From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

That old black magic

The Covenant artist Tone Rodriguez discusses life as a comic-book guy.

by Bob Weinberg

September 6 2006

At the age of 13, four guys meet at summer camp and discover they have an unusual bond: Each descends from centuries of warlocks and possesses untapped powers and talents. The boys' discovery of their supernatural legacy, the events of their first summer together and the repercussions those events have on their lives years later form the basis of the 2005 graphic novel The Covenant. The book, in turn, provides a prequel to the movie of the same title (Thecovenant-movie.com), which will open Friday.

Although Screen Gems hasn't screened the movie for critics, City Link did catch up with Tone Rodriguez, the illustrator who provided art for all but the first 20 pages of the graphic novel, at his home in Los Angeles. Rodriguez collaborated on the book with writer Aron Coleite, whose credits notably include episodes of the Crossing Jordan TV series, and they based their story on the screenplay by J.S. Cardone.

Best known for his work on John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles and Violent Messiah comics, Rodriguez, 38, came late to his career as a penciler, having held a series of odd jobs that included delivery boy for Icon Authentic Replicas, a movie-prop replica company, and comic-book store manager. Now in demand for his illustrative skills, Rodriguez remains busy with a variety of projects. The final issue of his U.T.F. (Undead Task Force) comic is currently available, and he's working on a Conan the Barbarian miniseries for Dark Horse.

Did you get to see The Covenant movie?

No, they've been keeping it from everyone.

They didn't make it available for critics, which is never a good sign.

I don't think critics ever give any of these movies a decent review. They want to review movies like Sideways. It's a freakin' movie about warlocks! Come on! It's going to be fun.

Do you think the movie will be darker than the graphic novel?

The funny thing is, when I saw the trailer for the first time, I said, "Holy shit, this is a lot darker than the book was, and how come I didn't do that?"

Is it true that Coleite would sometimes leave notes for you in the script telling you to just "go nuts" on a particular scene?

That's that still-new-writer thing. They're trying to get that camaraderie going. It's like, "Dude, you've already got me. You can just tell me what you want." But it actually makes you feel pretty good, because the guy, when he's writing the story, he's trying to get pumped, and he wants me to feel that, too. It's pretty cool, and I do dig it when I see it.

Was there anything discussed ahead of time regarding the artwork?

The one thing we were locked down with was that the Woods Hole Warlock was going to have ram's horns. And I haaated the idea. But they were stuck to it. They said, "You can do literally anything else with him, but this is what we want." This is like your parents passing along that beat-up Corolla; you gotta make the best of it. But, by the time we got to the final revision, I got to make him look the way I wanted him to look.

How much does the artist shape the story?

So many people put the emphasis on the writing; so many other people put the emphasis on the art: "Well, if you hadn't drawn this … " No, no, some other monkey would have been there, and the other monkey would have done just as good as I would. It was on the written page before I got to it.

What was it like working for Icon Authentic Replicas?

Talk about a fat kid in a candy store! It was awesome! [Prior to heading the company's art department] I did my fair share of putting lightsabers together.

You also worked for a while in your buddy's comic-book shop, like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.

The Comic Book Guy is such a horrible, horrible cliché. It's only horrible because it's all true. I think Comic Book Guy came out about two years before we opened our comic-book store. I kind of feel like he wasn't based on us.

What was the first comic you ever worked on?

It was produced for this teacher who worked with the L.A. Unified School District, and she was using it as a learning tool. I can't remember what it was, but I am sooo betting that in the next year or two, that thing's going to rear its ugly head. … I'm kind of hoping she's dead. [Cracks up.] And I mean that with love and respect. It's the ugly stepchild that's going to come out one day and ruin my chance for re-election to the U.S. Senate.