Stéphane Roux drops by for a chat with Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin, about his latest indepedent release, Cocktails & Curves - a mixology guide paired with pin-ups, on Zoop through March!
COMIC BOOK YETI: Bonjour and bienvenue - welcome to the Yeti Cave, Stéphane! Firstly, merci beaucoup for conducting this interview in English. How are things going - are you in the States, France, or elsewhere at the moment?
STEPHANE ROUX: Thank you for having me in the cave! I must say it is way more spacious than I expected! I am in the U.S. I’ve lived here for over the last 15 years. Before that I lived and worked - in animation - in France.
CBY: Ah, I knew you'd relocated Stateside, but I figured given your intercontinental nature, you could be anywhere! On that note, we’ve got plenty to cover, but in reading about your life, I see you spent part of your youth in Tahiti. My children were all born in Fiji, so for our readers, can you share a bit about how your experience living in a Pacific Island community has shaped your perspective throughout your life?
SR: Well, for one thing, I’m always on island time for everything; brunches, lunches and dinners, meetings, Zooms, books, commissions… even interviews! More seriously, if anything, it doesn’t help you become street smart or aware of much of the global things at play, in the world. Especially 40 years ago, before the internet came into our lives. Living away from it all kept you well, away from it all! Getting books ( art books, comics, special items…) Was costly and something you had to earn, with perseverance and the proper contact
CBY: To pick up on another formative experience in your early life, I know you attended Gobelins Paris, L’ecole de L’image. Can you share with our readers a bit about your formal education in art, the values it instilled in you, and the techniques you’ve taken away from your academic training that add most substantively to your practice as an artist? Why should aspiring illustrators go to art school (or not), and what does Gobelins Paris do differently from what you know of other institutions?
SR: I attended a short (six months) training program that was aimed at making professionals out of our lot in record time, as it was partnered with a studio which, at the time, was in dire need of technicians for their upcoming productions. They had just completed two successful animated series and knew they were already short on lay-out artists, specifically. You have to keep in mind, traditional lay-out for animation back then was at the crossroads of every other department, and really is at the core of what working as a team means. From the outside, back then, animators and storyboard artists held the status of rock-stars for the majority of people, and they kept the title. Now it has shifted to “ Viz Dev “ artists, whether they specialize in backgrounds and sets, or Chara designers (short for character). We had really great teachers, but learning that specific aspect of the work proved challenging at first. Keep in mind, we were young, eager to create characters, and work on our own projects (of course… a story ages old, right?) so being introduced to the medium from the least sexy aspect of things was a little unsettling. But we got our break at the end of the six months, with some of us getting hired for character design and art direction, for that matter, but I’ll develop upon that later.
We had very little interaction with the rest of the Gobelins school. Mostly because we were in another location and couldn’t physically benefit from the facility amenities. This being said, we were not unhappy, because we were training in an actual animation studio. A real classic, all-wood one; century old wooden floor, wooden tables, probably the way they started at Disney, to give you a feel of it. The school already had earned her wings, we were just not fully integrated to it.
CBY: Thanks for contextualizing your time there, as it sounds like a unique experience, even within the scope of art school curricula. Before we dive further, you embarked on decades in the French animation industry before building a large portfolio of both interior illustrations and cover art on a variety of DC and Marvel titles; what led to your decision to put together Cocktails & Curves and how long has it been in the making?
SR: I realized that, aside from the occasional sketchbook ( which by the way, I hadn’t dabbled with in almost ten years ), I had never published an actual book of my pin-up artwork.
As for the time it took, I would say a little more than a year. A couple of "pieces with no particular purpose" were there, in my portfolios, but they are not what triggered the idea. Talking with my friend Jeremy Staples, who wrote the recipes and collected the data (fun facts, anecdotes, and historical context for some of them… ) we quickly narrowed it down to the most inspiring ones. The ones that immediately generated images in our minds. I started laying them out as soon as we had a final list of the cocktail recipes we wanted to showcase.
CBY: So the drinks led the way, and the drawings followed. Now, I know this campaign is going up through the Zoop platform, which entails additional support in the delivery of successful projects. Is there anyone from the editorial/publishing team you’d like to mention? The art is clearly all your doing, but did anyone help you craft the cocktail recipes included?
SR: Jeremy Staples is the friend and collaborator who brought all the written material. We keep arguing the credits would go to one another; I claim it would just be an art book without the hours he put into gathering the data for recipes, and to give it shape so it’s an entertaining read. He claims the art is what makes it such a unique item in the world of mixology publications. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. As for cocktails, it’s about the perfect dosage of all the ingredients.
CBY: I had the opportunity to run through a few old interviews you’ve conducted over the years, including conversations with Variant Edition, Star Wars Holonet and you mentioned an interest in moving to the States (which you did) and drawing more covers and compositions featuring male heroes (which you’ve also done). However, your style is certainly recognizable for your well-regarded depictions of women across the superhero landscape in vivacious and empowered renditions. The comics industry is often criticized for the dominance of the male gaze in depictions of women; what is your philosophy and approach towards ensuring you are portraying - despite the two-dimensionality of the page as a medium - women with complexity and depth with your artwork? How does that become complicated when devising pin-up scenes where the entire mise-en-scène must be established in one composition?
SR: Pin-up art encompasses a variety of themes and sub-genres, they all abide by codes and principles that allow to recognize almost immediately what side of the sandbox one artist is playing in. There are themes and sub-genres I feel drawn to, and others that don’t interest me in the least. As much as possible, I try to inject in every piece I draw a certain sense of empowerment to the pin-up girl I end up drawing. I’d rather lean toward representing a sexy character in charge of her fate rather than a damsel-in-distress. Still, when I happen to do so, I always try to get the viewer "in on the joke" usually poking fun at those old-fashioned ways of depicting pin-ups. I still draw girls in "oops" moments, but I tend to avoid having to draw those when I can. It doesn’t go very far in terms of stories to tell, and before you know it, you’re going in circles. I’m already struggling enough as it is with gimmicks and habits in my process, when creating an image, that I don’t want to lock myself into “just” drawing pin-ups in that fashion.
CBY: On the topic of your style, you’ve cultivated a very distinct look to your characters over the years, with often stylized, expressive faces over well-rendered and considerately proportioned form - what does your illustration technique and toolkit involve these days? What sort of reference modeling, lightboxing, and other set-up do you employ, and what penciling, inking, and coloring tools (analog and/or digital) have worked their way into your process over the years of learning by experience?
SR: On the specific topic of pin-up art, involving highly rendered effects. I usually start from the get go - with my penciled line art - by challenging myself, avoiding the use of photographic references, and yet trying to achieve realistic expressions and features that "look real," with just a few lines properly laid out. I also try to maintain a balanced practice of digital pencils and traditional ones, directly on paper. Learning "the hard way" (by making mistakes, on paper, that you can’t “undo" via your digital history function) trains one’s focus and ability to anticipate the results you’ll obtain.
CBY: That is a good rationale for the enduring value of working on the page. On the other subject of this title - the cocktails - there is another set of compositional rules at work. I spent a few years bartending, and I believe I’ve already fulfilled my lifetime drinking obligations by now, but I still enjoy a bit of mixology and coming up with new concoctions when my wife and I host dinner guests. What is your preferred cocktail when trying to impress while entertaining, and your personal preference when grabbing a drink?
SR: I don’t socialize much these days, to the extent of entertaining friends at home and impressing them with my mixology skills… which are non existent! I’m too busy with work and projects. And my at home time is mostly working time. Right now, my off time is dedicated to outdoor activities, as much walking in nature and bike riding I can squeeze in. I have never been a party animal, and have enjoyed drinks more that reasonably. I only started trying cocktails recently, over the past seven or eight years. Before that, I would lean toward wines, more than cocktails. And even then, or to this date, it’s just a glass of red once in a blue moon! Nothing beats water, as far as I’m concerned… the good stuff, though, always. With the exception of pomelo juice, which could be considered my kryptonite.
CBY: To that end, in the interest of ensuring we emphasize the importance of drinking responsibility, there’s an opportunity to explore further. As crafting cocktails can involve an immense amount of consideration and preparation; what does a healthy relationship with alcohol look like? Artists, in particular, are historically prone towards indulgence in the senses. You’ve mentioned your own moderation in practice, but you've also been around the industry long enough to see how substance abuse can shake, or break, the careers of otherwise promising talents. What reflections can you share on the role of alcohol in the creative process, and how we might elevate the craft of drinking culture without abetting its abuses?
SR: Like I said, I’ve never been interested in the rituals of socializing through after work parties, hanging out in bars, or simply social drinking in small group of friends, at one’s home. I also, on principle, don't pay attention to side stories involving other professionals either enjoying or struggling with abuse in that respect. I know it exists, but it’s a personal matter I am not close enough with my fellow artists and colleagues to address them. It’s a very delicate topic and I would hate to interfere or judge anyone I am not that close to. My close friends, I’d help in any capacity I could, for sure. As for artists being historically prone towards indulgence in the senses, I would say, “no more than any other professional fields." if one digs a little deeper in ANY discipline or trade, I’m sure one would find the same amount, more or less, of self indulgence. It’s the human nature. I think it has to do more with frustration and alienation in our daily lives. But that is a conversation for another time and place.
CBY: Well said! I had the opportunity to facilitate the English translation of some comic and animation material by New Caledonian cartoonist, Bernard Berger, who created La Brousse en Folie. What do you find must often be changed, added, or removed when working between French and English? Are there any visual motifs or sight gags that you have found tend to get lost in translation?
SR: Oh, all the time! Because the pop culture references can be so multitudinous and/or different, therefore…
CBY: ...too numerous to detail at length, I can gather. In closing, once our readers give this Zoop campaign their attention, what else should they check out? What totally unrelated work by creators you enjoy has been keeping you entertained and inspired lately across comics and other forms (film, music, literature, etc.)?
SR: There’ll be a few projects coming to fruition this year, after the Zoop campaign on Cocktails & Curves, that your readers might be interesting to hear about. It’ll be on my social media at first and then potentially going through the crowdfunding campaign process.
One is a graphic novel. I'm on the last stretch of it, a few pages to complete and then some editing, promotional pieces I’d like to produce ahead of time… It’s basically a love letter to the giant robots from the late 70’s-early 80’s anime. NOT the "Real Robot" genre (i.e. - Gundam, Patlabor, and such…) more the Super Robot genre that came before. For those old enough to remember, think Shogun Warriors.
Another is an Art Book showcasing most of the art I’ve produced over the years, possibly in a coffee table size type of book. We’ll see if there’s a readership for it.
As far as influences go, of late, and work by creators I enjoy, anything Tommy Lee Edwards puts out has my undivided attention. His storytelling, techniques, experimentation, and exploration of the media at hand always make him deliver some truly powerful, inspiring art. The work of Eric Canete, too. Another powerhouse. The work of Yokinobu Tatsu, on Dan Da Dan (manga) is also mind-blowing.
There are not enough hours in the day to watch anything lately. The Daredevil series, on Netflix and Disney+, The Punisher… and old movies occasionally, ranging from the 50’s to the 90s. Most of my screen time is dedicated to catching up on old shows from the US and the UK. British humour has my preference. Check Father Ted (free on Youtube) and more recently, Upstart Crow on Britbox.
CBY: My grandmother has been raving about Britbox, and I know Father Ted is a classic, so I'll have to give Upstart Crow some attention. Stéphane, thanks for stopping by the Yeti Cave to discuss Cocktails & Curves! If you’ve got any portfolio, publication, or social media links you’d like to include for our readers, now is the time, and we wish you the best with your Zoop campaign!
SR: Thank you for having me here! My Linktree with ALL my handles is @stephanerouxart.
@Frenchwookiee on Instagram is the social media I post the most on, I also do live streams there. Otherwise, You can follow my posts @stephanerouxart on Bluesky and Cara.
I also do live streamed sessions on Twitch, on the artovsr ( Art of S.R ) channel, occasionally.
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