CBA Appreciation
ABC and Me
Digital artist/photographer José Villarrubia on his labors of love Having just finished reading Promethea #25, the final chapter of the phenomenal “Kabbalah Quest” Alan and J.H. began almost two years ago, I feel totally privileged in having been a part of this important series, especially considering the fact only the extraordinary Charles Vess and I have been guest artists in the series. It is an honor and a great satisfaction to have worked with Alan in what is currently his most personal work. In addition, J.H., Mick, Jeromy, and Todd were absolutely delightful and cooperative. It all began four years ago when I approached Alan about doing a theatrical adaptation of his story, “The Mirror of Love.” Since then, we’ve talked on the phone once in a while, and after my graphic
Above: Actor, singer, and 1996 Mr. Gay U.S.A., Douglas Bayne in a digital illustration by José Villarrubia. Douglas also modeled—along with Audrey, seen opposite—for the digital artist/photographer in the poignant Promethea #7 (Apr. ’00) story, “Rocks and Hard Places,” where they played Promethea’s male alter-ego Bill Woolcott and Promethea herself in the issue’s realistic sequence. This 1996 image is by José and starring Douglas, reproduced from an 8” x 11” dye sublimation print. Courtesy of & ©2003 J. Villarrubia. 80
novel, Veils, was published by Vertigo in, Alan told me that the aesthetic I had developed for it—a combination of photographs, paintings and computer-generated imagery—would be suitable for Promethea’s surreal Inmateria. A few months later, he conceived of the appropriate chapter, a back-story of a previous incarnation of Promethea that was really a gay comic book artist who found himself transformed into a transsexual Promethea. Pretty outrageous stuff, but I was definitely up to the challenge. Alan asked what type of images I wanted to do, and I told him that I pictured creating mythical type of illustrations, in the vein of most of the fine artwork that I had done until then. In particular, I wanted to do an image of Prometheus Bound, a subject that I had done before as a large oil painting and was very willing to revisit, given that the heroine of this comic book was named after the Greek god. Alan figured out a way to make the regular artwork in the series transform into photographic characters fitting the story. I also suggested—and sent to Alan—acclaimed early 20th
century illustrator Maxfield Parrish’s painting of Prometheus as inspiration for the style of the sequence: a surreal juxtaposition of photographic imagery in very saturated colors and lush textures. Parrish’s work also exhibits a kind of chaste eroticism, and in this particular image of homoeroticism, appropriate for the secretive and repressed tone of the story. Curiously enough, Alex Ross had also incorporated this image by Parrish, changing the gender of the figure from male to female instead and using the costume for one of his preliminary designs for Promethea. A sketch of this was reproduced in The Comics Journal. This costume—basically a Greek helmet—and a swirling piece of fabric strategically covering the naughty bits) was used by J.H. for one of the previous Prometheas, the one that fought in World War One. Casting Promethea was relatively easy. I knew that my friend Audrey Causilla, a classical concert pianist who had modeled for me many times before, would look the part and was able to play the role effectively. The rest of the cast was a combination of models and friends, all of which were very enthusiastic about participating in such a ground-breaking project. Douglas Bayne, actor/singer/ performer (chosen Mr. Gay U.S.A. in 1996), played Promethea’s alter ego, Bill Woolcott. Tom Burke, also a performer and pianist, had the enviable task of acting in the double role of Dennis Drucker and his fantasy alter-ego Dirk Dangerfield and see himself aged from his early twenties through mid-forties to midseventies. The hardest thing for Tom was to pose wearing David Page’s straightjacket. Tom got very claustrophobic, and that anguished look in his eyes in the picture where he is bound, is pretty authentic. Another piece of trivia is that David Page’s creations <http://www.davidpageartist.com> were featured in the recent motion picture Hannibal. The last important role to fill, that of Sophie, was played by Jeannie Lobato, an art student at the time at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Casting a Latina in this role was a stroke of luck, since Alan had not revealed at this point that Sophie’s long-gone father was, as a matter of fact, a Hispanic. Alan made an exception and, so I could get a head start, phoned me with a detailed description of my sequence, instead of sending a finished script. I scribbled it down in several pieces of paper and got to work right away. A couple weeks later, I got a fax with the same information written in Alan’s own words. I worked frantically for about six weeks to get the work done. I wanted to include everything that Alan wanted in the artwork, but in addition I also want to include another layer of information that made it my own. I did all the shooting in Baltimore, and my friend Aleksey Zolotaryov COMIC BOOK ARTIST 25
June 2003