Color Change

Posted by | Published on June 28, 2012

As you may have noticed, Atomic Robo Vol.7 marks an historic change for Team Robo. In addition to my first stumbling attempts to type with body parts other than elbows, and Scott’s progress drawing with his feet, we had our first ever roster change on the creative team.

We would like to warmly welcome colorist Nick Filardi to the book, and if you are at all familiar with his other work you will know how mind blowingly lucky we are to be working with him. His credits are too numerous to list, but a few of my personal favorites are Powers, BPRD, Cross Bronx, and Godland. As an interesting aside, Nick was almost the colorist of Atomic Robo since Day One. It literally came down to a coin toss to decide between him and Ronda Pattison.

We hope you guys enjoy Nick’s work as much as we do. I still get goosebumps looking at that opening scene of Flying She-Devils #1!

I also hope you will join us in thanking Ronda for her work on the first six volumes of Atomic Robo, and in wishing her the best of luck with her other projects.

And finally, due to a snafu on our end, the cover Nick colored for 7.1 did not get used. Check it out right here.

The cover that did get used was colored by our good friend, Alex Small-Butera, one of the creators of Baman Piderman. Lucky for us, it was a great cover too. He really saved our bacon and colored that cover on his day off so we’d have something to put in Previews. Thank you, Alex! We’ll make sure to include both covers in the TPB with proper credit!

Posted in art, volume 7 | 14 Comments
  • Ryan Cody

    Nick’s stuff is fantastic.

  • Greymattersplat

    He did a really good job coloring the book, but I have to admit, there’s a noticeable difference in the look of the finished product.  I’ve been reading since issue one, and Robo’s always looked a little different from series to series as Scott’s art has evolved, but the overall look has always held.  I never knew how important the colors were to that process until I read the new issue.  It’s not really a “complaint”, and it was still a great issue all around, and head and shoulders over pretty much any other comic I read…but there’s definitely a different feel.  Which kinda bums me out, honestly. 

  • Scott!

    I’ve been pushing for a much more dramatic change to the colors for some time now. This is actually pretty tame compared to what I had in mind. :)

    I’ve got a VERY specific idea in my head of how I want Robo to look -the more is stands out from other comics the better.

    So far Nick is doing a great job of taking my ideas and filtering them through his own artistic talents, arriving where I want the art to go, but getting there by his own unique route.

    I can definitely understand the oogy feeling you are having right now. I’ve been thinking about this and working on it for well over a year and have been tweaking things with Nick for months. I’m sure its very shocking to see for the first time though.

    And that’s a good thing. It made an impact. and I think, after you’ve lived with it for a little while, you’ll come to appreciate it.

    I try to keep the thought in my head that, even though we are just making commercial pop art, there is no reason we shouldn’t try to challenge our readers with it if we can. You wont find any secret imagery, metaphors, or dicks drawn into the background -that’s not quite what I mean. But I want to give you guys more to chew on than the average comic book does.

     

  • http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian!

    I like both!

    It took me a while to get used to Nick’s colors. But having seen two issues of it, I’m totally on board.

  • Rolacka

    I noticed the colouring change, but wasn’t sure if Rhonda had changed her style, or if a new colourist was on board. Good luck to her, and welcome to Nick!

    I liked the new colouring actually, in particular a panel with a sunset struck me as beautifully coloured. Not sure which I prefer yet.

    On a slightly related note, I purchased both issues from Comixology and they didn’t have any credits in. There were no indications of the creators in She-Devils in a contents page or the front cover, and no contents page in RSA whereas the last two have had one (although the creators are all listed on the cover, I wasn’t sure who did what). Were these just missed from the digital edition?

  • http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian!

    Hmm, I suspect they were. That’s a shame. Hope we can get that corrected soon.

  • Ziggy

    I just compared the 2 covers, and my favorite part is where Weggy’s initial is in different spots. OMG BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!

  • Scott!

    I should just make a stamp of that silly W-box and put it in a separate layer. :)

  • BeastieRunner

    I think the new colorist hits the tone of the current volume pitch perfectly.

  • Craigwmoore57

    Please whatever it takes, get Ronda back. Her work was subtle and allowed the detail of the art to shine through .This new colorist is to heavy, to dark, to extreme. I have to admit it affected my enjoyment of the book negatively.

  • Craigwmoore57

    Another option on colorist, if time allows, is to have Scott do his own coloring. Frankly I find the samples of his work superior to the new guy, and much more in keeping with the “look” the fans have come to love and expect.

  • trallis

    I like the cover Nick did a lot more than the one in my hands.. both are good but i like bright and sunny

  • Rolacka

    Hi Brian

    RSA 3 has now updated with the contents page. Many thanks for that. With all the ‘guest’ artists I do like to be able to check easily.

  • http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian!

    And we like for people to know who did what!

"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with.
It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices.
It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true.
But our preferences do not determine what's true."
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