I’m sure that many of you out there have had a chance to read Serena Valentino’s excellent series Nightmares and Fairytales, brought to you by the fine fiends at SLG Publishing. Starting with issue #19, fantastically talented artist Camilla d’Errico jumped on board, bringing her no doubt Faustian-gained skills to the title. This is how I became aware of this mortal, in fact. Then I discovered she has a bunch of new and exciting projects she’s working on. Naturally, it became imperative I track Camilla down and make her answer whatever I asked!

Armed with tasty cookies and some infernal wine, I found her wandering around an open-air market in a special Canadian region of Acheron…

LORD ORCUS: Camilla d’Errico, thank you for enduring the trials and tribulations associated with visiting my domain (especially the eternal elevator to the third floor… damned xeno’s paradox module). You are an up and coming artist with some exciting projects on the horizon. So naturally we better start with the question that’s on everyone’s mind. What the hell does the “d” stand for in d’Errico?

CAMILLA: “That little ‘d’.”

LORD ORCUS: Okay, but what our readers really want to know is, does it stand for “demon”, “demented”, or “decapitated”?

CAMILLA: Well, I am a little devil…but I can’t claim that’s its meaning. The little “d” is part of my family’s surname, I have no idea why we have it as a small “d” but I like it, it’s very unique don’t you think?

LORD ORCUS: As far as we know, things really got going for you once you started your “Helmet Girls” series. Who are these girls, and why don’t any of them exhibit an expression of pain and suffering?

CAMILLA: Oh…but they will! I’ve only barely scratched the surface of this paradoxical world. The question we should really ask is with giant metal constructs on their tiny heads how come these little girls don’t have necks like pro wrestlers?! The origins of these crazy little girls comes from my obsession of rusted metals, monumental metal machinery, junkyard decay, hardware store trinkets, and my delight in paradoxes. You only have to see my latest image called “Mountain Head” to understand the scope of my imagination.

LORD ORCUS: Any plans to give these girls their own book?

CAMILLA: Joshua Dysart and I are developing a story based on these girls I’ve been randomly drawing for years, and the story is filled with vast environments, dark and disturbing imagery, struggle, despair, and heroics. It is going to be quite the opposite from expressionless statuesque metal-barriers of the past.

LORD ORCUS: Well we look forward to seeing that. Despair is good. Let’s talk about your newest release, “Burn”. It’s one of Vis’ favorite comics. Who exactly is burning and for how long will they continue to burn?

CAMILLA: Ahhh, my darling and tortured Burn, I really love this story and characters, its not pretty by any means and isn’t the kind of comic that will give you standardized storylines either. This comic I started years ago and is finally being released or should I say unleashed in 2008. I wanted to tell a story about angst and despair and ultimately a story that was more about developing the characters than giving people an adrenaline rush. However, it will satisfy those hungry for a David and Goliath showdown, we don’t make it easy for Burn by any means. This series is 6 issues long, however it was originally scripted as a two part 6 issue mini series, but we’ve only done the first six issues with no certain plans to extend further. But who knows, the future is still very undecided!

LORD ORCUS: So what’s Burn about?

CAMILLA: For now this series focuses on the tragedy that befalls our protagonist Burn, a thirteen-year-old boy. He is basically imprisoned in this own body and used as a battery for Shoftiel, the giant mechanical monster sent on a mission to kill a doctor in a neighboring town. What I wanted to do was tell this story from a human perspective. What would become of a boy’s mind if he lost everything and lost control of the one thing that we take for granted, our bodies. The cast of the story is very diverse, we not only have a tortured soul, but also an innocent little girl, a group of rowdy bikers, machines focused on missions, a machine caught between two worlds and a machine that is deluded by logic. I think the various levels of character development and crazy imagery that the comic offers will entertain people.

LORD ORCUS: I once used Vic as a battery. That was certainly entertaining. Now, I heard something about toys. When will we see the toys?

CAMILLA: Toys are one of my little obsessions, my apartment looks like an anime convention exploded in my living room! So I’m quite excited about doing a figure, however things take time to develop and this is one of them. Mindstyle is currently working to develop them, as is OSO Design House, so we’ll see what becomes of this in the future.

LORD ORCUS: What toys are we talking about here? The Helmet Girls, or something else?

CAMILLA: Not the helmet girls in the book, these are toys based on my paintings, which is where the whole Helmetgirl phenomenon started. Mindstyle does artist inspired toy series. So they are basing a new series of toys on a series of paintings I did, which include some of my helmet-wearing harlots! Oso may be doing a figure based on a painting as well, which ties in to a huge merchandising project we’ve been working on for the past year.

LORD ORCUS: Word on the street is you’ve got a project coming up with Grant Morrison. Who did you have to kill for this job, and more importantly, how did you kill them? Details, please.

CAMILLA: I only had to slaughter a small Alaskan town for this, but you know it’s a small price to pay to work with Grant Morrison and Vertigo! All kidding aside, I was actually approached by Karen Berger at Vertigo; she thought that Grant and I would make a great team. I had something of an out of body experience when I read the email. I was truly blown away by the offer; it is an honor to work with Karen Berger and Grant Morrison on a project. This series is still very preliminary, Grant has a lot of projects right now and we’ll be starting this in the summer. The story is called “My Atomika Bomb”. Details are hushed for now, but lets just say that my obsession with angst will definitely find a home within the world of Grant Morrison’s stories.

LORD ORCUS: Well congrats on landing that one. That’s a big step for you.

Uhm… I’m just getting a question from the tormented masses. My denizens are always interested in what makes an artist tick. What keeps you going inspires you, drives you to the edge where work becomes an obsession until all you can do is sleep, paint, and eat through a tube?

CAMILLA: Eating through a tube is my favorite! Who knows what electrodes are sparking and brain cells are doing to keep my creativity flowing. I can’t go a day without drawing or painting or imagining a new product or project. I am a paradox myself; I am easily entertained and yet easily bored. Anything can set off my imagination, walking past a dirty alleyway, seeing a gloomy day in the city highlighted by pink neon signage, or watching people on the bus who are people watching. I love the juxtaposition of imagery that is whimsical, innocent yet creepy, bizarre yet adorable and sweet. I live through my art and stories; often expressing more of myself in my art than I even I am aware of. Who knew that I could relate to a 13yr old boy imprisoned in his own body by a machine bent on killing? I’m such a hopeless romantic!

LORD ORCUS: No kidding. My first girlfriend was a killing machine trapped in the body of a mongoose, so I can relate. We also heard something about a video game project. Will you be painting the cover for Doom IX ? Hot damn, do we hope so.

CAMILLA: No, no, but joyfully my gaming work extends much further than just a simple cover. I am the lead concept artist for a new Nintendo DS game that is coming out this fall. It’s called Sky Pirates of Neo Terra. I worked very closely with the creators and team at Big Sandwich Games to develop the characters and visuals for this racing RPG game. It is such a cool game! So once it is launched I will be able to show you images and give more details, but for now I can only rave about it through my own experiences and let me tell you, it’s amazing!

LORD ORCUS: Well thanks for joining us today. Just one last question before you go. Suppose, heh, hypothetically, we were going to trap you on your way out and have you cooked for supper. How would you prefer to be prepared?

CAMILLA: All I ask is that I go out with some class, so do it the Shakespearean way, cook me as a meat pie!

–

Thanks again, Camilla! And look, she was kind enough to pose for a picture… awwwww! Isn’t she sweet?
(Click on the image to make it more readable!)

- Lord Orcus

Tags: artists, camilla d'ericco, comic books, interviews

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 10:23 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.