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DJ 44
Jake Parker takes a break from his comics and kids to reminisce about Legos, working in a museum dinosaur wing, and his days as Agent 44.---------------
By Shannon Zhao
May 1, 2006 | Jake Parker, self-styled Agent 44, funnels down everything from historical artefacts to mini-monsters into otherworldly jewels gleaming with whim and ingenuity. Like an experimental DJ, he mixes things that “you wouldn't think go together.” Just open up a Parker comic and you’ll likely find fairy folk and giant robots in the same frame. The rich and clear tone of the images resonates with that part of us that seeks a new fantasia.
Parker is a celebrated creator in Image Comics’ Flight anthologies, to which he contributed Hugo Earhart and The Robot and the Sparrow. In Earhart, readers try their hand at whale-riding while Robot and Sparrow tells the story of unlikely friends and a robot’s first dream. In fifteen-odd pages, Parker beatmatches good storytelling, likeable characters, and surrealism to create a sense of “the big picture.” Trip through his gallery of bite-size wonders, not so much constructed images as snapshots of some real world out there, where you can take up patrol with red-suited monkeys and soar through the sky in contraptions you’ve never imagined possible.
So how did you pick the name "Agent 44" for your site?
Agent 44 was a comic book character I created in high school. He was a crazy secret agent that got in and out of all kinds of trouble. My friends started calling me that and it stuck. Then the Internet came along and I used the name on forums and whatnot. When it came time to get a domain name, I thought “why not?” Jakeart.com, jakeparker.com or artofjakeparker.com were boring.
I noticed that there’s a link at the bottom of your site to an interesting article by an "Agent 17" on The Onion, presumably about you always wanting to be the boss. What’s that about?
Pure coincidence. Someone sent me the link and I thought it was funny, so I posted it.
Your work for Flight is awesome stuff. Could you share some insight on creating sequential art and why this medium has captured your interest?
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Creating
sequential art, or "drawing comics" as I like to call it, is
one of the hardest things to do artistically. Like any medium, some have
a natural ability for it and some really have to work at it. I would say
I fall in the latter category. It not only takes drawing ability, but
it takes a sense of timing and an extremely in-depth understanding of
composition and eye movement. If you are writing and drawing your own
comics then you must also understand story structure and character development.
In short, it's like making your own movie. Except you’re not just the director, you also take on the role of cinematographer, set designer, character and costume designer, scriptwriter, and editor. And I think that's why it appeals to me so much. It's because I can create something pure, something that isn't filtered through anybody else's head. What you see on that page is what I saw in my head. Of course, I also accept full responsibility for it if it falls flat or is uninspiring.
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