A while back, XFN featured the new X-Files comics written by Frank Spotnitz and illustrated by Brian Denham. With issue #2 coming out next month, Brian talked with us about his favorite episodes, who he loves to draw, and which X-Files moment he’d like to recreate on paper.

How long have you been an X-Files fan?

I'm an X-Phile Lite from way back. I couldn't watch some of them in the 90's because they scared the crap out of me. I lived alone, away from home at the time and I had to keep the lights on during the show, but I've always enjoyed it. And I loved Millennium a whole lot. I was really jealous when the first X-Files series from Topps came out, because I wanted to draw it, but I'm glad I'm doing it now instead. My work has improved a lot since then.

Favorite episodes?

Some of my favorite episodes are Bad Blood, Post-Modern Prometheus (the black and white is awesome and the locals with the torches is clever), Travelers, How The Ghosts Stole Christmas is pure genius. Let's have an episode where we get to the depths of the Mulder/Scully relationship, but it's set in a haunted house on Christmas eve. That's just too cool. Terms of Endearment, because Bruce Campbell is always fun to watch. I loved All Things, Je Souhaite, and I loved the 9th season episode Sunshine Days.

What are your thoughts on The X-Files: I Want to Believe?

I saw the movie Sunday night after Comic Con. Maybe 8 people in a huge theater so we weren't able to see it with a lot of fans, but there was 2 young guys up front who laughed a lot at all the in-jokes. I loved the movie. Felt the ending came too soon. I would have enjoyed another hour tacked on to the end. I was really digging the movie. I loved the ending on the boat, the Unkle theme is awesome, and I had to buy the soundtrack when I got back home. I hope we get to see a 3rd movie around 2012. I plan to be drawing the comics during the alien invasion.

Tell us a little about working with Frank Spotnitz and the team.

My editor, Shannon Denton and I go way back. We started drawing comics for Rob Liefeld in 1994 and were the best of friends. It's nice to have an ally in the business and he's a great editor. I love that he's keeping me on my toes with the art and he knows what works in terms of design.

Frank's a really nice guy too. He's a sweetheart. Sent me a nice letter about my work on the zero issue and made me feel part of the X-Files team.

What are some differences between working with comic writers and people who usually write for TV?

There is not much difference as far as my career has gone. They are the writers, they originate the scripts, and the story, and I'm just here to interpret what they want in an easy to read form of art. My job is to make the story as clear as possible to the reader. I haven't had many chances in comics to collaborate with a writer and originate a story. I've done it, but not much. I'm happy working with some great writers now and learn from them.

Can you explain what you do with one X-Files issue from start to finish?

I get the script and I break it down into panels according to the scripts. So one page has 5 panels, and another has 4, so I need to break those down based on my X-Files template.

I made an easy-to-read, easy-to-follow template for the artwork, so people who have never read a comic book before can follow the story.

I break the story according to the template and the page structure, with an eye toward making each panel flow into the next panel.

Then I go looking for reference shots of the actors. I want the likenesses to be spot-on so I don't mind working from photos here to make them as close as I can get them to reality. X-Files has to have an element of reality to make you believe in the fantastic.

After I have spent hours looking up reference I start sketching the characters in, then I work up a more completed drawing, then I ink it to completion.

I draw on the computer so I don't have any original art of the X-Files, it's all on my PC. I work the page with all the main actor's first then I draw in other characters and backgrounds until the page is complete.

I email the page and place it on the DC Comics FTP for pick-up by my editor. I then get the next page done and so-on until the book is complete. I have to finish 5 pages a week to stay on target for my deadline.

What have been some of the more difficult aspects of this project?

The hardest thing would have to be getting the character likenesses down from the beginning. I drew some try-out shots to get the book. When I got it the script was ready to go and my deadline began. I was learning to draw the characters on the fly so the likenesses haven't been as perfect as I would have liked, but they are improving.

It's also been hard to keep a control on my excitement for this project. I love it, and I want to draw this book for a while. It's like falling in love for the first time, you want it to last forever but you know at any moment it could end in a shower of tears.

Which X-Files TV moment or episode would you love to recreate in a comic?

I really wanted to do the opening of the show in comic form. When I got the zero issue script the first page was a standard comic book 'splash page' which is just one panel image on the whole page. I knew that shot would look cooler as a widescreen movie look, and I had a lot of extra room on the page.

I asked my editor if I could draw 6 panels above it, which would be shots from the opening of the show. Shannon pitched the idea to Frank and sent along some drawings I did, and Frank sent his blessings. I was really excited. I wanted the reader to really get into the feel of the comic, and hear the show's theme song as they read the credits. I think it works.

A lot of people have told me they really loved that as the first page. I can tell you that I'll change images every issue, so that's my favorite page to draw each month. I may eventually do shots that weren't on the TV opening, but may be from the comic or from other episodes. I don't want to be held down by an opening that they used in the first show, but then they introduced more creepy stuff that would look cool in the opening. I think I'll see if fans might like to see that before I try it.

I wouldn't mind drawing the first time Mulder and Scully got together, in All Things.

Who is easiest/hardest character to illustrate?

I think Mulder is the hardest. I drew an awesome shot of Mulder in #1 but a page later it's not as good. Things like that will work themselves out as I go.

I've got a grasp of Scully early on, but I noticed what looked good in black and white didn't look so good colored. So I changed some things about how I draw Scully. I try not to draw so much black shadows in her lips as I did in the zero issue. The likenesses were off on the last page as you can see. I'll drop some things as I go and it gets to a more fine-tuned version of the characters.

Have you written before?

I've created some comics before, I've written some before and drawn those stories as well. I was a Marine and I wrote a story about a Marine Corps tank crew that gets trapped behind the lines in the Battle of Iraq. I wrote the story a year before the war started and it was kind of creepy when I saw my tank with a trademark eyeball on it, rolling down the streets of Baghdad on CNN. Seems some of my Marine brothers decorated their tank to my comic.

I have some X-Files comic ideas and would love to pitch them as we go along. Right now, I'm loving working with some top writers bringing their A game to this comic.

You can find more of Brian’s work at http://www.briandenham.com -- and don’t forget to pick up the new issue of the X-Files comics!