Home > NEWS > THE WIZARD Q&A: ART BALTAZAR & FRANCO
THE WIZARD Q&A: ART BALTAZAR & FRANCO
With DC’s all-ages 'Tiny Titans' set to hit comic book shops this week, Wizard caught up with co-writer and artist, Art Baltazar, and co-writer Franco to talk about their oxy-moronic (Tiny Titans, get it?) book that’s a darn fun read for kids and grown-ups alike!
By Jamie Dunst
Posted 2/11/2008
WIZARD: How did the idea for Tiny Titans come about? BALTAZAR: Jann Jones called me one day while I was washing dishes and feeding my kids. She asked if I would like to work on something for DC. I immediately said “YES”
and before she asked the next question, I said “YES” to
that one as well! She said DC had an idea for a new
line of comics for kids and asked if I wanted to work
on Tiny Titans! Jann Jones and Dan Didio wanted their new comic to look and feel just like Patrick the Wolf Boy, but with their characters! Of course, I said “YES” again!
FRANCO: Jann Jones rocks!
BALTAZAR: Yeah, after Dan read the Patrick trades, he called me and asked, "Who's Franco? And what does he do on Patrick?" I told him Franco helps me write Wolf Boy stories. He said, "If you want him to help you write the Tiny Titans, thats fine." I immediately called Franco.
FRANCO: When Artie called me and asked if I wanted to work on a DC book—I think I fainted!!! It was the greatest
day of my comic book life! I owe it all to Jann...
And Dan Didio (Can't forget the boss!)
We never realized that Jann worked for DC until her
phone call to work on the book. We just knew her as a
fan girl that bought our comics and paintings. We've
known her for about four or five years and never knew who
she was or who she worked for. So it was pretty cool
to get that kind of recognition for something we love
to do. And now we get to do cool stuff with Robin and
Kid Flash and all those great characters
WIZARD: How did you choose what characters to put in the book? BALTAZAR: We have access to the whole Titans universe!
FRANCO: Yeah, we like all the Teen Titans! So, we put them all in the book!
BALTAZAR: You'll soon realize which one's are our favorites. We really dig the Wolfman/Perez Titans and the New Team!
FRANCO:Tiny Titans is a cartoon in the DC Universe, and the Teen Titans favorite TV show!
BALTAZAR: Yep, as long as the character was a Titan at any time, even a millisecond, you just might see them in
our book.
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WIZARD: How did the concept of a Sidekick City Elementary School develop? BALTAZAR: Well, we needed something that would be unique to the world of Tiny Titans. Batman has Gotham. Superman has Metropolis, Flash has Central City, and Tiny Titans have Sidekick City!
WIZARD: Whose idea was it for the activity page at the end of the book?
BALTAZAR: Jann Jones! She's the driving force behind many things Tiny Titans! Jann Jones is the reason for the
season.
FRANCO: There's activity pages in the back of the book? That's cool, I like puzzles!
BALTAZAR: AW YEAH TITANS!!!
WIZARD: How did you get into comics? FRANCO: We always read comics as kids. Always liked the pretty colors! Yeah! That's how I learned to draw and
stuff.
BALTAZAR: When I was real little, I used to read the comics my cousin would leave at our house. As I got older, comic books and cartoons became an everyday thing. I knew
right away, that all I ever wanted to do is draw comics! Eventually I went to comic conventions to show my portfolio. Soon after realizing that lots of people drew a better Batman than me, I stuck to the cartoony style. It was really, really natural and really fun to draw, and suddenly, I stopped getting bad portfolio reviews! So, and I could speak for Franco too, we started publishing our own comics!
WIZARD: What kind of comics did you read growing up? FRANCO: I was always a big Spidey fan! But I remember reading DC stuff real early! One of the first issues I had was the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans where they go looking for the Doom Patrol! They were so cool! After that I read every comic I could get for $5 (My dad would give me that much and I would use it all to buy comics). It was always the big guys Spidey, Superman, Batman! I would just get lost in their worlds for hours.
BALTAZAR: The first comic I read was the one where Jackal is scratching the heck out of Spider-Man, then throws a table on him and then chains him up and throws him off a bridge! The one where Jackal and Tarantula are laughing at Spidey! Me and my brother would get our comics from the corner deli with the covers torn off the books. We never knew which issues we were reading.
Until years later when we started seeing the comic we
read in comic shops and price guides and stuff. I read
lots of Spider-Man, Hulk (because of the TV show), and
Claremont/Byrne X-Men! My first Teen Titans book was
issue #4 when they fought the Justice League. I
remember, Robin used his yellow cape to defeat the
Green Lantern. I thought that was cool. Besides
Titans, my first DC comic was The Dark Knight Returns. Oh yeah, we also had Richie Rich, Casper, and Woody Woodpecker comics too!
WIZARD: How did you get into working on all-age comics? BALTAZAR: At first, I really, really wanted to draw Spidey and Batman. But after realizing the true cartoonist
within, Cartoony comics started emerging from my soul! After looking around the comic shops for a comic that didn't exist, I decided to make something that was me. I didn't have to try to draw, I just drew like Yoda would tell me to do. "Do or Do Not, there is no try."
WIZARD: How does your collaboration work with one of you (Baltazar) in Chicago and the other (Franco) in New York? FRANCO: We flip a coin! The loser has to fly to the other's state every weekend for a month! The thing that Art doesn't know it that is that I use a two headed coin and he's been trying to figure out why he's had to fly out here to the East Coast every weekend for the past 2 years. Shhhh! Don't tell him about that! Ahhh, he'll probably never figure it out—we do the coin toss over the phone anyway. I could tell him whatever I wanted really.
BALTAZAR: Did you ever see that show “Wife Swap?” Well, we do like a husband swap. I go and live with Franco's family for a few months, and he comes to live with
mine. I'm in New York right now actually. I'll be back
home at the end of August.
We work on stories over the phone and email. We talk about stories, jokes, and scenarios and if they make us laugh it goes in the book.
FRANCO: Our number one rule—if it doesn't make us laugh—it doesn't go in the book. If we are both laughing, we know its funny.
WIZARD: Art, how did you develop your artistic style? BALTAZAR: I never really thought about it. I draw the
way I draw and things come out of me the way you see
them. I drink lots of coffee.
WIZARD: How did the idea for Patrick the Wolf Boy come about? FRANCO: We are always sketching in our sketchbooks and always showing each other what we come up with. When Art showed the sketch of Patrick we both burst out laughing.
BALTAZAR: I really think sometimes that Patrick just writes himself. We are just innocent bystanders watching
what he does and recording everything for the comic
book.
FRANCO:The cool thing about Patrick is that it's an all ages book, but not dumbed down to be forced to fit into an age group. Plain and simple it's just funny. We have people that have bought the book for their kids and
then wind up reading it themselves for one reason or
another and then they become fans. Patrick is truly a grass roots phenomenon in that we truly have fans of all ages! We have all ages of kids reading it, teenagers, and parents and grandparents and great-grandparents too! Everybody's reading it!
WIZARD: What other all-age comics out there do you like? FRANCO: I like stuff by Jamie Cosley—his Nobody likes Tony Pony is silly stupid. I also like Patrick the Wolf
boy, Eagle AllStar and Lil Creeps too—oh wait—those are our books! Does that count or is it just a shameless plug?
BALTAZAR: I really like Halo and Sprocket and anything done by Mike Kunkel! Mike draws Hero Bear and the Kid: Awesome comic. And he's working on Shazam for DC!
To learn more about Art and Franco check out, www.blindwolfstudios.com, www.artbaltazar.com and www.patrickthewolfboy.com.
