By Zack Quaintance — Today’s Kickstarter Interview is with Tyrell Cannon, the artist who is helping to bring to life Beef Bros, “a revolutionary, leftist take on superheroes.” This book is all exaggeration and satire in the best way, featuring a pair of titular bros who couldn’t be beefier. It’s a great project with a sharp sense of humor and something important to say, plus beefy bros. And today we’ve got a conversation with the artist on the project, Tyrell Cannon.

Check out our conversation below before heading over to the Beef Bros campaign page to back the project!

Tyrell Cannon Interview

ZACK QUAINTANCE: Hi Tyrell, first things first -- can I ask you what drew you to working on Beef Bros with Aubrey?

TYRELL CANNON: Aubrey and I were connected via a tweet by our mutual friend Grim Wilkins, suggesting we work together. After that, I saw some of Aubrey’s work on No One Left To Fight and really enjoyed it. We exchanged some emails and talked about what it would be like to work on something together. The fact that the discussion started with “What do you like to draw?” And “What kind of comics do you want to make?”, instead of “I have this script and I need an artist to draw it”, was a big reason why I was open to collaborating. Aubrey truly wanted to have me be a part of the creative process, which is a huge plus. Following a discussion of our mutual influences and goals, he told me the basic ideas he had for BEEF BROS. It sounded completely crazy to me, and a fun challenge artistically, so I was on board.

ZACK: I really love the aesthetic for this, which is delightfully over-the-top yet not so much that I couldn't see it deployed in an actual deathly serious corporate superhero comic. How did you develop the looks of the characters for this book, and was it tricky to get just the right amount of total beef?

TYRELL: Thanks! It was important for me to establish an aesthetic that was unique to the BROS. To me, they’re two people that are completely oblivious to how their look is perceived by the world around them. They love color, comfort and flourish. Think Kid’n’Play meets WWE meets Streets of Rage. When I started in on the character sketches, Aubrey encouraged me to go bigger, bolder, and wackier with each iteration, building to what we see in the book now. For their physicality, extreme muscularity was paramount, so I tried to bring my knowledge of actual anatomy to the table then supercharge it with anime and graffiti influenced exaggeration. Similar to NOLTF, the influences should be on display, but within my own unique style, rather than direct references.

ZACK: The color palette put to this by Fico Ossio is always fantastic, something like in-your-face neon. What sort of conversations did the team have about how the book is colored, and how did working with Fico's really striking style effect your linework>

TYRELL: Wow, Fico brought some lightning to this, right?! I had done the character sketches in color, so that was the first touchpoint when we started with the colors. We told him to go full volume with bright and intense colors. It was important for me that the BROS look shiney and smooth, like a car with a fresh coat of wax. There’s lots of impact effects around punches and kicks in BEEF BROS that sell the action. We wanted color holds used on those elements to brighten the line work, again calling back to graffiti and anime like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure or Redline. This all culminates in a look that my wife described as “Lisa Frank on acid”. Fico was a wonderful fit and seemed to get the look right out of the gate. Now that I’ve seen what he’s done, I’ll definitely be adapting some of the line art going forward to play to the strengths of Fico’s colors.

ZACK: One of the things I noticed (and really enjoyed) about the art here is the often-hilarious facial expressions in every panel. Were there any helpful references for these? It seems like schlocky action flicks and dudes spotting bench presses might have been helpful...

TYRELL: Thanks for noticing! Getting expressiveness across is always a big challenge. I remember on the first pass of the pencils, Aubrey reinforced the idea that Nugget (our little narrator saved in the first few pages) is completely aghast at these ‘BEEF BROS’. So I pushed his reactions more, then applied that same ‘go bigger’ approach to the BROS faces as well. I used my own face as reference in many cases, but also looked at shoot interviews with The Rock, Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan. Those guys are masters at operatic face acting!

ZACK: Finally, as someone who spends a lot of time on comics Twitter, I've noticed that himbos are having a bit of a moment, and this book seems poised to tap into that. What do you think makes a good himbo so likable?

TYRELL: That term was fairly new to me, but honestly, this type of hero is one I’ve always loved. Like Bill and Ted, Nada, or Jack Burton, they are clueless, but completely earnest, loyal to their friends, and filled with good intentions. Deep down, I think all of us wish we were better at following our best intentions on a daily basis, rather than than giving in to cynicism, anger, worry, and fear. In that sense, these types of heroes truly are something to aspire to.

Beef Bros Kickstarter

Beef Bros
Writer: Aubrey Sitterson
Artist: Tyrell Cannon
Colorist: Fico Ossio
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
In the beginning, superheroes were all about one thing: Protecting the little guy, gal, or nonbinary pal. But somewhere along the way that got lost, as capes transformed from populist defenders of the working class to glorified supercops. Enter BEEF BROS, a revolutionary, leftist take on superheroes by Aubrey Sitterson (No One Left to Fight, The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling) and Tyrell Cannon (Eris, Speculative Relationships).
Back It Now: Beef Bros