ARTHUR SUYDAM: RENAISSANCE MANby Dekker Arthur Suydam is fast becoming one of the great american illustrators. He differs from the likes of Rockwell, Parrish and Wyeth not in subject as much as timeframe. A New Jersey native, Suydam explores the macabre with the same faithful study as playful humor as you would find on the cover the Saturday Evening Post. As not only an illustrator, but accomplished writer and musician, Suydam has shaped himself in to one of the most influential renaissance-men in popular art. I was lucky enough to have Arthur stop by Illusion on his way from delivering yet another of his now iconic “Zombie” images to Marvel’s midtown publishing office.
AS: What was I most scared of? Zombies…. zombies. After seeing Night of the Living Dead for the first time, after we’d all been hearing about it, I’d been looking very forward to seeing it for some years. I remember it was on channel 11. I didn’t get channel 11 so I had to go over to a friend’s house who got channel 11… it was in the mid or late 1960’s and there were only three stations. Most people only got two of them and this guy got channel 11, one of the New York stations. I got a whole bunch of popcorn and went over to his house, his parents were away so we could actually sit down and check out the movie… but then the aftermath of the movie was that I had to go all the way back home. I think the flick didn’t come on until about 11 o’clock at night, so by the time it came time to for me to go home it was two or three in the morning and it was dark and there were a lot of trees and I had to go by a cemetery and as I started to walk home I was looking around each tree seeing if there was a zombie behind it. I decided I could get home much quicker if I ran actually, so I ran and every tree I’d go by I’d duck in case there was a zombie reaching out for me. It was a rough trek home. D: Does that color the way you approach your covers for Marvel Zombies? AS: Well, that movie still kind of creeps the hell out of me. I still kind of try to avoid it. There are a few horror movies I’ll watch when they come on, but that one still lingers… it still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck, so wouldn’t you know that now I’m working on zombie books all day and night long. That’s why my zombies always have a smile and I try to put a little bit of humor in them. From Night of Living Dead I think I only really like the horror movies that are comedies, so that’s kind of one of the things I try to bring to the Marvel Zombies when I’m working on that. It’s one of the last things that happens when I’m working on a picture. You see, I paint a picture and try to create a set up for parody based on a pre-existing idea. Finding an element of humor is what I think is like placing a stamp on the picture. Making it complete. As a matter of fact I was working on one today and my lovely wife over there said “you know honey… you know what this needs? Maybe a nice eyeball hanging down just over there”. So that was the stamp that was put on that picture. That was a Spider-Girl picture I was working on. D: We’ve talked before about your love for Frank Frazetta and EC Comics. What were your influences in your illustrations?
Artists that influenced me? I like the drawings of the Renaissance artists, that’s something I’ve been working on for decades. All of the great illustrators who began the great era of illustration which began around 1915 and continued in to the 1950’s. I had one uncle who studied with Norman Rockwell. Through his books I was able to study so many of the great illustrators of the 1940’s… great illustrators who you’ll probably never hear about because they were pretty much replaced with photography. It’s a segment of art history that has come and gone, and especially with magazines was sadly forgotten. All of these guys had skills that I wanted to have and they really set the bar for me. D: I first became familiar with your work when you were doing covers for Dark Horse, things like Alien… what do you try to bring to characters, like Alien or Marvel Zombies that you might not think about when you’re doing original work? AS: I always try to bring the same thing… poetry. One of the great elements from the classic era of illustration was poetry and one of the ironies of perhaps my illustration on monstrous characters and monstrous subjects is that I try to find beauty. I make them very beautiful, very romantic… lively children’s colors. I try to make them very colorful. Color, in Aliens specifically… the original works were done in black and browns… I heard one art critic call them the color of a potato… so when I was working on the Alien illustrations for Dark Horse Comics, what I was thinking about… what I wanted my personal stamp to be was Maxfield Parrish. I was thinking beautiful girl standing in a beautiful sunset with beautiful trees and colors and flowers all around. That’s how I want my take on some of these monstrous subjects to differ from those who’ve come before me. Be sure to watch Arthur on Illusion’s original series Top 20 LINKS .
               
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