Interview with Sean Izaakse- UNOFFICIAL GREEN ARROW WEEK CONTINUES!
Today we interview Green Arrow artist Sean Izaakse! Unofficial Green Arrow week continues!
Green Arrow #1 comes out April 25th, but the Final Order Cut-Off is April 2nd (in just a little under two weeks). So we’re trying something different to promote it. Here is the kick-off post from Monday!
Remember to pre-order GREEN ARROW #1 with your comic book store or wherever you get your comics!
And now as promised is my interview with Sean! Enjoy!
JOSHUA: How did you discover Green Arrow? And the Green Arrow family?
SEAN: My earliest discovery of Green Arrow, and the issue when I really took notice of what would be the start of the Green Arrow family goes way back to an issue of the Justice League of America. Issue 200 to be exact. In the issue, half of the team gets taken over and are forced to fight the other half of the team. Well that's the gist anyways. And the issue is broken down into chapters with each chapter focusing on one fight but drawn by different superstar artists. And the one chapter was Green Arrow and Black Canary having to stop Batman. And I was like, who's the guy with a bow and arrow. I may have also had a sticker album that had a sticker of Green Arrow in it.
JOSHUA: You did redesigns on Ollie, Roy and Hawke. What was your thinking in each design?
SEAN: Shew, this might be a long one. For Ollie/GA, DC wanted something that was a bit closer to his latest design, but slightly updated. So I used a lot of the same elements from the design by Otto Schmidt, who's a fantastic artist and designer, and who's done phenomenal work on Green Arrow. So I kept a lot of those elements that he introduced. I just streamlined it to fit my style and added a couple things that I missed seeing on a Green Arrow costume. For example the 'G' on his belt buckle and the long sleeves of his classic gloves. I also tried having a bit more arrow design elements on his chest and torso. I can be such a weird perfectionist and be over-critical of my own designs.
JOSHUA: You read my mind with the “G” on the belt buckle. You showed us an design before this and it was my one note, but before I could say anything you made the change. That was one of the moments where I knew this was a match made in heaven.
For Roy, well anyone who's followed me for a long time or who knows me knows that Roy Harper/Arsenal is arguably my second favourite DC character of all time. So coming up with a design for him was intimidating to say the least because I have such a history with the character. So I was stuck with coming up with my own stamp on him but still coming up with a costume that was tied to what I felt was one of the best times in the character's history. So my design had to have elements of his costume he got way back in his solo 90's miniseries (designed by Adam Warren). That costume was so different to anything I had seen before. It was its own thing and unique to Roy, so that was my starting point. Much like when Robin wanted to get out of Batman's shadow and became Nightwing, I felt that Roy by now would be confident to stand on his own and not have a costume that tied him too close to Ollie's Green Arrow costume or his Red Arrow suit. I think the design for Roy is about 90% of what I wanted. Honestly I could probably still tweak it a tiny bit and might even do so in future issues if this series goes beyond the initial six issues and into an ongoing series.
JOSHUA: I agree 100%. It’s one of the reasons I started to call him Arsenal again instead of Red Arrow, because I felt like it was HIS name. Part of him becoming his own person. (And also, Emiko is Red Arrow now.)
Connor Hawke's costume I agonized over for days. Connor hasn't had a long line of previous costumes to draw inspiration from like Ollie and Roy to just fuel my process. And I had like, two or three ideas I kinda liked and wanted to incorporate into his design. And some elements stayed and others had to get trashed. In the end I went back and refreshed my memory a bit by looking at some artwork and issues with Connor in and saw what archery he was good at, the Kyudo archery style if I'm not mistaken, which informed the style of bow I wanted to give him. Also I wanted to have a little more of his Korean side a bit in his costume while also having a nod to his time at a Monastery training, and that's how I came up with a kind of kimono robe he wears instead. Which not only is a nod to those things, but I also wanted something loose for him to wear because as a very martial arts oriented character it would just help create that sense of dynamic movement when he's fighting.
JOSHUA: I hope people can see how thoughtful you are with these designs and the book. You can really tell the love you’re putting into these designs and the series as a whole. Also, I love Connor’s new hair style!
JOSHUA: How excited were you when you got the email about drawing Green Arrow?
SEAN: Oh man, I was over the moon. It was really late at night, actually more like early in the morning because of the time difference. I had been bugging Ben Abernathy, editor at DC since 2019, about it when I first met him. Green Arrow and the Arrow family are literally the dream gig I would have asked for when I got to DC, so it blew me away. I still get so excited to get up and work every day, and I think my work will show it.
JOSHUA: What artists influenced you to become a comic book artist?
SEAN: It's a long list, I won't lie. But I think it all comes down to the original holy trinity for me - George Perez, John Byrne and arguably my biggest influence, Alan Davis. They all had such clean and heroic styles that just captured my imagination and made all these characters larger than life. Alan Davis is single-handedly the inspiration behind how and why I love drawing and choreographing fight scenes. Since then there have been many other artists that have just inspired me so much, from Jim Lee, Mike Wieringo, Tom Grummett, Kevin Maguire, Mark Bagley, and the absolute legend - Stuart Immonen.
JOSHUA: Of all the Green Arrow family cast....who were you most excited to work with?
SEAN: I think that part is easy for anyone to see. Roy Harper. He's always been kinda lost and uncertain of himself. I'm looking forward to showing everyone the competent, noble, and caring hero he is and that he can stand next to the likes of Nightwing and Flash. It's gonna be a blast.
People will quickly see how awesome Roy is in this series!
Thanks, Sean!
We’ll do some follow up with Sean and I next week! This is far from the last time Sean and I will be talking about the process on Green Arrow!
And now as promised, I talk about the moment I knew I had to work with Sean.
A few years ago Sean was working on Dan Slott’s great Fantastic Four run. And there was this awesome two-part story of the Thing versus the Immortal Hulk. It’s one of my favorite two-part stories in recent years. Good ol’ Ben Grimm is on his honeymoon and only had a few hours of…human time. But then Hulk shows up and they fight! The action is great, but the emotions, the tensions, and ticking clock of the story is amazing. I’m sort of underselling it here to be honest, but it really is a great two-parter. It’s part of what motivated me to have shorter arcs in Superman.
Anyway, Ben Grimm just wants to enjoy his honeymoon but has to stop the Hulk first. As the clock runs out Thing punches the Hulk with all his might…
Look at how awesome this punch is! Holy crap! And damn right he stops the Hulk…but also ruins his honeymoon. Poor Ben Grimm.
But yeah, when I saw this two-part story I knew I had to work with Sean. I told him privately how much I loved this story. A few years later and his name came up for Green Arrow and I knew he was the guy. I had no idea he was a huge Green Arrow fan, so the stars just aligned with this one.
That’s it for today! Tomorrow I answer Sean’s questions!
