ERNIE COLON INTERVIEW in SCARCE 77 (2011) Part 3: ATLAS

ME: Did you end up at Atlas because they were close to the Marvel offices and you went then while trying to break out at marvel or did Atlas search for you?

ERNIE: Jeff Rovin, the ed in chief, asked for me. He was a bout 19 then--a wunderkind. If they had just let him do his job, he would have taken that company into serious competition. But the interference by management proved too much and the company drowned.

-You were quite up front at Atlas, being the original penciller on 2 titles, Grim Ghost and Tiger Man, while providing Atlas with several ads showing all their characters. Was it because you asked to be involved and they had confidence with you or because it was a not-to-miss opportunity, even if you were not paid extra for it (were you?)?

-I was paid much more than I asked for. Jeff was very respectful of talent and all of us freelancers would have followed him into deadly battle.

-25 years after Atlas, you worked again with Jeff Rovin for Cat Angels (it's the same Jeff, isn't it?). It was a poetry book about cats that you illustrate Have you been keeping contact with Jeff Rovin all hose years and do you share with him a love for cats?

-Never much liked cats. I have one now, though--Phoebe. I brought her in from a shelter to get rid of mice that invaded and threatened to take over the house. She assassinated a half dozen of them. The others are still running. She's a terrific little cat and appears to understand everything I say. At least--that's the impression she wants to give.

-Be it dogs, horses, tigers, you seem quite at ease rendering animals. Are you a nature lover?

- I'm a nature respecter. I like watching animals in motion. I'm not fond of riding horses, ( I'm convinced they don't want me up there) but they are beautiful to look at.

-I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that your work on Tiger-man had a Neal Adams influence in it (big characters from toe to head, the page layout) that was not here at all in your Grim Ghost pages or in your future work to come. Was it a kind of experiment you did or what it mostly to différenciate visually the Tiger-man title from the Grim Ghost one?

-To differentiate.

TO BE CONTINUED...