Note: The interview has been transcribed mostly word for word, though the dialogue has been altered at several points to make it easier to read.

Alex: Alright, we’re interviewing the Manning Brothers for our website AFR, the illustrious Manning Brothers; freelancers extraordinaire. These two guys have been kind enough to talk to us many times over the course of the conventions that we’ve been to. I just wanna ask you guys about your experience as freelancers. First of all “Why are you so awesome?” …No, I’m just kidding.

Brian Manning: Okay good, cause I didn’t want to answer that one.

Allen Manning: You guys can’t comprehend our awesomeness.

Alex: It’d shatter this camera. What is your primary inspiration as an artist? I don’t know, maybe a specific individual, or just a movie or comic book or…

Brian Manning: It was comic books in general. We’ve branched out a lot so far. I don’t know what his influences are (points to Allen), but mine have went from comics to a more… you’ll see a lot of artists on the internet that have, you know, so many different styles, and they’re all focused on so many different things. So a lot of the time, what I’ve been looking at a lot now is VD’s – like VD’s comics. A lot of the characters they do are really cool. But then at the same time, it’s like, everything’s so big and bold and a lot of movement. It’s hard for me to capture that so I take what I like from there, and then what I like from more traditional art and stuff like that. I’ve been going back to a lot of the old school artists and stuff now that I like, especially back to comic books, I guess.

Alex: Yeah.

Brian Manning: Like Neil Adams, and stuff like that.

Alex: Cool.

Allen Manning: Same thing with me, I mean, we both started in comic books. But for me, I say mostly in comic books, thinking the new stuff. I mean, today I say mostly comic books, but it’s more like the more I look in the comic books, the more older stuff I like. Older like Jack Kirby…

Alex: Yeah, me too.

Allen Manning: Stuff like that. “How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way” I bought that book later. I was more a fan of it later. I appreciated the newer stuff when I was younger, but then you look back and you see that’s where all the really solid stuff…

Brian Manning: He won’t stop talking about the book.

Alex: Perez referred that to me, too.

Brian Manning: Oh yeah, that’s it man. All the Palladium artists, just this weekend, have learned so much just hanging out with everyone this weekend. I didn’t know how hot it was working. How they did what they did. Now, all of a sudden, you see the stuff they do, how they do it, and it’s just nuts – ridiculous – but at the same time it demystifies a lot of it. I didn’t know how Chuck Walton worked. I didn’t know he just draws right on the page with a mechanical pencil. That’s, I mean, that’s crazy. And here’s this jerk right here (to Brandon).

Alex: Here’s the one and only Brandon Aten. Get a shot of him real quick. He’s the man who’s been hooking us up since the beginning.

Alex: (Back to the Mannings) Alright, next question. What genre is your preference, and why?

Allen Manning: Superheroes.

Brian Manning: Superheroes, comic books, modern military; that stuff. As far as what we can draw better – superheroes. I love military stuff, though…

Allen Manning: Well, yeah same thing, superheroes, but he leans more towards tech stuff (points to Brian), I lean towards superheroes and martial arts. (points to Brian) Oh, martial arts.

Brian Manning: (nodding) Martial arts.

Allen Manning: Military definitely. We don’t do as much fantasy, but for some reason we do dwarves.

Brian Manning: I have a weird fascination with dwarves, dwarven characters and stuff. They’re so tough…

Alex: This is gonna be on the internet, keep it clean.

(Laughter)

Brian Manning: They’re so manly and just hardy characters. They seem angry all the time, and I love that.

Alex: What was your favorite Palladium project thus far?

Allen Manning: That we worked on?

Alex: Yeah.

Brian Manning: Madhaven’s sitting right there (points to book). It’s like “Is it Madhaven?” I thought the Megaversal Builder, the Dimension Book back there that Carl wrote, was awesome. I had a lot of fun with it. That Shifter piece I did for that is one of my favorites. But you know, I look at it now and I’m like “I don’t know. What was I thinking?” But at the same time, I had a lot of fun with that one. And then since Brandon’s there (points to Brandon), I’m gonna say Madhaven. I don’t want him to…

Brandon Aten: Yes, I was telling him, if you didn’t say Madhaven, man I’d take a nail bat to the knee… oh, it’s on.

(Laughter)

Allen Manning: Actually, the first one, Dinosaur Swamp, that we did…

Alex: Oh yeah, that was one of your first books right?

Allen Manning: That was my first book.

Alex: (to Allen) It was your first book?

Allen Manning: (points to Brian) He’d done a couple before. That was actually one of my favorites.

Brian Manning: That was a two part one. I did the first part, and then I finally bugged him to join me with the freelance stuff on the second half.

Allen Manning: It was one of the first times I really seriously drew dinosaurs, and I found out I really liked it.

Brian Manning: Yeah, I got to research dinosaurs.

Alex: Excellent. Alright, final question from us. What are your long term goals as artists?

Brian Manning: Painting. I want to get into painting. I don’t care if it’s digital, traditional… of course, I want to get better inking, obviously. I mean, that was the subject of choice all weekend. We kept talking about inking, and talking to Kent Burles. We talked about staying loose, working real loose, and then going to ink from there. But in the long term, I’d like to get into color. Doing some covers, that would be fantastic. Full color pieces, as well as black and white, as well as pencil. Any, even water paintings.

Alex: Awesome.

Allen Manning: It’s pretty much the same thing, but for me…

Brian Manning: He copies off my answers. What are you, my twin?

Alex: What are you guys, twins or something?

(Laughter)

Brian Manning: I don’t know.

Allen Manning: Same thing – painting. Digital or analogue painting.

(Laughter, again)

Brian Manning: Analogue painting. I say traditional, he says analogue.

Allen Manning: Drawing more often. I mean, I don’t know if it’s a long term goal, I guess… more of a training thing… but just drawing on larger scales, doing more work.

Alex: Work habits? Things like that?

Allen Manning: Yeah, yeah. And I don’t know how long term you’re talking, but Robotech. Drawing Robotech.

Brian Manning: You should see this kid and Robotech.

Alex: Palladium or, you know, Japanese media?

Allen Manning: Well, for Palladium, but either one.

Brian Manning: Yeah, Robotech was our first, not just first Palladium game… It’s actually the first roleplaying game we played. It was Robotech, so we have a special place in our heart for that. Kevin Long was really good. I mean, he really opened our eyes to roleplaying as a way to get into freelancing.

Alex: Oh yeah, actually let me ask you this one question?

Brian Manning: But it’s not on the list.

Alex: You gotta answer it. On that subject, who would you say is your favorite Palladium artist?

Brian Manning: Well, here’s the problem though. I love Ramon Perez. He’s a great guy, Just finally met him today. But at the same time, it’s like an ever-changing list. You know, right now I saw Ramon Perez’s work most recently so he’s on top. But I’m going to go home and read Systems Failure and I’m sure Mike Wilson’s gonna climb back up there. You know, Freddie Williams, he’s working for DC now. I read Robin.

But right now, it’s Ramon Perez. We just finally met him and he’s such a great guy.

Allen Manning: The guy on the list the longest is Kevin Long.

Alex: Oh yeah, we’ll give props to Kevin Long, the exiled son. Alright, thanks a lot guys.

Allen and Brian Manning: (in unison) Thank you very much.