Interview With Comic Artist Sid Kotian

During my final months as an editor at DC, I remember being sent wonderful Punisher samples drawn by an artist named Sid Kotian. The storytelling was elegant and I was very into the art style. This was someone I wanted to work with, however, I had run out of space. I had filled up my last anthology title Batman: Urban Legends as it was to end around the time of my exit, a great cosmic coincidence.

It bothered me that I did not have room to work with Sid before I left. I tried to convince a few other editors looking to staff artists but they had plenty of artistic dream candidates they were looking to hire.

I followed Sid’s career as a fan and was thrilled to see him get work doing some awesome mini-series for Marvel Comics with great writers like Chris Claremont, Ann Nocenti, and Tim Seeley. It didn’t cross my mind that we could work together now.

Then after my pitch for I Know What You Did Last Crisis was approved my editor Andrew Marino said to me “I’m thinking of pairing you with an artist named Sid Kotian, are you familiar with him?” Despite Andrew and I being editorial colleagues, he was not one of the people I spoke to Sid about. He had no idea that I had long wanted to work with Sid and that I assumed the window had closed to do that. I messaged back “Yes, please! I think Sid is fantastic!”

Sid went on to draw our story “God’s Chosen Man” set during the days of Final Crisis, focusing on the cold war between the mysterious Libra and the infamous Lex Luthor. The terrific Patricio Delpeche colored the story and the great Tom Napolitano lettered it. You can see the first two inked and colored pages above. Sid and I got a long famously and I wanted to interview Sid to talk about the story. Enjoy!

DAVE: Sid, Hello! Thank you for doing my first interview for this Newsletter.

SID: Hi Dave! Thanks for trusting me with your first interview. I'm excited to share my story.

 DAVE: When did you decide you wanted to be a comic artist and were there any comics or even things like animation or illustration that led you down this path?

 SID: As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to draw comics. The earliest ones I had access to were Archie, Tintin, Asterix, and Obelix. I was completely obsessed with Archie and spent countless hours drawing those characters. My interest shifted when I read Frank Miller's Batman: Year One—that’s when my fascination with Batman and superhero comics began. I also watched Akira way too young—I was only eight and had unsupervised access to the TV. That movie had a tremendous impact on me. But it wasn't until I stumbled upon Image and Wildstorm books that I committed to actually becoming a comic artist.

DAVE: I have been taken with your art since I saw some Punisher Sample pages you did years ago. When I showed your art on the Final Crisis story to another comic artist friend of mine he said your art reminded him of John Romita JR and Rafael Albuquerque, two of my favorite comic artists. Were either of them influences on you? Who would you say your comic artist influences are?

SID: Thanks, man! I love both of those artists. It’s always interesting to hear which influences people see in my work. Honestly, I've only studied a few artists on purpose. Decades ago, I was essentially a Michael Turner clone. Later, I studied Jim Lee and Scott Williams' art, but no one ever seems to notice that in my work! I guess I was always a bit of a bad student, haha.

DAVE: That’s the great thing about being influenced by people instead of copying them. When you’re influenced by someone their work mixes with your perception of things and then what comes out tends to be your style. I think so anyway!

Our story in I Know What You Did Last Crisis was inspired by the comic Final Crisis, did you have any relationship with that comic before taking on this story?

SID: I pick up almost everything written by Grant Morrison, so I was definitely a fan of the Final Crisis storyline.

DAVE: Another thing you and I share in common! So far I have only worked with awesome comic artists, and to date, you have been one of my favorite artists to collaborate with. You are so thoughtful, and imaginative, and you make the most out of every detail in the script. What element of the story did you enjoy the most?

 SID: Without giving too much away? That’s tough! I really enjoyed drawing Superman—or a version of him, anyway. I think I managed to capture him in a way that looks like Superman, but there's something subtly off about him, for reasons that become clear later on.

DAVE: Your take on Superman was very unique and perfectly suited for the story, I think people are going to really enjoy it. That brings me to my next question, you do a lot of great commissions of Marvel and DC characters. If given the chance do you have any characters from those worlds you’d like to draw on a more long-term assignment?

SID: I usually get commissions for more offbeat characters—I’m not sure why that is! I just finished one for a Spider-Man villain called Big Wheel. Haha. But I’d love the chance to draw Green Lantern or more Superman comics. and of course, I'd love to draw Gambit again but only if Claremont's writing it.

 DAVE: Oh people love Big Wheel! I know him well. But I’ll keep in mind that you would like to do Green Lantern and Superman again. Other than this story do you have any other comics coming up that you can talk about? Or any of your past work you would like people to check out?

 SID: My past work? Definitely check out my original graphic novel Beneath An Alien Sky, which is available on Amazon. Right now, I’ve got Runescape coming out from Titan Comics. And, of course, there’s our little secret project that we can’t talk about yet, but trust me, it’s going to be mind-blowing.

 DAVE: That secret project is going to be excellent. In addition to that, I know I have said this before, but I would work with you again anytime, and I want to make sure the whole world knows that. Thank you for doing this interview, Sid! I know the world is going to love our story when it comes out on 10/2/2024.

SID: Dave, the pleasure is all mine. Your enthusiasm is contagious, and I’m confident our readers will feel the same. I can’t wait to share this story with the world. Let’s make October 2nd a date to remember!

For our first interview on this Newsletter, I think that went well and I want to do more in the future. Please talk to your comic store and have them order you a copy of I Know What You Did Last Crisis, we FOC on 9/2/24, and we are on sale 10/2/4. “God’s Chosen Man” is the name of the story and we think you’ll love it.

You can find Sid on Twitter at @kotianart and Instagram @sid_kotian_art, I highly recommend following him!

See you next time.

Stay safe!

—Dave Wielgosz