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Kaare Andrews will be the new Astonishing X-Men artist, starting May 2010. Newsarama interviewed Kaare Andrews, and she mentions that she has the most fun drawing Emma Frost.


From Newsarama:

Marvel’s Astonishing line relaunches and expands in May, 2010 with a new take on Astonishing X-Men with the superstar team of writer Warren Ellis and artist Kaare Andrews. Andrews, whose dynamic, animation-inspired style has mostly been used in film and TV projects the last few years, took some time out to talk to Newsarama about his new X-book, what keeps him in comics, and his exciting new film projects, including his first feature film, Altitude.

Newsarama: Kaare, tell us about the basic premise and storyline for the X-Men storyline.

Kaare Andrews: The story starts off with the X-Men investigating a possible new strain of mutants in the country of Mbangwi. I won’t tell you what is different about this strain but it opens up some questions. What is a mutant? What defines a mutant? Or what is simply mutant-like? Make sense? No? What happens when you have people that have mutant powers but don’t fit the mutant paradigm?

You’ll have to read the book to understand because I don’t even know where Warren is going with this one!

Nrama: This is, I believe, your first extended interior comics story sinceSpider-Man: Reign. What made you want to work on this project, and what was appealing about the Astonishing line in general?

Andrews: Well, I don’t know if you would call six issues “extended” per se. But it is fun to be on a monthly, even for so short a run. I guess my interior absence seems to make this look like an important choice for me, but really, I just thought it would be fun to work with Warren and work on these characters.

He’s a great writer and I’ve been an X-Men fan since the early days. I still remember drawing my X-Men try out pages when I was trying to break into Marvel. Wolverine trying to fight a Raptor. Ha!

What I find exciting about this project is taking the public’s perception of the X-Men and twisting it into my version of the X-Men. I’m from the camp that whatever you do, you should make your own. Run hard, run fast and keep running. You know?

I really wanted to take the book away from the photorealism that has been flooding the market these past few years. It’s kind of embarrassing to constantly find Maxim photo spreads that have been traced into superhero covers and pin-ups. F*** that. I don’t have any patience for it.

With this book, I’m attempting to bring back some style to comics. Push the look of the world and the characters. Ask the question: what would my ideal of these characters be? What do I remember about Storm that made her so special? What is it about Wolverine that I can do differently?

Because after 30 years of these characters, if you are not asking those questions then I have no interest in what you are saying. You know? I don’t want to walk lightly. Art is about leaving footprints, pissing people off, asking questions and challenging definitions. Otherwise, I’d be a dentist.

Nrama: What sort of research did you have to do for this story? Were you familiar with Mbangwi prior to working on this book?

Andrews: Warren provided me with a bunch of links, and I have been drawing on those and my usual arsenal of Google image and internet research.

It’s always a lot of fun to find out how doctors dress or how villages look in other countries. Maybe that’s why I’m not so big on drawing space or fantasy right now… I just love to research and respond to reality.

Back in art school a teacher told me once that “to draw” really meant “to draw in”. To process. Then to respond. I loved that idea and it really is a foundation to what I do.

Nrama: You’ve done some X-work in the past — what is most appealing to you about working on these characters?

Andrews: I just love the archetypal characters that make up the X-Men. I like to say that the X-Men is an adult book. Spider-Man has an innocence regardless of whether he is 18 or 30 or 70. His life is about accepting responsibility, about growing up.

The X-Men has always been about what do do after you’ve grown up. What are your core values? Who do you love? Who do you hate? It’s a book of romance, love triangles and the investigation of groups of humanity. Whereas Spider-Man is about the individual, X-Men is about the group.

Nrama: Which X-Man is your favorite to draw, and which is the most challenging? Which new concepts/characters for this story have been the most fun to work on?
Andrews: Right now, I’m having the most fun drawing Emma. We’ve seen a lot of variations of her, but never quite the way I’m doing it. At least, not that I can remember. I’m sure some people will hate it and some will love it. That’s great! Indifference is my only enemy.

Nrama: Warren has a reputation as a very artist-friendly writer. What has your collaboration been like, and what is most enjoyable/unique about his scripts?

Andrews: In a perfect world, I would have the time to do a much larger project with Warren. He’s a gentlemen and a true storyteller. The most interesting thing about Warren is how he is constantly doing both big, mainstream books and more independent, creator-owned stuff. I love that attitude. And his passion for technology really comes through in his work.

READ THE REST: Kaare Andrews Draws a New ASTONISHING X-MEN

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