I think there's art, and then there's illustration. Art comes from a deeper place.
In the Marvel universe, vibranium has always been this material that absorbs kinetic energy. And any tiny bit of physics knowledge will tell you that that's really non-Newtonian. You can't just absorb energy, you've gotta change it into something else.
I'm always a little nervous when someone comes from other media into writing comics. It's a unique storytelling form, and it requires both talent and respect.
I grew up in a small town in coastal South Carolina. Where I'm from, the people are known as Gullah people. They're some of the first freed slaves that lived on their own, without being attached to the rest of the U.S.
I never really thought about the fact that most of the times I saw Black Panther, he was in New York or in some American city doing something cool with the Avengers. I mean, he's the Prince of Wakanda, but we rarely saw him in Wakanda.
Wakanda was allowed to develop freely, specifically on its own. Wakanda pushed back all the invaders. So they maintained all their traditions; they maintained all their styles.
The cool thing is, I was a little nervous about how they were going to handle Black Panther in his own movie, but then when I saw 'Civil War' and just the perfect way they handled him in that movie, it made me even more excited about a Black Panther film.
The detail of my art depends entirely on the project itself. I tend to be a little more detail-oriented with covers than I am with interior pages, and I try to reduce the detail on action sequences as opposed to suspense passages.
I decided that in Wakanda, the royal family would have extremely dark complexions, like so black they're blue. My attitude was, because the royal family is dark, the darker you are, the more you're considered royal.
I see every project I take on as significant, and I try to pour a lifetime of experience into it.
I try to place what I creatively have to say above who I am.
There is a profound gap between meeting a person and knowing a person, and that holds true for the difference between visiting and residing.
Illustration is commercial. It's work that we produce, and I think what you can do is you can draw from the pool of art, but most of it comes from a pool of knowledge.
I don't consider what I do 'art.' It's 'storytelling.'
Most creative people fall into one of two categories - either they're task-oriented, or they're time-oriented.
Oddly enough, Black Panther's almost like an analog to Tarzan.
I'm trying to have Wakanda represent all of Africa.
When you have a situation where you're hanging out with 20 or 30 other artists, then there's insane amounts of creativity in the room.
When you're an artist, you're generally working at home alone in a studio. It's just really good to get with other guys and make art something you can share.
Writing comics and drawing comics is a really very specific art form. It's a lot easier to get it wrong than it is to get it right.
