by Mike Rhode
On September 16, 2023, comic book artist Sean Damien Hill was signing his new X-Men collection at Fantom Comics. He chatted with a small crowd for about an hour, discussing the business of comics, his influences, and how he worked. I thoroughly enjoyed it and bought the Bishop comic, as well as the DC Blood Syndicate collection that he had work in. Hill said he works a full time job, is a father, and does his comic work late in the evening. He also talked about being influenced by bodybuilders when it came to drawing superheroes. I appreciate him taking the time to answer our usual questions.
What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?
I think I can describe it as super hero and fantasy illustration. At least those are my biggest influences in my work.
How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?
I’ve gone back forth on digital and traditional, depending on the project I’m doing. But right now I’m experimenting with doing digital thumbnails, printing it on Bristol board and going traditional from there.
When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?
I was born and raised in Washington DC. Petworth is actually my old neighborhood. 
Why are you in Washington now? What neighborhood or area do you live in?
Nowadays I live in Alexandria Virginia. I’ve been there for about 8 years now. I like it here though it is a bit quieter lol.
What is your training and/or education in cartooning?
Well I had a mentor I met in elementary school, his name is Kofi Tyus and he is an artist that taught classes around the city back then. He also did a lot of cartooning for independent publications around the city at the time, along with doing them for his own greeting card business. He was teaching a comics and cartooning class when my school art teacher introduced me to him because she knew I was hugely into comics. He helped us make our own comic that he actually printed and would help us sell them to our friends, families or neighbors.
Who are your influences?
That is an pretty big list but from very young I used to read through my mom's books and two of my favorite were Stephen King's The Stand with art from Bernie Wrightson and Milton’s Paradise Lost with all the amazing artwork from Gustave Dore. My grandfather and mom were into comics and they introduced me to a lot of books at the time. Artist like Will Eisner and Jim Lee stick out, though I’m sure not many link those two names together as an influence too often. Right now artists like Mshindo Kuumba, Ivan Reis, a dozen others really have a big influence on me. 
If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change? Or rather, how are you hoping your career will develop?
Looking back I think I would have made my own book first before doing any freelance stuff, and tell my own stories. Freelancing can be fun, as it does allow you to add your voice to an already-made world and [you can enjoy] seeing how it looks with you playing around in that world. But making my own thing has always been on my mind. One of these days I gotta do it.
What work are you best-known for?
I think for right now it might be for Bishop War College for Marvel Comics.
What work are you most proud of?
It’s between three books that I still feel pretty proud of: The Hated with David Walker; Dark History of Okemus with TJ Sterling and Isnana the Were-spider: Drums of the Ogunm with Greg Elyse.
Those are all Indy titles though. 
What would you like to do or work on in the future?
I hope to continue to do a lot more black-centric characters in the indies and continue to work for Marvel and DC. I’d love to do some X-men stuff again and for DC I’d love a shot at a Bat family character. Hopefully I get myself together and do my own thing too.
What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?
I don’t want to say I never have a block, but sometimes I wonder if it’s just me being too hard on myself about what I should produce. I firmly believe in every artist there’s 100 bad drawings and you gotta get through them to get the good ones. So I kinda just take it easy on myself, go ahead and work through all my trash ideas and play with them until I get something that works. 
What do you think will be the future of your field?
It’s gonna be interesting for sure, right now I’m seeing a small influx of Indy creators being picked by Marvel and DC more and more. And a lot of more established creators going into business for themselves. This tends to happen in comics a lot but it looks like we’re having another small wave happening now. I think crowd funding for Indy comics will continue to scale up; it’s starting to look like the best business model Indy comics has ever had. In the past the success of an Indy publisher would be to push themselves until they can mimic the business and distribution model of established publishers, but it’s got its own way now to build and sell to an audience and overall I think that’s great for comics.
What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Awesome Con, or others? Any comments about attending them?
So I am absolutely terrible at attending cons. But I have been sneaking into Blerdcon over in Alexandria in recent years to sign books with creators I’ve worked with there like TJ over at Rae comics and Isnana the Were-spider with Greg Elyse. I haven’t been to Awesome con in awhile and I’d love to see Baltimore Comic Con again.
What comic books do you read regularly or recommend? Do you have a local store?
I’m usually buying a lot more Indy stuff lately, I think the most recent think I got was a book called Crescent City Monsters from Dreamfury Comics. I’m also looking to get the collected edition of Fall of X too pretty soon. Sadly I don’t get as much time to read as much as I used too. 
What's your favorite thing about DC?
I think DC has the benefits of a small town, but in a metropolitan city. I’ve had friends I’ve known here since I was a kid and I would still run into them sometimes now, even though we’ve both moved in different places of the city probably several times over. There’s a strong sense of community here if you willing to invest in it. Plus we have THE best looking city flag in the nation.
Least favorite?
The Metro, it tough when you slogan is “getting back to good” it’s like your openly advertising your bad.
What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to?
For me it’s either the Lincoln Memorial or the Washington Monument, I’ve always love the monument. My wife and I had our engagement photos there.
How about a favorite local restaurant?
I think everyone in DC should experience Ben’s Chilli Bowl at least once, even if you're visiting but I don’t have an absolutely favorite place though.
Do you have a website or blog?
Yes, my website is www.seandamienhill.com [ed note: some original art from Bishop is for sale on his site]
