Chris
Okay, well, let’s get started, you’re a mainly a pencil artist. So, has that always been your main focus when it comes to your art?

Skoot
Yeah, I would say so. Even back when I was little, we grew up not having a lot of money, so pens and stuff just weren’t on the agenda, so pencils were easy to get and they were cheap and paper was easy to get and it was cheap, so, I just kind of started drawing lines with a pencil and then I found out you could shade with a pencil and then, it kind of became a thing where I was just like, well, let me see what I can do with a pencil. And then I, studied realism for a while and did realism. But comic book art’s always been, my, my jam. So, so when I discovered, how to make comics, I discovered that there’s a pencil or an inker and a colorist and I was like, well, maybe I could just still focus on pencils and, keep the thing that I love to do and not have to stress about learning other tools.

Chris
Right. So, well, obviously, that’s probably your favorite, but what other median do you like to work with?

Skoot
So I’m, I, this year in particular, I’ve spent a lot of time working on my inking because most of the time, when people want commissions, they want, they want it to be inked, which I’m okay with. But I’ve actually gotten to where I kind of love to ink. When I do my covers and stuff, not so much because I like to put everything I can into the pencils, but, inking is a lot of fun now, so various pens, various brushes. But then starting last year when I did the Marvel sketch cards, I started, learning to use alcohol markers, for colors. So, I’ve never considered myself a colorist and I never will consider myself a colorist, but, I’ve gotten to where it’s fun to experiment. I’ve never been great with painting unless it’s just flat colors. But it’s been fun doing the alcohol markers, but then outside of drawing. I like to sculpt, so I love doing stuff out of polymer clays or woodworking or, I just like to do things with my hands.

 

Chris
Yeah, you always seem to have quite a few things displayed at Halloween and Christmas time that you’ve done on your own, which I really love to see. One thing in particular that just blew my mind was the, The demogorgon coming out of the wall with its mouth open. What was, what was that made out of?

Skoot
So that was, it primarily was made with expanding foam. That stuff that you can get at Walmart and it’s sprayed and you can fill in cracks
and it’s like insulation. So what I did is I kind of drew up a skeleton, what it would look like on the inside, and I made the skeleton kind of out of
cardboard. Then when I had the gaps, I just filled in with expanding foam and then when that expands, it expands into a carvable type of foam. So you, you spray it and then, I’ll let it, like rise for like a day and then I’ll come back with just different knives and just start hacking away at it and just sculpting it just like you would out of wood or out of clay. You’re just using foam and once you get the shape you want, you do a layer of masking tape to kind of fill in all those holes that the foam has, and then you go through a layer of paper mache and you can do as many layers as that as you want, and then you can get to where you do spackle all the way up to, any kind of hardener that you want. But with a demogorgon, since he’s kind of ugly and all scaly and as crazy looking skin. I skipped all those other layers and just went straight to painting over the foam and it seems to work. He’s still hanging in my garage, actually, hangs there year round.

Chris
Yeah if I remember correctly, didn’t, I cannot pronounce his name(Gaten Matarazzo), but the kid that played Dustin, no, is that right, Dustin? In Stranger Things and he saw it on social media and commented on it. ?

Skoot
Yeah, so Ashley posted, for people don’t know, Ashley’s my wife. She posted it somewhere. I don’t remember where she posted it, but, yeah, he commented on and said how much he liked it, so that was super cool.

Chris
Heck yeah. I do, I love that piece. It’s so awesome. Okay, what are some of your biggest influences when it comes to art?

Skoot
Most of my influence, obviously, are in comic art realm. I have others. I’ll go to a second, but as far as comic books, my biggest, biggest top will never drop the 2nd inspiration is Michael Turner. He was real big in the late 90s and early 2000s, when he drew witch blade and came up with Fathom and started his own company Aspen comics and, his style is something that stuck with me ever since I was little. So when I was young and I was drawing pages from comic books, just mocking them, trying to draw those pages, it was always Michael Turner that I was drawing. So, he’ll, unfortunately, he died of cancer in 2008, so we never really got to see, how much further he would have
gone, but anytime I need reference, you know, for a hand or a woman’s face or an eyeball or whatever, I had books of Michael Turner’s artwork, I’m always referencing him. As far as other artists, David Finch is probably my 2nd. He’s the reason that I think I came back to comics that felt like I could do comics because prior to coming back to comics, I was doing realism, you know, like that Stormtrooper piece I did
for you. I was doing realism and that’s really tasking. It takes a lot of work to do that, a lot of mental brain power to take a photograph and then make it look, you know, take a pencil and make it look like that photograph. But David Finch kind of blends comic book cartooning with realism, with the way he shades and does his rendering, his hash marks and his cross happening and stuff. So he was a huge influence on me coming back to comic art from doing realism. So my style, a lot of people will say it’s kind of a blend of Michael Turner and Dave Bench. Um, and then there’s tons of other comic. I mean, we could be here all day and I could post comic, but those 2 were tip top. but growing up, loving Star Wars, you know, Ralph McQuarrie, if you’re an artist and he’s not one of your inspirations and you probably just don’t know any better. But definitely, definitely Ralph Macquarie, and to that point, all concept art from Star Wars and from video games. I love looking at that pre-movie pre-video game visualizations. So all of those artists, even ones I don’t know their names, I can flip through books by that and I can learn something. So I love pre-visualization stuff.

Chris
Yeah, Ralph Macquarie has been a, a big one for me. We met, me and you met working at Target, probably about 17, 18 years ago and we, of course, once we realized that we both love Star Wars. That’s kind of how we got to know each other and then other geek stuff like Marvel and pretty much anything. Then Ashley comes along and you 2 get married and me and you moved on to different jobs, but we’re, you know, still really good friends and we try to spend as much time together as we can. We both always geeked out over Ralph Macquarie, and for me, it was always fascinating, as a kid because I was always, so much into Star Wars, that if it’s not Star Wars, you know, If it’s just something else, space, then it’s not good enough, but for some reason with Ralph Macquarie’s work, even though it didn’t match what we saw on the screen, it was, I was drawn to it for some strange reason. But for me, it’s fascinating if you look at Star Wars, and then Empire, the Jedi, Star Wars is way out there as far as the looks. Empire is a lot closer to what they, what the final product looks like, and Jedi is pretty much right on with what the final product looked like, because as each movie got along, then he got more comfortable and he knew more about the universe and what George was doing, so it was easier for him to come up with the stuff and make it look so, so much more, even though it is still concept, it’s still pretty close to how they finished it, which was fantastic. And of course, you know, Doug Chang has come along and he’s just done a fantastic job too.

Skoot
Yeah, I love dope things. So he was another one that I was trying to think of. For some reason, I was drawing a blank on his name, but I love Doug Chang stuff, but going back to Macquarie. I mean, I mean, he’s, I would say he’s almost as much responsible for the Star Wars we know and love as much as George Lucas is. So it’s like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Stan Lee came up with the character, but Jack Kirby’s the one that came up with how the Fantastic 4 looked and how Spider-Man looked and all those characters, how they looked. So it’s the same for Ralph Macquarie. Would we have Darth Vader that we know now if it weren’t for Ralph Macquarie? Absolute not.

Chris
Absolutely not, because he was the one that added the breathing mechanism to the whole thing. If anybody doesn’t know that, that’s where that came from. He, you know, genius and I wish we, I wish we could have met him at some point. I’ve met and dealt with, uh, I’m drawing a blank on his name, but a friend of mine. He’s worked with Ralph McQuarrie. He still does work with his company, and I’ve gotten to know him. I had him on my podcast years ago and he’s really, really good guy. I got a couple of pieces of art from him over the years. So, It’s been fantastic.

Skoot
Yeah, I need you to hook me up with one of those pieces of art because I still don’t have a Macquarie piece.

Chris
What are some of your favorite characters that you like to draw specifically for when it comes to Star Wars?

Skoot
So I’m very much an organic person. Like when I draw, if you give me a human, I can draw them. But it’s almost, I don’t want to say it’s not as fun, but it’s more labor intensive because to someone like yourself who’s not an artist. You can look at a human face, that I’ve drawn, and you can be like, that eye’s off. and it’s not because you know how to draw it because you know what a face should look like. But if you give me a character that is organic, like Swamp Thing or for Star Wars, something like the Rancor or, any of the monster characters, anything from the Cantina, you know? Although you know what they should look like. I can go in and add details and almost mindlessly draw those characters to what they should look like and it’ll come out looking right. So give me any of those organic characters, you know, even even so much with Yoda, he has human features, but he is, you know, he’s got the big ears and the big eyes and the kind of push forward muzzle, you know, so that that kind of stuff that I can go in and just add crazy detail to is super fun. But then on the flip side, give me a sexy woman.

Chris
Exactly.

Skoot
So, you know, give me a give me a layer and I’m good to go too. So.

Chris
Yeah, there’s a lot of that in comics, which is fantastic. Always love that stuff. Um, you know, I, like I said, we’ve known each other for a long time there for so many years, you, you’ve always been drawn every time like, you come to work and you got your backpac with you all the time. You’re always drawing, if you’re sitting down on lunch you’re drawing, but you never got around to selling your stuff. And uh, so when did you finally decided to get into selling your stuff. How did that come about?

Skoot
So that is, I will say that is almost 100% thanks to my brother Brad. He has the knowledge of Star Wars. That dude is like, he’s on another level. Um, so so he would go into the comic shop every week and buy his comics and, he said, hey, man, one of our shops that we used to go to as kids, he’s like, they said they would sell some of your work and I’m like, well, okay, I guess I’ll give it a shot. So I did 2 sketch covers. I did one of Spider Gwin because Brad said, hey, draw Spider Gwin. She popular. So I said, okay, I’ll draw Spider Gwen. So I drew Spider Gwen, and I drew one of the Winter Soldier, because the Winter Soldier movie had just come out. So I put those up there and he called me, maybe a week later, maybe within a week. I don’t remember, but he called me, he said, dude, the Spider Gwen sketch cover sold, and I was like, what? Someone spent money on something I drew? Why? Uh, but I remember him calling me and The, the feeling was, It was like maybe I can do this. Maybe there are people out there that like what I’m doing, and then, like a week after that, that Winter Soldier one sold. So I put another sketch cover at the comic shop and that one sold and it was just like, eye-opening, you know? So it, I spent. I mean, you said it. I take my art supplies everywhere I go. So when I’m not working, my job for the man, I’m drawing, because I have a goal that I don’t want to work for the man anymore and I want to draw all day. So, so I’m always drawing and so it’s, it’s a lot of hard work that led up to that 1st thing being sold. If I go back now and look at those covers, I’m like, bro, those things were not even that good. So selling those covers led to me taking my 1st commission and someone paid me $100 to draw a full cover, 11 by 17 of the whole Fighting Wolverine, which, you know, I would not do for that much money now. So it’s, it was like a stepping stone. that felt like maybe I could do this and it freaking happened and now people message me almost daily asking if I’m taking commission. So it’s, it’s very surreal to have somebody want to throw money at you to draw on a piece of paper. It’s, it’s been crazy.

Chris
It has been a few years since then. So how is, from when you 1st started doing that to now? How has it changed for you?

Skoot 
The prices have gone up for sure.

Chris
It seems like every time we turn around, your your prices are going up because you can’t keep up.

Skoot
Yeah, and so when you start out, obviously, you you’re like, someone’s ask you for a commission. You don’t know if there’s going to be another one behind that person. So you don’t want to oversell yourself, but you also don’t want to undersell yourself. So the more, I mean, it’s with anything, supply and demand, the more demand there is for my art, the more time it takes me away from things that I could be doing and you gotta pay for that. So, but I’ll also say on the flip side of that my confidence has gone up for sure. That 1st commission I did was nerve-wracking. Because you’re like, man, this dude’s trusting me to draw a picture that he probably sees in his head. Is it is what I give him going to be as good as what he sees in his head. But now when I’m drawing a commission, you know, I’m like, well, who do you want? And they’re like, I want so and so. all right I got you. It’s just, it’s not cockiness. It’s just confidence to say, okay, even if I don’t know that character, I can figure it out and I can lay it out, you know, if it’s a human character. Okay, cool. I know how to draw a man’s face, let me just make it look like this person. So the confidence is another. It is probably the thing that’s changed the most besides the, you know, prices going up.

Chris
I don’t know if I can mention this, but, I think you posted it up about the general grievous. I thought that he was just fantastic. I sent that to Mark here at Yodasnews and he wast we’re doing this interview for. He was like, oh my god, that looks fake it’s so good. I was like, it looks fantastic. So I was thinking, yeah, I’m going to have to get you to do me a commission of Grievance from you in the future.

Skoot
Yeah, so that that commission was funny because this guy that was the 4th commission from me and he told me, you know, he, I did a Spawn for him, and I did the, the Alien Queen for him as well. Also I did, Art the Clown from the Terrifier series and then he wanted the Predator and I was like, okay, cool, cool. an organic character. I can do the Predator. Then he comes back right before I start it he goes, what if we change it to General Grevious and I said, absolutely all day long. So that’s the 1st I haveever drawn Grievous and it’s one of those things where I said, I like to draw organic things. So he’s organic, but also cybernetic. And you can see the detail I put in just his eyes. That’s
the kind of stuff I love to do.

Chris
it’s a, it’s a truly amazing. Well, since you’ve been doing so many commissions, has there been something that you won’t do? If people requested things and you’re just like, no, I’m not going to do that type of thing.

Skoot
I, the only, I have one thing. I’ll say this. I say I’ll try anything once. Um, but one thing that I have discovered that I really don’t like to do is likenesses. So I’ve done a couple of commissions of actual people, like I had, you know, a close friend of ours. She said, I want you to do a commission of me because she’s a cosplayer. So I want you to do a commission of me with Carnage, but I’m dressed as Gwinnage, and I said, okay, I can do that. That was the most nerve-wracking commission I’ve done because if I draw this wrong, you’re going to know it doesn’t look like you, but if I draw it, You know, and it looks like you, but you’re not happy with how it looks, that, you know, there’s so many different ways it can go trying to do a lightness of somebody. So I find that really hard and almost confining, because it’s all about the details in the face. So I’m sitting there and I’m drawing this face for 6 hours trying to make sure it’s perfectly right. And by the time I get to the body, I’m just spent and I’m just like, I’ll just come back to it tomorrow. So lightness is probably the only thing that I say now that I just don’t do.

Chris
I can understand that. You’ve been doing some collaborations with other artists and stuff could talk about that.

Skoot
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things I love about comic book art is the collaborative process. So, you know, the pencil or the inker, the colorist, even up to a writer and a letterer and an editor. I love the collaboration of it. So, I’ve had a bunch of different inkers reach out to me to ink my work for practice and things like that, which I’m always down for. I’ll send you a high-res file if you want to work on my work. That’s cool. but one guy in particular, his name’s Corey King, he reached out to me a few years back and said, hey, I like this piece. You mind if I ink it for practice? And then we just kind of hit it off from there. We literally talk every day, in a group chat on Instagram with some other artists, but he inks all of my work now, and he’s even done work for the Spawn comics. He’s inked over some pretty big name artists. He just finished a piece that I can’t even talk about. That’s pretty exciting that we were fist pumping for him. But he inks all of my covers. It’s like when I draw. He just, uh, he just knows what I want to do with like, if I draw a line, he knows my intention for that line. And to find somebody that can do that over your work, it’s, it’s rare. So when I do a pencil acover or whatever it is, and I say, hey, man, you’re up. I have all the confidence in the world that he’s going to do, what I want my work to look like. So he, I say he inks me like I would ink myself if I wasn’t lazy.

Chris
Yeah. Yeah.

Skoot
And then color is wise. I love experimenting with colors because that’s something that I’ll never be. I’ll never be super great at it. It’s just not something I want to focus on. So I’ve worked with Daniel Erm, who lives in Poland, a few times on some covers. I’ve worked with our good friend Matt Nickerson who we did a cover for another one of our good friends over in the UK. He did a Kickstarter book. So me, Corey and Matt all worked on that together. Most recently, I’ve worked with Steve Cannon who was actually coloring a lot of the Spawn covers right now for Image, which is huge. So yeah, I mean, I love collaborating with new people on my work. It’s super fun.

Chris
Cool. I can understand that for sure. What are some dream projects that you’d like to be involved with?

Skoot
Ooh, man, I’ll always go. I always go to Spider-Man. I mean, who wouldn’t love to draw Spider-Man. I mean, I would love to do almost anything for Marvel, because I grew up loving Marvel comics. So it’d be cool to just do, you know, whether it’s a cover or a story. It’d be cool to do something for Marvel. But I would love to do, obviously, I’d love to do a cover for a Star Wars book, you know put me on a Darth Maul cover, man. Let’s go. You hear me, Marvel? Lets do this. I would, I would love more than anything to get to create our own stuff. So, you know, again, my brother Brad, who I’m sure this won’t be the last time I mention them. He’s a writer. We’ve come up with stories together. We’ve drawn stories together. So it’d be really cool to be able to finish that stuff and get that stuff in front of people. Uh, you know, a lot of comic artists dream is to go work for the big two, Marvel or DC, get your name out there, quit them and then go do your own thing. It’d be cool if I could just skip that and just go do my own thing.

Chris
Well, that was my next question. This got, you and your brother have been working on a comic book series. Can you talk about that?

Skoot
Yeah, I mean, it’s, I say it’s been in development for many, many years. Uh, 2 stories. We have one called the Atlas Beatle and one called B-movie Saga. Um, and talking about space. B- movie saga is just that. It’s just, you know, 2 characters that are going around in space and, uh, it’s very much, you know, the the old school 50s and 60s type of serialized space faring adventure stuff. Um, you know, there’s no rules. So that’s really fun. We’ve got a 9 page story that we did at bad. It was, we had a 5 page story and a local anthology. Um, and we have, I think he has the 1st 3 whole issues written. We’ve broken them down. Um, so it’s just up to me to draw them now. I got to draw them. Then the Atlas Beatle is like our love letter to superhero comics, but we set it in Memphis, our hometown. So, you know, Memphis has a lot of negativity that people that don’t live here just here on the news about it. So we created a character that would hopefully bring some positivity to our hometown. Um, and that is, There’s a lot of nuances to that story. There’s a, it’s, it’s been written and rewritten and rewritten and rewritten and redrawn and all kinds of stuff. So, you know, the main reason that we haven’t put anything out, um, is because art’s kind of like a 2nd job for me. Um, you know, I work my 10 plus hour a day job and then I come home and I work on commissions, um, and I have to draw those commissions so I can pay bills. Um, so if I’m not drawing to make money, then I’m losing money. So currently, I can’t draw anything that I want to draw as far as create your own because I have been working on commisions and deadlines.

Chris
Okay, so recently you’ve been doing some, variant covers, comic book covers, and one that just came out is Creepshow. Could you tell us about that one?

Skoot
Yeah, Creepshow for anybody doesn’t know is an old book. It became a movie. It’s, it’s kind of, kind of like Tales from the Crypt, uh, where it’s kind of like horror anthology story. So, you know, each book has two, three, 4 different horror stories in it. Um, so I was asked if I would like to do a variant cover for the most recent volume that’s coming out. Um, and obviously anything horror, I’m down. It’s, again, goes back to that drawing organic. The the creeper, who was the main character. He’s a zombie looking dude with a hood that’s missing a tooth, you know, so pretty, he’s pretty, uh, I won’t say he’s easy to draw, but I can get lost in the details of his wrinkled face and decayed face and long hair and hood that’s all decrepit and, you know, make him holding a dead zombie woman’s head and it’s, and it’s all good. So um, So yeah, when they asked me to do that, I was I was 100% on board. Um, and yeah, just just came out a couple weeks ago. I’ve toured a couple of comic shops. I did an event at my local comic shop and then last week I did, um, an event at Nirvana comics in Knoxville. Um, so yeah, people are loving the cover and it’s, it’s, it goes back to where it was weird, somebody wanting to buy my artwork. It’s weird that people want me to sign a book. So it’s strange.

Chris
Yeah so you said you had people there, when you got to Knoxville, they were there waiting for you to get autographs?

Skoot
Yeah, that was that was surreal. I was supposed to be there at 12. Obviously, it’s like a 6 hour drive. So, I ended up getting there about 1220. Uh, you know, made a pit stop at Buckies. I had to get a had to get me a breakfast wrap. But anyway I got there and there was about 5 or 6 people just waiting for me to get there and I walked in and like, there he is, you know, that’s, that’s the kind of stuff I don’t know if I would ever get used to, you know, people, people.Finding me in demand, that’s crazy.

Chris
You’ve got some other stuff that you’re working on. Is there any of them that you can talk about?

Skoot
Yeah, I finished a cover for a book called Halloween Reborn last week. Um, that is a story. So, it’s done by Fate 68 comics. Um, it’s called Halloween reborn. It’s kind of an alternate reality Halloween, like the Halloween movies. Michael Myers, that guy, the slasher guy yeah, butthe main character is a woman. So I did a cover. They asked me if I could do a cover, like a pinup style woman. Which going back, sexy women. draw them all day. Um, but they, he wanted him whole, wanted her holding the Michael Myers mask. So, um, and pumpkins and, you know, Halloween themed and stuff, which I’m down because Halloween’s my favorite holiday. So, I drew, that, you can go to https://www.fate68comix.com/ and you can sign up for the, the newsletter, uh, and you can go find out how to pre-order it. So that’ll be coming out very soon. Then I just finished, which hasn’t been shown yet. Two days ago, I finished a cover for a book from Image called Exquisite Corpses, which is a really popular book right now. It’s another, here we go. horror guy, I guess. another horror book. Um, But yeah, I haven’t shown that one yet, but it was a book that I really wanted to do a cover for, so I got approached to do a cover for that. So, yeah, man, the cover work’s coming in and, uh, I’m, I’m, I’m loving it. I mean, the deadlines are tight. You gotta make the deadlines.

Chris
Yep horror fans are rabid fans. They are, they love horror. They love anything horror. They’re like Star Wars fans. You know, they’re just crazy about horror. I mean, I’m a big horror fan in Halloween. The original Halloween is my all time favorite. I watch that constantly, but, um, let’s get to, Let’s talk some Star Wars, since THIS IS a Star Wars website that we’re dealing with here. Well, 1st of all, you’re 16 years younger than me. I grew up. I was 7 years old when Star Wars came out, so I was the perfect age, but when this movie came out and it just blew my mind. I went nuts and I, breathed, ate and slept, everything I did with Star Wars after that. And so you were, you were born later. You were born in 1986. How did you get introduced to Star Wars?

Skoot
So, the 1st memory I ever have of Star Wars is some old Return of the Jedi sheets that my brother had and we used to put him up over the window to keep the sun out. So I remember seeing the Ewoks. I remember Jabba the Hutt. Uh, and I remember that blanket. I could still see that blanket in my head, but as far as getting into Star Wars, um, in 1997 when the special editions came out, my mom asked me, uh, I remember one of them, I think it was Return of the Jedi came out like March 9th or something like that, March 10th. my birthday is March 8th and it came out around my birthday. And my mom said, hey, do you want to go see Star Wars in theaters and, you know, stupid 11 year old me was like, no, I don’t want to go see Star Wars. And, uh, I still regret it. You know, people say on your deathbed, what are your regrets? one of my regrets.

Chris
Well, you didn’t know what it was.

Skoot
Yeah I did know it was. So fast forward to that summer, that same summer of 97. Our friend that lived 2 houses down from us got the, you know, the last chance to own the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS. He brought it over and we watched Star Wars and my life changed forever. I remember watching that movie and I’ve never felt that way watching a movie before. There’s movies that I love growing up, you know, Sandlot. Um, I don’t know why that’s the 1st one that came in my head, but I watched Star Wars and it was, it was, I, you know, I don’t know how to explain it. It was just something different. Um, and then my brother, oldest brother, went to the mall, and they were having some kind of event at the local mall, and there was a toy vendor or something. Anyway, he brought home the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi figure, the lays, male, male away one. And I saw that figure and that saw that figure. It changed something to me like watching Star Wars and I was like, I’ve got to have toys. And so, That summer became the summer of Star Wars. Our friend didn’t get his VHSs back. We kept them, and we watched them. My brothers, my 2 brothers and I watched one Star Wars movie or multiple Star Wars movie every night that summer. We made a palette on the floor, and we would turn on Star Wars, and we would watch it all night, and then when our parents went to work the next day, we would watch it all day. And literally, Star Wars was never off the TV. Um, and then we would just, any chance we could go to Walmart and see the, you know, the whole aisle was Star Wars toys. Um, the 1st action figures I bought where the jaw was 2 pack from the power of the force 2 line. Um, and then every time Toy Fair would come out and say, here’s the new toys, we would just start hunting for those toys. Like it became an obsession. Uh, you know, kind of like what you said, you ate, drank, and breathed Star Wars. That’s how it was. If a Pringles can had Darth Vader on it. I wanted it. That toothpaste that looked like R2D2. I had to have it. You know, it was, it changed something to me to where, I always, you know, before Star Wars. I loved comics. I love video games. But I never becamea crazed collector until Star Wars. I had to have everything that had Star Wars on it. I had to touch it. I had to have it.

Chris
Yeah for sure. I’m, you know, I remember, I was seven, and I was spending the night with my aunt, and her thing was always, we’d spend the night, then Friday night, then we’d go see a movie, so I pull out the newspaper, and I’m looking into movies ads, and I said, oh, Star Wars, I want to go see that. And she’s like, yeah, I’ve heard good things about that. I want to go see that too. Well, it was PG. I’m 7 years old. My mom told me I could see anything but a G. So, I go call her on the phone and literally begged her on the phone. And she talks to my aunt and they agree, okay. Probably the big mistake there. She agreed to let me go see it.

Skoot 
Yeah.

Chris
Years later, when I had my own podcast, I got to thinking, you know what, I’ve never talked to my parents about how I was. So I sat my parents down and I did an interview with them and asked them what I was like. When I came home from seeing Star Wars and they said that I would not shut up about that movie until I got them to took me back again so that they could see it. And they were blown away at how good the movie was. They were expecting a kid’s movie, but they were just blown away at how actually good it was. And I was just, I was just hooked. And, you know, I don’t really remember a time between seeing the movie and then having toys. I just remember having the toys, so I don’t know what kind of a gap because I always felt like I’m pretty sure I saw it within a few weeks or a month when it was released. But I don’t remember when I had toys. I just remember having them. And, you know, one of my coolest memories was for Empire, because Empire’s my favorite movie. And if I’m not mistaken, it’s your favorite movie too, correct?

Skoot 
Yep, 100%

Chris
So our favorite movie and I remember going into, um, I forget what ours was called, Children’s Palace, I think is what it was. I went on the toy aisle. They had a TB sitting up and it was playing the Empire Strikes Back trailer. Just over and over again. And I’m just sitting there, mesmerized, watching this, and I’d seen the movie, and I had a couple of toys or whatever, and I was like, mom’s shopping, and she was like, okay, leave me alone. I’ll be over on the Star Wars Islands. She knew where I was. She didn’t have to worry about it because that’s where I was. And I just remember vividly that particular. Seeing that in the store and just standing there gawking over it because I want to go see the movie again, and stuff like the card backs, the pictures on the card backs or the, the, the storybook, anything that had the pictures from the movie, I could, I would just stare at at times, just over and over again because I just want to see those characters. I want to go to the movie and see it again. And of course, you know, mom, drive my mom crazy to go see it, but, you know, once I’m old enough and get it on VHS, I can watch it all. Watch it every day if I want to. So, yeah, it’s always fantastic with that, and we both love Empire. But what is your favorite character? Or who?

Skoot 
So, Oh, favorite character. I mean, it’s always going to be Darth Vader. There’s no better villain. There’s no better character. There’s no deeper character. I mean, I’m not saying that just for Star Wars. I’m saying that for any kind of lore out there. Like Darth Vader is the character of characters. You know, he’s he’s complex. He’s,he’s a good guy. He’s a bad guy. He’s likable, he’s not likable. You know, Vader will always be top top for me in comics or Star Wars or movies or video games, whatever. Vader is the guy. He is the character. Um, but I will say, I’m big fan of Darth Maul too. I love Maul, especially Maul, when they deepened his story in the the Clone Wars and all that. So, big fan. Actually, I’m staring at a Darth Maul hot toys figure right now and I’m just like smiling ear to ear.

Chris
I mean, everybody loves Darth Vader, but I remember as a kid, Han Solo was the guy. He was just so cool, but as I got older, I was drawn more to Luke. Luke’s my guy now. I mean, seeing his arc in the original trilogy. As I grew up and understood it more, then I was drawn to that character, just like with Yoda, when Yoda came out, it was kind of like, ah, he’s funny. He’s quirky, but as you get older and you start seeing what he was doing. He was teaching Luke, and all this stuff on, in, in, on Dagobah, that he became basically him and Luke are my favorite characters, and I’ve kind of been stuck with those. I know your brother, favorite characters, Yoda as well. I

Skoot
Yep.

Chris
So in The Empire Strikes Back that scene with, I call it the magic tree, because that’s what it was referred to as in the novel. But when Luke’s on Dagobah, he takes his, his weapons into the cave, and Yoda says, don’t, but he doesn’t listen. What did you… How did you take that scene when you 1st saw it?

Skoot
So I wasn’t, I remember watching it when I was little. So, you know, when I 1st saw that, I was 10, I was probably 11. Yeah, I think I was 11. Um, when I 1st saw it, I didn’t completely understand it. Then after watching it a couple times
I still didn’t understand it. So fast forward 20 years. No, I was kidding. Um, so like when, um, you know, after we finally had watched the movies a few times while the movies on, we would start discussing it. I mean, I say we talking about me and my brothers, we would just start talking about it while it was on. And I remember us talking about that scene. And all 3 of us kind of came to the conclusion that it was, you know, Yoda saying, don’t take this, only what you take with you is in there. And it was just to, to me, or we came to the conclusion, it was just, this is what Luke could become if he decides he’s going to go down a different path. And, you know, his path was, I’m going to take my weapons in there because that’s who I am and that’s what I’m going to do. So, you know, seeing his face inside of Vader just shows that he could be Vader as well. There a little Vader in all of us.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. For me, I remember, I was 10, and one, Vader’s helmet, pops off, you know, whatever, and Luke’s face. It confused me because I was like, are you trying to tell me that Luke is Vader? I’m like, how in the heck is that going to work? But yeah, as I, kind of, as I grew up and I’m seeing it, I’m realizing, okay, so whatever he took with him is what was in there. And in that particular instance, he drew his saber 1st against Vader and that’s not what you’re supposed to do as a Jedi. So he, he needed to learn a lot and he was, he was too old to be taught according to, you know, Yoda, but.

Skoot
Yeah, he does the same thing on Cloud City. He draws his saber first.

Chris
Right.

Skoot 
That dude, he still didn’t learn.

Chris
And, you know, Obi-Wan always, you know, I mean, he did against Anakin, he drew 1st because he knew what was coming.

Skoot 
Yep.

Chris
And, yeah, you know, I was kind of nervous when the prequels came out because I was like, I was excited because it’s just going to be so awesome, but I was still nervous because I’m like, what if it’s not good? But they were fantastic.

Skoot
Yep,

Chris
I love Anakin’s arc, but every time you see Revenge of the Sith, you sit there and you’re like, if you would just not do that or just change this, you’d be okay and you,

Skoot
Oh yeah, every, every time I see it, I’m pulling for Anakin and knowing he’s gonna fall, I’m pulling for him. I mean, same thing too. I’m always pulling for Sabolba and the pod races knowing he’s never going to win, so.

Chris
True. So what other? Uh, Star Wars characters, some of your favorite characters and um, or even doesn’t even have to be Star Wars that you like to, uh, be creative with. Let’s put it that way.

Skoot
So I like the characters that I collect, I collect comics, but I don’t collect just all comics. I collect Doctor Strange comics. Um, because I love Doctor Strange’s magic and I love his sorcery and I love that up until a certain point in the comics. He was basically, um, unbeatable. But I love that whole like whimsical. Like aura around Doctor Strange. So I collect Dr. Strange books. I love to draw Doctor Strange. I love, uh, at one point I was trying to sculpt Doctor Strange, but I didn’t get very far. Um, but I, I love um, drawing venom a lot, again, organic characters. Um, creatively, um, this isn’t really characters, but you know, you mentioned real briefly about how I make a lot of my Halloween decorations. I love, I love drawing and I love sculpting and I love creating anything that has to do with like Halloween, you know? I’m not. It’s going to sound bad. I’m not a huge horror fan. But I love Halloween and I love the Halloween aesthetic, like Jack o’ lanterns and ghosts and witches and Frankenstein and stuff like that. Um, so I love, uh, taking and drawing and making Halloween beaned items. Um, so it doesn’t have to be a particular character, but man, give me a foam pumpkin and I’m perfectly happy making a jackal lantern

Chris
You’re definitely old school when it comes to Halloween. That’s for sure. Which is awesome. You did. I don’t remember where it was. You did a convention that you went somewhere. I don’t remember where it was, but you were totally just blown away at people coming up. They knew who you were, even though you’ve never been in that area before.

Skoot
Yeah, that was a heroes con. So Heroes Con is probably, as far as the US, it’s probably the biggest comic only focused convention in, you know, going right now. So like most conventions. They’re called comic conventions, but you know, you get a lot of movie celebrities and voice actors and cosplay guests and stuff like that. Um, which is great, uh, because people love that stuff. But for me, I’m more focused on the comics themselves. So I like seeing the people that actually make the comics as opposed to going and seeing a celebrity that, you know, got 1000000s in a movie. I’d rather go see the guy that probably lost money making a comic book. Um, but anyway, Hero’s Con is the convention I’ve wanted to go to for a long time and it’s it’s really hard to get in because they never post. Uh, they never post booths available like on their website because it’s in such high demand. So, yeah, I tried to get him one year, didn’t have any luck. Um, but then over, um, probably over Christmas, I emailed, I guess I emailed the right person. They sent me the uh, the application. Uh, they liked my art and I got in. Um, so we went and did that in June, and the, the response to me being there was insane because the, the creators that they have his guests there, just, you know, people that I look up to and people that I’m just like in awe of their work. Um, but people would come up to my table like, oh, there you are, you know? Oh, I heard you were going to be here. You know, you take them commissions, you know, and I’m just like, who are you? Um, and it was funny because we were walking back to the hotel after one of them. I went with Brad, my brother and my wife, Ashley. We, uh, we were walking back from the convention center to the hotel and we’re just walking down the street and one guy comes up to me and goes, you’re scoot, right? And I was like, yeah. He’s like, hey, I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m so-and-so, man. I a big fan of your artwork. And I was like, this is nuts to me. Um, but, you know, it’s also, uh, it was kind of validation that I’m on the right path, uh, as far as what I want to do in the art world.

Chris
Yeah, I’ve been pestering you for years, that people would buy your art, and, and, you know, finally, I’m, I’m just glad that you’re doing it, because, uh, I, I know how much you love to do it, and I’m not what you want to do that for a living, and quit your job. So I just, can’t wait to see that happen.
But, uh, one other thing is, uh, if you’re going to be, you’re doing a sketch card, that you’re going to give away. So what we’re going to do, I’m going to break this, uh, this interview down into 2 parts. We’ll do one part, and we’ll put up this sketch card that you’re going to give away, and people can enter, and then when we do the 2nd part, we’ll announce the winner, and then we’ll have another announcement, at that time about something else. But you’ll love it.

Skoot
Cool.

Chris
Is there anything else you’d like to say before we sign off?

Skoot
You know, I know Yodasnews is a big site, you know, if if people are hearing this and they’re hearing me for the 1st time, you know, 1st of all, thanks for listening, and if you decide you want to go and check out my art, I very much appreciate it. Um, you know, everybody that has supported me from my family to, you know, friends and then the the random people that message me and just tell me how much they like my art, you know, all the way to the, the, I hate saying this to make me sound old. So the kids that uh, message me and say, you know, and they ask me for advice. Um, all those people, every time someone gives me that little bit of a compliment, man. It means the world to me. So thank you to everybody that follows me and supports me and, you know, gets a commission or just says how much they like my work or just comes to a, um, one of my booths and talks comics or talks Star Wars and, you know, just thank you to everybody that, uh, that supports me.