Adam Hughes Interview

We had the pleasure of interviewing Adam Hughes at Thought Bubble last year, lovely guy who spared us 5 mins of his time. Also not really your normal questions...

CC: If you were stranded on a desert island, what three comic book women would you like to be there with you?

AH: Well, lets see.  If any of them could fly then being stuck on a desert island doesn't really matter anymore.  So, its a matter of who would you want to be stuck there with.  Lets see, LARA CROFT, you know, not for her looks but for her man survival skills, I know we will eat well ...she can find flares and ammo anywhere I discovered from all of her video game adventures.  Who else would be great on the island....CATWOMAN would be terrible cause what you gonna steal, coconuts? WONDERWOMAN perhaps.  She's used to the environment, you know, she knows how to dress for the Caribbean, the tropics and then my third one, I, you know, I gotta say, I'm torn and I'm baffled.  Lets say SUPERGIRL, cause that way, in case if I get totally bored with like not having DVD's and Blu Ray's and video games she can just fly me back to America.

CC: This is from one of my friends I write the website with, he says his favourite comic ever is NEXUS and how does it feel to have drawn my mates most favourite comic?

AH: Oh, it was great, it was like to this day that was still the most nervous thing I've ever have done cause NEXUS was a book I discovered whilst I was working in a comic shop in the 1980's and it was at the height of the popularity of the book and STEVE RUDES artwork just totally turned me around.  And its great to get into the industry that you love and perhaps at some point, participate in the material that you like.  Not in your first year, get some miles under your belt before you're actually forced to walk in your hero's shoes for 22 pages.

CC: What's the last piece of artwork that you finished, sat back and thought, "shit that's good"?

AH: Hasn't happened, hasn't happened.  I finish everything and I'm like one of those stage moms where nothing my child does is good enough and "what are you trying to do, embarrass me?"... I judge successful pieces of artwork by how little I feel that way about them and probably the last one I felt mildly good about, probably the SUPERGIRL, the legion cover where SUPERGIRL is riding on the meteor.

CC: Is there anything you'd rather be doing now, other than answering my questions?

AH: I miss my dogs right now, I really miss, I have two old english sheepdogs and we've had, because of some hospital stuff with my wife, we had to kennel them long before this trip so I haven't seen my dogs in almost two weeks and as much as I'm loving the show and everyone is being so nice, I just want to go home and hug my dogs.

CC: One Superpower?

AH: One superpower, what would it be?  Er, oh, a blazing fast metabolism, I would like to be able to eat whatever I want and yet be as thin as an Englishman.

CC: Are you neat and tidy whilst you work?

AH: No, No, thats why I stopped painting and I do everything digitally, I'm like one of those chefs with flour in their hair and butter under their fingernails, if I try to draw or paint its a mess.  The nice thing about drawing digitally is that: no mess.

CC: What's your favourite drawing snack?  When you're drawing...

AH: Oh, my favourite drawing snack, oh my goodness gracious, you're talking, what I actually like, or what I should be eating?....

CC: What you actually eat when you're drawing

AH:Oh, well, now is what I actually eat, unfortunately, is like raw carrots cause I'm trying to loose weight but my favourite snack would have to be, in the US they're called Vanilla Wafers, they're vanilla wafers, they're little round, my uncle called them squirrel food, but oh they're the best, especially in winter time.

CC: If I was to buy you a drink at the bar, what would you drink?

AH: Oh, well, I'm a feat cocktail intellectual wannabe.  My signature cocktail is called the sidecar and that's what I would have you buy me.  I'm not much of a beer drinker, as sissy as that sounds.

CC: Have you tried any beers since you have been over here?

AH: Yeah, yeah, I've had Guinness and, actually, the last time we were in London we went to Rules, which reports to be like the oldest resturant in London. I'm sure there's 30 of those but you know, I had like a big Guinness, in a silver terrine and it was pretty good.  But it didn't change my cocktail ways.

CC: Tom or Jerry?

AH: You know, I just, I'm not a fan of futility, so I, guess I have to go with Jerry.

CC: Have you ever missed a deadline and used the excuse, "but the dog ate it!"

AH: No, no but I did use the excuse that "the cat spilt ink all over it"

CC: Ok, How do you like your eggs cooked?I was in New York and I basically, I'll have some eggs, and they're what do you want, scrambled, poached, over easy, sunny side up?  The list was endless....

AH: It's endless, and then you can't be sure they'll actually deliver what you asked for, I like over medium on top of home fries.

CC: I've notice you've drawn some loading covers, one of my favourites was Super Hero's 23 and the JSA classified one, they're very seductive covers, is there anything that you won't draw?

AH: I'm not a big fan of like doing bondage covers. I'm not doing, or fond of doing covers that actually, genuinely, degrade women you know like, its ok to have if your main character is a female and she's in genuine peril, if it's actually part of the story, that's fine but if it's just bondage, you know, for the sake of titulation...I like drawing sexy women but I like them to be sort of strong, powerful and in control.

CC: If there's a character you'd like to get your hands on and draw a cover for, which one would you like to do?

AH: Oh, Captain America.

CC: We did have sort of a list of "who would win in these fights" If you were writing it, who would win?

CC: Superman vs The Hulk?

AH: Probably The Hulk. I love Superman, I just think they make him too super, so I think it would be awesome if he lost

CC: Quicksilver vs The Flash?

AH: Probably Quicksilver because he's got a hot sister and The Flash doesn't

CC: She Hulk vs Wonder Woman

AH: I don't know, but it would be fun to watch

CC: The Punisher vs Judge Dredd

AH: I'm going to say Judge Dredd cause I'm in England and I wanna make it out alive!

So there we have it, an interview with the legend that is Adam Hughes who turned out to be a thoroughly decent chap.  Keep your eyes peeled for more like this as we head into convention season 2012.