Three-time Eisner Award-winning artist Bruno Redondo launches his first art book from Clover Press on Kickstarter called The DC Art of Bruno Redondo.
The new art book features over 200 pages of his exclusive DC Comics artwork, with a particular focus on his runs on Injustice and Nightwing, as well special selections from Justice League, Batman: Black & White, Harley Quinn: Black, White & Red, and much more.
It was our pleasure to speak to the artist all about his DC Art of Bruno Redondo book (available to back on Kickstarter until March 20) in this exclusive interview.
What was the process like in terms of assembling all of the varied types of art for your new book?
Bruno Redondo: That’s tricky, very tricky in my case, because I haven’t been traditionally a very organized person. So the first thing to do was organizing my full working space, physically & digitally, then cataloging… Thing is, the volume of all this phase overwhelmed me, so I had to hire a friend and collaborator, Enrique Villodre, who spent months working with me to search/locate/scan… Honestly, he really had to make archeology, I could never have done it by myself!
Is there a particular piece that you are particularly excited to show fans that you came across while building the project?
Redondo: Not a specific piece, but there’s a lot of digital pencils & sketches that I feel will help readers to understand my process.
You have mentioned previously that you were a fan of artbooks like yours. Are there one or two that stand out to you and what did you learn from them?
Redondo: I should not have to choose between them, but for a quick response, Alex Ross: Mythology, then the trilogy of Alex Tooth books (Life & Art, Genius Illustrated and The Cartoon Art Of), Jose Luis Garcia Lopez’s DC Comic Style Guide, maybe some movie art books like both Spiderman animated movies (Into & Across The Spiderverse), Otomo’s Akira Club, The Art of Jock… just to mention a few, but I could keep going 🙂
How was Injustice such an important series for you as an artist and what are your memories of working on it?
Redondo: The best part of it was having the chance to deal with a full DC universe with almost full freedom. It also allowed me to grow in self-confidence of what I could do through these years.
You have worked extensively with Tom Taylor (who also wrote the foreword to your artbook). What can you tell us about the collaboration and why you work so well together?
Tom writes the characters the same way I do, so it’s so easy in every story we tell together. We absolutely grew up together for a long time, and we still try to find places to work together.
Speaking of Tom, what do you think made your work on Nightwing such a breakout hit?
Redondo: I think we really didn’t invent a new thing. We used our voices and our ideas, but our time on Nightwing was mainly allowing Dick Grayson to be himself. We just tried to use all the brilliant things that already existed in his world—yeah, adding a few things by our own as well—but for us something important was to tell everything in a way that allowed new readers to approach the family, even people who wasn’t previously familiar with Nightwing or even Bat-People.
The Kickstarter campaign includes extras such as a fold-out edition of the Nightwing #87, a sticker pack, a poster pack, etc. Do you have a favorite?
Redondo: Well, if you are saying it I guess we can already talk about it, but the fold-out edition of Nightwing #87 is something really special, a unique kind of physical object, and the way Clover Press is editing it turns it into something really beautiful and enjoyable… I have been looking for an international edition of this since the Spanish Edition (the only one that ever existed) sold out, and I want people to have the chance to have one of this.
There’s a few more interesting things that I have been pushing to exist, such as a full book collecting every Nightwing cover that I did for our run… I couldn’t be happier with how well everything is coming together.
Upcoming projects?
Redondo: Can’t tell. Just can tell you to wait to know about something new in DC. It’s taking its time, but I think it will deserve the wait.
The DC Art of Bruno Redondo is available to back on Kickstarter until March 20.
