©2007 Tim Sale

CCI: Your paintings on Heroes bring the show even closer to a filmed graphic novel and ground it solidly in the comic world. How did this job come about for you?

TS: Through Jeph Loeb. A little over a year ago now, Jeph called and said there was this guy named Tim Kring, who had one of the few hit shows on NBC called Crossing Jordan. Jeph had known him through a Teen Wolf affiliation twenty years ago. (Kring wrote Teen Wolf 2 when Loeb and writing partner Matthew Weisman passed on the project.)

Tim had written this pilot called Heroes and it had comic book overtones. And Tim, not being a comic book guy and wanting to do whatever he could to make sure the script was picked up by NBC, called Jeph and said 'You know a bunch of artists, and I want to get some art to help illustrate the script.'

I spoke to Tim, and read the script. I thought it read like a Jeph Loeb comic actually: funny, imaginative, and when the script sold, they asked me to come up and meet with Kring and Dennis Hammer and David Semel and a couple of the other guys involved in filming the pilot. They asked me if I could paint and I said, 'No. I'm color blind, but there's a computer over there in the corner and I can show you how I get around that doing comics.' So I showed them some Catwoman stuff and some Daredevil: Yellow stuff, both of which people assumed were painted, but they're actually color images and created in shades of gray. And that's what led to it, and I got involved in the pilot and the pilot was picked up, and here we are.

Tim Sale's original ink and wash drawing for Heroes,
featuring Hiro vs. the Dinosaur,
seen further below in a colored version by Dave Stewart
Art ©2007 NBC Universal, Inc.

CCI: When you read the preliminary script before the pilot was filmed, did they ask you to produce any kind of art to illustrate that?

TS: Yes. I did some chapter breaks, which had a lot of cockroaches and eclipses on them, and then only one full illustration, which was the character of Isaac. Well, a variation on what it ended up being. He had cut off his hand and painted in his own blood the apocalypse on the wall. And that morphed into what ended up in the pilot.

CCI: You've gone from small panels on a printed page to paintings on a large canvas. How are you adjusting to the change in size, scope and technique? And obviously the question is color, now, too?

TS: Well, Dave Stewart does the coloring, as he does for (my work on) Superman Confidential. I draw the original artwork on comic book paper, more that size, 11 x 17 inches, scan it at a high resolution, and send that file to Dave. Dave colors it and sends that file to NBC and they blow it up and print it on canvas.

Dave Stewart's colored version of Tim's ink and wash drawing above
Art ©2007 NBC Universal, Inc.

CCI: How did they do the floor painting in Isaac's studio?

TS: That actually was based on a drawing that I did and then the props department at Heroes just actually painted it on the floor.

CCI: Run us through the creation of one of the Heroes paintings. Are you given a specific scene to visualize and how much freedom do you have in the interpretation of each scene?

TS: Well, I work after the script is written. I get a call from Chuck Kim, who comes from comics and is now a writer on the show and is my liaison. Jeph and I met him when he was Archie Goodwin's assistant in the last year of Archie's life on The Long Halloween. And low and behold, Chuck's in Hollywood doing this stuff.

The descriptions in a TV and movie script aren't anywhere near as complete as the descriptions in a comic book script. So I usually have all kinds of questions. I mean, it can say 'Hiro with a sword versus a dinosaur' or even versus a specific dinosaur. So I usually have all kinds of questions about it: What are they wearing, what's in the background, the mood, should I play it straight, should I play it scary, all that kind of stuff. It seems to work out pretty seamlessly, in that I don't get a lot of 'change this, change that' and everybody seems to be pretty happy with the impact of the images.

But undeniably, I have very little time to do the paintings. There isn't a lot of time for back and forth. But I'm sure they would have fired me if they weren't happy with my work.

CCI: Essentially you're still telling a story with Isaac's paintings. If you put all the paintings you've done side-by-side, would they tell the whole story arc of Heroes?

TS: Actually, no, not in and of themselves. My goal when I'm drawing a comic is to have the story in such rudimentary terms to be able to be followed just by the pictures alone. I don't think anything like that would be possible with the paintings from Heroes. Having said that, one of the things that I think is a learning curve for everyone -- and is very much a part of why I'm excited to work on the series -- is our work tells a much bigger part of the story and it drives the plot in a much bigger way than art ever did on another TV show. So, that's really cool. It's a giggle every time I see (a painting) on screen. And the addendum to that is the opening credits: the font to the opening credits is based on my lettering. I didn't know they were going to do that until I tuned in.

CCI: Do the paintings ground the show in more of a comic book type of milieu or is it just a handy way to short hand something that's about to happen in the story?

TS: Well, I think more the latter than the former. But there are manifestations - there are different ways to tell the story and I think that everyone is thrilled with the uniqueness of it as it relates to other TV shows. It also relates to predicting the future, which is the power of Isaac, the artist, and I think once people saw what it could be they really ran with it.

CCI: Besides Heroes, you're currently working on a story arc of Superman Confidential with Darwyn Cooke writing. What's next, comics-wise, for you?

TS: Well, it's undetermined. I'm still under contract with DC, so it'll definitely be with DC. But I'll have to say more later, when I know more.