Everyone levels up! An introduction to Marshall Hinson

Many the convention rounds have been made since we first met today’s featured artist, Marshall Hinson and it always a joy and pleasure to see him.

Marshall and his brother-law- Bernie (to also be introduced soon) are very likely to be found sharing a booth together at conventions, entertaining eachother with banter, creative support and overall convention commentary. This is exactly how found them when we first met them and each time we stop by and visit them, we are sure to be greeted much the same way, with loads of laughter,lightheartedness and amazing comic artistry.

After our most recent crossing of paths, this past summer’s 40th Anniversary of HeroesCon, we decided that getting a more formal post up about him (them) was long overdue.

***We did a joint interview at HeroesCon and here is the best I could decifer from our chat…because, we (meaning me) get so excited sometimes, I forget we are recording and end up just having a full conversation.

CC: Marshall, tell me how you got started!

MH: He said (Bernie) “I want to do a comic book.” And I said, what? We’re adults. And then he said “I wanna start drawing again.” So we got back into it and I said, well, I will color your first book. So he got his first comic out called Blood and Silver, lout, seven years ago and I colored it in Photoshop. And I took a course from high-fi comics, uh, one of their online Amazon books and learned how to color from that book. I colored his book and then we had a really good time at the convention and we kind of liked the culture. We liked the people and, um, we just kind of took it from there. And we got really involved in it. Now I draw. And then, you know, Bernie still draws. I’m trying to catch up to him cause he got a year, a year ahead.

CC: When are you the most creative and what is that process like?

MH: As much fun as I have at conventions like this, I am the most creative/productive at home, at my own pace. I put on a movie on HBO max or whatever Netflix and I will sit there and draw for hours that are all for hours at a time without stopping until I get too sleepy off, pass out.

CC: What inspires you the most?

MH: I’d say other artists. We follow a lot of artists that we look up to, on social media and see what they’re doing and watching how they evolve throughout the years. Everybody levels up!! And then you see like some really cool stuff that like, uh, like Andrew Robinson did a Conan. So I’m like, I’m gonna try to do a Conan as cool as that. So it just, it makes you want to draw when you see the professionals like going at it and really doing well. That’s what inspires me.

CC: Are conventions the only place you sell your art?

MH: The way it kind of works with some, artists, is if you have a following, with a lot of people, like maybe over 10,000, you kind of put the word out that you’re taking commissions. And, uh, you will usually start banking money like that. There was a guy that told me, he said, if you have over 10,000 followers, you can make a living at art. He said, you will real followers, not bots. If you have, real followers and you put the word out that you’re doing like 10 commissions for like, you know, 50 to a hundred dollars a pop, you can make a living doing that, you know, month to month. And that’s, that’s the goal I think of us is to, you know, get our stuff out there, get some people interested…Yeah, do some good art and, you know, just have fun. And, you know, one day maybe get published by somebody that is reputable on that, you know, really takes notice of our stuff. And, and that’ll be our story.

And then Marshall just took the microphone so to speak and talked about that convention life…

That’s one good one good thing about the convention scene is you get all these commissions. You have no choice, but to get it done, get it done. Yeah. And like I was, you know, dragging ass last night..but…You just get it done, even though you don’t wanna do it, you can see it. And It is nice for the person to pick it up the next day and just, they’re super happy. Like that’s the best part that we get to see that they actually like our stuff. And that’s one of the nice things about it. They appreciate your art. They, the people, appreciate your art and that’s really, that’s what it’s all about. Getting out there. I think that’s what every artist wants to do. They want just wanna be appreciated. All the shit that they go through to get that good, man, that’s the deal. That’s the whole deal!! Go ask anybody. Why do you do this? I want to be appreciated. I want people to look at my stuff and be like, how’s cool as hell. That’s magic. How did you do that? And you be like, well, I, I did it for 30 years. I mean, it’s not a magic pill that you take, like all these pros that are over there, they’re like, oh man, it’s magic. He does it so fast. He did it for, you know, it only took him an hour to do that whole layout and drawing and stuff. NO, it took him 30 years in one hour. Right? Because he has been doing that forever and he can draw a whole city in, you know, a couple of hours, you know why? Cause he’s been drawing 500 cities. I mean, he can just do it. And that’s where we’re, we’re, we’re heading that direction to just get that experience so we can be fast and we can be, do all that stuff.

SUCH a great way to look at it all, is it not??

Marshall always has a massive stack of incredible commisions during a covention and any number of them, he would have graciously let me share BUT I am am a total 90’s X-Men fan and he, along with many other artists are particpating in X-Mentober and you really have to see some of my, personal, favorites.