Welcome once again to Robot Roulette, our interview feature where we throw random questions at comic creators and see how they respond. We’ve come up with 36 possible questions, and each week I will randomly select which of those questions our guest has to answer.



Today artist Paul Maybury puts on his best James Bond tuxedo and steps up to the roulette wheel. You might know Paul from such projects as Aqua Leung, D.O.G.S. of Mars, Party Bear and the upcoming Reign with writer Chris Roberson.

My thanks to Paul for agreeing to be one of our early guinea pigs on Robot Roulette. Now let's see what he has to say about Fishbone, scary kids movies and Ed McGuinness.

5. If you were given the opportunity to spend 48 hours with absolutely anyone, living or dead, who would you spend it with and what would you do?

Well, it would have an be an artist, and my favorite has always been Van Gogh. I've simply never lost my enthusiasm for his work, and have had the opportunity to view it person often in my life. I might have an overly romanticized view of his passion for art, due to Kirk Douglas's portrayal in Lust for Life, but I would love to observe someone paint with that sort of tenacity. Every piece of work moves, and I think there's a lot of valuable lessons to take from his work as a comic creator.

10. What is your favorite band/musical performer, and why are they your favorite?

That's a very difficult question. I go see Fishbone every time they're in town, and have done so since I was a teenager. Reality of my Surroundings is their masterpiece, but my favorite album is Truth and Soul. Instead of complaining about how they're not as widely celebrated as I think they should be, I'll just link some music.

15. What's the least pleasant part of your job?

The times when I'm finishing a thought, where the creative part has been established and I'm simply laying down lines to support the focus of an image. I'm currently drawing a giant crowd scene for Reign, and the line weights are locked in for various parts of the page, now I have all the fine details and connecting of the dots left. It can feel like an eternity when you're itching to move on to the next creative idea.

19. What scarred you as a child, as in something like watching The Shining late night on cable when no one was home?

Grendel Grendel Grendel was an animated movie that my parents rented for me when I was a kid. I can't really explain it, so I'll just give an example of the part of the movie that stuck with me for years.

21. Who has been the biggest help or motivator in your career?

I've always sort of wished for a mentor in comics. It might be sad to say, but there hasn't been a defining thing or person, but there's been little moments and have pushed me along. When I was in high school, I met Ed McGuinness through a family friend. He gave me some sincere criticism, which wasn't all positive, and gave me a couple of his original Superman scripts that he worked directly off of. Meaning, these were the days of fax, so it had hand written notes back and forth, Ed's thumbnail break downs on the sides of the pages, basically the building blocks of the issues. It gave me my first insight into how comics worked. Others that have been similarly positive figures in my career are Nathan Fox, Guy Davis, Loston Wallace, Erik Larsen and Robert Kirkman, to name a few.

35. What is your all-time favorite TV show?

Probably The Simpsons. The first seasons are timeless, and not only had great social commentary, but really had some of the best visual gags since the more memorable eras of Looney Tunes. My favorite current trend right now is watching people pick apart some of those gags and turning them into small animated gifs. I think we're appreciating a lot of the details these days, which is awesome.



Next time: Cullen Bunn!