INSIDER PROFILE
Chris Sotomayor

CHRIS SOTOMAYOR took the comics industry off guard with his revolutionary coloring over Chris Cross’s pencils (no inks) on Marvel’s Captain Marvel series in 2003. Until this point, no penciller/colorist team had managed to make production of a comic book look better without an inker than with one. Chris’s success on Captain Marvel led to his other popular work on such titles as Supreme Power, The Avengers and X-Men. Beyond just being great at his job, Chris is also a teacher and, as such, has helped several young colorists hone their craft and jump-start their careers.

OCCUPATION: Freelance illustrator/digital color artist

DATE OF BIRTH: January 27, 1973

FIRST PUBLISHED WORK: Triumphant Unleashed #0 (a special “mail-away” book for an indie company named Triumphant)

INFLUENCES: My parents, my wife, Arleen, Maxfield Parrish, Lynn Varley, Richmond Lewis, and pretty much anyone working in comics right now.

LONGEST RUN ON A BOOK: Captain Marvel (thirty-plus issues across two volumes)

BEST KNOWN FOR: Probably Captain Marvel.

FAVORITE CHARACTER WORKED ON: That’s a three-way tie between Captain America, Captain Marvel and Hulk.

DREAM PROJECT: A long run on a Silver Surfer, Spider-Man or Daredevil book.

MOST PERSONAL WORK: Again, that’s gotta be Captain Marvel. I feel like I was firing on all cylinders and had a lot of creative freedom to experiment thanks to everyone involved. Supreme Power/Squadron Supreme comes a close second, though.

ART TRAINING: Aside from attending the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, I interned at an illustrator’s studio. That’s probably where I learned the most. That experience especially helped me with the business side of comics, which is often overlooked.

BEST ADVICE RECEIVED WHEN STARTING OUT: An illustrator named Michael Davis probably gave me the best life lessons/experiences for my career. But the best single piece of advice was probably when Denys Cowan told me, “If you screw something up on a page, you have twenty-one other pages to make up for it. Don’t sweat the small stuff.”