CHRISTOPHER IRVING: How would you describe Chronos?

STEVE LEIALOHA: We’ve had scheduling problems, so right now the book’s
late, so I’m playing catch-up here. I’m currently working on issue #7,
I just finished off issue 6. In fact, there’s two inkers on some of
these, so I’m not quite sure how it’s going to look.
        Describing Chronos: my end of it is that it comes fully realized from
John Moore and Paul Guinan, so I’m trying to make it look slick and
polished. Outside of the obvious, Chronos is a time-travel story, or a
story with time travel as they like to say it.

CI: As far as your inking goes, do you just ink over Paul Guinan’s
pencils, do background work, or even embellish it?

SL: All of that. As an inker, I try to give the penciler what they’re
going for, and if I see places where I might make things more
interesting by adding something, or maybe simplifying something.
Sometimes he’ll have some sort of lighting effect going and I might
change things a bit; a sort of process of refinement. Sometimes it
doesn’t need it, sometimes it could use a little bit. It just depends.

CI: In comparison to other books you’ve worked on...well, you’ve got
quite a list here.

SL: I’ve been busy for a while...

CI: Since the late 60’s?

SL: Oh no, no, no...

CI: It said 60-something in your bio here.

SL: Some of my earliest fanzine stuff, when I was still in high
school, I contributed to a few fanzines. The very first comics stuff I
had printed was some fanzine work for Len Wien and Marv Wolfman, which
came in very handy years later when I was trying to break into the
professional market at Marvel. At that moment, the Editor in Chief at
Marvel helped me get a job back there, in ‘75, when I started working
on Warlock.

CI: Do you think you’ve come a long way as an inker since then?

SL: I would certainly hope so. (laughter) When I first started, I had
only the vaguest idea how to ink, although it did help that the first
penciler I worked with was Jim Starlin, and his pencils were extremely
tight. So, all I really needed to do was sort of trace off of what he
had. I guess in a way, the process hasn’t really changed a whole lot.
I added texture, so it was pretty straightforward.

CI: How did you go about the look for Chronos? Did you sit down with
Paul Guinan and come to a conclusion as to how the book should look,
or is it something you came about on your own?

SL: I’d say that was all up to Paul and John Moore, and Archie Goodwin
sort of worked that all out. By the time it got to me, it was all set
and I added the technical polish, you might say, where needed. Again,
with Paul’s pencils, sometimes they’re extremely tight, sometimes
they’re a little bit loose. Most of the time, I try to give him what
he seems to be going for due to deadline pressures, it’s sort of a
sink or swim type of thing. I think the very first thing I inked for
Paul was the cover of the first issue, so I had to figure out my
approach to inking as we went along. His pencils are so tight that
it’s pretty straightforward. There’s considerably less room for
interpretation, than if I were inking somebody like Sal Buscema, for
example. Inking his stuff, there’s always plenty of room for playing
around, but Paul has specific ideas [and] these things carefully
worked out. Occasionally, it’ll come in handy [like with #3, when] it
starts off pretty quickly when he ends up in Renaissance Florence,
Italy. Since I’ve actually been there, it sort of helped where I could
embellish accordingly. Paul had pretty good reference, things like
that. A lot of it’s science fiction, we’re depicting things that no
one has been to except, maybe Paul. (Laughter)

CI: Do you draw some backgrounds in for Paul?

SL: Not really. When I get it, Paul’s got it so thoroughly thought out
that all I’m adding to it is technical rendering, aspects where I
might make certain lines lighter, certain lines heavier; playing with
lighting effects a little bit. It gets kind of technical. It’s hard to
explain inking techniques, unless you have something right in front of
you.

CI: As far as other work, are you going to be the full artist on
Trypto the Acid Dog for Dark Horse?

SL: I’ve been doing the full art on Trypto, in it’s various
incarnations, working with Bill Mumy and Miguel Ferrer, the writers.
The first time we did it, it was published by Renegade Press, and then
we did something for A 1, a British collection. Then it was Dark
Horse, and we did several installments for Dark Horse Presents. I
forget how many issues, I think six, and then there was a 48 page
story. So far, we haven’t done any Trypto lately, although that’s the
most recent thing I’ve worked on that I have for myself.

CI: And you’re inking Nevada as well...

SL: Yes, keeping me busy, with Phil Winslade, who did Amazonia and
Goddess.

CI: He’s a good artist.

SL: Yes, he’s quite intense. Lots of crowd scenes.

CI: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

SL: The thing is with inking these sort of things; I’m inking on two
pencilers who really know what they have in mind. My contribution is
mostly technical. Oddly enough, the two books I’m inking, Chronos and
Nevada, are extremely detailed. It’s quite a challenge, I guess that’s
pretty much all I can say...[inking]’s not like Chasing Amy, there’s a
little more involved than tracing, otherwise everyone would be doing it.