Q&A with Jose Holder, DEAD MONEY Guest Artist (Part I)
Posted on Substack:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-197349151
I met Jose Holder back in my Ubisoft days, when we were both on the Assassin’s Creed Origins team; I was one of the core writers, and he was a storyboard artist, and his creativity and attention to detail was evident immediately.
It was a delight to invite him to join us for Dead Money #2, and he delivered above and beyond.
But who is the man behind the hand that draws spooky wolves and zombies so well?
Jose graciously answered my questions, so let’s get to know him a little better.
Q&A with Jose Holder
Q: How did you get into making art professionally?
Jose Holder (JH): First off, thanks a million for the opportunity to play in the Dead Money sandbox. It’s been a blast!
My earliest memories of offering my services as an artist for hire are a rosy-coloured blur from the past. Many of those first opportunities I recall were bartered or pro bono, because I understood, even back then, that experience held more value than currency.
I did my first official pin-up and a short story for comics way back in ’95 for a U.S. indie. Up to that point, I had drawn dozens of personal works, and the usual suspects like tattoos, greeting cards, and party flyers.
Later, after a few small contracts, I got my degree in architecture and worked as a draftsman, detoured into graphic design, and eventually became a teacher in illustration. My school, at the time, in downtown Montreal, opened my eyes to a host of different fields and artists from different walks of life. Those were wildly creative years for me. I found a home for my illustrations and knack for cinematic storytelling through storyboards for film, television, and quite soon after, video games.
Throughout the good and lean years, I held onto my first love, comics, and managed to work on over 60 issues for various publishers, from indie to mainstream.
Q: Can you tell us about one or two of your inspirations in the art world?
JH: My biggest inspiration comes from film and tv. I’m a latchkey kid from the 70s-80s who spent ungodly amounts of time absorbing sci-fi, horror, and fantasy elements from the big and small screen. Arguably the best era of every genre we can imagine, the wealth of campy action-oriented IP from that period endures to this day. Horror fare became my true north thanks to trailblazers like Alfred Hitchcock, eventually spilling over into novels, which put bestsellers like King and Koontz at the forefront of my imagination.
Comics had its wonderful fangs in me from age 5, cartoons before that, so as my love for the medium grew, so did my appreciation for the artists that brought it alive. Bernie Wrightson, Gil Kane, Al Williamson, Kerry Gammill, John Buscema, Jim Lee, and George Pérez became my earliest obsessions. But the list is too long to condense into a handful of names.
Q: What do you like about comics?
JH: More than anything, the people. The community and the fans are the lifeblood of the medium, making the industry a genuinely incredible space to create and collaborate in. The work itself is its own draw. Marrying all the things an illustrator needs to convey a story distilled into sequential art. We learn aspects of cinematography, composition, acting, lighting, wardrobe, pacing, mood, character development, and an individual aesthetic that suits our own personal story work. The attention to detail and dexterity needed to communicate forms and movement through line art forces practitioners to be deliberate in their learnings, over many, many years of study. Add rendering and writing skills, a granular knowledge of printing and publishing, and these mild-mannered craftsmen become the apex creatures of the arts.
Q: What drew you to Dead Money?
JH: Jesse Scoble, an old friend in the trenches and an amazing storyteller. Along with his writing partner Devinder Thiara, the guys have created something really special in Dead Money. The wild west meets Alien/The Thing/Last Of Us? Are you kidding me? Horror vibes abound, and I’m all in for the ride. There are fewer concepts I love more than zombies or the infected waging war on social norms, and watching the fabric of morality butt up against the survivalist’s instinct.
We’ll post part II later this week!
