Celebrating 20 Coloring Challenges with Scott Wegener!

Scott Wegener: No problem, and thanks!

TC: I always start my interviews with the same great question: What’s your favorite color and why?

SW: This is the question that drives my wife crazy whenever she tries to buy clothes for me. I can honestly say I don’t have one. I like pink as much as I like brown, or blue. I can’t even say if I prefer warm or cool colors, a muted tone versus something really bold. It’s all contextual, and depends more on “is this color right for this particular piece”.

TC: How did you get your start in comics?

SW: Pure blind luck. Which is how everyone gets their start. So people can stop wasting their time on convention panels about breaking into the biz, or How To books. Right place, right time, and it worked like that for everyone I know in the industry.

If you mean when did I first get into comics in the “what a great hobby” sense though -Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, 2nd printing. 198<<cough-cough!>> I loved TMNT in ways that no boy should ever love amphibians with ninja skills. The awful cartoon and the different but equally awful live action movies sort of ruined that love affair though. The 2007 CGI movie has restored my faith in the franchise though.

TC: For those out there that may not be familiar…tell us a little about you and your body of work.

SW: Atomic Robo’s the main thing. Written by Brian Clevinger. I’m never sure how to classify it; Pulp-Action-Comedy-SciFi with a side order of Diesel-Punk maybe? He’s created in 1923, he’s still alive in 2010, and he’s been adventuring on and off through out his life. The comic chronicles those adventure in a non-linear fashion, so one story takes place in Nazi occupied France, while the next is set in 21st Century Toyko. We thought it would be easier for new readers to hop in at any point if Atomic Robo #1 was no more important to read than Atomic Robo #101.

Then there’s Killer of Demons, written by Chris Yost. This one’s a horror comedy along the lines of Shawn of The Dead and Army of Darkness, as far as it’s tone is concerned. But take those movies and mix them with Office Space.

I’ve done a few odd jobs for Marvel. Some Punisher War Journal with Fraction, and the Human Torch one-shot which was part of the larger Marvel 70th Anniversary thing last year.

TC: Tell us about Atomic Robo.

SW: Like I said:  Pulp-Action-Comedy-SciFi with a side order of Diesel-Punk. Depending on the time period Robo is either the head of Tesladyne, a fringe science research organization that also fields “Action Scientists” (who are basically Ghostbusters with assault rifles) to investigate and deal with weird stuff that is outside the normal purview of your more typical government agencies. Not that Tesladyne works for any one government. They operate under a charter from the U.N.

In his younger life Robo was basically Nikola Tesla’s assistant and, as Tesla’s creation, they shared a sort of father and son relationship. Robo was the perfect companion for a man who despised being touched and was terrified of human hair. When he could Robo would sneak off to explore NYC, get into trouble, and go on adventures. Later in life he learned to stop seeking out adventure, because more than enough weird shit would find it’s way onto his doorstep, so why go looking for it?

Robo is sarcastic, vain as hell, flippant, loyal, and a bit of a curmudgeon in stories where he is over 70yrs old. He’s not your typical self-aware construct. Take whatever you know from STTNG’s Data, Johnny 5, A.I., and that horrible Robin Williams movie from the 1990’s. Those tired old Pinocchio characters bore me to death. Robo is a more like The Terminator -he’s a badass fuckin’ robot and he know’s this. He likes this. Yes, he does get a little lonely at times because just like Doctor Who he outlives everyone that he loves, but also like The Doctor he forms new relationships, cherishes the old ones, and maintains his humanity by celebrating those relationships.

Lets see, what else? How about dinosaurs with machineguns, zombie cyborgs, Nazis, extroversal monsters, Soviet Com’bots, the Vampire Dimension, clockwork mummies, walking tanks, werewolves, and Monster Men?

TC: How does color effect your artistic choices?

SW: Finding the right coloring style for Atomic Robo was huge. For the other books I’ve worked on I wither haven’t had a say in the matter, or Ronda Pattison (who colors Robo) was doing the work and I just trusted that she would make it look fantastic like she always does.

Anyway, with Robo I wanted two very specific things. First the colors could not be superhero-bright. I hate that. Robo was an old, worn out, crusty two-fisted pulp guy. The colors should reflect this. I still don’t think we push this concept far enough, but I’m part of a team, so my vote only carries so much weight.

Second, because my line work is so clean I wanted the colors to contrast yet compliment this. Ronda drops lots of dirty textures into her colors that i think play well with the linework. She uses a sort of cell-shading shorthand on the characters, and then she goes nuts with the backgrounds.

Where it makes sense we keep the pallet warm -lots of earth tones. In my head I always want Robo pages to look like almost everything came out of a musty old Army & Navy store and has been sun bleached and slightly moth eaten.
TC: Tell us a little bit about your process for creating a page.

SW: Until the book goes to print Brian and I are constantly changing things. But typically we develop the over arcing plot and individual sties of each issue together. We use really broad strokes and often what I get as a working script a few weeks later is totally different that what we discussed, but it’s always an improvement.

I read it through 3 times. once just to proof the story and offer feedback or ask for changes, then a second time to mentally plot out each page as I go, and then a third time, when i actually draw the book out in thumbnails.

Thumbnails are key. For colorists too. You’ll always get your best work if you do a couple of quick passes at a crude sketch than if you just go right to work and commit yourself to whatever you happen to put on the page. I’ve screwed myself more than once cutting corners like that.

Anyway, I sketch the pages out in blue lead. I love mechanical pencils and Pentel makes blue lead for them now. Then I use a regular old HB lead in a cheap ass mechanical pencil to “ink” over the blue stuff. I used to actually ink my stuff, but its a process that i find extremely boring and unsatisfying. The pencils always looks so much better. They always lost a bit of life in the transition from pencil to ink. I thought about digital inking, but that’s also got a stiffness and lifelessness to it that always bugs me. But I see a lot of penciled comics that look murky and just terrible because the artists is sloppy or someone tweeks the curves and levels too much in Photoshop.

So I’m very careful to keep the linework extra clean now and i don’t alter the page much once I scan it. I’ve been very happy with the results.

TC: Anything you have coming up in the near future that we should be looking forward to??

SW: Atomic Robo Volume 4. Issue 4.1 hits stores in February!

HUGE thanks to Scott for taking out a few minutes to talk with us.  Be sure to keep up with everything Wegener and Atomic Robo at www.scottwegener.com & www.atomic-robo.com