Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow Sarky Interview Travis Mercer on Polar Boy and "Snow Date"

Surprise! Happy holidays, everyone! My gift to LW this year is an interview with artist Travis Mercer for his work on "Snow Date" in "Tis The Season To Be Freezin'" with Rich Bernatovech.

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1. Sarky: Hi Travis. So, first question, was this your first time working with DC?

Travis: This was my first complete story for dc but not my first published work for them. I provided some pages for red hood: outlaw number 46 focusing mostly on the Artemis aspect of that story.

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2. Sarky: Travis, you and Rich Bernatovech collaborated on a Legion of Super-Heroes story set in the current Legion?s continuity right? What are your thoughts on the Legion? Any favorite stories, characters?

Travis: Yeah it?s set in the current continuity that Bendis and Sook set up in their 12 issue run which was a huge deal since we got to bring back and redesign a character(s) that they had not used yet!

To me the Legion should always be a top selling book. These characters are a young, diverse cast all trying to live up to the ultimate heroes' ideals. There?s a lot of room to see these grow and change in pursuit of that. Plus if you add in the creative freedom of the futuristic sci fi background. It?s gold. Look at what My Hero Academia has done, it is s group of young heroes trying to live up to legendary heroes that have come before. I can?t help but think there is a huge group of fans wanting more of these type of stories and the Legion can be that.

I remember my first exposure to the Legion was when my mom came home with a package of assorted DC comics from Costco (price club at the time) and the Legion was one of those books. I didn?t know who they were or what was going on but I loved the fact that they were young heroes with awesome powers really drew me In, Like teen titans mixed with the x men.

I would say the cartoon from the mid 2000s was also a huge influence on my love for the Legion. Also one of my favorite episodes of Smallville is the one where three Legionnaires come to Clark from the future stands out to me as a great reminder that Legion rocks.

Up until now I would say Timber Wolf has been my favorite legionnaire. I like that he was kind of a werewolf but not a monster. Like a young Wolverine type and for a 90s kid, that?s all I needed. He also always had a great look to me.

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3. Sarky: What was it like collaborating with Rich on this story overall? For this tale, you got to redesign Legion vets Polar Boy and Comet Queen for a new era. What was it like getting to add your own touches to the Legionnaires?

Travis: Working with Rich was awesome. He is the type of writer who wants to write to the artist's strengths so that the book can be the best it can be. In our Polar Boy story, Rich was able to write a story that gave me plenty of opportunities to show my dynamic, action oriented style, but also helped make the the more emotional scenes. This helped me narrow my focus when laying out the pages.

When our Editor Michael McCalister approached me with this project I was completely stunned! I mean, not only was I going to get to do a Legion story in a holiday special but on top of that I was tasked with redesigning a character that has not been seen in decades! For a relative newcomer, this was beyond anything I would have imagined. Redesigning a character and adding my personal take on it was a dream/bucket list item that I have always wanted to do and here I was, getting to do it almost directly out of the gate! I felt extremely lucky and grateful?.that was immediately followed by sheer panic! Haha.

When I began doing the designs I started by keeping two things in mind: I wanted the designs to feel like they still fit into what Bendis and Sook had already created visually but also keep true to the core of the characters. To me, Polar Boy is a bit younger, greener, and more na?ve then some of the other Legion characters and I wanted that to reflect in his look. I wanted his costume to not look exactly like a costume yet but more of the 31st century street clothes with his classic color scheme. Comet Queen is seen as more of a future social influencer with a large social following which is why in this story she is wearing a dress rather than just the classic chrome look. In our version, these characters are not full fledged members of the Legion yet.

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4. Sarky: This story also saw the introduction of a new Legion villain, Captain Freeze. What was it like working on his design?

Travis: For Captain Freeze, I had this concept in my head about this guy, who is a blue collar worker in the future who is a huge fan of Captain Cold. Not just because he can relate to him because of his power to control ice, but because Cold was a rogue that valued the working class ethics. Kind of like the people who idolize cowboys and gunslingers from the Old West. They romanticize them because they are from a different time. Visually, I wanted all of this to be reflected in his look which is why he has more of a jumpsuit looking outfit but also has some nods to Captain Cold.

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5. Sarky: The story called for designing some new holiday icons alongside Santa Claus as part of Polar Boy?s mission to reawaken awareness of the various celebrations throughout the galaxy. You put a lot of work and effort into making them distinct from each other.

Travis: Oh man, the Holiday Creations were a bit tricky. I had to go through a lot of what Sook had done in his issues and make sure that the designs matched how he had seen some of the races but also give them a ?fantastical quality? that would be celebrated in a larger than life way. I feel like Rich?s script really helped give me the details I needed to make them all seem unique but also fit into the futuristic universe easily.

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6. Sarky: Finally, what would you say your hopes are the rest of the holiday season, the rest of 2021, and the beginning of the new year?

Travis: I think a large hope for me is that people enjoy the reintroduction of Polar Boy and Comet Queen enough that we get to see them pop up in a more consistent way in the future. I also hope that people enjoy my art on these pages enough to want me to continue to work on these characters. Or just to continue to work on other DC titles. I really love the DC universe and I have so much more to give as an artist and I just hope fans will support me as I go forward.

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7. Sarky: Thank you so much for contributing such a fun and refreshing new story to the Legion?s history.

Travis: Thank you so much, it has been such a pleasure adding my little mark on the 31st century and as always?.LONG LIVE THE LEGION.

Interesting. It was especially nice to hear his reasoning behind the look of Captain Freeze. One of the few things I wasn't all that keen on in the issue was how bland and generic his outfit was, but it's interesting to hear that the intention was to go for "working man", so it kind of makes sense. I was surprised you didn't comment on CF's being on the heavier side, which was something I did think was cool.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed both the writing and art on this story, and the fact that it came from two relative newcomers gives me some hope for the future of the medium!

This is a great interview - really interesting to see Travis' approach to his work and the Legion. Thank you for posting this, Sarky!

Great interview, Sarky. I can appreciate the reasoning behind the designs of Brek, Grava and Captain Freeze. Thanks for sharing!

I did an interview with Rich for Super-Bloggers as a gift, so you guys deserved something just as good.

Good interview! I love hearing about artist's thought process behind their design choices!

Thank you, Sarky! That was great fun to read!

I would *definitely* want to see Travis as the artist on the Legion, be it a limited series or a full-fledged relaunch. With Rich writing, of course.

100%

Thanks Sarky! Great interview.

As thanks to Travis for his work on the Polar Boy story, and as a Christmas/birthday gift to myself, I commissioned this from him.

Love it! Thanks, Sarky.

Nice work Sarky! Thank you!

You can share it on the LW facebook page if you want. I never know who to ask about sharing my art on there.

Facebook is mostly Alec's baby, but thanks. I'll share it now.

I was just remembering how much I liked this story. Need to re-read it sometime soon.

yeah, I really dug it. Nice use of both Polar Boy and Comet Queen - elements of their quirkiness were kept, while still making them very competent heroes.