Scott Koblish

SK8! Pages Sixteen and Seventeen!

Another Double Page spread - This was the first thing I drew after getting laid off from Stan Lee Media. I had spent the year at SLM simplifying and developing my style, working out the kinks in an effort to get up to speed with the other artists. I was surrounded at SLM by what I would consider the best artists around - great lions of the cartoon field like Russ Heath, Leo Duranona, Joe Luna, Dave Johnson, Shawn McManus, Dusty Abell, Aaron Sowd. It was a great year for my development, I had never been around other artists in an a capacity where I was drawing along side them, my time on staff at Marvel was very early in career and treated as an apprenticeship, so I really felt like I was thriving.

The dissolution of the company was very jarring for me, I felt like I had been interrupted somehow. It was very difficult for me to pick up the pieces, and SK8 was part of that attempt. I went back to finishing up SK8, I went back to inking and threw myself into mastering that sort of work with Stuart Immonen and now George Perez, I started drawing the Jet Pack Pets, which lasted for five years, I did storyboards, I did Flash animation for a few years, I drew the Weapon, I did anything and everything to claw my way back to that feeling I had at SLM, that I was moving forward in my art.

Right now, for the first time in years I'm working just two jobs instead of the usual five, and I think the focus is helping me. George Perez is just an absolute master at storytelling, so I'm trying to really focus on what it is that he does best and trying to incorporate it into my work. I've been trying to add things to the stories I've been working on, to give the whole experience of reading a comic I draw an enriched environment that feels like there are things going on besides the "A" plot. Little additions to the experience and I think it's been improving the work I'm doing on Wolverine: First Class. At least I hope so - the future is unknowable and the first Wolverine: First Class issue I'm doing doesn't hit the stands until late February, and I'll likely be a few issues down the road.

Matt sez:
"Enter the SK8 contest! Scott drew this project in his spare time over the course of several years. See if you can figure out which pages were drawn first and submit them for a special No-Prize drawing! The lucky winner will receive absolutely nothing. Oh, and be sure to include the $20 entry fee…"

I feel compelled to let everyone know there is no real fee attached to Matt's contest, and you may join in the fun only if you are as attuned as Matt was to some of the stylistic changes in SK8 and Bucky's appearances.

posted by Scott Koblish @ 11:15 AM