HR: Larry, you don't know how ironic that question is at this particular time. I was recently suggested for a comic project and although the publisher thought my work was very good, argued "Yes, but who is Harry Roland?" I guess that's pretty typical in the comics business. Publishers are afraid to try someone new, even if they do dynamite work. They need that name that hopefully guarantees sales as a safety net.
Hmmm. In many ways, I am just an artist who likes to experiment. I enjoy coming up with ways to do things just a little differently than they've been done in the past. I'm always experimenting with mixed media and combining hand drawn, or painted art with Photoshop techniques.

PCU: Well, since you still don't have that MasterCard Commercial, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself personally, Harry? Where do you hail from, your background - both in and out of the field of comics - your artistic influences, etc.?

HR: I was born, raised and lived my whole life in Baltimore, Maryland. My mother had five sons, no daughters, and she always stressed art, music and literature in our lives. Because of her, I don't remember not having a pencil and a pad or paper to draw on. She wanted each of us to be individuals. As a result, all of my brothers have creative talents or abilities. Three of us actually put together a Dixieland band years back and did pretty well with it.
We lived on a small, one way, inner city street in row houses and I remember, I must have been about 7 or 8, sitting on the front steps drawing. I watched the fathers coming home at dinnertime, as I had done hundreds of times before. They were all blue-collar men who usually worked in hard, low paying positions. My father was a helper on a beer truck. Larry, for some reason I saw those men differently that particular day. They were all beaten down. They had no real future and I'm sure hated their jobs and their sad lot in life. Right then and there I said to myself…"Not me!" I figured if I had to do something to earn money and pay the bills, I was going to enjoy what I did.
As I got older I never went to Art College, but I took every night course they offered. Hell, I even took that Art Instruction correspondence course you used to find on the inside of match packs. So, just about every job I've ever had has been in the field of art in some way or another.
Not long ago for example, I was creating props for TV commercials and videos. If someone needed a fire hydrant for a studio street scene, but didn't want to hassle with the weight of a real one, I'd make one of lightweight materials from resins I would create myself.
I've done a lot of display work that I've won awards for and I supplied props that I created from scratch to folks who filmed commercials, videos and even for stage presentations. I remember once, there was an opera production company in Delaware that needed all of the filigree you would see on a wall in a magnificent palace ballroom. You know, the stuff that looks very rococo, with leaves and grape clusters and such. I invented a resin that was very light in weight and formed the leaves and grapes on long rolls of paper. When they dried, I just rolled them up, shipped them to Delaware and all they had to do was unroll them and paste them to the walls of the set like wallpaper and paint them gold.
As far as my career in art, I've been involved in just about every form of commercial art you could imagine and even some you wouldn't.
My artistic influences, like many illustrators, were the people who painted covers and inside illustrations for the old classic novels. Guys like N. C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle and the like. Later on, I discovered Frazetta, Al Williamson and others who were also obviously influenced by the same book illustrators. I always liked the classic work I grew up seeing in adventure stories. Mostly, though, I enjoyed artistic challenges. I did a few things back in the mid 70's that were in the sci-fi/fantasy/horror field. Some Famous Monster covers and some pulp magazine covers and inside illustrations. It wasn't until about 5 years ago that I met Mark Wheatley and decided to try a foray into comics. What was funny is that Insight Studios at that time was just about 5 minutes from where I live.
I don't think I have ever felt 'beaten down' and I pretty much enjoy all my days.

PCU: Do you actually read comics or do you just draw them? Do you collect anything other than your own work?

HR: I don't really get much of a chance to read anything, including comics. I have noticed that when I was a kid, there were a lot of comics but not too many really good artists. Nowadays, there appears to be more very talented artists than comics for them to work for. I never have collected art. No reason, really, just never did.

PCU: Is there a medium you prefer? Oils, inks, etc.?

HR: Well, I prefer working in color. If I have any strength, it's color. I prefer oils because of the blend ability, but I work them very thin, like watercolors.

PCU: At first, this story was supposed to be printed in another magazine. What was that all about?

HR: Yes, Joe Monks wrote The Lost Girl for publication in the For The Troops book, which you spearheaded. He decided that we worked so well in tandem, that everyone should see it. So, after the troops would have seen it first he planned, and now has, printed it in Zacherley's Midnite Terrors.

PCU: What can you tell us about Zacherley's Midnite Terrors? When is your issue due out?

HR: Issue # 4 is due out around May 10…a matter of weeks now. It contains four stories. The Lost Girl by Joe Monks and me…The Greatest Halloween Mask Ever, by Joanna Estep, another Insight alumni, and Andy Sands. Robert Tinnell and Orlando Baez join us on The Reunion…and Joe Monks and William Bronson present their take on Starlite Café, an original story by Michael R. Colangelo. By the way, I also painted the cover on this issue.

PCU: If I had to sum up your career in a single sentence, what would it be?

HR: Whoa, Larry…don't sum it up 'til the fat lady sings. Harry Roland's career is a work in progress.

PCU: How do you most want to be remembered?

HR: As a kind, generous, handsome stud muffin. I won't be, but that's what I'd like.

PCU: What are working on currently?

HR: Believe it or not, I'm illustrating three comics at once. All of them are series, believe it or not. I literally work on a page from comic # 1, then a page for comic # 2, then # 3. Yeah, it gets confusing. I won't tell you about them here, but I believe each one will be a winner. You'll be hearing plenty from me about them soon.

PCU: Your Burroughs work is beautiful. What did you use for reference? Just the images the stories conjured, or did you have something more substantial as material?

HR: Oh, I'm a reference freak! Any time you see a flying machine, giant mechanical mole, or device…even a flight of stairs in my paintings, those were painted from models I built. That way, I can decide any angle or perspective to work from and it will be convincing. I also pose for most of my figure work and take digital photos to work from. I don't look like my figures; I just pose for the basic stance, folds in clothing, perspective, etc.
PCU: Finally I have to ask about this. Your work on "Letter from a Broken Apple" is on display in the Library of Congress. How did work on that project affect you and make you feel?

HR: Wow. I don't often talk about that project. All of us at Insight…in fact all of us involved with the 9/11 Emergency Relief project felt good about doing something that would help the families of the victims. I did two pages and on one of them I drew a close up of a fireman's face. I tried to show every emotion I could in that face. Fear, anger, helplessness…everything those rescuers must have felt. A year or so later, we were at the Pittsburgh convention and a man approached me with that book, opened to my pages. He asked me to sign right under the fireman's face. He then told me he was one of the volunteer firemen who traveled to Washington, DC to help look for survivors. He went on to tell me he had no time to shed a tear during or even after the search. He had buried his feelings deep inside, along with those lost souls. Then he said that when he purchased the book and saw that face, the tears wouldn't stop. That completely tore me up. I couldn't look at the man. His reaction and the fact that those pages will be forever in the vaults of the Library of Congress for the world to see were the greatest honor anyone's work could receive. Now that's feedback.

And that is Harry Roland; modest and honored by his own recognition. Personally, I wish a lot more artists had his personality. That's Harry, and good luck on Zacherley's Midnite Terrors.
Kendar and the Golden Goddess information will be coming soon. This is a color page for the story by Harry and Sean Dulaney. Email us with questions about the book or ask your retailer to ask Diamond.

And now for the world's first look at a special piece of art created just for us by Mr. Roland.....