Interview with Mr. Wayno by Robert Ruggeri


Why Wayno? Why Not? He really is one of the most interesting illustrators on the scene. You may saw what he did for the London Guardian, the New York Press, Nickelodeon Magazine, Pittsburgh City Paper, just to name a few. Or maybe you saw one of the many covers he did (Rhino Records, Merge records, Get Hip Records, OmOm records and more) or his drawings just look familiar to you but you really can’t remember why. That is WHY this interview has been posted in here.
But, if you never heard his name, scroll down the lines, don’t need to read all, and just click at the link to his home-page and…Have Fun!

Rob: let's start from the beginning, where were you born and when?

Wayno: I was born in Coffee County, Tennessee in 1956. My dad was working there on a temporary assignment, but the family was based in Pittsburgh, where I've lived all my life.

I like to think that since I was born so close to Lynchburg that
I have some Jack Daniels in my blood.

Rob: family? If so, do you have kids? And if still so, what do
they think of your unusual job? And your wife?

Wayno: I'm the oldest of three brothers. We all grew up watching cartoons and reading comic books, so they think that being an illustrator is cool.

My wife would be a great art director if she ever decided to
work in publishing. She was the ability to read a story and figure
out what the perfect illustration should be. She comes up with
a lot of the ideas that end up as my illustrations.

My wife is also the one who really encouraged me to start doing
something with art many years ago. My parents viewed art as something
that should be a hobby at best, so I never got much support from
them growing up.

We don't have any kids, but I enjoy being an uncle

Rob: when did you realize that this was going to be your job?

Wayno: I started doing Xeroxed minicomics in the mid-1980s. At that
time there was a very active network of people who made and traded
minicomics by mail. During that time I met a lot of my best friends
in the comics world -- Mary Fleener, JR Williams, Mark Martin,
Dennis Worden, etc.

I always knew I would do SOMETHING with art, but wasn't sure
what that exactly would be until I started getting calls from
art directors who had seen my comics, around 1993.

Rob: at what age did you start with your sketches?

Wayno: I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. I was copying
drawings from comic strips when I was four or five years old.
Through my school years, I produced thousands of drawings ridiculing
my teachers, which was good training in doing caricatures. Malice
is a terrific motivator!

Rob: I know your favorite artist was Virgil Partch (1916 - 1984), can you tell some about this?

Wayno: I had some Partch paperback books when I was in my teens and
he fascinated me. Ever since that time, I've collected his stuff.

Partch was the perfect cartoonist. His gags were very funny,
and he used both visual and verbal humor. His art, at its best,
had a wonderfully manic quality. His characters are always over the top.

I really admire his work habits. Despite the fact that he spent a lot of time drinking and hanging out with his buddies, he was very disciplined about working, and he was always ahead of schedule.

Rob: in what way his works influenced yours?

Wayno: I love the "controlled looseness" of his art, and that's something I try to achieve with my work. I want my finished, tightly inked pieces to have at least some of the freedom and looseness of quick sketches.

His very fluid brushwork has been a big influence on me, and
I keep the quality of his line in mind whenever I ink my own work.

I hope that I've absorbed and incorporated some of his sense of the absurd.

Rob: I guess that at a younger age you went for all the Warner Bros.
cartoons instead of Disney, is that so?

Wayno: You are 100% correct. The Warner Brothers cartoons had a smart-ass quality that I latched onto. Disney's cartoons always struck me as being too cutesy and precious, and the characters had no
personality.

Bugs Bunny could kick Mickey Mouse's ass in a battle of wits.

Rob: can you tell us who really knocked you for his/their new idea in the work of illustration?

Wayno: Jim Flora, of course, who was more or less the inventor of
illustrated record sleeves. His art is just amazing, very cartoony and very stylized. (www.jimflora.com)

I also admire a lot of contemporary illustrators: Robert Risko and David Cowles for their unique styles of caricature; Mark Zingarelli, who is also a dear friend, and comes from a comics background; I like JD King's extreme form of draftsmanship.

I love old clip art and the anonymous illustrators who produced newspaper and magazine ads in the early part of the 20th century.

Rob: how do you consider Norman Rockwell?

Wayno: Here in the US, we all grew up surrounded by Rockwell's imagery; it was unavoidable. I think he was a very competent craftsman and I do not use that word disparagingly. His work doesn't
do much for me, but I can appreciate its place in history. That
homespun, "sitting around the cracker barrel" atmosphere seems pretty
laughable to me.

Rob:what is the difference in what the old cartoonists (back in the 50s & 60s) and the modern ones put in their art for your point of view?

Wayno: That's a tough question, and very broad, but I guess that modern cartooning has a lot more self-awareness (and self-analysis) than in the old days. Certainly the subject matter and visual styles are much more diverse than at any time in history.

Rob: respect to all your favorite artists like Partch, Crumb,
Flora & Griffith, your way of colouring is way far from them: is that
because you make all of your drawing directly at the comp or...?

Wayno: I'll address the technical question first? Everything I draw
is done by hand, with ink on paper. I scan the hand drawn art and then do my coloring in Photoshop.

I try to do the digital coloring the same way I did before I started using the computer. In the past, I used the old animation cel technique. I'd have my line art shot onto clear acetates and paint on the back side with cel-vinyl paints, just like the old animators did. I like having solid flat colors on the characters, and use more shading and texture in the backgrounds. I do the same thing digitally, using layers in Photoshop.

So, in general, classic animation art is what really influenced my coloring technique, in both my digital and "analog" pieces.

Rob: you have worked on many comic books then you switched onto
illustration, you did it because you were tired or because the market was going that way?

Wayno: I like the fast turnaround of illustration. Often, the printed piece appears within days of completing the art.

Also, I am the type of worker who needs deadlines in order to get something done, so my temperament is more suited to illustration than comics.

During my brief career in the comics world, I grew very frustrated
with the market, but also with the people involved in the business.
Most comics publishers treat artists poorly and unprofessionally.
When I started getting calls for illustration work, I was impressed
with the courtesy most people showed me.

I still love comics and will probably continue to be involved at some level, but it's not my main focus.

Rob: do you think that the audience understand the art behind the illustration or comics?

Wayno: I think that as long as the artist gets his point across, whether it's a story, a gag, or an illustration, that's the main goal. If a certain segment of the audience also looks closely at the
art and appreciates the technique, that's a nice bonus.

Rob: what is your favorite music?

Wayno: I listen to so many different styles and artists, I couldn't pick a favorite. I have a lot of jazz in my collection, and am a fan of the great Italian film composers (Morricone, Nino Rota, Piero Piccioni, Armando Trovaioli, etc.).

I love "the three Louies" (Jordan, Prima and Armstrong), 1960s
French pop, John Coltrane, Esquivel, Homer & Jethro, NRBQ, weird novelty records, talentless singing celebrities, a bit of modern
Japanese pop I could go on and on.

Music is something to continually explore. There's so much to discover, I can't understand why most people spend the rest of their lives listening to the exact same music they liked in high school.

Rob: who's spinning on your record player now?

Wayno: Right now, as I answer this question, I'm listening to Keren Ann's "Nolita" album.

Rob: you made many covers for albums but...you made them after you had a listen or you do not care of that?

Wayno: I'd say that for every album cover I've done, I had at least an idea as to what the music was all about. Normally, I don't get to hear the music until after it's released, but sometimes I have an advance copy.

Usually there's some connection between me and the artist -- at least that's been the case so far -- so it's not a complete mystery to me.

I worked in very close collaboration with Karl Hendricks for all of the covers I did for his groups. He usually made his own rough sketch as a guide for me, and I enjoyed taking his vision and applying my own style to it.

Rob: which is your favorite one among the many you did

Wayno: I'm very fond of the Metropole Orchestra's "Mother Magoo Suite" cover, because I that's the closest I've come to really capturing that classic animation look.

I was very happy with the Sam Butera cover I did for Get Hip Records. It reminds me of how Sam would look if he was a guest on an animated TV show. I met Sam Butera not long after that record came out, and got him to autograph the original art, which was a great thrill.

Rob: what is the difference between a US artist like you and the art of a "japanese-Wayno"?

Wayno: Japanese pop culture fascinates me, but I know very little about it. We see only a small part of it here in the states.

Rob: why you think the japanese cartoonists and illustrators have became so
popular?

Wayno: They have a strong visual style that's quite a bit different from western artists. It's like Japanese pop music -- it incorporates elements of European and American styles, but they twist it around and come up with something completely their own.

Rob: One of the mags you worked for, Cool & Strange Music, is no longer on the market, can you tell us what you remember of the collaboration you and Dana (the editor & publisher) had

Wayno: Working with Dana Countryman was a very pleasant and satisfying collaboration. Although he was publishing a small independent magazine, he always treated it like a business. He published every issue on schedule, and he paid for the artwork. He was a helpful editor too. As you know, I did a lot of caricatures of oddball singers and musicians. When he decided on the cover subject, he gathered plenty of photographs for me to use as reference.

I think the magazine got better with each issue, as he brought in more writers and artists. It was a shame that the guy who bought it from him never followed through, but in a way it's kind of nice that every issue that came out was under Dana's hand, and when he moved on to making music, that was the end of the magazine.

Rob: what do you think of all the new Disney movies?

Wayno: I have a policy of never seeing any Disney movies, so I have no comment on them. The trailers are quite enough for me, thank you.

Rob: you certainly know that Disney is one of a kind Corporation all the others (Nike & Coca Cola too) willing to when they started (beginning of the 80s when the corporations stopped selling products and started selling "names") to hit the market, what is your idea

Wayno: Disney is the real "evil empire." They're the biggest thieves going, and the first to try and crush anyone with lawsuits.

Rob: What do you think of the aggressivity of the Warner cartoons when at the same times kids were attacked by the illusion of a perfect world with no violence?

Wayno: The aggression and violence in Warner cartoons were never as negative as "concerned parents" made them out to be. Bugs Bunny never instigated a confrontation, but he never backed down when someone messed with him. He was cool headed overall, and was certain about who his enemy was. Maybe he should run for president.

Rob: do you think that Wiley Coyote will ever catch the Runner?

Wayno: I have to confess that I really didn't enjoy the Roadrunner cartoons all that much. They were okay, but over the years they became overexposed and very overrated. Whenever I saw Chuck Jones being interviewed about the Roadrunner shorts, I wanted to scream "Okay Chuck, we get the idea!"

Rob: do you think, or hope, that Mickey Mouse will ever been shot by a mean enemy?

Wayno: Mickey Mouse is nothing more than a logo.

Rob: did you read comics like Superman, Batman & the Marvel Ones?

Wayno: I read a million of those when I was a kid, and I don't need to devote any more time to that genre!

Rob: do you think you will ever get back to comics?

Wayno: Sure, in some way, I know I will. I've done several full-page comics for Nickelodeon Magazine, using all original characters, so I'm not completely divorced from comics. I love the comic art form, I just hate to go into most comics shops!

Rob: If people wish to buy your original paintings where do they have to check?

Wayno: They can contact me by visiting my website, www.wayno.com

Rob: Do you have any original of the works you did in the last few years especially record covers?

Wayno: I still have nearly ALL of my original art. I've never made much of an effort to sell the originals, although I have sold a few here and there over the years. If anybody is interested in buying originals, I'd like to hear from them!

Rob: Wayno do you have any word to add just to tease the readers?

Wayno: Well, Chinese New Year is one of my favorite holidays, and it's coming up soon (February 9), so I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Year of the Rooster.

Rob: Thanks a lot for your nice words Wayno, it's ok for me and give
a call if you get in here, I'll get you some delicious pasta & wine!

Wayno: Roberto, I may take you up in that some time. My favorite Italian grape is Primitivo, but I wouldn't turn down any nice Italian wine – and pasta is a great weakness too.

Check at www.wayno.com www.pittsburghillustrators.org/wayno.htm

(for OmOm srl – 2005)