This week’s artist’s spotlight focuses on Mike Mahle, whose traditional renderings of famous Gotham villains are awe-inspiring.
The Artist’s Spotlight is a Hypable weekly feature that will focus on someone who has caught our attention for fandom-related art, whether it be drawings, songs, crafts, or more! Every week you can expect a new talented artist we think you should be aware of!
Hypable: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Mike: My name is Mike Mahle, and I live in central Illinois where I work as a professional graphic designer in my day job. I have a degree in design and over 20 years of experience in the field. The rest of the time I’m either chasing after my twin boys or doing some piece of freelance work for either a client or just myself.
What first interested you in art?
Oh, I’ve been drawing since as long as I can remember. Classic Disney animation was really the first thing I recall that really caught my interest though, that and comic books, of course. Comic book illustration is still a favorite of mine.
How would you describe your style?
For years I’d been doing the traditional pen and ink comic book style illustration, which is what my Gotham villains series is done in. However, about five years ago I decided to try to merge what I was doing with my design work with what I had been doing in my illustration work. After some trial and error I settled on vector illustration, which is primarily the only medium I work in now.
I like creating a series of pieces quite a bit. I’ve done the Gotham villains series, a James Bond series, and I’ll be wrapping up my Justice League series soon.
Your Gotham Villains series is stunning. Which one are you most proud of?
Oh boy, I think I’d have to say Ivy and the Hatter are probably two of my favorites. I like the Hatter’s crazy little overbite and his little Alice doll, and I’ve always thought that you can’t make Ivy sexy enough; it’s just in her character. I hated how they covered her up in a full body suit in the New 52. Ivy’s a man-eater, she lures you in with her beauty then chews you up and spits you out.
I started doing the villains as a way to really work on my custom lettering skills. I wanted to do a series that would allow me to create various custom titles, each with their own unique flavor. The Gotham villains were the first things that came to mind; they’re each so unique and colorful.
After the first one, I realized that I’d love to collect them in a book of some sort, so I sat down with a writer friend of mine, Steve Barcus, who also happens to be a huge Batman fan. Together we came up with the concept of Dr. Arkham’s personal journal, which would allow Steve to write some really cool prose opposite my illustrations.
We finished the book and sold it at several comic cons I visited in the past year or two. Steve really did a fantastic job writing a short vignette for each character. Some of them are pretty twisted.
Do you approach drawing villains differently than drawing heroes?
Oh yeah. I think with heroes I’m always more concerned with proportion and making them the ideal male or female. With villains, human or non-human, I always spend a little more time trying to infuse an element of the grotesque. Maybe it’s in their personality or stance, or something more direct like the Hatter’s slight frame, thin neck, oversized head, and exaggerated facial features. I’d say that drawing villains is probably more fun. You can just let loose and make them crazy.
We have to ask — how do you feel about the show, Gotham?
Ha, you know what, I haven’t watched it, and I probably won’t. Nothing that I’ve seen has shown me anything that looks remotely good about it. I might try it out if I hear enough good things about it, but so far I haven’t. I’m waiting for Rocksteady’s Arkham Knight. Now there’s some crazy awesome Gotham villain designs.
These villains are drawn fairly traditionally, but do you ever feel inspired to render other versions of these characters? (Like, perhaps, the versions seen on the show or in the movies?)
I had considered doing a different theme to all of the villains, like setting them all in the old west, or something, but I wanted to try my hand at creating my classic take on each of them first.
Which artists have inspired you the most?
Oh, there are so many. Jim Lee, Brandon Ragnar, Eric Tan, Robert McGinnis, John Bryne, Scott Campbell, I could go on and on.
What advice would you give to other artists?
Create, create, and create. The one and only way you’ll ever get better is by doing. The more you do it the better and stronger you get. Something else that someone told me a long time ago was to try things out of your comfort zone. It took me a long time to take the advice, but now I try to do it on a regular basis. For example, I hate drawing machines, and buildings, basically anything not organic. Yet, I try to force myself to throw in a car or house every now and then to force myself to do it. More often then not I surprise myself and realize that it’s not as bad as I think it is.
What’s your ultimate goal as an artist?
I think my ultimate goal is to create and sell my own art books. I just recently completed my first collection of art and design and funded it through Kickstarter. The book is at the printer’s now and should be released through my online store sometime after the first of the year. I’ll also be selling it at the shows I’ll be visiting next year.
After Prime, my next book will be a collection of my Justice League series prints that I’ve been working on completing on and off over the last year.
After that I’ll be collaborating with Steve Barcus again on an original book set in my fictional Empire City setting. It’s not really a comic or a graphic novel, but more like a storybook format geared toward adults.
From the Empire City Collection, The Champion
Sandwiched in there somewhere will be MUGS, a collection of original character portraits from Empire City’s numerous dames and derelicts.
Each one will have its own theme and format. Hopefully each book will be successful enough to allow me to make the next and so on.
You can find Mike (and his art!) all over the internet. Check out his website, which features a brilliant bio, his storefront, an events page, and even a blog.
You can also find a collection of his work on DeviantART, as well as follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Mike’s book Prime is in the beginning stages of production, but keep an eye out for it, as it features a host of his incredible work.