Travis Charest
Travis Charest | |
---|---|
The Metabarons |
Travis Charest (born 1969) is a
Early life
Charest was born in 1969[6] on a farm[7] in the small Canadian town of Leduc, Alberta. His parents held various jobs, though he has stated that his mother and sister were skilled designers,[8] and attributes his early childhood interest in drawing to them.[8][7][9]
His earliest exposure to genre illustration came through
Career
Charest did not initially know how to parlay his drawing ability into a career, as there were no schools where he lived for such an endeavor, and did not foresee it as a profession.[8] He worked a number of dead-end jobs,[7] and it was while living on his own at age 18 or 19, and became friends with people who read comics, that he realized he could make a career out of it.[8] Charest cites Mike Mignola, Adam Hughes, and Brian Bolland among his artistic influences,[1] as well as many artists from the early 20th century.[10]
Charest spent six months continuously producing new sample art and sending them to various publishers, including
He followed that initial Flash story with another one that appeared in Flash Annual #5 (August 1992), which he calls "my first real thing", and then a story focusing on an arm wrestling match between the
He later became the regular artist on
Charest was then contacted by publisher
In 1999, Charest joined writer
In 2000 Charest moved to Paris,[8][13] where he worked with filmmaker/artist Alejandro Jodorowsky on the Metabarons graphic novel Weapons of the Metabaron. Charest, having grown tired of superheroes, accepted the job, and planned to paint the entire graphic novel, something he had never done before. The process of that work went much more slowly than Charest had anticipated, and he illustrated only the first 29 pages of the book.[13] Travis describes the feedback he received from his colleagues thus: "My editor encouraged me to be faster, while Jodorowsky always said, 'Don't listen to them, I'll distract them, you do what you want.'" Because Charest could only paint two or three pages a month, and he and his girlfriend had trouble paying the bills that incurred from living in Paris, they left the city[8] after only a couple of years,[13] and returned to the United States, where Charest's girlfriend could work.[8] Humanoid Publishing selected Serbian artist Zoran Janjetov, who previously worked on the Incal books John Defaul and Technopriests, to complete the art for the project.[8][13] Confessing that it was too much for him to handle at that point in his career, Charest stated in a 2020 interview that he no longer wished to paint interior pages, as it took him a week to paint an interior page, and that if he wished to produce fully-illustrated work, he would only do pencils and have another artist paint it.[8]
By 2007 Charest had settled in California. Among his subsequent work was cover art for David Morrell's Captain America: The Chosen mini-series. He also ran the free webcomic strip Spacegirl on his MSN group.[13] In 2008, a limited edition printed volume hardcover of Spacegirl was self-published by Charest and Big Wow Art, collecting the first 56 strips of the series.[14]
Technique and materials
Charest usually prefers not to employ preliminary sketching practices, such as layouts, thumbnails or
Charest previously illustrated on regular
Charest uses mainly
According to Charest, the time he needs to finish a given page varies, depending on how fast his editor needs it, and what he is being paid,
Influence
Charest's work has influenced artists such as Chrissie Zullo,[2] Shelby Robertson,[3] and David Marquez.[5]
Personal life
As of 1995, Charest was living in
Bibliography
Interior comic work
- The Flash Annual #5: "Family Business" (with Mark Waid and Craig Boldman, DC Comics, 1992)
- The Incredible Hulk Annual #18: "Mano A Mano" (with Peter David, Marvel, 1992)
- Darkstars #4-7 (with Michael Jan Friedman, DC Comics, 1993)
- Showcase '93 #3: "Delay of Game" (with Michael J. Martinek, DC Comics, 1993)
- DC Universe: Trinity #1: "Darkstars" (with Michael Jan Friedman, DC Comics, 1993)
- Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #6: "What Price Honor?" (with Ruben Diaz, DC Comics, 1993)
- Wildstorm):
- "Destiny's Hand" (with Steve Gerber, in Special #1, 1993)
- "Voodoo: Passed Lives" (with Steven T. Seagle, in #8, 1994)
- "Warblade: The Bonds of Blood & Steel" (with Jeff Mariotte, in #9, 1994)
- "End Program" (with James Robinson, in #15-17, 1994–1995)
- "Hard Hunt" (with James Robinson, in #18, 1995)
- "Wild Storm Rising" (with James Robinson, in #20, 1995)
- "Call of the Wild" (with Alan Moore, in #21, 1995)
- "...as It is in Heaven" (with Alan Moore, in #25, 1995)
- "Khera" (with Alan Moore, in #26, 1996)
- "Cataclysm" (with Alan Moore, Dave Johnson and Aron Wiesenfeld, in #28, 1996)
- "Fire from Heaven, Parts Seven and Thirteen" (with Alan Moore and Ryan Benjamin, in #29-30, 1996)
- "Cats & Dogs" (with Alan Moore, Jim Lee and Josh Wiesenfeld, in #31, 1996)
- "Reincarnation" (with Alan Moore, in #50, 1998)
- Gen13 #0: "Things Change" (with Brandon Choi, Wildstorm, 1994)
- Union #7: "One Month" (with Mike Heisler, among other artists, Wildstorm, 1995)
- Shi #1-2: "Final Rites" (with Brandon Choi, Jim Lee, Peter Gutierrez, Billy Tucci and Ryan Benjamin, Image, 1996)
- WildC.A.T.s/X-Men: The Golden Age (with Scott Lobdell, one-shot, Wildstorm, 1997)
- Captain America v2 #7: "Crossroads" (with James Robinson, among other artists, Marvel, 1997)
- Aliens: Havoc #2 (with Mark Schultz, among other artists, Dark Horse, 1997)
- Wildstorm):
- "Balance of Terror" (with Scott Lobdell, in #1, 1999)
- "Second Skin" (with Scott Lobdell, in #2, 1999)
- "Flavors" (with Scott Lobdell, in #3, 1999)
- "Firefight" (with Scott Lobdell, Carlos D'Anda and Anthony Winn, in #4, 1999)
- "The Chase" (with Scott Lobdell, Joe Casey and Scott Benefiel, in #6, 2000)
- Metabarons (with Alejandro Jodorowsky, Les Humanoïdes Associés):
- Sans Nom, le Dernier des Métabarons (The Last Metabaron) (one-shot, 2002)
- Les Armes du Meta-Baron (Weapons of the Metabaron) (with Zoran Janjetov, graphic novel, 2008)
- C.B. Cebulski and Mindy Owens, Marvel, 2007)
- Captain America v1 #616: "Origin" (with Ed Brubaker, Marvel, 2011)
Cover work
- Darkstars #1-3, 8-11 (DC Comics, 1992–1993)
- Detective Comics #652-653 (DC Comics, 1992)
- Batman #488-490 (DC Comics, 1993)
- Robin III: Cry of the Huntress #3 (DC Comics, 1993)
- Outsiders #1α, 1Ω (DC Comics, 1993)
- Wildstorm, 1995–1997)
- Shattered Image #2 (Image, 1996)
- Wetworks#32 (Wildstorm, 1997)
- Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Faraday #1 (Wildstorm, 1997)
- Phantom Guard #1 (Wildstorm, 1997)
- Stormwatch #1 (Wildstorm, 1997)
- Wildcore #1 (Wildstorm, 1997)
- DV8#14 (Wildstorm, 1997)
- Gen13 #25 (Wildstorm, 1997)
- Battle Chasers #1 (Cliffhanger, 1998)
- C-23 #0-3 (Image, 1998)
- Danger Girl#3 (Cliffhanger, 1998)
- Wildcats #5, 7-11 (Wildstorm, 1999–2000)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: Embrace the WolfGN (Wildstorm, 2000)
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #1, 3-6, 25 (Dark Horse, 2006–2008)
- Star Wars: Legacy #14-19, 28 (Dark Horse, 2007–2008)
- Captain America: The Chosen #1-6 (Marvel, 2007–2008)
- Star Wars: Dark Times #11 (Dark Horse, 2008)
- Star Wars: Rebellion #15 (Dark Horse, 2008)
- Invincible Iron Man #3 (Marvel, 2008)
- Atomika #10 (Mercury, 2009)
- Skaar: Son of Hulk #11 (Marvel, 2009)
- Star Wars: Purge – Seconds to Die#1 (Dark Horse, 2009)
- Astonishing X-Men #31 (Marvel, 2009)
- Avengers: The Children's Crusade#2 (Marvel, 2010)
- The Mighty Thor#1 (Marvel, 2011)
- Chrononauts: Futureshock #1 (Image, variant, 2019)[21]
References
General references
- Travis Charest at the Grand Comics Database
- Travis Charest at the Big Comic Book DataBase
Inline citations
- ^ a b c d "FAQ: "Who are your favorite artists?" The Official Unofficial Travis Charest Gallery. December 1, 2000. Retrieved March 9, 2013
- ^ a b c "Fables Cinderella by Chrissie Zullo". Creating a Graphic Novel: Art – Food - Photography. May 9, 2011. Archived from the original on February 4, 2019. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
- ^ a b c "Shelby Robertson". Creating a Graphic Novel: Art – Food - Photography. October 28, 2009. Archived from the original on February 3, 2019. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
- CBR.com.
- ^ CBR.com. Archived from the originalon August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
- ^ "Travis Charest". Virtual International Authority File. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wizard #41 (January 1995). pp 124-125.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Fiamma, Andrea (March 3, 2020). "L'arte di (smettere di) disegnare, secondo Travis Charest". Fumetto Logica. Archived from the original on March 3, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
- ^ FAQ: "At what age did you start drawing?". The Official Unofficial Travis Charest Gallery; December 1, 2000. Retrieved August 30, 2010
- ^ FAQ: "Who influenced you?" The Official Unofficial Travis Charest Gallery. December 1, 2000. Retrieved August 30, 2010
- ^ a b Charest, Travis (February 4, 2012). "20 YEARS LATER..." Travis Charest's Spacegirl. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012 – via Blogger.
- Wildstorm Productions, p. 31.
- ^ a b c d e f Arrant, Chris (June 15, 2007). "Talking to Travis Charest". Newsarama. Archived from the original on June 17, 2007.
- Amazon.com. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
- ^ Charest, Travis (December 1, 2000). "FAQ: 'Working techniques'". The Official Unofficial Travis Charest Gallery. Archived from the original on April 8, 2001. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
- ^ Charest, Travis (December 1, 2000). "FAQ: 'Do I use any type of references?'". The Official Unofficial Travis Charest Gallery. Archived from the original on April 8, 2001. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
- ^ a b Charest, Travis (December 1, 2000). "FAQ: 'What materials do I use?'". The Official Unofficial Travis Charest Gallery. Archived from the original on April 8, 2001. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
- ^ Charest, Travis (February 13, 2021). "Travis Charest on Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on February 13, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
- ^ a b Charest, Travis (December 1, 2000). "FAQ: 'Just how long does it take you to finish a whole page?'". The Official Unofficial Travis Charest Gallery. Archived from the original on April 8, 2001. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
- ^ Charest, Travis (December 1, 2000). "FAQ: 'Why am I leaving Wildstorm?'". The Official Unofficial Travis Charest Gallery. Archived from the original on April 8, 2001. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
- ^ McMillan, Graeme (July 22, 2019). "Netflix Invites Readers to Binge Mark Millar's Next Comic Book". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
External links
- Travis Charest Art Gallery
- Travis Charest at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)