Broken Frontier

Scott Kolins is known for his distinctive artwork which has graced the likes of The Avengers and The Flash. Now, he pulls double duty as the writer and penciller of one of DC’s most misunderstood bad guys – Solomon Grundy. Breathing new life into the hulking creature, Kolins breaks down what’s so appealing about the character, as well as what he’s learnt from his fellow creators thus far in an insightful chat with BF.

Working with superscribe Geoff Johns on Wally West’s adventures for two years on The Flash, as well as Michael Avon Oeming on Omega Squad and Thor: Blood Oath seems to have inspired Scott Kolins. Now the artist (who’s also an accomplished inker and colorist) may become just as well known for his writing skills as his penciling abilities. Choosing classic DC bad guy Solomon Grundy as the focus of a miniseries may seem like an unusual choice for the once frequent Marvel artist, but the Spanish-born creator has some very good reasons behind his decision, and seems determined to show readers that Grundy has more depth than may be apparent.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Solomon Grundy is one of those misunderstood characters in the DCU. How will you help define him?

SCOTT KOLINS: Solomon Grundy is only misunderstood -in that some people put him in a box and assume that's all he is. "He's a zombie". - But what zombie talks? Grundy talks all the time and has conversations! The zombies I know shuffle around and eat flesh, all with a dead expression frozen on their face. Grundy is full of action and anger and expression. But is he alive? -No. You can shoot him in the heart and he'll keep coming. So he has some qualities like a zombie and kinda looks like a giant version of one. But is he an undead human body? Not really. He's part plant in that he came back growing from the unholy swamp. And like a plant he can regrow pieces of himself.

On top of all this legend we've got Cyrus Gold the man that died and became Grundy. And we explore who Cyrus Gold was and how he became Solomon Grundy. Gold was a terrible person - and the trick in this story is: Will he change? He has a task before him to find his killer and forgive him. Could you forgive yours? I hope to remind readers how enjoyable and full of possibilities he can be. Grundy tends to be written off as a one-note villain, but I think he can be much more. There’s horror and humanity bottled in this monster creation. He's very interesting.

BF: Were you always a Grundy fan? Was this miniseries your idea?

SK: Yes, I always loved Grundy. My idea? -Yes and no. I've wanted to do a Grundy story for a long time, but my friend Geoff Johns was the man with the plan. I told him the kind of book I wanted to do and he started the ball rolling and was nice enough to pass it to me. It's a dream project that I am really enjoying.

BF: Do the writer and artist inside you always agree?

SK: Probably not entirely. As a writer it's easy to get several images of a scene - to play it out in your head and see what happens - but as an artist you have to make decisions and chose very specific shots to tell the story. You only have a certain amount of panels that will fit into a 22-page comic book. Though as a writer I also have to edit myself. I'll start to spend pages on a scene and realize I have to get all the way to this other story-point by page 22 and therefore I need to get more done in those pages I have.

BF: Your pencils seem to work really well with the rugged Grundy look, but are you changing anything about your usual style?

SK: Thank you. I play a lot with shadows since it's a horror story and time of day is very important so we have lots of day versus night shots. The gross-ness of Solomon Grundy is something that's developed as I draw this story. His skin texture, the thin scraggily hair, his rotten big teeth and the root-like veins that wrap around his body and run through his tattered black clothes.

BF: Not much is known about Grundy's origin. Did you have a lot of room to play with when telling it?

SK: Oh yeah! I've expanded the origin of Slaughter Swamp itself – where Grundy comes from. And I've really explored Cyrus Gold, the man from 1885 who was ruthless and very troubled. What led to his death, who killed him and how did this set him on a horrific path to becoming the monster Solomon Grundy.

BF: Bizarro and Poison Ivy are some pretty impressive foes. Who else will Grundy be facing?

SK: We also have Professor Ivo, Lobo and a few other surprises including a fight with Green Lantern unlike anything I have ever seen.

BF: Seeing as The Flash was your breakout book, how do you feel about the return of Barry Allen?

SK: I think it's great! I think Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver will do an amazing book - I can't wait to read it!

BF: Did you pick up any writing tricks from Geoff Johns?

SK: I hope so. We've talked about aspects of writing comics and how to best utilize this medium. The last writing topic we talked about was making sure your story has very specific focus and how getting that across to your reader is your biggest goal. Many extra ideas and concerns will pop up to add complexity to the story, but keeping the thrust of your story rock solid keeps the reader involved. They have to understand it.

BF: The two of you worked your magic again on Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge. Have you had any conversations about what your next joint project will be?

SK: Yes, we've talked about a few things. There may even be some more Flash-related work for us - but we've talked about different things too. Nothing official yet.

BF: Is Barry Allen your number one speedster? Or are you more a Wally West kinda guy?

SK: I'm totally into what Geoff is doing now with Barry - but we've had a family of speedsters for a while so I don't know if I could just name one and say that's it. I love all of them. They've each had their day in the sun and pushed the legend forward - now it's Barry's turn again. It's gonna be awesome.

Solomon Grundy is available from DC Comics priced $2.99.