UV Creators: Norm Breyfogle

If you want a good place to start reading the Ultraverse, there’s no better jumping-on point than the first year of Prime. Norm Breyfogle’s art was a huge part of what made those books great, with dynamic action and interesting layouts. I don’t think there were any better comics being done at that time.

He’s also pretty well known for his work with Batman. You can keep up with him and check out his art on his web site.

How did you land the job as the artist on Prime?

The truest answer for that is that I drew Batman first (lol). It was most certainly my high recognition factor after drawing Batman for about 6 years which made Malibu Comics want me as their big name artist on what ended up becoming, more or less, their flagship title.

Of course, I was busy with Batman at the time they approached me, but what cinched the deal for me were three things:

1) I’d been on Batman for a long time and I was willing to try something new.
2) Malibu offered me a substantial signing fee just for coming on board.
3) Malibu also promised to publish my creator-owned, -written, and -drawn title, whatever it might turn out to be (I hadn’t even a title in mind at that point, but I eventually settled on Metaphysique, which was published under Malibu’s Bravura umbrella). Ultimately, this was the part of the offer that I felt I couldn’t turn down.

There couldn’t have been an actual human that Prime is modeled on (be pretty scary if there was). What did you use as a reference for the character’s over-the-top physique?

I didn’t require any reference at all. By that point I’d been studying and drawing anatomy for almost two decades (the first deacde as an amateur, of course). The only time I used any reference for drawing Prime was once when I needed a good, close-up, extremely physically strained facial expression for him – when he was about to explode out of Maxi-man’s grip, in fact – and then I referenced a shot of Arnold Schwarzenegger working out.

In Prime (No. 12) you drew a two-page short of Prime roughing you up a bit. How does it feel to draw yourself?

It was fun. I didn’t exactly try to draw a self-portrait or anything; it was just a comic book version of me. It’s been so long now that I don’t even recall if that two-page short was my idea or my editor’s!

Do you have a favorite Ultraverse souvenir that you kept all these years?

Just copies of the comics, and a couple of the Prime action figures that were made. Oh, yeah, I also still have a T-shirt with Prime’s chest symbol upon it.

What are you up to these days?

Malibu lasted for a few years, and after that, I returned to DC for a while to do Anarky and The Spectre, but for some reason unknown to me, after 2001, DC stopped hiring me.

In 2000, I drew a Hellcat mini-series for Marvel, an Avengers Annual, and a Thunderbolts Annual. After 2001, Marvel, like DC, stopped hiring me, for unknown reasons.

So, I started working in comics at Independent companies, first on the title Black Tide for Angel Gate Press, then Of Bitter Souls for Speakeasy and Markosia, then The Danger’s Dozen for A First Salvo. I also penciled and inked a series of illustrations for Stephen Pytak’s novel (published through Mazz Press) titled The .40 Caliber Mousehunt.

From 2009 to just recently, I drew for Archie Comics, starting with a “New Look” Archie story arc, then penciling the equivalent of two books per month for Archie Comics in the magazine-formatted Life With Archie: The Married Life. I was also penciling and inking the covers.

Also in recent years, I drew a Munden’s Bar story for IDW, and a lot of fan commissions. In 2010 I drew and painted 21 full-color illos for another of Stephen Pytak’s novels (again published through Mazz Press) titled The Wild Damned.

For the last few years, I’ve also been doing occasional illustration assignments for non-comics clients of all kinds (advertising, books, magazines, CDs, etc.) via my London-based representative, Debut Art.

This month I finished penciling and inking the interior pages and the cover of the one-shot, 26-page Batman: RetroActive book representing the ’90s, on sale in August. I was very surprised when DC editor Jim Chadwick emailed me with the offer, because it had been about ten years since I’d done anything with them.

Now, I’m not drawing Archie any more, but I’ve begun penciling and inking a new monthly series as the on-going artist. The title and company will be announced any day now. Until then, I can’t divulge it.