Making of "Epic Team-Up (remastered)"

The original version of this comic was done way back in March 2019, but even then, I dreamt of having famous Godzilla and Kaiju artist, Matt Frank do the "imagination" panels.

It wasn't outside the realms of possibility; he was in our artist friend circles and I'd met him at cons a couple of times. I just didn't have the guts to ask him, so instead I had my friend Francisco Salinas do the original.

Roll on to Feb 2020 and it's my 40th birthday -so you know what I decide to gift myself? A commission from Matt Frank! He was excited about the idea (I knew him a bit better by then and he's a fan of the comic) so we strike up a deal. I drew the last panel and sent him the rough idea for the others, stressing that I wanted his own take of the designs. Then the pandemic hits and the world goes upside down! We agree to put things on the back burner for a bit.

The problem with putting something off though, is it's hard to get it going again! Over the next few years I'd poke Matt occasionally, but his star was rising with Godzilla's and he was more and more sort after. He offered to refund me, but I said I'd rather wait because I knew it would be worth it! And was it ever! This year it finally all came together!

He sent me the linework, but it had been so long that neither of us could remember if coloring it was part of the deal! I knew how busy he was and coloring seemed kind of fun, so I told him not to worry and I'd do it. I thought he'd just be happy to see the back of it, but instead he said he's actually very particular about coloring and asked if I could keep him in the loop. EEEK! Now I had to show my work to a guy that does THIS?!

So with all the pressure in the world, I started! I was on holiday with my family at the time, so I just kept picking away at it, trying to mimic Matt's style, while keeping the colors closer to the Litterbox palette (see video above). Initially it looked terrible and I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew, but the more layers and effects I added, the better it looked! I was still terrified of showing Matt though! I worked into the 1st panel for probably longer than I should and sent him the results. Thank goodness he wrote back saying he loved it! Phew! With new confidence I had a lot more fun with the rest!