Gregoire “Leon” Guillemin Interview: The Secret Life of Heroes
French artist Gregoire Guillemin has always been a geek at heart. His passion for comics started at age 11, and he’s happily never really grown out of it. Combine that with his talent for graphic art and you’ll get mesmerising superhero-themed work like hisNoir series of hero artwork, featuring everyone from Homer to the Hulk. Or his minimalist superhero work, or his much loved Secret Life of Heroes work, which is how I found him.
Ever wonder what superheros get up to outside of 
supheroing hours? Greg did and the result is nothing like you expected. From Captain America checking out a photo booth (above) to Spiderman having some Nutella, the series, Guillemin says, shows them as real people in funny and sometimes NSFW ways. The best ones are the most unexpected and out of character for the heroes we thought we knew so well! Check out what he says to saw about his work below.
Have you always been a superhero fan? Or should I say: have you always been a geek? What comic or movie sparked this passion for you?
I learned to draw by drawing comic superheros, therefore, can be said to play an important role in my life. I’ve been a geek since the beginning. First with Spiderman and Daredevil, then the release of Star Wars … I was 11 years.
As I was researching for this story, I saw a couple of places mention that you didn’t want your childhood passions to disappear. I’ve been excited to see how popular sci-fi and superheroes are currently. Are you? What do you think of this surge in popularity?
In fact it is quite easy to understand — people of my generation have been pulled to comics, we saw the birth of the great science fiction movies, creating video games. For following generations, this is part of their cultures. Also, this whole pop culture is really transgenerational … an anchor and understanding developed between children and parents.
What was the moment or inspiration behind the “The Secret Life of Heroes”? What made you stop and go: Oh, this works!
It has to start with the desire to erotic images in the mind pop … only in all my work, I always wanted to play with my audiences. When I realized my first images in this mind, I thought Ok, graphically it works, but so what? I had the idea to drag superheroes in these scenes. And there it was the revelation: we had never seen these characters in scenes as mundane!
I’ve been looking through the pictures and teasers of your exhibition online, and there’s something so compelling about seeing these heroes brought down to earth, so to speak. Why do you think it’s important for people to remember their heroes are still very human?
Because ultimately, it is their humanity that makes them much more acceptable today. There has to watch their progress. For example, Tim Burton’s Batman was a character completely disconnected from reality. If we take the Nolan’s one is anything else, he has a case of consience, he is more human. This is the case of all the Marvel Ultimate series.
Same thing if you look at the last born of Super Heroes. There has to see Kick Ass 
Describe the Geek Art movement? What other artists are there that we should know about?
I think the Geek Art is a current extension of Pop art … An extension that draws only those sources in the world of entertainment. I think we just say that Banksy is a Geek Artist, Speedy Graphito and Jeff Koons also.
Why do you call yourself an Eclectic Graphical Gamer?
I do not consider myself a real artist, but rather as a creative designer because I play above all with the feelings that my work generates and not with my own feelings …
What are your influences as an artist?
I have already mentioned three. But more generally, there are a lot of artist that influences me, it can go Rembrandt Keith Harring through Franquin, Moebius, Ashley Wood, Frank Miller, Mark Millar, Magrite, Pink Floyd, Daft Punk, Damon Albarn …
When people see your work online or in galleries, what do you want them to think once they leave or move on to the next page? What do you hope they remember the most about your work?
I want them to ask questions, they say Shit, I did not see things like that and they themselves continue the story …
What can we expect coming up from you? In terms of art? A new series? Or perhaps, an exhibition in Australia? Hopefully!
A new series, certainly, but they come without warning. An exhibition in Australia? But right now, I run!
You can lose a whole day going through Greg’s work, it’s engrossing in how different it makes superheroes. Check out his work:
On his site
Tumblr
Some pics at those links are NSFW, BTW.