Interview with Comic Creator Mario Gully!
Mario Says… “get off your lazy Butts!… and read this interview!
By Hatch Tarr

Occasionally the LOP Team likes to pull some of our interviews from the vault for re-airing. These oldies but goodies were originally corralled during the days of LOP Magazine. They say that good wine and cheeses get better with age, and we say “why not interviews as well?!?!?” Be sure to also check out our new interviews and reviews that will be airing soon!

Original Publishing Date: Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Hatch: Mario, tell me how you got into the wonderful world of comics?

Mario: To make a very long story short, I got Ant picked up by bugging Image Comics until I was taken seriously. I was turned down a few times before I finally got the green light. Did I mention that I did 4 issues with a small press company? I feel I need to mention that but, I don’t honestly consider that breaking in the biz. That’s one small step to a much bigger path.

Hatch: You have a comic character that you created called The Ant. Tell me how she that came about and the process you took to get it noticed by Image comics.

Mario: I invented Ant in 1996 while I was locked up for Attempted armed robbery. I was looking out the cell window one day when a tiny ant came in crawling from the outside. I thought to myself that I would trade my life to be that ant. Well, I couldn’t pull that off..so I focused my energy into something positive and drew a home made comic about a female character called Ant. The rest is really history as they say.

Ant got picked up by Image when I finally got a phone conference with Erik Larsen. Ant was shot down more then a few times at Image and I made it a point to grow and change and make my stuff better and better. Erik and I talked about some changes that needed to take place and we had a meeting of the minds. I was a artist that had a lot of rough edges and Erik helped me out tremendously in my transition to a serious contender.

I proved that I could grow and learn and the book been pretty much going strong ever since.

Hatch: What is the hardest thing about being Mario Gully?

Mario: Honestly, it’s giving advice to people about getting into this biz or reaching their goals. I think you simply can’t find people who are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to live their particular dream. People look at me and say, “Man, you made it”! “Now..Help me make it”!

They seem to fail to realize that I was drawing for nearly 20 years and I was trying to get into comics for 10 years before I got my break. It don’t happen over night. It takes tons of hard work and a dedication to the pursuit that keeps you awake at night. The hard truth is that it’s kinda easy to break into this biz once your good enough.

The hard thing is to get good enough with out making a living at this. Because you can only make a living once your good enough. My life is pretty sooth and easy going. I’m happily married and have 4 wonderful children. My struggle is trying to help people reach their goals.

Hatch: What brand of art supplies do you stand behind?

Mario: Blueline pro art board (2 ply smooth finish bristol), Speedball india ink, Design needed erasers, Staedtler led holders with 2 h led, Sanford turquoise led btw, and a nice Raphael #1 brush. Photoshop is a nice art supply too and I use that religiously.

Hatch: I ran across a page on a Savage Dragon website where you did a Savage Dragon page. Tell me about that. I loved it by the way!

Mario: Thanks. It was probably a page from ANT#2. Savage Dragon made an appearance in that book.

Hatch: Walk me through a day in the life of Mario Gully.

Mario: Boy! Each day is different. I usually, get up around 5 am to feed my 5 month old daughter Aaliyah. If I’m lucky she goes back to sleep in an hour or so. Then I’m up at 7 to prep for the day and take my 7 year daughter Mercedes to school.

I come home and talk to my wife a bit and watch some t.v. Before too long I go upstairs to the studio and figure out what I need to draw for that day and figure out a way to get it done before or around it’s time to pick my daughter up from school. If a page is done for that day I will usually sketch out another one or do another one depending on how the creativity is flowing.

That usually runs to about 6 pm and it’s almost time for dinner. After dinner I kinda do whatever until it’s time for the kids to go to bed at 8:30. Usually, after the kids go to bed me and my wife Tina handles our day to day business so we can spend some time together before we go to bed and do it over again.

Hatch: Not only are you a comic creator and amazing artist, your a father as well. How do you juggle both these two major tasks with such grace?

Mario: Grace? Man..we are a long way from that. Honestly, I think I did most of my hard work before and during my eldest daughter was born. What I mean was that the biggest learning curve I had was years ago. Now I don’t spend too much on a page because most of the hard work was in development a long time ago.

I try to make time for my family when ever I can. I’m getting better at it. It was hard for a few years but I’ve put myself in a position where I only need one or maybe two pages for that day with weekends off. I love comics and I love drawing but you have got to turn it off at a point to take care of the important things.

Hatch: What is your thoughts on todays comics VS the dime store comics of yester-year?

Mario: Today the quality in the art and the story overall is much better. You need to be careful of what you try to do in today’s market because just anything isn’t gonna fly. That wasn’t the case about 10 years ago. The market and the readers are much more demanding and only the strong survives.

Hatch: Who in your life has inspired you to be the person you are today?

Mario: I have a ton of inspirations. So many I couldn’t even name them all in this one interview. But, truthfully “real” inspiration comes from inside. If you don’t believe in yourself, it’s very hard to convince someone else to believe in you. I found out long ago if you want something you have to go get it. Get off your lazy butt and make it happen.

Hatch: Shameless plugging time! The Floor is Yours…

Mario: I want to announce that I have a six issue series I’m doing for Marvel that’s gonna come out later this year. I’m really excited about it and I think it’s gonna surprise everyone about the type of book it is. It’s different material then what people are used to seeing from me and I think this project will turn some heads!