Skip Harvey is a busy guy. By his own admission he has at least 8 projects on the go at any given time and he also holds down a job as a bartender and DJ. Oh, and he’s currently moving apartments!
Curicon’s own Kerrie caught up with Skip upon his return from this years San Diego Comic Con to ask him about his upcoming projects, and of course, his role in the Morgan Spurlock documentary; Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope.
The documentary followed Skip and four others on their journey to Comic Com in 2010. You would have heard about him from our previous interview with Morgan Spurlock. Cast as ‘The Geek’, Skip’s story was one of a boy who had grown up in the Mid-West surrounded by comics and raised by parents who exposed him to all types of nerdery from a young age.
He recalls that, unlike many of his generation who were mainly raised on a diet of Marvel, his was a mainly DC upbringing. This was thanks in part to his forward-thinking Grandma who had saved the childhood comics belonging to Skip’s father and produced them for her grandson years later. In short, Skip’s choice of career path as an illustrator is no surprise.
So how does he feel about his portrayal in the movie?
“I loved it. In a lot of cases with documentaries and also with reality TV there can be a lot of scripting but that wasn’t the case with the team I had following me around. They just told me to be myself and go around the same way that I would if a camera crew wasn’t following me around. I think because they weren’t very intrusive, I learned to relax and I think I came across as myself. So yeah, I’m definitely happy with the final edit.”
In chatting to him it’s immediately obvious that Skip is passionate about comic books and what he does. He revealed that his artistic style has changed since his trip to Comic Con in 2010, “In as much as I love all the Marvel and DC characters and I love drawing them, they don’t represent my style. I took a step back and I’ve developed a style of my own so that when people see my art they’ll recognize it as being mine and nobody else”.
One of the projects he’s currently working on is a compilation comic book called Middle West. Skip explains, “We’ve gathered all these talented artists and writers from Missouri and compiled some of the best short stories we could find. “ Skip has woven these stories together in an over arcing narrative and the result is a document encapsulating what it means to be a geek growing up in the Mid West.
As Skip explains it, “There was nothing like that when I was growing up. Everything seemed to be set in Chicago or New York. There’s nothing wrong with that but as a geeky kid growing up in the MidWest who loved comics, at a time when it wasn’t ‘normal’, I wanted to explore that and see where we could take it. The final result will be a quarterly publication aimed at promoting talented writers and artists.
For more information on Skip Harvey and his work, follow him on Twitter or check out his website
Curicon 