Emma Rios is one of the artists whose work is being showcased at this weekend’s Malta Comic-Con. She tells Ramona Depares how she made the leap from self-publishing to becoming a Marvel favourite and one of the industry’s most sought-after names.
The gulf between an architect and a comic artist might sound too wide for many. But not for Emma Rios, who garnered international respect for her work with Marvel comics. Today her past career is long forgotten as she follows her dream profession.
Now, fans of the genre will have the opportunity to experience Rios’s works up close at this year’s Malta Comic-Con at St James Cavalier, Valletta.
The event is hosting an exhibition that showcases some of the artist’s most popular works, including some of her back-up artworks on Brandon Graham’s superhero series Prophet.
Hailed as a maverick in the cutthroat industry of comic book publishing, Rios is the perfect example of the self-taught artist who took control by publishing her first series, Bulletproof, herself.
The work was immediately picked up by writer Warren Ellis, who posted it on his website.
Accolades started pouring in and in under a month, Rios was offered a full mini-series at Boom! Studios, famous for publishing Planet of the Apes and Hellraiser. The result, Hexed, written by Michael Alan Nelson and illustrated by Rios, went on to attract very positive reviews.
Since then, Rios has not looked back.
“Leaving my job as an architect was a big gamble. It is very difficult to enter the industry with just a cool portfolio and no references... but the gamble paid off. Even before I finished working on Hexed, I was approached with a proposal by Marvel. I’m definitely happy that I took the step,” she says.
Rios is known for her distinctive style, with illustrations that pay a lot of attention to detail, making a highly vivid and contrasting colour palette.
Now that she is firmly established as an artist, her career is set to undergo another development as she plans to start writing her own stories this year.
“This is not entirely new to me, as I used to write my own stories before I started working in the American market. It’s a completely different process and pretty addictive, but I don’t see myself as a writer alone,” Rios says.
“I wouldn’t be able to, for example, write five comic books per month for a living. My writing is pretty attached to how I work as an artist, to the layouts and storytelling.”
Rios is currently working on her next big project, a Western graphic series called Pretty Deadly, which she describes as a homage to the surrealism in director Sergio Leone’s movies. The series is being written by Kelly Sue DeConnick.
“Kelly Sue and I work very well together. I love the depth she gives to her characters, the distinctive voice she manages to give each one.
“You can see how good she is because you don’t even need to read the names in the scripts to understand who is talking. That, to me, is like magic.
“I’m the sort of artist who needs an element of freedom on the scripts as I tend to change things to adjust the tempo to the way I work. Kelly Sue is comfortable with this, so the dynamic really works.”
• Malta Comic-Con 2012 takes place on Saturday and Sunday at St James Cavalier, Valletta. Emma Rios will conduct a walkthrough and commentary on her exhibition on Saturday at 10am, followed by a Q&A session with journalist Chris Thompson.