‘Archer’ Art Director Neal Holman On His New Book And Whether Or Not ‘Pacific Heat’ Ripped Him Off


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At the beginning of his foreword to The Art of Archer, actor Christian Slater — a longtime fan of the show who voices the CIA agent Slater — waves his fanboy flag with pride: “Holy shit, they asked ME to write the foreword? I love this show!” So too will anyone familiar with Archer who reads art director Neal Holman’s new book (which is available now at Amazon and wherever books are sold). Unlike the previous show book How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written, The Art of Archer isn’t just another extension of creator Adam Reed’s comedy. It’s a celebration of the intense design process that makes Archer possible.

Holman took the time to chat with us about his first book ever. The work required to write and design it wasn’t as daunting as the Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo veteran had imagined, though as he explains below, he only got the job because he knew the Floyd County Productions server “really well” — including where all the artwork from the original pilot episode was stored. Holman also addressed the similarities between Archer‘s animation style and Pacific Heat, a new Netflix show from Australia, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

This isn’t Archer‘s first book, as How to Archer offered fans an extension of the Sterling Archer character in written form. Yet The Art of Archer is an actual, bona fide book from behind the scenes of the show.

It started off as a love note to our crew. There are so many pieces of art generated for the show that nobody but us ever sees. That’s really where it started, then it kind of ballooned from there as we figured out what else we could show off. Things like Adam’s original pitch, which is one of the strongest pitches I’d ever read. We get a lot of pitches through the studio, but when you compare them to Adam’s writing — he’s so strong and clear about what he wants to do that I was really happy that we got the chance to share that with everybody in this book. It’s one of the cooler parts about the book, I think.

How did this book come about?

I think, if I remember right, HarperCollins approached us about it. I’m not entirely sure, though I know when it was brought up we’d decided we were definitely going to do it. We just didn’t know who should do it. I was the easy answer just because I’ve been around the show since the pilot. Also a lot of this art was scattered throughout our server, and because I’ve been around the show so long, I know that server really well. [Laughs.] I knew what we had, what would be interesting to talk about, so it was a pretty easy decision for me to take it on.

It’s not fair to say you drew the short straw then, though it kind of sounds like it.

Yeah. “Does anybody remember where the pilot files are?” “Neal does.” “Have you written a book before, Neal?” “No.”

Had you written a book before?

No. That was another question, figuring out how this was going to be written. Would I write every bit of it, or would there be snippets of interviews? I definitely decided to use interviews, as I didn’t want to write the whole thing on my own. Interviews were the easiest way to get it done without me trying to write prose, which would have been really terrible.

I’ve known your name and your art from Archer and Sealab 2021 for awhile, but I didn’t realize you were the voice of Brett Bunsen. Was he a part of Reed’s original pitch?

In the pilot script a guy got shot off screen. When we were making the pilot we were using the same house we’d made Frisky Dingo in, which had a recording booth built into the back of it. It was basically just a closet with some recording hardware in it. A microphone, egg crates taped to the walls — it was not a high-end production by any means. Anyway, for any tertiary characters we would all step into the booth and voice them ourselves. I drew the straw for the guy who got shot because I could scream really loudly. That showed up on almost every promotional thing that FX put together, me screaming: “What is wrong with you, Archer!?” That convinced us FX loved the bit, so we kept writing it into the show — to the point that I started to wonder if Adam was mad at me.

His final death in the season five opener was perfect, especially since it’s main purpose was a joke about his last name.

Every script that Brett would show up, I’d just assume he was finally going to die. Like when Barry stalks him, breaks his legs and leaves him in the elevator. “Brett’s definitely dead. That’s the end of my voiceover career.” But it just kept going and going, and when he finally died, I didn’t believe it. I figured he’d be back. Krieger will bring him back or something like that. He’s going to come back any moment now, but no — he’s just dead-dead.
When it came to collecting cast interviews and other additional bits for the book, did you do all of that yourself? Or was that part of a collective effort?

That was part of a collective effort. I was going to talk to the voice cast, but then I felt like it’d be easier for them to talk to our other producers, Casey Willis and Eric Sims, who do a lot of the voiceover directing. They all had a really good relationship, and I was just trying to lay out the entire book, so Sims handled that part of it. The cast was really good about it, chiming in with what they wanted to talk about. We try to bother them as little as possible.

Sure, but then Christian Slater wrote the foreword.

Yeah, how about that? That was crazy.

Did he write that as himself, or as Archer‘s Slater?

I think it’s a fine line. He’s a really sweet and genuine guy. He genuinely loves the show. He wasn’t a guy we brought on for his name. He was a fan of the show, and he wrote a letter to Adam saying he loved what we were doing. Then we brought him on as kind of a bit character, but he did really well and he’s easy to work with, so Adam kept writing for him to keep him on the show. So when it came time to have somebody write the book’s foreword, he was kind of a no-brainer for us. At that point, he’d been such a large part of the show for two seasons.

I always enjoy hearing about the celebrity guest stars who appear on animated shows like Archer, especially since the recording process doesn’t require the same commitment as appearing on camera. Like when Trace Adkins Skyped in his performance for Moonbeam City

What? They Skyped it in? Oh man, I can’t imagine what the audio cleanup on that was like. But hey, whatever works! It’s fun when you realize big names like Bryan Cranston and Jon Hamm, who are winning award after award for their work, are all of a sudden doing bit characters on our show. Like Hamm as Captain Murphy or Cranston as Commander Tony Drake. Let’s get John Travolta. Let’s see if that’ll go over.

Considering how deep Travolta goes in things like The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, I can imagine him showing up to the recording dressed as his character — makeup and all.

Oh God. Like if he wore some crazy hairpiece into the recording booth?

You’ve been with Archer from the beginning. Did you ever expect it to go as far as it has?

That it would go eight seasons? No, not even close. When we did the pilot, I had a pretty good hunch that it would at least go to series. Maybe that was my naïveté or ignorance, but at the time I just felt really strongly about it. It was really unique at the time, and there was nothing else on prime-time television with Adam’s voice. So I felt pretty certain that we would make it through season one, and when that came through we realized how much hard it was to produce Archer than the other shows we’d made for Adult Swim.

Working for Adult Swim, we had about nine people total working on shows — including Adam and Matt Thompson, our executive producers. The first season of Archer had 35 people working on it since our staff had ballooned for it, and nowadays our staff — on Archer alone — is about 70 people. Floyd County Productions has around 100 people, depending on what projects are going on. I don’t think I ever saw the company being near this big. When we had 35 people, I thought it was huge. I don’t know how we do it now. But if you watch the show now then go back to season one, it’s hard to watch. The actors, Adam’s writing and the editing still holds up, but I would love the chance to go back and pull a George Lucas. It’s like reviewing your senior sketchbook from high school.

That said, is there any early artwork you’re happy to debut now that was never publicly shown before?

Not so much as far as set design, because the environments that ended up on screen were generally the strongest versions of those ideas. There is, or was, a cut of the snow chase in season two that was much more elaborate. Archer banked a grenade into the nook of a tree, which explodes, falls down and clotheslines the bad guys chasing them. Then he’s shooting off these giant icicles, which fall down and stab some other guys. It was much more elaborate than what ended up on screen, and I thought we had some really cool stuff planned for the scene, but much of it was cut for timing. That, and Adam thought the comedy beats were better served if the scene consisted of some of the same moves over and over again, and he was right. But I never forget working and working on that sequence, then seeing the edit. I was disappointed, but it ultimately didn’t serve the story.

I have to ask — have you heard of, or seen the trailer for, the Netflix series Pacific Heat?

[Laughs.] I’ve been sent that trailer, not only by many people in the office but by people I went to high school with. So yes, I’ve seen it.

Then you’re aware of the similarities, no doubt?

I am, and you know what? Good for them. I hope they make a really funny, exciting show. The similarities are hard to ignore, but it reminds me of when we were starting out, trying to make television and figuring out what works. It seems like they’re under similar restraints as far as the animation pipeline goes. It’s clearly a limited animation show, and I bet their budget is not particularly huge. Their schedule probably isn’t very nice either. But hey, I hope they make a really funny show. Yeah it’s similar, but I’ve only seen a minute and a half of it. I’m not going to sit here and throw stones.

That makes sense, and as you were saying, you’ve seen the ins and outs of the industry.

Go look at Sealab 2021. [Laughs.] I mean, come on. We took a show that was from the ’70s [Sealab 2020], took it into Photoshop and made some new gestures and lip syncs for it. We were just trying to make a funny show, and I think that’s what Pacific Heat is doing. I don’t think they’re trying to purposely rip us off or anything like that. They’re probably paying homage to the same things we’re doing. I wish them the best. Now, if they admit they’re trying to rip us off, then we’re going to be in a fight.

Their producer admitted to knowing about Archer in another interview, but stressed they were doing more of a police procedural. He even claimed they’d avoided spy thrillers since they “didn’t think it was Australian enough.”

I also think the internet loves to point out how similar things are, then argue one is clearly ripping off the other.

The Art of Archer is now available at Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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