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Save the cheerleader, save the world. That's the nub of the television series Heroes. But if it weren't for Tim Sale, the cheerleader would be dead in a ditch and the world would be in the hands of a supervillain. Sale isn't a hero himself but he does draw them, and on Heroes he is responsible for the impressive paintings that foretell the future and help the characters keep evil at bay. He has been drawing comics since the early Eighties and has brought his distinctive style to all of the big superheroes: Batman, Superman, Spider-man, the Hulk and Daredevil. His most powerful work has been with the writer Jeph Loeb and over the last two decades they have produced a series of critically acclaimed and award-winning books that have recaptured the joy and spirit of early comics. Their biggest success has been with Batman: The Long Halloween, a gritty gangster story that laid the ground work for the films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. They are embarking on another epic, this time with Captain America: expect a rip-roaring wartime adventure, some gee-whizz action and an upper-cut to the Axis powers. After that Sale is returning to his first love for a story that can best be summed up as "a dark room, a girl, a guy and a gun". Here he tells The Times which hero he loves best, how he learnt to draw beautiful women and why he loves noir. He also reveals his weakness, what's killing comics and why we should all check out a little book called Blacksad.

The Times You've pretty much put your stamp on all the big superheroes - Superman, Batman, Spider-man, Hulk, Daredevil and just recently Captain America. Was that something you dreamed of doing when you first got into comics?

Tim Sale I remember as fan noticing that many artists tended to draw just one or two characters but there were others who could draw a lot of characters well and I admired them for that. I guess I wanted to be able do that too, and I'm flattered that people think I do well. I know what my strengths are and I try to bend my drawing style to suit whoever the character is.

The Times I remember reading one famous comics writer say that the reason he liked working at Marvel and DC was that he had more fun playing with the big toys, ie the big name characters. Do you feel the same way?

Sale Absolutely. Aside from the commercial value of it and more people seeing your work, it is thrilling to work on characters that you admired growing up. If I walked up to someone on the street and said, "I draw Hellblazer", I wouldn't get the same reaction as if I said, "I draw Superman."

The Times Who is your favourite character, your favourite toy as it were?

Sale I've found joy in every character I've drawn. I wouldn't take on a job unless I could, but the easiest one for me to go back to, that I never really tire of, is Batman. The easy answer to why Batman is the cape. I like using a lot of ink on the page and with the cape, there is a lot of black. I think of myself as an expressionistic artist, a cartoonist exaggerating for effect, and there's so much that's over the top about Batman, both visually and in the melodrama of the story. I'm just drawn to this tragic figure and I like depicting him on the page.

The Times When you do Batman, he has a film noir feel about him. The opening to Batman: The Long Halloween is all heavy blinds, gangsters and shadows. Are you influenced by those movies when you draw?

Sale The opening to the Long Halloween is influenced by The Godfather, but that's Jeph Loeb. When he wrote it for me, he knew that I could draw it, but he also knew that I wasn't much of a fan of The Godfather, so he kind of forced me into it. But I am a fan of film noir. Jim Steranko [one of Marvel's biggest artists in the Sixties ] once said, "It's all about Venetian blinds." It's flippant but not altogether untrue - Venetian blinds are a graphic element that can make any picture work. And I love using ink.

The Times The faces you draw are full of expression and character, like those of Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Cagney. And of course your Catwoman is a real femme fatale - it's as if she has walked straight off a Forties movie set.

Sale I'm very bad at drawing attractive people, I think. I'm much more comfortable drawing, well, not unattractive people but people who are not the norm. Those three actors are definitely not the norm but each had terrific movie careers - Bogart began as a bit player and a bad guy and ended up a romantic lead, which is a pretty amazing thing.

The Times When you are drawing characters like Batman and Spider-man, characters that have been defined and redefined by some of the biggest names in comics, do you intimidated at all? Or do you approach each assignment with a clear mind and do what feels right for the story?

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