Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com, i'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. This episode is once again brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Collectibles at galactic comics and collectibles.com I just mumbled through that whole thing. It's galacticcomicsandcollectibles.com this is a return of Vladimir Popov, who comes on the podcast to talk to us for Star Wars Week.
Vladimir has colored a number of books and illustrated a number of books, but he's known for Where Monsters Lie in Port of Earth, as well as slash, Gordon, Highlander, Robocop, Fearscape, Hellraiser, Ice 9 Kills Stuff, Youngblood stuff. But recently he's colored things for the High Republic in the Star wars universe over at Dark Horse, as well as the new trade paperback graphic novel from George Mann and Andrea Muti, where Vladimir colored called Star Wars Hyperspace Stories Qui Gon, which is available now at your local bookstore or local comic book shop. So we talked coloring techniques, what it takes to do a Star wars comic and color a Star wars comic and so much more on this podcast here for Star Wars Week. But before you enjoy this episode with Vladimir, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky threads, all those places, as well as over on YouTube. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, all your major podcasting platforms. Please rate, review, subscribe, and as always, you can find more stuff over on Capesandtights.com but this is Vladimir Popov coloring of Star wars comics and so much more. Enjoy, everyone.
Welcome back to the podcast. Vladimir, how are you today?
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Hey, thanks for having me, Justin. Glad to be back.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: So glad you're back. Yeah, it's awesome. It's been, it's been a little while we've chatted. I want to say it was like seven, this is like 70 episodes ago. So it's over a year because we release weekly plus. And so yeah, it's been, it's been a while since we've chatted, which is cool. But I, I, I, I enjoy your coloring, I enjoy your artwork. But it's funny how recently you've just been like, the Star wars people, they just want you to do Star wars stuff. Right? It's just, it's what it is. It's all they want you just to keep on coloring Star wars stuff.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Well, it's not quite exactly like that, but I did a few, few projects on Star Wars. Yeah. But I would like to think like.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: That they're like, oh, Vladimir, I think that guy could probably do some coloring for us for Star Wars.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Well, they liked it, so who knows? They might call me back.
It's a big universe.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Yes. But, yeah, we chatted where monsters lie before. We've done other things. You've done things like, obviously, robocop, Highlander, Fearscape, Port of Earth, all those things. A bunch of stuff out there in the comic book industry. But what we wanted to focus on a little bit today is a little bit of Star Wars. Do you have a connection? Do you have a. Have you. Have you been a fan of Star wars for a while? Oh, yeah. The comics, the movies, everything. And what's your little history? Tell me a little bit about what you like about Star wars or how you got into Star Wars.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Well, you know, I got into Star Wars 2 movies mostly, like everybody, you know, when I was a kid, like 30 something years ago, when you're like 6 or 7.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: You know, it's Christmas time and there is like a bunch of cool movies on TV in the early 90s, and one of them is Star Wars. And you're like, you get immersed into that. And after that, you know, when the game scenes start developing 90s, you start. I started playing video games and that was the next instance. A few, A few Star wars comic books in the 90s, but back in the 90s, they were developing, like, the history and lore stuff of Star wars through comics was developing. Dark Horse was actually developing the unit, the extended universe. If I think, if I don't. If I'm not mistaken, Kevin J. Anderson is the one who actually developed most of the lore and history in comics. The. The beginning of, like, how Jedi started and all that. So there's like a lot of.
I. I read a lot of that later in. In the past 15 years or 20, when, you know, through online and apps and some physical copies, etc. But yeah, I'm a fan and I like extended universe, especially the video games. I played all the classes for Star Wars, Old Republic, for example, all the storylines, because that was cool. And I mean, like 2003 actually, in particular, if you're gonna go into history and like, nerding out in precise details, like the huge year of Star wars gaming, actually, because that was the year where Knights of the Old Republic got published.
And the Jedi Academy, like two of the most amazing video games of, you know, History of Star Wars.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: So I've been playing a lot of those and, and Battlefronts and, you know, Fallen Order and Force Unleashed and What's there else? Empire at War. I think that strategy when conquer. So a lot of stuff and, and novels as well. Not that much. But yeah, I followed comics especially you know now with the High High Republic. I like how they developed that. And one, one piece of the, the my work is from that era because that, that was what I was working on last year.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: So yeah, I mean like it's, it's a nice universe. It's kind of like. I kind of like to say it's a safe space for a nice piece of escapism. You know, like. Yeah, you go enjoy. So I'm a fan.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I can say that that's awesome. That's good.
I just talked with the creator. I was at a comic convention this weekend and I was talking with a creator who was talking about another creator saying that they're working on a property that they don't really know anything about. Like they got hired for the job. It's a good paying job. They're working on this book. They're whatever. But every time they're like okay, we need you to do these, you know, these pages they need to send him like links to, to what these characters about histories, backstories, things like that. So way they look, things like that. Because it' artist. And so it seemed weird to me, it seemed weird that you take a job that you didn't enjoy the source material. And I think that's different. I think in Star Wars, I think a lot of people who do work on Star wars are fans of Star wars which resonates, it shows if you're not a big fan of it, maybe you just phone it in and artwork or the story or whatever is not as good as it could be because you're not a really big fan of that property or that IP or whatever. But I think Star wars, it seems like over the past at least number of years those hired to work on Star wars know about Star wars and like Star wars.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Well, you have to kind of. It's. It's completely different type of universe than superheroes. Like with Batman and Superman, you know who they are. Like you don't have to know any lore or anything like. And their storylines get rebooted every few years now to adapt to. But with Star wars is, is non stop constant evolving and expansion. There is no reboots, there is no, you know, new origin stories. Like it is what it is. It's like life. But you're, you're just building up new things into the, you're adding, you're not rebooting anything. So you kind of gotta have to, you know, know that. I mean, you can work as a technical artist or, you know, as an artist you don't have to know much of. Yeah.
History or law or anything because you're going to get references. You're going to be told, you know, you have to drop this in this way, this way, this way. And then you can. You go in that direction. But when you're kind of like a writer, when you're developing that, then it will resume that, you know something. Or if you're just a fan, then it's easier. I mean, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to do the job the way I did it if I didn't have the background knowledge and experience of the whole universe.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Universe, yeah. As a whole. It adds to it.
I guess that's a question that I kind of had to. You recently have worked on the Wedding Spectacular in the High Republic for Dark Horse, as well as the Annual, which actually earlier I actually chatted with Liana Kangas and Alyssa Wong, who also did a story in that annual. But you partnered up with Kevin Scott, who's a phenomenal writer in his own right, but also a phenomenal Star wars writer. And then Nick Brokenshire, who's also a great Star wars artist as well. We had him on a couple of years ago talking about Star wars imagery in illustrations and stuff. But yeah, so you work on these Star wars things. Your most recent thing is a graphic novel trade paperback that came out with George Mann, again, another phenomenal Star wars writer, and then one of my favorite artists, Andrea Muti. So you have this ability to work with some really. Some really talented and some cool people.
When you go into doing some of these coloring pages and stuff like that. Is there like a color scheme that's in Star wars as a whole, or is each one of these stories different in that sense? Do you feel like Star wars has an overall color palette that you kind of go back to, or is this something that every story is new?
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Well, for this particular story, Qui Gon, that was technically. It's supposed to be the official prequel of episode one for the 25th anniversary of episode one. So it follows Qui Gon and Obi Wan as they're exploring the cult stuff that goes before Episode one. And then it goes. The timeline storyline goes. It's kind of like a biographical story on Qui Gon from his earlier days with Dooku and what they did and how they, you know, how he developed his character. So I got Like, I had a specific amount of things that I needed to do as a colorist and then as an artist, because they want the. Lucasfilm wanted the book to look like. Kind of like to have that spirit of Ralph McQuarrie and Al Williamson from the 80s and, you know, to get that retro look simplified, but to have, like a contemporary output, to have my own output to donate, to look separate from what Marvel is doing or IDW or, you know, every other licensing publisher who did something related to Star wars and comics at that time. So kind of like, it was kind of like a freaky thing. The.
The. The thing that was easier was that, you know, Andrea and I know each other for a long time, and we worked for over a decade together, so we know each other's strengths and everything, but this was not. This was not like, you know, that kind of job because we were both doing separate things the way Lucasfilm instructed us to do, because it was Lenses property. So it's not a creator own where we.
So we. We had to fulfill a specific role. Now the other thing was, you know, how do you color a book like that?
It's. It's not one of the extended universe stories where you follow some other character or stormtrooper or citizen or smuggler or somebody who's. You're following one of, you know, because Jedi is from the universe.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: And he is the main character in the story. So when we go with coloring, we have to explore the emotions. We have to explore, you know, all those coloring theories and how you're going to prepare the scene, what's going to resonate with every. So in order to do that properly, I had to, like, I was like, ask two questions. Okay, like, how do you think like a Jedi? How do you feel like a Jedi? And in order to. To get in, get more immersed, I got myself a Jedi code book to read again. I read it, like, 10 years ago or something like that. So I reread that again and, like, try to pinpoint myself. Like, I kind of, like, put myself in the shoes of an actor. So I kind of, like, try to act as a Jedi and, like, reflect on myself. How do I feel in a specific situation which would, you know, I kind of, like, acted on my own as a Kon in order to kind of like, process the information, how to color something. And the coloring rendering technique was extremely minimalistic. I decided to go extremely clean, extremely minimal, to resemble the old comics in a way, but to resemble those balanced and toned down and like, you know, solidifying emotions that people are Going as Jedis. So to try to honor the Jedi code through coloring as much as possible.
So that was my angle to go and color. And also, there was another thing that I asked myself, like, you know, three questions. First one was like, what is Star Wars?
And for that, I tried to find answers through George Lucas's interviews online and bonus content, because I have the DVDs from like 20 years. I think that when they did the extension version, so you had like, everything in bonus. And so I went into that direction to check out. But. But he initially wanted to, you know, Star wars to be. My second question was, what is Star wars for the world?
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: You know, for the fandom and everybody else and people who are enjoying it around the world. And third one was, what is Star wars to me?
And based on those three answers that I kind of found, I applied them into the, you know, coloring process. I cannot pinpoint exactly, you know, how the decision is made, but it's kind of like a philosophical thing more.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: But, you know, I try to put all those things into motion when I get into that workflow and dive into the working and to put out as best as possible, you know, for the book and for the people, when they get the book to read, to have those feelings in them, to feel safe, to feel escapist, to feel in a space fantasy, to, like, you know, enjoy.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: Just feel immersing themselves in that universe.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: That was the approach.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: Did Andrea get you onto this project? Was that. Was that something that Andrea wanted you on this project, or was that something that Lucasfilm and Dark Horse and all them reached out and said, we need a colorist.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: I think that was most on the Dark Horse side.
I think there was several people that did coloring tests. I don't know exactly. They just didn't. They just told me, you know, what we would like you to do test coloring for this. We don't know if you're going to get a gig that's up to Lucasfilm, but this is what they need. You have a few days. Send us 5 or 6 pages of test pages so that we can send them and then they can check and give us our. Send us an extended portfolio for them to check. We know what you did, but they need to know.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: And they. They wanted me because Monster did really nice, you know.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: And our old. I already worked on creator on the project with them, so, you know, that was. And I think they partially thought. Because, you know, we. Andrea and I worked before.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: I was one of the colorists in question to do this. But ultimately it was Lucasfilm who made the decision. Yeah. Who made the decision.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: It's an interesting universe that you have.
There's creator owned projects, there's projects for hire, there's superheroes or all these different things. But it's like when you deal with something like this where there's multiple levels of approval that needs to happen, it's not just immediately being like, hey, Andrea's. Hey, I'd love Vlad to be my colorist on this. They're like, oh yeah, like 18 people need to say yes before that could actually happen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Good.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, he, he could only express his desire. But yeah, you know, it's up to, you know, who knows who.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it's someone else. Not you. So someone way more important than us, Vlad, and probably makes a bunch more money than us makes that decision.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, in those, in those, in those moments when you get that kind of opportunity. I was thinking about exact, that exact same thing and I was like, you know, how do you, how do you approach that? And the only, the only answer that I found for myself was like, you know what? I'm just gonna color this the way I think I should color. If it goes, it goes. If it doesn't, you know, I don't know what else to do. Just any. Lucky for me.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: It'S one of those. I mean, I guess it's probably a pinch me moment in a sense where like, obviously you have now multiple stories and multiple things, but this is a big honkin trade, graphic novel, trade paperback story. This is a long thing. This is a big complete thing. It's not a, a small story in an anthology or some sort of annual. This is a big project. So it must be sort of those things that, like, as you're coloring and looking through these illustrations that Andrea is sending over and things like that, you're like, I get to work in Star Wars. I now am in a. Which is an ever growing list of people, but a smaller list of people who got a chance to say that I worked on a Star wars project, which is pretty cool.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And also it's kind of really, really serious because you're working on a story that's quite bigger than yourself. And it's not just. It's Star wars, it's kind of like a zero point story for people who want to jump on Star Wars. So, you know, because it's a prequel and it's on. That's on one thing and on the other thing, it's all Ages book. So it's starting fine for some kid that never maybe read comic in their life before. So, you know, there is a multi, multilevel seriousness to it and then you have to think wider for the project. So I had to like, be like on a high end nonstop. So. And also it wasn't. It was a very peculiar year last year in the fandom. A lot of people like were unsatisfied with a bunch of shows and stuff. And it wasn't the easiest year for Lucasfilm as well. So, you know, kind of like you're working that in that bubble, you're making something new and it's not. It's not a story. Like, it's not a story that you're working. Like, it's one of the stories for Marvel. Like it's continuity story. It's a specific kind of story for a specific kind of graphic novel line that's saying, you know, that's showing and telling specific kind of stories from the universe. So everything was aside and like level up. So it's kind of like you want it. You wanted to work and say, well, here you go here.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And it's also like people like nowadays in this world we live in complete stories in that sense that this could have been an issue issue by issue. But. But I think the idea behind having a story that's complete and concise into one thing that you can buy, whereas the beginning and ending, and I want to end that story. I can basically watch episode one and get my. My next thing is really cool. I think that the graphic novel trade paperback side of things is ever growing. I think a lot of people might come local comic book shop buys collections, but he always buys trade paperbacks off people. If people are done reading trades, he'll buy them and then put them on the. On the shelf as a used trade because he knows that he'll sell those things and move those things because people want that story where they can have a beginning and an ending. And I think that to me is a huge thing. It becomes a. Another movie in a sense. It becomes that like next little like, you know, thing in the thing. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: It is kind of a movie. I mean, if you think of it like we are making shots that can easily be translated into movies. Yeah, but they work different in storytelling medium of comic books and composition and art form and everything. But in essence they could be used. I mean, like, that book could easily become a, you know, prequel of a prequel, you know, like prequel movie on itself. Like it could be that's how we approach and designed it. And I mean, that's how I thought another layer of how I thought when I was coloring. Like, you know, you know, what would the camera be? What would, you know, how would that go?
[00:20:19] Speaker A: So, and people take this seriously. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing or a good thing and the other, other fandoms don't. But like Star wars as a whole has this, that if you color it or illustrate it or write it differently than I wanted you to do it, I hate your stuff. Do you know what I mean? So it's like, it's a, it's a, I have something in my head the way it should look. And if you don't do what I say, it's bad. And the truth of the matter is I don't think there's really been any bad thing in Star wars as a whole. There's never really been something that's so bad that I had to be turned this thing off. There's two things to that. One, I'll watch anything that has a Star wars name on it. I don't care how good, bad or ugly. The thing is, I'm just happy that something's being made about Star Wars. The other side of it is, is that I don't, I don't make these stories, I don't write these stories. I don't have the behind the scenes knowledge of all these different things they want to get done or how things are done or how whatever's done. And so I can't say in my mind this is what I think this movie should look like. I don't know what it is. So I'm just happy someone made it. And so, you know, this fandom is this hot and cold thing where it's like people either hate what you do or you did it exactly how they envisioned you do it. So it's awesome. But there's no really in between for a lot of people. And I just, it's so funny. And I love Star Wars. I love Star wars fans. I have no issue with it. It's just funny. You could have literally colored this book slightly different and people would have been pissed at you for the rest of your life.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, in my own defense, I mean, I'm a fan as well, so I, I, you know, I color this as a fan, not as a professional. So, you know, this is the book that I wanted to see as a Star wars fan. So I, I got the chance to.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: Make it and that's and that adds to it. Vlad, like the idea that all these people, most these people who work on these books have been lifelong fans. So if I trust anyone to tell me a new story in the Star wars universe, it's someone who's a fan of the universe. And so you're talking from the movies now down to the, to the TV shows, to the comics, to the novels everyone working on. These are die hard fans games. They're die hard fans. And so why would they purposely screw up something? You know, Lucasfilm has control over their property, obviously, Disney has control over this property, but they're not to the point where they're going to, you know, George Mann on this book and saying, you need to tell the story exactly this way, because then they'll just write it themselves. Like, they don't need a writer to do it. They're telling them, this is the story we want to be told. And then George takes it and crafts his own story and does his own thing with it and then turns it in. Lucasfilm goes, you can do that, you can do that, but you can't do that because we're going to do something else with that later on or so on and so forth. So there is a control over it. But George crafted this story. This tale was George Mann's craft. And then Andrea partnered with him to do the illustrations, and then you. And so on and so forth. And so these people are fans. I mean, you're. You're a fan. You mentioned it. This is, this is not. You wouldn't do something to screw up. I mean, let's be honest, if the paycheck was big enough, you might do it to screw up the universe, but you wouldn't do something to screw up the universe because this is something you love. Why would you want to screw that up?
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. You don't want to do that. You want to add that to it so that somebody else, some, some other kid or somebody, you know, who didn't have the chance to experience that. What you. You had has now. And that's something, that's something that, you know, I think is there is the reason actually why people are so loving or hating, you know, it's not the way. Because it's such an emotional story. It's such a big universe, such a welcoming subway. You connect to it more than you connect to some other universe and everything. And it's more. Because it's more of a culture, you know?
[00:24:06] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:24:07] Speaker B: And for example, I mean, if we go around the world, you know, when you see There is some, you know, upheaval or some demonstrations around when you go to political or something. When you go, you always see, you know, somebody is a Jedi, somebody's Darth Vader, somebody's, you know, Rohan, Batman, all those stuff. Like it's a cultural thing and people are connected to it and that's why they're emotional, because it resonates, especially if they were like kids when, or if they went through some difficult time in their life and you know, they connected to. So from that perspective, I understand, you know, it's not looking like that you need to make it like that, but on the other side, you know, when you do that, somebody else is a kid. Like they were.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: You're, you know, some, some other kid needs to experience Star wars now.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Yes.
What do you think, I mean, this is possible for you, Vladimir, that this book gets picked up by someone and this book, you know, the actual title of it is what Star Wars Hyperspace Stories. Qui Gon is the name of the extra job. But if they pick this up, it could be the first thing they ever read in the Star wars or see in the Star wars universe. How does that make you feel? Is that something that, like that you feel pressure on you right now to make sure it would look the best because it could be the entry point for someone into the Star wars universe?
[00:25:35] Speaker B: Well, there was a little bit of pressure, you know, I mean that kind of like adds to it. Like how, how do you, how do you approach that in Star wars and comics as well? You know, it's a, it's an all ages book. So like it's a double, double, double layer, you know. But then again, I mean like I gave everything I had on that book from all the. I was confident enough because I've been like for the past 25 years, I digested almost like everything that I was available to from Star wars universe. So I had all those different perspectives and stories and points and how it was told. So I kind of like had that feeling and overall like sensitivity of sensibility of what Star wars is, you know.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: And I kind of tried to put that into the book. So in that way I, I feel enough confident that it's going to be a nice welcoming and warm and safe book for people to start their, you know, journey into the Star wars or comics or both in, in a, in a, in a good sense of manner. So. And also we, we kind of like this is one of the rare books that had that specific production of a high end quality when it comes to comic books where, you know, one person wrote it, the other one penciled, third one lettered third one colored, fifth one inked it. So we have all the separate productions and we worked on, on the book for like a good year.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah, because I honestly think it was supposed to come out like, you know, last fall or something like that. Or something like that. For this. It was definitely pushed to. When it came out in March, I was definitely scheduled to come out earlier than this. So you guys worked in a long time.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Yeah, so we worked in a long time. And we worked like everybody did a specific thing. It wasn't like one man artist for the whole job. So we all had to give our best in the highest form of production that there is into comic books today.
So in that terms, technically the book is, you know, like high end to, to, to every point of its making. Like Andre is 30 years in the, you know, industry. I'm doing almost 15 years now. Jordan, same editor, Spencer Cushing from Dark Horse, who is an amazing senior editor. Like he's 17 years with Dark Horse. So he has extensive knowledge on editing and Star wars and licensing and everything. So in, in the matter of, you know, and of course, you know, the biggest publisher of Star wars comics is Dark Horse. It's not Marvel because Dark Horse develop the extended universe. So at this point, like that's the high end. It's not Marvel, it's Dark Horse, Disney and Lucasfilm. That's the, that's the big one.
Or not to say like big zero.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: So in that manner, like we gave everything and I, I'm satisfied. And also I, I checked the critiques and the reviews and everything online and people were happy, like they enjoyed. So I was like, yes, like, you know, fandom, you got approved by fandom. So like, oh man, that's a really.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean there's gonna be people who don't like it. That's just the way it is. This is not like it's a world we live in right now where people probably like it, but then they say they don't like it because they have to be that person who says they don't like it. It's just the way it is. I have a member of my, my, I have a trade paperback book club, a craft novel book club at my local comic book shop every month. And it's always this one guy who waits till everybody says their like overall opinion of the book before he says something. Because it's always the opposite what everybody else does. It's always so funny. Like, he could probably love the book. Stupidest book I've ever read. I'm like, dude, why do you have to be so different about this stuff? So, yes, there's gonna be some.
But, you know, it doesn't matter if he bought it and he liked it and he's just saying to this one group of people he doesn't like it. Whatever, it's his own thing. But yeah, it is kind of funny how that is. But yeah, for the over, for the most part, I mean, I was looking forward to this, that the group you guys had on this, that you mentioned, the five people that are attached to this thing, for the most part, most of these people I was like, I am looking forward to this book. Outside of the fact that it's a Star wars story and a Qui Gon story, I was looking at it because it's like, okay, George, Andrea, okay. I'm cool with the creative team that's on this team too, because that to me adds to it. I like, you know, Andrea has these like, varying style of artworks that he does and I like, weirdly like all of them. Like, I'm a big Scotty Young fan for, for artwork, but I'm a fan of his like baby variants and those, those like childish looking things. He has another style where it's like more lanky and long and elongated. Like Spider man has like very, very skinny legs and he's like, I don't know, very straight edges and stuff. Not a big fan of it. It's good, but I just know that's not what I want. If I want Scotty Young, I want the traditional Scotty Young that I want. And obviously he broke into the, to the, to the industry with not having that style of artwork. It was a little different in his first, first comics. But Andrea, for example, I like both, like, it's his more watercolory, ambiguous, like creepy horror stuff and then this stuff.
If you told me, if you didn't tell me who it was, if I didn't know who he was, I wouldn't tell you it was the same artist. It's like so drastically different. So that to me was amazing. And I do love George's art writing. George. George Mann's written a bunch of stuff in the high republic prose novel side of stuff as well. Over the couple years I've actually tried and just schedules haven't worked to try to get George on the podcast. So one of these days I'll be able to do it, but I want to talk to him about Creating novels and stuff like that. But, yeah, it's just a whole team on this thing. And I felt like there was passion, and I felt that the story itself was needed in the Star wars universe and that you guys all, as a team, nailed it. Did you. I mean, you worked in it for a long time. I'm guessing it worked traditionally. Like, they, you know, they. Andrea penciled the page, someone inked it, and then you got to color it. It wasn't like you were coloring this entire book at once. Right. Like, it was. You were getting sent things over time. Okay. So it was like you get a couple pages at a time, you colored it, set it back, and then so on and so forth. So that's kind of how it worked. So you were actually working on this for, like, over a year, Physically working on it. Not just. It hasn't released in over a year.
[00:31:52] Speaker B: Almost a year. Almost a year. Like, my part was around nine. Nine and a half months. But the overall production, I think it was like a year and a half, which is. That kind of started early.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: It's a big universe.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Lots of things, you know, that were in a book were. Have to, you know, be adapted at some point. You know, this panel, like, this uniform should look like that. That kind of spaceship should have. We upgraded it so it should have this element to it. Kind of like, those production things were long ways. And, you know, sometimes it was like, can you make a lightsaber a little bit thicker here or shorter or, you know, make more blue or something, you know, technical stuff for. For every segment of visual. So it was. It was. It was an interesting experience, you know, iterations and how we did it.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: So, yeah, I love hearing that. Like, I hate hearing it, because if you. If you. You kind of want to get this thing done and moved on to the next project, because obviously it's your job as well, so you want to have that next, you know, But I like hearing that. That there was this back and forth thing on it, because I remember I was trying to think back of, like, there's certain things where people like, oh, I just talked to Steve Levine, who was one of the artists on TMNT and Turtles. I talked to him at this convention this weekend here, and he was talking about how in the early days, they said yes to everything. Like, they were like, oh, cool, we want to do a TV show. Cool, we'll do it. We want to do underwear. Cool, let's do it. It was just like, whatever came to them, they just said yes. And I think that as things grow and as products and IP expand and things like that, you try to. If you give away all your control, then you get stuff like when Marvel gave away a bunch of control of their stuff, you know, back in the 90s and stuff like that. You ended up getting some really obscure Captain America movie where he's a lawyer instead of, you know, instead of some of the military. You get these weird things that you don't really have the control over anymore. And with Lucasfilm still having their fingers in their hands, entrenched in this universe, still, they care. And you can tell because it could be easily just to say the Dark Wars. You have the rights to publish comic books based in the Star wars universe. Do what you want. And you could have someone who's just pumping out stuff and not caring about how the thickness of a lightsaber is, or not caring that this. This. This. This spaceship that's supposed to look a specific way or this craft is supposed to look a specific way, they're actually there. They're actually like, in. Sometimes some people can feel overbearing, but sometime. Most of the time, it's like it's because they care. They want the product to be equal to everything else that's out there in. In any medium, visual medium out there, or prose novels or whatever, to make it the best possible thing. And I think that's part of. I like. I like hearing that. That they're intense. Not intense, but they're intertwined into the craft of this comic book. It's not just here, color this book way you want to color it. It's cool.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: No, no. Everything is tied up. But also, if you think about it like people who are editing books with Lucasfilm and who are doing for Lucas, that's their job, the whole soul, their job is to know things about Star Wars. So they're kind of the biggest experts on Star Wars. So they know, you know what? Okay, that needs to be changed. And I want to have the best possible look as well. But also, Star wars is that kind of is such a unique franchise that, you know, it transcends all the logos, all the publishers. When you look at it, Star wars, you know, it's Star Wars. You don't care if it's a Marvel DC or, you know, Dark Horse or Disney Orient. You want Star wars, and there is a specific aesthetic and a specific sensibility and feel, and you want death, actually. You know that. So that's what we all try to convey through the. You know, to work.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: And it worked. Did you find yourself Ever having to, like, verify what color this lightsabers were, like, making sure the lightsabers were the right color for the right people.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: No, no, I. I knew that.
[00:35:58] Speaker A: I just didn't know if, like, you're, like, late at night, you're doing some coloring, you're like, whatever.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: Like, Qui Gon has green, Obiwan has blue. Yeah, there's no messing up with that.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: It's just kind of fun. I feel like, what was it when. When the immortal Hulk came out a couple of years ago now, a number of years ago, there was, like, issue five, and it was like, the fifth page in or something like that, that Captain America, they. They rendered the entire. His entire suit red. It was like an accident. It was like a. You know, they're probably using some sort of dragon fill kind of color thing for flats or whatever, and someone didn't actually notice that. They didn't. They actually. The line wasn't there, and it didn't pull the whole thing or something. And it was a. It was a misprint, and it was one of those ones that was actually worth a little bit more because obviously, they had to recall it or send out new issues. But it was one of those things. Like, we all know Captain America's got a blue suit. Why is he red? So I could imagine that, like, randomly, a purple lightsaber shows up. You're like, wait a second. He's not here. What's going on on this thing? And, no, it makes sense to do it. I'm guessing you're entrenched in this, too, so you would not mess that up. But it would be kind of funny. They're fighting with two blue lights. They were like, wait a second. That's not right. And I'm sure the editors would have caught it, too. It wouldn't have gone past the editors, hopefully.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. But then again, you know, that's another question for the artist himself. Like, are you really that fan if you don't know who has a. What kind of a, you know, lightsaber color? Like, everybody knows that Mace Windu has purple.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: Yes, well, everybody should know that one for sure. Like, that's. That's what I'm like, now. I love.
Yeah, I want a purple lightsaber. That's what I would have to tell you that much.
Yeah. So it's really cool to see.
I've always been very fascinated with the number of people that work on a comic book in the first place. Like, I'm a fan of the stories. I'm a fan of the artwork the packaging of a comic book as well. But I've always said, like, obviously, your letters, you know, someone who pencils and inks, you have coloring, you have the story writer, you have, you know, someone. Maybe someone writes a story, but then someone scripts it. You have your editors, all those things. There's so many people that go into a comic book, which is really cool. And I think that I've always been fascinated that, you know, some people don't really understand when you say, oh, the artist. It's just this person who draws colors, letters, does. Does everything, or a writer does a let referring to or whatever. So people just don't understand. It's multiple people. And knowing that you have. Have had the ability to. To color some very talented people's artwork, it's got to be fun. It's got to be a unique experience in that. In that sense. And to be able to collaborate with someone, this is not just all you. This is like, okay, I want to. So I can see someone else's vision, and I'm going to build on that vision, and that's something that's cool. And you working with Andrea in the past, I think probably helped in that aspect of it. Like, you said, you knew where he was going with certain things. Like, even panels that weren't done yet, you probably didn't see. You're probably like, okay, I know where the story's going, and I know what to expect next. Like, you have a. It probably would have been a little harder with someone you hadn't worked with in the past, I'm guessing.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: Well, probably, but, yeah, a little bit. But when it comes to licensing books, you just do your. Your part. It's separate. But the. The easing point on this one was that, you know, I. I know Andrea very well, and I know what he likes. He doesn't, because we talk. We work on a bunch of creator together books, you know, before.
So it's kind of like a, you know, it's kind of like making music. You know, you're in a band and everybody, you know, jams off each other's tunes and ads. You know, like, you know, you do the solo and then rhythm goes with his way and bass does his things and drummer goes, you know, oh, I'm gonna do a, you know, cowbell or chinella or, you know, drum or something like. So in that manner, we kind of went back and forth, and it was easy to work on this book in that manner.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: But even when I don't know somebody, when I start working with someone, if there is a chance. I, you know, like to have a chat with them, even if through an email, you know, hey, what are you thinking? How. How do you see. Show me some of your other work, you know, what you like in coloring and stuff like that. So I know how I can adjust mostly if it's rendering or, you know, if it's, you know, when it comes to. When it comes to coloring, my thing is mostly like color composition.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: You know, that's my unique thing. How I feel the space, how I feel the character, how I feel the atmosphere and, you know, the mood, if it's going to go blue.
But the collaboration is happening mostly in the rendering phase. You know, how I'm gonna, you know, somebody wants to use a more painterish approach, use a cutout approach, use a simplistic approach, you know, that kind of stuff. So that's where we are jamming off.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:40:50] Speaker B: But kind of my signature coloring is the, you know, color composition.
[00:40:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And it works really well. And I think I would love to see more stuff from the two of you, Andrea and you working together in the future, too. You know, you've done things in the past that I want more in the future, so if there's ever an opportunity where that should happen, I am all for it. In that sense. Yeah.
[00:41:09] Speaker B: Who knows?
[00:41:09] Speaker A: It might happen, you know, who knows? Yeah.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: The future is open.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. And it's really cool. So I'm guessing that if Lucasfilm Dark Horse knocked on your door again and said, hey, we want you to color another book, that you would probably be open to that.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:41:26] Speaker A: There wouldn't be any real twisting of the arm. There wouldn't be like, okay, I guess.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: No, no, no, no. That's happy.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
I think it's really cool. I think the. The artists that are on there in the. In the variety of people that are now working on these products and these. In these, say, products, these, These. These comics, these. These movies, these TV shows, these books. It's awesome just seeing a vast variety of age ranges and genders, you know, and all that races and all. It's basically just like Star wars, where there's so many different creatures and characters and all that stuff. We're getting that now in the Star wars universe where it's like, you know, there's Star wars is for everybody and is written and created and illustrated and colored and lettered by everybody and. Which is really cool to see that, too. So I'm talking to Liana and Alyssa earlier about that as well, and Alyssa saying, I always thought Star wars wasn't for me until I found out it was a hundred percent for me and that I could actually do this. And now they're really happy about working in a universe as someone who could, who could bring something a little different to the table, which is really cool. So I'm glad that you're working on Star wars because this book is awesome. I was looking forward to this for a long time and it finally hit shelves. I was like, this is amazing. I cannot wait to dive into it. And it's beautiful. It's well illustrated, well colored. The lettering is phenomenal too. I'll tell you that much right there too. The lettering in, in comic books, it stood out just enough, but laid back just enough in this book where it was like not so overbearing, which is where it should sit, I think, for lettering, in my opinion.
[00:43:04] Speaker B: But it was a little bit of retro. Yeah.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
I notice it because I look for it nowadays. I look for good lettering. But if I. If I'm busting through a comic and I don't notice it, it's a good thing. No, don't know. Doesn't stand out to me. It's a good thing because I don't think a letter. Letter's job is to kind of stand in the background, do a really good job at lettering a book, but not make it so noticeable that it takes away from the actual story being told. And I think that's one of those things that lettering can, can sometimes do if a letterer doesn't really know or is trying to take over a page. A really good letter does the job of tying things together in a sense with speech bubbles and with the sound effects and things like that. And I think that's also done with this hyperspace stories Qui Gon story. But yeah, I love hearing the techniques and how you go to colorless books and stuff like that. But you know, we could talk forever on this, on this topic. Forever and ever and ever. Are you current? I'm guessing you're working on other stuff right now too. Maybe some things you can talk about. Maybe some things you can't. But you are busy right now. I'm hoping. I'm hoping there's something you're working. Working on.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I am.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: Okay, that's good.
[00:44:10] Speaker B: I'm working on one Oriental fantasy.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:44:13] Speaker B: For a, for a friend who runs a publishing company. I can't say much about that.
[00:44:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fine yet.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: And I did a few short stories for one. One ontology that's going to come out from image. I can't say much about it either.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:44:27] Speaker B: Yet. But. And I'm working on some of my own stuff.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: Okay, that's. That's awesome. I'm glad to hear. I'm really glad to hear. You know. And I know we are on the. The horizon is coming up is the volume two of Where Monsters Lie is coming out in trade paperback as well. I actually have Kyle coming on the podcast in a couple weeks, Kyle Starks to discuss that as well. So I'm looking forward to that as well. Where Monsters Lie was phenomenal. The second volume was also fun. I don't know how you guys all did it. It was just one of those things. It was. The first volume was so well done. I was like, there's no way they can. Oh, I wanted more. I was clamoring for more. And then the second volume came, like, oh, my gosh. I. Why do I. Why do I have a lack of faith in you creators? Like, I don't know why my mind have this lack of faith. Like, you can't top that. And then you easily do it because.
[00:45:20] Speaker B: Because sequels don't tend to do better than the original.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: Terminator 2 was better than Joker. Yeah, we actually brought that up because I actually discussed Terrifier three. Well, it's back here somewhere. Terrifier one. Terrifier three. Yeah, Terrifier three with the documentarians who. Who did the documentary about Terrifier 3 that came out with them. And we were laughing about how the. The sequel to Joker. There was weekends that Terrifier 3 made more money. This gory, you know, slasher, you know, bloody disgusting movie. And Joker 2 is sitting there on the shelves at the theaters and people are like, yeah, I'd rather go see that than that. So, yeah, sequels are not always great, but there are ones that are better. And I'm not saying. I still will say that Where Monsters Lie, Volume one is probably Edges Volume two just because of. You never get that experience of reading that first issue again and learning the story again. And I think that always will do it for me, like opening up the first issue of volume one and going, oh, my God, this is so cool. You'll never get it over again. So that's always going to edge out. But if they worsen that edge out for that opening for the first time, they'd be on par with each other, in my opinion. So it was just a fun, fun tale. And I can't wait for more from. I said the trade. When people hit the trade, I hope people get it because it's well worth it.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: I think the secret to a successful sequel is not to do something completely different.
[00:46:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: But to build up on the original story and to expand so to give a little bit of what, you know, was in the first story, but with a twist and with some new additions to it. And that's what we did actually with Monsters two, you know, with the coloring and with the characters and everything.
So we built up on the existing. But like, you know, boosted it a little.
[00:47:14] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Yeah.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: Boosted for 20%.
And that's actually the 80. 20 rule. 80% of familiarity, 20% of new. But it's a new story with mixing and everything.
So the 80% of familiarity are the characters and the people who created theme in that sense. And 20% is the new story. So that's I think, like. And to listen to your audience, if they want a sequel, give them a sequel.
And if you want to be an artist, like do a new thing, you know, so it's true. It's really not that complicated.
[00:47:52] Speaker A: No. But it's also a place like Dark Horse A wouldn't have done a sequel if they knew it wouldn't because their, their job is to put out good stories, but let's be honest, it's still a business. And so their job is to make money. And so. And so they are not going to put a story out that's not going to make them money. They're going to lose money on it and so on. So they obviously did such success with, with Volume one Where Monsters Lie, that they decided this cul de Sac Volume 2 was worth doing. And so. And I know the creative team coming back and doing it again doesn't hurt it. I know other studios have seen where Volume one and Volume two did so well. So let's do a Volume three, but volume. The people who want who did Volume one and Volume two didn't want to come back to do Volume three. So they hired a whole new group of people to do the Volume three. And it just. It didn't turn out the same way. And so I think that, that having that creative team there as well, who knew strides they knew how to do things and where things were going is great. So where Monsters Live Volume 3, it comes out this summer, which I'm really excited for. The trade does comes out this summer, which I'm really excited for. And as we were mentioning, we're alluding to if people didn't know Vladimir here did the coloring on that book too. If you didn't know that, that's probably why we were talking about it.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: Again, talented creative team.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: Kyle will tell you more when he comes. So, you know, this is like a trailer.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: Well, he's at that. And he's got his Kill Kill Them all, which is trade paperback that's coming back out. His graphic novel is releasing again. And then he also did those Not Afraid, which is the horror story that he did recently. So I was like, I guess you have three. Three new things to talk about. So let's come on and talk about it again because this will be his third time on. Plus, he's huge into basketball and I'm huge into basketball. And the NBA playoffs are happening right now, so that, that doesn't hurt as well. So we might piss off a lot of Tim Jokic.
See, there you go. But yeah, I might piss off some people because they're like, we're on here for comics. You guys are talking basketball. But whatever, screw them.
[00:49:41] Speaker B: They're comic books about basketball.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: See, there you go.
[00:49:45] Speaker B: We are in the scope of comics.
[00:49:47] Speaker A: Yeah, See?
But yeah, so Star Wars Hyperspace Stories Qui Gon is available wherever you can buy comics as well as. Because it is a graphic novel, you can order it through your local bookstore, too. So if you have a bookstore that you go to that you want this, you can just tell them and they can order it for you through there as well. You can also find it online very easily. Amazon has it in Dark Horse digital, all that stuff. So you can find all that out there as well as the one, the annual for Star Wars High Republic. Again, the only thing I will say is Star wars the High Republic Adventures annual number one. It's a very long thing to say, but hopefully they're sold out. But if not, you can probably find those at your local comic shop as well. And there's some great stories in there, but again, I'm going to point out the ones by Alyssa and Liana and the ones by Kevin, Nick and Vlad here because they're, they're also. They stand out in my opinion. But yeah, I'm so glad, Vladimir, you came back on to chat. Star wars comics coloring and so much more. It was so much fun.
[00:50:47] Speaker B: Thank you, man. Thank you. Was glad to come back and talk. Anytime.
[00:50:50] Speaker A: Absolutely. So we'll get you back on at some point in the future, but until then, keep things going, keep working hard, keep the Star wars stuff coming if you can. If they call you, answer the phone and, and take the job. I'm telling you right now.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: Yep, I know.
And then we'll. We'll make a theology in 2026 and do another chat.
[00:51:10] Speaker A: I won't have any more kids by then, by the way. We're done having kids. And it's not like every time you come on new kid, it's not gonna happen.
[00:51:15] Speaker B: That's. That's fine, man. That's fine. That's life.
[00:51:18] Speaker A: I'll be in the new studio, though. I have a new studio at the new house. And when we move into that. So we'll talk on that yet. Yeah. So. But. But until then, thanks a lot, Vladimir, and enjoy the rest of your day. Okay?
[00:51:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you for having Justin.
