Artist Adriana Melo of Plastic Man and Birds of Prey fame was gracious enough to spend some time answering questions about her current, amazing project Female Furies.
DC Comics News: Can you tell us a bit about how you came to the Female Furies project? For how long have you been involved with it?
Adriana Melo: I first heard of this project while I was working on Plastic Man book still. The idea was to have a book about the Furies, showing how unfair and hard would be their day to day life in Apokolips. They are amongst villains, being villains themselves, so how would it work for them, trying to fight for more power day after day. And in showcasing their struggle we would be able to try to mirror some of the struggle girls pass through in their life.
DCN: Some of the subject matter in this book is really hard, but really important. How do you walk the line with making sure you show what is going on as opposed to making the reader uncomfortable?
AM: About making people uncomfortable yeah… it will happen no matter what, because the situations portrait at out story are very tough, revolting… and make you think. I’ve heard myself some of the lines that are in that story, it is a present matter for a woman every where in the world, so I am glad that our book are bringing issues like these to discussion 🙂 (English isn’t my first language, so I hope I am not butchering it too much)
DCN: You are not butchering it at all. Has there been any thing that Cecil wanted in the book that you didn’t want and vice versa?
AM: No, we worked in such a synchrony so far and everything is being smooth, so things are flowing, really 😀
DCN: What is it like to draw such iconic characters? Was doing something done by Kirby daunting or was that a challenge you were really excited about?
AM: IT IS AMAZING! I always loved Barda, so being able to draw a younger version of her, while she still in Apokolips, is great. Drawing Darkseid, Granny Goodness, Scott Free, DeSaad, having Kirby as direct reference is incredible too. I was excited from day 1, the challenge was to pay homage to Kirby, but at the same time, adding my own style to it.
DCN: You manage to really get some emotional range out of Aurelie in this book. Some of the looks on her face are so telling that you don’t even need dialogue. Is that how you and Cecil plan it?
AM: I’ve tried to mirror on her expressions all the angst she was trying to hide inside her. I love the idea of bringing to the characters eyes what they might be thinking in that moment, and I am glad that you could feel it with Aurelie. I love that character.
DCN: I really love her too. Honestly, I didn’t know much about her before this. You have really brought her to life. Speaking of that, how many drafts/sketches to you have to go through to get something just right? What is the conversation the two of you have?
AM: Usually the first sketch I do is the one that works the best, sometimes I doubt myself, keep redoing stuff, but I always go back to the first sketch, the first thing I thought, when I read the script lol. Me and Cecil chat a lot, we talk about the character and the story and even before I began, we exchanged references and pictures through Pinterest, to get the right feel for each character. Cecil is the best, she careful chose pictures, paintings, that could give me ideas of how to portrait each of the Furies personalities and it helped me a ton “:)
DCN: How does working with Hi-fi affect what you draw?
AM: Hi-Fi is AMAZING I am in love with his style and how much it brings to the story. Is sooo beautiful!
DCN: Do you know who the inker will be? Does it change from issue to issue?
AM: From day one I knew I would be the inker and the idea is that I will be doing the full run 🙂
DCN: Do you prefer doing mini-series work or do you like coming into an ongoing series better? Why?
AM: Hmmmm. I like both… but doing mini series are fun because you have a clear idea of were it will begin and end, the full arc.
DCN: What is your next project? Are you staying in the DC universe for a while?
AM: I’m still working on Furies here and my plans are to keep working in the DC Universe for a long time 🙂
DCN: Well that is great news for all of who love DC Comics. Thanks again for doing this Adriana.
Be sure to pick up Female Furies at your local comic book shop now!
