First Comics News: Dakota, I’d like to start the interview by asking some biographical-type questions, if you don’t mind. Can we start, by me asking you: where were you born and where did you grow up, and where did you go to school?
Dakota Alexander: Hi, Phil. I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, and I went to high school at North Monterey County High.
1st: How old were you when you started to draw? Did you have any professional or any type of art courses, or are you entirely self-taught?
Dakota: I always drew even at a young age, but I’d say I started developing art skills at around the age of eight years old. I am completely self-taught.
1st: How old were you when you first discovered the existence of comic books, and under what circumstances did you discover them? What were some of your favorite comic characters in your early and later years? And what other interests and hobbies do you have? I often ask these types of questions because I just love all of the varied answers I get, with these.
Dakota Alexander, I used to play drums. In Japan, I was in about five different bands from about 2011 to 2018. I gave it up to be at home more, to raise my son.
I learned about comic characters from the cartoons on TV. Super Friends, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, and even that Plastic Man (animated) series. I pretty much watched it all. Comics came later, but they were always around in the drugstores and supermarkets. At around age seven, I became very interested and started collecting, avidly. Santa Cruz had a few shops, so that helped. I don’t think I had a favorite character, per se, but when I was seven, I had a subscription to Iron Man, then Amazing Spider-Man, and X-Men. Both I and my sister were very, very into X-Men. And then, by 1988, I was also collecting Batman graphic novels – The Cult, Year One, and The Dark Knight Rises. Since the first 1989 (live-action Michael Keaton Batman) film came out, I became very much into Batman, but I rarely enjoyed the (Batman) comics that were currently out at the time. I didn’t like the art in the floppies. But the graphic novels were great. And I collected back issues a lot – both Marvel and DC, because I followed artists, like John Byrne, Neal Adams, and Alan Davis. I was also into Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane’s art, as well.
1st: Those artists were and are all very Top Tier! Under what circumstances did you break into comics, and what were the earliest comics that you had published? Are you also a publisher, meaning, do you self-publish, or do you work for a publisher?
Dakota: I wouldn’t say I “broke into comics.”
I was just posting piece after piece of my art on Facebook and Reddit online, and hoping to get an art commission, whenever. When Covid 19 hit, I was getting a few (paid) commissions for regular comic-type work, as opposed to the Ukiyo-e style art stuff (a genre of Japanese art) that I was doing before.
Mike Finn contacted me and told me about the project, and which characters he wanted me to do, and that was it. All his characters are either in the Public Domain or of his creation. The character pinups I have done for The Liberty Brigade project are The Comet and the original (1940s comics era) Daredevil, The Kat and Mercury, Samson and the Marksman, White Panther with Teegra, and Roy Lance and Wambi the Jungle Boy; Bill of Rights, National Anthem, and The Cat and Kitten. National Anthem and Bill of Rights are Mike Finn’s characters, but the others are all Public Domain.
1st: I love all those golden age 1940s characters, and I remember watching Wambi The Jungle Boy movies and reading the Wambi the Jungle Boy hardcover novels, which I would find and buy in second-hand bookstores. I would NEVER find them with their dust jackets; they were always missing those! Wambi was like a second-rate Tarzan, and of course, I loved those, too.
It looks like some of your comic characters for one of your Kickstarter comics are inspired by some Golden Age 1940s characters, including Captain America’s sidekick, Bucky Barnes, Stripesy, The Fighting Yank, and probably more. What a great idea! Who created these new versions of these characters, and what are these characters’ names? This Kickstarter, online for your one hundred pages plus ‘The Liberty Brigade’ comics title, has, thus far, I noticed, pulled in $35,784.00 U.S. dollars to date, from four hundred, eighty-nine backers, which is great! What is the total full dollar goal you need to publish this, and how close are you to making this a reality? AlHoweverI only just now noticed that those figures were last updated on November 12th of 3, over a year ago. Presumably, a lot more dollars have been pledged, since then. Has this publication been published, already? I’m going to assume that it has. And if so, when did it become published?
Dakota: All other questions related to the Liberty Brigade book I am afraid I can’t answer, sorry. I was just a hired gun. Mike Finn is the guy to talk to, with regards to that project. It’s his baby. He contacted me via Facebook, and that has been our main mode of correspondence. The best takeaway has been that I can say that my work has been seen, along with great talents like Ron Frenz.
1st: That’s okay. I love both Ron Frenz’s AND your artwork, very, very much!
I did contact Mike Finn several days ago about those above questions you couldn’t answer, but he hadn’t responded, by press time. He may simply have not noticed my email as yet, or perhaps it went to his Spam Folder since I had never contacted him before, previously.
Perhaps I will get a chance to talk to him, in the future.
1st: Here is the link to the page so that our readers who were not aware of this book can read about it: kickstarter.com
1st: Since Dakota wasn’t able to answer this question, does anyone reading this have an email address for Dean Kotz? If so, please email me at philalatter1701@gmail.com
I have original art framed in my living room by him, of both Zorro and Conan The Barbarian. I’m working on my interview with you right now, of course, but I’d love to interview him sometime, too. And of course, it goes without saying that I won’t publish nor give out his email address.
1st: I’m aware of The Master’s Comics series, featuring a (modern version) of the Golden and Silver Age The Owl hero, among others. How many issues of that have there been, and which issue or issues did you work on, and what specifically did you do on them? Do you exclusively do pinups and/-or covers, or do you do interior continuity comics pages, as well?
Dakota: As for the Masters, there are five issues planned, and my work is featured on issues two through five. I did the Who’s Who character sheets for all the main characters, except for one, where I collaborated with Luis Rivera.
That project has also brought me in touch with great artists like Chuck Patton and Darryl Young.
As far as my commission work up to this point, I have only done covers and pin-ups, never interior sequential pages. I ink and color all my work, in Photoshop.
1st: Both your illustrations and color work are fantastic!
And by the way, please excuse the letter ‘u’, in the color I’m Canadian, and we take after the older British spelling of a lot of English language words. Okay, let’s now discuss Charon 13: The Price of Eternity, also from Trouble Studios, a Kickstarter with a funding period from July 15th, 2024 through Aug 14, 2024 (30 days.) Has this come out?
Dakota: Charon 13 (pronounced CAR-ON) is a SPY-FI space spy comic written by my buddy Judah Radd.
The comic details the adventures of Agent Charon 13, in his exploits to rescue a very vital secret device that could change the very balance of the universe. Issue one came out last year or so, and issue two is being assembled and should be out, soon. I provided pin-ups for both issues.
1st: For our readers, here is a link to the original Kickstarter for Charon 13, replete with lots of graphics!
Kickstarter.com
1st: Dakota, I want to provide an etsy.com link to your incredible artwork for sale, there. Are these prints? etsy.com?
I should point out to our readers that, on the Etsy link above, there are at least EIGHT different pages of Dakota Alexander’s original colored art, at that link-! Incredible stuff!!! Dakota, can you tell us about your creative process in terms of your art? Also, for our readers, do you do paid commissions?
Dakota: All the art you see on the Etsy site are my prints, and there are over ten sections of differing categories of art. 264 pieces in total.
1st: My God, that’s a lot of beautiful illustrations!
Dakota: My process is that I often get inspired looking at other art. But much of it is very pin-up based, and often it is about tapping into a visual essence of a character, or it’s a cover I want to make. If it’s a cover, it usually follows the bronze age Marvel template of “put the hero in danger.” And, with that in mind, I might tap into some era-specific styles – since those are what I think of when I think of the characters. Spidey is always John Romita, Senior, unless it’s the black costume, then it’s very Mike Zeck-influenced.
1st: I’ve been a Mike Zeck comics art fan since many decades back when he got his start at Charlton Comics, and later he did a lot of stuff for Marvel. I don’t seem to recall if he did anything at DC Comics, but his Marvel Captain America run was and is incredible!
Hmm. Now that I think of it, he did the covers for the Starlin/Aparo series “Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast.” There are probably others.
Dakota: I did the late 1970s and early 1980s type Batman art and it was very (Dick) Giordano and (Ed) Hannigan influenced. I think this helps to tap into the vibe of the era and create a feeling of authenticity, despite being something completely fake.
1st: Those ‘fake’ covers – comics art covers that were not published, sometimes called fan art, are always fun and they are always interesting! Artists Bruce McCorkindale and Tom Derenick are incredible comic artists who do a lot of those awesome fake-color comic book covers!
Dakota: Sometimes with covers, I just take a pin-up piece I made and slap a cover dressing on it, and remarkably, it works, sometimes. Ha, ha, ha. Either way, the best compliment I get is that people have said that they actually went looking for this issue, and then they realized that I made it up.
1st: Oh yeah, that would be a marvelous compliment!
I love stuff like that, Dakota. It’s all part and parcel of the creative fun of it! I, too, am a comics-type artist, and, though my comics-type of art hasn’t been published in comics, several pieces of my art were published in two Zorro (the character all in black with a cape, mask, hat, and sword) books, thus far, from Bold Venture Press. I only mention the descriptor of which Zorro character it is, because there is a second Zorro, or rather, ‘Zoro’, (one letter ‘r’) character, a manga character with green hair, also with a sword, and I have no interest in that character. Decades ago, I did a fake Batman # 400 cover, which I’ll send you, just for fun!
Dakota: When working in a bygone style, it’s not simply enough to look like it.
1st: Dakota, tell us more about that process, please.?
Dakota: Okay, so there are two parts. One is the drawing style. I’ll be the first to admit that in many cases I am trying to emulate a style – most often it’s Kane/ Romita Sr. because I draw a lot of Spidey, unless it’s Spider-Man in the black suit. Then, it’s done in a Mike Zeck style, since I am often going for the darker ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’ vibe.
For DC, it’s a lot of José Luis García-López, since he illustrated the DC Comics Style Guide. These are telltale “house styles” that people can often relate to, so I am very self-aware of triggering the nostalgia. I get a lot of “That’s MY Spider-Man/Batman”, etc.
In emulating a style, it’s just about patterns in the way they draw muscles, proportions, and perspectives. It’s kind of an academic study, but from an early age, I was able to distinguish art styles in comics – especially from reading DC’s Who’s Who series, and Marvel’s Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe series.
After that, it’s about color and texture. Even though comics fans would love near-mints of any older book, I think adding a weathered texture helps invoke nostalgia and a faux sense of authenticity. I used to achieve this with layers I had to make on my own, that have creases and a sort of haze that looks like the paper didn’t absorb all the ink.
And, as far as coloring goes, almost every time we see a digital image of an old comic cover or panel, the colors are flat and garishly bright. We know it’s the original image, but for me, it just doesn’t feel like it’s the actual image. So, not just trying to recreate the “dot” coloring like back in the day, but also changing all the white on the page to a newsprint light yellow. It’s a lot of sampling and eyeballing and even after the piece is colored I still go and adjust the color balance to raise the yellow and red highlights and increase the blue shadows, to give it a faded appearance.
1st: I love how you are describing this in such vivid detail. I can almost ‘see’ the process you are describing, in my mind’s eye!
Dakota: I should point out that by the time I made the variant cover for (Rik Offenberger’s) LYNX, I had upgraded to using the Craft Market Debaser program for Photoshop, which has all the original dot color patterns as well as paper textures. I have included two versions of the same piece. One was using the process I described (which was a lot more work), and the other using debaser (which is very fast.) lol. Can you guess which is which? I should also point out that this might make people run to using the Craft Market software to make vintage-style art, and my work may not seem so impressive ha, ha, ha, ha! Oh well.
1st: Mr. Dakota Alexander, thank you very much for chatting with me today about your comics projects you work on, and for giving me and readers such extensive links to literally hundreds of exquisite and marvelous – pun intended? – illustrations that you have done, and the extensive descriptions of the process – which I find particularly interesting! I’ll be looking for your artwork in the future!
Cheers!
About Author
