Category: Super Creatives series

Nicola grew up in Sydney, Australia, on an unhealthy diet of 70’s American TV where her fetish for people in shiny outfits with amazing powers germinated. Coming from an artistic family, there was rarely a time when she didn’t have a pencil or paint brush in her hand so rendering her favourite icons was par for the course.

After a couple of mini careers modelling, acting and costume designing, she moved into the comic book industry, as a penciller, in 2002 with work for Australian publisher, Phosphorescent Comics. She then spent a couple of  years living in New York City chasing the dream.

Now back in Australia, Nicola has worked for Dark Horse, Top Cow, Image and IDW. Since 2006 Nicola has been working for DC Comics on monthly titles “Birds Of Prey”, “Secret Six” and “Wonder Woman” with Gail Simone, and recently “Blackest Night: Wonder Woman” with Greg Rucka. She is currently on a run of “Teen Titans” with JT Krull.

1. You began your career as an actress. Does your desire to perform ever clash with the very back room nature of penciling? How do you get your fix?

I’m actually quite happy being by myself. I get work done, potter around the house, talk to the cat, sing at the top of my voice. Sometimes I go a little stir crazy and I don’t quite know it. My husband will ask about the last time I was outside. If I can’t remember, he drags me out for a walk. I try to catch up with my friends regularly and I see my family all the time. They’re all pretty loud, big talkers, and we all “perform” for eachother. Other than that, I do get to do conventions pretty regularly, and that puts you in front of people. That’s enough for the performing side, but I really get to flex my acting muscle through the work. I act out all the scenes I draw, from each characters perspective, so I can find the truth in the moment. That’s really where i get my fix.

2. As an Australian, based in Sydney, do you feel distanced from the hub of the comic industry? Does an artist need to ideally be based be in NYC.

The great thing about  the industry now is that you can be anywhere. As long as you have an internet connection, you’re good to go. That said, I do feel removed from the action and that can be good and bad. Like any freelancer knows, doing the work is only half the job, keeping the work coming is the rest and a constant thing. I have a contract with DC Comics, so I don’t need to spend much time getting work, but making sure I’m being thought of for bigger and better jobs is tricky from the other side of the world. It’s missing those incidental face to face moments with editors that can really hinder ones progress. I go over to the States at least once a year, just to remind editors that I’m here. It’s how almost every big jump I’ve had has happened. The up side of being away from the hub of the industry is that I miss out on all the drama that can take place. I’m not into drama.

3.      What skills do you like in a comic writer, and what makes you job harder?

I like working with character driven writers. I love drawing all the subtle moments that people can have as well as the action. I’ve had the good fortune of working with a number of really great writers that have a confident grasp of the sequential art form so I haven’t really faced much in the way of trouble spots, like a novice writer putting too many actions into one panel. Really, my job is only harder when I have to draw something challenging, but that always turns out to be the most satisfying work to complete.

4.  What’s you favourite piece (of your own work) and why?

There was a pin-up I did for my folio just a couple of years before I started working at DC. It was of Wonder Woman and it hit just the right note. That image circulated it’s way around the internet, got published in Wizard Magazine and made an impression on everyone that saw it. It still pops up pretty regularly and is by far my most famous image. Earlier this year I had a chance to re-draw the image, bring it up to date with my current style and ability, for the land mark #600 of Wonder Woman. It was coloured by the fantastic Jason Wright and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

5. If you could try something completely different, what would it be?

Well, I have had experience doing costume and production design for film and for stage and I wouldn’t mind getting to further those skills in the future.

6. What will Nicola Scott be doing in five years time?

See above! Seriously I hope to still be doing comics, maybe a little less than now, but also working with design departments in the film and TV industry. it’s certainly where I’m just now starting to slowly steer my career.

ZOMBIE KING, ARTHUR SUYDAM

Award winning creator and Marvel artist Arthur Suydam’s meteoric rise to superstardom for his work for the smash hit series Marvel Zombies broke graphic novel records, immediately placing the artist in the category of comic legend.

Arthur Suydam was recently honoured with: the Spike TV Scream Award (best writer, best artist, best comic of the year) Suydam’s short story Christmas Carol was chosen for inclusion in The Mammoth Book of Horror and Legends for best comic horror stories of all time and The Art of Painted Comics (2008). Recently honoured with inclusion in Spectrum 14: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Suydam was also honoured with the prestigious Gold Award in Spectrum 12, in 2006, the San Sebastian Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and numerous fan-site favorite awards across the globe.

Suydam’s popular covers have graced the covers of Deadpool ,  Marvel Zombies, Dead Days, Marvel Zombies #2, Marvel Zombies#3, , Wolverine, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Herc, X-men, Ghost Rider, Thor, Spider Girl, Black Panther,  Oz Chronicles and more. In 2008 Marvel released an exclusive hard cover tribute to the works of this unique artist entitled Marvel Zombies, The Covers dedicated to Suydam’s ground breaking work.

As a world class musician Suydam has composed and performed numerous film soundtracts . A list of Suydam’s band members reads like a whos-who list of Rock’s legends including musicians from Bob Dylan, Paul Mc Cartney’s wings, Steely Dan, Paul Simon group, Aretha Franklin, The Stones, Billy Joel and many more . Suydam’s current group The Gotham Playboys recorded 3 albums and won the Grammy for The Sessions with Bruce Springsteen.

1.You’re a talented musician and writer as well as an artist. Do you find the Arts war inside you? How do you satisfy each of their thirsts?

The wars inside and everywhere else seem to relate to there just not being enough time.  For me personally, working to master a skill required to be able to competently express oneself in a given art form is a life long pursuit . One that begins when once committed, and ends with the grave.

The best I can do is to chip away at each of them as best I can.  Slowly over the decades, to get in as much wood-shedding and on the  job  experience and practice possible.   When inevitably we come face to face with our own short  comings and with the competition; set  targets, make plans. Shoot high. Start swimming. Doggie paddle until one learns how to swim.

2.  What has been your defining moment as a creative person?

I believe that  would have to be the brush with death I experienced when I caught fire as a five year old.  The doctor told my parents I was not expected to survive. I spent a year in the hospital and decades working to recover. Being set  back physically, having to play catch up with the other kids who were my own age but after I lost that  year, were bigger stronger faster and one grade ahead of me in school.

3. It’s said that “your work helped revolutionize the industry and began the comic art renaissance of the 1980’s, opening doors for mainstream writers and artists to create literature for a more mature readership.” What is your reaction to this statement?

I believe what they may be referring to is that some professionals credit me with  introducing painted graphic story telling to the comic  medium. I believe it was around 1972 when  I showed up at DC Comics with oil painted comic story boards  for  publication. That and the actual short stories I  wrote for comics back then were among the first non-underground “graphic  novel” style stories, as they  are called  today, published  in   mainstream comics. Those stories were  written for a  sophisticated audience rather than the standard seven-to- ten year olds that the main-stream comic publishers were producing  for at the  time.

4. Do you envisage “New Media” impacting the way you express yourself?

Too soon to tell.  I believe my natural “forte” artistically  speaking is writing and visually designing animated  movies, like those produced by Pixar Studios.

Musically, I believe my calling is as a song writer and vocalist, two areas that seem to get the least amount of time, unfortunately, due to practical demands (rent).

5.     What would you like to be doing in ten years time?

The above two items. That, and having the time to study the vast body of study materials I have been collecting over the years for my own personal development.

**Watch an interview with Arthur Suydam recorded at Long Beach Comic Con.

RICHARD EPCAR has voiced over 300 characters and is well known to Animation, Game and Anime fans starting with the original ‘ROBOTECH’ series in which he played  ‘BEN DIXON’, ‘LUNK’, ‘GREL’, and now ‘CAPT. VINCE GRANT’ in ‘ROBOTECH: THE SHADOW CHRONICLES’ , which he also directed.

He is the voice of ‘BATOU’ in all things ‘GHOST IN THE SHELL’ including ‘Ghost in the Shell 2-Innocence’, which he also adapted and directed into English.

Some games you’ve heard him on: ‘TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON’, ‘MODNATION RACERS’, all ‘KINGDOM HEARTS’ games (except the first one) as ‘ANSEM / XEHANORT’, ‘MORTAL KOMBAT vs. D.C. UNIVERSE’ as ‘The JOKER’ and ‘RAIDEN’, ‘TOUR OF DUTY 7’, ‘DEAD SPACE II’, ‘SPEC OPS’, ‘BASARA’, ‘STAR WARS-EMPIRE AT WAR’, STAR WARS: OLD REPUBLIC’, a new DC game in which he plays ‘GREEN ARROW’, ‘STAR CRAFT II’ as ‘DARK TEMPLAR’, ‘DEAD OR ALIVE 3-D’, ‘RED FACTION GUERILLA’, ‘COMMAND & CONQUER’, ‘XENOSAGA I, II and III as ‘ZIGGARAT 8’, ‘ACE COMBAT 6’, ‘GUILTY GEARS’, ‘.HACK I, II, III’, ‘BLUE DRAGON’, ‘NARUTO’, ‘SPACE SIEGE’, ‘SUPREME COMMANDER’, ‘PARAWORLD’, BLACKHAWK DOWN’, ‘SAMURAI WARRIORS’, ‘DYNASTY WARRIORS’, ‘WARCRAFT III’, and ‘WORLD OF WARCRAFT III’, ‘STREET FIGHTERS’, ‘DANTE’S INFERNO’,‘STAR OCEAN I, II, III’ to name a few.

Most recently he can be heard on a brand new series from Nickelodeon, ‘AIRBENDER: THE LEGEND OF KORRA’, ‘BLEACH’ as ‘KOGA’ and ‘ZANGETSU’, ‘NARUTO’, ‘GUNDAM UNICORN’ as ‘DAGUZA’, ‘BUSO RENKIN’, ‘HUNTIK’ as ‘GRIER’, ‘GHOST SLAYER AYASHI’, ‘BLUE ELEPHANT’, ‘BLAZE OF GLORY’, ‘BOBOBO-BOBOBOBO, ‘MR. NOISY’ on ‘THE MR. MEN SHOW’ and he is currently the voice of  INSPECTOR LUNGE on ‘MONSTER’.

Shows he’s directed are ‘LUPIN the THIRD’, doing the voice of ‘JIGEN’, ‘NOEIN’, doing ‘KOOYRAMA’ and the first season of  ‘DIGIMON’, doing ‘ETEMON’, ‘MYOTISMON’, ‘APEMON’ and now ‘MERUKIMON’ on ‘DIGIMON DATA SQUAD’.  An original animated movie with an all star cast ‘THE REEF’ in which he played ‘MOE’.  The series ‘FIGHTING SPIRIT’, doing the voice of ‘KAMOGAWA’, ‘PATLABOR III’, ‘THE SECRET OF MAMO’, ‘ ZENTRIX’, ‘TOY WARRIOR’, and ‘POWER RANGERS’ doing many monster voices to name a few.  He also wrote for ‘TRANSFORMERS’ and did the voice of  ‘ARMORHIDE’.

He was named FAVORITE ACTOR by DVD VisionJapan. Some games he’s directed: ‘STAR OCEAN I & II’, ‘BLUE DRAGON’, ‘VANDAL HEARTS’, ‘SHADOW HEARTS II’, ‘ LUPIN the THIRD’, ‘FIGHTING SPIRIT & VICTORIOUS BOXERS’ in which he played ‘KAMAGAWA’ in both, ‘VEGAS’, ‘SMACKDOWN vs. RAW’, ‘JACKASS the GAME’, ‘DEAD-HEAD FRED’,  he co-directed ‘UNREAL TOURNAMENT III’, and co-castthe mo-cap for ‘QUANUM OF SOLACE’.

1. You wear so many hats in the creative industries, which one gives you the most satisfaction, and why?

Well acting is my first love and I do really love it. But I also really love directing. The difference is when you act you create your character and have some control over that-but when you direct-you have control over the entire project. And I have to say I do like being in charge. Of course with being in charge comes great responsibility. I really enjoy being creative and I think all of this-acting, writing and directing come from the same place in me.

2. What current or upcoming projects are you excited about?

I’m Skywarp in the new Transformer game-War for Cybertron. I really love being part of that franchise. I’m also working on a new animated series for Nickelodeon-it’s the sequel to Avatar and I’m very happy to be part of it. I really enjoy working with Andrea Romona. I’ve been very fortunate to be part of some really great games recently. Some I can’t mention unfortunately because of non-disclosure clauses.

3. What’s your key to time management?

I wish I had a great answer for this. I’m basically a lazy work-a-holic. I work constantly because if I didn’t I’d turn into a giant slug. So I keep moving. Fortunately I love what I do. The best thing I do-I guess- is try to schedule everything so it fits-not always successful-and I try to get up early and take care of the things I need to do. I’m usually in the studio part of the day-so the scheduling thing can be very challenging.

4. You attend many different conventions each year – do you have a favourite?

I have to say that most of the cons I’ve gone to have been wonderful. I loved going to Australia, and I hope I can return sometime soon. Ialso love Mechacon in New Orleans. First of all it’s in New Orleans and Jon and Peter who run it are the best. They really run a great con and take great care of us when ever we’re there. My friend Manny who runs a lot of cons really takes care of us too. We will miss Anime South because they really spoiled us. Generally it’s a joy to go to these conventions and be appreciated by the fans who know our work. It’s great to meet them and share stories. By the way when I say ‘we’ I’m talking about my wife Ellyn Stern-who generally goes with me on these cons-she has done a bunch of voice and directing work in her own right.