The Wall Magazine™ | Art, Music, Fashion, and Inspiration

Interview and Photo by Bryon Summers

For Willie Cordy Jr., painting is a thing of relaxation. The Portsmouth, Virginia native can remember being an artist as far
back as third grade. He remembered entering an art competition in grade school and coming up short behind friend.
Cordy spoke ecstatically of drawing a cartoon character, and his friend (the winner) just drawing a car. We recently sat
down with Cordy and talked about his experiences as an artist.

TheWallMag (TWM): How long have you been painting for?
Willie Cordy Jr.: Since… I think 3 rd grade. Third grade was my first art contest… Man a long time, longer than you
were born.

TWM: How did you get into painting?
Willie Cordy Jr.: I don’t know it’s just something I liked to do, I just picked it up. It was relaxing. I could do it at home, I
didn’t have to worry about going outside in the cold weather or if I got tired of messing with friends I just stayed in the
house and drew. I liked cartoons. My main thing was cartoons. Cartoons are what got me interested.

TWM: Why do you paint?
Willie Cordy Jr.: To relax. I’ve got a lot of things going through my head constantly. Expression pretty much.

TWM: Any big plans for the future?
Willie Cordy Jr.: When I graduate, I want to teach and also I want to open my design studio back up. Before, I had a
car accident and lost my studio. I’m doing better now. So when I graduate, and start working again in my field, I want to
put my design studio back up. And I want my art work to be known world wide.

TWM: What would you say your best experience in art would be?
Willie Cordy Jr.: I think my best experience was my art taking me places that most people told me I couldn’t go. They
said you couldn’t get a regular job messing around with art. I worked in the music business for a while. I did some work
for the ‘96 Olympics. I had my own clothing line too. Art has always been my first love. It’s always taken me places. Art
has never cheated on me.

TWM: What is your favorite piece, if you have any?
Willie Cordy Jr.: I did a Curtis Mayfield airbrush, but I sold it. I needed money at the time. Overall, I’ve always loved
comics. I’ve interviewed for a couple of comics companies back in the early 90’s. I liked that. Comics have always been
cool to me. That’s what got it, I didn’t like to read when I was little but comic books helped me out. The rest of the stuff,
I think was kind of boring, but the comics got me going. I’ve always loved comics.

GATESVILLE - His eyes widen with boyish enthusiasm when he speaks of the dream - the one that has been with him since entering a third grade art competition. His voice fairly drips with impatient longing for the day when he will be Willie Cordy - comic book artist.

The 19-year-old senior art student at gates County High School sometimes seems like a man possessed. he is, with talent.

Even though Willie lost the third grade competition to a friend, he didn't allow his considerable artistic gift to deteriorate with age. Willie stuck with his drawing. Hard work and dedication is evidenced through hours and hours of practice and sheet upon sheet of drawings.

But with Willie Cordy it is obviously, and always has been, a complete labor of love. Willie's mother and number one booster, Vernette Cooper of gatesville, will attest to that. She shares Willie's dream. several competitions and many drawings later the result of Willie's devotion to his task is obvious even to the most untrained eye.

Willie Cordy will be a comic book artist one day because he just can't allow himself to be anything else. The imagination that invented "Guardians of the Galaxy", "The fantasy Four" and "The Immortals" and the hand that served as the tool for that imagination are locked in a never -ending battle with blank paper - much like Willie's comic book charecters are forever battling the forces of good and evil. and the battle is real.

"Sometimes it's hard to come up with new characters without making them too much like those I've seen," Willie obseves. "Sometimes it's hard to come up with a name that's not like a real persons name because they might take offense to it."

But it is obvious that Willie has the freshness of mind needed to become an artist for Marvel Comics, or DC Comics. Willie would settle for a professional life with either. A mind that invents over 425 individual comic book characters and almost as many plots for them to become entangled in is certainly fresh, if not prodigious. That mental energy and raw talent have led Willie's art teacher, penny Heishman-Brown, to nominate him as a U.S. National Art Award winner. Less than 10 percent of all art students recieve this honor.

It could land Willie a college scholarship, amoung other tidbits. But college may have to wait a while, Willie says.

"Right now I have my mind set on drawing characters," Willie offers. "It's what I want to do right now." College is in the plans, however.

As determined as he is to realize his goal, Willie hasn't forgotten who helped get him where he is now.

"People used to tell me I drew good but Ms. Heishman-Brown helped me bring my drawings out," notes the young artist. She has given him much counsel and loaned him necessary equipment that Willie didn't always have. And she has added to his will to succeed. He remembers an article Ms. heishman-Brown gave him concerning another 19-year-old, a man named Jerome Moore, Moore was turned down at that ripe age by Marvel but was accepted on the staff of DC Comics. Today, while drawing Superman and Batman, Moore is one of the best comic book artists alive.

"I read it over and over again, Willie says mystically of the clipping he has plastered on his wall at home.

While Ms. heishman-Brown extols the virtues of young student, a character takes shape on the paper in front of Willie in a matter of seconds. Willie is all the while explaining that his mother deserves a large portion of the credit for his drive.