The Quarter Bin

This past weekend, we had a chance to speak with Marvel artist Dennis Calero about the upcoming Noir projects he and Fred Van Lente are heading up. Dennis has worked on numerous books, including X-Factor and Legion of Superheroes, and even did the art for Duane Swiercyznski’s novel, Severence Package. After speaking with him, I’m really looking forward to this Noir line. To see what Dennis had to say, hit the jump.

We’re here at the Baltimore Comic Con with Dennis Calero, cover artist for X-Men: Noir and Spider-Man: Noir. You’re also doing interiors, right?

I’m doing interiors and covers on X-Men: Noir, and I’m doing alternate covers on both X-Men: Noir and Spider-Man: Noir.

For those who don’t already know, what can you tell us about the Noir projects?

Basically, the Noir projects were a reconception of the original Marvel stories, and instead of them being conceived in the 1960s, what if that lightning bolt had struck 30 years earlier when Jack and Stan would have been at Timely Comics. In our opinion they would have been conceived as pulp-fiction, or noir crime characters. It was just an excuse for me and Fred [Van Lente] to have fun with these characters in a different setting that we both enjoy.

Did Fred Van Lente have you in mind for this project, or was this something both of you were working on at the time?

Actually, the way it came about is interesting. After X-Factor, I had conceived a project for me to do… Basically, I wanted to work on a character, I won’t say who that is since that still may go forward, as a detective character in Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles. Marvel liked the idea, but this certain character was very busy that year, so I got together with Fred Van Lente, and with Marvel editorial’s help, basically decided to reconceive it from the ground up. It’s very interesting because in the final analysis, after taking other characters, and replacing bricks in the wall of the story, it ended up being the same exact story at the end with the X-Men. It ended up being a “slap yourself on the forehead” moment because it ended up working out really well.

You said you originally wanted to do a story in the Chandler style, so other pulp stories are an influence on this project? Hammet? Ellroy?

Oh yeah, absolutely. The Thin Man, James Ellroy. In terms of film, Touch of Evil, definitely The Third Man. For me, my personal visual inspiration was The Third Man, and in Citizen Kane, the low angles. Even though the interior of the book is black and white, I added a texture to give it a little bit of a film grain, and the colors are very muted. So it’s very era appropriate, even though Magneto wears a purple coat.

So the interiors are going to be in black and white?

Oh, no, the interiors are going to be in color. What I was saying was even the colors sort of harken back to that treatment.

I think that would’ve been an interesting take to do it all in black and white.

It would be, and you never know, maybe one day they’ll do an artist’s rendition in black and white. Marvel’s been known to do such things before. But the covers are mostly black and white, with tones of color, and it would’ve been interesting to do it that way, but I’m a color guy. I computer colored for years before I drew comics, so I like color.

In terms of the two stories, are they going to intertwine?

As of right now, in the universe of these titles, we do off-handedly refer to it as the “Noir Universe,” but as of right now, there are no plans to crossover with each other, with the exception of one character in X-Men: Noir that is a necessary crossover. I don’t want to say who it is right now, but it’ll be obvious why it’s a necessary crossover. It makes sense. But you never know, for the future, maybe there’ll be a Noir Secret Wars where the noir Beyonder shows up, and wants to steal everyone’s trenchcoats. We’ll see.

So the series is 4 issues?

4 issues, starting in December, and I will probably be doing, and this is not a guarantee, but I will probably be doing… there’s X-Men: Noir, Spider-Man: Noir, and they’ve announced Daredevil, there’s two more titles, and there’s almost a done deal for, I won’t jinx it by saying what it is, but there’s almost a done deal for a very interesting sixth title at the tail end which is going to be awesome. I’m very excited.

Will you be handling art duties on this sixth book?

On this last mini-series, I’ll be handling art duties, Fred will be writing, and it’ll be fantastic.

We promised Dennis we wouldn’t let slip the final unannounced book. You can believe me when I say this series will be magical if all these books are as good as they sound.