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John Dolmayan: It was a lot of fun actually. We had some really good performances.

CO: How long have you been on the road?

JD: It’s been about twelve years. I know some fans only know the band for a couple of years but we have been around for almost twelve years. It’s been a lot of work getting to this point. We just need a break.

CO: How long of a break are you guys going to take?

JD: We’re envisioning a year and a half to two year break.

CO: Having a Jazz musician as a father, did you initially gravitate towards Jazz, or were you always in to Rock?

JD: I started listening to a lot of Jazz stuff too as well as Rock. So it was kind of a mix of everything. The first things I heard were definitely Jazz related.

CO: Did that inform the way you played? 

JD: Absolutely. It was a considerable influence. Whenever you have somebody that is playing music as well as listening to it on a consistent basis it’s going to drastically influence you. But then again I was just as influenced by my friends and their musical tastes.

CO: How long have you been in to comics?

JD: For a little over twenty years.

CO: How did the drum art project start?

JD: I’ve been selling comics at conventions for a little over twelve years. I started selling older comics for newer comics. Just so I could keep up with the storylines. I noticed that I had a certain knack for it and I really enjoyed the conventions so I would keep doing it. Whenever the band was on hiatus I would go back to it. I started becoming friends with a lot of the artists like Jim Lee, Art Adams [and] Bernie Wrightson just to name a few. We just hanging out talking one day and I said wouldn’t it be cool if you guys did some art on my drums and everyone was in to it. That’s kind of how it began and then I started talking to other artists that I really wanted, most of them were really enthusiastic about it and ended up doing it. We got some of the most prolific artists in the industry.

CO: How long did the whole project take?

JD: It took about three years. Keep in mind I didn’t pay anybody, it was just done out of the love for the craft. From beginning to end the whole project took about three years. On average the artist had the drum from a month to six months, depending on what their work schedule was.

CO: Did you get to go to Comic-Con this year or were you still touring?

JD: No, I was on tour. But I have a company called TorpedoComics.com and we had six booths there with the company. It’s an online company that will be out in November of 2007. Basically once it’s up and running it will have about 20,000 books [for sale].

CO: How long have you been planning this project?

JD: I’ve been planning this project for six years. It’s a monumental task, just getting the books together. It’s going to be amazing when it’s done.

CO: What are you going to do while on hiatus?

JD: I am going to work on that company and different projects with the different guys in my band, I sure I’ll have lots to do.

Artist List
 

10" - Art Adams

12" - Ale Garza, Lee Bermejo, Carlos D'Anda

14" - Michael Kaluta, Charles Vess

16" - Jim Lee

18" Floor - Tone Rodriguez, Mark Montano, Arturo Philip

12" Left - Tim Bradstreet, Dan Brereton

18"L - Bernie Wrightson, Tim Vigil, Vatche Maulian, Justin Reyes

22" L kick - Bill Sienkiewicz

22" R kick - Simon Bisley, Kevin Eastman

14" Snare - Neal Adams

To get on the Torpedo Comics mailing list, visit the site here. For more info on System of a Down check out their site here.