1. Can you please introduce yourself for those who don'
know you yet?
-Brandon:
We're The Shiflett Brothers from Texas... I'm Brandon the older brother
and the better sculptor.
-Jarrod:
When he's sober he's pretty good yeah... but when he drinks... he's
mean.
-Brandon:
Yeah, right. But I could beat him up if I was pushed to far.
2. Where your inspiration and your style come from?
-Brandon:
We
are huge comic book and science fiction and fantasy art fans. We are
greatly influcenced by France's own Moebius. He is a true
visionary
and he influences almost all of our original work. We have also been
greatly affected by the work of Frank Frazetta, Bill
Sienckiewicz,
Simon Bisley, Kent Williams, and Jon Foster. Among Sculptors we are
influenced by our Japanese heroes Yasushi Nirasawa, Takayuki Takeya,
and Yuji Oniki... as well as masters like Michelangelo and Rodin.
-Jarrod:
Brandon
named so many damn people I don't know who to say I like. I like Jaws
from the James Bond movies and I like Andre the Giant especially when
he played bigfoot on the Six Million Dollar Man.
3. How long have you been sculpting?
-Brandon:
About twelve years. We got a relatively late start.
-Jarrod:
We
sculpted a lot of Lobos, Juggernauts and Thors using coat hangers and
terra cotta, all the wrong materials, but that's part of the process
and learning from our mistakes.
4. What was your very first sculpture? and the first
being produced?
-Brandon:
Jarrod
created our first real sculpture which was of his favorite character,
Wolverine. Since that first sculpture years ago, he has easily sculpted
over a hundred different Wolverine pieces. Our first professionally
produced piece was the Dalkiel resin kit for Glenn Danzig's Verotik
Comics. Our first piece produced in cold-cast porcelain was "Draco from
Dragonheart" which we sculpted for Moore Creations.
-Jarrod:
Danzig
was very good to us and let us choose 3 Simon Bisley paintings to turn
into sculptures. It was an honor and we've always got a good reaction
to them, although some of our very first pieces we still set them up at
the conventions.
5. What is your background? (Design school?
sculpture school?...)
-Brandon:
We
have no formal art education. We simply read a lot of great comics when
we were young and paid very close attention to which artists we favored
and why.
-Jarrod:
I dropped out of high school and had a bit of
a bad spell but I pulled through and I’m feeling much better
now. Art
schools are for people who have time and money. We had neither and we
just started doing what we liked and we've kind of fallen upwards. many
of our pieces are disasters but they always seem to turn into learning
experiences.
6. What is your favourite comic book's character and non
comic book's character?
-Brandon:
My
faovrite comic book characters are Baron and Rude's Nexus, Mike
Mignola's Hellboy, and Batman. I also like Daredevil, Elektra, Jean
Grey and Elijah Snow from Planetary. Oh, yeah and Detectives Christian
and Pilgrim from Powers. I have so many! As far as non comic book
characters I really like Jarrod's original design "Ol' Scratch" and
that's not just because he's my brother!!
-Jarrod:
My favourite
comic book character is probably the Juggernaut. Nexus is a great
character, non comics I would probably like Ripley from Aliens. What
with the panties and everything, also a good monster.
-Brandon:
Jarrod
loves the Rancor from Return of the Jedi. Really, really loves him. If
it’s possible to have a cruch on a monster...Jarrod has one on
the
Rancor.
7. How this adventure starts?
-Jarrod:
At some
Comic book conventions we ran into a dinosaur sculptor named Jon
Fischner and he really got us inspired and thinking about 3-D work. Of
course we were already big Ray Harryhausen fans, but it all kind
of
slowly built up to where we were experimenting and not knowing exactly
what we were doing, lots of trial and error.
-Brandon:
We took
all of our one-of-a-kind pieces to the San Diego ComicCon. We were
found there by people who could use us...most notably and first, Lorne
Lanning who asked us to work on the video game "Oddworld: Abe's
Oddysee".
8. What are your favourite sculptor and favourite drawer?
-Jarrod:
Brandon
is drinking , we should talk low... my favorite sculptor is Nirasawa
and Takeya in a tie right at the top. After them I like Jordu Schell
and my wife Angela Talbot! The Canadian Wendigo!!! If you like freaky
works of fine art please surf by www.angelatalbot.com ,
-Brandon:
Yeah,
I like Mark Schultz's work on Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and Travis
Charest who's been doing MetaBarons. Our friend Jordu Schell (Hellboy:
The Movie) is a really great sculptor.
9. Can you tell us a few word concerning your
collaboration with Bowen Design...
-Jarrod:
Randy
Bowen is the king of statues. we've done many pieces with him. When we
first met him he said "Come to my house... and I'll cut your
fingertips off.." This was a good natured acknowledgement of our
abilities and we were humbled. The first pieces we did with Randy were
mini-busts, we worked on the Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Black Panther
mini-busts then we did the fullsize GrendelPrime. We're huge Matt
Wagner fans, Mage, Grendel, Sandman Mystery Theater, etc. We sculpted
the fullsize Hulk, and cosculpted the fullsize Thanos, Juggernaut,
Vision, and Rhino. Also coming out soon from Bowen Designs will be our
Spiderman vs Venom , a Simon Bisley inspired fight scene that should
come out in time for the movie.
-Brandon:
Our relationship with
Randy and Bowen Designs has been very exciting. He is not only a great
sculptor, but a great art director and a class act. He has helped our
careers immeasurably. Plus, we are huge Marvel fans now AND when we
were growing up. So working on these characters isn't just a job to
us...its very important to us personally. These are revered characters
with time honored histories...and we like to think we are adding our
small little contribution to those histories.
10. When Randy Bowen order you a statue, does he propose you a
pre-selected list and then you choose, or instead, does he order you
a
precise character?
-Jarrod:
It can go either way,
sometimes he calls with a character already in mind, but he also might
call and let us name characters and he'll think about it. He likes to
give us the characters with big muscles and thats really fun stuff to
work on. You can't make everything big though, or nothing’s big,
some
part of the anatomy has to remain relatively reasonable to make the
larger part seem massive. We study a lot of anatomy and then rip off
the artists we like!
-Brandon:
Yes, Randy has been great about
letting us choose the characters we want to work on. And even when he
suggests a character its always a really good one for us.
11. Are you continuing to work with Randy Bowen together
constantly or just for one shot order?
-Jarrod:
Yes
we've done 12 or 13 pieces with Randy and Bowen Designs. We started by
co-sculpting some of the first busts, and specifically the first busts
with arms. We co-sculpted with Randy of course the Black Panther bust ,
then the Wolverine and Sabretooth busts. Our first fullsize with
Bowen
was the Grendelprime, we are big fans of Matt Wagner from Mage and
stuff, and some of our customized Grendelprimes can be seen at www.mattwagnercomics.com
.
-Brandon:
The
Incredible Hulk, Thanos, and Juggernaut have been huge commercial
successes for us. When Randy thinks he needs us, he calls us...and
we're aways ready to listen! It takes about a year or a year and a half
for a piece to come out after we are done sculpting the prototype...so
we've often moved on mentally to the next piece. But then its exciting
to see the piece in magazines and such once it does come out.
12. What are your different official (and maybe
non-official) working project?
-Jarrod:
Well
we just revamped our entire site to display our original designs and
characters. "Ol' Scratch" is our first fullsize original design since
"Chloe" came out. "Ol ' Scratch" is geared towards the sophisticated
satanist, someone who is discerning and wants a good devil to go on the
shelf, next to the Harry Potter.
-Brandon:
Our other original
design resin kit "Principia and the Serpent" is more of a whimsical
piece...and I think you can feel the Moebius influence when viewing it.
13. How do you split the work for a statue? Have each of
you got some specialities?
-Jarrod:
I
take control and agree to anything, then blame brandon when he does not
do it . We like to study very hard the night before the test, and hope
for the best. I like to sculpt monsters and barbarians, brandon likes
to sculpt things like Barbie, you know like for little girls to play
with. Like "My Little Pony and Stawberry Shortcake".
-Brandon:
Uh...well...Not
exactly "My Little Pony" and "Strawberry Shortcake". But I do like
working on female characters. Tough girls with weapons. Usually dark in
nature. I like Post Apocalyptic stuff as well.
14. Which statute are you proud of and don't?
-Jarrod:
We
did a Frazetta snowglobe I kinda wish we had not done. It's on the
frankfrazetta.com site and it says we did a beautiful job but it was
very small and we honestly could not capture and do justice to
his
painting . For pieces we are proud of, I think of our pieces I like the
"Chloe" and the "Draco" probably. They've both stuck around and I don't
know... it's hard for me to say... I might be saying what other people
have said they like.
-Brandon:
Some of our greatest pieces were
never produced. A Creature From the Black Lagoon piece for Moore
Creations and a Sabertooth vs. Wolverine for Diamon Select. Its a shame
these pieces weren't produced, but it happens in this industry...for a
variety of reasons, usually having little or nohting to do with the
quality of the sculpt.
I'm also very proud of our work with Alex
Ross. We have collaborated with him on a couple of sculpts including
the "Earth X Captain America".
15. Do you have any preferences between drawing and
sculpting? And where this passion comes from?
-Jarrod:
I
love to draw, but I'm just not that good at it. We both daydreamed
about drawing comics, because of our love of comics, and rBandon even
did some pages I remember but the sculpting kinda got us and it's
really been a fluke how we got started. It all stems from comic
books.
-Brandon:
I
can't draw very well at all. Many good sculptors can do both, draw and
sculpt. But between the two, I'm glad I'm a sculptor...the competition
for comic book artists in this industry is brutally competitive. There
are so many talented guys out there who are pencilling these days.
16. Who are the characters you don't like sculpting and
those you like?
-Jarrod:
I
don't like to sculpt Spiderman with all those little lines. I do like
to sculpt Wolverine and the Juggernaut . Also Colossus. I like to
sculpt monsters and call them the f'n beast , and silly names like that.
-Brandon:
We're
not very good with Robots or mecha stuff. We avoid that kind of thing
at all cost. We love that kind of stuff, we're just not very good at
it. As for what we do like to sculpt...its becoming more and more our
own original deisgns. I also want to mention: for anyone interested in
our sculpting process please join us on our Sculpting Forum. Its a
casual mix of pros and amateurs alike all talking shop about sculpting!
17. What are yours different influences in term of
sculpting? What is your favourite artistique universe?
-Jarrod:
We
have simliar favorite artists, like Moebius, Frazetta, Bisley. I
specifically like and am influenced by Mark Texeira, and Wayne Barlowe.
-Brandon:
Metal
Hurlant, Ghost in the Shell, and The Road Warrior are all influences of
mine. As well as many science fiction novels and all the comics I can
get my hands on.
18. Who are the sculptors you admire?
-Jarrod:
Jordu
Schell and Nirasawa are some of my favorite sculptors. Angela Talbot is
a freak, please check out wwwangelatalbot.com if your into freaky stuff.
-Brandon:
Yes,
sculptors Yasushi Nirasawa, Takayuki Takeya, and Yuji Oniki are my
favorites. Try their books: Creature Core by Nirasawa and friends,
Angles of Hunters by Takeya, and NiraWorks.
19. Which character you dream to produce?
-Jarrod:
I'm
excited about the upcoming Big Battle Armor Chloe, our flagship
character Chloe decked out and ready to throw 'boes. 2007 should be fun.
-Brandon:
We
have tons of stuff on the shelf. All original creations on there way
down the pipeline. Its a very exciting time for us. All of these
original creations will be released under the banner "Shiflett Brothers
Originals". Still, though, if Moebius called...we would jump on a
project with him!
20. Are we going to have the pleasure to see you in
France or in Europe for a convention?
-Jarrod:
I really hope so, thank you so much for the interest !
-Brandon:
We would love to visit the beautiful country of France! We're dyin g to
get over to Europe...hopefully one day that will happen.
21. To conclude, can you tell us few words in French
(without using traducer!!) for French readers...?
-Jarrod:
Brandon took a couple of years of French...I'll let him take this
one...except Viva La France!
-Brandon:
Merci beaucoup et prenez garde!!
