GVN Talking Comics Interview: Artist Emma Ríos For Image Comics ‘Anzuelo’

Emma Ríos is an internationally renowned Spanish comic artist, writer, and editor known for her contributions to the comic industry. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with major American comic publishers, including Marvel, Image, and Boom! Studios. During that time, her work has garnered significant recognition, leading to Eisner Award nominations for Best Penciller/Inker/Artist and Best Cover Artist in 2014. In 2020, she won the Eisner Award for Best Cover Artist for “Pretty Deadly.”

Currently, Emma has put her prodigious talents to work on her latest Image Comics title, Anzuelo. A beautiful watercolor vision that she says is “a love letter to the sea.” We caught up to Emma recently to talk about her career, her use of media and her newest book. So, let’s welcome Eisner Award winner Emma Ríos to GVN Talking Comics.

GVN: Thank you for spending a few moments of your time, Emma. Let’s start with a bit of your background. You initially started in Architecture before refocusing your talents on comics. How long have you been interested in drawing comics and whose work inspired you and made you think it was the direction you wanted to go?

ER: I’d already been reading and drawing a lot of comics as a kid, but the conscious urge to draw them came while reading Akira when I was 14. I belong to the generation that witnessed and enjoyed the arrival of manga to the West. I already liked comics a lot, but having flawed characters my age, leading what looked like adult, visceral and dangerous stories, blew my mind back then.

GVN: You have worked for Marvel and Image Comics on mainstream and creator-owned characters. Do you approach working with established characters differently than you do your creations?

ER: Working with characters I’ve loved reading both as an adult and as a kid is very fun. I was also very lucky at Marvel. My style is not easy to adapt, and they offered me gigs where I could express myself with a lot of freedom. I also got to meet Kelly Sue Deconnick there, my sister in arms on “Pretty Deadly.” Together we did this crazy limited series “Osborn” that was a treat for us and made us want to keep working together all this time.

I get pretty attached to the things I draw; hence I struggled when some series couldn’t make it further due to sales. And sometimes the conditions of time, story and format were a challenge for me. I thought my art was suffering from it and eventually felt confident enough to try something else that I first thought would be temporary. I still do work for hire from time to time now, but in smaller doses and I think that works better.

I’ve been betting hard on my own comics for the last ten years and I’d love to keep doing so, as a cartoonist. It’s amazing to create new stories out of nowhere and share the art hidden in your brain you thought wouldn’t resonate with anyone. I’m not precisely an extrovert, so I find these connections with people very touching.

However, it’s true that economically it can get difficult, because my reach as an independent cartoonist can only get me so far. Still, I live in a small town in Spain, don’t have kids etc… I have control over the books I create thanks to the rights policies Image Comics defends, which gives me some peace of mind. We have witnessed all kinds of sad stories of god-like classic creators passing away in total poverty. Because work for hire can only help you short term.

Culturally, it is hard in the US. But I wish we could hear more voices against the harvesting of IPs from big and small publishers, individuals even, and lately filmmakers who don’t even care much about the medium.

GVN: Before we get to your beautiful book, “Anzuelo,” I must ask about your work on Marvel’s Agents of Shield’s Season 1, Episode 21 – “RagTag” poster. I am a HUGE fan of Agents of Shield so that information was so cool to me. How did that opportunity come about?

ER: It was surprising to me because I wasn’t working for Marvel when I received the email. There were some people from comics involved in the initiative, like Joe Quesada, so I imagine they knew some of my work from my time working there. I was excited about the show and liked the character, so it was pretty fun. I remember having a little stress because there are always notes with work-for-hire work but eventually, it went well. I might still have a few large prints of this rarity at home.

GVN: I have read your latest book, “Anzuelo” and it is a fantastic mix of art and thought-provoking story with your watercolor skills at the forefront. Could you please explain to our readers the general premise of “Anzuelo” and what inspired you to tell this story?

ER: Thanks so much for reading it. Anzuelo is the story of three children that seem to have survived a massive tidal wave, willingly submerging the whole planet. All things, inside and outside themselves, have been touched by it, and together they face the physical and mental fallout wielding their kindness and compassion as a shield.

GVN: While reading Anzuelo, I found the artwork on the pages to be very captivating. Your comic work displays a great deal of talent and diversity in media. I’m curious, when creating this book, did you specifically choose watercolor for telling this story, or did you consider using any other mediums?

ER: Thank you! I imagined the book in watercolors from the beginning because I thought it’d emphasize the physical sense of wetness and the oneiric fable-like atmosphere I wanted to go for. Also to get advantage of a soft color palette that could make a contrast with the darker themes contemplated in the book. It’s a difficult technique, and even after all these pages, I do not think I have even begun to control it. But it was interesting and worth it.

GVN: When readers finish “Anzuelo,” what would you hope they get out of the story and hopefully talk about?

ER: It’s difficult for me to think in those terms, to be honest. I tried to write a love letter to the sea, thinking of how it is way too casually observed as the surface of a mirror, oblivious of what’s beneath. Despite the fact that life below has already crossed over in different ways. I think it would be nice if people would want to go walking by the sea to take a little break.

GVN: Thank you once again, Emma. Before I let you go, I want to give you a chance to talk about any other projects you may have coming up.

ER: Kelly Sue and I are back at work on “Pretty Deadly,” and will focus on it for a while until we finish the entire story. The upcoming arc tells Alice’s origin story and takes place when the Vikings first reached your coasts. The last one will happen during the Great Depression with all the characters onboard. I’m thrilled to return to this world and to collaborate, especially after all this time working alone.