One of the special guests this year is DC comic artist, Nicola Scott. There are not many female creators working for the "big two". With her natural good looks coupled with her fantastic artwork featured in DC series like "Birds of Prey", "Secret Six", "Wonder Woman" and "Superman", Nicola has managed to amass her own group of admiring fans.
Nicola is currently working on DC's new "Earth 2" series with writer James Robinson. The first issue is due for release this week on 2 May 2012.
Despite a busy schedule, Red Dot Diva managed to get Nicola to squeeze in some time to answer just a few nosy questions! Here they are:
Red Dot Diva: In your current line of work as a comic book artist, what has been the most useful skill/ knowledge that you've brought along with you from your days in acting?
Nicola: That’s a great question.
When I’m working on a scene I’ll act out all the parts, finding different ways to deliver the dialogue and different ways to shape the mood of the scene in general. An argument, let’s say, doesn’t always have to happen with screaming. It also helps me to find the right emotions and expressions for everyone. Another helpful tool from my theater days is blocking a scene, where all the players are and how they move around the set. I find in comics characters too often seem to pop up in different places than they were the panel before, at the artists whim, but it can make for very confusing story telling.
Red Dot Diva: What was it like being one half of a female duo working together with Gail Simone for "Secret Six"? Were there some essentially special moments/ memories while working on the project that only females could mostly identify with?
Nicola: Gail and I had a great time while working on the Six. It was a little book off to the side that none of the big-wigs seemed to be paying too much attention to so we really tested the boundaries of what we could do and how far we could push certain elements.
Being two women, who’d worked together before and were really looking forward to doing it again, meant that we probably got away with doing all kinds of subtle and not so subtle things on the book that some of our male peers might not have. We relished greatly in all the subtext we were squeezing in but also the strange but honest moments of humanity. There’s a scene between Bane and Scandal in bed together that no one but Gail could write and I’m pretty sure no one but me could draw and get just the right nuance. It was a badge of pride that as two women we were creating the sexiest and most violent book in the DCU.
Red Dot Diva: How did you go about approaching the concept and design of the cities to be different on "Earth 2"? Did any specific works of art become your inspiration?
Nicola: "Earth 2" is the same as the regular DC Earth but just a little different in some fundamental ways. There were no specific works of art that we’re attempting to match, more that we all seem to have a decent collective knowledge of various sci-fi and fantasy elements that we think are appropriate to our new world. Cryptic enough?
Nicola: So many people are contributing to the designs of the characters that it’s hard for me to comment on my part.
I designed the Wonder Woman and Superman looks (with some small tweaks by Jim Lee) and I was very much going for a warrior look and the space hero look.I am getting to do the final versions of all the characters on the finished pages and at that point small tweaks are up to me. I love costumes to be primarily about the look of the design first but I also like to have some practical elements thrown in to ground them in a vague sense of reality.
Red Dot Diva: Give us some hints of what is to come with the "Earth 2" series. Is there a main character who will be going through some mega changes?
Nicola: There’s so little that I’m allowed to say about the project. But I can tell you that pretty much every major character goes through mega changes. Some conceptually while others happen in the story and on the page. It’s all going to be awesome!
Red Dot Diva learnt something rather surprising from Nicola. Her FCBD guest appearance will actually be Nicola's first time hopping into Red Dot Island! She sends her excited pre-FCBD greetings to her fans here:
"Hi everyone! I’ve never been to Singapore before and I can’t wait to get there and meeting all of you! Please come by and say hello at either the GnB Comics store or the Cathay Mall on Free Comic Book Day!"
Nicola will be watching "The Avengers" with Ardian Syaf (the other special guest at GnB) and ticketed GnB members during this Friday's movie night. Then, on Saturday's FCBD, both will be doing signings at the store from about 10 am to 1 pm. (More FCBD details at this blog article here.)
So, let's all show our geek-worthy support for FCBD Singapore 2012 and get prepared to give Nicola Scott a BIG, warm and friendly Red Dot Island welcome this weekend!
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If you haven't already, go Like Nicola Scott's page on Facebook!
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