An Interview with Pat Quinn

So, how did you get involved with this project?

Let's see...I was talking to inker Damon Hacker at the new Philly con a few months ago, and he introduced me to Jay Faerber. Jay and I kept in touch, and he showed my stuff to Chris Sotomayor who was looking for someone to replace the original penciller on the project.

What was the premise for this "Dr. Solar"? Was he the Gold Key version, 20 years later? A "new" version?

Well, I'm not the writer, but as far as I know, he was a little old and new. He was to get his powers through a nuclear accident, like both the Gold Key and Valiant version, but his look is obviously different.

What was the concept and/or plot synopsis?

Once he got the powers, he gave himself the mission of ridding the world (and the universe I think) of all evil, but he discovers that good cannot exist without evil, so reality starts to fall apart. There was some discussion as to whether the story should be set in the present, or in the past...I assumed that since the 6 page teaser was set in the present that the whole story would be; however, the plot for the first issue was set in the 60's. I was leaning towards having it be set in the present and have him be a 60 year old guy who becomes Solar.

Were you familiar with the Gold Key Dr. Solar? With either of Valiant?Acclaim's takes on the Man of the Atom? What did you like about the character and what did you think needed "fixing"?

I wasn't familiar with any of them. I mean, I recognized them, I knew who they were, but I didn't read the books. I left that stuff up to Mike and Soto. I did eventually decide to find out what Solar's history was, so I contacted you and Greg Holland to give me the low down, just to make sure we weren't covering the same territory.

How involved were you with plotting or submitting story ideas?

For the teaser, that was already written as a 5-page story. I went in and changed some elements and the pacing, so then it became a 6-page story. The guys were very happy with what changes I decided to make. Other than that, I would suggest some back story elements for the Dr.'s civilian identity, and talk about themes for the book. None of it was written when I came on board. A few weeks after I did the teaser, I got only part of a plot for the first issue, and then everything went under.

So, Solar was an older fellow when he first manifested his powers? And turns into the younger-looking, buff superhero on Page 5?

Right...I thought it would be cool to have the hero be an old guy, because A) I can't think of any character that started his super-heroic career as a senior citizen, and B) it just gave the character a bigger history and deeper character.

I also had no idea which way he was going to be written in the actual series, so I just went with what I thought would be clever.

When you were designing the Solar costume, you went through seven versions. What were you looking for? What was wrong with the red PJs and visor?

The only real mandate that came down from Soto to me was that they didn't want the old Cyclops style visor. Which is understandable. They also seemed to be leaning toward a black uniform. Those were my only real guidelines when I started. Some of the individual designs had some specific thoughts behind them, but the big idea was to do something different with the goggles.

So, why didn't you want Solar to have a star-filled suit, anyway?

For a few reasons; primarily, it has been done, especially with cosmic-y characters and, in particular, with a previous Solar. Mike and Soto had also talked about Solar getting into outer-space adventures and I was worried that he would get lost in a star-filled background. And my final worry was that it took away from the glowing elements of the costume (and his skin). Basically, there were too many special effects on one guy.

You have some mighty tight pencils, anyway, but this seems especially the case with Solar. Was Soto going to color your pencils or was there going to be an inker?

They were going to be inked. I guess I pencilled those pages a little more tightly because I wanted the guys to have faith in me, and that I knew this could be a big thing for my "career".

What's your educational background ?

I have a BS in Art Education and an MFA in Sequential Art.

How long have you wanted to be comic book artist?

Ever since I was a little kid. Who knew it would be this tough!!

Whose work did (do) you admire? Who have you learned the most from about the comics industry?

There are sooo many artists that I admire, I can't even go into it. I don't think I can quantify who I learned the most from...probably other artists.

What's keeping you busy these days? Any new projects you can talk about?

The only thing keeping me busy is trying not to starve to death. And I'm still working on more Cryptopia.

Speaking of that, when can I hope to read more Cryptopia?

It may be a while. The next installment(s) will probably be as one big fat 88-page graphic novel/TPB, which I'm still drawing (between trying to scrape together paying gigs!).

Are you available for commissions?

...I don't know...I mean, I'd like to for the extra cash, but I always feel like I do a half-assed job on commissions, which makes me feel like a jerk for charging money for a bad drawing...so I guess I should say no, no comissions, just con sketches for now...

Thanks, Pat! I really appreciate your taking the time to talk about this.

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