ADDING SOMETHING GREEK TO THE IMAGINARIES - NIKOS KOUTSIS

[MattBrady]

Newsarama recently had a chance to interview Nikos Koutsis - one of Greece's premier illustrators who is about to throw his hat into the ring in the U.S. comic marketplace with the return of Superhero G in the new upcoming Imaginaries series from Abacus Comics.

Newsarama: While you fans in Greece are already familiar with your work, please tell our U.S. readers a little something about yourself.

Nikos Koutsis: Well, I was born in Athens, Greece in an era when people would not show much respect in the comics medium. I’ve been holding a pencil in my hand ever since I can remember, (same old story, I guess) and always knew I’d do that forever. Nothing else in life was or will ever be more important than that to me. Both the Comics and the Animation mediums provided me with the necessary inspiration and made me feel there’s a huge industry out there I could be a part of one day.

NRAMA: Your work is very clean and well crafted. Did you have any professional training?

NK: After school I studied Graphic Design in VAKALO, (the most acknowledged private art college in Greece at the time) and soon realized that, should I had stayed in Greece, I would only make a decent living if I’d work as a commercial illustrator. Long story short, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time establishing myself in the Greek advertising market, making adecent living, but never felt quite happy about it. I was on the wrong track. I was enjoying a lot of freedom and good money, but I wasn’t doing what I knew I could to be really happy.

NRAMA: And that was?

NK: Creating comics. I should mention though, that I had the opportunity to stretch my talents in the Greek TV animation field and even attend a seminar at Disney Consumer Products in Paris (back in 1995). I was offered a three-year internship that I had to give up due to my unavoidable military obligations at the time. Working in animation gave my artistic perspective a giant push that was crucial for my future development as an artist.

NRAMA: So what was the lynchpin that drew you conclusively into the comic book arena?

NK: Attending the San Diego Comic Con in 2004 for the first time put me on the right track for good! It was an unprecedented experience for me and constructive one as well. I soon developed my storytelling skills a lot and that resulted to my working for two huge clients, developing very important campaigns in a comics form! It was Adobe Systems Europe (UK) Ltd and UNEP DTIE (Paris branch). I illustrated an anti-piracy comics campaign for the former (twice, for 2004 and for 2005) used in eight European countries and two comics booklets for the latter, as their Ozzon protection campaigns for ’04 & ’05, (for their world wide presentations). I’ve also had a few pages to describe my techniques in ILEX Press’ (UK) book, Digital Fantasy Painting Workshop by Martin McKenna. I knew then that my next efforts would definitely be trying to work for a comics publisher...

NRAMA: Your work is reminiscent of Howard Porter with a dash of Joe Madureira thrown in for good measure. Who are your influences, and why are you only now reaching out for work in the U.S.?

NK: It always feels great to hear good words for your work and I appreciate it a lot. Porter’s work is great and there’s a lot of his rendering I find quite amazing (I guess, I should credit Dell’s inking too). Madureira is a great designer, a Jedi Master, and there’s a great deal of silhouette, geometry, style etc someone has to study in his work.

My influences don’t stop there, of course. I used to be amazed by Doug Mahnke’s art when he was inked by Tom Nguyen. When I visit comic book stores, there’s no way I won’t buy any book by artists like Paco Medina, Paul Pelletier, Alan Davis, Chris Bachalo, David Finch, Ed McGuinness or Mike Wieringo. Their art always ignites my inspiration.

There’s no need to mention I utterly admire Erik Larsen’s, Silvestri’s, J. Scott Campbell’s, Brandon Peterson’s art, to name a few more, and try to adjust patterns of their contribution in my styles.

NRAMA: You seem to have made the most out of what American books have made it to your country. Is there any artistic influence you’ve garnered from closer to home?

NK: Somewhere deep inside, there must be some hidden influences that I got from several European artists from the past, since I grew up being exposed to their art as well, but French publishers don’t seem to recognize any of them, since they find my style “too American” for their tastes! I don’t blame them. You see, I was very close to working for Dargaud a couple of years ago, illustrating a Laurent Bollee’s series, an attempt that failed the very last minute. I then realized I should lead my efforts to the US market. I think that’s where my art is going to be appreciated the way I feel it deserves to be.

NRAMA: Speaking of your home country, I understand there is a fairly popular Greek comic convention, Comicdom Con, and that you've done the artwork for the convention poster this year. What is the Greek comic scene and fan base like?

NK: Explaining what the Greek comic scene is like is a bit complicated. You see, Greek people take politics very seriously (I wouldn’t blame them for that) and we have a rich background of political comic strips and caricatures involving a lot of talent. Our comics creation/production though, have always been naïve and of small interest. And there’s a reason for that. Aspiring artists didn’t have access to knowledge…

Though we’ve been having generic art festivals annually, that were partially dedicated to our local comic creation efforts, we never had a Con for the dedicated fan, or the thirsty comic artist to deepen his artistic, technical, or any other, knowledge on the medium and evolve.

There were also magazines, featuring comics material - and their offspring, the fanzines - that came and went, moving the waters for a while, but always made the same mistake before starting to fade away... They never offered artistic and technical knowledge!

Comicdom Con Athens is different. The Con’s motto is “celebrating comics diversity” and there’s a lot more than plain celebration involved! Workshops, International guests participating in Q&A panels, extensive presentation of the local comics publishing production, original art exhibitions, booths… Just navigate through www.comicdom.gr and find out all about it, including the Con’s poster I’ve recently illustrated.

As for the Greek fan base, there wouldn’t be any if we didn’t have our dedicated Comic book stores to constantly feed our desires. I’m forever grateful to them! They kept the hope alive!

NRAMA: You mentioned San Diego, have you been to any other conventions around the world? If so, how do they compare to Comicdom Con?

NK: Apart from the San Diego Comic Con, I’ve also attended the annual Angouleme’s Festival in France (2005), the biggest Comic event in Europe. It was huge, spread all around the city and there was a great amount of exhibitions, lectures, booths etc going on.

It’s common knowledge that if you speak English to a French man in France, you’d probably get no response whatsoever, even if he does know the language. That was hardly the case there. It was a very inspiring and colorful experience art-wise, but still I could hardly find a way to gain any technical knowledge there. And the French Publishers would hardly show any interest in any Americanized stylistic approach!

If you’d like to picture our Greek Comicdom Con, just consider it us a tiny (very tiny) San Diego Con one, where our guests (US and UK mostly) would come and share their secrets openly, without ego, selfishness or such. And that’s what I call evolution.

NRAMA: It seems like with the quality of your work you could be working for the big two at the drop of a hat. What drew you to working on The Imaginaries?

NK: I think that it’s a worldwide rule that to get a job somewhere you usually need to contact the ones that offer the opportunities personally. Living on the other side of the Atlantic doesn’t make things easy for me…

What I seek is to have a bunch of scripted pages on my desk providing me a lay-out and a stylistic challenge! A reason to go through all my references and stretch my muscles, carrying heavier weights each time. And it was Mike S. Miller, Publisher of Abacus Comics, that gave me the opportunity. I appreciate this a lot.

A few samples of Super Hero G and Hero Boy, plus a couple of pages based on Ben Avery’s script was all Mike and I needed to know that we were meant to work on The Imaginaries project together. The story of a broken family Kid giving up on his imaginary friend, in order to grow up is a familiar story to me. And the efforts of Super Hero G to be a part of his creator’s life once again a great play ground for me to take advantage of. I had a great time penciling the first issue and feel it’s going to get even better moving on with this project!

The new Imaginaries project is due out in late spring/early summer.

[LaughingJak]

Wow. Those pages look great.

[pan-man]

Way to go Nikos!!! Great art as always!!!
Wishing you the very best and hope to see you at the next Athens Comic Con in March...

[Ye Olde Iowa]

Those pages do look really good. I'll definitely keep my eye out for it now that Koutsis' great art is on my radar.

[Scott King]

I don't know how to read Greek.

[Hobowatcher]

I'd love to see this guy on Robin or Metal Men.

[theodoros2]

Originally Posted by Scott King

I don't know how to read Greek.

A lot of pages are translated into engish.

[Bob LeFevre]

I've always felt that more could be done with Superhero G. Here's a little scketch for ya!!!

[Aaron]

Agreed, that art looks great, reminds me a bit of Todd Nauck. Hope to see Nikos doing more American work (and, obviously, non-Abacus work) in the future.

Aaron

[FallenFate]

This looks pretty cool, actually, but I have a question that maybe someone a little more knowledgeable in copyright law can answer...

Isn't the term "superhero" co-trademarked/copyrighted by Marvel and DC? I'm pretty sure it's an international copyright as well, not just US.

[AbacusComics]

Guess we could have added a link to the website. heh.

[Peter Porker]

gia sou re ellinara !!!

[benavery]

Originally Posted by Bob LeFevre

I've always felt that more could be done with Superhero G. Here's a little scketch for ya!!!

That's cute. Very fun!

I love Decoy. (And the Decoy/Hero Bear crossover is a milestone in my limited comic book collecting life.)

Ben

[Bob LeFevre]

That's cute. Very fun!

I love Decoy.

I love Decoy too!!! I drew a Decoy story for Courtney and Penny Farthing Press recently. The writer of Image's Small Gods, Jason Rand wrote it. I have some samples of it on my Myspace page. If you like it you can still order the book from www.pfpress.com It's called Decoy: Menagerie part 2
Here's a Decoy sample page


This new Superhero G book is shapping up great, I'll be looking for it!!! The artist has a fun style that I could see on Superman.

[Dr Manolis Dooplove]

bravo niko!!!

Greek artists are taking over american comics!

[kurupted]

Originally Posted by pan-man

Way to go Nikos!!! Great art as always!!!
Wishing you the very best and hope to see you at the next Athens Comic Con in March...

if i could i'd extend my trip to attend this but that damn university calls

nice art though and great to see more greeks getting breaks into comics

[Kolimar]

Excellent samples with a very attractive style. Looking forward to seeing more from Nikos in the future.

[EmeraldGuy32]

Didn't this already come out through Alias? Or am i just imagining that...

[AbacusComics]

Originally Posted by EmeraldGuy32

Didn't this already come out through Alias? Or am i just imagining that...

Imaginaries Vol. 1 came out through Image and Alias, the TPB came through Alias. This is Vol. 2.

So you're not imagining anything. lol.

[EmeraldGuy32]

Originally Posted by AbacusComics

Imaginaries Vol. 1 came out through Image and Alias, the TPB came through Alias. This is Vol. 2.

So you're not imagining anything. lol.

oh, ok. I'll check it out then.

[brazilgilliam]

Ell-as!

Ell-as!

Zito Ellatha!

Bravo, vre Nikaki!

[stlfan79]

I really enjoyed the first series, I will try to remember to order the second.

[Garry/Al-Fan]

I really liked the first issue of The Imaginaries, thought it was fresh, interestingly-drawn, and fun. I wish the story had been a little tighter from 2 to 4, and I think that Superhero G and his original sidekicks (girl, guy, and rabbit) are a lot more interesting than the Clark Kentish-alter ego and the leprechaun, and I wish that the original artist could've finished out the arc, but I'll definitely check out the new version when it comes out.

It looks good.

[AbacusComics]

Originally Posted by Garry/Al-Fan

I really liked the first issue of The Imaginaries, thought it was fresh, interestingly-drawn, and fun. I wish the story had been a little tighter from 2 to 4, and I think that Superhero G and his original sidekicks (girl, guy, and rabbit) are a lot more interesting than the Clark Kentish-alter ego and the leprechaun, and I wish that the original artist could've finished out the arc, but I'll definitely check out the new version when it comes out.

It looks good.

Well thanks Garry! By 'tighter', what do you mean? And obviously the Superhero G stuff will be more 'fun' than the 'George' parts, he's in costume and bounding about doing superhero stuff.

Glad you liked the first issue so much, and hope the new issues really kick into gear for you!

[Relax Comics]

Hey Niko. Congratulations from everybody here at Relax Comics. Just wanted to say that being a great artist AND a great guy finally pays up. Keep up the good work, kai krata gera!!!

See you @ ComicdomCon I hope…