If you’ve ever spoken with Artist Tana Ford, you’ve seen how incredibly passionate she is about each of her projects. From her self published Duck books to her work on Marvel’s Silk series, and everything else along the way. Tana and I sat down at C2E2 to talk about some of her real-life inspirations and her future directions.
Sumney: Out of all the conventions you attend every year does one stand out as a favorite?
Tana: Really, I have a lot of fun at all of the shows that I go to. I always tend to have a good time meeting people, meeting fans. I like being surprised at shows by how excellent or how unusual they are.
Sumney: Your Facebook pictures suggest that you like to jog. Do you do anything athletic?
Tana: I run a lot of races. I am a half marathoner mostly, that’s my preferred distance. My passion project, 26.2: a History of the Boston Marathon tells the story of the greatest race on Earth. Which is the Boston Marathon. My great grandfather came in second in 1902. We have the silver cup back home and it’s a point of family pride.
We’re in racing season in Florida. I end up doing a lot more racing in the months of February, March, and April. You get a lot of road races in my neck of the woods right now- in the cooler months. In the summertime it’s like running on the surface of the sun.
Sumney: You’ve hosted an online drink and draw? How did you do that?
Tana: Yeah, through Patreon. I missed being able to go down the street to a bar or hangout with my friends and grab a drink. I live in the middle of nowhere, now and I thought, “Oh! I have the internet! I don’t have to leave my house and can hang out with my internet friends.” So, I started a drink and draw! Four or five people would sign up ahead of time and I would livestream what I’m working on and we would tell each other stories and jokes and hang out. It was a heck of a lot of fun!
“My favorite drink is a version of the Manhattan that I call the Tanhattan.
It’s equal parts bourbon and sweet red vermouth. Vermouth is a sort of spiced red wine. After you open it you should refrigerate it. There are different blends of spices, and different recipes so I suggest experimenting with what kind of vermouth you use.
Choose a good bourbon that you like, a good red vermouth that you like, over crushed ice. I like crushed ice or whiskey rocks- those big whiskey balls. A dash of angostura bitters or you can have different bitters if you want to trade it up. I have sassafras bitters that I use sometimes. Then, for me to make it a Tanhattan, I use very dark bing cherries or black cherries and a dollop or two of the cherry juice as a sweetener.”
Sumney: How many Duck books are planned?
Tana: There’s going to be three in the whole series. The second one is out now. Duck! was my first published work and it won the Queer Press Grant in 2010. The second volume, Duck! Second Chances was a Lambda literary award finalist which was extremely gratifying, humbling, and awesome.
I Kickstarted Duck: Third Time is the Charm a few years ago and it still isn’t created yet because two things happened:
First, Marvel called me and asked if I wanted to be on Silk. This was a dream come true, so of course, I said yes. Then my Kickstarter gets funded and I’m no longer able to work on Duck 3 full time because I am working on a Marvel dream job. Then I talk to an editor friend of mine who sees better ways of dealing with certain plot points that I was going for, so I start redoing some of those parts.
Ultimately it is the story of lesbian friendships. Specifically, it is about how those friendships unfold in Provincetown Massachusetts, where every Memorial Day weekend lesbians from all over New England descend to drink and dance and party our faces off. It was a thing I did for years and years. So, who better than me to tell the story of this point in American history from the inside?
When I Kickstarted it, I had been thinking a lot about queer spaces. As acceptance of queer identities becomes more popular and more mainstream, as the world sort of comes around and becomes a safer place, what will happen to historically queer spaces?
Provincetown has been queer before being queer was okay. It was a haven for people that were gay or “artsy.” For years it had been a sanctuary. I wonder what will happen will happen to places like that now? Will queer spaces continue to exist? This was such an important part of my coming out and my becoming that I know it’s a story I will someday tell.
Sumney: The first thing you did for Marvel was Avengers: No More Bullying. How long ago was that?
Tana: 2015 maybe? It was with Jody Houser. She was fantastic. I think it was both of our first Marvel work. That was the first or one of the first stories she had ever done with Marvel. This was years ago. It was a couple of years. I think 2015 and then from there I did an issue of New Warriors. So I did Avengers: No More Bullying and then I did New Warriors. Maybe the reverse? I think that’s how it went. Everything kinda runs together!
Sumney: Marvel and DC comics have a “house style” that independent publishers like image comics usually do not. When you do things like Silk with Marvel comics, do you feel like the editorial team is pushing you towards a “house style?”
Tana: I worried about it early in my career because my artwork is not even close to what would be considered a Marvel house style or a DC house style. It’s not my aesthetic and it will never be my aesthetic. When they hired me I had already had so much of my own work published. I did the Murphy apprenticeship program.
So, Cafe Racer was out, my indie work was out, my lesbian comic book series called Duck was out. I had to tell myself that they knew who they hired and that they hired ME for a reason. They hired me because they wanted to see my take on these characters. Initially, I did maybe a little bit of hand wringing, but then I didn’t spend too much time worrying about it because I had work to do. I am not a house style kind of artist.
The only editorial notes that I ever got would be for expressions. Something like she looks too happy here. I didn’t get a lot of critical feedback, I got a lot of praise. My editors have been excellent. They let us make the book we wanted to make. I’m really proud of the stuff that we did on Silk over the course of time that I was on the book.
Sumney: Other fans have noticed the vast style changes you made in later issues of Silk. You seemed more comfortable…
Tana: At first I thought I was just going to be a fill in artist on one issue and that was it. Then they kept coming back to me, asking me to do more and more issues. I wanted to do right by the readers. The regular series artist before me was Stacey Lee. Her work is brilliant but her style is so different from my own that there was no way for me to draw like she draws. I can’t have that dynamic action that she does so beautifully.
That caused me some anxiety in the beginning because I thought I was going to be filling in for an issue and then handing it back. When that became not the case I really leaned in to making Silk’s world my own. I think that’s when the story opened up for me on a personal level and on an art level. This ownership I felt of the character shows in the final work.
Sumney: You did the cover for Jem and the Holograms: Dimensions #1…
Tana: I painted it digitally. I’m mostly a traditional artist but I do all of my layouts digitally. My iPad Pro revolutionized how I work and I sing its praises from the high heavens. I printed the layout out onto paper, inked it traditionally, scanned it back into my computer and painted everything. I tried to go with these vibrant, wild colors, keeping all of the characters in their color schemes.
Sumney: Do you have anything coming up that you would like to talk about?
Tana: I do. Nnedi Okorafor, the author on our elseworlds Black Panther book: Long Live the King, liked my style so much that she wants me to work with her on a book for Karen Berger at Dark Horse!
Nnedi has won the Nebula and the Hugo award. She is phenomenally talented. I’ve read the scripts, the world she’s created is beautiful. I get to do all the stuff I love: very organic lines, organic characters, plants, alien species. I’m excited about that and that I get to work with Karen Berger, she is my dream editor!
Sumney: So it’s sci fi… that’s new. How do you feel about that?
Tana: I love it! I absolutely love it! I watch Blue Planet and Planet Earth a lot, those series on BBC. I’ve been using them as reference for alien species because if you go into the deep oceans there’s some WEIRD STUFF.
Sumney: Lastly, can you name some of the other creators you follow?
Tana: There are so many. Kevin Wada’s work is gorgeous. Kris Anka and Jen Bartel, they always come as a package group. Sean Murphy is singular and alone in comic books. Ryan Ottley is phenomenal. His work is so dynamic. Nobody does blood and gore in such a fun and energetic way as he does. David Marquez and Sara Pichelli are doing the best work of their careers right now. I just eat up their artwork. Fiona Staples is phenomenally talented and is slaying on Saga.
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