Broken Frontier

Chris Sotomayor is a brilliant comic book colorist who worked with me on “Incredible Hulk” throughout the “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” epics.  I remember realizing we were in for a pretty awesome collaboration when Chris told me he though that the Hulk should be the only green thing on the savage planet of Sakaar.  Read on for Chris’s thoughts about story and coloring, how he got into the business, and what the heck color guides are.

Greg Pak: I loved the way you brought ideas to "Planet Hulk" for ways to bring out the themes of the big story through color.  Tell us about some of the techniques you developed for the story and what ideas or emotions they were designed to convey.

Chris Sotomayor: We had some really great conversations on the phone initially, as far as storytelling.  My favorite storytelling points that came out of “Planet Hulk” had to be conveying the themes of bigotry and alienation.  A lot of consideration and planning was taken in trying to help get those themes across to the reader.  Specifically in dealing with Hulk, and wanting him to truly be the alien on that world.  Readers will notice that for almost the entire “Planet Hulk” arc, Hulk was the only green thing on the planet.  That is, until he starts to have a profound affect on it, in both the vegetation and the ultimate destruction of his new homeland. 

We also played it up with Hulk and Miek and their relationship and common bonds.  Miek was just as much a product of bigotry and alienation as Hulk was.  Which is why we decided early on that Miek would look completely different from the other aliens of his species.  Originally, we were going to have Miek as an albino, simply because in nature an albino phase is considered a weakness.  But Carlo had already designed and drawn him as darker toned.  So we went in the complete opposite direction, and made him a charcoal grey.  Which still builds into the alienation of the character. 

I think it's obvious why Miek would gravitate towards Hulk.  Having been picked on and shunned for his entire life because he's different, he saw a kindred spirit in Hulk.  Except Hulk was also big and strong and brave.  Things that Miek always wished he could be.  It was a very interesting dynamic that we saw, so I built on their connection in the color by incorporating different and varying elements of green in his "clothes," in order to establish his relationship with Hulk. 

And if you also notice, Caiera was the only Shadow warrior with green eyes.  Also in an attempt to show who her allegiance would be with as the story unfolded. I think those two main directions in color really helps to make the story richer in a lot of ways, and because of the opportunity that kind of thing presents, it's probably just as important for the colorist to be in contact with the writer as with the penciler.

GP: What are the three most important things for a colorist to consider when developing a plan for tackling a new project?

CS: In any visual medium, clarity is the foremost priority.  The reader has to be able to "see" the information without interrupting the story flow.  And just like the penciler, the color artist has a big influence on how fast or slowly the reader takes in the story.  And that's through the use of mood and lighting.  Conveying mood helps define the scene. The reader should instantly know if something big is about to happen based on what kind of mood is set by the colors.  Cool colors will slow the scene down, while conversely, warm colors will pick the pace up.  Lighting also plays with the warm/cool rule, but with lighting, you can also move the reader's eye around by drawing attention to specific points, and playing down the less important aspects.  You can also use lighting to help design the panels or page by framing certain things, as well as using framing elements to convey depth.

There's really a lot of things a great color artist can bring to a book, in both complimenting a certain penciler, and enriching the storytelling.

GP: How important is it for you as a colorist to care about the story you're working on?

CS: I know that if I'm excited about the story and characters, then I'm inclined to spend a little extra time on it.  And not necessarily extra time in rendering and special effects, but extra time thinking about the story and its elements, the characters and their motivations.  I've taken a couple of jobs that I either wasn't very excited about going in, or that I wound up getting burned out on later on, and you can see the affects it has on the work.  Particularly in the approach.

GP:  What's your proudest piece of work from "Planet Hulk"?  Please talk us through the page(s) to explain what challenges you faced and the choices you made.

CS: Wow!  I have to pick one?!?!  That's really hard to do.  Why not choose my favorite of my the kids instead?

I think I really liked the first few pages of the first issue (#92) simply because it's where I got to establish everything.  From the planet's appearance (which is almost a whole other character in and of itself in some respects), to the alien population.  I really enjoy cosmic books because of the design work I get to do, and this played into all the things I love. 

Y'know, I gotta say that I really liked the last few pages of the last issue of the arc too (#105) because it was so emotional.  Everything exploding and left in ruins... Then Hulk sees the big stone ship break through the dust and clouds.  I thought that scene was really strong.  Especially on the last page where we see an angry battle-ready Hulk speeding towards earth. 

GP: Tell us a bit about how you became a colorist and what kind of training/experience you had.

CS: Like a lot of people who want to get into the business, I wanted to be a penciler.  But after a few attempts, I realized that I was way too slow.  Although there are people in the industry that are really slow, they're a lot better at it that I was, and publishers aren't going to wait for someone to turn in mediocre work.  So I went to the School of Visual Arts in New York, and while working a part time job, I met up with comic legend Denys Cowan, who referred me to someone that might be able to help me break in.  

I wound up apprenticing at an illustrator's studio for a few years, where I learned the ropes of inking and coloring (which I fell in love with) and eventually became his studio manager, until he inked a deal with a company to develop comics as a springboard into TV, animation, and film.  I came onboard as the Color & Special Projects editor where I was responsible for overseeing the coloring on at least four books a month (coloring two of them myself), while doing development work for our properties to make the jump to animation and other mediums.  The whole thing was fairly short lived.  It lasted an intense four years.  We published our books through Image and got some shows optioned at Fox Kids Network, but nothing ever really came out of that, except that I made some good contacts. 

When the company folded, I made a very desperate jump into comics as a freelance digital colorist, back when digital colorists were scarcely seen anywhere but Image.  So I did some illustration work on the side (those contacts came in quite handy), and moved back to New York from LA and pounded the pavement until Matt Idelson gave me my first real break at Marvel doing color guides for an issue of Dead Pool (#6). 

GP: Color guides?  Wha?

CS: Color guides were hand painted/colored versions of the comic book pages, done on reduced photocopies of the inks.  Often done in any mixed media consisting of, but not limited to watercolor, colored pencil, gouache, and/or marker.  After coloring, each color was also flagged with a corresponding code, indicating to the printer (who would cut the plates) what exact colors were used.  For instance, skin would often be "coded" as Y2R2 (20% Yellow & 20% Red).  Spiderman's reds would be Y9R10B1 (90% Yellow, 100% Red, 10% Blue).  This process was very limiting because you could only use 10% increments of Yellow (Y), Red (R), Blue (B), or Black (K) color and didn't allow for a lot of the kinds of effects, and natural color transitions you see today.

So I was doing color guides for a year or two, trying to convince Marvel that I could handle computer coloring my own book (which was a tough fight back then), until they gave me a shot at Captain America (starting with issue #9). 

At this time, the only individuals coloring straight on computer at Marvel were Steve Buccelatto, Paul Mounts, Liquid, and me.  It was great company to be in, and I was psyched.  And everything else that happened after that, has just been preparation for “World War Hulk.”

GP: Tell us a bit about the technical side of your work.  How does the process work?  What tools do you use and what kinds of files do you receive and deliver?  Is absolutely everything done on computers these days?

CS: I'd say that over the last 8-10 years, coloring has made the jump to 100% digital.

I usually get the scanned black and white artwork as a tiff file from Marvel.  I think open it up in Adobe PhotoShop™ and I'll lay in flat colors in order to build the initial palette that everything in that will set the tone for that scene (Most times I'll have someone else flat pages for me, and then go back into the page and fix all the flatted pages to reflect the color choices that I want).  After I've established the palette, I'll start working out the direction of specific light sources with some basic "airbrush" rendering, and I'll just keep going in building upon that with stronger lighting.   

This is also the point where I'll decide what the focus of the panel or page is, and build everything around that.  I usually start by doing the backgrounds, and then moving to figures, which helps me to define the depth and focus a bit better.  After I've built up the rendering (without over-rendering), I'll start laying in any special effects, like glows, power FX and like knockouts (changing a black line to a colored one).  That's the last bit of coloring I'll do before I prepare and send the file off to Marvel (or any other publisher I'm working with at the time).

GP: Where do you look for inspiration?

CS: Film is great for working out visual problems.  The only thing is adapting the rules for that medium into the confines of print.  Not everything that works well in film works as well in print, so you have to pick and choose.  Also, as good as photography books are (and I have a lot of those too), this also has the same problem as film in that not everything that works for photography works as well in the language of comics and storytelling.  So as much as I try to take away from those, I also have to pick and choose very carefully what I use and don't use. 

Aside from that, there are some illustrators I love to look at.  J.C. Leyendecker and Maxfield Parrish top the list of my favorite illustrators. Leyendecker for lighting, and rendering style and Parrish for his amazing use of color.  Both are masters of composition.  Amazing stuff.  Oh, and comics too.  I always try to see what other people are doing.  I like to see how others tackle certain visual problems, their techniques and if they're doing anything differently.

GP: If you weren't a colorist, what would you be doing?

CS: I had a modest illustration career before getting into coloring full-time.  I don't know how well I would have built on it, had I decided to go that route.  I probably would have been a starving artist type, leading a much different life.  But the truth is, I grew up poor in the Bronx, so I've had my fill of starving, and it's not something I want to go back to.  I'd probably do something completely outside of art.  Like maybe be a chef.  I love to cook, and I would love to take a course at a culinary school.  Maybe I'll do that after my comics "shelf-life" has expired.

GP: What are you working on now?

CS: “Son of Hulk,” “Ms. Marvel,” a Spiderman/Wolverine What If...?!?, a couple of issues of “X-Men: Emperor Vulcan,” and various chapters of the Heroes Online Graphic Novel.

GP: What's your dream project?

CS: “Planet Hulk” was very close to my dream project.  The mix of sci-fi and super hero action was just brilliant, and quenched a lot of thirsts.  Aside from that, I'd love to do a long run on Spidey or X-Men.  But I'm a huge Daredevil fan, so I guess that'd top everything.

My top 5 books would have to be Daredevil, Spidey, X-Men, Moon Knight, or Captain Marvel (again).  I love both cosmic and street level books.

Damn, I just thought of about 5 other books I'd like to work on.  I'm no good at these lists.

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