AL BIGLEY INTERVIEW, Batman Illustrator, Part 1

Hello Everybody! It's time again for another Bat-Blog Interview & We would like to welcome our latest victim, artist Al Bigley.

Al has been doing commercial illustrations for some time now & his clients include DC Comics among other major companies. He's a great talent & he was nice enough to grant us a RARE interview.


Bat-Blog: Welcome Al, How are you doing?

Bigley: Just fine! Enjoying your great blog, as usual. Love all the items you're able to dig up!

Bat-Blog: Thanks for reading the Bat-Blog, I appreciate that plug ( ha ha ) & we're glad ya like it. ( Readers, Al doesn't know that I put a Bat-Blog logo on his T-shirt, as a joke, ha ha! ). So tell us, How long have you been a working artist?

Bigley: Well, since 1990 or so... I started by doing covers for Quality Comics, a firm that brought over UK comics, such as STRONTIUM DOG and 2000 AD, and published them anew in the USA.
Soon after, DC called, with some Batman storybooks, and away it goes...

Bat-Blog: Can you tell us what artists have been an inspiration to you & why?

Bigley: As a child, I loved Neal Adams, like most comics fans in the early 70s. Even as a young person, I could see the draftsmanship and craft and realism in his artwork, and recognized it as the novelty in then-current comics that it was.

I also loved John Romita sr, who was realistic in another sense, and more in line with how I now think comic art should look. Any cartoonist takes the real world and tries to relate it in his drawings, and what you admire is their individual "voice" or way they relate what they see. It's also what we call the artist's "style."

I also loved the work of Nick Cardy, Norman Rockwell, Mort Drucker, Earl Norem, Irv Novick, John and Sal Buscema, Jack Kirby...I could go on and on!

Bat-Blog: We're HUGE Neal Adams Fans here as well. While visiting your website's Gallery Page we were very surprised by how much design work you have done with DC Comics, especially Batman. How did that begin?

Bigley: Like most newcomers just out of art school ( though I was out for 3 years by then), I was sending samples of my work to all the editors at the comics firms. I never got a real bite, but one day the late Joe Orlando at DC called me up and asked if I wanted to draw Batman!

Joe was then the head of the DC Special Projects department, and thought I was ready for the merchandise work they did there. Quite a compliment, as THAT'S the work they keep a careful eye on, since SO many more folks see it out in the general public, and they feel it must be the best representation of their properties.

Things just snowballed from there! Once the "Batman: The Animated Series" came in, I showed I could capture that style, created by Bruce Timm, and I got Batman work from that area also.

Lots of fun, as Batman was the character that I first became interested in as a child, and still think of as my favorite.

Bat-Blog: Yeah, we're BIG Batman Fans too!

AL BIGLEY INTERVIEW, Batman Illustrator, Part 2

Bat-Blog: I noticed you did the artwork for the Batman Trading Cards box. Did you do any of the art for the cards themselves?

Bigley: I did lots of work for the BAS style guides. These are big books of images that merchandisers can use on whatever product they're producing. Towels, shirts, cards, clothes, curtains, you name it. The images are already drawn, approved, sometimes colored. The image on the card box came from my style guide artwork for DC! One of my favorites of all the images I did for them! I've been really surprised by some of that work. I've seen that same Batman figure used on a popsicle wrapper, beach towel, and one image from the guide ended up being made into a 3-D kid's night-light! You never know!


Bat-Blog: We love your McDonald's Happy Meal boxes for the Batman Animated Series. Did you do all four of them? Also, did you do any of the other art for this Happy Meal assignment?

Bigley: No. I can't recall who the other artist was, although I think it was Ty Templeton! I did two of them, and they were a blast! Talk about getting your work out into the general public!

Bat-Blog: Yeah, McDonalds is HUGE! Did you do any of the other art for this Happy Meal assignment?

Bigley: No, just the boxes. When I talk to kids in school about my career, they get so excited when they see the boxes! Did you know that McDonald's no longer makes them? The meals are all bagged now, I think.


Bat-Blog: Now, about your published work. At your website we saw a picture of the Batman Golden Book with The Joker titled "The Case of The Sticky Fingers". What was that like & have you done art for any more of those?

Bigley: That was for that first kid's storybook I mentioned. When Joe Orlando initially called. I also did a Catwoman book in the same series. They were great fun, as DC was just looking for them to feature "regular Batman," as opposed to the movie versions, the cartoon versions, etc...

AL BIGLEY INTERVIEW, Batman Illustrator, Part 3

Bat-Blog: OK Now, on to the packaging design for the Batman Animated Series action figures by Kenner Toys. How did this come about & what was your favorite part of the process?

Bigley: Since I was already doing Special Projects work, they thought to have me try out on doing work for that series. I ended up doing tons of art for the BAS style guides, toys, shirts, etc. The toy action figure art was especially fun!

Bat-Blog: We noticed the drawings are pretty accurate to the figures. Did they have them made already & if so, did they send you "prototypes" or the actual toys?

Bigley: I got to use the toy prototypes to draw from, as well as a general rough sketch from Kenner. I had to put the character "on model," and also give him or her an exciting action pose, and show off any weapons or accessories they came with. Of course, I had to send the prototypes back. My toy collector pals were excited to hear which characters were finally getting made, since I had to prepare art months in advance of the figure hitting the store shelves!


Bat-Blog: That's cool. I really love these & have all of them in my personal collection.

Bigley: I have a few, also! Keep in mind, these were all produced in the days before DC DIRECT and such, so this would have been the only action figure appearance then of characters such as Harley Quinn, Creeper, Mad Hatter, etc...

Bat-Blog: Yes, we loved that they did those really obscure characters too. The Batman Animated series is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest cartoons ever made...period. If you watch them today they still hold up really well & I'm sure they will be Super Classics in the far future.

AL BIGLEY INTERVIEW, Batman Illustrator, Part 4

Bat-Blog: OK, now...What's the deal with these wonderful illustrations you did that have a Christmas theme?

Bigley: Those are all done for super fan, Tim Chandler! Tim collects original comic art, most featuring his favorite character, Poison Ivy, and we team up every year to come up with a theme that involves the Bat-characters! Kinda tough, but somehow we pull it off every year! The idea is to work with what the viewer sees first, then, once the card is unfolded, they get the whole picture! I also convert some of these into cards I send to those in the biz every Christmas season...

Bat-Blog: Oh yeah, we think these are all really great! The one with Batman in Santa's sled with Mr. Freeze, Catwoman, & The Joker is my personal favorite! It's an awesome graphic for a Christmas card but I think it would make a great Christmas ornament too!

AL BIGLEY INTERVIEW, Batman Illustrator, Part 5

Bat-Blog: What kind of work are you currently doing? Also, can you tell us if you're doing any new Batman-related art for the future?

Bigley: I did some art for what will be an online romance comic book, for one of the big romance novel publishers, as well as some t-shirt work for an ad firm in Statesville, NC.

I'm also doing work on designing characters and doing some comic strips for the Food Lion supermarket folks, involving safety and conservation efforts in their warehouses and such. Sometimes an artist does lots of work like this, or design work, that the wider public never sees.
But I've done so many other projects in the past, including work for Marvel Comics, Children's Television Workshop, LucasFilm, Golden Books, Hershey's, and others.

I also recently did some artwork for the WaterKeeper Foundation, run by Robert Kennedy Jr. It's a comic strip with superheroes that teaches abut water conservation issues. Not just the ecology, but legal issues, big business, etc...Interesting!

As far as my return to Batman, I pencilled and designed several Hallmark DC Christmas ornaments back in June! Talk abut lead-time! The ornaments also spotlight Superman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and the usual famous foes! I don't know if these will be fully produced or not, but they sure were fun to create!

I've really had a good time doing this. I've gotten to work with not only some of my childhood favorites as far as characters like Batman or Spider-Man are concerned, but also some of my artistic favorites growing up. It can also be fun not quite knowing what you'll be doing 4 weeks or 4 years from now. This week I'm drawing comics, next month I'll be working on product designs for Shrek 2 toys, the next will be a logo design, etc... Keeps it interesting! Thanks! I hope your readers find this interesting!

Bat-Blog: Ha, Yes! Al I know our readers are gonna love this. You're a very talented artist & this has been a great interview. We wanna thank you for being a wonderful guest. Please keep us updated in ANY future Batman projects you do, that's exciting. Now, get back to work!!

This concludes the interview with Mr. Bigley. If you want further information about his work be sure to check out his website.
http://www.albigley.com

AL BIGLEY INTERVIEW, Batman Illustrator, Part 6

All of us here at the Bat-Blog want to thank Al Bigley for bring such a great guest! We know our readers are gonna love this inside information & all the wonderful illustrations. We hope many of you check out his website & if you're a company looking to hire somebody this guy has a lot of talent! A trademark thing we do here at the Bat-Blog Interviews page is make some Desktop Wallpapers that are sort of related to the interview we just did so here are 2 to enjoy! The 1st one uses some of Al's incredible clip-art that I'm sure many of you have seen on Batman-related products. It's my favorite. I love the clean sharp lines & the bright-red looks cool too. The 2nd one is a montage of some of the many Kenner Batman: The Animated Series Action Figures that showcase his artwork. With many readers of this page also being toy collectors this will probably be the most downloaded of all.