GVN Talking Comics Interview: Artist Lewis LaRosa On Oni Press’ Carbon Based: The Art of Lewis LaRosa

Lewis LaRosa is an artist who celebrates traditional art forms, working with pencil, pen, and paint to craft stunning pieces that showcase his skill in form and shadow. In his work for publishers like Valiant, DC, and Marvel, Lewis’ art has been widely praised by both fans and critics.

Coming soon, Oni Press is bringing to Kickstarter a collection of over 250 pieces of Lewis artwork in Carbon Based: The Art of Lewis LaRosa. This will include rarely seen covers, character designs, concepts, and more. The campaign for CARBON BASED: THE ART OF LEWIS LaROSA features a Kickstarter-exclusive foil-stamped hardcover, a t-shirt, a portfolio set, an exclusive slipcase edition, signed and remarqued editions, early bird discounts, and more.

Lewis LaRosa

In advance of this exciting campaign, we were fortunate enough to speak with Lewis about his creative beginnings, his embrace of traditional art forms, and his upcoming book. So, let’s welcome artist Lewis LaRosa to GVN Talking Comics.

GVN: Thank you for sharing a bit of your day, Lewis. Since this is our first opportunity to chat, let’s start with your artistic beginnings. When did you first take an interest in art, and whose work influenced that ambition? As a follow-up, when did you decide to add comic art to your traditional art repertoire?

LEWIS: Thanks for having me and listening to me yap about my art book! I’ve been drawing since my earliest memories, I’ve just always been compelled to do it, like eating and breathing. I’ve never thought I was a great artist though, but I do think I’ve always had a good eye, good taste, and hopefully that’s been good enough thankfully. Something else that’s turned out to be a benefit is having a broad range of influences, more and more so as I get older. I’ve just always been attracted to cool imagery, from toy box art, animation, and dinosaur books as a kid, then comics as a teenager, and then the whole span of art history as an art student in college. I’ve never wanted to be a second or third rate version of another artist I idolized, I’ve always strived to develop my own approach and I finally feel like that’s happened in the last 15 years. Carbon Based collects some of my best work over the last 20+ years of my career so it will be a pretty nice document of my growth curve.

Embracing Traditional Art

GVN: I mentioned that you work strictly traditionally. Did you EVER consider working digitally, and what do you feel are the benefits of keeping to the traditional art path?

LEWIS: I’ve tried a few times to work digitally but I just could never wrap my ol’ lizard brain around it. Layers, files, menus of endless brush and color possibilities, it’s fried my brain whenever I’ve tried. I am quite certain I have severe undiagnosed ADHD, I am very easily overwhelmed and distracted and really need to keep things simple. And the tactile experience of pencil, pen, and brush on paper is just so satisfying. I don’t have anything against digital art at all and don’t disparage it, but I’ve always been more attracted to something that physically exists, like when I’m watching a movie and get excited when there’s an impressive practical effect on screen. I used to be embarrassed by my complete lack of digital art ability, I thought I’d eventually be left in the dust, but thankfully it has turned into a little bit of a strength as it makes us analog artists’ work more unique. Maybe even more human. More… carbon bassseddd??? (sorry)

Re-Imagining the Punisher

GVN: Part of your comic work for Marvel involved re-imagining the Punisher. How did this opportunity arise, and were you familiar with the character beforehand?

LEWIS: Getting to design The Punisher for the MAX line was a matter of luck, of being in the right place at the right time. I was doing a Firestorm book at DC that was canned before it ever got off the ground so I shot those pages off to as many editors as I could find email addresses for, scrambling to find work. I’d only broken into comics about a year prior to this so I was still an unknown and had to break in again. Warren Simons ended up seeing my pages and liked them enough to show them to Axel Alonso. Axel had me do some tryout pages for a couple other books, Ant-Man and Captain America, but those jobs ended up going to other artists. When he mentioned the Punisher MAX book he was cooking up with Garth Ennis it didn’t take long for my vision of this grizzled old “real world” version to crystalize in my noggin. All I had to do was work off of my favorite depiction, John Romita Jr’s big broken nosed Frank from War Zone and combine it with Clint Eastwood. Maybe way too much Eastwood in hindsight, but in 2003 celebrity likenesses in comics were de rigueur.

Carbon Based: The Art of Lewis LaRosa

GVN: Coming soon to Kickstarter, you are partnering with Oni Press for “Carbon Based: The Art of Lewis LaRosa.” How did this exciting project come to fruition?

LEWIS: I’d been thinking about doing an art book for years but like I mentioned, I’m easily overwhelmed and maybe ill suited for putting something like this together. The Carbon Based project came about because the great Karl Bollers proposed that Oni bring this to fruition after I mentioned to him that I wanted to put an art book together someday. I’d worked with Karl previously and he is just a gem, the nicest coolest guy. Karl and then the wonderful Chris Cerasi did a beautiful job putting this together making for a far better organized and professional book than I ever could. Plus they really made my life easier so I could just focus on drawing. Production, shipping, and fulfillment is all handled by Oni. It’s heading to the printer this fall and should ship next March. I can’t wait to have it on my shelf!

GVN: I find myself asking this question with all great artists when it comes to collecting their pieces…how did you decide which of your works to include, and how much input did Oni Press offer?

LEWIS: There’s a lot of work in this book, I believe it’s around 250 pages, but it’s definitely curated. I went through my files and uploaded the ones I was most proud of or least embarrassed by. I wanted it to be all killer no filler.

GVN: As I mentioned, this book will be launched on Kickstarter. Do you have any experience with crowdfunding? What other features will fans find in this campaign, aside from a fantastic art book?

LEWIS: I do have a little experience with crowdfunding but mostly from the standpoint of promoting it. Again, I’m a drawing guy not a production guy so thankfully the very talented and professional people at Oni are handling the nuts and bolts of the campaign. There will be signatures, remarques, sketches, shirts, prints, the original cover art, and special editions of the book offered.

GVN: Thank you once again, Lewis, for your kind patience. Before we conclude, I’d like to give you the chance to discuss “Carbon Based: The Art of Lewis Larosa” and any other projects you wish to mention.

LEWIS: Thanks so much for listening to me and helping me get the word out about Carbon Based. I’m always dealing with imposter syndrome and this collection certainly has it flaring but man, what an honor. I’m just grateful I get to do this for a living and that there are people who enjoy my doodles enough to make this career possible. All I’ve ever wanted to be was be an artist. I’m literally living the dream. I don’t ever want to take that for granted so I try to pour my guts onto the page every time. I hope it shows!

If you are a fan of Lewis LaRosa or great art as a whole, you need to check out this book. You can visit the campaign launch site here.