Publish Enemies is proud to shine the spotlight on David Hahn! Hahn is the creator, writer, and artist of PE’s inaugural title, Dayglow. We asked him a few questions about his process and inspirations.
My work space consists of a standard drawing table, a computer table, and a cup of coffee. Always a cup of coffee. I do most of my drawing digitally, though I keep a traditional sketchbook as well.
It’s pretty much like most people’s work routine: wake up, read email, drink coffee, see if anyone *liked* my most recent, inane Facebook status update, then I get to work.
I have always wanted to draw a science-fiction story and a post-apocalyptic story, so I came up with a story that is basically an adventure story, with science fiction trappings, set in a post-apocalyptic world. The basic story has stayed the same, though names and sexes of characters have changed.
Pretty much any European science fiction graphic album can be considered an influence for me on this particular project, in the beginning anyway.
Everyday is a race to a deadline for all comic creators. In my early days, there would be times when I was up against deadlines and had to call in non-artist friends to stay up all night with me and help me fill in areas on my art pages that required large areas of solid black, had friends running back and forth to Kinko’s in the middle of the night for me, that sort of thing. That was years ago. These days, I try to maintain (for the most part) a better grip on my deadlines, and have professional artists whom I can call on when I need a hand.
I tend to like the stylized artists like Alex Toth, Mike Mignola, Didier Cassegrain, Cory Walker, Robert Valley, Jamie Hewlett, Andrew Robinson… I like the design-y artists.
I think it is great as it allows creators to get their work out there an more readily accessible to potential readers. I still prefer print because I love tangible goods, and I love the smell of the paper, but digital publishing is a wonderful way to expose readers to new artists and material.
David has illustrated issues of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Marvel Adventures: The Fantastic Four, both for Marvel Comics, and Bite Club, Fables, Lucifer, Red Herring, for DC Comics, as well as The Batman Handbook, licensed for Quirk Books. He was nominated for both an Eisner Award and an Ignatz Award for his creator-owned comic series, Private Beach, published by Slave Labor Graphics. He has also done contract and sub-contract work for the U.S. Navy, NASA, CIA, TRW, BDM, Xerox, MIOX, Collector’s Press, and Tier Technologies. You can visit his website here.
You can purchase Dayglow #1 on Amazon and Comixology. Issue #2 coming soon!