Westfield: How did you become involved on Billboards?

Dave Gutierrez: I was working on a painted cover for another IDW project that Cliff had turned me onto and during that whole process Cliff and I had been emailing each other so when the Billboards project came around Cliff simply asked and off I went.

Westfield: How many illustrations did you do for the book and how did you decide which scenes to illustrate?

Gutierrez: I believe there were 10 in total. 5 full page and 5 half page spots. I read the story a handful of times, taking notes as I went along, jotting and doodling ideas for both important parts of the story and parts that would be visually interesting. Cliff and I had several conversations about the notes and ideas I had taken and he gave me his thoughts and we went with the ones that ended up in the book. Timing was also a concern so with those three criteria the choices were made.

Westfield: Are there any other projects you're working on that you'd like to mention?

Gutierrez: I'm working on two children's books. One called Teeth for Glack Glass and another called Strange Things In Curio Cabinets that I wrote and will be shopping around. I'm also in the middle of a 20 page war story, written by a veteran of the Iraq War called House of the Gun, which gives a real account of the war with a true insider perspective.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Gutierrez: I very much enjoyed working with Cliff and I can appreciate his efforts in thoroughly researching his stories to give them the ring of truth that all great stories (and storytellers) have. I knew who these people were without ever meeting them before I read the tale and they took me somewhere familiar yet far in the future.

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