Some interviews are difficult due to the lack of information available regarding a talent, their reluctance to chat much, or simply, an uninteresting subject. Fortunately for me, and you the reader, James Ritchey III, is a very interesting and talkative fellow. The first issue of his book GREEN LAMA, Man of Strength has been successful and I think we can look forward to more of his work upon that character and others.
So please enjoy this interview with a talent I think we will see very much of in the future.
AN: Your work in comics has split three decades, tell us how/where you began in comics? “I was born in...”, well, the question might lead someone to infer that I'm some war-torn, world-weary veteran of the comic book industry, which I'm not. I was in a local rock band throughout the 1980's (when-in my twenties-- most would have started their comic art careers), I did all manner of things between, and didn't really pursue it seriously until the last five-six years... I've always written, always drawn, had submitted a prodigious amount of material to both Marvel and DC--until around '94, when it became apparent, that while certain editors liked my ideas and series concepts (enough occasionally to suggest them for other creators to handle), it wasn't enough for them to hire me. Two friends who work for Vertigo occasionally urge me to send Vertigo proposals--but. it was like Aversion Therapy.
Besides assisting Bo Hampton on Total Eclipse in the late 'eighties (at his brother Scott Hampton's suggestion), getting to draw some of my favorite Eclipse characters, and 70 Trading cards for MX: Superhero (Todd Nauck's first work was drawing the comic) Green Lama: Man of Strength is my first published work--where I'm writing and/or penciling a full comic book, rather than anthology stories. After almost a decade of small 'start-ups' 'hiring' me to do one or both-it resulted in about 5 1/2 'canned' first issues-and plots and scripts for about 40 issues of all-original material and characters. Only to have the publisher run off with the money from preorders, run out of money, physically steal my art, or turn out to be some sorry fool on the interwebz wanting to feel important. The Lama is a personal landmark, certainly, even if a little late in life-but if fifty really is the new forty, I'm in good company-Joseph Conrad didn't even start writing until he was thirty-nine. I'm EXACTLY a year younger than Grant Morrison-but never stopped drawing, and was in a better band as a youth, apparently...
Note to Self: I may be a little defensive about my age, and starting my career so late.
AN: You are a working artist, what do you do and what have we seen of yours?
I've become somewhat of a 'fixer' for local companies (who need it quick and done to spec), from my days as a prepress/printer of high-quality proofing for packaging design and advertising firms-a great deal of local and magazine ad art, as I have a few various styles, from super-cartoony to realism, logos. The '90's were riddled with various: storyboards and animation for New World Pictures' animation division for a CD interactive game called Reality Check (where I designed the lead character and was lead animator), or Character Design and Illustration for The Ace of Angels online interactive 'shoot'emup'. Some work I'm contractually bound never to divulge-honestly. The occasional book cover, TOO much to remember, or really list, here-ain't rich, don't work a lot-but enough to live indoors. “Twenty Years of Boredom”, to quote the great Leonard Cohen, sums up my non-comics career-but I have enjoyed the actual work on 90% of it..
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AN: Your editorial suggests that your personal take on the character of Green Lama is a result of your own religious/spiritual search. Comment a bit on the foundations of your interest in that spirituality?
When I was 12, my mother was lured into an evil, fundamentalist cult called The Jehovah's Witnesses. They control every aspect of a person's life. Even at that age, I was mortified by the literal belief in every word of The Bible, as actual, scientific fact-I believed parts of it were obviously meant to be symbolic, even in my early teens-and their Jehovah seemed like an enthroned, mean psychotic old man, d
