Hal Jordan has had an
eventful decade. He went from losing his home Coast City to
losing his mind, ring and then his identity to what is now
known as the Parallax entity; he then lost his life
and took on the form of the Spectre, the Spirit of God's
Vengeance.
However, in 2004's "Green
Lantern: Rebirth," Jordan regained Coast City, his life, his
ring and the role of Earth's Green Lantern. And one of the
men behind his resurrection is artist Ethan Van Sciver. Off
and on for the past four years, Van Sciver has been
penciling Jordan's adventures as well as the adventures of
many of DC Comic's superheroes.
Van Sciver's work has
achieved acclaim, especially among the fans of the
Green Lantern Corps Message Board.
During a recent poll, 57 percent of the voting participants
voted Van Sciver "Artist of the Year." Van Sciver beat out other "Green Lantern" artists Ivan
Reis, Patrick Gleason and Patrick Blaine.
Van
Sciver talked about the contest and the character of Green
Lantern during the
Super Mega
Show Comic Book Convention, held at the Crowne
Plaza in Fairfield, New Jersey on July 12 and 13.
"Thank you very much,
that is awesome," said
Van Sciver, 33 who lives in Orlando, Florida with his wife,
Sharis, and son, Hunter.
"I heard [about the poll]
and that was really incredible."
He added, "I am honored
and flattered at the same time."
Throughout the day, it
seemed Van Sciver was gaining more fans as he had a constant
line of people 15 to 20 deep waiting for him to illustrate
an autograph of sorts. Fans walked away, not just with
pictures of any of the number of Green Lanterns, but also
with illustrations of the Flash, Spider-Man and a slew of
other superheroes.
Van Sciver said this is
not the first time he has had to draw armies of superheroes
and supervillains. During the recent "Sinestro Corps War"
series, Van Sciver was drawing battle scenes with several
hundred Green Lanterns and Sinestro Corpsmen.
"Ivan Reis did most of the
real hard work and I think with his spreads in ‘Green
Lantern’ #25 [were amazing], which I also contributed to," said Van Sciver.
He added, "For my big ‘War
of the Light’ and the most [difficult thing] for me the were
that characters - in scene - was their first appearance. I
had to create everything."
He explained, "When you
have to create a lot of characters from scratch, it is hard
to do all in one sitting.
"I would sort of map out
the general outline or layout of the general area of the
characters and I would come up with some ideas [for
characters] put them down and then walk away from it. Later
I would have a couple of more ideas for characters.
"That way there was a
general sense of freshness about the whole piece. I did not
feel like I had to come up with 7,200 aliens all at once,
thus resorting to a lot of ‘lizard men’ aliens which is what
artists do when the run out of a lot of ideas."
One aspect that helped Van
Sciver was him being able to keep the Green Lantern Corps
costumes "uniform."
"I believe in keeping the
Green Lantern costumes as streamlined as possible. I think if you make them different, it suggests
that things are kind of loose [discipline-wise] with the Green Lantern Corps,"
said Van Sciver.
He added, "I think the
symbols should all be the same and consistent, especially
the Sinestro Corps Uniforms. They have to be uniform because
Sinestro is a fascist."
However, he discussed the
tweaking of Hal Jordan’s costume, which went from being a
green leotard-like suit that covered neck to the
top of his thighs, but now the green cover stops just above
Jordan's waist, as can be seen on the cover of "Green
Lantern: Rebirth."
"That was actually Pete
Tomasi and Carlos Pacheco, and I think [made the decision to
update it and it] happened that while I was working on ‘Green
Lantern: Rebirth’," said Van Sciver.
"They suddenly showed me
this new costume and said, ‘This will be Hal's new
uniform' and at first I was resentful
towards it because I thought his underpants had come
unsnapped," he said but later he said he became accustomed
to it.
Speaking of costumes, Van
Sciver mentioned he would be working on an issue of "Wonder
Woman."
"I am going to be
doing a one
shot ‘Wonder Woman’ project with [longtime creator] Gail
Simone," said Van Sciver.
And he discussed her
star-spangled trunks and Van Sciver said he will not be
doing the "two star cheat" to streamline the process.
"That was done by artist
Henry Dobson, but I've been able to get them [the stars] all
down," said Van Sciver.
With a sly smile he added, "Everything I do is
perfect and what I do is definitive and what I will be doing
is the definitive 'Wonder Woman'."
On the note of Wonder
Woman, one woman who left those around her wondering was a
former World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme
Championship Wrestling (ECW) "diva" who had been signing
autographs near Van Sciver's table. She stopped by to say
hello.
And she admitted, she had
been drinking.
"A beautiful woman has
just thrown herself across myself table," said Van Sciver.
The blond woman introduced
herself, "My name is George Frankenstein and my husband was
in the [rock bands] the Misfits and Danzig, his name is
Doyle Van Wolfgang Von Frankenstein."
According to Wikipedia,
Frankenstein was born Stephanie Bellars in 1976 in Rockford,
Illinois and since 1999, she has signed autographs at
conventions and besides WCW and ECW, she has wrestled in the
independent circuits.
"Can I tell you something
about the Green Lantern?" said Frankenstein. "One of my good
friends -- his name is Remer -- had a Green Lantern ring."
She added, "Like 10 years
ago I did a show back in New York and I met the original
Green Lantern. He was there and I said thank you so much [to
the original Green Lantern] and it was a very ceremonial
[occasion] because the Green Lantern is a big a part of my
life."
Van Sciver asked her to
elaborate as to who this original Green Lantern was.
"You met like an older
man?" asked Van Sciver.
"Yeah," said Frankenstein.
"You met Martin Nodell?"
Van Sciver said.
"I don't know what his
name was," said Frankenstein.
She added, "I'm drunk!"
She said again. "I'm
drunk!"
"This has been the most
chaotic interview ever," said Van Sciver with a chuckle.
"But I think what this interview is going to show is how
passionate Green Lantern fans are. I mean we met somebody
[associated with] Danzig who loves Green Lantern."
However with a chuckle he
added, "Danzig hates me by the way."
"Why?" Frankenstein asked.
"You serious?"
"Yeah, I don't know. I've
never met him. He just does," said Van Sciver who said he
heard this via the internet. "Danzig said, ‘I hate you and I
can't stand your art.’
"I said, 'Well, I
can't stand yours, Danzig!'"
Frankenstein protested,
"Well that sucks, but that's not me!"
"No, that's not you nor
your husband," affirmed Van Sciver.
With another smile, he
looked at the tape recorder recording the conversation.
"Are you getting all this
in? This is probably more interesting than what you thought
it was going to be."
But Frankenstein
persisted.
"My uncle is Glen Danzig
and I love him to death," said Frankenstein before fans
began walking up to her asking for her autograph.
"Well, tell him to stop
hating Ethan Van Sciver. Who is Danzig to say I suck?" he
said with a laugh.
And he added with a smile,
"Tell him the Green Lantern Corps Message Board voted me
artist of the year."
For more information about
Ethan Van Sciver, visit
www.myspace.com/ethanvansciver
