Tim Sale was one of the most celebrated and beloved comic book artists of his generation. Frequently collaborating with writer Jeph Loeb, Tim illustrated seminal stories featuring Batman, Catwoman, Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Daredevil as well as the cult favorite TV series Heroes. Clover Press is publishing the first-ever hardcover edition of Sale’s first full-length comic book work, the Eisner Award-nominated BILLI 99, written by Sarah Byam. This new edition, which is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter, features glorious colors by the award-winning and fan-favorite color artist José Villarrubia.

We have exclusive commentary about the behind-the-scenes process of her collaboration from Sarah Byam about her collaboration with Sale.

Our Mothers Were Heroes

My earliest memory took place in the middle of the 1967 Detroit summer riots. It was twilight, smoke, and fire rising across the streets ahead. A dozen or so boys were beating another boy they had captured. My mother, all 5 feet, 98 pounds of her, locked us in the car and charged into the fight. Using only her voice, she called the teens to their senses.

“Stop it! Your mothers’ would be ashamed of you!”

They stopped.

They dropped their sticks, like wakened from a nightmare, and left one by one.

I wanted to be just like her.

Tim’s mother was a different kind of hero. First, she worked as a civil rights activist, and then as an active member of the National Organization for Women, she worked on the campaign to ratify the national Equal Rights Amendment. She taught her son feminist values and gave him feminist literature to read. Having a mother who was a radical feminist, Tim’s early life brought him to a place where he could understand and have compassion for a journey like mine.

Getting Started

Tim and I were able to develop Billi 99 from almost opposite experiences, which I think made the combination of our knowledge and skill come together so well in Billi 99. I think it was pivotal in both of our careers in different ways and for different reasons.

I was fortunate enough to meet his parents and share a meal with them as both Tim and I lived in Seattle while we were creating Billi 99.

Tim’s father, Roger Sale, was a professor of literature at the University of Washington. Roger Sale not only gave his son literature but also gave him heroes like Zorro and Robin Hood. Tim began to draw adventure stories, and his reading improved.  By the time he was 13, his love for comics was solidified. He was encouraged to draw, and taken to meet his heroes. He studied his storytelling art before junior high school and continued. After a taste of creation, he dedicated and focused himself throughout the rest of his life, developing a signature style of painting in black, and white, with hundreds of shades of handmade greys in between.

Influences

About the same time, I began writing in earnest. I was very drawn to non-fiction. I read my way through the censored school library and then undertook periodicals. I read multiple newspapers a day. I studied writing at Northern Michigan University until the merit scholarships dried up, continued to practice, and returned to Detroit in 1985 to study at the Wayne State Center for Creative Studies. There I was introduced to urban women writers and poets. People like Alice Walker and Maya Angelou. Not long after I discovered James Baldwin and Studs Terkel. Stories and poetry began to pile up in my old “hope punk” steamship trunk.

Tim went on to study art at the University of Washington in Seattle, and the School of Visual Arts in New York, as well as workshops with greats like John Buscema, John Romita Sr, and Marie Severin. In 1983, Tim landed a job inking Myth Adventures from WaRP graphics, and then in 1985, he was penciling Thieves World.