Aris Asks Nicola Scott

Nicola Scott is currently drawing Secret Six for DC Comics. And if you ask me kicking all kinds of a$$!

1. Have you always wanted to draw comics?

Nope! Didn't even know they existed until my late teens. I spent my twenties pursuing an acting career, occasionally considering drawing comics, but I didn't decide until I was thirty.

2. Who were early influences?

George Perez, Kevin McGuire and Adam Hughes.

3. Did you actually watch the Linda Carter Wonder Woman show?

It was the first TV show I remember watching. I remember because I was sitting there with my sisters and all my cousins, all girls and older than me, and they all thought it was boring and I thought I'd discovered religion.

4. The first thing I remember you doing was stuff on Drew's Halloween Man. How did you start working with him?

Hanging in the Millarworld Creative Forum. It was going through a pretty sparky phase, loads of really talented people posting often. During that time I contributed to the Halloween Man Christmas mash, like heaps of others did, and it kinda kept going after that with really nice working relationships and friendships between myself, Drew, Russell, inker Mike Furth and colourist Jesse Farrell.

5. You also did some work at Dark horse and Image, what titles did you do there?

A few issues of Star Wars: Empire and their '05 Free Comic Book Day issue that tied in with
Episode III. At Image I worked with Jai Nitz on his original series "Season of the Witch"

6. How did you get the gig on Birds of Prey?

I had met Gail Simone at Paradise Con in Toronto, in '06, and we got along really well right off the bat. She had seen some of my work on-line previously so when I saw her again at San Diego Comicon a few months later, she let me know that there was a fill-in issue of Birds looking for an artist. I met editor Mike Carlin and he said he'd seen my work and heard of me and said "Let see how this goes". It went pretty good.

7. You are currently blowing the doors off Secret Six, are you enjoying it as much as we are?

Are you kidding me! If you're reading the title you know how much fun the series is AND I GET TO DRAW IT!! Every time a script comes in I'm rolling around on the floor, laughing my ass off. It's a blast!

8. Who is your favorite character from Secret Six to draw?

The great thing about The Six is that they are all so different. Different body types, body language, mannerism and attitude. That makes drawing all of them a pleasure but I really dig drawing Ragdoll 'cause I can do anything with him and, by his very nature, is meant to be completely hilarious and horrendous to look at.

9. Any thing you can tease about up coming story lines?

Wonder Woman might be showing up. HOW EXCITED AM I!!!

10. Who would win in a fight Halloween Man or Junior?

Halloween Man I think. He can't die because he's already dead. Major advantage!

11. How long does it take for you on the average to pencil a page?

I try to aim for a page a day but with a team book, often with a number of characters per panel, it tends to work out to five pages every six days.

12. Do you prefer drawing from panel detailed full scripts or very open plots?

Don't mind really. Heaps of detail gives you heaps to work with.

13. Gail Simone writes Secret Six, she also is writing Wonder Woman, I know that's a book you really want to draw, any chance of that happening?

I'm pretty sure Gail will be on Wonder Woman for a while and I'm sure it'll come up at some stage. I'm actually at a point now where I don't feel the rush to get on it. It'll happen.

14. You and Amanda Conner are the only two female pencilers I can think of, do you think if you had to fight her in a cage match to draw Wonder Woman, could you take her?

Amanda is little and cute and sweet and I'm a big scary bitch. Do the math.

15. Are there any other characters you would like to draw?

I love the whole Bat Family and I love the whole Super family so anything there would be groovy. I like to bring out the personalities of characters so it's really more interesting being paired with a writer that does the same. I could be happy drawing anyone if they're written well, while drawing a badly written Superman would be depressing.

16. Any chance of doing any Marvel work?

Dunno. Maybe one day. If they ask me.

17. Marvel character you would love to draw most?

Spider-Woman.

18. Any advice you can offer to some one who wants to draw comics for a living?

Get serious about pursuing it as a career. You need to think of it as a job, not a hobby. That means finishing what you start, constantly producing and having a fair idea of where you might fit into the biz or what niche you can carve for yourself.

19. Is there ANY difference you can tell being a female artist in the comic industry?

Nup!

20. Do you have a stalker?

Not at the moment. Offering?

21. Do comic artists need formal training?

Nup! But they do need to be open to learning from others and from their own experiences.

22. If I told you I would kidnap Dan Didio and make him offer you Wonder Woman, you would say?

You're going to need a lot of chloroform.

23. If you weren't drawing comics you would be......?

Drawing superheroes on anything that happened to be in front of me.

24. What are your thoughts on comics shipping late?

Annoying but sometimes unavoidable.

25. Do plan on tackling any creator owned projects?

Eventually. My husband has a OGN coming out later this year. I worked on the teaser for it that he used to shop around for a publisher (this was back before I was working for DC). The teaser will be printed in the final book. It's called "Torn" and it's coming out from Frozen Beach.

If you aren't reading Secret Six, you should really pick it up. Consistently awesome, great characters and scripting and wonderful art by Nicola. There really isn't an excuse not to put it on your pull list.