It is befitting that the art of Juan Ferreyra showcased in the Dark Horse comic Colder would give you the kind of chills that leave you feeling as icy as its protagonist Declan Thomas. The miniseries recently ended a five-issue run, but the buzz surrounding Ferreyra’s images won’t be subsiding anytime soon, the Argentinian artist having managed to scare the living daylights out of horror aficionados and comic critics alike.
After getting attention for his artistic skills in comics such as Small Gods and the critically acclaimed murder mystery Rex Mundi, Colder is Ferreyra’s first foray into horror; a move he credits to Dark Horse Comics Editor in Chief, Scott Allie. “I ended up drawing horror mostly due to Scott Allie. He asked me to join Paul Tobin on a horror story, and he was right about it, because what we did ended up being really fun and interesting to do,” he says.
Like in his previous work, Colder allowed Ferreyra to demonstrate his diversity as an artist. “I like to draw anything from superhero stories to urban tales and crime stories,” he says, “but I loved horror since I first saw the original Alien. My first portfolio review for getting a job at Dark Horse was some Alien vs Predator pages.”
For those unfamiliar with Colder, think of it as a kind of “Hunger Games” — literally speaking. The villain, Nimble Jack, feeds on the insane and he likes to play with his food. Tobin’s original storyline and strong characters drew much praise, but the way the latter was rendered so skilfully by Ferreyra resulted in rave reviews, especially in the case of the insidious Jack. Bringing him to life was a collaborative effort between Ferreyra, Tobin and Allie.
Peek-a-boo! You can run, but not hide, from villain Nimble Jack.
“We all had ideas for him,” Ferreyra says. “They came up with theirs and I drew mine and showed them. It was really fun to do. I drew a bald ‘Jack’ head and drew a lot of hairstyles until I came up with a more 50s look for him. I love Back to the Future so there is some George McFly there!”
Whether his drawings depict everyday scenes such as people walking down the street, or the gruesome face of a man with an eyeball protruding from his throat, the fine attention to detail and dynamism of Ferreyra’s drawings in Colder brings to them a realness that makes them almost palpable — and makes the most horrifying scenes even more frightening. To depict the story’s ‘hungry’ world, Ferreyra took us into the minds of the insane to show us the city of Boston, where Colder is set, through their eyes; a despondent place inhabited by hooded beings with eight eyes and giant monsters that inspire awe.
You may think the person responsible for bringing us these nightmarish images watches and reads lots of horror and that nothing scares him, right? Well…wrong. “I’m easily scared, that is why I don’t like watching a lot of horror movies,” Ferreyra says. “I loved the first two Alien films, and those where pretty scary for me.” He’s also freaked out by ghost stories. “I was always scared by ghosts and the occult. I grew up in the country surrounded by big houses far way from everything and there were always stories of ghosts, from a suicide or a terrible death, and I would just imagine them.”
It’s no surprise then that the inspiration for Ferreyra’s creepy visuals usually comes from his mind. “First I try to come up with ideas in my head, if that doesn’t work I wait for something to catch my eye,” he says. “Then I try to mix different things I see, for example in Colder I used the theme of the hands a lot. On the cover of Issue One we see the hand going into Declan’s brain, then we see more hands when Jack kidnaps Reece from the taxi cab, so the next step was to keep drawing hands, so I mixed a hand with a dog — a white dog that was originally bred here in my city, the Argentinian Dogo.”
Juan Ferreyra: Not as scary as his art.
Aside from the thought Ferreyra put into the pages of Colder, he also paid particular attention to its five covers, using different mediums to reach his desired effect. Taking a different approach to each cover allowed him to come up with a unique image for each issue. “For the first cover I did a fast pencil sketch and then colored it on Photoshop using a Wacom Cintiq12WX, then I drew in pencil a 11×17 page of the final drawing,” he explains. “The cover of Issue Two is all digital, from sketch to final piece. Issue Three was pencils and watercolors and for Issue Four I did a small sketch and then did all the art on the computer over it. The cover of Issue Five is some parts watercolors, some pencils and some on the computer.”
For Ferreyra getting his break in comics has not been easy. Residing in the city of Córdoba in his native Argentina sees him isolated from many of the big comic conventions that take place in the US, and getting there is expensive. Ferreyra also admits to suffering from the inability to resort to any kind of egotism to sell himself and his work. Things seem to be working out however; Ferreyra’s art having done all the talking for him.
Right now he is busy working on another creator-owned comic miniseries for Dark Horse, one he can’t say too much about just yet, but one that will give him the opportunity to “draw all kinds of monsters and weird stuff!” And if that isn’t enough to appease Ferreyra fans, there may be more Colder on the way too, and soon.
“We’re talking with Paul about how to continue with the story in Volume Two, and possibly Volume Three for Colder, so that is great,” he reveals. “Hopefully we can be able to publish that. We have a lot of cool ideas for it, so I’m excited and anxious to be able to do it.”
And so are we!
You can check out more of Juan’s artwork on his website.
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