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Fantastic Four ™ and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Modern Masters Volume 30: PAOLO RIVERA Table of Contents Introduction by R. Kikuo Johnson ....................................................................... 4 Part One: Stuck in a Corner, Surrounded by Art ................................................... 6 Part Two: Breaking in While Breaking Out ........................................................ 11 Part Three: Back to the Drawing Board ............................................................. 28 Part Four: The Book on Everyone’s Radar ........................................................... 43 Part Five: Storytelling and the Creative Process .................................................. 64 Art Gallery ......................................................................................................... 77 Stuck in a Corner Part 1: Surrounded by Art MODERN MASTERS: You were born in Florida. What had done, and my dad’s dad told him to get a job with the year was that? government like he had done. They were both artistically PAOLO RIVERA: 1981. inclined, but never really got full support. MM: Most of your fans know a little about your father MM: Did either of them have any formal training? now, but what did your parents do for a living when you PAOLO: Not really, no. They met in a drawing class in were growing up? Orlando, so they took at least one class, but no real formal PAOLO: In ’82 my parents opened a framing shop/art sup- training. My mom does have a degree in textiles, but my dad ply store. My mom basically ran it. It was just me and my is pretty much self-taught. His dad was, for a time, a butcher, mom, and I was stuck in a corner all day, every day, with un- so my dad literally drew on butcher’s paper. [laughter] limited art supplies and the means to stay quiet. [Eric laughs] I had a lot of time on my hands, so I just kept drawing. MM: They didn’t get the full support of their parents, but I My mom did professional framing, and even though assume they gave you that support. it was my dad’s business, she ran it, and he PAOLO: Oh yeah, definitely. They always made it very would travel the country doing cari- apparent that I had to support myself, but at the same time, catures wherever he could— they weren’t going to tell me not to do it. malls and whatnot. I think it was mostly caricatures MM: And in the environment in which you were raised, at that time, but the you could see that artwork was something that you could reason they settled in do for a living. Daytona Beach was PAOLO: Yeah, at the very least it was an option. that my dad would do Whereas with my parents… all my mom’s sisters airbrush T-shirts, and are nurses for the most part, and she’s the old- back in the ’80s, Daytona est of eleven. That’s saying something. was a spring break Mecca. MM: Was being an artist something you MM: So you grew up sur- aspired to from an early age, or did you go rounded by art. Did you ever through different phases of wanting to do go with your dad on any of something else? his work trips, or were you PAOLO: It was definitely something I stuck at the store? always wanted to do. I started drawing PAOLO: No, not really. basically as soon as I was in the corner It was pretty much just of the store. I don’t think it really felt like me and my mom. I think a real option until high school he would be out for when I saw that I could go months at a time. He to an art school, and that didn’t really come back art schools had scholar- full-time until I was in ships and I would maybe grade school—kindergarten be able to get one. Our or first grade. He came back teacher in high school and started working at the mall passed away a couple of years in Daytona doing airbrush T-shirts. ago, but she was very good at My mom ran the store from 1982 to 2000. getting me on the right track for go- ing to art school. You know, there are a lot MM: Was she artistic as well? of kids in art class, but only a handful of us PAOLO: Yeah, and that’s the thing with my were considering that as a real option. parents. Neither one of them got the sup- port they would have preferred from their parents. MM: Being in the art store, you must My mom’s mom told her to become a nurse like she have been surrounded by instructional 6 books. Were you interested in those, or did you just experiment? PAOLO: Yeah, definitely. Because of where I grew up, I was heavily influenced by airbrush. Much to my mom’s chagrin, I would copy my dad’s Spring Break design, so it would be the Tazmanian Devil holding a can of Budweiser in one hand and a bikini top in the other hand saying, “Spring Break ’87.” [laughter] It wasn’t something my mom liked very much, but it was what I wanted to draw. They were a good couple to play off of each other, because my dad was always do- ing that kind of stuff. He eventually made the switch from airbrush T-shirts to doing custom motorcycles and cars, but it’s all kind of the same stuff. My mom was much more graphically oriented, much more into textiles and pattern and composition. Looking back [laughs] In high school, my mom was very on it now, I think it was very tough for her upset with my color ability. I did a mural to work in that store and be surrounded right after my freshman year for my biology by people who, to give you one example, teacher. She taught marine biology, so I did would come in to show her artwork they a big mural in her classroom. And my mom did that was obviously copied from an issue was appalled at the color, [laughter] so she sat of Playboy, and it wasn’t particularly well- me down and made me do a bunch of color drawn either. She always had very, very high exercises in paint. I was pretty decent at standards, which were above most of the drawing, but painting was something I didn’t stuff she saw, which in Daytona was airbrush really do. I give her crap about it now, but art—which was almost exclusively copied I’m glad she did it. from photos and popular culture—and tattoo art. She came from a more cultured back- MM: Did your dad draw for pleasure, or was Previous Page: A ground. it all work for him? 1995 drawing of Venom PAOLO: It was pretty much all work. I did from Paolo’s early teens MM: Did you see much fine art growing up? come across a sketchbook he had, but I think copied from a Tom Lyle Were you interested in that as well? that was from when he was younger. He figure from the “Maximum PAOLO: Yeah, definitely. Even though my was working so many hours during the day, Carnage” crossover. Above: Another “Maxi- dad did airbrushing to make a living, he I don’t think he wanted to draw very much mum Carnage” Venom always wanted to be a fine artist, I think. when he got home. He did the airbrush T- drawing from around the He bought a printing press at one point shirts until ’94 when somebody saw him in same time period, this and would do his own fine etching, but it’s the mall and asked him, “Do you want to do one copied from a Ron pretty tough to make a living doing that. that but make more money?” That was Chris Lim panel. But the store was a gallery of sorts. We had Cruz Artistry in DeLand, Florida, and he’s Van Goghs on the wall; we had a Rembrandt pretty much been working there ever since. Venom © Marvel Characters, Inc. etching. These were all prints and posters, of course, but some of the classics. MM: Was there any kind of art community built up around the art store? Were there MM: Did either of your parents ever talk regulars you could talk to and get input from? about those paintings with you on an ana- PAOLO: Not really. What happened with the lytical level? store mirrored what happened in Daytona. PAOLO: If they did, I don’t really remem- All of those airbrush artists eventually had ber. If I ever got any kind of specific instruc- to find other work, so they started travelling tion, it was probably more from my dad— to other places. They’d have us send them how to draw an ellipse on a car, and that supplies, and eventually the store morphed kind of thing. into a straight-up mail order airbrush supply 7 Below: Paolo drew this company. In 1995, I think, we moved it to a MM: If you didn’t airbrush, what mediums mock-up Panthro (of much smaller space that wasn’t a gallery at did you use? ThunderCats) cover in all. The ’80s was the heyday for Daytona. PAOLO: That was the one thing my mom 2002, just before first After that we went to straight-up mail order, did not want me to do. My dad wanted to being hired by Marvel, for and that’s when I started working there more. teach me, because at the time it was pretty one of Wizard magazine’s 1994 is when I started helping out and get- decent summer money.

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