Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Interview of Scott Kolins on SBC

Hi all,

I thought some of you might be interested in reading my interview of Scott Kolins:

http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/features/109294425139626.htm

Let me know what you think of it.

Keith

Nice work Keith, good of you to work in a Legion mention!

Thanks for the compliment and for noticing the Legion reference, Matlock. A majority of my reviews for SBC have focused on Legion comic books, and in many of my other SBC reviews, I've managed to slip in Legion references. When I sent this Scott Kolins interview to SBC's Editor, I thought FOR SURE he'd edit out the Legion reference as "unnecessary." Trust me when I say that this Editor (who shall remain nameless... for now) edited some of my interview questions in an arbitrary manner which I didn't appreciative. Thankfully though, he didn't touch Kolins' responses.

Kolins worked on Legion? What issue(s)?

Capt. D, you seem to have done a lot of homework for that interview - and covered a fair bit of ground beyond the two books Kolins is pencilling. Did you choose this assignment because of personal interest - or were you asked to interview this particular artist?

I'd never heard of this "enhanced penciller" business - interesting trend. Wonder how many more steps can be cut out of the creation process.

Everything looks good in the interview from this side, Capt!

Nice to see Kolins is keeping busy, even if he has been 'let go' from Avengers. Hey, he made it to the bigger times and usually doesn't get much notice for it from the Legion fans...nice of you to post this here as a reminder.

I'm interested by the upcoming Marvel Team-Up series, but wonder how long it will truly last like many new books the company has been putting out since about 1997.

Cap, I just read the interview and liked it a lot. It was the kind of questions that I enjoy hearing about (as opposed to company policy and number, yadda yadda). Nice Legion reference!

Kollin's artwork is consistently good, and his "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" looks amazing. He also seems like a pretty nice guy.

Scott Kolins pencilled "Legion of Super-Heroes" Vol. 4, #110-121 (with the exception of #116) (December 1998-November 1999). These are the issues that brought Thunder into the team, and Scott's final issues involved the Fatal Five. I think Scott drew a great-looking Validus, Persuader, and Tharok.

Here's an interesting coincidence. Following Scott's final issue in 1999 on LSH... was Olivier Coipel for "Legion of the Damned". Following Olivier Coipel's final Avengers issue in early 2004 was... yep, Scott Kolins.

The former. I met Scott at 2003's San Diego Comic Con (typically enough, my first question to him involved his work on LSH, even though I was an avid Flash reader at that time ). Great, great guy to talk with! Friendly to a fault! I re-acquainted myself with him at this year's San Diego Con. At his Artists' Alley table, he had photo-copies of his "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" and "Marvel Team-Up" issues. I was floored by them! They hadn't been lettered yet, so they lacked dialogue and captions, but I didn't need them to understand what was going on. Scott is a very capable story-teller. On the first page of the first issue of "Marvel Team-Up", Wolverine is stuck in Spider-Man's webbing. As the issue progresses, Wolvie figues out a way to escape, but let's say, it's not something I'd try at home.

Anyway, after I flipped through the pages and spoke to him for some time, I asked him if he'd like to be interviewed for SBC. He eagerly agreed. I contacted SBC's "head honcho" to make sure SBC would be interested in a Scott Kolins interview. I was told, "That's a stupid question! GET ME THAT INTERVIEW A.S.A.P.!"

The following week (post-Comic Con), Scott and I emailed each other back and forth, and as he responded to my questions, he would also send me images of the earliest issues of EMH and MTU. That's when I knew at the very least, this was going to be one of the most spectacular-LOOKING interviews SBC has ever posted.

I noticed on the issues of Avengers Scott drew, no inker was listed in the credits. At San Diego Scott explained to me how he scanned his pencils. The impression I get is that not all artists can get away with scanning their pencils. One has to be a pretty "tight" penciller to do this. Curt Swan and Al Plastino DEFINITELY could have scanned their pencils. Jack Kirby, on the other hand, needed an inker to "clean up" his lines.

Thanks for the compliment, Future! It's pretty easy for me to come across as a competent interviewer when I have Kolins's images from EMH and MTU surrounding my questions.

Marvel seems to have A LOT of faith in Kirkman and Kolins. Yeah, I know Kolins was "removed" from Avengers, but I don't think his style was a good match for "Avengers Disassembled," do you? Kolins even agreed with Marvel's decision to move him to another book.

Thanks, C.K.! I appreciate you taking the time to read the interview. I put a lot of consideration into those questions for the exact reason you mention. I didn't want it to read like a Marvel promotional ad (oh, and I bet some people read it as a Marvel promo anyway). That's why I asked those questions about the original Avengers' costumes and his work on Avengers and how he scans his pencils. And Scott did a great job, I think, of providing sincere answers.

What I respect most about Scott's style is that it's unique. It's not imitative. He didn't come into the industry trying to be like another artist.

Great interview & images! Thanks for sharing, Keith!

lil'rhino

Great interview indeed, Keith. Although now I'm going to have to by EMH...

I love Kolins' art. But I will probably be able to skip the MTU stuff. Most of it. I'll buy a few... (I'm so weak).

Yeah, I'm not a big Marvel fan myself. In fact, the only Marvel titles I plan on buying in the next few months ARE EMH and MTU (because of Scott Kolins, of course). Like I wrote earlier, in San Diego I was able to flip through the first six (uncolored and unlettered) issues of EMH, and I saw some intriguing interaction between Thor and Tony Stark and between Hawkeye and Jarvis, of all people!

Anyway, thanks for the compliment,

Keith