Comics artist living his childhood dreams
Jughead, Howard the Duck pay bills for Steve Murray, a.k.a. Chip Zdarsky
As a kid in Barrie, Ont., cartoonist Steve Murray had an affinity for Archie Comics’ wry guy Jughead Jones, Marvel’s anthropomorphic Howard the Duck and, of course, Star Wars.
Now the writer-artist is a part of those very worlds, thanks to a skyrocketing comic book career that has him so busy, he jokes: “It’s not a good move.
“It’s not good for my health, it’s not good for my relationship, it’s not good for anyone, really,” Murray, who goes by the pseudonym Chip Zdarsky, said with a laugh in a phone interview from his Toronto home.
Indeed, the former National Post illustrator and columnist has enough projects on the go to rattle even the seemingly unflappable Jughead.
He’s writing the rebooted Jughead series for Archie Comics, which launched in October, as well as a new Howard the Duck Marvel Comics book series that kicked off in March.
He’s also penning what he described as “a sci-fi Wizard of Oz saga” for Image Comics called Kaptara, with the first issue due out Dec. 23.
Meanwhile, he continues to illustrate his hit series Sex Criminals, which won a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award and has been optioned for a TV pilot by Universal Television.
And he recently drew a variant cover for issue No. 1 of Marvel’s Star Wars: Vader Down comic.
The rare cover, featuring Darth Vader and Jaxxon the green rabbit, went gangbusters on the auction circuit: one copy recently sold on eBay for about $3,700 (U.S.) and another sold for $4,000 during an online auction set up by Canada Cares. The latter sale will help support a Syrian refugee family’s journey to Toronto.
The Edmonton-born artist, whose other comics include Prison Funnies and Monster Cops, developed a passion for drawing as a child.
“I didn’t do too well in art in high school, I think just because I always wanted to draw comics, so anything else I tried to turn into a comic book and the teacher would get upset with me,” Murray said.
While studying art at Sheridan College in Oakville he had to do a 3D recreation of a 2D work of art. He built a comic frame around himself, had a speech balloon pointed at his head and impersonated Jughead.
“I recreated a panel from a Jughead comic just because of my affinity for the character,” he said. “I think I got a C-plus. I don’t think the teacher quite considered Jughead ‘art.’”
An ironic notion now, given the fame the easygoing, burger-loving character has brought Murray on the convention circuit.
Murray said Archie Comics felt he was a good fit for Jughead because of his Chip Zdarsky online persona as well as some comical banter he had on Facebook with his hometown Applebee’s restaurant that went viral last year.
“The Archie crew saw that as a very Jughead-style thing,” he said, “and in my youth I kind of looked more like Jughead, but the burgers catch up to you.”
In the new series, Murray has kept Jughead’s smarts and asexual nature but amped up his sarcasm.
“Part of the comic is teaching Jughead that there’s more to the world than his narrow view of it,” he said.
Murray’s involvement with Howard the Duck also hearkens back to his childhood.
“Howard the book I loved as a kid, so it was pretty easy to come up with ideas for the pitch,” he said.
“Whenever I’d go to my uncle’s house I’d go through his collection and read them all.”
He said he’s had fun playing with the connectivity between the characters in the Marvel Universe.
“I think in my first issue of Howard, I threw She-Hulk and Spider-Man in just to say that I’ve written Spider-Man and She-Hulk. And now I see Howard popping up in other people’s books, my version of him, and that’s also just such a thrill, because you become part of a larger thing.”