Nicola Scott

Gail Simone: “Nicola Scott and Wonder Woman seem to be inextricably linked from the very beginning, somehow.

Most of you will be familiar with Nicola’s amazing artwork. She came from nowhere, seemingly, but showed an astonishing professionalism and vision from her very first pages of art as a working pro. She had done a smattering of stories for titles like Star Wars and Halloween Man, but it was her stunning images of Wonder Woman that got the pro community fighting over her before she’d even landed a high-profile gig.

I won that battle, luckily, and she and I became fast friends working on the Birds of Prey title. She’s more than just a fantastic penciller, she is a true collaborator, and when Bop ended, she was my first choice to become the artist for Secret Six, where she consistently tops even her own high standard.

Wonder Woman is like her personal avatar, and if you’ve met Nicola, a stunning former model and actress from Australia, you can see that she’s practically Wonder Woman herself already.

She’s unshockable, a pleasure to work with, and she’s my Amazon sister. However, try to keep your lunch away from her as she’s a notorious food thief.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Nicola Scott!”

1) It’s no secret that I love your work and love your Wonder Woman in particular. It’s also clear that Wonder Woman is one of your most cherished characters. Can you tell us a little bit about what struck you about her, what you find so appealing?

Wonder Woman was the very first super hero character I ever saw. I was sitting there with my sisters and cousins (six girls in total, no boys) watching what I now know was the pilot episode of The New, Original Wonder Woman. I was four and I’ve never looked back since. After that I got hooked on the Super Friends, Batman re-runs, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Isis, etc, every superhero I could find but Wonder Woman was always the first and the best in my eye.

In a very direct way Wonder Woman was responsible for me deciding to draw comics. When trying to work out what the hell I was going to do with the rest of my life I had managed to pin it down to drawing but what would I really be happy drawing all day, everyday, if I had to? When it occurred to me that drawing Wonder Woman everyday would make me happy I had this perfect moment of clarity. That right then someone, somewhere in the world, had the job of drawing Wonder Woman everyday and their job was in comics.

2) I love that story. I loved that you worked hard and were rewarded like that. I know you’ve told the story before, but a lot of readers don’t know that you almost WERE Wonder Woman…how in the world did that come to pass?

I spent my teens and twenties studying and training to be an actor, a career that never really took off in a satisfying way. When the producers of “Lois and Clark” wrapped that show they went into developing a new Wonder Woman show. The treatment was pretty lame but I didn’t care, I wanted the part. I was 25, tall and fit and a wig and a spray tan away from being a pretty good Wonder Woman. I started auditioning from Australia and was told by the head of casting that I was a favorite. From what I understand, I got down to the last round. They never formally cast anyone as the show got shelved.

3) Unlucky for Wonder fans, very lucky for Secret Six fans. Now, readers mostly familiar with you from Birds of Prey or Secret Six might not know that Wonder Woman was instrumental in getting you professional work. You did several WW pin-ups that caught the eye of people like myself, Greg Rucka, and several others. Can you talk about that time a little? I always think it feels like Diana herself chose you, somehow.

That was a really extraordinary turning point for me. At the time I was getting semi regular work from Dark Horse, IDW and Image, all jobs I had received while having a fresh Wonder Woman piece in my folio, when an on-line friend, Brian La Belle, suggested I post some of these accumulated pages on Geoff John’s site, Comic Bloc. At the time there wasn’t really an appropriate place to post them so after some prodding I finally did. I posted about a dozen random Wonder Woman pages and the thread just took off. Less than a year later I was working with you at DC!

4) It’s funny, but I’m not even sure if I saw more than two of those images. But it was clear someone needed to hire you immediately. I think it’s also pretty clear that you are destined to draw Wonder Woman at some point. Recently, you got a chance to do that in Secret Six, in an appearance  deliberately designed for you to draw Diana. But it’s a darker, more vengeful Diana than we normally see. Did you enjoy finally getting to draw the character in a DC book?

HOLY COW!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!! the pages that Diana appear on go so much faster than any other page. I LOVE drawing the Six and every character moment I get to draw of them is sublime but there’s something very deep in me that gets completely thrilled drawing Diana.

5) Okay, with no restrictions, do you have a dream Wonder Woman project?

Yes, yes I do. I’ve had an idea brewing for quite a few years now. It’s a particular kind of Wonder Woman story that I don’t think has been told yet. Superman and Batman have a load of out of continuity stories, and out of canon too, that really add a flavor and a richness to their characters, yet Wonder Woman is seriously lacking.