Brian Stelfreeze

“I don't consider what I do 'art.' It's 'storytelling.'”

“Wakanda is the Marvel world's most technologically advanced nation, and offensives there can have ramifications everywhere, so that leaves open great possibilities for cameos.”

“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.”

“There is a profound gap between meeting a person and knowing a person, and that holds true for the difference between visiting and residing.”

“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.”

“As I've grown as a creator, I feel that I want to tread in deeper waters and have a lot more going on emotionally with the characters. That's my appreciation for comics as a creator and a consumer as well. I'm more into stories that don't just bounce off the surface but go a little bit deeper.”

“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 think of Wakandan technology as organic technology. Most of their tech mimics nature because it comes from nature.”

“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.”

“I think, for the most part, comics have devolved into fantasy for the sake of fantasy.”

“Most established comic writers have a fixed style or methodology, so what you get on page one of the first issue is about the same for the last page of the series.”

“When I do actual sequential work, I really want a story I can get a behind: a story that really holds my attention for, like, the length of what I'll be working on.”

“I like it when I'm watching a movie which has a harmonious feeling to it. It's as if the environment puts you in the mood for the characters and story you experience.”

“Much like every artist or every creator, I got into comics as a kid, and the most important thing was the 'bang zoom' of it. As many explosions as possible.”

“I believe monthly comics and the extended miniseries are the true hallmarks of comic art and storytelling.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Most creative people fall into one of two categories - either they're task-oriented, or they're time-oriented.”