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HSU ON SPIDER-MAN II, HAUNTED MANSION,
AND POPPIE'S ADVENTURES
by: Jennifer Contino
(The Pulse)
 Jack Hsu is a story board artist on
Spider-Man II and Disney’s Haunted
Mansion, as well as several other feature films to
his credit. He’s also the artist on the Xeric
Award winning title, Poppie’s
Adventures. Written by his wife Julie Yeh, this
all-ages series features tales from around the world as seen
through the teenage eyes of Poppie.
THE PULSE: Have you always been interested in being
an artist? When do you remember really thinking this is
something I would like to do for the rest of my
life?
HSU: I have been interested in drawing
ever since I was 3 or 4, but could never consider a career in
art because of the rigorously academic environment in Taiwan
where I grew up. I never received any formal training and got
most of my influences from comic books. These include ones
from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and the U.S.
When I was 14 my family moved to Japan where I got a
healthy dose of manga and anime, I kept drawing for fun while
trying to adjust to new cultures and learn new languages (I
attended American schools there).
A couple of years later I came to the States where I also
developed an interest in design. Architecture became a logical
career path to take as it also gained my parents' approval. In
fact this new found discipline took me through college, grad
school, and several years of professional practice,
effectively replacing my passion for art during that time.
THE PULSE: How encouraging was your family of your
artistic endeavors?
HSU: Not very. But that was due more to
social pressures than anything else.
THE PULSE: Who or what were some of the best
lessons you learned early on about the world of
art?
HSU: I learned at an early age from
reading comics that great comic book artists are some of the
best artist around, period. The format of comics demands many
skills. In my view not only is artistic ability a must, one
also needs to have a good sense of story telling in order to
produce a good comic.
THE PULSE: How soon after "graduating" did you get
your first "professional" job?
HSU: At first I started out developing a
portfolio to try to get into penciling comic books. A few
months later through the recommendation of an editor at Stan
Lee's Excelsior! Comics, I was hired at Marvel Animation to
design backgrounds for the Incredible Hulk TV series which
aired in the fall of
'96.
THE PULSE: How did you come to work on the
Spider-Man II movie?
HSU: Three years ago, after a few years of
working in TV animation in various capacities (I also designed
the characters for The Mummy TV series), I got a break to do
storyboards for Rob Minkoff on Stuart Little 2. This brought
me into the live Action / CG feature side of Hollywood. Last
year I storyboarded another Minkoff film The Haunted Mansion
before working with Sam Raimi on a movie he's producing called
Boogeyman. Sam then brought me on to Spiderman 2. I had
recently just finished my work there and signed on at Sony
Pictures Animation to work on their CG animated features.
THE PULSE: What are storyboards?
HSU: Simply put they are pictures drawn to
convey what the audience might see on the big screen. In other
words they are a tool used by filmmakers to study and plan out
the movie.
THE PULSE: How many storyboards do you have to do
for any one scene?
HSU: It depends on the length and
complexity of the scene. For example, one of the scenes I
worked on in Stuart Little 2 is one where Stuart meets Margalo
for the first time. Starting from Stuart driving down the
street to Margalo falling from the sky to the end of the
Falcon chase took at least 80 to 90 storyboard frames, not
counting alternates and changes.
THE PULSE: What are some of the biggest challenges
to creating story boards?
HSU: I would say to get on and stay on the
same page as the director throughout the movie is the biggest
challenge for any storyboart artist. This requires a good
grasp of the particular director's filmmaking sensibilities
and what he/she is trying to achieve in each scene as well as
the whole picture.
THE PULSE: What was working with Sam Raimi
like?
HSU: As far as my experience working with
Sam Raimi is concerned, let's just say if I didn't start out
being a fan of his before, I certainly became one after having
worked with him. Obviously he is an enormously talented
filmmaker, but his dedication to the artform is something I
had never witnessed. Beyond that, he also possesses the rare
gift of being able to command his sizable crew with great
authority and at the same time making everyone feel like a
colleague and an equal. I worked my tail off on the movie but
the experience was very rewarding indeed.
THE PULSE: Did you get to meet any of the actors in
the movie? If so, what was that like?
HSU: Yes I did get to meet some of the
actors in the movie. They are just everyday, normal
people.
THE PULSE: How long did you work on Spider-Man
II?
HSU: A little over six months. I could
have worked on it for a year or more except for my prior
commitment to work on the Haunted Mansion.
THE PULSE: What other movies are you working
on?
HSU: Currently I'm working on a all CGI
(computer generated images) feature for Sony Pictures
Animation tentatively called Open Season.
THE PULSE: How did you and Julie Yeh
meet?
HSU: Julie and I met on the East Coast
when both of us were in grad school. We got married in L.A. a
few years later. Seeing my increased frustration with the lack
of creative opportunity in my architectural practice, Julie
encouraged me to pursue my true passion of art. Without her
support I might still be designing luxury bathrooms for some
rich lady today!
THE PULSE: How tough was it to work with your wife
on a comic project?
HSU: I imagine that in comics creative
differences between writers and artists exist naturally, and
Julie and I are no exception. Being married to each other
brings the disagreements that much closer to home, so to
speak. So yes, there were some bruised feelings along the way
but I think we learned to deal with each other's creative
differences constructively.
THE PULSE: What were some of the biggest challenges
to creating Poppie's Adventures?
HSU: The biggest challenge in creating
Poppie's Adventures is finding the time to actually do the
work. We are working parents with two small children, so this
book was created with limited spare time over an extended
period. I imagine this will continue to be the case unless we
won the lottery.
THE PULSE: Who or what was your favorite part of
the comic to draw?
HSU: My favorite parts of the comic to
draw are scenes where Poppie and Ham are together. Besides the
fact they are fun for me to draw, I think the duo have great
"screen presence". There seems to always be potential for
comedy or jeopardy in the story when the two are together. By
the way, Julie had a lot of input for the design of Poppie.
She was specific about the red hair, the green eyes, and the
freckles. The large almond shaped eyes, however, are from my
manga influence.
THE PULSE: How has response to Poppie's Adventures
been so far? What has been some of the best feedback you've
received on the book?
HSU: The response to our book has been
great! It's really encouraging to know that there is room in
the comic book readership for fun adventure stories with a
central female character. The best response we've got are from
readers who enjoyed the book so much that they wanted to know
when the next installment of Poppie's Adventures will come
out. All I can say is that I am working as fast as my schedule
allows. Currently I'm in the middle of breaking down the story
before I start the line art. I am really excited about this
next adventure titled Trail of the Desert Fox. This time
Poppie and Ham find themselves in the Roman Ruins of North
Africa trying to fight off a villain who's scheming to steal a
piece of treasure left behind by the Germans in World War
II.
THE PULSE: What kind of research did you have to do
to draw North Africa of the 1940s?
HSU: As far as reference material for the
visuals of the story is concerned, my best resource is
actually Julie , who grew up in North Africa. In fact, she has
incorporated into the story specific locales as well as local
legends that she's familiar with. Also, I was fascinated with
WWII history as a child, so finding reference material for my
art shouldn't be difficult.
THE PULSE: What other projects are you working
on?
HSU: At the moment, I am also working on
another comic book that I have just finished writing. It's
completely different in nature from Poppie's Adventures. A
crime story set in modern day Japan, it'll have lots of
action: guns, motorcycles, fast cars and not the least of all,
a beautiful woman in the midst. But seriously it's also a
story about loyalty and betrayal. The complete story arc will
take four 30-page books to tell and I plan to have the first
issue out in a few months. I will keep you posted. |
