SIDNEY EXCLUSIVE:
Interview with RON SPEARS, creator of the GK3 GRAPHIC NOVEL.


Nico: First of all let me congratulate you on the graphic novel, you did ONE HELL of a job!
it simply looks incredible!

Ron:Thank you for your kind words about the novel. Working on the GK3 project was a blast!
After working at Sierra for a few years I felt it was time to pursue some of my other interests.
I left the company back in February on very good terms and continued some concept work for GK3.
The novel was a great experience. The deadline was very tight in order to get it included in the collection set,
so I didn't sleep for about 2 months.



Nico: Can you explain me the production of the graphic novel?

Ron: From Jane's script I developed a black and white charcoal rough of every page.
This was approved, and I moved on to the final.
Each page was painted in gouache, with some color pencil for texture.
In an effort to capture some of the abstract subject matter, I rendered the figures as they might feel about the situation, rather than just rendering pretty pictures.
Some of the panels are quite abstract, but if you take them in context of the subject matter, I think it allows the viewer to participate and makes it more interesting.
In addition, there are a lot of metaphors that run through the book that may not be noticed at first glance. Anyway it was fun!



Nico: It seems alot of thinking came across when making this graphic novel.
Did you have alot of liberty while making the graphic novel, or were you quit bound to the script?

Ron: As you can imagine Jane already had a great script!
Within the context of the script I was given an amazing amount of freedom.
An important challenge for me was to convey the emotional content of the story through the art.
In order to do this I went with a much looser and abstract interpretation then what I thought they might be expecting.
However, Jane is a terrific person for an artist to work with because she respects the contributions of others.
So, while I had a lot of liberty, I also understood the responsibility of bringing Gabe to the printed page for the first time.
Gabe is one of my favorite characters to work with and in the end I hope Jane's story is brought across the way she intended.



Nico: I don't know if you know yourself, but the style of the GK3graphicnovel was very similar to the GK1graphicnovel,
was that accidentally or on purpose, or is it just your style of working?

Ron: The first Novel was excellent!
It was done by the very talented and respected illustrator Terese Nielsen.
She also works hard at getting to the emotional content of a story.
There was no cognitive attempt to make it look like the first novel, but thanks for the comparison.
Due to the tight deadline and the scope of the project, the images had to come from inside me.
If I had tried to copy a style or emulate someone else's intrepretations, I wouldn't have made it off the first page.



Nico:What other work outside of GK3 did you do?

Ron:Currently I am the Senior Art Director for another game company, Wizards of The Coast.
I direct the art for a game called Magic:The Gathering.
As with Sierra, I get to work with a great team of artists!



Nico:Adam Bormann told me you also did all the conceptsketches for GK3!
did that also include making storyboards of the entire game?

Ron:I did storyboard every scene that was available at the time.
I don't know what's been added since then.



Nico: I was very much amazed with how you portraied the vampire!
But I also saw some screenshots of a 3Dvampire and that was ALL different! I do not understand.

Ron: In the Novel I wanted to portray the horror of a night visitor, with only glimpses of how Gabe would see it.
Being a printed image I didn't want something that was too literal, or the pace would be lost.



Nico:The vampire as you see him in your graphic novel (with the skull on the side) is that some sort of costume they wear or is it a transformation of some sort?

Ron: The skull motif was more of a visual metaphor for the horror than a description of the vampires.



Nico:I love all characters that I've yet seen from GK3, they are really amazing!
Did you also participate on the design of the characters?

Ron: I did a lot of the original character sketches for the game, including the vampires.
However, my scribbles were interpreted brilliantly through an amazing 3D artist named Mark Sigel.
Mark took my lead and and really added the life to the characters.



Nico: It surprises me what variety we see in the characters.
It all to often happens that characters are all basically the same except for the clothes and hairstyle.
GK3 seems to be NOTHING like that!

Ron:The whole team working on GK3 really wanted to bring a new experience to the gamers.
The fact that they put so much effort into the variety and detail of the characters, environments, and animations,
says a lot about their commitment to the game and fans.



Nico: Have you seen actual gamefootage? you like it so far? is it fun to play?

Ron:I know what it was before I left, and it was amazing!
The writer, artists, animators, programmers, audio engineers, and support personnel, working on this project are the best in the biz,
so you can bet this is a fun game to play!
In addition, any perceived delay in ship dates just shows Sierra's commitment to the quality of this game.
I'm as exited as anyone to see it hit the shelves!



Nico: can we find other work of you online somewhere?

Ron: Other than the GK3 site, I don't have much on the web.
Most of my work is printed or gallery stuff.
Some day I'll get around to putting a web site together.
It's on my long list of things to do.






MANY MANY THANKS TO RON SPEARS FOR THIS INTERVIEW,
I WISH HIM ALL THE LUCK IN HIS FUTURE CAREER!