Dan Brereton Biographical Interview: Illustrator, Painter and Writer by Alex Grand

Daniel Alan Brereton is an American writer and illustrator who has produced notable work in the comic book field including wok for X-Men, Justice League, and his own Nocturnals and Giant Killer. We discuss his childhood as a Marvel fan, breaking into comics at Eclipse while at art school, and eventually into DC Comics and Marvel working with Walt Simonson, James Hudnall, Len Wein and others. He also goes over meeting luminaries such as Gene Colan and John Buscema, discussing his influences including Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, Dean Cornwell and more, while also commenting on properties that he worked on of Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Edited & Produced by Alex Grand.

Transcript will appear in the next Dan Brereton Art Book: Stay Tuned.

#nocturnals #Marvel #dccomics #marvelcomics #xmen #ComicBookHistorians #AlexGrand #DanBrereton #CBHPodcast #batmandarkknight #cbh

Timestamps of Interview above:

0:00 Welcome
00:53 Childhood comics
06:30 Letters to Marvel
07:38 Met Gene Colan & his wife
11:46 First editor Mike Carlin
12:04 Comic influences
13:33 Batman Legends of the Dark Knight, 1999
14:18 Gray Morrow, John Buscema
16:20 Met Jack Kirby?
21:11 Draw Comics Marvel Way; Late 70’s
22:23 Monster or Horror movies growing up?
24:13 Man-Thing, Son of Satan, War of the Worlds, Deathlok
27:23 illustrator influences
29:42 Heavy Metal, Epic magazine, Jack Davis
31:20 California College of Arts and Crafts, Illustration
36:28 West Coast Influence
40:42 Giant Killer
41:57 Working for Eclipse | Kurt Busiek
49:02 Kazuhiko Sano | Black Terror
51:40 Leaving the Art School
56:44 Painted comics | Lack of love, reality in illustration
59:45 Jack Kirby | Cartoon realism
1:01:20 Hudnall, Carlin, Andy Helfer | Psycho
1:06:48 James Hudnall | Psycho
1:09:30 Awards & nominations | Eisner Awards
1:14:39 Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954
1:16:37 Nocturnals – Starfish
1:18:01 Mike Carlin as editor | Superman
1:20:22 Legends of the World’s Finest | Walt Simonson
1:23:52 Thought balloons, captions
1:26:05 Fan of Simonson in early 80s | Thor God Size Special – Beta Ray Bill
1:29:31 Legion covers – 1991, 92 era
1:31:41 Clive Barker’s Book of the Damned – Dread
1:34:31 How long take to illustrate one page?
1:35:05 Two Nightbreed covers
1:36:31 Caught up on Horror movies
1:41:45 Nocturnals – Halloween girl
1:43:45 Carl Potts | Conan covers
1:46:03 Mid-90s | Strange Agency, Venom mini-series
1:47:26 Harris Comics | Creepy, Vampirella, and Eerie, Rook covers
1:50:14 Favorite Creepy covers
1:53:24 Nocturnals & Malibu | Bravura
1:56:36 Ensemble of characters | Halloween girl
1:59:15 Dark Horse Pawn Shop | Nocturnals monsters
2:02:05 Clive Barker’s personality.
2:02:43 Various covers of mid 90s era | Specter
2:07:00 Batman-Legends of the Dark Knight covers
2:08:42 Best advice for freelancers
2:10:25 A whole year went by without a single job
2:12:41 Mars Attacks, Marvel Masterpieces covers
2:14:20 Neil Gaiman’s Lady Justice covers | Tekno Comics
2:15:22 Getting into writing | Nocturnals
2:19:49 Neil Gaiman
2:21:18 Heart Breakers covers – Dark Horse comics
2:24:30 ThrillKiller-Batgirl & Robin, 1997
2:28:19 Howard Chaykin
2:34:22 War of the Worlds cover
2:35:40 Giant Killer 1999 & Franken Castle 2010
2:37:14 Portraying colorful monsters
2:38:18 Giant Killer | Godzilla vs Biollante
2:45:43 Giant Killer rights
2:47:06 Buffy The Vampire Slayer | Dust Walls graphic novel
2:52:38 Did you feel some insecurity there?
2:54:21 Mike Allred | Madman
2:58:07 2002: SpiderMan & JLA
3:05:18 JLA’s 48 pages more than 4 months of work
3:08:11 JLA monster story
3:08:50 Nocturnals at Oni Press, 2003 | The Gunwitch
3:11:19 Nocturnals The Dark Forever
3:12:27 Oni Press changed 2003?
3:13:50 Troll Bridge book
3:15:41 Working for Moonstone Company
3:18:10 Pulp Fictions | Captain Satan
3:19:44 The Last Battle, 2011
3:24:02 Showing the editors what I could do
3:26:11 Hollywood Roman films are almost all wrong
3:32:21 Simpsons meet Cthulhu | Bongo Comics – Lein Wein
3:37:11 Legends of the Dark Knight digital story
3:40:21 Classic X-Men short story, 2020 | Alex Ross, Chris Claremont
3:48:36 Marvel’s new direction
3:49:31 Dave Cockrum | Recreating the characters
3:51:43 John Byrne, Chris Claremont
3:52:14 So many emotions in the last issues of X-Men
3:54:00 Giant Killer & Nocturnals reach
3:55:05 Commissions – Patreon | Kickstarter projects
3:56:26 New Nocturnals graphic novel
3:57:12 Closing

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