Breaking into Comic
Kane Gallagher
August 2021
‘Well Hookups were obviously a favourite of mine back in the day as I got older I was drawn more to the classic Dogtown stuff along with Alva and Hosoi.’
There is not much information about you out there. Is this a conscious decision of yours to maintain a low profile?
No I wouldn’t say that but breaking out in the art/comic industry is not easy these days because there is such a saturated market especially with social media so I just have to constantly put out new work to get more attention.
Is there any old/current graphics/brand you particular like in the skate community?
Well Hookups were obviously a favourite of mine back in the day as I got older I was drawn more to the classic Dogtown stuff along with Alva and Hosoi.
You are a Freelance Artist since 2010. How difficult is it to make a living out of it for you?
Its not easy sometimes especially with covid happening right now people are less inclined to spend money on art or art based clothing but because it’s my passion I work hard on it and have been able to make a living with it so I feel pretty lucky.
Which client request you had most fun with?
It was probably one of my first book cover commissions, it was for a Book called Artistica it was a unique idea and a challenge that’s probably why I liked it. The idea was a girl in a hoodie walking down an alley with her hand on a brick wall creating graffiti magically with her hand and the graffiti art characters (butterflies, orcs and mechanical spiders) coming to life and jumping out of the wall it was a lot of fun.
From the little I know about you is that you call your work ‘Maximum Illustration Style’. What does that mean?
Maximalism is about more is always better so I put a lot of time and effort in the details. In my opinion what makes a good illustration is the ability to look at it over and over and constantly find something new that you hadn’t noticed before.
Your drawings can be violent at times. Is this Geof Darrow’s influence on you?
Partly, I have always been drawn to the more violent comics and art so comics like Sin city, Kick-Ass and anything by Darrow or Juan Jose Ryp have always had an influence on me and my art.
Are you drawn to violent movies at all? If so what is your Top 3?
Definitely, my 3 favourite movies are Sin City, Hardcore Henry and Watchmen all very violent films.
There is definitely a shortage of skateboarding representation in comics as far as I can tell. I know about Michaelangelo from ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and Spiderman villain ‘Rocket Racer’. Why did you decided to mix it into your work?
Exactly for that reason I have yet to see a good representation of skateboarding in a realistic way in a comic book, as it is one of my passions I wanted to give it a try and make it look good.
Do you have a complete comic book available?
Not yet, I am currently working on publishing it and it should be available soon. When it is I will advertise and post a link on my Instagram. It’s a graphic novel titled The Underclass: Stories from Alva high. It’s a collection of short stories set in the fictional North Alva city high school a school run by criminal organisations for delinquent kids that teaches them to be criminals. Each story follows different students put in this school due to bad circumstances as they are pushed beyond their sanity to commit horrific acts of violence in order to survive.
‘Exactly for that reason I have yet to see a good representation of skateboarding in a realistic way in a comic book, as it is one of my passions I wanted to give it a try and make it look good.’
I came across ‘Death Race – Stories from Alva High’. What is this about?
Death Race is one of the stories in The Underclass it is about an annual skateboard race throughout the halls of the school. The prize is being untouchable by anyone in the school for a full year meaning no one can hurt you. However there are various deadly traps set up along the course intended to injure or kill the students competing and most of them will not make it to the finish line.
Alva High? I can sense some early skateboarding influence there (Tony Alva) or is it just purely coincidental?
Yes. I’ve always used some skateboard references in character and location names in my stories for example the city in where most of my stories takes place is named Alva city after Tony Alva. What do you want to do next? Well I’m currently working on NFT (Non Fungible Token) art which is rare one of a kind digital art that can’t be duplicated and I’m working on the script for my next graphic novel titled The Unknown.
Last question. If you could interview one person, who would it be and why?
That’s a tough one I would like to talk to Frank Miller the creator of the comic Sin City or Mark Miller the creator of the comic Kick-Ass but I think id have to go with Geof Darrow probably the most famous maximalist comic artist out there and artist of comics Hard Boiled and Shaolin Cowboy just so I could ask him about his process and maybe get a few tips.
