EYE TO EYE with OPTIC COMICS IV: JUDIT TONDORA

**SebastianPiccione** · Wednesday, August 13, 2008 03:02 AM

Talk about saving the best for last! In this, the final installment of Eye to Eye with Optic Comics, I talk to my latest "victim", Judit Tondora. Referred to as "The Hungarian WOW Factor" by Chris Toth, Judit lives up to that on multiple levels. A talented artist, novice film-maker, and beautiful lady; Judit lives in Hungary where she (among other things) draws OPTIC COMICS' "Dead Contract" for writer/creator Brian Sizemore. Here's what she had to say:

SEBASTIAN PICCIONE: OK, Judit, we’ll start with the obvious, right now the photo beside this interview is being downloaded as wallpaper on countless PCs across America. So tell, us, How a beautiful woman in Hungary end up drawing comics for a small company in Taylorsville, Kentucky?

JUDIT TONDORA: Well. It was a simple and quick thing.

I got a letter from CT- Christopher Toth, he was your “victim” too and he said to me the Optic looks for artists. I thought it’s a great opportunity because I work as graphic artist and I wanted to draw comics always. I sent a letter with my sketches to Brian Sizemore and he replied after a few minutes. He liked my sketches and we agreed in the conditions instantly and I turned into an "Opticon".

I think it was an inevitable moment in my life because I have hunted for a similar work for years but the comic is not a popular genre in Hungary and the comic artist job is almost a nonexistent thing so I think I'm lucky.

SEB: So let’s complete the picture. Every fanboy’s dream is a hot, exotic woman who shares his passion for comics. You’ve got 2 out of 3 down, let’s go for the hat-trick, Do you read comics, and if so, what titles?

JUDIT: My first comics were the Transformers, X- Men, Superman, Spiderman and you will laugh at me but the Alf, Asterix and the Galls and the Fixy and Foxy...oh I loved them so much. I collected the Transformers and the Superman but the publishing of these titles was very slow. As I see it, the publishing of the comics is very progressive nowadays in Hungary but I think it’s not enough. There is a cheering intention because the comic- fans and publishers try to publish and collect a lot of comics.

I hope there will be more comic- stores and comic- fans and this lot of work doesn’t go to waste in this good era. The comic data base on the Hungarian comic websites is good but a real comic- fan knows it isn’t the comic book, it’s simply complement.

Return to the basic question, I love the French comics because these comic books are very realistic and have a fantastic atmosphere. My favourite French artist is Jean-Claude Gal. I think he is a pure genius.

Above all the big names for me in comic: Kyle Baker, Andy Kubert, Michael Turner, Jim Lee, Danny K. Miki, Marc Silvestri, Miriam Katin, Scott McCloud, Fazekas Attila.

I’m a manga fan too. My favourites are the Death Note, Shin Angjo Onsi, Ghost in the Shell and the Midnight Opera. I like the manga for years because I think it's a very special world in the world of comics and we can learn a lot of interesting techniques and procedures with the help of these books.

I like the graphic novels too. I want to draw or paint a graphic novel some day. My eternal favourite is the Dracula by Jon J. Muth.

And of course I'm interested in hungarian comics too. The members of MKA (Magyar Képregény Akadémia- Hungarian Comic Academy) are great artists. They publish a special comic named Pinkhell, where they collect their newest comics and strips. Zorro De Bianco and Cserkuti Dávid are fantastic and original comic artists. And I read the Panel too wich is an informative journal of the comics.

SEB: Which American comics are big (and accessible) in Hungary?

JUDIT: The Spiderman is mostly loved between 6 and ... . X- Men is the favourite of teens. Garfield strips are the daily products on the last page of the Hungarian newspapers so this title is very popular. The Batman, 300 and the Sin City were big hits and the Batman – Hush is a favourite on the market now.

SEB: Artistically speaking, who are your influences?

JUDIT: Jean-Claude Gal, Jim Lee, Kyle Baker, Andy Kubert, Marc Silvestri impressed me in comics but in the art I have a lot of ideals. I admire the renaissance artists especially the artists of cinquecento. I like the art of the baroque, the avant-garde and the pop- art too. The Hungarian contemporary art is impressive sometimes and I find great ideas in the impressionism too.

SEB: Did you attend art school? Any formal training, or have you just always been artistically inclined?

JUDIT: I’m concerned with art since my childhood. As far as I can remember I drew many characters and figures, I don’t know why but it was my hobby. I was fond of drawing so this became my favourite activity.

In the first place I attended art school and optional courses when I was child and I learned in art- grammar school after the elementary school. After the final examination I studied in a graphic artist school too.

I reckon I picked up good professional basic knowledge from my schools but I think the practising is more important than the schools because if you don't use your new learning in time it can disappear.

I’m studying at a university now on faculty of arts. In theory I have to graduate but I can’t leave the university because I... well I have to push through a few things J.

SEB: So, tell me about DEAD CONTRACT, what have you been up to on that title so far?

JUDIT: I feel we’re making good progress with the Dead Contract. I’m almost ready with the half of the first issue and Brian sent me the last page today so the first book may be ready at the end of the summer. We have good ideas for the next steps and we have imposing covers and advertisement pictures too so I’m pleased.

SEB: What is the process like. I mean, obviously you’re not going in person to Kentucky, so how do the script/layouts/finished page transactions take place? I realize the internet plays a huge part, but does Brian [Sizemore} send you whole scripts? Partial scripts? Do you send him layouts for approval, or do you send him completed pages?

JUDIT: Yes, the Internet is our best friend. J So. First of all Brian send me the script of the pages. If I can’t imagine the page or the character we talk about it in e-mail. When I get a page I make a sketch and locate the panels. After that I draw the page and I send it to Brian. If he dislike it I redraw the page but he likes my pages every time

(it's a big favour for me). When it’s ready the hard work comes because I make the inkwork and the editing in Photoshop.

SEB: The character creation process. How much detail does Brian give you for each of the cast members? How much lee way does you give you with the designs

JUDIT: Brian describes the characters very profoundly. The clothes, accessories, guns, hair, gesticulation etc. are all the basics of the description of the characters.

If I get a character I make a few sketches and the winner gets into the comic but I have almost free hand in this process. My first step is that I look for faces. I collect pictures and portraits so I can select easy. If I find a pretty nose or beautiful eyes, I use these for characters' face. For Example the face of Zex, who is the main character of the Dead Contract, consists of three persons' face. I really like the interesting and strange faces too but in comic the beauty and sexiness are the pulling power nowadays so I draw pretty and hot characters except the villains. The bad guys are strange in the Dead Contract.

SEB: How far along are Brian’s scripts? How far along are your pages?

JUDIT: If I want to be correct... I had got the last page of the comic and I sent the 12th page to Brian today.

SEB: Are you working on any other comics right now? Your myspace says you do a comic strip for a newspaper?

JUDIT: Yes, I’m drawing a comic strip, the title of this panel- row is JÁCINT and I draw funny drawings for the MERt newspaper (this is the newspaper of my university, it publishes in 10.000 issue so it’s quite widely read).

SEB: Now, outside of comics, I see you’re working on a children’s book. Is that with your sister or about your sister? Something with a sister. (The guys are looking at your pic again, thinking “She has a SISTER”, and US to HUNGARY airline ticket sales just quadrupled!):

JUDIT: Yes, I have a sister and I’m working on the book with her. She is mum and expected mother so she know the world of the children. She wrote the short stories of the book and I’m drawing illustrations but our publisher stepped out so this artwork is a plan now (and I have to rewrite my myspace text

). But we want to make this book because we know that can be good.

SEB: You’re studying film, yes? Where do you attend school for that?

JUDIT: This is my special branch on my cultural anthropology subject at the University and we study about documentary films.

SEB: Along with studying film, you’re actually making a film, a documentary called “NEOPAGANS: The Wicca in Hungary”? What’s that like?

JUDIT: It’s a long- long story but in short this is my thesis- film. I found this theme in 2004. One of my friends is a Wicca and she talked about this interesting group. They believe in the traditions of the neopaganism and I thought so it’s a very special theme and I wanted to make a documentary film about this gang. We, my “double crew” and I, want to give an insight into the secret world of the witches and the witchcraft. And if you will watch the film you will see they are a group of open minded people who think about the faith on an interesting special way.

SEB: How do you find the time for it all?

JUDIT: No personal life. Hahaha...

Okay, I have to map out my time very sensibly. If I will be ready with my tasks around the university I will have more time for my artistic works.

SEB: What’s one thing about yourself that you’d really like everyone to know?

JUDIT: Well... If only one person except me likes my artwork I’m pleased. I like to entertain and give something to people so I don’t work for myself (and that is why I like the deep criticism of my artwork.)

SEB: What’s one thing about yourself that you think would surprise people?

JUDIT: I hope I can surprise people with all what I do.

SEB: Anything else you’d like to say before we go?

JUDIT:

I want to return thanks for the stuff of the Optic Comics. If they haven’t asked me for working at the Optic, I wouldn’t have had an enjoyable work like this. And I hope you, dear fangirls- and boys, will like the Dead Contract because it will be a very great comic. Believe me. I have read the full storyline of the first issue today and woow...it is fantastic. I love to draw this comic and I think you will love to read.

My website will be ready soon but till then if anybody has a question or want to talk about Dead Contract or art, send me message on the tondoraart@gmail.com address. I try to reply every messages in time.

SEB: Well, Judit, thanks for talking with me. It has been a real pleasure.

JUDIT: Thank you Sebastian. Our discuss was honour for me.

For the rest of the EYE TO EYE with OPTIC COMICS interviews, hit the following links:

EYE TO EYE with OPTIC COMICS I: Brian Sizemore
EYE TO EYE with OPTIC COMICS II: Chris Toth
EYE TO EYE with OPTIC COMICS III: Sylvester Ellis