We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Netho Diaz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Netho, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I worked for a few years on Gi Joe AReal American Hero! With legendary Gi Joe creator larry Hama; a graphic novel called Resolution with Ron Marz, Andy Lanning, Rick Leonardi, Paul Pelletier and others; Predator with Ed Brisson and most recently X-men with Jed Mackay. That’s my first time working on a monthly series for a long run, and it’s for a Marvel Flagship title. So i’m very excited!

Netho, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Well i work with comics since 2012! I studied comics with masters Geraldo Borges and Daniel Brandão. Both have a passion for storytelling, i’d say more than for drawing itself. I was more interested in drawing action super heroes, but after studying with them, i learned how interesting storytelling can be. The idea of messing with reader’s feeling through image have fascinated me. So, since then, i have been improving my storytelling skills and reading every single book i can find about it. The more i learn, more convinced i’m that storytelling is an endless learning process.

I always wanted to work on big publishers, as they have mostly of characters i follow since i was a kid. So every decision i made was to achieve that goal. Every single drawing for myself, was with that in mind. So i don’t drawn for fun. I drawn for goals.

I usually drawn 5-6 pages per week. That pacing allows me to drawn detailed pages and having time to take care of my health and spend time with family and friends. I usually need about 4-5 hours per page. Sometimes less, but rarely more than that. I only do pencils, because if i’d have time to ink, i’d probably drawn another penciled page instead of inking. I’d get a better payment and would have books with my name out there. Also, inking is a tough process. I’m happy to invite inkers friends of mine to step up and work with me. Let them do their magic!

Each comic book is about 20 pages long. So i need about 35 days per issue. However, as i work on X-men, sometimes i have to drawn an entire issue in 22 days. But organizing time and have a solid process, isn’t that hard.

My speed and attention to details probably helps me to get cool projects. As deliver in time is a key point to have work. When a comic book is late, reader will find another book to purchase that day, so we might loose him. Also there are distribution issues that we need to avoid. So deliver in time is not only a matter of professionalism, but that’s something we gotta do to keep our job! But once the book is out, if it’s looking rushed, people will complain, and we loose the job anyways! So, we gotta work well and deliver high quality art, but cannot miss deadlines!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I always thought that we need to wait for people in charge to make things happen for us. With time, i realized that i can find what i need by myself. I can study, i can get in touch with clients, negotiate and do whatever is necessary. However, having people to back you up, will help you achieve goals without so much time sacrificing. Work is important, but is not the most important thing in life.
There was a time i was working on many books at the same time and it costed my health. So i decided to take more care of myself and spend less time working. The best decision. Less money, of course, but more time to enjoy life.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Not everything is creativity. Mostly of comic art is almost like math. There are rules for drawing human figures, perspective, for storytelling, composition. There are rules for everything. So the best thing to do is learn them all. It will save much time when feel lack of creativity. Go straight to the technique and make it happen out of it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nethodiaz?igsh=MnZrNnI5enVtemF3
• Twitter: https://x.com/nethodiazz?s=21&t=NGV969WhcDHjAIg8KWPRqw

Image Credits

X-men panting.
Pencils Netho Diaz, panting by Diego Olascoaga.