Interview with Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener!

Atomic-Robo is a very original series from Red5 Comics, co-created by writer Brian Clevinger and artist Scott Wegener. Nominated for awards, and with talk of movies and toys, Atomic-Robo is one smart and cool comic book with a bright future. As their fourth mini draws to a close, Richard Caldwell was fortunate enough to stage a hostage negotiation with Scott and Brian...

Guys, thanks for taking the time to share with the readers like so. Let's begin with a little background info on each of you. Were you both really rocketed here as infants from dying planets?

Scott- I applied for the position of Superman, but when I told them that capes were just not fashionable anymore and blue-red-yellow was an offensive color combination, they turned me down. So rather than Krypton, I'm from New York City.

Brian- I emerged fully formed from the Nexus Of All Realities in the swamps of Florida, exactly where you'd expect to find it. Later, I was bitten by a radioactive writer.

And what sort of creative lives were you leading before the dawning of Atomic-Robo? And where exactly did Atomic-Robo come from? Has he been with you for awhile?

S- Atomic Robo is actually one of the first creative-type jobs I've ever had. I've always been doodling and sketching and drawing for my own enjoyment. Brian and Robo just happened to come along at a period in my life when I was looking to do something completely different. I had a couple of options at the time, but drawing was the only thing that I could do that I absolutely loved.

When Brian first approached me with the concept for Robo I was instantly hooked. With Brian's help, we rolled a lot of the ideas I was messing around with on my own into Atomic Robo, and the end result is the comic book we've got now.

Brian, as the initial idea originated with you, is science something you are passionate about? I mean, the stories are all very clearly science fiction/adventure, but there have been more than a couple of soliloquies along the way, that makes one wonder at the research that goes into a work like this.

B- Yeah. When I was growing up, all the kids I knew were into sports. They'd watch games, collect cards, etc. But I was watching Nova and Cosmos and obsessively scouring astronomy books from the library. Other kids looked up to Dan Marino, but my hero was Carl Sagan. It's no coincidence he's popped up more often than any other guest star.

So, yeah, I developed a respect for the practice of science over the years. Its development is probably the greatest single achievement in history if only because so many other contenders for that title came about through scientific inquiry, however informal.

And a tremendous amount of research can go into these comics. A ridiculous amount really. It's doubly ridiculous when you consider how little of it actually gets into the final product. I looked into about thirty years of Sentai teams during the production of Volume 4, Issue 2 because it involves a parody of one. I researched the history of cartography just to make a throwaway joke about longitude inside another joke in Volume 3, Issue 4. There's one or more moments like that in nearly every issue.

The funny thing is, I've been accused of writing scripts that show off all this research I've done. I spent a week figuring out a timeline of Nazi advances into the islands of the English Channel, their strategic value to both sides, attempts to fortify and retake them, the fate of the civilians there under Nazi rule, etc. Do you know how much of that made it into the comic book? The year and name of the island in Volume 2, Issue 5. Information people probably forget a page later. That's showing off? A simple date and place tucked into the corner of a panel, as you would do in any comic book when making a big jump through time and space, is seen as this huge effort to draw attention to how smart I think I am? Moron.

Don't even get me started on the research Scott conducts for the architecture, fashions, advertising, vehicles, and technology of the times and places we're always jumping around to.

People, or most people anyway, deserve to be intimidated by intelligence. There is nothing wrong that can possibly come from that.
I'm finding though, in reading up for this dialogue, that you both actually have a heckuva diehard following. I know you have each been able to slide in side projects too; Brian with an array of webcomics and Scott with Image's Killer Of Demons. As you are rising stars, is it becoming at all difficult to balance the storytelling with "real life"? Do you live and breathe this stuff or what?

B- I have the unhealthy habit of focusing on my work to the exclusion of everything else in life. So, that helps.

S- I'd say yes, we do hyper-focus on making comics. Not exactly because we want to, but because that's the only way to make a living doing what we do. I was told once that comics are not a job. They are a lifestyle, and it's true. Work is constantly intruding on family life. I find I have to be very deliberate in saying, "These days and these times are for family and I am not allowed to work."

It doesn't help that I love what we do, so I'm constantly trying to sneak off and draw.

If making comic books was absolutely not an option in any way, shape, or form, what would you be doing with your time and your lives instead?

B- I don't even know. I'll cheat and say, "Go back to webcomics."

S- I'd be living a life of quiet desperation. Kind of like I was before I started drawing comics.

I guess like too many people, I'd have a job to pay the bills and put food on the table, and then what little free time I had would be channeled into something creatively fulfilling; cooking, sculpture, music. The things I used to do, I guess. The only downside (if you can really call it that) to working for myself, on Robo and other books, is that it consumes all the time I used to put into other things. But I don't mind at all.

So what's the technical process of your collaboration like? Do you plot together, or does Brian just write too far ahead? And what tools are your favorites right now, Scott?

B- It's hard to say. But basically we'll talk about the kind of storyline we want to do, or about a specific historic event we want to wrap a story around. Then we'll figure out the major beats to hang issues on. Then I get to writing the scripts.

When Scott gets them he puts his own spin on them, which is just as well because I'm more concerned with the gags and narrative than what the page will actually look like or how it'll work. So, lots of times, he'll have to change things around to make what's in the script work in pictures. As Scott finishes his pages, I go back to the script and make changes to better accommodate his changes so everything flows naturally.

And throughout the entire production process, we're sitting around on AIM bitching at one another about the changes we have to make to each other's work so the pages make sense.

S- Yeah that sums it up nicely. I can't really add anything to that.

As far as my tools go, I keep it pretty simple. I've got a fist full of mechanical pencils (the "clicky" kind), with .03 through .09 leads, and one loaded with blue lead. I don't even ink my work anymore. I just do really tight pencils.

That's shocking, on the pencils. And I'm sure you gripe at each other only because you care, really. What's been the craziest thing yet to come from the overall Atomic-Robo experience? Convention groupies? Mark Millar begging to direct the film?

S- We gripe at each other because we're jerks. Haha.

Yes, we both do care, an awful lot. It probably seems silly, especially with a book as lighthearted as Robo, to put that much effort into research, or getting a line of dialogue just right, etc. But we both want to make the best book that we possibly can, and whether that book is about deep interpersonal relationships, expressing a political agenda, or just about a Robo who punches things, if it's not as good as we can possibly make it then I'd feel like we were cheating people.

Are my pencils shocking? I just hate inking. It's as simple as that. I want things to be light and have bounce on the page, and most of the time, when you ink over pencils, things get stiffer. I'm very restricted in what I can and cannot do because it's no longer inked. But so far I'm very happy with the results.

What's the craziest thing to come from the Robo experience so far? Hmm, that's a hard one. I wish I could say it was the movie that almost got made- but that was more like a giant pain in the ass that left us shattered and discouraged.

I'd have to say it's the fans and what they do with Atomic Robo. The art, the emails, the guy who made a life-size Atomic Robo costume. Right now there are three animation studios working on Atomic Robo short films- not because anyone's going to make money off of it, but because they love Robo and want to show people that they love him. A big check from Hollywood would be great, but nothing can ever be as gratifying as these people who get involved just for the love of it.

I could tell you about the time Brian and I had to parachute to safety from the top of the Seattle Space Needle to escape a horde of lunatic fans. But that's not really what you want to hear about...

So what does the future look like from where you both are sitting?

S- Oh you know. Multi-million dollar movie, television, and video game options. Living a life of luxury. The usual stuff.

Realistically? It's hard to plan more than a few months ahead. I'd like to see the book increase in popularity so that we can focus on Atomic Robo to the exclusion of everything else. Comic books are a tricky market though. Who can say if that will ever happen.

We've got another eight or nine mini-series plotted out or in rough-outline form. It's at the point now that it will take us several years to tell the stories we have lined up, and that assumes we don't keep adding to the list!

Excellent. And Brian- any closing thoughts or parting shots?

B- Please buy Atomic Robo. I need new shoes. Not even kidding.


Learn more (and buy the books) at www.atomic-robo.com.

To see more of Brian's work, check out his website here, and his twitter here.

To see more of Scott's work, check out his website here, and his twitter here.