Today we welcome the fabulous cover artist of Wicked Women – Sarah Anne Langton, take it away!
Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to write and draw:
Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to write and draw:
Ha,
well I was the kid who desperately wanted to be an astronaut and firmly
believed there was, indeed, ‘something nasty in the woodshed’. Finally
realising that joining NASA probably wasn’t an option I ended up at art
college, fed on a diet of William Gibson, Tim Powers, Fortean Times,
2000AD and Ray Harryhausen movies.
So any urban occult weirdness, preferably involving crazy-ass science and I’m up for that. Even better if there’s dinosaurs! I managed to do half an Open University Astronomy degree, so I’m pretty big on radio telescopes… which hasn’t, erm, exactly found many artistic openings yet… Somebody out there has a ‘Fourth Reich jacks the Arecibo radio telescope and uses the Spear Of Destiny to summon unspeakable space evil’ novel in them. I am just biding my time!
How long have you been an artist and how did you get started?
So any urban occult weirdness, preferably involving crazy-ass science and I’m up for that. Even better if there’s dinosaurs! I managed to do half an Open University Astronomy degree, so I’m pretty big on radio telescopes… which hasn’t, erm, exactly found many artistic openings yet… Somebody out there has a ‘Fourth Reich jacks the Arecibo radio telescope and uses the Spear Of Destiny to summon unspeakable space evil’ novel in them. I am just biding my time!
How long have you been an artist and how did you get started?
After
completing an art degree I went to work as an archaeologist for a few
years, obviously, then was employed in a comic shop – all whilst
dabbling in a little freelance illustration. So I have an ace Indiana
Jones hat and know way too much about the X-Men, ideal for a career in
illustration! I moved down to London Town about five years ago and the
lovely Anne Perry and Jared Shurin at Jurassic London
asked if I fancied doing a book cover… I think I said “yes, if you’ll
buy me a vodka”. From there folk just kept asking me to draw stuff for
them – which is awesome!
Which authors and artists have influenced you and why?
Ooooooooow tricky. I particularly like the work of Eduardo Paolozzi, one of the early British Pop Art guys. His artwork mixes pop culture references and technological imagery, man-machine stuff – I love the décollage mix! Swiss graphic design studio Büro Destruct are a favourite – super-clean, simple typography, something I always, well, try to do. And the work of artist Bill Sienkiewicz – as somebody who totally ignored how traditional comic book illustration ‘should’ look and brought in a healthy dose of fine art. Ignoring how something is traditionally supposed to look is always a plan. I’m basically a pop culture junkie – and probably shouldn’t ever have been given access to the Internet – so anything from 1950’s advertising to pulp comics!
And authors? Rudy Rucker’s crazy-ass science fiction and non-fiction, for challenging my understanding of science and visual representation. The Fourth Dimension & How To Get There made me learn how to question my perception of space, dimensions and, well, pretty much everything. Robertson Davies for a love of myth and magic – seeing the hidden archetypes in our dull little everyday lives – with a healthy dose of humour! Anything from Lovecraft to Robert Anton Wilson, I guess it all seeps into Mr Brain and influences how you visually represent the written word.
Both history and fiction are replete with women who aim to misbehave – do you have a favourite wicked woman and why?
Jeanne de Clisson, The Lioness of Brittany is a pretty damned interesting lady. Ms de Clisson mercilessly hunted down the ships of King Philip VI’s fleet, to avenge her husband’s death, during the Hundred Years War. de Clisson fought as a pirate for thirteen years, not just commanding a single ship, no she sold off her land and bought a fleet! She had her ships painted black and dyed their sails red to intimidate her enemy, earning them the title of “The Black Fleet”. Her merciless sailors, under her orders, would kill entire crews, leaving only one or two alive to carry news to the king that she had struck again. A woman with the courage of her convictions, who didn’t do things by half.
You’ve illustrated for a wide array of media ranging from comics and games to music events and publishing – are there differences in your approach to projects in different media and do you have a particular favourite venue your work has appeared in?
The
design process for everything is usually something like… google images,
tea, google images, tea… flap out for several hours, then make tea.
Eventually I’ll find the killer image to actually use for the project
but I do quite a lot of pottering about the internets for inspiration.
Virtually all of my work is entirely digital, regardless of the medium, I
design straight into photoshop. My main problem is people writing
interesting books, hence fascinating imagery, so I then get distracted
reading about Antarctic ice flows online or something.
Not a venue but it always amuses me to see Pickwick the dodo, the Hodderscape logo which I worked on, running around on Twitter and getting into stuff on the internet!
What can you tell us about the Fizzy Pop Vampire?
Ah, right… the little guy is the product of Mr Den Patrick’s peculiar brain. A fat little vampire… erm, thing, that sneaks into you kitchen at night to steal your lemonade! Basically a tiny book for kids about the terrible consequences of not cleaning your teeth. Lots and lots of fun to draw as Den’s quirky sense of humour is great to illustrate. The one and only thing I draw by hand so there’s lots of wobbly trees and giraffes! The Fizzy Pop Vampire’s best friend is a giraffe, named Keith. Obviously.
What’s the appeal of short fiction for you and do you have any short fiction recommendations?
Books of
short fiction are like a lovely author selection pack – there might be
the odd dodgy Orange Crème but there’s bound to be something tasty you
really love. Always a great way to discover new writers and I’m
fascinated how, given a single theme, how many wonderfully diverse tales
come out of a single idea.
Apart from Fox Spirit’s Wicked Woman, because clearly everybody should have taken a look at that…. ahem, the Apex Publications Books Of World SF are a great introduction to some authors whose work I hadn’t read before. Oh, and Super Flat Times: Stories by Matthew Derby was one of my favourite short fiction reads this year – very Franz Kafka meets Phillip K. Dick – a fascinating set of genuinely weird tales set in a brutal future where technology has died. Well, if that’s your thing!
Room 101 time: what one genre cliché would you get rid of?
But there’s so many! Just the one? Okay…. ‘Evil Emperor’s beautiful daughter falls in love with the hero.’ ‘All it takes it the love of a good man’ syndrome. YAWN – this clearly intelligent woman has unlimited wealth, power, flying monkeys an’ probably a zombie army – she’s really not going to be impressed just because some dumb-ass bloke has a big sword!
(Also: Mysterious taverns, FOR NO REASON. They can go as well, as I’m here. Oh, and people inexplicably dressing in ancient costumes in the future. There is no reason anyone would wear a Roman togas in deep space. Really, there isn’t.)
What are you up to next?
Which authors and artists have influenced you and why?
Ooooooooow tricky. I particularly like the work of Eduardo Paolozzi, one of the early British Pop Art guys. His artwork mixes pop culture references and technological imagery, man-machine stuff – I love the décollage mix! Swiss graphic design studio Büro Destruct are a favourite – super-clean, simple typography, something I always, well, try to do. And the work of artist Bill Sienkiewicz – as somebody who totally ignored how traditional comic book illustration ‘should’ look and brought in a healthy dose of fine art. Ignoring how something is traditionally supposed to look is always a plan. I’m basically a pop culture junkie – and probably shouldn’t ever have been given access to the Internet – so anything from 1950’s advertising to pulp comics!
And authors? Rudy Rucker’s crazy-ass science fiction and non-fiction, for challenging my understanding of science and visual representation. The Fourth Dimension & How To Get There made me learn how to question my perception of space, dimensions and, well, pretty much everything. Robertson Davies for a love of myth and magic – seeing the hidden archetypes in our dull little everyday lives – with a healthy dose of humour! Anything from Lovecraft to Robert Anton Wilson, I guess it all seeps into Mr Brain and influences how you visually represent the written word.
Both history and fiction are replete with women who aim to misbehave – do you have a favourite wicked woman and why?
Jeanne de Clisson, The Lioness of Brittany is a pretty damned interesting lady. Ms de Clisson mercilessly hunted down the ships of King Philip VI’s fleet, to avenge her husband’s death, during the Hundred Years War. de Clisson fought as a pirate for thirteen years, not just commanding a single ship, no she sold off her land and bought a fleet! She had her ships painted black and dyed their sails red to intimidate her enemy, earning them the title of “The Black Fleet”. Her merciless sailors, under her orders, would kill entire crews, leaving only one or two alive to carry news to the king that she had struck again. A woman with the courage of her convictions, who didn’t do things by half.
You’ve illustrated for a wide array of media ranging from comics and games to music events and publishing – are there differences in your approach to projects in different media and do you have a particular favourite venue your work has appeared in?
Not a venue but it always amuses me to see Pickwick the dodo, the Hodderscape logo which I worked on, running around on Twitter and getting into stuff on the internet!
What can you tell us about the Fizzy Pop Vampire?
Ah, right… the little guy is the product of Mr Den Patrick’s peculiar brain. A fat little vampire… erm, thing, that sneaks into you kitchen at night to steal your lemonade! Basically a tiny book for kids about the terrible consequences of not cleaning your teeth. Lots and lots of fun to draw as Den’s quirky sense of humour is great to illustrate. The one and only thing I draw by hand so there’s lots of wobbly trees and giraffes! The Fizzy Pop Vampire’s best friend is a giraffe, named Keith. Obviously.
What’s the appeal of short fiction for you and do you have any short fiction recommendations?
Apart from Fox Spirit’s Wicked Woman, because clearly everybody should have taken a look at that…. ahem, the Apex Publications Books Of World SF are a great introduction to some authors whose work I hadn’t read before. Oh, and Super Flat Times: Stories by Matthew Derby was one of my favourite short fiction reads this year – very Franz Kafka meets Phillip K. Dick – a fascinating set of genuinely weird tales set in a brutal future where technology has died. Well, if that’s your thing!
Room 101 time: what one genre cliché would you get rid of?
But there’s so many! Just the one? Okay…. ‘Evil Emperor’s beautiful daughter falls in love with the hero.’ ‘All it takes it the love of a good man’ syndrome. YAWN – this clearly intelligent woman has unlimited wealth, power, flying monkeys an’ probably a zombie army – she’s really not going to be impressed just because some dumb-ass bloke has a big sword!
(Also: Mysterious taverns, FOR NO REASON. They can go as well, as I’m here. Oh, and people inexplicably dressing in ancient costumes in the future. There is no reason anyone would wear a Roman togas in deep space. Really, there isn’t.)
What are you up to next?
Ooooow, I have a set of covers coming out for Angry Robot next year, just finished the design for Jurassic London’s Jews Vs Zombies & Jews Vs Aliens Omnibus, comic book illustrations for Lavie Tidhar’s New Swabia are out any time now-ish. There’s a tiny short story by me in Fox Spirit’s Fox Pockets Anthology Things In The Dark. Erm, and I appear to be drawing a suicide rollercoaster poster for Lavie’s new book Central Station. Yeah, I’m just going with that…
On the random front, I’m forcing myself to go to zazen more often, looking for stardust with http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ and watching Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, when I should be drawing :)
Thank you for joining us Sarah!
When not planning world domination Sarah Anne Langton draws things,
writes and catalogues her ever-growing shoe collection. Qualified
Astronaut. Part time archaeologist. Full time geek.
Sarah has worked as an Illustrator for EA Games, Hodder & Stoughton, Forbidden Planet, The Cartoon Network, Sony, Apple, Marvel Comics and a wide variety of music events. Written and illustrated for Jurassic London, Fox Spirit, NewCon Press, Hachette and ‘The Fizzy Pop Vampire‘ series. Hodderscape dodo creator and Kitschies Inky Tentacle judge. Daylights as Web Mistress for the worlds largest sci-fi and fantasy website. Scribbles a lot about the X-Men, shouts at Photoshop and drinks an awful lot of tea. Responsible for ‘Zombie Attack Barbie‘ and ‘Joss Whedon Is Our Leader Now‘. Her work has featured on io9, Clutter Magazine, Forbidden Planet, Laughing Squid and Creative Review. British Fantasy Award 2015: Best Artist Nominee.
Her website can be found at http://secretarcticbase.com
Thank you for joining us Sarah!
Sarah has worked as an Illustrator for EA Games, Hodder & Stoughton, Forbidden Planet, The Cartoon Network, Sony, Apple, Marvel Comics and a wide variety of music events. Written and illustrated for Jurassic London, Fox Spirit, NewCon Press, Hachette and ‘The Fizzy Pop Vampire‘ series. Hodderscape dodo creator and Kitschies Inky Tentacle judge. Daylights as Web Mistress for the worlds largest sci-fi and fantasy website. Scribbles a lot about the X-Men, shouts at Photoshop and drinks an awful lot of tea. Responsible for ‘Zombie Attack Barbie‘ and ‘Joss Whedon Is Our Leader Now‘. Her work has featured on io9, Clutter Magazine, Forbidden Planet, Laughing Squid and Creative Review. British Fantasy Award 2015: Best Artist Nominee.
Her website can be found at http://secretarcticbase.com
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