Jae Lee NYCC 2022 interview 10/6/22

I had the opportunity to interview the prestigious Jae Lee who is currently working on Seven Sons, which is published through Image Comics.

Q1. Working on Seven Sons, what was it about that project that caught your attention as an illustrator?

JL: First and foremost, the story. As an artist, I’m going to be spending a lot of time drawing a book. So I have to believe in the story. I’m not one of those artists that think it would be cool to draw Batman. If the story is awful then it’s not gonna be very much fun, whereas if the story is good then you can have fun drawing anybody because you believe in it. 

Q2. Given that you’ve illustrated the first four issues of Seven Sons, what has it been like drawing that book with your wife, June Chung? Because you have a particular art style and she has a particular coloring style that blends so well together. What is that process like?

JL: We’ve done countless books together. So at this point, I don’t know where I begin and where she ends. We both love and have gotten to the point where I trust what she does and I don’t see me doing the line art and she doing the coloring. I just see it as we’re producing something that neither one of us could have done. 

Q3. It’s fascinating seeing the trajectory of your work from Hellshock to your previous marvel work all the way to present, I’d like to know, what is something that many illustrators who are trying to break it into the biz, what is it that they should practice to hone their skills in the craft? 

JL: Just get better. Don’t look at one particular type of art whether it’s manga or comic books. Just study as many different artists, as many different styles and disciplines as you can wrap your head around. Because you never know what you’ll pick up. You know for me, there was a point where movies became more of an inspiration because that’s essentially what we’re doing. We’re telling a story with pictures. It’s easy to get caught up trying to produce a piece of art. But when you’re trying to tell a story, there are different elements that are more important. 

Thank you for your time Jae Lee!