Phil Hester brings super heroes to life

NORTH ENGLISH — Cartoonist Phil Hester has been drawing all his life. He had his sights set on working for DC and Marvel Comics from a very young age.

“I spent all my time writing and drawing stories,” Hester told an audience at English Valleys History Center Sunday.

Hester grew up before the internet. Children had to entertain themselves, Hester said. He did that by telling stories with his artwork. He filled notebooks and even drew on grocery bags.

Hester has been doing this professionally for about 40 years, but he has been creating comic books since he was a junior high student at English Valleys. Arnie Baier, a “grumpy” teacher who made the kids’ lives tough became Captain Squatty Body, said Hester.

“I turned him into a super hero.”

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Hester was the new kid at English Valleys, having moved to town from Oklahoma City. His comics became his identity at the new school. “Even though I wasn’t getting paid, I was getting recognition,” he said.

Hester and a couple of friends started making Squatty Body comics for their friends. “We made other teachers into villains,” he said.

Hester and his friends thought they were being subversive, on the verge of getting into trouble with every publication. In truth, the teachers wanted to be in the comics and took offense if they weren’t included, Hester said.

“It just fueled my desire to keep making comic books.”

Hester and his friends became publishers. They had a schedule and assignments. They published comics throughout high school.

After high school

After graduating from English Valleys High School, Hester earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Iowa. He sent samples of his work to Marvel and DC every two or three months, he said.

He married his wife, Chris, and they moved to Knoxville where she had a teaching job. She later taught in North English.

Hester could write anywhere as long as he had access to a FAX machine. Before that technology, an artist had to move somewhere, such as New York City, to make a living, said Hester.

But Hester doesn’t have to, and he doesn’t want to. “There’s a level of courtesy in the Midwest that I’m addicted to,” he said.

In the 1980s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were born, and comic book companies came looking for artists to create competing characters, Hester said.

“After that, I just slowly worked my way up,” from smaller publishers to DC and Marvel. He’s best known for Green Arrow, he said, but he’s drawn most major super heroes, including Batman and Superman.

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The characters Hester grew up with, he now gets to draw. “I never lose sight of how special that is,” he said.

He’s drawn non-heroes as well; he’s written Archie comics.

One of Hester’s first big assignments was Ghostbusters. He didn’t really care about the subject, he said. He was just happy to be working.

Making a living

Hester has created 500 public comics, which is not a big number, he said, considering they’re published monthly. He’s basically a contractor, so when he has work, he has money.

“My income looks kind of like an EKG,” said Hester.

Drawing comics is collaborative, said Hester. He draws the frames in pencil, another artist goes over them with pen or marker and someone else colors them.

That’s one of the nice things about doing comics, said Hester. It’s like being in a different band every month. A writer, an artist, a colorist are needed to get Batman out every month. It’s too much for one person.

Hester said he’s not the most talented artist in the field, maybe in the 40th percentile as far as technical skill. But he’s in the 90th percentile in story telling, he said.

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“I understand visual language,” Hester said. His story telling is “clear, engaging and dramatic.”

“The money’s OK but not great,” said Hester. If an artist creates a breakout character he can become rich.

Hester has a lot of fans, he said. “On social media, tens of throusands of people follow me.”

“Technically, I’m an independent contractor,” said Hester. He writes stories for characters that he doesn’t own whenever he is hired for a story.

“You pitch an idea, and if they like it they hire you,” Hester said. Publishers don’t want anything out of character. They follow the artist through the process to make sure nothing outrageous makes it into print.

“Mostly that decision is made before they hire you,” said Hester. They won’t hire someone they don’t trust.

Artists can’t draw characters all the time, said Hester. They have to draw whatever is required to round out the story. Hester told one aspiring artist that on his first job he was excited to draw a super hero, but in one panel he had to draw a baby, and he didn’t know how to draw a baby. The next panel was a train.

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You have to draw it all, he said.

“When I started, we were all sort of wage slaves to DC,” said Hester. Eventually his own characters — the ones he owns the rights to — gained traction as well.

“This is all I’ve wanted to do as long as I can remember,” Hester said.

Hester doesn’t like being up until 3 a.m. trying to met a deadline, but that’s his own fault, he said. “It’s a great job, but it’s still a job.”

Beyond comic books

For a couple of years Hester was a storyboard artist. He had to break down scripts into images. Cartoon animators drew humor and weren’t good at drawing drama, said Hester, so studios turned to comic book artists.

”I was lucky that I was in the right place at the right time.”

Hester created Firebreather, an animated series on Cartoon Network. The series did well, said Hester, but it was expensive, so the network stopped making it. They said if they wanted to spend that much, it would be for a character they own, not something belonging to some guy in Iowa, Hester said.

Hester also contributed to the Batman animated series and the television series “Arrow” which ran for eight seasons on the CW.

He’s currently writing a comic in the “A Quiet Place” universe. It’s set to be released in March.

A growing industry

Comics are very big in Europe and South America, Hester said. They’re huge in Japan. Even bigger than in the United States.

Comics are the only part of publishing that’s growing, said Hester. Every large town has a specialty shop that sells them, what he calls “an all purpose nerd shop.” The popularity is fueled by the graphic novel market which is growing and thriving.

Right now the big trend is Japanese influence because of the popularity of manga and anime.

You never know what’s going to get big, said Hester. “The stuff I’m proudest of sometimes just reach small audiences,” he said, while something he doesn’t like may become very popular.

While artists who are 40 and younger work on tablets, Hester still uses paper and pencil. He like to have tangible art. At conventions, people buy his pages.

Artificial intelligence

Like many other industries, comic book publishing has had to deal with artificial intelligence.

“We’ve taken a very hard line on AI,” said Hester. “It’s a plagiarism machine.”

Right now they look terrible, said Hester. “We can spot it pretty quickly.”

Hester can spot AI in animation as well. “It’s harder for untrained people to catch it,” he said.

Hester can see a drawing and tell what artist it is. “We’re really attune to little quirks in people’s style.” AI tends to fix the quirks.

“We want AI to do our dishes, not do our artwork and make us do our dishes,” said Hester.

Eye trouble

Hester almost lost his ability to work after he developed an eye disease. He was able to get cornea transplants through the University of Iowa.

“Before that happened, I was slowing down as an artist, and I ascribed all of that to growing old,” said Hester. But it was because of his cloudy vision.

His experience made him active with organ donation. He’s currently drawing an ad for eye donation month. He will take real people and turn them into superheroes for the ad campaign. he said.

Still, Hester knows old age will come. He’s got an agreement with his friends to let him know when his stuff starts looking wonky, he said. Some people lose their edge early. Others draw into their 90s.

“I will draw a little bit as long as I can,” said Hester.

Hester figures he has 15 more years in him. “I have a big board of projects I want to do,” he said.