Scott Kolins

Scott Kolins

Born 1968
Seville, Spain
Nationality American
Area(s) Penciller, Inker, Colorist
Notable works Star Wars: The Essential Guide
9-11 (comics) #2
The Freak Show of The Thing 2002
The Flash 2001-2003
Awards 2003 nominee of the Wizard Fan Awards 'Favorite Breakout Talent'

Scott Kolins is an American illustrator, writer and creator for multiple different superhero and science fiction comic books. His main credits are as a penciler but he is an established inker as well as colorist and has some credits as a writer.

Contents

Biography

Kolins' interest in drawing and comics began when he was around 10 years old as an avid comic book reader in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, he worked under Dennis Jensen, and then under Kim Demulder and Bart Sears. In 1991 he went to New Jersey to The Kubert School where he attended 2 years and then got a job with Valiant Comics. He was then hired as a Romita Raider (in house art corrections under John Romita Sr.) at Marvel Comics.[1]

Kolins announced his move from Marvel in 2007 and that he had been talking to Geoff Johns about a future project.[2][3]

Kolins has attended every San Diego Comic-Con for a decade or more.

Style

There are several steps which bring an American style comic book to the hands of readers - notably a writer creates the story, a penciler begins the visual rendering of the story, an inker finishes the line art, a colorist sets the color scheme to the line art, and a letterer presents the print content. It's most often a highly collaborative process.

Kolins has a strong reputation of combining speed and consistent attention to detail as a penciller. He has often worked on multiple titles at the same time. His secret is to "just put down the TV remote and the Gameboy".[4] He states that he can produce an entire average comic book in a month, with cover, with a little time to spare. Most of Kolins' credits are as penciler and he follows the modern tradition of "tight penciling" in that the pencil work is nearly finished art in its own right. Since his work on The Flash, he has a tendency to do fewer shadows and varying of the weight and width of lines—-the impact is also partly to shift some of the content of the page from the responsibilities of penciller to that or inker or colorist (fewer lines and definition by line and more by color contrasts). This tends to make the art very "clean." To help fill out the page more Kolins developed a compensating quality of adding extra detail to the background. The whole pattern of emphasis has been the subject of discussion.[5]

However several of Kolins' credits are also as inker, and there he brings that final line art quality to his work. Generally speaking, following the production norms of each business, Kolins has inked his own work at Marvel while at DC others ink.

Kolins has also been learning the art of the colorist[6] but also acknowledges that other colorists have brought a crucial aspect to the effort of producing comic books. Kolins emphasizes this collaborative approach to the art in some of his appreciation of the work of his fellow artists.[6]

He has stated while he appreciates many artists. His influences include Barry Windsor-Smith, Michael Golden, Jack Kirby, Mike Mignola, and Frank Miller. "These five are the core artists who teach me something almost every day when I look at their work and 'listen' to their 'storytelling voices'. They each have a pronounced style of conveying a story. Something about how they do it works for me and informs me on how I want to do it." The day Jack Kirby died he took his (namesake) dog for a walk because, "It felt like something huge had ended."[7] Kolins names other artists beyond comics that were other influences: "Frank Frazetta, Bill Watterson, Alphonce Mucha, Patrick Nagel, Bev Doolittle, J.W. Waterhouse and even Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema."[8]

Each comic book has its own particular qualities and Kolins seeks some nuanced approach in his art to each comic book. He has drawn over two dozen different titles and develops some variation organically with the demands of the story and the history of the character or freedom from that history sometimes.[9]

His work is generally well-received as evidenced by being a 2003 nominee of the Wizard Fan Awards 'Favorite Breakout Talent' for his work on The Flash and rave reviews from fans.[10]

Several examples of Kolins' art are scattered across the published interviews of him—generally as each new title comes out. Some pictures of art are also available on a professional blog as well as some Internet sites.

Creator/writer credits

Selected bibliography

Marvel Comics

DC Comics

Dark Horse

References

  1. ^ Interview with Scott Kolins from NovaPrimePage
  2. ^ A New Initiative: Scott Kolins Leaves Marvel Comics, Comics Bulletin, August 21, 2007
  3. ^ BALTIMORE COMIC-CON 07: SCOTT KOLINS SIGNS EXCLUSIVE WITH DC, Newsarama, September 8, 2007
  4. ^ "Scott Kolins: Might Makes Right" article about Kolins from Comics Bulletin
  5. ^ "Thoughts On Scott Kolins' Art..." at Newsarama
  6. ^ a b "Scott Kolins: Artist of Thunder" article from Comics Bulletin
  7. ^ "Scott Kolins Takes Heroes Beyond At Marvel" article from COMICON
  8. ^ "Earth’s Mightiest Penciler, Scott Kolins" article at COMICON
  9. ^ Scott Kolins gets ready to soar with Omega Flight, September 22, 2006, Comic Book Resources
  10. ^ "KIRKMAN'S FIVE REASONS TO PRE-ORDER MARVEL TEAM-UP" article from Newsarama
  11. ^ "GCD :: Issue :: Marvel Comics Presents #123". Comics.org. http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=52578#4. Retrieved 2010-12-26. 
  12. ^ "GCD :: Issue :: Prime #8". Comics.org. http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=270932#1. Retrieved 2010-12-26. 

External links

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