My relationship with artist Nicola Scott started with egg on my face. When I first reviewed her work, I thought her name was Nicolas Scott, and I thought she was a man. Jump ahead a year or so to when I meet her at New York Comic Con, and I will never make that mistake again.
Remember how you never used to see beautiful women reading comics? Now you have beautiful women creating them. Nicola Scott is stunning, and the Aussie accent helps to accentuate that. [Editor’s Note: For reference, see our video interview with her from last year.] She’s also charming and very patient. What started as a short interview became one of my favorite of the whole show. Scott loved my hair, which was a nice way to start things out.
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NICOLA SCOTT: You have the most amazing hair. [Editor’s Note: You can see his hair for yourself here.]
CRAVE ONLINE: Oh, um, thank you, and thank you for being here.
NS: Thank you for having me
CRAVE ONLINE: Let’s start with some background. How did you get into comics?
NS: Oh, wow. I decided to draw comic books apropos of very little. I didn’t have any experience with comics, I didn’t grow up reading comic books, but I grew up with superheroes. I made this grand decision to draw comics because I loved Wonder Woman, and I wanted a job where I could draw Wonder Woman all day. As soon as that occurred to me, I thought ‘oh my god, somebody has that job right now and that job is drawing comic books.’ After that, being on the other side of the planet with no idea what that decision meant or how to go about it, I decided to pursue it aggressively.
CRAVE ONLINE: What does ‘aggressively’ mean?
NS: I had to learn what that meant, how to do it and how to get those skills. Essentially, that day I went out and bought a hundred and fifty dollars worth of comics, and within six months I sold my car, moved out of my apartment, and quit my job. Six months after that, I was here in New York sharing a room with three people. I was sleeping three hours a day so I could work a job and draw at night. That’s what I mean by being aggressive.
CRAVE ONLINE: As far as creating an entire new universe in Earth 2, how were you able to take the touchstones of what we know about DC and then change them?
NS: In terms of character design, there were a bunch of us. There were so many characters that were suddenly going to populate this planet that we had several people on it, including Jim Lee and myself. Beyond character design, it was really about James [Robinson, writer] and I discussing how we wanted this planet to look in comparison to the standard New 52 Universe.
CRAVE ONLINE: What were some of your first differences?
NS: We decided straight away that we didn’t want Gotham City, we didn’t want Metropolis, and we wanted to use less common settings. Slowly but surely, we wanted to show that the state of the planet is much worse than the regular planet Earth.
CRAVE ONLINE: You seem so lovely, but the stuff you draw is over the top and quite dark. Do you enjoy the more sinister design stuff?
NS: Absolutely. I’m actually a bitch (Laughs)
CRAVE ONLINE: No way. I don’t believe that all.
NS: Seriously, though, the dark work is part of this particular job. I’ve been working on team books since I got to DC eight years ago and I’ve been doing street level teams, girl teams, and young kid teams. What I really wanted was a really big, high octane, big-boy book. That’s how I was referring to it. I wanted something with a big male readership and big male action, lots of testosterone, and lots of carnage. Partially because I wanted to see if DC would give me the job, and partially because I wanted to see if I could do it. Then, if I could do it, if I would enjoy it, and I’m enjoying it very much.
CRAVE ONLINE: James Robinson is off the book. What’s your relationship with the new writer Tom Taylor?
NS: Tom Taylor and I have been mates for about five years, he’s also an Australian. He and I have had the same DC ambitions from the beginning of our careers. We’d always talked about working together on some big DC book, so the fact that he’s starting his first print on a big DC book with me is exciting. James and I get along really well, and we did so much world building. We talked so much about the book, where we wanted it to go and the tone of it. The things we thought were going to be important, and the rugs we wanted to rip out from under people. It was sad to see him go, but he did something really great by giving us a really big ending but still leaving some of the key moments open for us to interpret.
CRAVE ONLINE: Such as?
NS: He said “I think we should really devastate Steppenwolf, but if you want to keep him around, that’s up to you.” “I think we shouldn’t kill Green Lantern, but if you want to kill him, that’s up to you.” He really left things open. So Tom and I and the editor got to discuss really what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it. We were all in agreement to get rid of Steppenwolf, but we had to figure out how to do it. He’s been lurking in the shadows for a year and half, and this was his big moment. He kind of won, at least until the last panel. Tom and I did that panel and we knew he couldn’t just be a body on the ground, he’s a New God. So we decided to hit him with everything, split him in two, and his body will cause a massive chasm in the planet. Let’s just wipe Russia off the map.
CRAVE ONLINE: Were you familiar with all the characters involved with Earth 2, or did you have to do research?
NS: I was only familiar with the more recent version of Jay Garrick and Alan Scott because of my limited exposure to comics growing up. I knew who they were, but I wasn’t fully invested in them. When I started doing this book, I did some research on them because, even though we have them as young men getting their powers for the very first time, James was really clear that he wanted them to be exactly the same characters, but with a new context.
CRAVE ONLINE: Earth 2 has the first fully out gay main character for DC. Was that an important moment for you?
NS: Absolutely. James let me know right away that this was something he wanted to do, it wasn’t some novelty thing. We were talking about it for six months before we even started the book. We were both in agreement that we wanted it to be incidental. It wasn’t intended to be some big song and dance, it was just something incidental. It’s why when we introduced Alan’s boyfriend, it isn’t a big splash page, or when he proposes to his boyfriend, it isn’t a splash page. It’s just bits of soap opera we’re allowing in the book. We haven’t had any real focus on it in the book, but we haven’t focused on anyone’s individual story. His sexuality has to secondary to who he is a person. Alan is a media tycoon. Very wealthy, very successful and just happens to be gay. I think we managed to really tread the line nicely without making it a focus.
CRAVE ONLINE: You said before how you’ve worked on street level teams. Is it fun doing something more bombastic? Do you prefer one over the other?
NS: Personally, I’m really into the character stuff. I’m really into layers of subtext. I’m really into finding a new way to play a scene. When I was working on Teen Titans, there’s a lot of emotion there, a lot of teen angst. When we had a couple of characters break up, when Wonder Girl and Superboy broke up, their scene could have read like a fight, but I didn’t want that. I wanted readers to feel sympathetic to both characters. I decided not to give Wonder Girl angry-shouty face. It could have been a loud argument but I wanted it to be a really quiet discussion. That’s stuff is really fun for me to do. That’s where I feel I can bring some special to the table. That said, it’s been really fun being really bombastic because I haven’t done that very much. It’s not getting old yet.
CRAVE ONLINE: When do we find out what the Red Lantern actually is?
NS: Oh God, I don’t know. The book isn’t about one particular event, but more a constant turn over of events. The state of the planet and how it is getting out of hand.
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