Leave Your Spandex @t the Door 25.08.06: Vasilis Lolos on Pirates of Coney Island

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Welcome to the 84th installment of the new Leave Your Spandex @t the Door!

Last week I spoke with Rick Spears, the writer of the highly anticipated Pirates of Coney Island mini series from Image Comics. This week we’re continuing our Pirates coverage, talking with series artist Vasilis Lolos the talented fellow Greek who made his big entrance in the American comics scene!

(the b&w preview pages and covers are from issue 2 of the series, and the colored pages are from issue 1)

Manolis: Hello Vasili! Can you offer a brief bio of yourself and your career in comics thus far?

Vasilis Lolos:I started working in the 9 magazine 5-6 years ago, a supplemental weekly comic publication with the Eleutherotypia newspaper. Since then i’ve gone from “cd-rom zines”, magazines, mini comics, graphic novels, anthologies and comics in general. Its only recently that i started
working internationally.

Manolis: Tell us about some of your artistic influences

Vasilis Lolos:I think Katsuhiro Otomo is a huge one, so is Frank Miller and Moebius, as far as early influences ones go. I rrrrreally love Guy Davis’s
work, Geoff Darrow and Mike Mignola.

Manolis: How did you develop this particular style? Did you go through a phase of emulating some of your favourite artists before you found your own
voice?

Vasilis Lolos:Who doesn’t? Heh, everybody goes into “drawing phases” especially when you are growing up. But I remember that I never wanted to be somebody else, one Otomo , one Miller. One X favourite artist is enough for the world in my opinion. I don’t want to be jumping someone else’s train.

Manolis: Did you have to adapt your style to work on Pirates of Coney Island?

Vasilis Lolos:No, I am obnoxious by nature. Hehe, I usually work black and whites but I got the “Miami vice” palette in me. So Pirates of Coney Island was a perfect excuse to stretch my 80’s New Wave culture freak. My
main thing is occult/mystery/adventure but I always wanted to do something like the Pirates! Its just too cool of a story!

Manolis: In a nutshell, what is Pirates of Coney Island about for you?

Vasilis Lolos:Its about the best mullet in the universe, Kiefer Sutherland’s in Lost Boys. Its about playing your favourite childhood/teenhood movie in your head thinking “MAN! those were the days!” Its about Awesome cars, its about the feeling you got the first time you saw the Knight Rider its about cotton candy and your first “Haunted house ride”. Its about taking no shit, its about makind decisions, making mistakes and making up.

Manolis: How did you come up with the visual designs for the Pirates and the Cherries?

Vasilis Lolos:The pirates are like street-punk kids going through the early Misfits and Axls’ closet. Bad bleach hair-jobs, shity tattoos, cos that’s what you get when you are poor, but they have enough charm and nerve to
make a date out of your mom. At least that’s what I felt after reading Rick’s sweet-sweet script.

Jack is the “frontman” he is the Captain he takes care of shit and his crew. I think he is half Irish or something, he also has a “Madonna tooth gap”. Tats is Chinese and has visions of becoming a tattooed freakshow attraction. Dude is a nutcase, seriously he is wrong in the head. He also ears no shirt and will beat the crap out of you with your own belt. Zeus it the toughest Indian Misfits twelve year old in all New York. Knievil is a mad driver and mad hick haha. He is an amazing driver and looks like he popped out from a barn or something. I think about them like Kanedas’ gang from akira but instead of bikes the have the radest black Chevy-Van.

Now the Cherries… They are plain NASTY! Imagine a women’s’ volley ball team armed with steel toed boots and lead pipes. When i started designing them i wanted to draw a team of girls that look tuff, none of that “hot-babe” stuff, I had to be convinced that they can kick ass! Put people in hospitals, take a beating with crowbars and then come back for more! THUNDER-THIGHS! Trish, the leader, looks like… like… NASTY man! She is so nasty, but I like her, she is the meanest of the crew. They are all pretty mean and intimidating, well except Bubbles, she is tuff and hot.

Manolis: Which of the characters in Pirates of Coney Island do you relate to the most?

Vasilis Lolos:NONE! I couldn’t stand them if they were real kids! They are annoying, the only one I could hang with would be Knievel and maybe Jack but still I don’t think I could spend a whole day with them without flipping out. Godamn filthy punks…

Manolis: Please describe to us your favourite scene to draw in this story so far.

Vasilis Lolos:I love drawing the car chases because I love drawing cars. I am a big classic car fan. I also love the Coney by night scenes they get me
exited just thinking of all the neon lights and carnival snacky-wacks. The scene where Jack points to Knievel and says to Patch, that he built the van engine and gears on his own, drops the line “Three gears in reverse” the van starts to burn rubber in reverse and then shoots by the police cars and Knievel flips the finger at the cops as they pass by.

Poetry.

Manolis: This comic is very location-specific, even judging from the title. Have you visited Coney Island yourself to scout for locations for your scenes or did you use photo references?

Vasilis Lolos: We went there to research and walk around where the scenes are played out. We walked around the carnival booths and at some point some carnie grabbed my hand and he was making me throw balls inside some contraption with a bull’s-eye… he had a an unlit fat-ass cigar in his mouth and an oily stained sleeveless shirt. Good times. Also the tattooed burlyman from the freak show was totally giving me the smile. We took a lunch of pictures there but the thing is Coney Island now has nothing to do with the Coney I am drawing in the comic, I am looking at it thought the lens of the late 1980’s, so what i get is a Coney Island that may have never existed. Its all about the neon baby.

Manolis: This is your first periodical full-length comics work. Did you
encounter any challenges while working on this title?

Vasilis Lolos:No, not other than the reasonable 32 pages a month 7-12 panels a page stress. I love drawing it the only challenge is the paper size(I won’t go into that now haha). We try to have a lot of panels especially when
I do indoor scenes to have a claustrophobic feel to it and spread open panels when I do outdoors scenes to emphasise the “open-air” feel.

Manolis: Rick Spears is the writer of your issue. You are accustomed to drawing your own stories, so can you tell us about your experience working off Rick’s scripts?

Vasilis Lolos:Rick is an awesome guy and an equally Awesome writer, he knows his stuff, he knows that 3-4 actions in a single panel are impossible haha and his scripts are a stand-alone read. In fact I really love it when I sit down and read his scripts because I get visuals when I do so. I really like the sense of humor that he puts in the book and that he manages to balance it with serious bits without losing any of the “fun” factor. I am used to writing my own stories but that doesn’t mean that I cant get exited over someone else’s story. Plus its good training, because when you write your own stuff sometimes, especially when you start out, you tend to be lets say… economic on what you draw and what you don’t. Working with a writer surely ups my drawing game, i have to draw everything and anything in the script no “detours”.

Manolis: You are handling the art and the colouring for the first two issues of the book. You have recently announced you are hiring a colorist for
issue 3 and onwards. What was the reason behind this decision?

Vasilis Lolos:The reason is elliminating the possibility of stress and delayed issues. I love coloring the book but I love it too much, so I put a
lot of time and effort in it, that takes time, time that I should be also drawing, designing and promoting the book. Most monthly books have a colorist in addition to the artist, so when you are drawing it and coloring it its double the work. Nick Filardi of NY Mech is going to be coloring but I will still go over the pages afterwards to tone, because you might not notice it at first but the book is also fully screen-toned.

Manolis: You have a very distinctive palette in your coloring. Will you be working closely with the new colorist to maintain consistency between your issues and his?

Vasilis Lolos:We were actually joking around that we should put a seizure disclaimer on the covers heh. When I was trying to figure out the palette for the book, I knew I wanted one for the night scenes and one for the day scenes. I got the colors in RGB mode that is super bright an unfortunately un-printable, so I spend 4 days trying to find the exact eye shredding matches on the CMYK mode that is the printing method. We gave Nick the colored pages that we have so far and he knows exactly what to do.

Manolis: What method do you use for coloring?

Vasilis Lolos:I treat my pages as stand-alone black and white, that makes coloring easier and I don’t have to “cheat” with color. The style is basic cell shading with some “brush strokes” then I go over it and do the screen
tone. I tone it as if it was black and white but since the colors are layed I can go and start coloring the actual screen tone.

Manolis: You are the first writer/artist from the Greek comics scene to successfully break into the American Comics market. What do you think were the defining reasons for your success so far?

Vasilis Lolos:I decided a long time ago that comics is what I want and will do. I started making comics instead of talking about making them. When the time came I didn’t care if I had to start over from zero, I got my shit together and started going to cons I started pitching my stories here and there, I did everything a person not from Greece would do to get a publishing deal. I am no exception, I am just am serious about it.

Manolis: Do you have advice for other aspiring artists from your country?

Vasilis Lolos:Stop talking about your comic and draw it. If you are serious about it there is no reason for creating self-imposed borders.

Manolis: Are you a fan of American comics, and if so, what were your favourites growing up and what are you reading now?

Vasilis Lolos:I love a good comic, i don’t care where they come from or who makes them. Growing up I loved Akira, the Dark Knight, X-men, Books of Magic, Ash, Video Girl AI and Spiderman. The last year or so my box had BPRD, Scott Pilgrim, Hellboy, Son of M, All Star Superman, Books of Doom and such. Right now I am reading American Virgin, Civil War,
All Star Superman, Wet Moon and the Escapists.

Manolis: Do you wish to do work-for-hire in the future for the Big Two or are you happy to work on your own properties? Is there a character out
there that you dream of one day being able to get your hands on?

Vasilis Lolos:I am very interested into creating my own characters but on the other hand at least once in my lifetime i’d like to sink my teeth into…Batman, Silver surfer, Ghost rider, Spiderman, Superman, Sandman…umm what?!

Manolis: How important have conventions been to you so far and will you be attending any more conventions this year?

Vasilis Lolos:Very, but the best thing is meeting people, making new friends and maybe getting to have dinner with your comic heroes. Hahaha. This year I’m done with US cons but next year i will be hitting all the major
ones again.

Manolis: Alright, it’s 5 years from now, Vasilis, where do you hope to see
yourself in that time and what do you hope to have accomplished?

Vasilis Lolos:Good comics? Five years are not that many…

Manolis: What other projects are you working on?

Vasilis Lolos:The Last Call, a coming of age story that involves 2 friends one ghost train and a murder mystery Coming from ONI Press. I am collaborating on a story with Becky Cloonan for FLIGHT 4 that we are both writing and drawing. There are also a lot of projects marinating in my gray matter some will see print sooner then others.

Aaaaand that’s a wrap for this week! I’m waiting your comments and feedback through email to Manolis@gmail.com. If you self-publish your own comics or represent an indy comics company, add me to your press release list, and I will run your news in this space every week.

Manolis Vamvounis
a.k.a. Dr. Dooplove

ah, the good old Dr Manolis, the original comics Greek. He's been at this for sometime. he was there when the Comics Nexus was founded, he even gave it its name, he even used to run it for a couple of years. he's been writing about comics, geeking out incessantly and interviewing busier people than himself for over ten years now and has no intention of stopping anytime soon.