Ghost Artist: Eric Wight

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YOU MIGHT NOT know the name Eric Wight, but there is a very good chance that you've seen his work as the ghost artist for Seth Cohen on the recently canceled show "The O.C."

Wight, who has worked with creators like New York Times bestseller Brad Meltzer, "Buffy" and "Serenity" creator Joss Whedon and recently finished up some work on "Action Comics" with Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, has turned toward the goth scene with his new book, "My Dead Girlfriend."

The comic, released in the smaller-sized manga format, is set in a world where monsters are your classmates and for Finney Bleak, your parents are dead and your cute new girlfriend just might be deceased.

» EXPRESS: Were you a big fan of goth comics before starting "My Dead Girlfriend"? Was that a big influence?
» WIGHT: No, actually, and I still haven't really read any of that stuff. I was a huge "Nightmare Before Christmas" fan and Tim Burton fan. I was at the mall. I remember going by places like Hot Topic and seeing all the kids and what they're wearing and the kind of stuff that was in there — that sort of like cute goth. And I thought, "Wow, this is it. This is exactly what I want." That's where all the other kids came from [in the book], with the idea of the group of non-conformists [who] are total conformists and Universal [movie] monsters [who] are the most popular — like the bullies. Witches as being the equivalent of the cheerleaders. The thing that kind of separates my book is that it is a little tongue and cheek about all that. It doesn't take the goth thing very seriously.

» EXPRESS: So do you have a whole "My Dead Girlfriend" clothing line in mind to sell at Hot Topic?
» WIGHT: I created that logo with the Hello Kitty skull in the heart with that exact intent — to create a brand for the book. All of the clothing that the kids are wearing in the book I tried to design in a way that could actually be marketable. I'm developing sort of a concept for a line of clothing that kids would be able to buy, and certainly there's a lot of that gothic Lolita fashion that's coming over from Japan now and kids just seem to really dig. I would love that. I would love to see kids walking around with polo shirts with skulls on it.

» EXPRESS: Your art style typically evokes the golden age of comics, but this book has more of an animation style. Where did that come from?
» WIGHT: I do love that period of the golden and the silver age — those artists had a huge impact on my style. I guess I'm concerned if I do too much of that, then that's sort of all people will kind of recognize my stuff for. The great thing about "My Dead Girlfriend" is that it is so different from that. For me, it wasn't — it was just very much a part of my animation background, which people hadn't really seen. A lot that I had done doing development for television shows never gets seen.

» EXPRESS: Is this your writing debut?
» WIGHT: Yes. This was the very first time that I was given total freedom to write, and it's something that I've wanted to do for a long time. When working in animation, the line is drawn in the sand between writers and artists. It's sort of like the writers are on this side of the wall and the artists are on this side. And it doesn't happen very frequently unless you're the executive producer and you get to do both. I kind of got pegged in the artist category for a long time. This was really exciting for me to get my voice out there.

» EXPRESS: Were you bummed to hear that "The O.C." was ending?
» WIGHT: It's sort of a mixed bag for me because it was such an amazing experience working on the show and it's kind of sad to see it come to an end. But I feel like this last season — they are really going out on top. They did a good job. It's kind of a shock though. We thought that it would get picked up at least for the rest of the full season.

» EXPRESS: Was it a problem that people who saw your art on the show didn't necessarily know it was yours?
» WIGHT: It's not been a problem at all. I think early on people picked up on that it was my work and there was publicity circling it. I'm kind of used to it. Working in animation is an anonymous sort of career. You would work on a show and no one would know you work on it. Then working on "The O.C.," it wasn't that hard for me to maintain that same anonymity. People just sort of keep gravitating toward it, and soon the cat was out of the bag and people ran a lot of press on it. Then I sort of became the real Seth Cohen or whatever. If anything, it only catapulted my career — gave me the foundation to do stuff like "My Dead Girlfriend."

» EXPRESS: Is this book geared toward a certain demographic?
» WIGHT: I think it has kind of a wide range of appeal for both boys and girls and adults and teens. If you've never read manga before, or comics for that matter, give it a shot.

Self-portrait courtesy Eric Wight
Book cover courtesy TokyoPop