Pencil preliminary drawings
Dirty Pair: Start the Violence! p. 1
...3
Magical Drama Queen Roxy #1 p. 1
...3
MDQR #2 p. 3
MDQR #3 p. 10
...13
...14
...30
...31
...35
...36
Dirty Pair:Run from the Future #2 cover
Page 7
Issue #4 p. 12
...21
Battle Chasers #9 p. 7
Star Wars Manga #1 cover
Empire cover sketch
Return of the Jedi cover
Spin magazine rock climber illustration
Mangaphile #1 cover
Trouble Express #1 alternate cover
Convention sketch
Priss sketch, Santa Clara Anime America 1993
At the signing session, I first met Kenichi Sonoda, character designer for Bubblegum Crisis, then went to see Adam Warren. While looking through Adam's photocopies of his BGC Grand Mal story, I complimented Adam on the improvement in his artwork over the first Dirty Pair series. Adam, indicating Sonodasan, said he was following a master.
Linna Yamazaki sketch by Kenichi Sonoda, Santa Clara Anime America 1993
       
Another fan complimented Adam on the ending of the Magical Drama Queen
Roxy with its devolving B&W, then pencil, then script pages. Warren said
it was a reference to Neon Genesis Evangelion and his own take on Hideaki
Anno's final two episodes. He feared it was too coded a reference for
American mainstream audiences.
       
On Bubblegum Crisis and any follow up to the Grand Mal story, the rights
to the series are all messed up. The Dark Horse book still sells and
Toren Smith could not get any of the three companies holding BGC rights
to accept the royalty check. The first time Adam became aware of the
series was seeing the Japanese kana logo in a magazine and being
intrigued trying to decipher it. Bubblegum crisis, what could it mean? He
saw the first three episodes, then only saw the final four and the sequel
Bubblegum Crash after he'd gotten the rights to do the Grand Mal story.
Seeing the latter made him appreciate how good Bubblegum Crisis was.
       
On the alternate covers for DP: Run from the Future, he said it really
doesn't sell that well anymore, but its neat to see Adam Hughes and Bruce
Timm versions of the DP. He mentioned Hughes' cover winning an
illustration award.
       
Describing his life, Adam says he lives a Unabomber lifestyle out in the
woods. He left San Francisco years ago because of the cost of living, but
sees it's gotten really crazy since then. He reads 7-10 books a month,
hikes, does house maintenance, and plays video games. He cautioned
artists to watch out for thumb damage from playing too much. He suffers
some from Carpal Tunnel. He says he plots while playing Robotron 2040.
Goes online only to do research. Goes to the city a couple times a week
to eat out, pick up books on tape, and see movies. Warren says he marvels
at other artists with families and such getting the work done.
       
On the sketchbook printed in Japan, he says he's too lazy and shiftless
to do it himself and could not get it published in America because of all
the copyrighted characters. The first book came out in '96 so he has four
years worth of material he could add. Some of these commissions will be
published in the back of the remastered, colored DP: Sim Hell. He
described the doujin market in Japan as being huge with some printers
doing only doujin. He saw one by Utatane (Seraphic Feather) which was a
hardcover on good paper. The book looked like a children's book, but was
inappropriate for minors. Adam discarded his own copy because it was too
disturbing.
       
On fans and the manga/nonmanga issue, Adam did not want to get deep into
it, but keep it simple as comics done by Japanese people. He mentioned a
friend born in Japan who created comics there and now lives in the US
doing comics. Some American fans of Japanese material argue whether it
should still be regarded as manga.
       
On his characters' lips which some fans really object to, Adam says it
will probably will go away, but style evolves less and less as one gets
older.
       
Someone commented on the Hot Wheels tracks prominently featured in Gen 13
Bootleg #10. Apparently Mattel was not happy about it, but Wildstorm did
not worry over it much. DC would probably get really upset over the
product placement of Coke, Irish Spring, and other common products
displayed in the Bootleg story.
       
He really prefers to work on futuristic comics because he can make up the
details, but does not think he can create a good fantasy world.
       
On the kanji which shows up in his work, he really does it just to look
good. Typically, it's just an artist's name. Sometimes, he'll use Arabic
or other languages just as a design element.
       
I likely made some mistakes as I tried to listen and take notes at the
same time. Please don't take it too literally, but I hope you get some
flavor of the event.