WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2008
DAN PARENT TALKS COLBIE CAILLAT, VERONICA
Writer/artist Dan Parent talks about Veronica #196, featuring recording artist Colbie Caillat and due in stores on Sept. 2.
Question: Are you a Colbie Caillat fan?
Parent: I am! I had songs from her first album on my ipod before we began this project, so it made this job even more fun to work on being a fan and all.
Question: What is the process like when you draw likenesses of famous people?
Parent: It can be tricky. I'm used to doing really exaggerated caricatures, but in this case you want to keep it in the Archie style. And it's easier to do a caricature of people who have exaggerated features. Colbie is very pretty, so it's harder to exaggerate that. But with her good looks she blends in well with Betty and Veronica.
Question: Did they like your original drawing of Colbie Caillat, or was there a process of revision and approval?
Parent: They liked my drawings right off the bat, so that was nice. I had a lot of good reference.
Question: How do you think Colbie Caillat enhances the story?
Parent: Bringing in a real recording artist like Colbie Caillat adds a fun element to the story because it's fun to see how real life characters mix in with fictional characters -- although the Archie characters are real to me! And it's sort of like when a long-running TV show has a special guest star. It always livens things up!
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Question: Veronica's rich, so why does she have trouble getting tickets?
Parent: When a concert is a sell-out, even being rich can't always get you what you want. Sometimes it helps, but not in this case.
Question: The cover features Archie singing with Colbie Caillat. Do Archie and Colbie get to sing together?
Parent: Yes, they do. In fact , Colbie shares the stage with some of the other characters too. But I don't want to give too much away.
Question: Any chance the Archies could become an opening act for Colbie Caillat?
Parent: Well, anything's possible. The Gorillaz are an animated group, and they performed with Madonna at the Grammy Awards, so never say never.
Question: This story has received a lot of mainstream press yesterday. Did you expect this much attention?
Parent: You never know what to expect. But Colbie Caillat's first album went triple platinum, so she's got a lot of fans. And not to toot our own horn, but Archie Comics has a few fans too!
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