Interview:Kotzebue brothers

On August 3, 2007, RyanGibsonStewart conducted an interview via phone with graphic artists Travis and Jordan Kotzebue.

Ryan Stewart: So, what have you been working on lately?

Jordan Kotzebue: I'm working at a video game company right now.

Really? Which one?

They're called Loose Cannon Studios. It's a pretty young, new company. I was working at a place called PlexiPixel before, and doing contract work on the side. But I left there about two months ago and I'm at this place now.

So you're doing animation for videos? Is that different than doing animation for comic books?

Yeah. Well, I'm working on concept artwork, so I'm still drawing a lot. But I'm also doing UI design--getting menus and things like that.

What's UI?

It's like starter menus and buttons and things like that.

So it's a lot of still work, and not so much animation then.

Yeah, not yet. But like I said, it's a pretty new company, so we're just getting started on some games and stuff.

Pretty cool. Keeps you busy, doesn't it?

Oh yeah, big time.

How long have you been drawing?

I've been drawing for as long as I know, really. I mean, Travis and I have been drawing superheroes since we were kids, and we kind of knew right off the bat what we were wanting to do our whole lives. I remember in first grade, kids were always calling me the artist of the class. So that's the way I wanted to go, pretty much from the get-go.

Travis is older than you, correct?

Yeah, he's about four and a half years older.

So did you learn together, or did he start first?

Well, he definitely started first. I doodled a lot and he'd always give me pointers here and there. Then, when we got serious, he would always look at my stuff, and we would look at each other's artwork. We'd just draw together and work together.

[Travis joins us]

Hey, Travis. I was just asking Jordan about how you guys got into comics in the first place. He said he's been drawing since he can remember. Travis, is that the same for you?

Travis Kotzebue: Yeah, yeah, pretty much. We just grew up drawing comics and just being big fans.

Do you guys work together on a lot of stuff?

Yeah, quite a bit of stuff, actually. We sort of bill ourselves as "The Kotzebue Brothers"--as a studio partnership. Jordan and I usually find ourselves taking on certain roles. I'll generally do more pencils and Jordan will do more ink and paint and color. But in the case of Heroes, they had the two-part story. I only had time to do the first part, so we got Jordan to do the second one. He penciled that as I penciled the first one. They wanted it to be in a similar style, since it was the second part. So, since we worked so closely together, it was somewhat easy to manage that.

We get real close to working almost exclusively together, when there are project where we can do that. So we're working together all the time.

You guys have a very similar style--is that purposeful, or just a happy coincidence?

I think it just comes from drawing together so much since we were kids. You know, we definitely have sort of different disciplines and different hands when it comes to drawing. But there are just certain similarities that are sort of innate to our hand. I think it comes from drawing together all the time. We get each other to critique each other's work a lot, as well.

Yeah, and also, we definitely sort of see the similarities.