We worked with Daryl on our previous game, Chaos of Cthulhu, as well as our newest game, Mad Love. If you’d like to read his comments about Chaos, you can find that interview HERE.
_________________________________________________
Its been awhile since we last caught up. What are you working on now?
Indeed, it has. Two years now, isn’t it? I recently worked on another board game project, with creator John Clowdus from Small Box Games and Kolossal Games – who’s president is also named Travis. (What are the odds?!) Now, I’m working on a few comic projects at the moment, as artist and colorist at home.
_________________________________________________
We get asked all the time if Mike Mignola did the art for our game. I always take that as a compliment and let them know we were inspired by his style, then refer them to your talented portfolio. Who and what else has been the greatest influence on your art?
Besides Mike Mignola, who is the biggest influence when it comes to my horror art, there’s also Richard Corben, Ben Stenbeck, Tyler Crook, Guy Davis, Massaki Nakayama, Junji Ito, and Masahiro Ito.
_________________________________________________
How did you adjust your illustration style from Chaos of Cthulhu to Mad Love?
When Travis and Darth revealed to me that they were planning a spin-off from Chaos and that it was going to be a card game, the first thing I had to adjust was to make the Mythos creatures more flesh and blood, in contrast to the mural-looking depiction I did for the dice game, and treat it like comic book artwork.
The box cover art for Mad was meant to more or less match with the style of Chaos, so overall there was very little adjustment for the box cover style.
_________________________________________________
Which of the Mad Love cards did you have the most fun illustrating?
The Saturnian Cat comes to mind, and it’s the card that stands out the most, because of the Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby-esque colors.
The second favorite is Nyarlathotep’s card. Originally, the brief from Travis and Darth on the “Crawling Chaos” was to draw him in his Dark Pharaoh avatar – Nephren-Ka. However, along the way, we decided to work on an alternate artwork to show its true alien form, and I’m glad they chose the latter for the final card design.
_________________________________________________
Were there any that you struggled with? If so, how did you break through?
Cthulhu, for sure. Because there are so many takes of the Great Old One I struggle to get his design or form unique. Even though I fulfilled the brief where you see Cthulhu breaks out from his prison in Ryleh, its still not very imposing unlike Nodens or Nyalarhotep. Plus, when you look back at an artwork you’ve made two years ago, obviously you gonna try to find a way how to fix it. So I did, and hopefully the alternate artwork works better for you guys.
_________________________________________________
Have you worked on any other Lovecraftian enterprises since Chaos of Cthulhu and the ‘Outer God’ comic?
Mostly personal illustrations in digital, inspired from Arkham Horror – The Card Game which I am a big fan of. You can check them out on my Deviant Art gallery here: https://tohdraws.deviantart.
_________________________________________________
Are there any other worlds you would like to take a try at illustrating that you haven’t tried before?
Perhaps more Sci-Fi related projects? We’ll have to see what the future holds.
_________________________________________________
Thank you to Daryl for taking some time out of his busy schedule to chat with us. It’s always great to catch up with our artists, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors! Visit his DeviantArt page HERE.
