Professional Artist Interview with Kevin Betou

This past Savannah Comic Convention I had the pleasure of meeting one of my favorite sequential artists in the industry, Kevin Betou. As an aspiring background artist his incredible attention to detail in his comic book’s environments has always been one that I strive to be as skillful in one day. I was super excited to hear he was willing to answer a few interview questions for me! 

To start off with some background info, who are you? Tell us a little about yourself! 

My name is Kevin Betou, I’m a comic book artist and writer from Oakland, CA. I can draw anything but I mainly work on comics featuring black and brown characters. Right now I’m working on a series called Tempo, which combines elements of Hip-hop with high fantasy. My favorite color is orange but light brown is looking really good as of late, haha. 

How do you approach the start of a new project?

To start a new project I begin with an idea that I think is really dope. The most important part is it has to be dope to me, or else it won’t be dope to anyone else you know? I’ll break down how I started Tempo as an example. Tempo is a comic book combining Hip-hop and fantasy. That’s it. That’s as simple as the idea has to be. Then I make the world, I start with the world because that is the main thing that influences how characters are going to act and look. Characters change and are fluid so I find it tough to build a world starting on such a shifting foundation so to speak. Once I get the world in a solid state I move into the characters. The protagonist of Tempo is Baako. She is from the golden city, a prosperous city with deep history, which influences how she dresses and acts. From then I loosely plan out the story around key events that I want to happen. Like “this character is introduced in the opening” then “so and so dies in the third act”, now how do I get to these events as smoothly as possible. I find having multiple key events then connecting them is easier then having a single key event then chronologically going to the next event and so on. 

What are your biggest motivators while creating your work? 

Once the story is in a good place I move onto actually drawing it. I skip the script stage and go straight to thumbnails. Scripts are good if you’re working in a writer and artist team but I’m both so I skip it. Thumbnails, which are small sketches of the final pages are amazing because there’s no risk if I mess something up. I can keep redrawing them with little effort or time. Plus they allow me to visually see the story completely for the first time. Once I’m happy I take some time away from the project, coming back to it with fresh eyes lets me see any mistakes I made while doing my initial thumbnails.

As for the actual pages, I draw on 11 x 17 bristol paper using Microns and Brush pens. I do the whole book then scan the pages. I color and letter them digitally in Photoshop. Once it’s done I go back and do the cover. I save it for last because the story and look of the book can shift as I’m making it. I hate picking up a book with a dope cover but the interior pages have a completely different vibe, so I make sure my cover matches the interior. But that’s about it holy stromboli that was a lot of info, haha. 

 Who or what are your biggest influences? 

My biggest influences are really broad so I’ll list a bunch. I think it’s important to take in everything, not just comics and manga but to be inspired by the real world and other mediums too. Right now definitely Hip-hop. I’ve gone to my first concert then my second then my third all within the last year or so. That’s been super inspiring. Specifically though I’ve been listening to a lot of DOOM (as per usual), Tyler, the Creator, Saba, Isaiah Rashad, and Smino. 

Outside of music I have a HUGE amount of artists I respect and pull from. This article would be fifty nine pages if I listed everyone haha but off the top of my head there’s Chase Conley (animation), Nikolas Draper Ivey (comics), Delfin Finley (painter), Olivier Coipel (comics), Wisdom Kaye (model), Mike Mignola (comics), Ta Nehisi Coates (writer), Robin Velge (animation), Tradd Moore (comics), Daniel Arsham (multi-disciplinary but I mainly love his sculptures), Janice Sung (illustrator), Josan Gonzales (comics), and Boichi (manga). 

What is one of the hardest challenges you had to overcome?

It’s honestly hard to think of a single hardest challenge I’ve had to overcome. The hard parts aren’t grandiose battles but small skirmishes at every moment. Staying consistent, being disciplined. Working through the good and the bad days. Waking up every single day with a goal in mind. A good bit of the pages for book three of Tempo were made during some of the lowest times in my life. But for me, giving up is way harder than trying so I keep going. 

 Any advice for aspiring comic artists? 

As for advice for new aspiring comic artists I’d say just do it. Just sit down and really draw your story, don’t wait for it to be “perfect”. It’ll never be perfect, it’ll be in constant flux in your mind but you have to start. That’s the hardest part. During my time in college I don’t know how many peers I had tell me their idea for a story and when I asked how many pages they had done they’d just give me blank stares. Don’t be scared to go for it, trust me that feeling you get when you finish a project makes it all worth it in the end.

Those are all the questions I had to ask for my interview, but if you’d like to hear and read more from Betou, I strongly recommend checking out his website!  https://www.kevinbetou.com 

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The HoneyDripper is the Savannah College of Art and Design’s juried comics and illustration blog, dedicated to publishing, promoting, and showcasing the finest in student work.​