Interview with Aether Age Cover Artist: M.S. Corley

AeA: M.S. Corley first came to our attention via a series of retro covers he created for the Harry Potter series.  Along with those were Lemony Snicket redactions, some for the Narnia books, and various other classics.  I believe the post hit digg.com pretty hard.  


Tell us about those covers and why this sort of 'old is new' reworking is important to you?

MSC: I did those covers back when I saw that internet meme going around of redesigning video games or movies as if they were penguin book covers, I wanted to join in on the fun, but didn’t want to just do what everyone else was doing. So I chose to do books, by taking current series and making them look retro.

I don’t know what it is about changing new things to look old, or old things to look new, but its just something that makes me feel good when I look at it. It really stretches the creativity, and you have to study what timeframe your switching things to do it effectively. I love old things, I have archives of antique and vintage art and photos I've collected over the years, so its definitely a passion of mine.

AeA: A quick aside, or 'the important questions'... Is there intelligent life in the universe (you know, other than humanity)?  What is the last chapter of human life: religious rapture, technological singularity, nuclear winter, or something else entirely?  What's the meaning of life? (oh, and you have thirty seconds each... go!)

MSC: I really hope there is intelligent life in the universe, I love watching those History channel documentaries about ancient astronauts, and the stuff they talk about really makes me wonder. I mean we don’t know for sure one way or the other (at least at the time of writing this) but I sure can hope.

As for the last chapter of human life, I’m a believer in the Bible (not saying Christian because of all those terrible connotations that go with that label) but I think the book of Revelation’s ending to the world is what I think will happen. Besides, I would much prefer to see horses killing people with brimstone breath and snake tails and all the other crazy things in there than the whole earth being nuked by some crazy guy hitting a big red button.

As for the meaning of life, it’s been confirmed to be the number 42.

AeA: Well, you know, anyone who drops HHG references is one of the 'good guys' in our book!

You have drawings from when you were a kid on the blog along with newer drawings of --correct me if I'm wrong-- robots from Megaman.  Did you always know you wanted to be an artist?  Is there some project type you
want to do but haven't had the opportunity to try yet?


MSC: When I was a kid I always drew, I wasn’t a sports guy or anything like that, you could sit me down with pencil and paper and I’d be the easiest babysitting job on the block. So I guess I didn’t consciously think ‘when I get old I want to be an artist’, its just what I did.


One of my favorite games as a kid was Mega Man. I would draw my own boss characters constantly, I have hundreds of them and I always wanted to make video game characters when I grew up. Specifically for Mega Man games. And I still hope I do.

AeA: Do you see yourself working in a certain tradition?  Put another way, are there other artists you aspire to carry on after or otherwise channel in your work?  As a writer and a 'child of the media age' I find myself inspired by both other writers and totally unrelated media.  Are there other sources of inspiration that you consider primary?

MSC: There are many artists I try to channel in my  art, or at least there are a lot that I am inspired by. Mike Mignola, Alphonse Mucha, Hokusai, Keiji inafune are some of my favorites or ones that I have been most inspired by throughout my life.

 But as for where I draw most of my inspiration, it is definitely books, I read a lot. Classic, current, pulp, anything, and most of my art or ideas for my art are in some way inspired by passages from books that I’ve read.

AeA: What was your process for creating the cover image for Aether Age?  What about the interior art?  Are there any details about either that might
be interesting to our audience?

MSC: Well the cover started with the vague Egypt Greek motif idea, and I tried doing it in that classic penguin style that people mostly contact me about book covers for. I did a couple options that I thought were good representations, and with a few back and forth changes I made some less retro looking versions, like the hieroglyph one that is now the ebook cover. But on a whim the last night where I told myself I wanted the cover options completed I sat down and drew what I pictured an Aether Age Traveler to look like, totally on a whim expecting more of a “that looks nice but not the direction were heading in” response, but now it’s the cover.

Interior art was a whole different beast. Once the cover was chosen as the Aether Traveler I knew I wanted to keep it in the same vein but of course it had to be in black and white. I also wanted to find a way to bring about the old feeling that the world gives so I went a more traditional route and painted the interior pages with Sumi ink on cold press water color paper. It has a nice feel that I think is true to the content of the stories.


AeA: For the budding artists out there, what materials do you consider essential to either type of illustration?  Do you suggest a certain path to
becoming an artist, and is it something a teenager could look toward as a valid career path or is it an enthusiast endeavor for all but the few
superstars?

MSC: Pencil and paper are the most vital materials, a sketchbook specifically. Carry it wherever you go and draw as often as you can. (I hardly do that myself but I should more)  I try to draw in mine as much as I can. I was once told by a teacher that ‘you have one hundred crappy drawings infront of each good drawing’. So you have to draw a lot to get the crap out of the way. Also have a sketchbook as something that you don't show other people, that way your not embarrassed to have crap in there. Use it to flesh out ideas.

I don’t know if there is a path to becoming an artist, as in a living to support yourself that is. Your really just have to love what you do, and be good at it to some aspect. With art its relative, you don’t have to be great, but you have to have people liking what you do. Some of the best looking art is worth nothing on the market, and some (in my opinion) of the worst art is worth millions.


AeA: Do you have opinions or recommendations regarding communities like
DeviantArt or Flickr?

MSC: I participate in both, I prefer the Flickr more because it seems cleaner and less juvenile than Deviant Art. Maybe Flickr is the Facebook to DeviantArt’s MySpace. Which that all sounds harsh because I’ve found some great people on Deviant Art, just as a vague generalization I’ve gotten more press and found more inspiration and been attacked by less trolls on Flickr.
It seems to be taken more seriously in the profession too.

AeA: What did you find most compelling about Aether Age?  Can you talk about the challenges or surprises you might have encountered in trying to illustrate this universe?  

MSC: I loved Aether Age for the time periods setting and the altering of history, its sci-fi, its steampunk, its antique, it’s just all around awesome.  Everything I’m interested rolled into one fancy collection of stories.

It was a bit of challenge trying to understand the aether faring ships, without having anything in our universe to completely compare them to it was a bit of a stretch trying to illustrate them. Certain artistic liberties taken of course, but it was a fun challenge.

AeA: Any other observations or tidbits about the project that readers might find interesting?

MSC: I don’t know if this is interesting, but being part of the behind the scenes action of putting this together, I hope everyone can feel the love and time spent putting the world together. It’s been an honor taking part in it.


AeA: Where do you see yourself in 5 years, assuming Zeus or Horus are smiling down on you?

MSC: Haven’t the slightest idea, I will at least still be doing what I love.
I used to work in an corporate job and that was just very unfulfilling, and now being on my own I can’t imagine ever going back to a corporate design job. So hopefully in 5 years, I will be that much more established as a freelancer and there will a greater ease of mind when it comes to finding month to month work.


AeA: What is your dream project?  Stephen King's next book, or maybe George R. R. Martin's?

MSC: Dream projects would be to design covers for a large series of books, the next Harry Potter or the like. But then who wouldn’t want that?


Also a dream as a child that I still have is to work on designing the bosses in a Mega Man game. Some day…

AeA: Any current projects you want to promote or point out to readers?


MSC: I’m currently working on a few Dungeons & Dragons game books, drawing all the encounter illustrations in them. Set to release starting sometime in July I believe. I’m pretty excited about that.

Also a friend and I recently started our own gaming webcomic strip called ‘Double XP’. We have a lot planned for what we are going to do with it, but we just started posting in the past month. It’s fun doing a constant collaboration project together. And if your an avid gamer, you might get a laugh or two.


AeA: Anything Else?


MSC: You can see my work at:
http://mscorley.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mscorley/
http://mscorley.deviantart.com/gallery/

AeA: Thank you for both your work on the anthology and taking the time today to talk with us!