SIX MINUTES WITH DUSTY HIGGINS:

Hello, LitPickers! On today’s Six Minutes with an Illustrator, Dusty Higgins is here to share his story. Dusty is the creator and artist behind Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer. He is an award winning illustrator and graphic artist at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, Arkansas. Some of his other books include Knights of the Living Dead and The Funny Thing About Football, a collection of sports cartoons about the Arkansas Razorbacks. Higgins also worked on Dark Horse’s Turok series.

How did you get started as an illustrator?

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing. All those drawings I would make on class worksheets (and really any paper I could get ahold of) as a child naturally progressed to drawing for my high school and college newspapers. By the time I had graduated, I already had been illustrating freelance for several clients and had a hefty portfolio that I used to get a job illustrating stories and working as a graphic designer at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state newspaper.  That eventually led into working on comic books (I gravitate toward the art of storytelling) and my most recent gig on Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape.

Who influenced you?

My influence pulls from so many different artists, and is constantly changing (I like experimenting with different looks and styles). That said, Ben Caldwell is one of those artists whose style I can’t get enough of. He has a fun energetic style that I would love to replicate in my own work.

Do you have a favorite style of art?

My favorite art to look at comes from the Savage Sword of Conan issues from decades ago; the black and white line art by Jon Buscema and Alfredo Alcala shows a beautiful mastery of composition and ink on the page. I’m not bashing color, and I like a good colored comic, but if somebody colored those, it would ruin them.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an illustrator?

Everybody says this, but it’s true. Draw constantly. If drawing isn’t your passion, if it’s not something you want to do all the time, then you’re not going to make it. And learn to network with other artists and writers. Get to know other people in the industry in a casual setting. That’s at least as equally if not more important as having a passion for drawing.

Where is your favorite place to work?

Any place cool and dark.

What else would you like to tell us?

Check out my new book, Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape. It’s part prose, part graphic novel, and done so in a very fun way that works organically with the storytelling. Miles comes in to possession of a golden cape that turns him into a superhero and whenever he’s a hero, it’s me drawing the comics pages. When he turns back into a 7th grader, the story switches to prose. The writer, Rob Vendetti, and I have a lot of fun with the scene changes.

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Thanks for spending six minutes with us, Dusty! Miles Teller and the Golden Cape sounds like a great mashup of prose and illustration. :)