What’s up everybody! Welcome to a very special series you’ll only get to see here on The Beat. We’re a couple of days away from Dark Horse publishing the enigmatic Chuck Palahniuk’s new collection of short stories/adult coloring book, Bait: Off-color Stories for you to Color. To count down, we’ve got reader’s digest style questionnaires answered by some of the artists who worked on the book. It all leads up to a very special interview with author Chuck Palahniuk on Tuesday.
Today, we’ve got an incredible artist CURRENTLY known mostly to fans of small press comics. Alise Gluskova has drawn books like Letter 44 and Abe Sapien. Her style lands somewhere between the finesse of a Fiona Staples and the emotional impact of Terry Moore. She brings her talents to Bait’s most morbidly romantic story and she’s cool enough to take part in my flamming garbage truck of an experiment.
COMICS BEAT: What was your first experience with Chuck Palahniuk’s work?
Alise Gluskova: My first introduction to Palahniuk’s work was [the] movie Fight Club, I saw it at age 16 and really liked it. Few years later I re-watched the movie and was interested about the mind behind the story.
I personally enjoyed “Invisible Monsters” one of my first novels I read by Palahniuk and [the] recently published Fight Club 2.
CB: I have a feeling a lot of you on this book were first exposed to Fincher’s adaptation movie.
Describe the story you illustrated for Bait in three words:
AG: pitty, fiction, legacy
CB: I think those are the first three words Chuck types for any story.
You’ve been part of the comics’ collaboration process before with books like Letter 44 and Abe Sapien.
Where does being a part of a large prose collaboration like Bait rank for you?
AG: I think it’s on top. Working beside with such writer, fantastic artists and team is very honorable.
BC: Your art in both sequential comics and the pin-ups in Bait convey loads of emotion. What advice would
you give average readers who are going to color your work in this book?
AG: Colors are big part of the art and I believe readers will choose right colors for the illustrations.
BC: I ask because part of what makes this book fun is seeing what all the artists will retweet and share as their favorites. Some, myself included, are going to be terrible at this. But let’s talk about something happier.
It’s the first night of your own Fight Club. What two celebrities or fictional characters would you choose
to fight each other and who wins?
AG: Jason Statham and Ray Park. I think Statham would win. He looks like he could withstand heavy punches.
BC: I think we share a strange thing about both loving Jason Statham and wanting to see him get punched.
Finally, Do you have a favorite memory of coloring or coloring books?
AG: When I was in kindergarten our teacher drew very pretty ladies with big beautiful detailed dresses for us girls to color. I always anticipated [having] a drawing of hers to color it.
BC: That’s probably the most “aww” memory you artists have shared with me. You guys can check out Alise’s work when Bait: Off-color Stories for you to Color is in stores Tuesday. Before that we’ve got a peek at one of her illustrations below. After you see it, you can see more from the pride of the Baltic Sea@Alise_Gluskova on twitter.
