We were lucky to catch up with Ryan Gutierrez recently and have shared our conversation below.

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

My comic series, “Blackmarrow”, premieres in October with Scout comics, and it’s everything I’d want in a project, both as a creator and a fan of the medium. For years, I worked as an illustrator on comics and graphic novels written by clients, but now I’m finally publishing my own material, drawing worlds that I’ve imagined and depicting characters that I find fascinating. I’ve always thought that aspects of historical fantasy and American Westerns overlapped in their appeal, and this graphic novel was a chance to explore the connection between the two genres- the fairy tales and mysteries of unsettled country, the bombast of morally binary heroes, and the spooky fun of classic horror pulps.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I draw comics for a living. I also do concept art and storyboards for film and advertising (Dungeons and Dragons, Sirk Productions). Though I went to school for Fine Art, it was clear that I was more of an illustrator than a gallery artist. I always worked with a sense of narrative, and composed images really quickly, often turning them into a sequential series across multiple canvases. Even my paintings were comics!

While I was studying art at Mason Gross (Rutgers), I worked for the University’s recreation program as their boxing coach. I would commute from one end of campus to the other, teaching boxing and self-defense with paint on my clothes from earlier that morning. Inversely, I’d show up at the studio and drop my sparring gloves in a corner next to my paint trays. I think I was seen as a charmingly odd duck- to me it felt pretty normal. I gravitated toward the classical notion of the Renaissance Man- an artist and athlete, a thinker and fighter. I still practice both disciplines and I still have a lot to learn in both, and will probably never fully master either arts, martial or visual. As a result of all that, I think my action/adventure comics have a unique urgency and suspense. Intuiting how your body feels in dynamic motion, or how a person reacts to threats or pain- all of that really informs those big sprawling battles between good and evil that happen in classic comic stories.

I look at comics as being art books as well as entertainment. It can instantly stimulate your brain’s pleasure center in the way that pop art and blockbuster movies are designed to do, while coaxing you to examine its pages and linger on its details. That’s what I want to do in everything I make.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I sort of regret the amount of time I spent searching for the most marketable style. In the end, whatever visual style is most comfortable for you is probably the best to lean into. If there is one thing social media has taught creatives, it’s that there is an audience for almost any type of content. I learned that the hard way, wasting too much of my time trying to feel out the audience. I realize in retrospect that I could have just made what I wanted and let the right audience find me, instead of artificially gathering an audience by trying on a half-dozen visual personalities.

If you’re someone who loves to depict nature, there are people yearning for that type of art. If you’re someone who is obsessed with creating interstellar worlds filled with mind-blowing structures and futuristic monoliths, there are absolutely people out there who will devour that imagery. And if you’re someone who loves writing and drawing comics that invoke classic pulps- action and fantasy, tinged with language that is hopefully both literary and accessible- make that, because I did, and my life is a lot of fun. Make precisely the kind of art you want to make, and choose your points of concession carefully when the time comes. If you love something, there’s a fair bet a lot of other people love it too.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

A lot of art and media seems to designed to explore the darkness in people, and the flaws in humanity as a whole. I want to contrast that with my work. I want to entertain readers with stories and images that are mature and sometimes frightening, but that ultimately describe and celebrate the clear delineations between good and evil. Heroic narrative is really nourishing for the soul, and people seem a bit starved for it in popular media right now. I’m not interested in further undermining or deconstructing the classical hero, I want to explore the concept from a place of love and admiration.

“Blackmarrow” is a loving homage to the elemental protagonists of both Euro-centric fantasy and American Westerns- a person of great competence and virtue. He’s fun to draw, fun to write. I want to keep making things like this.

A goal I have in the near future- and I’ve assembled a proposal for it- is a graphic novel adaptation of the King Arthur legend. It’s become an obsession of mine, and I want to revive the romantic fantasy in comics. Graphic novels are a perfect medium for that!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/community/projects/new?album_id=2274856
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryan_gutz?igsh=OHE1NWdyMjluN2tt&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Ryan_Gutz
• Other: https://cara.app/ryangutz

Image Credits

Ryan Gutierrez