow, a project I still and probably always will refer to as Twitch! Beyond that I have several more creator owned projects I plan to do in due time, but , first I will clean the plate in front of me so to speak.

twitch

UTF:Aphrodite IX/Cyber Force is coming out soon. Having produced the art for the Aphrodite IX series how does it feel to be drawing characters from Cyber Force alongside Aphrodite IX and the other IX’s?

Stjepan Šejić: It was fun, I really like drawing velocity kicking butts and…not taking names because she is already gone and all that.

UTF: Can you tell us anything about Aphrodite IX/Cyber Force?

Stjepan Šejić: Final page…is something I drew with malicious glee. God I love an awesome cliffhanger!

Aphrodite IX Cyber Force

UTF: Finally what advice would you give any aspiring writer/artist about getting into the comic book industry?

Stjepan Šejić: Artists- purpose! Give actions and poses a purpose! Give expressions a purpose! Avoid posing for posing sake, avoid drawing female characters as sexy bombshells 24/7 they are already attractive. Use the rule of contrast, if you have them look ready for battle when battle is at hand, it will make all the more of an impact when you actually are required by the script to make them look seductive. Purpose is your friend! And trust me this is coming from someone who has learned this the hard way over a long period of time and is still learning in an endless quest of self improvement! Writers! (because I am so qualified to give advice right now XD) Less purpose! Have characters pick a nose or scratch their ass at times. Interrupt the action to give them a moment to be human, it doesn’t take much to make a character relatable. It is fun to write a super badass, it is some grade “A for Awesome” escapism. Just remember to also give them a second to fart, sounds silly but makes a world of difference.

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As for breaking in to both I say…. seriously, do webcomics! It is an amazing and efficient way to get your works seen and read. And they will help make your name a recognizable one. I mean look at me, sooo many people…. can’t even pronounce my name… Ah well… advice is a dangerous thing to give in the end so take from this what helps you and ignore the rest for we are born fools and with some luck and lots of hard work we hopefully dies slightly less foolish. At which point we are resurrected by a lady with a scythe asking us to fight cosmos eating monsters. What? It could happen!

I’d like to once again thank Stjepan Šejić for taking the time to answer these questions and wish him success with this series as I for one loved the first issue. Death Vigil #1 is out tomorrow but until then you can find out what I thought off the first issue by checking out the ADVANCE REVIEW!

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