Portrait of a Bastich: Simon Bisley and the longevity of Lobo

If I say the name 'Lobo' to you, a comic reader, then naturally – and if you have a lick of sense at all – you will think about the 1990 series drawn by Simon Bisley. More pointedly, you’ll likely remember the close-up cover of the brutal Czarnian for the first issue, which has become a staple in the proverbial comics art hall of fame. But just over 30 years after its release and after Bisley’s renown redesign of the character, what exactly is it that makes it hold up?

Popverse sat down with the legendary artist at his table at Fan Expo San Francisco to discuss the longevity of Lobo and the rebellious space in which none of his other variations can seem to occupy.

Popverse: Let’s just get right into it: Lobo existed as a character before you got ahold of him, obviously, but I’d like you to talk through the redesign. As soon as you were put on the character is when he really became what we know him as now. How did you have to go about making Lobo yours?

Well Alan Grant called me up out of the blue and told me “there's a character called Lobo and he's a biker-type dude. Would you want to redesign him and draw him?" And it was just no question so I said “Well..yeah” [laughs] I had no idea who Lobo was. I was sent a few references and really literally just took it from there. That was it. I took it from there without any outside influence other than the small reference I was given. I made him quite extreme in the beginning, didn’t I?

To be fair, you've said before that Lobo was you.

Well, he was. Well… yeah. I was riding around on a Harley chopper, had the long hair, the whole shit. I was all jacked, young, womanizing, taking drugs, racing around like a fucking idiot, so it was just an extension of myself, I suppose. I put a lot of myself at the time into that character for sure. So yeah, the character's quite real for me, in that way. That’s basically it. He wasn't too extreme at that point yet, just way more muscular – bigger. The jacket was cut off shorter, and the knee pads, and boots, everything. He was actually being fleshed out quite rapidly and got a bit more extreme. The chain and the hook wasn't my idea. I don't know where that came from. No idea. Just, that happened. I got rid of the dolphins though. Fucking hated the dolphins.

You hated the dolphins?!

No, I didn’t like the dolphins! What a stupid fucking idea. Stupid fucking dolphins. Replace them with penguins later on! Anyways, so, yeah, I enjoyed it. It was good fun. Everyone accepted it. DC didn't make any comment. It was just