Featured Artist: Matt Battaglia

Anything that is able to spill usually means I will. Hence why I rarely use any liquids to color my art. I only use a pen to cover my pencil lines before coloring with more pencils. I hadn’t seen anyone in person using a bottle of ink since it was a supply requirement for an Art 101 class in college … until we invited Matt Battaglia to be a featured artist during our Hollyday sales event on the Second Saturday of December.

Matt loves to ink with Hunt and Japanese nibs, but has found that he’s more comfortable and faster with a brush. However, he had been looking at some recent Steve McNiven art where Steve was clearly playing with the style that Frank Miller used in Elektra Lives Again, and using a nib seemed like the best way to approximate that look.

Watching Matt draw at Ogre’s Grove was fascinating! If you didn’t get to meet him, here’s more about him in his own words:

“My first comics were the original Marvel Transformers comics, the Generation 2 run started shortly after I began reading. Naturally I have my old tattered copy of X-Men #1 alongside a pretty random assortment of other 90s comics. The Turtles one that came with the cassette tape that acted out the comic as you read is a prized possession of mine. I, very fortunately, grew up near the Kubert School and was able to attend their Saturday Morning Sketch class, taught by longtime Archie artist Fernando Ruiz, which fostered my passion for creating comics.

I got my start professionally making comics by coloring Dead Letters by Christopher Sebela and Chris Visions for BOOM! Studios, after that I colored Roche Limit written by Michael Moreci, who I’d later go on to do my first full series Indoctrination with. SIDE NOTE: He’s got a great horror comic out now called “The Plot” which is highly recommended.

In 2020 I drew Leap M which was written by Doug Wood and published by Action Labs, unfortunately it’s digital only and I don’t think it’ll be seen in print outside of a few bootlegs I made for myself. I’ve got plans for some more comics that I’ll be drawing over the course of this year – so hopefully one of them gets picked up for some distribution – otherwise I’ll continue just publishing whatever I make online at my website (www.mattjbatt.com), or my twitter or instagram (@mattjbatt for both).”