Chato. Spade. DWAMS. Brohawk. David Antoine Williams has signed his iconic work with many names over the years. His work first came to my attention in 1994. Dark Horse put out a fun collection of 50 Madman “Bubblegum Cards” featuring Mike Allred’s off-the-wall hero. The card set included luminaries like Arthur Adams, P. Craig Russell, Jamie Hewlett and Dan Clowes yet David was still able to grab my attention with his illustration of the character. He was immediately on my radar and I was on the lookout for him to make a big splash in the comics biz. I saw small previews for a few projects that looked great, a creator-owned project called Dragonwing, a Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight mini-series, and a Savage Dragon project. I was ready! Then, he disappeared from comics altogether. He’s back in the saddle now doing more comics work than ever, I caught up with David recently to get the lowdown on his mysterious career.

Rico Renzi: Where’d you go?! Why did you forsake comics?

David Williams: I NEVER forsook comics….
I went into the animation biz to become a more well rounded artist and to bump up my coin situation (lack thereof).

RR: How did you get into comics in the first place?

DW: LUCK!!!! I kid…I don’t believe in luck. I was at a comic convention in Oakland, CA.  I had just turned 17 where I met these cool cats; Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan,The Boys), Gene Sprague and Tibor Sardy. These guys at the time were producing a comicbook that was called “Space Beaver“, save the jokes I’ve heard them all. The books were actually very cool. I was so compelled by the personalities and the product they had that I wanted to be in with these guys. Darick and Gene soon became some of my closest friends. Not long after that meeting, Darick gave me my first assignment to do some printed work on his book. Then I was off to the races!!!! NOT! I was not nearly in the league of Darick or others who were coming up at the time. So I practiced,practiced,practiced day and night like a madman. I was so inspired by Arthur Adams, Kevin Nowlan, and Steve Rude at that time (MOSTLY Arthur Adams) that nobody else existed. Then, after a few more conventions and failures….My eyes were opened to the world of Dave Stevens. My life and art changed from that meeting forward. I don’t know why Dave took a liking to me and my drawing because I was terrible and I know I was obnoxious, I can’t help the obnoxious part. Anyway, he used to always joke with me every time he would see me and say, “Hey Michael Jackson…Err…ah…I mean David.” He thought I looked like young Michael. Anyway, this  one particular show at a different venue still in the Bay Area, he saw me and said,  “What do you have new?” I had some new stuff but I didn’t want to show it to anyone because I was sick of getting the rejections from companies. Because,  just that day my portfolio got b!tch-slapped by Marvel editor Tom Defalco.  But Dave insisted that I show him the work; I did and I told him about my rejection from Marvel. Then he just grabbed my portfolio and marched me over to the DC booth, put my book in front of editor Michael Eury and said, “If you don’t give this kid work I will NEVER work for your company.” Mike looked at the work silently for a moment and then said, “Do you want to do some “Who’s Who” pin-ups?” A week later, editor Brian Augustyn offered me a new series from Impact’s Jaguar. That’s how I got in…

RR: They say everyone gets in a different way but that is some story. Anointed by the great Dave Stevens! I can see him and the other influences you mentioned when I look at your work. Did you have to switch gears when you got into animation? All these artists you mention have a lot of beautiful surface detail that doesn’t really carry over to animation?

DW: That’s for sure, Bruce Timm & Glenn Murakami beat it right out of me. No, I kid yet again,
Bruce and Glenn like all of those artists that influenced me too but what they do artistically is truly not that far off from what those guys do. It’s all about volume,shapes and snap. Also, “no tangents”. The trouble with most comic book artist that go into that arena is, they think it’s simple because it’s simplified. Understand me ‘artists’ when you read this, IT’S NOT EASY!!!! What Bruce does as an artist and as animator is pure genius on the level of any top comic book artist or just artist period in the past present or future. His mark and his work is indelible and I was happy to get my first lesson in the animation game from Bruce and Glenn. I wish all comic book artists would go into animation for at least two years and then come back to comics. Then comic book art and storytelling would be much better than it is now by leaps and bounds. I’m just sayin…

RR: Tell us about some of the projects you worked at WB. Any favorites? Were any of them torture? Was it hard to make the transition from doing comics which is a lonely endeavor, to working with others, doing meetings and all the other jazz that goes along with an office-type job?

DW: Well, I worked at Warner Animation then later went to work for Warner Consumer Products under the guidance of artist and art director Frank Espinosa (Rocketo). There were definite ups and downs in both, mostly ups. I loved working with friends but I hated the business aspect of it. I grew to hate the word “tweak”. As far as being lonely doing comics…NAH! You are never lonely if you are into what you’re  drawing.

RR: Are you done with animation?

DW: Truth is, I was still doing comic stuff while I was in animation from time to time. I still may have my finger in animation, you will have to wait and see. Stay tuned.

RR: You’ve been doing a lot of covers lately, any sequential work coming out this year? What will David Williams fans want to look for on the shelves at their local comic shop?

DW: I have a few things in the works and some that have been done for awhile. I have a few more Marvel covers coming out this year and some short stories I did for smaller companies that I can’t mention yet. Also, I’m still working on my creator-owned projects (still) that I hope to have out in late 2012.