Ep. 86: Shining the Spotlight on Artist RYAN SOOK

It's always fun when you get to holler at a personal fav. A creator who, whether they're on a huge mainstream title or a smaller, lesser known one, you'd still buy their stuff anyway. 'Cause they're just that damn good!

Well, if you haven't had the pleasure, let me introduce you to one of my favs—Mr. Ryan Sook!

Ryan is an artist who's name comes up on all his peer's Top 5 lists. And they all say the same things about him. "He's a superb draftsman", "A beautiful renderer", "Ryan Sook has talent for sheezy". Okay, I added that last one, but I swear the others are quote, unquote!

I've been on Sook's trail ever since I discovered his Seven Soldiers: Zatanna run with Grant Morrison. From there, I hunted down X-Factor, The Spectre and Hawkman, plus his covers for Friday the 13th, Birds of Prey and Countdown.

While his most recent job is a short story in Final Crisis: Resist, most of Ryan's time is spent working in DC's Licensing Branch. He helps create the images that end up on a lot of their games and merch. As a matter of fact, he told us that over the last year of doing license work, he's had the good fortunate to ink the great Jose Luiz Garcia-Lopez—another DC licensing vet! How cool is that?!

In the interview, we get into how his career began, his past on titles like Zatanna and X-Factor, his approach to creating comic covers, and dealing with "moving deadlines".

We also chat him up about his Dad who's a graphic designer, his friendship with Mike Mignola and DC Art Director Mark Chiarello, and his brand new sketchbook Preliminati.

Ryan's Site