Erik Bruhwhiler is a name that hasn’t been very well known in the realm of comic books, but that seems to be changing. I’m sure many of you have seen the motion comics that have been coming out of the new Geek and Sundry Youtube channel and in every one of the credits I saw Erik’s name listed as the director. I’ve mentioned in other places on this site that I haven’t been to keen on many motion comic books, but I was impressed at the quality to come from these ones from Dark Horse Comics.

I did some digging to find out more about Erik and his company, Sluice Entertainment and watched a great interview between Erik and Felicia Day that talked about his transition from Hollywood, working on big films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Live Free or Die Hard, and Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow, to his diagnosis with Type 2 Diabetes. This diagnosis would be the catalyst that would launch him into finding a way to work for himself and pursue his own interests.

It would take a simple online contest that would launch Erik into creating motion comics and later in landing a deal with Dark Horse to create motion comics from their properties. I connected with Erik via Twitter and was able to get a great email with him through email. Continue reading for the full interview below.

Aaron Albert: Why did you choose comic books as a medium to focus on after working on high budget films for Hollywood?
Erik Bruhwiler:I trained in animation at R.I.S.D. and was already developing some animation projects that use similar techniques that motion comics require.

So when I found in the Aniboom/Marvel Motion Comics competition, it was a natural fit. And as I started working on it, I fell in love with creating motion comics. Bringing the story to life was a magical experience for me, and it was clear to me that was what I would pursue. VFX is very challenging and has some great team effort in play, but it is so much a technical challenge and not so much an artistic one.

What is it about comic books that appeals to you?
What hasn't appealed to me in the past about comic books was the fact that the images didn't move. Some people like books with just words, some like books with words and pictures, and some people don't like books! But what I have always liked about comic books was the jewel-like presentation of storytelling adventure. The art is often a step above most animation art, so exploiting that for 'living' storytelling is a huge plus.

How long does it take for a comic book to be turned into motion comic book?
Comic books can have different lengths and different complexities, so bringing them to life is no cookie cutter process. I have brought the design of the VFX production pipeline - basically break apart the panels (modeling), rig them for motion (rigging), and then move them (compositing) - to motion comics, so the time it takes to create them is dependent on the size of the workforce employed. It is possible to create a motion comic of a 22 page book in as fast as a week. But like VFX, one has to be careful about the balance of time, budget, and quality. The saying in VFX is, "You can only have two of the following three: quality, fast, cheap." We also work on the principle that my high school art teacher, Bill Hicks, taught me: if the drawing is taken away from you at any time while you are working on it, it should look like a finished piece of work. The only determination we have that a work is 'finished' is that the story experience is compelling. Everything else is a refinement of that. We'd like to be as refined as possible.

Why do you think motion comics haven’t taken off so much in the past?
Motion comics do not have a proven audience. And the techniques applied so far have not really added much value. Who are they targeting? It seems they were targeting comic book readers, but comic book readers are happy with comic books. We are aiming at expanding the audience for comic book stories. If that leads into greater comic book sales, all the better, but regardless of whether comic book readers like our motion comics or not, creators and publishers will benefit from another revenue stream, which will help keep the comic book industry alive and well. However, just as comic book readers like comic book movies, we expect they will enjoy well-produced motion comics as a fulfilling storytelling experience. There are often complaints hurled like "Why not just read the comic?" I don't think that was said about the "Avengers" movie. But if they just want to read the comic book, motion comics won't stop anyone from that. They often seem insulted or fearful, but motion comics thrive off comic books. The benefit of creating them from existing books is lower cost. The cost of creating comic books is not small, and that entire process would have to be applied to the cost of motion comics if they were created from scratch. The challenge is to add enough value to the comic book story design that pulls in enough of an audience that justifies the added expense - and added risk. Comic book sales are a starting point for deciding what comic books to motion. Keep in mind that there will likely never be as many motion comics made as there are comic books printed, but we'd like to produce motion comics en masse.

Do you think motion comics will launch into creating new material or will it continue to be used as a way to turn existing comic books into a new medium?
There is too much risk in creating motion comics from unproven material - at least for now. Until the costs can be brought down significantly - which will only happen through the success of motion comics as a business - motion comics will almost always be created from existing comic book properties. But there are huge opportunities for bringing legacy comic book properties to life. There are many more people on the planet since most comics were created, so they will be new story experiences for a large audience.