Get Graphic: Decomposing Composition with Year Zero's Goran Sudžuka

Interview by Troy-Jeffrey Allen

A street-wise Russian cop, a North Korean soldier, an E.R. Nurse, a transgender flight attendant, and...ZOMBIES! You can't imagine the horror to come from Year Zero Vol. 0 from AWA Studios!

Featuring four globe-spanning tales within the Year Zero zombie-verse, this prelude by Daniel Kraus (George Romero's The Living Dead) and Goran Sudžuka (A Walk Through Hell) puts readers at the forefront of AWA's global apocalypse!

In the following "Get Graphic," Troy-Jeffrey Allen talks with series artist Sudžuka to discover the joy of drawing the undead... 

Firstly, who are you and where do hail from?

My name is Goran Sudžuka and I am a comic artist from Zagreb, Croatia.

How did you get into comic books as a fan?

I learned how to read by reading comics as a five-year-old. I started with Disney comics such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, then moved on to Italian comics, and later got hooked on a wide variety of European and American comics, anything that was available in former Yugoslavia (which Croatia was a part of during my childhood).

What can you tell us about the story behind Year Zero Volume 0?

There are actually four parallel stories set at the same time at four different corners of the world. We follow four people encountering the first cases of a zombie epidemic that's gonna spread around the globe.

How much fun is it drawing zombies?

Oh, it's lots of fun! Though in our story they're still in the early stage of decomposition. But drawing ordinary people in out-of-the-ordinary situations is just as much fun for me.

This contains four stories. As an artist, were you looking to provide a different tone to each?

Yes, to an extent. Each of them has a certain atmosphere. Some are grim right from the start, and some start rather bright, but they all descend into darkness and despair. I have to mention here Miroslav Mrva, the colorist on the book, because his palette is what emphasizes the mood and the tone of each story as it progresses.

What tools do you use to draw?

I draw layouts and pencils on an iPad in Clip Studio and then print them out as blue lines on standard 11x17 papers. Then I ink them in the traditional way, using a brush (my beloved Winsor & Newton series 7, size 3 and 4), nib and markers.

What’s next for you?

Undecided yet. I still have to finish this book. But I can tell you I'm very happy here at AWA Studios (before Year Zero I'd done Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal with Garth Ennis) so don't be surprised if my next book also has their logo on it.

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Troy-Jeffrey Allen is the producer and co-host of PREVIEWSworld Weekly. His comics work includes MF DOOM: All Caps, Public Enemy's Apocalpyse '91, Fight of the Century, the Harvey Award-nominated District Comics, and the Ringo Awards-nominated Magic Bullet.